A Sea Of Red

with that many students definitely filling the "Bill" and student enrollment increasing yearly, the question I had posed to myself, is would they still wait until an FBS membership to do some expansion or would they go ahead and do a little something with the big something able to happen once the membership was to happen.

Let's see how the Homecoming numbers look vs. Kennesaw State after we are on the road for the next month. Saturday obviously re-opened this conversation.

We have never filled the stadium like that before, and our home schedule is off the charts this season only. We dont have to turn anyone away in the event we have another monster matchup (the grass hills work fine as over flow). Id say we should wait until we start bringing in Montana type of opponents most home games. Packed house looks much better than a sparce bigger house. IMO

I'd agree on the wait and see approach. But in the meantime, I think they should build some adequate stairs and put the band on top of the visitor's locker room/old field house. That would free up a decent number of seats.

R i wrote:We have never filled the stadium like that before, and our home schedule is off the charts this season only. We dont have to turn anyone away in the event we have another monster matchup (the grass hills work fine as over flow). Id say we should wait until we start bringing in Montana type of opponents most home games. Packed house looks much better than a sparce bigger house. IMO

I agree with this. Of course, we also have to keep winning for people to keep coming.

R i wrote:We have never filled the stadium like that before, and our home schedule is off the charts this season only. We dont have to turn anyone away in the event we have another monster matchup (the grass hills work fine as over flow). Id say we should wait until we start bringing in Montana type of opponents most home games. Packed house looks much better than a sparce bigger house. IMO

I agree with this. Our home schedule is pretty horrible in the coming years so it's likely Saturday was the biggest game we'll have for a while. Homecoming will be big but probably not quite as big as Montana (20k-ish). Coastal will be big but not as big as homecoming (18-19k).

I've heard talk of moving the band to create more room for students. That's really the only thing I think I'd do before we get an FBS invite. App State used to put their band in the corner of the upper deck to not only create room, but also have their sound spread through more of the stadium.

Agree on no expansion right now. But I think they can enhance the game experience and attract more non-student attendance by replacing bleachers on Baptist side with chairs.

LUDad wrote:Agree on no expansion right now. But I think they can enhance the game experience and attract more non-student attendance by replacing bleachers on Baptist side with chairs.

The chairs are there for the premium prices. Besides, you can fit more people (and kids) in the bleachers.

Here are our home schedules for the next three years that we know of:

2016

Jacksonville
Robert Morris
Monmouth
Gardner-Webb
Charleston Southern
TBA (Im speculating that JB will want to fill this date to give us 6 home games after going with 5 this year)

2017
Morehead State
Indiana State
Kennesaw State
Presbyterian
TBA
TBA

2018
Monmouth
Gardner-Webb
Charleston Southern
TBA
TBA
TBA

The next two years don't exactly have games that jump off the page at you, especially in the non-conference, and 2018 and beyond we don't really HAVE our non-conference games set up. Personally I would love for us to get at least one "power FCS" team in The Bill the next two seasons (Is Southern Illinois returning the game from this year?), especially with the kind of response we got this past weekend. I know its tough to get a team like Montana or Cal Poly to come across the country to play us, but maybe a Sam Houston State or a Jacksonville State or UTC or Villanova (since JMU apparently doesn't want to come here anymore) or Youngstown State or any number of others on this side of the Mighty Mississippi.

Beej, we won't play Coastal at home in 2017.

Thanks for catching that Jon, I must have misread it from the Future Schedules thread.

You didn't misread it. They just haven't updated that thread yet.

Another thing to consider about this year's attendance... we have one less home game... which means that there are less games for people to choose from and consequently there might be higher attendance.

Let's see how the crowds look the rest of the year

The two Im most keeping an eye on are homecoming (I hope to be in attendance for that one) and the finale against Coastal on ESPNews. We won't get to numbers that rival Commencement, but we certainly will be very close to max capacity (hill included) if we take care of business over this 4 game stretch heading into homecoming weekend.

I'm looking at Presbyterian and Coastal. Homecoming is a give big crowd. Coastal should be but it's a non traditional time. And Presbyterian will give us a gauge on the die hard fan

I can understand keeping an eye on PC with it not having any major event attached to it. I think CCU will be a large crowd for TV, but I think if you have Liberty at 9-1 and Coastal at 10-0 with the outright conference title on the line, theyll be going the extra mile to get as many folks in the Bill as possible

BJWilliams wrote:I can understand keeping an eye on PC with it not having any major event attached to it. I think CCU will be a large crowd for TV, but I think if you have Liberty at 9-1 and Coastal at 10-0 with the outright conference title on the line, theyll be going the extra mile to get as many folks in the Bill as possible

I'd be more concerned with PC if they would have actually hired BJ as the HC.

Well if they did I probably wouldn't be posting on here as much...

Anyway PC is the only remaining home game with nothing attached to it as was said before. we will be a week removed from the (likely) massive homecoming crowd, and if we are on a roll, that could be the game where you might see a drop in attendance

Purple Haize wrote:Let's see how the crowds look the rest of the year

You guys are being too careful and measured. Build it and they will come! (hopefully)

gerb wrote:

Purple Haize wrote:Let's see how the crowds look the rest of the year

You guys are being too careful and measured. Build it and they will come! (hopefully)

How'd that work out in Tampa and Miami?

Its a chicken and egg scenario really. The question is though, which is the chicken and which is the egg?

BJWilliams wrote:Its a chicken and egg scenario really. The question is though, which is the chicken and which is the egg?

Not even close. Building a stadium in hopes that people will show up is something that has rarely if ever worked out. The previous wave of new baseball stadiums are proof of that. The ones in Tampa and Miami are further proof.
So, not really.

BJWilliams wrote:which is the chicken and which is the egg?

Isn't it obvious? If we don't build it yet, we are chicken. If we do, we will have egg on our face for an empty stadium. lol

There is a new stadium in tampa bay? Could've sworn that stadium in St Pete has been there for 25 years and is a dump.