(09-10-2017 09:39 AM)LouisvilleHilltopper Wrote:  Here's how I see it: if WKU wins next week (or looks very competitive), then there's still hope for a good season. And maybe, just maybe, the offense gets it figured out by the Vandy game in November. Though not probable, 11-1 is still possible. But if the offense still looks incompetent next weekend (against a LaTech team that gave up a ton of points to Miss St), then it's really time to worry

That Miss St team looks to be legit.

(09-10-2017 12:01 PM)va-eagle Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 09:39 AM)LouisvilleHilltopper Wrote:  Here's how I see it: if WKU wins next week (or looks very competitive), then there's still hope for a good season. And maybe, just maybe, the offense gets it figured out by the Vandy game in November. Though not probable, 11-1 is still possible. But if the offense still looks incompetent next weekend (against a LaTech team that gave up a ton of points to Miss St), then it's really time to worry

That Miss St team looks to be legit.

I think their defense is solid but MSU offense is pretty vanilla not lot of player makers and their QB Fitzgerald is going to throw some INT's

(09-10-2017 09:39 AM)LouisvilleHilltopper Wrote:  Here's how I see it: if WKU wins next week (or looks very competitive), then there's still hope for a good season. And maybe, just maybe, the offense gets it figured out by the Vandy game in November. Though not probable, 11-1 is still possible. But if the offense still looks incompetent next weekend (against a LaTech team that gave up a ton of points to Miss St), then it's really time to worry

Don't let that score fool you, 28 points of turnovers. Block punt score, INT score, fumble score. Tech Defense is better but the offense lacks firepower. QB is young makes mistakes

It only becomes truly bad when the team quits on the coaching staff. I can't imagine that happening like we experienced at USM. Ellis and the staff he assembled could never be equalled. You will be fine. Down years happen.

Sent from my SM-G930R7 using CSNbbs mobile app

At least yall are at home this week! After last night, I imagine it could be entertaining to say the least.../s

(09-10-2017 01:36 PM)louisiana_dog Wrote:  At least yall are at home this week! After last night, I imagine it could be entertaining to say the least.../s

Coach Sanford seemed clueless last night, maybe we are all wrong, but ive been watching football long enough to know when somebody seems over their heads. WKU's defense actually did not look horrible (only one TD allowed by the defense), it was all the offensive side that was a complete loss. Next week sure is looking very interesting considering the result form both schools. Im just hoping the players dont quit

(09-10-2017 01:43 PM)wkuhilltopperfan Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 01:36 PM)louisiana_dog Wrote:  At least yall are at home this week! After last night, I imagine it could be entertaining to say the least.../s

Coach Sanford seemed clueless last night, maybe we are all wrong, but ive been watching football long enough to know when somebody seems over their heads. WKU's defense actually did not look horrible (only one TD allowed by the defense), it was all the offensive side that was a complete loss. Next week sure is looking very interesting considering the result form both schools. Im just hoping the players dont quit

For me this is easily the most disappointing loss in the conference to date.
We need WKU strong in this conference.

Western lost a lot of talent...everyone knows that. Western was still picked to win the conference by the coaches and most of the rags. Even after yesterday (20-7), well especially after yesterday...that is still in play. Not as likely but still in play. Even if that happens this program takes a huge step back.

The one thing you don't do when you are rolling....never never never

Hire a coach that is going to switch to a totally 100% different system. It took two years to get the quickness needed to run the spread. It will take that long to get the talent to run the west coast offense this clueless head coach wants to run.

What some of you are not seeing and you aren't seeing it because you are FOOTBALL schools. Western is a basketball school trying to build a football program. Think of it this way. If your basketball team won for a few years running and gunning. Then you hire a coach that walks it up the floor and you see he can't coach a lick.

Support starts to fall and at some point the area is empty even if you become a average team. It's harder for a FB school to get that basketball support back. If your football program is down but shows any sign of life...you are excited and can't wait to see the next step.

Western is totally the opposite and why this hire had to be a can't miss. Not a wet behind the ears coach that thinks he knows everything and most likely too stubborn to change. But the one thing you don't do...hire a coach that's going to walk it up the floor hoping to win a 21-17 game . Even in winning the support will start to get less and less.

