As a long time Cyclone fan, I feel badly for the WSU & OSU fans that buy season tix & donate what they can. While I understand the market forces that are driving conference upheaval, that doesn't mean I have to like what is happening to the loyal fans that are essentially told "you are irrelevant". ISU has stared into the abyss, not once but twice. It didn't matter that we pull 60k for football, 14k for men's basketball, and are a Tier 1 research school. We have been very close to your shoes...twice. I hope things turn out well for you & OSU and if the money can be found think both of you would make great additions to the Big 12.
Sucks
- Thread starter ClonzRule
- Start date
Thank you for the empathy. There but for the grace of God go I. Many can say that today.
@BiggsCoug
Iowa State is another land grant school in a smallish city that went all-in on expanding its football stadium and modernizing its football arena and it has paid off with very good attendance, support, etc.
I didn't know whether or not you had mentioned ISU as one of those schools to emulate as far as facilities go
With all due respect to you Pete, you are comparing apples and oranges. Ames is thrice the population of pullman and Des Moines is a half hour drive, which makes it much more easily accessible for alumni driving or flying in for games (hotels available, cheaper flights, etc) than Pullman is.
There are zero good reasons to expand our stadium. You’re adding seats that nobody will be sitting in. There’s a reason certain other stadium renovations, including ours with the FOB, have maintained their capacity or even reduced it (ie OSU, KSU) it doesn’t make sense to add seats that people won’t be paying for and sitting in.
Now to save him the trouble, after Biggs is done with my mom he will say what a loser idiot I am and that WSU doesn’t need me even though I show up on Saturday rain or shine/ win or lose and am one of the butts in those seats. I’d love 30K more friends to party with too, but they ain’t coming just cuz the seats are there.
Maybe if you'd quit supporting rapists, more people would like to join you at the games
Thanks for the clarification 90.
I didn't know all the info you spelled out on Pullman/Spokane vs Ames/Des Moines. I was just assuming the two schools were similar from Clonezrule's post and because Iowa and Eastern Washington are both world-renowned for agriculture.
You make good points on why not to expand Martin Stadium just as Biggsy does when he spells out why for it (the stadium) bigger means better
I can see both sides.
Do you agree or disagree that WSU has a better chance to get into the Big 12 if Martin Stadium's capacity is 62,000 or even 52,000 than 32,000? Does that even matter to a conference commissioner, a TV exec or a college president?
Disagree. Otherwise the Big 12 would have interest in UNLV…they’d have the biggest stadium in the conference.
Very likely. My windowless Astro van at the tailgate could be part of the problem too.
The bigger issue that we have is that we can't fill the 32,952 seats that we have. Cal has a 63,000 seat stadium and they are on the outside looking in. Stanford has a 50,000 seat stadium. That, and a $36 billion endowment doesn't get them into the conversation. The perception that WSU fans don't care enough to fill up our runt stadium is powerful. The idea that Pullman is some barren outpost that not even our own fans will support is overwhelming.
If seating capacity was so important, KU wouldn't be reducing the number of seats in their proposed stadium. Everyone knows that Americans are fat and lazy and that attendance numbers are going to continue to drop as the ability to watch games in high definition increases. The days of huge stadiums are coming to a close. More and more, expect to see fewer seats but more revenue because of club and loge seating being the future priority. As much as it costs to be a fan of one of the elite programs, getting a better gameday experience is only going to become more important.
Other P5 programs with attendance less than WSU.
Kansas.
That's it.
We have nearly 600k people an hour away in metro Spokane, which is comparable to Des Moines metro population of 700k.
The university does a shit job of tapping that population, lobbying the state to improve 195, and making the most of what is given to them. Spokane should be "Cougville, USA". Its is an utter and abject failure for WSU to not get 50k fans between the students (who have fallen off as well), Pullman, Spokane, Tri-Cities and Seattle. I'd love to see the season ticket holder list/ CAF accounts and where are fans who actually give and support the program are located; I guessing Spokane would be at the bottom of the list.
