LoneStar
2nd String
Posts: 319
Joined: Apr 2013
Reputation: 3
I Root For: Towson State
Location: The Republic
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RE: Back to Reality
(09-04-2013 10:33 PM)math123 Wrote: (09-04-2013 10:18 PM)LoneStar Wrote: (09-04-2013 05:18 PM)TigerNation82 Wrote: I am one of the biggest Towson Football fans around but this talk about going FBS is crazy. To put a competitive FBS football team on the field Towson would have to add 22 more full football scholarships, which at 20K a pop would be 440K. To remain compliant with Title IX at the 60/40 ratio another 35 full scholarships would have to be added for women, which is 700K with a combined new scholarship bill of $1,100,000, minimum.
As of today the highest priced football season ticket now at Towson is a Gold Seat, priced at $90. To be a FBS program you have to average 15,000 paid fans per game. Take out the 4,000 students who pay thru their student fees and that means you need to have 11,000 seats sold per game, which is just 181 seats under the current capacity of Unitas Stadium. So take the highest price that is paid now, $90, x the remaining attendance minimum balance needed, 11,000, and you get a gross of $990,000 in ticket sales if every ticket was sold at full price at the highest price that is currently offered.
So without adding a single new staff position for the football team which is expanding by 25%, your net financial yield is already 120K in the hole. And that is without accounting for football game guarantees, additional travel costs for all 19 sports for joining a new league for all sports (pick one from the following: Sun Belt, MAC, CUSA, The American). None of these leagues have major television deals or bowl revenues that net any substantial offsetting profits.
Towson has never sold 2,000 season tickets and has only one sellout football game in the 44 year history of the program. We can't even get our games on a radio station without paying them through the nose. We have had two winning seasons in a row and are 1-6 in games against FBS opponents.
Moving to FBS is athletics suicide for Towson in my mind. I'd rather play at a level where we can compete for a championship than go to a level where we will be doormats and never have the chance to be relevant.
So, you would rather Towson play Monmouth, Wagner, Lehigh and Elon while the good FCS schools have left or are about to move up? And doormat? Seriously? No one has suggested to move to a BCS conference, however, if you think we wouldn't be competitive in a mid level conference we must be watching two completely different teams over the past 3 years.
Good grief, that's the mindset that have kept us handcuffed for the last 25 years. An additional 5 football scholarships over what we are doing currently along with the women's equivalent would be offset by the increased payout we would receive from the FBS opponents. Financially, this would be neutral in the worst case scenario. if we were to get into what I would deem as the best option AAC, they receive Television payouts in the 1mill area per team and each fbs conference will receive playoff money with the new system. The move will pay for itself, I like how ODU is going about the transition.
Very disappointed in some of the aspirations of folks on these boards, I think an awfully lot of people are selling this school and program short. Reminds me of when I first moved to Texas and started attending Ranger games when Nolan Ryan took over as GM. Being an outsider I could see the level of talent this team and they were very good but the people that followed them for years we're so jaded and content with mediocrity they couldn't embrace what was happening and the team went to the World Series. Same thing happened the following year yet the same fans were in denial. It really took two years for people to acknowledge the talent and level of quality was real and just as good if not better than almost the entire league. It really seems like folks don't accept the fact that this team is as good as SMU, North Texas, Navy, UConn .....maybe you should talk to an LSU or UConn Fan or better yet an honest Maryland Fan that was at the game.
My aspirations are for this team to win every game and run the table in the playoffs that aren't televised for the most part, win the national championship which is played in a soccer stadium in Frisco Texas that no one cares about down here except the two fan bases that fly down for the game.
However, moving forward my aspirations are to play in a conference that is a step up and I have no reason to fear playing Navy, Temple, UConn or Maryland. The LSU game was the proving ground in my eyes and a seminal moment in the history of our program. UConn was a nice win but playing a physical team like LSU really was the test and did more for the psyche of this team, guess most folks are still not believing in this program. Disappointing to say the least.
Couldn't have said it any better. Now is the time to capitalize on the winning and Ambrose who will be gone if are stuck in FCS. Nobody said it will be easy but everything we've done in the past when moving up a division has been wrong. A lot more work to be done to get to that point, especially off the field.
Matt,
Yes, you're right no way Rob sticks around to play FCS football. However, a mid level FBS conference and building something that not only Towson but the Baltimore community embraces could be very rewarding. I can't see the Texas schools staying in the AAC for long, there's been talk about them moving into the Big 12.
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