Okay okay, the game aside and behind us, the illinois stadium is LEGIT. I was jealous of about everything I saw, from a packed stadium full of 41,000 fans showing up for a crappy Illinois team in a city the size of Bowling Green to the crystal clear big screens to their cool football traditions. The student section was lit, and the halftime show very entertaining. It was the first time in a long time I actually watched the halftime show.

(09-10-2017 10:06 PM)TopsonTop Wrote:  Okay okay, the game aside and behind us, the illinois stadium is LEGIT. I was jealous of about everything I saw, from a packed stadium full of fans showing up for a crappy Illinois team in a city the size of Bowling Green to the crystal clear big screens to their cool football traditions. The student section was lit, and the halftime show very entertaining. It was the first time in a long time I actually watched the halftime show.

the same stadium I saw....

old rundown with 1/3 of the lower section empty. I did not see up top after the game started. That 1/3 I'm talking about sets under the roof with metal beams blocking part of the view and the last 20 or so rows a person can not see a pass going down field. I stood in the back watching a 3rd down play before heading to the restroom. Even sitting down you cut off everything a little over the players head. Bunch of young kids running around playing. But a lot of rows empty. This is common with a lot of older stadium with overhang upper decks that I've been to.

A few other things...this stadium is still set back in the 40s-1960s where the rest room is a long open pit on the side of the room where you stand on a platform and take a leak. I don't have a problem pissing with 30 other men. But it is 1940-1960ish. The two I ended up using had 2 stalls each. If 3 people at a time really really needed to take a crap. One was shitting their pants. You need to walk up 30 rows of steps to get into the ramps and then 30 feet up ramps to get to a restroom or concession stand. There is no way possible for a person to get a drink or go take a piss in between punts or change of possession.

I don't know what legit means to you...I must have a different definition on what makes a stadium legit. The crowd and video boards I agree with. The size of a city has little to do with that when you are "the" state university. The halftime show was good and some of their gimmicks for fans to make noise were great. Everything but that scream/screeching sound they played on the boards. We probably just disagree on what makes a great football stadium.

(09-10-2017 10:29 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 10:06 PM)TopsonTop Wrote:  Okay okay, the game aside and behind us, the illinois stadium is LEGIT. I was jealous of about everything I saw, from a packed stadium full of fans showing up for a crappy Illinois team in a city the size of Bowling Green to the crystal clear big screens to their cool football traditions. The student section was lit, and the halftime show very entertaining. It was the first time in a long time I actually watched the halftime show.

the same stadium I saw....

old rundown with 1/3 of the lower section empty. I did not see up top after the game started. That 1/3 I'm talking about sets under the roof with metal beams blocking part of the view and the last 20 or so rows a person can not see a pass going down field. I stood in the back watching a 3rd down play before heading to the restroom. Even sitting down you cut off everything a little over the players head. Bunch of young kids running around playing. But a lot of rows empty. This is common with a lot of older stadium with overhang upper decks that I've been to.

A few other things...this stadium is still set back in the 40s-1960s where the rest room is a long open pit on the side of the room where you stand on a platform and take a leak. I don't have a problem pissing with 30 other men. But it is 1940-1960ish. The two I ended up using had 2 stalls each. If 3 people at a time really really needed to take a crap. One was shitting their pants. You need to walk up 30 rows of steps to get into the ramps and then 30 feet up ramps to get to a restroom or concession stand. There is no way possible for a person to get a drink or go take a piss in between punts or change of possession.

I don't know what legit means to you...I must have a different definition on what makes a stadium legit. The crowd and video boards I agree with. The size of a city has little to do with that when you are "the" state university. The halftime show was good and some of their gimmicks for fans to make noise were great. Everything but that scream/screeching sound they played on the boards. We probably just disagree on what makes a great football stadium.

