Buccaneerlover, you stated in a different post that the students want football back. How do you know this? Was there some kind of poll taken among the students as to how many would actually support the football program if it was reinstated? I remember back to the days of football at good, old ETSU and I don't seem to remember a lot of student support. The few hundred that showed up for games and the fraternities and sororities that showed up for the first half of homecoming (and then left after the king and queen were announced) were all that took the time to come to games. Now, I realize I have been away from State for a while and student sentiment could have changed but I have a hard time believing that there is a big outcry from the student population. Could you share your information with me on this subject?

Next (and this question has been asked before), where will the money come from to fund the program? Raising student fees is a portion of that money but the community cannot be behind this move to get football back or there would be a bigger voice calling out Stanton and Mullins. We have been without football for several years now. How big of an impact has losing football had on the community so that they will now get behind an effort to get football back? If businesses were closing due to the loss of revenue then I can see where the impact would cause the businesses around the area to throw their weight behind the "Bring Football Back" movement.

Many blame the media for not reporting the demise of ETSU since it lost football but really has the university truly suffered after dropping the sport? Don't get me wrong, I love football. I loved watching State play. I loved watching State play in the Dome. It sure beat the heck out of freezing my buns off outisde. It was a great atmosphere and there did not need to be that much of a crowd to have a lot of noise in that place, which was good since there wasn't much of a crowd for most games. I had season tickets from the time I graduated from State until the time my wife and I moved to Iowa. I still listen to some of the games over the internet. And, I would love to see football come back. However, I do not see that happening in the near future. I don't have an answer to these questions. But it seems like to me the only people who are upset over football are the ones on this and other boards (which many are the same people).

My solution, for what it is worth, somehow you have to get the community to feel the need to have football back at State. Football died a quiet death that many in the community did not even notice the sport was gone. The pressure needs to come from the bu$ine$$e$ that support the university. Individual fan displays or a few fans not sending in their donations (unless they would make a significant impact) will not get the desired reaction from the administration but a well organized effort from the big dollar donors will.

I think it will be back sooner than you think. Expect the announcement at the end of December.

I have friends that still go there, all you have to do is ask. Yea they're willing to support it.
Student fees and the Pirate Club actually doing it's job will fund it.
Yes it is missed, now ETSU is a bigger suitcase school than ever, and their donations have dropped drastically. And yes, you can blame the media for not even trying to talk about it in the years preceding 2003 and the years up until now. Such pundits like Kelly Hodge, Joe Avento and Ron Bliss either don't care, or are stuck so far up Dave's rear that they can't see the truth. I vote for the latter on the JC Press, simply read their product these days. The sports page is progressively getting worse. Don't get me started on a Ron Bliss diatribe. That fat tub of goo reminds me of about 300 pounds of monkey crap in a 150 pound crate.
I expect fully like Fan1 that the announcement on football's return to come this month.