The unofficial online home for fans of the Western Michigan University Broncos. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(11-08-2018 01:01 PM)wmubroncopilot Wrote:  The ESPN deal needs to be allowed to expire because the exposure that it used to offer has dwindled to almost nothing, owing to widespread streaming and now midweek saturation from other leagues.

Any attendance bump (and I'm sure there will be a small one) will be a bonus. I'm just saying don't hold your breath. I see a lot of hyperbole (its KILLING the fan base!) and anecdotal evidence. But the fact is, the numbers just are not there when the weather gets colder.

The reason I continue to say these things, is that the midweek argument re: attendance is simply a distraction from the real problems that keep WMU from consistently filling Waldo Stadium.

Agreed, the ESPN deal has gotten worse as far as getting our games on actual TV. A bunch of our midweek games are now relegated to ESPNU or ESPN+. So we get less play on ESPN and ESPN2 and now we have to pay for ESPN+ to stream games online on the weekdays? I'd rather NIU stream the games themselves on Saturday and i'll pay the school directly.

Killing attendance for a meager $600k per school a year. I'd rather just schedule another P5 team so we can go back to playing Saturday football. FSU paid NIU $1.6 million, which is nearly three years worth of ESPN money.

(11-09-2018 08:27 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(11-08-2018 01:01 PM)wmubroncopilot Wrote:  The ESPN deal needs to be allowed to expire because the exposure that it used to offer has dwindled to almost nothing, owing to widespread streaming and now midweek saturation from other leagues.

Any attendance bump (and I'm sure there will be a small one) will be a bonus. I'm just saying don't hold your breath. I see a lot of hyperbole (its KILLING the fan base!) and anecdotal evidence. But the fact is, the numbers just are not there when the weather gets colder.

The reason I continue to say these things, is that the midweek argument re: attendance is simply a distraction from the real problems that keep WMU from consistently filling Waldo Stadium.

Agreed, the ESPN deal has gotten worse as far as getting our games on actual TV. A bunch of our midweek games are now relegated to ESPNU or ESPN+. So we get less play on ESPN and ESPN2 and now we have to pay for ESPN+ to stream games online on the weekdays? I'd rather NIU stream the games themselves on Saturday and i'll pay the school directly.

Killing attendance for a meager $600k per school a year. I'd rather just schedule another P5 team so we can go back to playing Saturday football. FSU paid NIU $1.6 million, which is nearly three years worth of ESPN money.

I’d even pay to watch CMU stream a WMU-CMU with bad camera angles over watching two hapless announcers on ESPN+.