We probably do. Being in my 30's, I've never had an issue finding a bathroom in time to take a piss. I can only imagine what it must be like to be much older. The stadium capacity is 55k and the crowd was 41k so they were about at 75% capacity but like you said, the empty seats were the 20 rows underneath the overhang, so when you look at the stadium from the front or really any other vantage point, it is a full stadium for all intents and purposes because those empty rows are even barely visible. As far as accessibility to concessions, I didn't have any issues. As far as accessibility to stands, I thought the stadium was laid out very intelligently. I've been to far worse, and WKU's isn't the easiest. Trying to remember the quickest ramps to take in WKU's stadium is like being in the Labyrinth. As many times as I've been in there, I always manage to take the long route. In Illinois' stadium, the main entrances lead into the middle of the stands so you can go up or down accordingly, and yet still have top of the stands entrances/exits. It's not only laid out intelligently, it's very clean looking too. The outside of the stadium is really beautiful, of course so is ours IMO. The size of the city was mentioned because regardless of UI being B10 or the only major state university and WKU being CUSA, your community should support your school. If you don't like me pulling up the similarities in city size, you'd hate for me to mention App State and it's attendance compared to population (which I've mentioned before). And you might try to find excuses for that as well. There is no excuse for WKU not to have a packed stadium every week and I mentioned it as one of the things I'm jealous of about Illinois. When I see my hometown come out for App State, I'm jealous of that too for WKU.

Witnessing the passion and coordination of the students though and how they led the whole stadium in their chant was neato, and how at halftime the students individually held up colored paper that formed the words "Dead Toppers" "ILLINI" and a skull and cross bones across the entire section was spectacular.

We do have a difference of opinion on what makes a stadium legit. I think atmosphere does, you think bathroom proximity does. Agree to disagree.

But my wife and I moved to the right underneath that cove you were talking about right before halftime to avoid the wind and a very crazy WKU fan in the horseshoe making a fool out of himself. So if you saw two WKU fans and their two kids under there, that was us.

(09-10-2017 08:15 AM)wkuhilltopperfan Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 07:47 AM)SVHerd Wrote:  Boys, settle down. 10 games left. Most importantly the league schedule. 2 games into a new regime is not the time to get out the pitchforks. The last 2-3 years have been very good ones, not many schools can continue that unless they're named Alabama.

I dont think many of us expected the past few years results, but the pure crap that got laid of the field last night is unexceptable with the talent our coach has to work with.... apparently he is way over his head. FIU, Charlotte or UTEP would have beat WKU last night and more than likey will

We lost to Charlotte, FIU, and fortunately didn't play UTEP last year. Our coach has been over his head going on 8 years. Getting a few gems out of 200 recruits saved his ass 3-4 years of that. At least you have a puppy. Our old dog can't learn new tricks.

(09-11-2017 01:03 AM)MUther Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 08:15 AM)wkuhilltopperfan Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 07:47 AM)SVHerd Wrote:  Boys, settle down. 10 games left. Most importantly the league schedule. 2 games into a new regime is not the time to get out the pitchforks. The last 2-3 years have been very good ones, not many schools can continue that unless they're named Alabama.

I dont think many of us expected the past few years results, but the pure crap that got laid of the field last night is unexceptable with the talent our coach has to work with.... apparently he is way over his head. FIU, Charlotte or UTEP would have beat WKU last night and more than likey will

We lost to Charlotte, FIU, and fortunately didn't play UTEP last year. Our coach has been over his head going on 8 years. Getting a few gems out of 200 recruits saved his ass 3-4 years of that. At least you have a puppy. Our old dog can't learn new tricks.

But we don't have an AD that will rub that puppy's nose in the piss on the living room floor! He bought the puppy so he thinks he's adorable.

(09-11-2017 09:04 AM)dahbeed Wrote:  

(09-11-2017 01:03 AM)MUther Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 08:15 AM)wkuhilltopperfan Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 07:47 AM)SVHerd Wrote:  Boys, settle down. 10 games left. Most importantly the league schedule. 2 games into a new regime is not the time to get out the pitchforks. The last 2-3 years have been very good ones, not many schools can continue that unless they're named Alabama.

I dont think many of us expected the past few years results, but the pure crap that got laid of the field last night is unexceptable with the talent our coach has to work with.... apparently he is way over his head. FIU, Charlotte or UTEP would have beat WKU last night and more than likey will

We lost to Charlotte, FIU, and fortunately didn't play UTEP last year. Our coach has been over his head going on 8 years. Getting a few gems out of 200 recruits saved his ass 3-4 years of that. At least you have a puppy. Our old dog can't learn new tricks.

