Off Season Poll!

[MrTitleist]

Seattle! You make good points, however, the number of out of town folks who come to games probably make up half of the stadium population.. large town, yes, but many are apathetic to Griz athletics.

Also.. I'm headed to Seattle on Wednesday for a few days.. any recommendations for sweet places to hit while I'm there? My brother's flying in from Afghanistan to JBLM on Thursday, so we're gonna try to have some fun now that he's back from war.

 

[SLCPoke]

Weather and location is a BS reason. I live where the weather is shit for 9 months of the year, it's cold, it snows, it rains a lot, fog often cancels flights late in the year, on a large interstate corridor.. and somehow on gameday the stadium is still full of 25,000+ people. Right down the road 200 miles where the weather is comparable (and more difficult to fly into) they still pile in 15-17000 every Saturday. Winning cures all ills, even when the weather is shit. I've watched 25000 people pack into a stadium when it's 10 degrees and snowing pretty regularly.. those crowds are often the most fun as they're the people that really want to be there. It's winning, winning, and winning. Investing more in the athletics programs would be nice too.. gotta attempt to compete with the top of the MW.

I disagree with you here because there is a big difference in population between Missoula and Laramie. The weather is only a big deal when it gets bad so it keeps fans that might come to games from around Wyoming from a distance that end up not coming. The populations or location is the biggest reason though.

You have 67,000 in Missoula or if you take the Missoula metro area there is 109,000 people so that makes it a lot easier to get 25,000 people in the stadium. Laramie as has been stated only has 30,000 when school is in session. If Laramie metro had 109,000 you would easily get 30,000 people to games even if the weather was bad because they are right there in town or right in the surrounding area.

Cheyenne is 50 miles away so it can't be considered part of Laramie metro. That is the biggest difference. It's all about Location. Of course I don't know if Wyoming athletics would be any better but maybe they would get better recruits with more attendance and would obviously make more money.

That's my :twocents:

So the real solution would be for the State of Wyoming and Albany County to push a more business minded/friendly atmosphere in Laramie to attract more business to the area? I'm not really sure what the stance or effort of Albany County is to bring in new large business (think Magpul from CO or those types of businesses)?? I'm certain that if Laramie could grow it's own population that would eventually, in the long run of things, help with attendance. I guess winning could do that too

 

[seattlecowboy]

Seattle! You make good points, however, the number of out of town folks who come to games probably make up half of the stadium population.. large town, yes, but many are apathetic to Griz athletics.

Also.. I'm headed to Seattle on Wednesday for a few days.. any recommendations for sweet places to hit while I'm there? My brother's flying in from Afghanistan to JBLM on Thursday, so we're gonna try to have some fun now that he's back from war.

Hey MrTitleist,

I just saw this. What part of town are you staying in? Maybe I can give you some good restuarants to check out in the area of Seattle you are staying at. Are you guys looking for some good pubs or what age group you looking to hang out with? You can obviously check out the Space Needle and EMP(experience music project). Taking a ride on the ferries can be cool if you don't mind being out on the water. You could visit the museum of flight as well.

A lot of the tourist action can be downtown and if you can go down on the waterfront in the downtown area the views are spectacular and they have a lot of good places to eat along the piers and different things to do.

You probably don't want to miss walking by Pikes Place Market which is a big tourist area.

I'll just link a website. There are quite a few pubs in the downtown area. This is a pretty good website it looks like for different area's of Seattle to check out. Also if you guys want to gamble they do have the Muckleshoot casino, Emerald Queen Casion and Tulalip casino's which are the bigger ones in the area that have all of the table games along with slot machines and clubs to hang out at in them. Hope you guys enjoy your trip.

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/North_America/United_States_of_America/Washington_State/Seattle-894670/Things_To_Do-Seattle-TG-C-1.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[MrTitleist]

Staying in Tacoma, but I think we're gonna cruise around Seattle area a bit. I got some tips from friends about hitting Salty's in Redondo Beach, and Tap House in Bellevue. Definitely looking for good pubs.. I'm an early 30s guy, so crowds that age are a bonus. Don't mind the water.. so a ferry might be okay. I think we'll probably hit Pikes Place market too. What do you do in Seattle for giggles?

 

[BackHarlowRoad]

Staying in Tacoma, but I think we're gonna cruise around Seattle area a bit. I got some tips from friends about hitting Salty's in Redondo Beach, and Tap House in Bellevue. Definitely looking for good pubs.. I'm an early 30s guy, so crowds that age are a bonus. Don't mind the water.. so a ferry might be okay. I think we'll probably hit Pikes Place market too. What do you do in Seattle for giggles?

