WKUYG
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RE: WKU--Illinois Thread Big 10 network 7pm
(09-11-2017 12:02 PM)TopsonTop Wrote: (09-11-2017 10:33 AM)WKUYG Wrote: (09-11-2017 10:04 AM)mturn017 Wrote: (09-11-2017 09:36 AM)WKUYG Wrote: (09-10-2017 11:38 PM)TopsonTop Wrote: We probably do. Being in my 30's, I've never had an issue finding a bathroom in time to take a piss. I can only imagine what it must be like to be much older. The stadium capacity is 55k and the crowd was 41k so they were about at 75% capacity but like you said, the empty seats were the 20 rows underneath the overhang, so when you look at the stadium from the front or really any other vantage point, it is a full stadium for all intents and purposes because those empty rows are even barely visible. As far as accessibility to concessions, I didn't have any issues. As far as accessibility to stands, I thought the stadium was laid out very intelligently. I've been to far worse, and WKU's isn't the easiest. Trying to remember the quickest ramps to take in WKU's stadium is like being in the Labyrinth. As many times as I've been in there, I always manage to take the long route. In Illinois' stadium, the main entrances lead into the middle of the stands so you can go up or down accordingly, and yet still have top of the stands entrances/exits. It's not only laid out intelligently, it's very clean looking too. The outside of the stadium is really beautiful, of course so is ours IMO. The size of the city was mentioned because regardless of UI being B10 or the only major state university and WKU being CUSA, your community should support your school. If you don't like me pulling up the similarities in city size, you'd hate for me to mention App State and it's attendance compared to population (which I've mentioned before). And you might try to find excuses for that as well. There is no excuse for WKU not to have a packed stadium every week and I mentioned it as one of the things I'm jealous of about Illinois. When I see my hometown come out for App State, I'm jealous of that too for WKU.
Witnessing the passion and coordination of the students though and how they led the whole stadium in their chant was neato, and how at halftime the students individually held up colored paper that formed the words "Dead Toppers" "ILLINI" and a skull and cross bones across the entire section was spectacular.
We do have a difference of opinion on what makes a stadium legit. I think atmosphere does, you think bathroom proximity does. Agree to disagree.
But my wife and I moved to the right underneath that cove you were talking about right before halftime to avoid the wind and a very crazy WKU fan in the horseshoe making a fool out of himself. So if you saw two WKU fans and their two kids under there, that was us.
Like you and I said we just have a difference of opinion on what makes a stadium legit. To me atmosphere is game day experience and I agree with you on that. The stadium is just that and everything that goes into it.
But lets talk attendance and the point you brought up on Appy St. First off we are talking about a football school...
some don't think that matters. Those with that opinion are mostly in a football first state or school.
Now back to Appy St. is every home game shown on live local TV? Western's is and it makes a difference. But so does ticket cost. Some schools value putting butts in seats even if they have to sell Dollar ticket with every meal at the Wendy's or Super market.
Western seems to put value on each ticket and will not discount tickets at a give away price. The one thing Western does correctly...value season ticket holders. If they did as Ark St and a few other schools that value butts more than dollars. Western could lower ticket prices. But with that comes lower season tickets sold and the donation that comes with it.
If people know they can get a ticket to 4 or 5 out of 6 games at a discounted price all the way down to $1. Why would they buy season tickets.
So with that lets look at what really matters to a football program.... cold hard dollars. What do the below numbers tell you on which school is ahead of the game. And which school puts asses in seats ahead of dollars in the bank? One or two things are taking place at Appy St
1. fudging attendance numbers
2. selling a lot of discounted or free tickets
2016 Ticket Sales
Appalachian State $1,573,482 (avg 26,153 total 156,916...avg cost of ticket $10)
Western $2,119,884 (avg 17,705 total 123,935...avg cost of ticket $17)
2015 Ticket Sales
Appalachian State $1,604,339
Western $2,224,966
In 2013 Appalachian State had ticket sales of $2,334,633 and 2016 is a $761,151 (33%) drop from 2013. Only two ways to explain that. lower ticket prices or lower attendance. In 2013 Appy St average attendance was 24,894. So looking at those numbers and compared to 2016 in my opinion...
Appy St value dollars since they were FCS. Today they putt a value of asses in the seats over ticket price since they moved up to FBS and lost all their rivals. Which probably makes it harder filling the stadium..discounted tickets
So look at listed attendance numbers don't always show a clear picture or comparing apples to apples
Those ticket sales are for all sports not just football. Have you seen App's BB attendance? It's bad. WKU is not where you want to be on that front I'm sure but still miles ahead of App. In 2017, you sold 36,000 more men's tickets and 21,000 more women's. Looking at total ticket sales to try to justify football attendance is not working in this case. If you valued these tickets at just $10 a piece it would more than make up for the difference in sales. Bottom line, App brings in more money than WKU from football ticket sales and last year brought in about $1 million more in donations to boot.
You are correct basketball tickets are in those numbers and Western averages $800,000 on basketball tickets sold. That number varies from year to year but over the last 4 years basketball attendance was flat and with in a couple hundred one way or the other. So $800,000 is right in the neighborhood.
Brings Western down to 1,369,884 and still close to even with Appy if you take away 1/4 of what Western made on basketball for them.
They still averaged 26,153 to Westerns 17,705 with the same amount of dollars brought in as Western.
Donation have nothing to do with how a school can average 8448 more fans for each home game and still bring in the same amount of money off tickets sold.
Appy is still selling a tickets at a huge discount to fill their stands. As I said not apples to apples with listed attendance. One school still puts a higher value on the cost of each ticket sold.
Donations comes in on season tickets but not walk ups and that will be the largest % of fans on game day.
You took a comment about how a program in a town of 19,000 and county of 52,000 isolated in the mountains has consistently higher football attendance than a school in a city of 65,000 and a county of 123,000... and you turned it into a debate about ticket sales, higher gross revenues, and other bullcrap that really doesn't matter. Congratulations on completely derailing the point of the comment with minutiae. The entire town is painted black and gold, their numbers are NOT inflated... some games there aren't enough seats for all the people that come out. You just can not accept that Bowling Green absolutely sucks about supporting WKU. Maybe you can accept it, you just like to think every other school that has a successful supportive community is somehow the exception to the rule, not us.
By the way, it's not 'Appy' any more than it's wkcc. I know you don't care, but it's disrespectful to a similar program who has risen through the ranks of college football quickly just like WKU to call them with your own little moniker. I know, I know, you think everybody loves that name except we had this debate last year and you lost. It's App State. K thanks.
First off you turned this into a a topic about Appy ST attendance. Don't use them as a example and compare them to Western's lack of
attendance/support. Then get upset when someone shows you why there might be this difference.
I don't know if Western gets 23,000 with dollar tickets. But ticket cost and all home games being shown locally on TV are reasons. Again if their numbers aren't inflated they are discounting a ton of tickets. There is no other way to explain one school averaging 26k and one school 17k and both bring in the same amount of dollars or close to it off tickets sold.
Attendance and support are two different things. The important way to support your school is with DOLLARS....
ask any AD and they will tell you money made off tickets sold is a important to them as asses in seats. If they say any different they probably wont be at their job very long. Money is the most important factor to a athletic dept.
As for not calling them Appy St...
you're correct I don't give a damn what they want to be called or what you want their school to be called. Western wants to be called WKU and I still call Western by the name I always used. The same will go for Appy St.
(This post was last modified: 09-11-2017 03:49 PM by WKUYG.)
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