But we don't have an AD that will rub that puppy's nose in the piss on the living room floor! He bought the puppy so he thinks he's adorable.

This thread has officially gone to a weird place

(09-10-2017 11:38 PM)TopsonTop Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 10:29 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 10:06 PM)TopsonTop Wrote:  Okay okay, the game aside and behind us, the illinois stadium is LEGIT. I was jealous of about everything I saw, from a packed stadium full of fans showing up for a crappy Illinois team in a city the size of Bowling Green to the crystal clear big screens to their cool football traditions. The student section was lit, and the halftime show very entertaining. It was the first time in a long time I actually watched the halftime show.

the same stadium I saw....

old rundown with 1/3 of the lower section empty. I did not see up top after the game started. That 1/3 I'm talking about sets under the roof with metal beams blocking part of the view and the last 20 or so rows a person can not see a pass going down field. I stood in the back watching a 3rd down play before heading to the restroom. Even sitting down you cut off everything a little over the players head. Bunch of young kids running around playing. But a lot of rows empty. This is common with a lot of older stadium with overhang upper decks that I've been to.

A few other things...this stadium is still set back in the 40s-1960s where the rest room is a long open pit on the side of the room where you stand on a platform and take a leak. I don't have a problem pissing with 30 other men. But it is 1940-1960ish. The two I ended up using had 2 stalls each. If 3 people at a time really really needed to take a crap. One was shitting their pants. You need to walk up 30 rows of steps to get into the ramps and then 30 feet up ramps to get to a restroom or concession stand. There is no way possible for a person to get a drink or go take a piss in between punts or change of possession.

I don't know what legit means to you...I must have a different definition on what makes a stadium legit. The crowd and video boards I agree with. The size of a city has little to do with that when you are "the" state university. The halftime show was good and some of their gimmicks for fans to make noise were great. Everything but that scream/screeching sound they played on the boards. We probably just disagree on what makes a great football stadium.

We probably do. Being in my 30's, I've never had an issue finding a bathroom in time to take a piss. I can only imagine what it must be like to be much older. The stadium capacity is 55k and the crowd was 41k so they were about at 75% capacity but like you said, the empty seats were the 20 rows underneath the overhang, so when you look at the stadium from the front or really any other vantage point, it is a full stadium for all intents and purposes because those empty rows are even barely visible. As far as accessibility to concessions, I didn't have any issues. As far as accessibility to stands, I thought the stadium was laid out very intelligently. I've been to far worse, and WKU's isn't the easiest. Trying to remember the quickest ramps to take in WKU's stadium is like being in the Labyrinth. As many times as I've been in there, I always manage to take the long route. In Illinois' stadium, the main entrances lead into the middle of the stands so you can go up or down accordingly, and yet still have top of the stands entrances/exits. It's not only laid out intelligently, it's very clean looking too. The outside of the stadium is really beautiful, of course so is ours IMO. The size of the city was mentioned because regardless of UI being B10 or the only major state university and WKU being CUSA, your community should support your school. If you don't like me pulling up the similarities in city size, you'd hate for me to mention App State and it's attendance compared to population (which I've mentioned before). And you might try to find excuses for that as well. There is no excuse for WKU not to have a packed stadium every week and I mentioned it as one of the things I'm jealous of about Illinois. When I see my hometown come out for App State, I'm jealous of that too for WKU.

Witnessing the passion and coordination of the students though and how they led the whole stadium in their chant was neato, and how at halftime the students individually held up colored paper that formed the words "Dead Toppers" "ILLINI" and a skull and cross bones across the entire section was spectacular.

We do have a difference of opinion on what makes a stadium legit. I think atmosphere does, you think bathroom proximity does. Agree to disagree.

But my wife and I moved to the right underneath that cove you were talking about right before halftime to avoid the wind and a very crazy WKU fan in the horseshoe making a fool out of himself. So if you saw two WKU fans and their two kids under there, that was us.

Like you and I said we just have a difference of opinion on what makes a stadium legit. To me atmosphere is game day experience and I agree with you on that. The stadium is just that and everything that goes into it.

But lets talk attendance and the point you brought up on Appy St. First off we are talking about a football school...

some don't think that matters. Those with that opinion are mostly in a football first state or school.

