Near Future/Construction at the Doyt

[BGFalcons232]

or how much will it dampen student enthusiasm if they come to the game and are turned away?

i've heard people in the athletic department state several times that they would NEVER turn away a student. they'd find somewhere for them to stand if need be, but they would never deny a student access to a football game. although it would never happen, that could be quite a problem if suddenly all 20,000 or so students decided to show up to a game...

[redskins4ever]

Well it has happened see NIU game two years ago, and I dont get why BG is limiting their seating as their average attendance continues to grow... and the bigger games could have sold more seats aka NIU game easily couldve sold out to 40K and the Toledo could be grown to be the same amount.

[Metz]

although it would never happen, that could be quite a problem if suddenly all 20,000 or so students decided to show up to a game...

Even though it wouldn't happen, I'd still love to see how they would go about handling that situation. True Falcon fans that got turned away would probably go listen on the radio and continue tailgating, but I assume everyone else would get a little upset. Seeing 20,000 students suddenly decide to support an athletic team on the same day would be a site though!

[bgmaggot00]

Last year though, the SEMO game had the highest attendance at around 24,000 didn't it? As it is, we really haven't had much of a use for more than this amount of seating recently. Jeff

[TG1996]

Last year though, the SEMO game had the highest attendance at around 24,000 didn't it? As it is, we really haven't had much of a use for more than this amount of seating recently. Jeff

SEMO is not Toledo. With anything on the line, 24K would go in a flash against the spRockets. Of course, worrying about running out of space for any of the other games might be time wasted as well.

[Bleeding Orange]

or how much will it dampen student enthusiasm if they come to the game and are turned away?

i've heard people in the athletic department state several times that they would NEVER turn away a student. they'd find somewhere for them to stand if need be, but they would never deny a student access to a football game. although it would never happen, that could be quite a problem if suddenly all 20,000 or so students decided to show up to a game...

You know what? I pray to God we run out of space and have to turn students away. Not because I don't think students should be at the game (hell, it's for the students), but because that means that we are a major and established program, and that we will have to update and expand our facilities. Personally, I think it is sad that a Ball State is renovating their entire stadium while we're mired in a stadium that (while I love it more than any place on earth) hasn't been renovated to any great degree since the Johnson administration.

I do love that place, though. It is the best place to see a football game ever, in my opinion, but it could always be better. Its hard to draw families here when it takes them an entire quarter to get a hot dog for their kids. If we could just find the money to update our concession I would be ecstatic.

[Falcon30]

Wouldn't concession improvements pay for themselves if they sell something better than day-old popcorn and hot dogs???

[redskins4ever]

Concessions need to be moved away from the ramps as it clogs everything and everyone.

As for the stadium, I cant believe that BG or any MAC school can claim to be legit on a national level unless they plan for stadiums larger then 30,000 fans.

I went to that NIU game... and it would've been awesome to have those 40,000+ fans that were there able to all fit in the Doyt... unfortunately this just hasnt happened.

Omar is going to bring crowds.... huge crowds... and although the schedule would be perfect if BG had NIU, Toledo, and Miami all at home... they dont but the program is ready for an attendance explosion if its not ready... they may lose thousands of fans at future games.

[Schadenfreude]

I'd love to hear from Krebs on all of this.

Does anyone think he would consent to an online chat or something?

Some of you are in a position to say hello and all that. I'm not -- not living in Columbus as I do, and not having Bob Sebo's resources (bless his heart!). Only time Krebs was down here for an event, I had to cancel.

I guess what Krebs would tell us is that if we ensure sell outs at some games, we can charge a bit more for them while still encouraging people to attend other games, which would mean a more consistent atmosphere.

It sounds like we can make more money by reducing seating. There must be a reason why all these major league baseball parks are smaller than they used to be, and I'd guess we are pursuing that same theory.

I expect with 24,000 seats, we will sell out Toledo and Miami pretty often, given the current strength of our program. If we can do so early enough -- and if the prices are set high enough for those games -- than we may get a few more people to choose to watch the rest of our schedule.

Maybe we don't need to hear from Krebs about it. Brandon may eventually do a blog...

[Salsa]

I think that moving back to the East Division may help our attendance quite a bit.

[golfertk14]

I think that moving back to the East Division may help our attendance quite a bit.

I'm not being sarcastic, I'm interested to know-why would our moving to the East Div. be better for BG's home attendance?

[Dayons_Den]

They need to come up for a way for Students to pick up tickets for games that are potential sell outs.

That NIU game they actually stopped selling tickets to the general public, earmarking 8,000 (or some select #) for students. Now if only 7,500 showed up there is 500 potential paying customers that weren't even allowed to purchase tickets.

They need to do a student ticket pick up for the toledo game much like they do at basketball games so they can sell as many $26 tickets as possible.

[hammb]

I think that moving back to the East Division may help our attendance quite a bit.

I'm not being sarcastic, I'm interested to know-why would our moving to the East Div. be better for BG's home attendance?

There are a couple reasons for that theory.

One reason is that we always played in the East until a few years ago. Thus we have traditional rivalries and series that we always played yearly until the rececent history, so maybe some old fans will come back to see these rivalries renewed.

The other reason would be that Cleveland is a major location for BG alums & fans. It is believed that playing the two Cleveland area teams yearly (Akron & Kent) will help get some of those alums back to games in BG.

I'm not sure about all that. Personally, I'm not sure it will really help that much. UT stays pretty much the same and Miami is a wash with NIU. I suppose Ohio, KSU, and UA could bring in more than CMU, WMU, EMU, but I still think it will always be more dependent on which teams are competitive.

[Salsa]

I believe moving back to the East Division will probably increase our attendance for a number of reasons.

First, let's look at the changes. We gain the following teams--Buffalo, Kent St., Akron, Ohio, Miami (Temple doesn't come in as a full member for a couple of years). We lose Northern Illinois, Ball St., Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and Western Michigan (we will continue to play Toledo annually).

1-We were previously in that Division for a long time and BG students and fans are more familiar with those teams.
2-We will annually have a "big game" at home against either Toledo or Miami. This will help attendance a lot.
3-The major loss is probably Northern Illinois. But Miami is probably a bigger gain. And I think Ohio, Akron, and Kent will be overall plusses as well.

[Falcon30]

I have no connection to any of the michigan schools. I don't have a rivalry in my mind with NIU. Miami and BG have had an unspoken rivalry for a long time. We marching band vets know that "beat Miami" is what we shouted in our cadences when we didn't have an opponent to lambast.

Kent is our sister school. I have several friends who have attended Kent. My sister went to Akron. My sister-in-law and her husband met in the 110 at Ohio U.

The only school I have no connection with is Buffalo. The only school in the west I have strong feelings for is Toledo. Hate em.

I am not the only one with connections galore with the other Ohio Schools.

The MAC East feels like home to me.