I just got back from Tap House. Literally.

Go to Red Hook Brewery in Woodinville....Salty's is a good choice. Ferry to Bainbridge Island is worth it. Going to a Sounders game will change your mind about soccer (I'm not a big soccer fan but love the atmosphere of the Sounders). Should go to Gasworks park for views of the city right on Lake Union. To be honest with you I think skipping the Needle is a good idea. The view isn't that great and it costs an arm and a leg to go up there. Crab Pot by the ferries on the Pier is a good place to eat simply because they hand you a mallet and dump a shit ton of sea food table and let you have at it.

 

[MrTitleist]

Good suggestions! Thanks dude! If I had more time I'd suggest a WyoNation meet and greet with the Cowboy faithful, but my time is limited plus meeting my family hampers that.

 

[NowherePoke]

South Carolina

Population-Ranked 24th in the U.S.

- Total-4,723,723 (2012 est)[2]

Density-155/sq mi (60.0/km2)
Ranked 19th in the U.S.


Wyoming-
Population-Ranked 50th in the U.S.
Total-576,412 (2012 estimate)

- Density-5.85/sq mi (2.26/km2)
Ranked 49th in the U.S.


I think that there tells the whole story.

Let me add that Pickens County, Anderson County and Greenville County which surround Clemson have a combined population of 775,000.

Both good points. Then consider that Clemson is almost exactly 2 hours from Atlanta, Charlotte, and Columbia in different directions. There are well over 10 million people (probably closer to 15) within a roughly 2-3 hour drive of Clemson.

It's an entirely different world.

 

[NowherePoke]

Overall, it's a combination but I voted for the fanbase. Yes, there is lack of vision and poor decision making from the administration, but because the lack of support (both in terms of attention and $$$) there is no pressure to change that.

There is no way an AD could pull what Burman did with the Schroyer hire and retain his job at a school that actually cared. No way.

Coaching decisions are constrained by money, which is limited due to the lack of support.

Weather and location matter, but they are just a piece. We aren't trying to draw 50k, we just need to draw 25k in FB and 8k in hoops and we will be fine. The fact that we can't get there speaks volumes about our fan base.

Win and they will come? Certainly true, but we need to provide the program with the resources to win and the way to do that is via financial support in any number of ways.

It's simply not happening right now.

 

[BackHarlowRoad]

I think lack of fanbase, financial support, and location/weather are essentially all the same thing.

Money comes from fans, fans aren't plentiful because only few of us can handle living in Wyoming (weather included).

I don't know where Wyoming having the 2nd biggest fan base in the MWC comes from. UNM, UNLV, SJSU, Fresno, and Boise all have a bigger population in the CITY they are in than we have in the entire state. Logan, C Springs, Reno, Honolulu, and FoCo all range from 100,000-390,000. We have a larger enrollment than only AFA.

I guess we span a larger land area....

 

[fromolwyoming]

I think lack of fanbase, financial support, and location/weather are essentially all the same thing.

Money comes from fans, fans aren't plentiful because only few of us can handle living in Wyoming (weather included).

I don't know where Wyoming having the 2nd biggest fan base in the MWC comes from. UNM, UNLV, SJSU, Fresno, and Boise all have a bigger population in the CITY they are in than we have in the entire state. Logan, C Springs, Reno, Honolulu, and FoCo all range from 100,000-390,000. We have a larger enrollment than only AFA.

I guess we span a larger land area....

It's a link, and has more to do with a national fanbase than local. It goes by merchandise, internet searches, and other things. According to it, Wyoming has about 300,000 fans nationwide.

Don't ask me to remember what the link was, as other people posted it, but those criteria and numbers are just from memory.

 

[seattlecowboy]

Here is the link to the size of fanbases.

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/the-geography-of-college-football-fans-and-realignment-chaos/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[JimmyDimes]

Here is the link to the size of fanbases.

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/the-geography-of-college-football-fans-and-realignment-chaos/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The thing that is unique to Wyoming is many who graduate from UWyo move away from Wyoming to find jobs, etc. On top of that, many drive many hours to attend games. Wyoming's fan base shows itself with the attendence away from Laramie. Wyoming usually has a good contingient regardless where they play. We just have the large local populations to draw from.

 

[J-Rod]

Those estimates on SJSU/USU cannot be real. Or can they? No wonder Romney Stadium is always invaded by opposing fans.