(09-09-2016 03:17 AM)Old Blue Wrote:  

(09-08-2016 09:06 AM)Eagleholic Wrote:  

(09-08-2016 12:36 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(09-07-2016 03:20 PM)Eagleholic Wrote:  

(09-07-2016 10:39 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  But perception fits into my reasoning. Most fans watching on TV does not have a clue how many seats are in a stadium. But they do see empty seats and when they see large sections of empty seats....

perception wise 25k in a 40k stadium hurts more than 19k in 22k.

A lot of Western fans want to expand and put the number of seats in our stadium to 30-35k. Not me. I think it's a stupid ideal to out grown your fansbase (with seats) before they are needed. It hurts in a couple ways...actually more but I will list my two key ways.

1. hurts in season ticket sales. If a fan knows they will get a good seat on game day they have no reason to buy season tickets. But if it's hard getting a ticket by walking up then season tickets will increase. You need to find the balance in that.

2. You never expand if it's only for that one game a year where you need the 40k and the other 5 are 25k. It looks worse for those other 5 games...perception wise.

As fans we want to point to size (number of seats) and say look at me. But is that really needed if 40 to 50% is going unused 75 to 80% of the time ?

Some perceive that those small stadiums are high school or junior college stadiums. I actually had a couple of high school students ask me last year why Southern Miss was playing in a high school stadium for a championship game. Small stadiums look small time on TV even when they are mostly full or full.

Like I said earlier, all of the teams in CUSA have a long way to go in this department. I do think all teams need to have stadiums that seat at least a 30,000 - 35,000. You can come up with creative ways to cover up empty sections if you need to. My opinion.

Maybe you should stop hanging around high school students? Unless you are one yourself. Do you really take the opinion of a high school kid often? Or it really means something? My god, high school...it's a safe bet that if 50 high school students from BG watched that game S. Miss was a high school or Jr college the way Western manhandled S. Miss. That's high school kids. Any ranking of stadiums will have Western's at the top part of CUSA on ACTUAL college stadium. Any most visiting fans that actually attend a game at Western will tell you the same.

As I said most people couldn't tell you how many seats a stadium has from watching on TV....

So if you need to cover up 10,000 seats every game...then wouldn't that make your stadium small? Not to mention unneeded? So if that is the trick...Western has another 20,000 seats...we are hiding them with tents and grass. You just cant see them.

Really, hiding seats, with tarps...and you talking about small

I work with high school kids weekly, so yes, I spend a good bit of time with them and at their sporting events. You do realize that it's high school kids that your team recruits to become the players of your college team. Why are teams building IPFs and so worried about facilities? To influence high school kids. Both of the kids that said that to me are high school athletes and one will have the opportunity to play after high school, though not at a high level. Their opinion matters. (Currently, your staff is doing a good job evaluating talent, getting talent to Bowling Green, and then developing that talent.)

Yes, your stadium looks like a glorified high school stadium on TV. But, dont worry. You are not alone. Much of CUSA and the Sun Belt looks the same. However, as you have mentioned, it is much better to be winning the games on the field than having large attendance. I would hope that WKU could take advantage of this stretch of dominant football to build the fanbase and increase the stadium capacity.

And like I said, we all have work to do in this category.

Are 20,000 plus seat stadiums prevalent at Mississippi and West Virginia High Schools? Because they certainly aren't in Virginia. I can't think of a single one.

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The largest i know of in Ms is actually 14k at Meridian. Petal hs seats 8k and oak grove seats 7k.

(09-09-2016 12:47 PM)Thegoldstandard Wrote:  

(09-09-2016 03:17 AM)Old Blue Wrote:  

(09-08-2016 09:06 AM)Eagleholic Wrote:  

(09-08-2016 12:36 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(09-07-2016 03:20 PM)Eagleholic Wrote:  Some perceive that those small stadiums are high school or junior college stadiums. I actually had a couple of high school students ask me last year why Southern Miss was playing in a high school stadium for a championship game. Small stadiums look small time on TV even when they are mostly full or full.

Like I said earlier, all of the teams in CUSA have a long way to go in this department. I do think all teams need to have stadiums that seat at least a 30,000 - 35,000. You can come up with creative ways to cover up empty sections if you need to. My opinion.

Maybe you should stop hanging around high school students? Unless you are one yourself. Do you really take the opinion of a high school kid often? Or it really means something? My god, high school...it's a safe bet that if 50 high school students from BG watched that game S. Miss was a high school or Jr college the way Western manhandled S. Miss. That's high school kids. Any ranking of stadiums will have Western's at the top part of CUSA on ACTUAL college stadium. Any most visiting fans that actually attend a game at Western will tell you the same.

As I said most people couldn't tell you how many seats a stadium has from watching on TV....

So if you need to cover up 10,000 seats every game...then wouldn't that make your stadium small? Not to mention unneeded? So if that is the trick...Western has another 20,000 seats...we are hiding them with tents and grass. You just cant see them.

Really, hiding seats, with tarps...and you talking about small

I work with high school kids weekly, so yes, I spend a good bit of time with them and at their sporting events. You do realize that it's high school kids that your team recruits to become the players of your college team. Why are teams building IPFs and so worried about facilities? To influence high school kids. Both of the kids that said that to me are high school athletes and one will have the opportunity to play after high school, though not at a high level. Their opinion matters. (Currently, your staff is doing a good job evaluating talent, getting talent to Bowling Green, and then developing that talent.)

