(09-28-2016 10:17 PM)EagNBran Wrote:  Bowls games are interesting. People who haven't been to games in years find their way to them. Look at the CWS. Everyone and their cousin was there, even if they had never been to a baseball game. In football, it happens too. If we got to the Sugar Bowl, we'd find 15-20k fans who graduated and never came back, but dang it I gotta support my team in New Orleans.

agree....

if the access game was the sugar we'd bring as many tickets that were available....

the cotton or peach????....best guess would be ~25k....

fiesta??? ~14k

there are a shiteload of us that are chompin' for that opportunity....

Well, the economic model of funding Division I athletics is changing... and that change will increase as the big money contracts expire, conference by conference. So we need to position ourselves to, at worst, not be worse off than we are compared to others. Since everyone is going to see less money... even the mighty. There are just less advertiser dollars going to the media product, and that WILL be reflected in all the contracts.

Second, I went to one Sugar Bowl in my life... early 90's, Alabama beat a favored Miami team with Heisman winner Gino Toretta. I wasn't even much of a football fan, and didn't even live in the South. Family friends were on the committee, so we were able to get some free tickets. Fun game. But my life has changed sine then, and so has the fan model. With so many alternatives today, will a relatively sudden great year draw 20k or more fans to a driveable location, even for a BCS bowl? I hope so, but nothing in our RECENT history guarantees it. Yes, there will be some bandwagon fans but the traditional powers who draw them have the instant name recognition of decades of media exposure and relative success over that time.

I sure hope I'm wrong... I want USM to join a P5 conference and play in a BCS bowl with 35,000 screaming Golden Eagle fans. But I'm not sure my wants are gonna be enough to make it happen.....

Eagle9, I have explained it several times on here, if you can't see it, I feel for ya man...