Now back to Appy St. is every home game shown on live local TV? Western's is and it makes a difference. But so does ticket cost. Some schools value putting butts in seats even if they have to sell Dollar ticket with every meal at the Wendy's or Super market.

Western seems to put value on each ticket and will not discount tickets at a give away price. The one thing Western does correctly...value season ticket holders. If they did as Ark St and a few other schools that value butts more than dollars. Western could lower ticket prices. But with that comes lower season tickets sold and the donation that comes with it.

If people know they can get a ticket to 4 or 5 out of 6 games at a discounted price all the way down to $1. Why would they buy season tickets.


So with that lets look at what really matters to a football program.... cold hard dollars. What do the below numbers tell you on which school is ahead of the game. And which school puts asses in seats ahead of dollars in the bank? One or two things are taking place at Appy St

1. fudging attendance numbers
2. selling a lot of discounted or free tickets

2016 Ticket Sales

Appalachian State $1,573,482 (avg 26,153 total 156,916...avg cost of ticket $10)

Western $2,119,884 (avg 17,705 total 123,935...avg cost of ticket $17)

2015 Ticket Sales

Appalachian State $1,604,339

Western $2,224,966

In 2013 Appalachian State had ticket sales of $2,334,633 and 2016 is a $761,151 (33%) drop from 2013. Only two ways to explain that. lower ticket prices or lower attendance. In 2013 Appy St average attendance was 24,894. So looking at those numbers and compared to 2016 in my opinion...

Appy St value dollars since they were FCS. Today they putt a value of asses in the seats over ticket price since they moved up to FBS and lost all their rivals. Which probably makes it harder filling the stadium..discounted tickets

So look at listed attendance numbers don't always show a clear picture or comparing apples to apples

Bottom line. One game does not a season make. WKU is the defending champs until they aren't and they are in the mix to win the east and will be formidable no matter what issues they had last Saturday. I know this is gonna sound like dumb coach speak but I'm 100% positive that you probably gained a lot of good info on how to prepare your offense going forward and will improve this week the way most teams improve from week 1 to week 2. This is why I like playing P5's. Vandy skull dragged us on week 1 and we learned more about what to do than we would have ever learned from playing south central nowhere state. Hopefully, Syracuse will have helped us prep for Minnesota, who I think is a really good team. We'll see. It might be a rough week but even if it is, we'll learn and will implement some great things for the rest of the season.

(09-11-2017 09:36 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 11:38 PM)TopsonTop Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 10:29 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 10:06 PM)TopsonTop Wrote:  Okay okay, the game aside and behind us, the illinois stadium is LEGIT. I was jealous of about everything I saw, from a packed stadium full of fans showing up for a crappy Illinois team in a city the size of Bowling Green to the crystal clear big screens to their cool football traditions. The student section was lit, and the halftime show very entertaining. It was the first time in a long time I actually watched the halftime show.

the same stadium I saw....

old rundown with 1/3 of the lower section empty. I did not see up top after the game started. That 1/3 I'm talking about sets under the roof with metal beams blocking part of the view and the last 20 or so rows a person can not see a pass going down field. I stood in the back watching a 3rd down play before heading to the restroom. Even sitting down you cut off everything a little over the players head. Bunch of young kids running around playing. But a lot of rows empty. This is common with a lot of older stadium with overhang upper decks that I've been to.

A few other things...this stadium is still set back in the 40s-1960s where the rest room is a long open pit on the side of the room where you stand on a platform and take a leak. I don't have a problem pissing with 30 other men. But it is 1940-1960ish. The two I ended up using had 2 stalls each. If 3 people at a time really really needed to take a crap. One was shitting their pants. You need to walk up 30 rows of steps to get into the ramps and then 30 feet up ramps to get to a restroom or concession stand. There is no way possible for a person to get a drink or go take a piss in between punts or change of possession.

I don't know what legit means to you...I must have a different definition on what makes a stadium legit. The crowd and video boards I agree with. The size of a city has little to do with that when you are "the" state university. The halftime show was good and some of their gimmicks for fans to make noise were great. Everything but that scream/screeching sound they played on the boards. We probably just disagree on what makes a great football stadium.