Yes, your stadium looks like a glorified high school stadium on TV. But, dont worry. You are not alone. Much of CUSA and the Sun Belt looks the same. However, as you have mentioned, it is much better to be winning the games on the field than having large attendance. I would hope that WKU could take advantage of this stretch of dominant football to build the fanbase and increase the stadium capacity.

And like I said, we all have work to do in this category.

Are 20,000 plus seat stadiums prevalent at Mississippi and West Virginia High Schools? Because they certainly aren't in Virginia. I can't think of a single one.

Sent from my XT1080 using CSNbbs mobile app

The largest i know of in Ms is actually 14k at Meridian. Petal hs seats 8k and oak grove seats 7k.

I just don't think those numbers are correct. Brandon has been getting 8-10k when they sell out and they aren't even close to the largest stadium, though the new one will be one of the best in the state.

Petal's stadium is over 10k I believe as well. Meridian used to be a college stadium.

But stadium size is one thing to discuss. Attendance is another. And in Mississippi at least, it's not uncommon at 6A games to have 15k, especially if it's a big game.

(09-09-2016 02:28 PM)EagNBran Wrote:  

(09-09-2016 12:47 PM)Thegoldstandard Wrote:  

(09-09-2016 03:17 AM)Old Blue Wrote:  

(09-08-2016 09:06 AM)Eagleholic Wrote:  

(09-08-2016 12:36 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  Maybe you should stop hanging around high school students? Unless you are one yourself. Do you really take the opinion of a high school kid often? Or it really means something? My god, high school...it's a safe bet that if 50 high school students from BG watched that game S. Miss was a high school or Jr college the way Western manhandled S. Miss. That's high school kids. Any ranking of stadiums will have Western's at the top part of CUSA on ACTUAL college stadium. Any most visiting fans that actually attend a game at Western will tell you the same.

As I said most people couldn't tell you how many seats a stadium has from watching on TV....

So if you need to cover up 10,000 seats every game...then wouldn't that make your stadium small? Not to mention unneeded? So if that is the trick...Western has another 20,000 seats...we are hiding them with tents and grass. You just cant see them.

Really, hiding seats, with tarps...and you talking about small

I work with high school kids weekly, so yes, I spend a good bit of time with them and at their sporting events. You do realize that it's high school kids that your team recruits to become the players of your college team. Why are teams building IPFs and so worried about facilities? To influence high school kids. Both of the kids that said that to me are high school athletes and one will have the opportunity to play after high school, though not at a high level. Their opinion matters. (Currently, your staff is doing a good job evaluating talent, getting talent to Bowling Green, and then developing that talent.)

Yes, your stadium looks like a glorified high school stadium on TV. But, dont worry. You are not alone. Much of CUSA and the Sun Belt looks the same. However, as you have mentioned, it is much better to be winning the games on the field than having large attendance. I would hope that WKU could take advantage of this stretch of dominant football to build the fanbase and increase the stadium capacity.

And like I said, we all have work to do in this category.

Are 20,000 plus seat stadiums prevalent at Mississippi and West Virginia High Schools? Because they certainly aren't in Virginia. I can't think of a single one.

Sent from my XT1080 using CSNbbs mobile app

The largest i know of in Ms is actually 14k at Meridian. Petal hs seats 8k and oak grove seats 7k.

I just don't think those numbers are correct. Brandon has been getting 8-10k when they sell out and they aren't even close to the largest stadium, though the new one will be one of the best in the state.

Petal's stadium is over 10k I believe as well. Meridian used to be a college stadium.

But stadium size is one thing to discuss. Attendance is another. And in Mississippi at least, it's not uncommon at 6A games to have 15k, especially if it's a big game.

Just by looking at both stadiums, I would have never thought Petal was larger than Oak Grove.

Don't know if anyone's managed to sneak this in between all the Petal - O.G. attendance smack, but I believe last night's attendance at USM was 29,500 and change.

(09-06-2016 12:58 PM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(09-05-2016 04:50 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  

(09-04-2016 07:05 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  UTEP: 30,119
North Texas: 24,718
UTSA: 22,380
Old Dominion: 20,118
Middle Tennessee: 19,967
Western Kentucky: 19,286
Florida International: 16,089
Florida Atlantic: 14,887

EDIT: I will keep a running tally posted after each week is complete

This is a great number for North Texas, considering last season was the worst in our 103 year football history. To be totally fair, SMU brought a large crowd too (2-3K).

I know some on here like to dismiss markets as not being important, but they are. UNT averaged around 13,000 last season because the fan base rebelled against the athletic director and his leadership. When Seth Littrell turns this thing around and we start winning games, 24,718 will be considered a small crowd for North Texas.

Because we showed improvement over last season, I believe we will still have a respectable crowd this week, even though we are playing Cookman. My guess is around 21,000.

It will be interesting to see how Louisiana Tech and Southern Mississippi do with attendance for their FCS home opener opponents.

29,506

Charlotte had 15,850.

Students did a nice job. They packed in their sections and their tailgate area was rocking. The 6pm games really help get students out. Next week is 6pm too so I expect a similar student turnout.

I know as of last week, we had actually sold more tickets to the EMU game than the Elon game, so I'm optimistic we'll have 16-17,000 next Saturday.