Facilities

jones682

Any new news on the new Football or Baseball stadium. I know that Brian Mccreary said that there are plans to build a new stadium were old BrandSmart was at.

TheVoiceKSUMB

jones682 Fairly certain that athletics came out and said the most they’re doing is expanding seating capacity at 5/3rd to meet the necessary requirements for FBS. Not sure on baseball yet.

TMac1325

jones682 I think the new sports complex is more of a 5-10 year plan than a next year plan.. Though I wouldn't be surprised if they proceeded with everything but the football stadium in the next couple of years.. I know academics really wants the land the current baseball and softball fields sit on, so those 2 might be built soon.

As far as 5/3, we can get it up to 15-20k fairly easily so I expect some plans to be announced on that sooner than later..5/3 is actually a really nice little stadium that I could see us staying in until we just outgrow it..

Hootyhoo

Transformation committee basically said they want to kill the 15k attendance rule recently. We might not even need to expand the bank.

I'd guess we don't see any significant facility changes until we know what will be required to be fbs.

JJOHN368

We need to expand the 5/3 bank just fo rthe sake of not feeling like we are playing in a high school stadium. Yes, I think 5/3's is a nice stadium, but the fact of the small size, really kills the gameday experience. We are going ot be playing teams whose fans actually travel. I mean really travel. More so, than any other team that we have ever played in the bank. North Alabama traveled well, but only had like 50 people there. Granted, that is all that could fit. Just the larger sized stadium will improve the gameday feel. It is always sad walking into our stadium and thinking, this is it?

TMac1325

JJOHN368 Overton has said 1500 seats would be added to the north end zone before next year so that will get us up to around 10k at least..I do think regardless of new capacity and attendance rules the NCAA puts out the stadium will be expanded to 15-20k. I don't think we want the distinction of having a laughably tiny stadium as we enter FBS. The cheap shots would never end..

Wingman

While is seems like the move up to FBS makes sense for a university the size of KSU, it’s a waste of money to expand a stadium that is underutilized at its current capacity.

Yes I understand it’s a requirement right now to have the increased seating for FBS, I would like to see that rule changed. Someone posted that that may happen.

TMac1325

Wingman You have to have a big enough stadium to allow you to schedule home and homes against other FBS schools. We couldn't even get a GA State or GA Southern to come to an 8300 seat stadium. And there would be zero chance to ever get a P5 school to give you a 2 for 1. State and Southern have both had big names at their place, and I don't see any reason why KSU would not want to seize those opportunities. We have to stop thinking like a start up FCS and focus on what we want to become.. Schools will WANT to come play us to recruit the ATL area, but they won't come to an 8300 seat stadium..

JJOHN368

TMac1325 Great point. The bigger the games, the more people and interest will be at the games. We will never hold any big time games with our current stadium. If we ever want to have an opponent bigger than Jax State, we need to have a larger stadium. You would think, now that we have the possibility/ opportunity to play even P5 teams, we would be absolutly on board with doing anything we can to be able to host a home and home series. People are still in the mindset of FCS, as we will build it when it is needed. Now it is needed. Big games brings money and grows fan bases. That is what we need now.

TMac1325

JJOHN368

In the next 3 years, Southern hosts UAB, Boise St, and Houston at home. State hosts UConn, Vanderbilt, and Memphis at home. Army has visited State twice, North Carolina came to State last year. BYU came to Southern a couple of years ago..You absolutely HAVE to be able to host some bigger games.

Bo even said future schedules would probably include an FCS home game, 2 out of conference FBS home and homes, and 1 road P5 type money game..

I could definitely see Army, Navy, or both wanting to come play in the Atlanta area. Both recruit GA hard..

Hootyhoo

I think counting as an fbs opponent is more important than our stadium for good ooc scheduling. P5 teams aren't not gonna do home and homes here because of the stadium. It's because we're still so far beneath them. G5's will need games and not care what our stadium is as long as we agree to a trip to their place. State isn't getting those opponents because other teams are impressed by their empty stadium.

I'd love a better atmosphere at games. But 8000 fans in a 20,000 seat stadium sounds like a worse atmosphere that 8000 fans in a 10000 capacity stadium. The atmosphere gets better when people show up. While that should bump up for fbs, idk how many more people care about wku than EKU. When there is demand to expand or rebuild we should. I hope we grow out of that stadium. But we haven't yet.

TMac1325

Hootyhoo People in this area don't give a single crap about FCS football. That was the problem from the start. I think there will much more interest in WKU than there is in EKU, because people have watched WKU put up big numbers in bowls the last few years.

I also think to make money and get the ooc home and homes you have to invest a little money in the stadium. There is no excuse for schools we dwarf in size to have better stadiums than we do..

jones682

Hootyhoo Georgia State is not a big name. The reason why P5 are playing state because they are in the Atlanta area. KSU can do the same if they expand or build a new stadium. Georgia State has not been good as a football program. We got to stop thinking of ourselves as a start up FCS team. Keep in mind that KSU has a higher budget then other C-USA teams.

