Join The Posse - Sellout vs. Montana

[WestWYOPoke]

We didn't downsize. We added wildcatter which removed some capacity. I don't know why you guys have such a boner for the reduction in capacity being such an issue with you.

29 Thousand!!!!

We are the only program to "reduce" to under 30,000! Most all schools that are under 30k are looking to grow their cap, we choose to reduce. Yay for Wildcatter! About 1,500 seats that none of us will ever be able to afford, but the 4,000 seats it took out, we could've.

Also, if you want a stadium the size of any MAC school or most Sun Belt School, then more power to ya. Like I said before, Penn St has only avgd 95,000 the last three years. Is it time for them to reduce the size of their stadium about 15,000 seats, so they can once again be around a sellout standard? Probably not. How about Florida St.? 10 wins and 14 wins and a Nat Champ, yet their stadium of almost 90,000, is almos 10,000 seats empty, should they reduce?
If you said no to the schools below, then we shouldn't either.

Except we reduced our capacity in order to increase our ticket sales income. Every seat in the Wildcatter sold is the equivalent income of 12.5 general admission seats. With 256 club seats, that's the equivalence of 3200 paid tickets per game! And that doesn't even count the 10 suites that go for $40,000 each per season. For those of you keeping track, that's $1.04 million a season in extra income. That would take 5200 season tickets to make up the difference.

I realize that money isn't everything, but a lot of us complain that we aren't doing anything to generate income, reducing our capacity by ~3000 will make us a LOT more money than those 3000 empty seats would.

Finally, I can almost guarantee you if you told Penn State or Florida State that if they reduced their capacity by a few thousand that they would make it back plus some financially, they would have it done before Opening Kickoff 2015.

 

[McPeachy]

Except we reduced our capacity in order to increase our ticket sales income. Every seat in the Wildcatter sold is the equivalent income of 12.5 general admission seats. With 256 club seats, that's the equivalence of 3200 paid tickets per game! And that doesn't even count the 10 suites that go for $40,000 each per season. For those of you keeping track, that's $1.04 million a season in extra income. That would take 5200 season tickets to make up the difference.

I realize that money isn't everything, but a lot of us complain that we aren't doing anything to generate income, reducing our capacity by ~3000 will make us a LOT more money than those 3000 empty seats would.

Finally, I can almost guarantee you if you told Penn State or Florida State that if they reduced their capacity by a few thousand that they would make it back plus some financially, they would have it done before Opening Kickoff 2015.

So you agree, that our losing ways forced Lee Moon into having the vision to build the Wildcatter to supplement the further decrease in attendance / ticket revenue (coupled with increased ticket prices, seat premiums, and the elimination of the $5.00 Knothole ticket for kids)?

opcorn:

 

[stymeman]

This is looking to be one of our best selling games vs. an FCS opponent. Perhaps we should schedule Montana and Montana State every year at home (on an every other rotating basis).

Don't tell Burman this or we'll become accustomed to this every other year...lol

 

[stymeman]

I appreciate your points, however having been around D1 athletics and around Wyoming football in particular, I am not as optimistic to the loyalty of some 18-23 years olds as you may be.

1. Wyoming is the only game in Wyoming. I wouldn't support it (like I do now) any longer, but the next generation would. When you are the only movie theatre, people are going to go watch, like what is showing or not.

A valid point, but you can forget about people driving across the state and up from Fort Collins/Denver for games. The Laramie, Cheyenne, and maybe Casper crowd is about it.

2. We have more money to spend than most (if not all) of the current FCS programs have. Our current AD is good at just floating by - so naturally it would fit. Maintain the budget, and UW would be golden. I am sure they (the AD) has thought about how much less effort they would have to give (and how they wouldn't have to work "as hard").

We have money now, but if we dropped to FCS, our budget would be shredded. We would lose a lot of sponsor $$$, we would lose ticket revenues, we would lose TV money (not a ton, but still). Not to mention the massive loss of money from the Wildcatter suites, we would have to drop prices or it would not be used nearly as much IMO.

3. To say that 52 to 53 players would bail out is an overstatement of epic proportions IMO. Would some transfer out? Certainly. But also...some would transfer in as well. Any player from the FBS ranks could drop down and immediately play at FCS Wyoming (**See previous posts on how FCS programs attract FBS talent**). The pool is deeper there, than the reverse!

This is the big one for me. I am certain that we would lose a large percentage of athletes due to transfer. Seniors might stick around, but junior, sophs, etc...I bet 50%+ of each class would leave. Also, keep in mind that FCS programs only are allowed 63 scholarships as opposed to the 85 of FBS, so that would severely limit recruiting for the first year or two.