We probably do. Being in my 30's, I've never had an issue finding a bathroom in time to take a piss. I can only imagine what it must be like to be much older. The stadium capacity is 55k and the crowd was 41k so they were about at 75% capacity but like you said, the empty seats were the 20 rows underneath the overhang, so when you look at the stadium from the front or really any other vantage point, it is a full stadium for all intents and purposes because those empty rows are even barely visible. As far as accessibility to concessions, I didn't have any issues. As far as accessibility to stands, I thought the stadium was laid out very intelligently. I've been to far worse, and WKU's isn't the easiest. Trying to remember the quickest ramps to take in WKU's stadium is like being in the Labyrinth. As many times as I've been in there, I always manage to take the long route. In Illinois' stadium, the main entrances lead into the middle of the stands so you can go up or down accordingly, and yet still have top of the stands entrances/exits. It's not only laid out intelligently, it's very clean looking too. The outside of the stadium is really beautiful, of course so is ours IMO. The size of the city was mentioned because regardless of UI being B10 or the only major state university and WKU being CUSA, your community should support your school. If you don't like me pulling up the similarities in city size, you'd hate for me to mention App State and it's attendance compared to population (which I've mentioned before). And you might try to find excuses for that as well. There is no excuse for WKU not to have a packed stadium every week and I mentioned it as one of the things I'm jealous of about Illinois. When I see my hometown come out for App State, I'm jealous of that too for WKU.

Witnessing the passion and coordination of the students though and how they led the whole stadium in their chant was neato, and how at halftime the students individually held up colored paper that formed the words "Dead Toppers" "ILLINI" and a skull and cross bones across the entire section was spectacular.

We do have a difference of opinion on what makes a stadium legit. I think atmosphere does, you think bathroom proximity does. Agree to disagree.

But my wife and I moved to the right underneath that cove you were talking about right before halftime to avoid the wind and a very crazy WKU fan in the horseshoe making a fool out of himself. So if you saw two WKU fans and their two kids under there, that was us.

Like you and I said we just have a difference of opinion on what makes a stadium legit. To me atmosphere is game day experience and I agree with you on that. The stadium is just that and everything that goes into it.

But lets talk attendance and the point you brought up on Appy St. First off we are talking about a football school...

some don't think that matters. Those with that opinion are mostly in a football first state or school.

Now back to Appy St. is every home game shown on live local TV? Western's is and it makes a difference. But so does ticket cost. Some schools value putting butts in seats even if they have to sell Dollar ticket with every meal at the Wendy's or Super market.

Western seems to put value on each ticket and will not discount tickets at a give away price. The one thing Western does correctly...value season ticket holders. If they did as Ark St and a few other schools that value butts more than dollars. Western could lower ticket prices. But with that comes lower season tickets sold and the donation that comes with it.

If people know they can get a ticket to 4 or 5 out of 6 games at a discounted price all the way down to $1. Why would they buy season tickets.


So with that lets look at what really matters to a football program.... cold hard dollars. What do the below numbers tell you on which school is ahead of the game. And which school puts asses in seats ahead of dollars in the bank? One or two things are taking place at Appy St

1. fudging attendance numbers
2. selling a lot of discounted or free tickets

2016 Ticket Sales

Appalachian State $1,573,482 (avg 26,153 total 156,916...avg cost of ticket $10)

Western $2,119,884 (avg 17,705 total 123,935...avg cost of ticket $17)

2015 Ticket Sales

Appalachian State $1,604,339

Western $2,224,966

In 2013 Appalachian State had ticket sales of $2,334,633 and 2016 is a $761,151 (33%) drop from 2013. Only two ways to explain that. lower ticket prices or lower attendance. In 2013 Appy St average attendance was 24,894. So looking at those numbers and compared to 2016 in my opinion...

Appy St value dollars since they were FCS. Today they putt a value of asses in the seats over ticket price since they moved up to FBS and lost all their rivals. Which probably makes it harder filling the stadium..discounted tickets

So look at listed attendance numbers don't always show a clear picture or comparing apples to apples

Those ticket sales are for all sports not just football. Have you seen App's BB attendance? It's bad. WKU is not where you want to be on that front I'm sure but still miles ahead of App. In 2017, you sold 36,000 more men's tickets and 21,000 more women's. Looking at total ticket sales to try to justify football attendance is not working in this case. If you valued these tickets at just $10 a piece it would more than make up for the difference in sales. Bottom line, App brings in more money than WKU from football ticket sales and last year brought in about $1 million more in donations to boot.