I’m pretty sure the majority of non students at the Game are from Spokane and Eastern Wa. But it’s still fairly pathetic. Moos marketed Spokane pretty hard but that seems to really have dried up. The South end of Spokane is about 1.25 hours from Pullman but at least half the population is 1.75 hours away. I will say all the empty seats at Hec Ed or Husky stadium when the Cougs play there shows me Cougs suck at supporting WSU universally.
The state has added passing lanes on 195 so that drives gotten better.
not that I’m disagreeing with you about the school not marketing to Spokane. It certainly could be better. But most of Spokane is 90 minutes away (a three hour round trip is a big difference between a 2 hour round trip and huge difference from an hour round trip as is the case for ISU/Des Moines for a day trip). Des Moines would also be more like the equivalent of Seattle than Spokane as far as support expected for the school. I’d guess a way higher proportion of Des Moines residents are ISU alum vs Spokane.
We could certainly get more Spokane support don’t get me wrong, but I still think it’s not the greatest comparison as with Des Moines and ISU.
I’ll give you an example of a WSU fail with Spokane and Tri-Cities. They brought the game day buses back for this season. $90/seat. Do they want people going to the games or are they interested in making a fat profit on the bus service?
Does that include a seat in the stadium?
Also, how does a 90 minute trip from Spokane cost the same as a 3 hour trip from Richland?
Still cheaper than a Dewey!
If you’re doing it right you include the tix and beverages to and from the game. Make it a party, something people are excited about beyond just the game. Figure out what margins you need for a full bus + game tix + drinks, and basically just make your profit on the tickets and break even on the rest.
Everyone knows that there are challenges that WSU faces that are unique. The funny thing about the discussion is that nobody is saying that we should sell out a 100,000 seat stadium in Pullman....or even a 50,000 seat stadium. We can't sell out our 33,000 seats. All the rest is noise and the bleating of sheep being led to slaughter as WSU gets left behind.
We have a Mountain West level fanbase that's been allowed to delude itself for 50 years that we aren't. It sucks but it's the situation we have.
We have a Mountain West level fanbase that's been allowed to delude itself for 50 years that we aren't. It sucks but it's the situation we have.
Yeah, they’ve doubled the price on top of keeping the same dumbass schedule. Leaving tri-cities 4 hours before the game leaves 90 minutes before kickoff. If you grab dinner anywhere but the Coug or fieldhouse (with the same tired options they’ve had for 10 years), you’re out of time. Leaving 30 minutes after leaves time for nothing. So again, no gameday experience.
I only occasionally rode the bus at $40. Pretty much just for the 7:30 games, if I was going alone. At $90, neither the experience or the economy is there. And if the weather is bad enough to make me think about not driving…I don’t trust a bus driver that much anyway.
It's cheaper then a taxi. A taxi from Spokane is about $113 to $125 to $150 to $165, ONE WAY.
I'm assuming the buses are round trip for $90.
I didn't think that I would still be here and that I would have been in Arizona by my daughter by now.
So, but this season, will probably be my last, before I move down there.
Using the bus even if it's been raised from $40 to $90, is the only way I'm going to make it to the game, unless take the more expensive taxi, or unless get a ride, which isn't a good option to try to do, since I was lucky to get a ride from Stretch.
What location, does the bus leave Spokane, and how early before game time does the bus leave Spokane?
How much earlier before the game, does the bus get to the game? Will the be time to eat, visit the cub, get to game seat, without rushing?
How much time after the game, do you have to catch the bus back to Spokane?
Bus info below.
I’d like to see bus after bus of people/kids coming into Pullman from Tri-Cities and Spokane for every game. A partnership with the school districts to get HS kids to Pullman for games would be a good way to recruit future students and fans. At $90/person that’s not going to happen.
I’d like to see bus after bus of people/kids coming into Pullman from Tri-Cities and Spokane for every game. A partnership with the school districts to get HS kids to Pullman for games would be a good way to recruit future students and fans. At $90/person that’s not going to happen.