4. The level of competition. I don't even want to get into that...but the gap is HUGE. You think the gap is big between the SEC and MWC, you should consider the gaps that exist in the FCS. To be top 20 FCS really isn't anything special.

I agree that the gap between FBS and FCS is huge, HOWEVER, the gap between Wyoming and Alabama is far greater than the gap between Wyoming and North Dakota State. I'm not saying that our current roster couldn't dominate the FCS, my point is that we would not have our current roster, it would be a shell of what it is now.


The biggest reason I feel that this would hurt UW is because a lot of the recruits we bring in are because we are FBS. If we were suddenly FCS, we would lose recruits to No. Colorado, Montana, Montana St., the Dakotas, etc. We wouldn't be anything special. Sure we would get local kids, but that's about it. IMHO, within 3 years, we would be a good, but not great FCS program, and that's where we would stay.

I like your points here, but I think what alot of our fans need to start thinking about is, we being in the lower echelon's of College football, 99.5 times outta 100, we'd never play for a National title or make it in the top 10-top 5 of college football. This year was truly our year to be a Boise State and the schedule setup nicely for us, with a good spread offense, an AWESOME Senior QB in Mr Brett Smith. With his experience and such, going to an Oregon stadium he could pull the Nebraska from last year and perhaps pull it off. And maybe going to into Spartan Stadium and pulling that upset as well, just imagine...2014 woulda been our year if all the stars aligned and I saw this a couple years ago that Wyoming "could matter" for a change, BUT......we all know what happened there. As much as everyone hated DC i think it was a year premature, but we can't turn back the hands of the clock. So yes I am a bit excited for having Coach Bohl and what he's all about, but i think our team is a major work in progress and we'll see his true metal. I know he'll turn things around and such, but not this year, not without his own troops, some will buy in some will stay in DC's mold. Now i guess our fans need to understand our goal is to try to win the MWC Championships and as good as bowl as we can get, but no more than that. Sure I want UW to matter and play with the big boys in games that matter, but College Football is at light speed where as we are just a blip on the radar screen. So with all that being said good luck Coach Bohl, give us something to be proud of and let's matter in the Mountain West for a change and build for that year in and year out!!!!!! With that then maybe, just maybe we can sneak into the big boy league once in awhile, I just hope Coach Bohl is committed to want to stay in Laramie for quite some time.
Thanks for listening and understanding!!!! GO POKES!!!!!

 

[lakesbison]

if the P5 shoves the rest away, I could see the top 10-15 FCS teams along with G5 become the new FCS with a playoff system and shove the rest of fcs down to D2. that's what should happen


too bad NDSU vs WYOMING wasn't scheduled this year with Bohl moving and NDSU on a 3 peat, that would've sold 30,000!!

Bohl has always had Ticket incentives in his contracts, what does he get at Wyoming for that?

 

[McPeachy]

Bohl has always had Ticket incentives in his contracts, what does he get at Wyoming for that?

From what I overheard, he will get something in the Alley behind the Buck (next to the dumpster) if he plays his cards right.

 

[Bryoming]

Bohl has always had Ticket incentives in his contracts, what does he get at Wyoming for that?

From what I overheard, he will get something in the Alley behind the Buck (next to the dumpster) if he plays his cards right.

Rumor is that it's something called a halfie, administered by MrT

 

[McPeachy]

Bohl has always had Ticket incentives in his contracts, what does he get at Wyoming for that?

From what I overheard, he will get something in the Alley behind the Buck (next to the dumpster) if he plays his cards right.

Rumor is that it's something called a halfie, administered by MrT

You are going to need to borrow my boxing gloves now...

 

[WestWYOPoke]

Except we reduced our capacity in order to increase our ticket sales income. Every seat in the Wildcatter sold is the equivalent income of 12.5 general admission seats. With 256 club seats, that's the equivalence of 3200 paid tickets per game! And that doesn't even count the 10 suites that go for $40,000 each per season. For those of you keeping track, that's $1.04 million a season in extra income. That would take 5200 season tickets to make up the difference.

I realize that money isn't everything, but a lot of us complain that we aren't doing anything to generate income, reducing our capacity by ~3000 will make us a LOT more money than those 3000 empty seats would.

Finally, I can almost guarantee you if you told Penn State or Florida State that if they reduced their capacity by a few thousand that they would make it back plus some financially, they would have it done before Opening Kickoff 2015.

So you agree, that our losing ways forced Lee Moon into having the vision to build the Wildcatter to supplement the further decrease in attendance / ticket revenue (coupled with increased ticket prices, seat premiums, and the elimination of the $5.00 Knothole ticket for kids)?

opcorn:

No, I would say that watching every big program in the country putting in club seats, suites, etc. forced him to have the vision to do the same thing. As much as we'd like to root for the blue-collar guy, cutting out a few thousand seats in order to turn a profit greater than those seats could yield is the obvious choice from an ADs point of view. Honestly it comes down to money vs. attendance figures, if money can be greater at 29,000+ than at 32,000...29,000+ is going to win every time.