If you can stomach it, here's a breakdown (from Illinois' perspective) of a good bit of WKU's offensive plays. Offensive tackles just getting manhandled every play.

(09-11-2017 09:40 AM)BlueraiderJT Wrote:  Bottom line. One game does not a season make. WKU is the defending champs until they aren't and they are in the mix to win the east and will be formidable no matter what issues they had last Saturday. I know this is gonna sound like dumb coach speak but I'm 100% positive that you probably gained a lot of good info on how to prepare your offense going forward and will improve this week the way most teams improve from week 1 to week 2. This is why I like playing P5's. Vandy skull dragged us on week 1 and we learned more about what to do than we would have ever learned from playing south central nowhere state. Hopefully, Syracuse will have helped us prep for Minnesota, who I think is a really good team. We'll see. It might be a rough week but even if it is, we'll learn and will implement some great things for the rest of the season.

Really surprised how supportive everyone has been toward WKU, really appreciate it.....

(09-11-2017 10:04 AM)mturn017 Wrote:  

(09-11-2017 09:36 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 11:38 PM)TopsonTop Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 10:29 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 10:06 PM)TopsonTop Wrote:  Okay okay, the game aside and behind us, the illinois stadium is LEGIT. I was jealous of about everything I saw, from a packed stadium full of fans showing up for a crappy Illinois team in a city the size of Bowling Green to the crystal clear big screens to their cool football traditions. The student section was lit, and the halftime show very entertaining. It was the first time in a long time I actually watched the halftime show.

the same stadium I saw....

old rundown with 1/3 of the lower section empty. I did not see up top after the game started. That 1/3 I'm talking about sets under the roof with metal beams blocking part of the view and the last 20 or so rows a person can not see a pass going down field. I stood in the back watching a 3rd down play before heading to the restroom. Even sitting down you cut off everything a little over the players head. Bunch of young kids running around playing. But a lot of rows empty. This is common with a lot of older stadium with overhang upper decks that I've been to.

A few other things...this stadium is still set back in the 40s-1960s where the rest room is a long open pit on the side of the room where you stand on a platform and take a leak. I don't have a problem pissing with 30 other men. But it is 1940-1960ish. The two I ended up using had 2 stalls each. If 3 people at a time really really needed to take a crap. One was shitting their pants. You need to walk up 30 rows of steps to get into the ramps and then 30 feet up ramps to get to a restroom or concession stand. There is no way possible for a person to get a drink or go take a piss in between punts or change of possession.

I don't know what legit means to you...I must have a different definition on what makes a stadium legit. The crowd and video boards I agree with. The size of a city has little to do with that when you are "the" state university. The halftime show was good and some of their gimmicks for fans to make noise were great. Everything but that scream/screeching sound they played on the boards. We probably just disagree on what makes a great football stadium.

We probably do. Being in my 30's, I've never had an issue finding a bathroom in time to take a piss. I can only imagine what it must be like to be much older. The stadium capacity is 55k and the crowd was 41k so they were about at 75% capacity but like you said, the empty seats were the 20 rows underneath the overhang, so when you look at the stadium from the front or really any other vantage point, it is a full stadium for all intents and purposes because those empty rows are even barely visible. As far as accessibility to concessions, I didn't have any issues. As far as accessibility to stands, I thought the stadium was laid out very intelligently. I've been to far worse, and WKU's isn't the easiest. Trying to remember the quickest ramps to take in WKU's stadium is like being in the Labyrinth. As many times as I've been in there, I always manage to take the long route. In Illinois' stadium, the main entrances lead into the middle of the stands so you can go up or down accordingly, and yet still have top of the stands entrances/exits. It's not only laid out intelligently, it's very clean looking too. The outside of the stadium is really beautiful, of course so is ours IMO. The size of the city was mentioned because regardless of UI being B10 or the only major state university and WKU being CUSA, your community should support your school. If you don't like me pulling up the similarities in city size, you'd hate for me to mention App State and it's attendance compared to population (which I've mentioned before). And you might try to find excuses for that as well. There is no excuse for WKU not to have a packed stadium every week and I mentioned it as one of the things I'm jealous of about Illinois. When I see my hometown come out for App State, I'm jealous of that too for WKU.

