If EMU could blow up their endzone expansion to smithereens and repave their track green, it would go a long way towards making their crowds look better.

(08-15-2014 09:33 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  If EMU could blow up their endzone expansion to smithereens and repave their track green, it would go a long way towards making their crowds look better.

Why go down in capacity when you can go up? Remove the track all together and build seats closer to the field. Take capacity to 40,000 and recruit P5's to your stadium under the guise of an easy win.

If EMU wants to stay in the MAC long term, having the largest stadium in the conference by capacity is one way to show commitment.

(08-16-2014 07:31 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  

(08-15-2014 09:33 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  If EMU could blow up their endzone expansion to smithereens and repave their track green, it would go a long way towards making their crowds look better.

Why go down in capacity when you can go up? Remove the track all together and build seats closer to the field. Take capacity to 40,000 and recruit P5's to your stadium under the guise of an easy win.

If EMU wants to stay in the MAC long term, having the largest stadium in the conference by capacity is one way to show commitment.

EMU isn't FIU, who can draw P5 teams there because its Miami and there's a recruiting pipeline in that area. EMU might draw a P5 school like Michigan State once in a blue moon, but not many power teams will come to Ypsilanti when they can just play an FCS team at their own place.

Nearly all of the MAC schools have shrunk their stadiums the past decade, and with good reason. Having a huge, empty chunk of concrete in the corner doesn't do EMU any good and just increases the perception that they will never be able to draw a good crowd (which is false, they were selling out fairly often when they were good in the 80's). If they start winning (I hope they do) and the stands are packed, just start selling general admission tickets to sit on the hill.

(08-16-2014 09:22 AM)Love and Honor Wrote:  

(08-16-2014 07:31 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  

(08-15-2014 09:33 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  If EMU could blow up their endzone expansion to smithereens and repave their track green, it would go a long way towards making their crowds look better.

Why go down in capacity when you can go up? Remove the track all together and build seats closer to the field. Take capacity to 40,000 and recruit P5's to your stadium under the guise of an easy win.

If EMU wants to stay in the MAC long term, having the largest stadium in the conference by capacity is one way to show commitment.

EMU isn't FIU, who can draw P5 teams there because its Miami and there's a recruiting pipeline in that area. EMU might draw a P5 school like Michigan State once in a blue moon, but not many power teams will come to Ypsilanti when they can just play an FCS team at their own place.

Nearly all of the MAC schools have shrunk their stadiums the past decade, and with good reason. Having a huge, empty chunk of concrete in the corner doesn't do EMU any good and just increases the perception that they will never be able to draw a good crowd (which is false, they were selling out fairly often when they were good in the 80's). If they start winning (I hope they do) and the stands are packed, just start selling general admission tickets to sit on the hill.

Its a valid point that Detroit is not a great destination or recruiting draw to schedule in P5's. How much of a factor that actually is is anyones guess.

EMU's record crowd is 26,188 so they've never sold out the current stadium at capacity. An SRO crowd at Eastern would be in the neighborhood of 35,000. There is no reason why they shouldn't be drawing better as they play the best schedule in the MAC every year (one without Eastern Michigan on it because they are EMU). Toledo, CMU, WMU every other year in the stadium should be enough to sell season ticket packages.