 

[joshvanklomp]

Bohl has always had Ticket incentives in his contracts, what does he get at Wyoming for that?

Annual Season Ticket Incentive:

$0 -- Under 5,000 season tickets sold
$20,000 -- 5,000 to 5,999 season tickets sold
$30,000 -- 6,000 to 6,999 season tickets sold
$40,000 -- 7,000 to 7,999 season tickets sold
$50,000 -- 8,000 to 8,999 season tickets sold
$60,000 -- 9,000 to 9,999 season tickets sold
$70,000 -- 10,000 or more season tickets sold

http://www.cowboyaltitude.com/2013/12/11/5199382/a-look-at-craig-bohls-contract-with-wyoming" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Cuttslam]

Pretty funny arguing over 3000 empty seats. Does it really matter at all. Guess what, it doesn't at Wyoming. Anybody remember this article?

http://trib.com/opinion/columns/the-attendance-numbers-don-t-lie-for-wyoming-football/article_3cbc3ea7-e94d-582e-ac93-35c1649238c0.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[MrTitleist]

Bohl has always had Ticket incentives in his contracts, what does he get at Wyoming for that?

From what I overheard, he will get something in the Alley behind the Buck (next to the dumpster) if he plays his cards right.

Rumor is that it's something called a halfie, administered by MrT

I'm fighting both of you now.

 

[ItSucksToBeACSURam]

So I don't want to fight anyone, I just want to watch some Cowboy football! GO POKES!!

 

[MrTitleist]

So I don't want to fight anyone, I just want to watch some Cowboy football! GO POKES!!

If the giant gloves make an appearance you may not have that option. :thumb:

 

[ItSucksToBeACSURam]

So I don't want to fight anyone, I just want to watch some Cowboy football! GO POKES!!

If the giant gloves make an appearance you may not have that option. :thumb:

Noted. If giant gloves make an appearance, shit just got real...

 

[kansasCowboy]

Pretty funny arguing over 3000 empty seats. Does it really matter at all. Guess what, it doesn't at Wyoming. Anybody remember this article?

http://trib.com/opinion/columns/the-attendance-numbers-don-t-lie-for-wyoming-football/article_3cbc3ea7-e94d-582e-ac93-35c1649238c0.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Does it matter? Of course it does. Even some of the most prominent schools don't sell out every game, hence Penn St. 15k below sell out avg.
We on the other hand took out over 4,000 seats for renovations and the suites. Had we renovated, created the suites and mantained our cap at, at least 32,000 we'd be looking at some serious bank for all of our sellout games that we have missed out on through the years.
Just to put it in perspective, the year we had Nebraska come to Laramie , instead of a sellout of 32,000, you'd probably had a sellout of 36,000. That is 4,000 left out, at what was it, about 60.00 a ticket? That's 240,000.00, we missed out on. That's just the Nebraska game. I bet you Virginia would've brought 36,000 also, instead of 31,000... 5,000 difference, and those were about 45.00 a ticket. That's 225,000.00 we missed out on. You can add the Texas game, which could only sellout at 30,000 due to renovations. Yes, we may only sellout once, but I would say that that once is worth it. Not to mention when we do sellout we generally add seats. Cost about 150,000.00 to build up and then take back down. Oh, the money we could save. And the extra money we could've had through the years. Not to metion having sellouts of 35-36k that we could brag about.
Think of it this way, it kind of sucks having gone to games in the past that were not sellouts only to think that in today's "small" minded thinking would be well over a sellout. And then to think of the potential above of what those sellouts would be like with our old cap... But apparently more people and more money thinking on my part is being "small minded"? Right...

 

[gopokes1399]

So it is crunch time and there is about 2200 tickets left. What do you guys think? Will it sellout?

 

[nirv117]

It is possible that is cost us much much less to place the club seating where we did resting on the stadium infrastructure instead of having to build a completely new structure to support everything and keep the 3,000 seats. Also aesthetically it looks good were the club seats are. There is still plenty of room in the end zones to expand the capacity of the stadium when the need arrives. I'm hoping in the future for a good structure with thousands of seats at the south end zone of the stadium. If I had the $$$ I'd donate to see it happen.

 

[Wyo2dal]

Ya suites always need to be at the top giving a clear view of the entire field with no obstruction. People wouldn't be near as likely to buy a suite seat on either end zone side. There is definitely plenty room to expand if it ever arises that is a given.

 

[fromolwyoming]

2237 tickets left.