Witnessing the passion and coordination of the students though and how they led the whole stadium in their chant was neato, and how at halftime the students individually held up colored paper that formed the words "Dead Toppers" "ILLINI" and a skull and cross bones across the entire section was spectacular.

We do have a difference of opinion on what makes a stadium legit. I think atmosphere does, you think bathroom proximity does. Agree to disagree.

But my wife and I moved to the right underneath that cove you were talking about right before halftime to avoid the wind and a very crazy WKU fan in the horseshoe making a fool out of himself. So if you saw two WKU fans and their two kids under there, that was us.

Like you and I said we just have a difference of opinion on what makes a stadium legit. To me atmosphere is game day experience and I agree with you on that. The stadium is just that and everything that goes into it.

But lets talk attendance and the point you brought up on Appy St. First off we are talking about a football school...

some don't think that matters. Those with that opinion are mostly in a football first state or school.

Now back to Appy St. is every home game shown on live local TV? Western's is and it makes a difference. But so does ticket cost. Some schools value putting butts in seats even if they have to sell Dollar ticket with every meal at the Wendy's or Super market.

Western seems to put value on each ticket and will not discount tickets at a give away price. The one thing Western does correctly...value season ticket holders. If they did as Ark St and a few other schools that value butts more than dollars. Western could lower ticket prices. But with that comes lower season tickets sold and the donation that comes with it.

If people know they can get a ticket to 4 or 5 out of 6 games at a discounted price all the way down to $1. Why would they buy season tickets.


So with that lets look at what really matters to a football program.... cold hard dollars. What do the below numbers tell you on which school is ahead of the game. And which school puts asses in seats ahead of dollars in the bank? One or two things are taking place at Appy St

1. fudging attendance numbers
2. selling a lot of discounted or free tickets

2016 Ticket Sales

Appalachian State $1,573,482 (avg 26,153 total 156,916...avg cost of ticket $10)

Western $2,119,884 (avg 17,705 total 123,935...avg cost of ticket $17)

2015 Ticket Sales

Appalachian State $1,604,339

Western $2,224,966

In 2013 Appalachian State had ticket sales of $2,334,633 and 2016 is a $761,151 (33%) drop from 2013. Only two ways to explain that. lower ticket prices or lower attendance. In 2013 Appy St average attendance was 24,894. So looking at those numbers and compared to 2016 in my opinion...

Appy St value dollars since they were FCS. Today they putt a value of asses in the seats over ticket price since they moved up to FBS and lost all their rivals. Which probably makes it harder filling the stadium..discounted tickets

So look at listed attendance numbers don't always show a clear picture or comparing apples to apples

Those ticket sales are for all sports not just football. Have you seen App's BB attendance? It's bad. WKU is not where you want to be on that front I'm sure but still miles ahead of App. In 2017, you sold 36,000 more men's tickets and 21,000 more women's. Looking at total ticket sales to try to justify football attendance is not working in this case. If you valued these tickets at just $10 a piece it would more than make up for the difference in sales. Bottom line, App brings in more money than WKU from football ticket sales and last year brought in about $1 million more in donations to boot.

You are correct basketball tickets are in those numbers and Western averages $800,000 on basketball tickets sold. That number varies from year to year but over the last 4 years basketball attendance was flat and with in a couple hundred one way or the other. So $800,000 is right in the neighborhood.

Brings Western down to 1,369,884 and still close to even with Appy if you take away 1/4 of what Western made on basketball for them.

They still averaged 26,153 to Westerns 17,705 with the same amount of dollars brought in as Western.

Donation have nothing to do with how a school can average 8448 more fans for each home game and still bring in the same amount of money off tickets sold.

Appy is still selling a tickets at a huge discount to fill their stands. As I said not apples to apples with listed attendance. One school still puts a higher value on the cost of each ticket sold.

Donations comes in on season tickets but not walk ups and that will be the largest % of fans on game day.