Quote:KSU nearing the red zone

Written by Brian C. Bell, Staff Writer
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
For the past few months, Saturdays have been ruled by college football. The pigskin has taken over television, radio, conversation and the minds of countless fans across the country, and now it seems that KSU is moving closer to having this infectious wave of excitement sweep across the campus.


The KSU administration has been looking at adding a football program since Dr. Papp came to KSU, but not until the purchase of the new land and subsequent plans to build a multi-purpose stadium on it has the image ever materialized more.

The first hurdle to be jumped is the financial one. To fund the construction, the KSU Foundation would have to raise the necessary funds, and according to Dr. Wes Wicker, head of the KSU Foundation, “We have a private donor who is interested in making a substantial contribution.” With a financial backer, the KSU administration began to research the design of a stadium.

“We’ve been looking at designs for stadiums for, really, a couple of years”, said Wicker. “I believe we settled on a horseshoe type stadium…and are debating between a 7,000 and 20,000 occupancy level.”

“We’re consciously trying to raise the money as a multi-purpose stadium…[varsity] women’s soccer would be paramount, conceivably football, as well as a concert venue…something that could be a source of revenue for the stadium,” said Papp, giving the proposed stadium multiple options for use.

With plans for a stadium in place, the next step would be to handle any Title IX financial issue that would arise, which, according to Wicker, would not be much of a problem since KSU currently has more women’s NCAA programs than men‘s.

The final hurdle lies with the students. The administration is taking a diplomatic approach to introducing a football program to the students. As Wicker put it, “The cabinet’s position is this: Do the students want football? Are they willing to pay?” Last November, an online survey was conducted by the Student Government Association, and the results showed that 80 percent of the 5,600 students surveyed were in favor of a football program, and would be willing to pay between $35 and $105 to field an Owls football team. The current figures that Wicker projected the student would have to pay would be between $35 and $70 depending on whether students wanted a Division II program or a FCS (formerly Division I-AA) program.

With the students seemingly behind the addition of football, how soon could we field a team? “If there was a referendum on football in hand, then conceivably we could field a team by 2011.”

The one major fear that the KSU administration has is that they build a stadium and field a team, but no one shows up on Saturday. According to Wicker, “If the students want football, then we will give them football.” The administration seems to be pushing towards the implementation of a football program sooner than later, it’s just time for the KSU students to take the ox by the yoke if they want a program now.

http://www.ksusentinel.com/index.php?opt...&Itemid=59

Saw this in the KSU paper, which has had a few articles on football over the last couple of years - but it sounds like it's creeping a bit closer with some of the details looking to be worked out. Could be very interesting times at KSU.

Sadly, not all of the articles in the paper are as good (check out the op-ed section for a garbage article!).

How can we have football when we are ranked at the bottom of the conference for budgets on other sports. Lets put some money into what we have, like basketball and be able to compete with everyone else.

That's why they'll raise the athletics fees. It's not something that will come at the expense of other sports. If anything, more interest in KSU sports as a result of football should flow on to the other sports.

sounds good. i heard that the student athletic fee is going up like $70 bucks next fall. any official news on this?