JJOHN368

TMac1325 It is amazing to me that people are ok with an 8300 seat stadium as an FBS program. P5 teams such as Ohio State, Texas, or Florida would probably not do a home and home series with us. But Vanderbilt, Army, UCF, VT, GT, I would give it a good chance. You get games like Ga southern, Ga state, Gt, App state, I bet you a 15-20,000 seat stadium will be pretty close to full. But, it is not even an option right now, because of our infrastructure. That would be massive exposure and nobody wants it..

OwlFan

A different take, kind of: I think it's still so tough to compete with UGA, GT, Auburn, Alabama, and other big name schools that are close by. Most Georgia born and raised folks are going to root for a bigger school if you will. That's how they were raised. I was raised like that too. I'm still a huge UGA fan, my late dad played and started for UGA. That's just the way it is. Where I'm getting at is, I think this affects the attendance to games because the games are on at the same time. Do we think this changes now that we are CUSA? Should we try and play around the big schools, and schedule our games at different times that UGA or Bama is not playing? Is my thinking asinine? Thoughts?

TMac1325

OwlFan I don't think it's bad thinking, I actually think it's smart. A few years back Alabama literally killed the UAB football program. Alabama had always had an issue with another school in Birmingham, since they played a few games there and considered it their 2nd home. When the program was revived, UAB alleviated some concerns by scheduling game times and home dates to not conflict with Bama or Auburn when possible. While KSU doesn't have UGA trying to kill it, it probably would be smart to attempt to avoid scheduling games at the same time when possible..They openly embraced the role of being the 2nd rooting interest for both fan bases..I've always thought GSU and GS were dumb when they scheduled their yearly game directly opposite of UGA/Florida, and they did that a few times. I think it's important to understand the KSU fanbase is going to consist of many lifelong fans of other schools for the next generation. That's not a knock on KSU, it's just the reality that schools like UGA, Tech, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, etc have 120 years on us in building generational fans.. Competing head to head against them for viewership is a losing proposition..

JJOHN368

OwlFan Yeah absolutely. My family is the same way. They are all UGA grads. Myself, I am a Liberty and KSU grad. However, the goal is not trying to replace any of those schools because that would be a losing effort. Instead, and similarly to pretty much every G5 program, the goal is to schedule around those schools and become the second team for that sector of the fanbase in the area. Coastal Carolina and Jax State are good examples to our situation. Both new and newer FBS teams. They play second fiddle to USC, Clemson and Auburn, Alabama respectably. But, they do their best to schedule around those teams and have been successful at become each of those teams fanbases second team to watch and cheer for. I would like to add, they both (especially in Coastal's situation with a puny stadium like ours), expanded their stadiums for FBS play, which allowed them to schedule games against larger schools, that in turn, gained them more exposure, notoriety, and prestige as now a nationally recognizable brand that is in a smaller state with 2 P5 schools with huge fanbases. So, it can absolutely be done successfully, but you have to strategize and invest. You cannot just go into this with the mindset that, oh we have UGA and the SEC schools around us... We cannot compete, so we just need to keep are puny high school sized stadium and except it. And honestly, GT does not have that great or loyal of a fanbase. We could easily over take that crowd. Just saying... People on here get way top caught up on names.

OwlFan

TMac1325 memory serves me correctly, our Homecoming game this year was on a UGA bye week. But the crowd was still measly! Greek Life brings me to another point. Greek life on campus sucks these days I'm told. No one tailgates, all the fraternities and sororities go on mountain weekends, or will go somewhere else away for the weekend. I was a student when the football team was started up. Myself and a few others, we were always front row at all the games. To be frank, not a lot of people liked us because we stood the whole time and screamed. There are KSU students who sit up front, and sit and don't cheer, then get mad when students stand and are loud! It could be the triple option is boring, which it is. But come on. That was a problem when we were students too.

OwlFan

JJOHN368 Jacksonville State draws good crowds. There's nothing else over there. We're 30 minutes from the city, and only a few hours from said big name schools. KSU also does not have that party lifestyle the bigger schools do, especially in Athens. Students want to party, and go out...not always in their apartments. GT doesn't have a fan base because their football team sucks.

TMac1325

OwlFan I actually think the Midweek CUSA schedule for the month of October will be great for getting students to the game. In basketball we always get more students for weekday games simply because the kids are all around. But, more than anything else, if we win we will draw well. There are 100s of thousands of FBS college football fans that live within a 15 mile radius of campus. It's an easy drive..If we win, everything will take care of itself.

chandler-wright

OwlFan I now head the painting up and when I try to recruit people I normally just get laughed out or yeah sounds cool then they never come to another football game again

OwlFan

TMac1325 that could be a good point. The midweek schedule could work out well in our favor. It seems that if you're giving something away, per usual, you'll draw a crowd. It used to be, they would give away free stuff, then the students would leave because the team was so bad. We have been winning on a "lower level." So where are the fans you speak of?

TMac1325

OwlFan FBS vs FCS.. So far, in our entire existence as a football program the single biggest game at 5/3 was Jacksonville State. The Woffords and Monmouths of the world create zero interest. Literally every CUSA home game will be more interesting to college football fans than any game we have hosted to date.. Hell, Louisiana Tech is like Notre Dame compared to Monmouth or UT Martin or East Tennessee State.. When I have to Google a school to see who and where they are, that's already an excuse not to show up..And thru the years I've had to Google more than a couple of KSU opponents..