Wake up Bison Nation!

[SDbison]

The back of the napkin math says that NDSU averaged attendance of 18,296 which is 97% capacity.

Who says every event has to sellout before expansion is considered? Don't believe any facility is ever 100 percent sold out with singles and limited view seats. Also, larger markets often get seats bought by brokers hoping to make a buck and in the end many seats go empty. The SDSU game could sell several thousand above current capacity. And if UND ever got better 30,000 -35,000 could attend a big game. Many other events could also create a demand well over current capacity.

[Bison 4 Life]

tl;dr

Money drives everything in college sports. If the donors and TM in general wanted to go FBS, they as an organization could get that done alone.

It's not that they can't it's that they trust Matt Larsen to make the right decision. So far, he has.

[Professor Chaos]

Who says every event has to sellout before expansion is considered? Don't believe any facility is ever 100 percent sold out with singles and limited view seats. Also, larger markets often get seats bought by brokers hoping to make a buck and in the end many seats go empty. The SDSU game could sell several thousand above current capacity. And if UND ever got better 30,000 -35,000 could attend a big game. Many other events could also create a demand well over current capacity.

Agreed. A right sized venue should not be sold out for every game. It would be sold out for the big games but it should provide enough opportunity that even for those big games tickets are available for more than just season ticket holders and donors. I believe the ticket buying base for NDSU is shrinking right now since so many people have gotten used to watching the games on TV since getting tickets for regular season games before the Friday of game week isn't very easy unless you dive into the secondary markets.

If there was more opportunity for people to get into the dome in the regular season and experience the live gameday atmosphere I think we'd see more people looking to buy playoff tickets. That's not to say that we'd sell out a 25,000 seat stadium for every (or any) playoff games but I bet we would've gotten more for that Montana St game last week than 17,000 if tickets were more accessible in the regular season.

[Vet70]

They have. More than once.

Over and over again.

gotta love people saying you cant have an opinion unless you're literally able to donate $100,000 at this precise moment. Isnt it funny how YOU havent donated $100,000 yet you are still able to have an opinion? Crazy isnt it? It's almost as if people cana have opinions without immense sums of disposable income!?! wuuuuuuUUUuUuUuUt?! Just because someone doesnt have money to personally fund an idea, does not mean its inherently a bad idea. And just because someone DOES have the money to fund something doesnt make it a good idea.

Nobody has said anything about people not having an opinion without donating money. All I have said is that nothing is going to change anytime soon and yet the dead horse keeps getting beaten. Maybe there should be a thread for things that are pointless to keep arguing about, yet they permeate every thread (Unless of course Bison Loaf thinks it would be too premature). And how are you so sure who has or has not donated $100,000?

[MankatoBison]

Money drives everything in college sports. If the donors and TM in general wanted to go FBS, they as an organization could get that done alone.

It's not that they can't it's that they trust Matt Larsen to make the right decision. So far, he has.

maybe he has maybe he hasnt. So far we know that he has made a decision that you, and I agree with. but we dont actually know if it is the correct one. Many people believed the FCS move was too insane to try, others thought it was an obvious move. We dont know if it would be a good decision or not, ultimately. hindsight is 20/20 and foresight is rarely close to that.

Also, no I dont believe TM could get that done alone, nor would they have to. that would be awesome if they could shoulder that exclusively, but that would be largely unprecedented in college football would it not? Maybe its common place to require the booster club to magically generate an additional 10-15M every year as the only source of funding for a jump but I dont imagine that is the case- and it shouldnt be gauged as the ONLY indicator of overall fan base interest in moving or staying

[HerdBot]

Another thing to keep in mind: NDSU's athletic budget isn't even in the top 10 of the FCS. They're not this much better than the rest of the subdivision because we're such great fans that support the program so well, they're there primarily because of superior talent and work ethic on the roster and coaching staff.

What they're doing isn't easy and they've gotten to where they are due in no small part to some good fortune. This program could just as easily be in the spot Montana (who has similar if not better funding and support) is at right now with the wrong hires on the coaching staff and some recruiting missteps and there's no guarantee that they won't hit that "floor" at some point in the future.

Athletic budget isnt an indicator of how much we spend on football, which is a huge amount. We dont spend nearly as much on basketball as other schools do. The Teammkers revenue for football blows most schools out of the water and we get a small amount of our budget from the state. The problem is, our athletic budget is strongly linked to Teammakers donations and attendance. We have a few years of bad attendance or dropping teammakers revenue and it could be bad news.

Also athletic budgets are higher for schools who have higher tuition rates. Our tuition is reasonably priced compared to some schools

[Bison 4 Life]

maybe he has maybe he hasnt. So far we know that he has made a decision that you, and I agree with. but we dont actually know if it is the correct one. Many people believed the FCS move was too insane to try, others thought it was an obvious move. We dont know if it would be a good decision or not, ultimately. hindsight is 20/20 and foresight is rarely close to that.

Also, no I dont believe TM could get that done alone, nor would they have to. that would be awesome if they could shoulder that exclusively, but that would be largely unprecedented in college football would it not? Maybe its common place to require the booster club to magically generate an additional 10-15M every year as the only source of funding for a jump but I dont imagine that is the case- and it shouldnt be gauged as the ONLY indicator of overall fan base interest in moving or staying

The big difference between FCS and FBS is the ceiling. In FCS the ceiling was within reach. In FBS, the ceiling is completely out of reach.

[Bison Loaf]

Over and over again.



Nobody has said anything about people not having an opinion without donating money. All I have said is that nothing is going to change anytime soon and yet the dead horse keeps getting beaten. Maybe there should be a thread for things that are pointless to keep arguing about, yet they permeate every thread (Unless of course Bison Loaf thinks it would be too premature). And how are you so sure who has or has not donated $100,000?

1. You gotta love posters who put words in other posters mouths.

2. I have applied to the angry elf many times to be approved as a no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners, highly-compensated Bisonville moderator, and keep getting rejected for some reason.

3. I don't want to see my name in the same sentence as the word "premature" EVER again!

[Bison 4 Life]

1. You gotta love posters who put words in other posters mouths.

2. I have applied to the angry elf many times to be approved as a no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners, highly-compensated Bisonville moderator, and keep getting rejected for some reason.

3. I don't want to see my name in the same sentence as the word "premature" EVER again!

If you were a mod, BV would have 4 posters. You would permanban 10 a day.

[JMB]

Typical anti FBS rant. So NDSU's president and AD have no responsibility to provide any kind of vision or pursue it? Maybe communicate now and then to the taxpayers, students, Alumni and Teammakers about these concerns? NDSU football has brought national attention to NDSU , Fargo and North Dakota so it's not like it isnt important. Other than recent convention center plans will there be improvements to the dome to build better suites and add some more seats for the future? How about football goimg to the next level? Is it strictly status quo and waiting for the phone to ring or is something being done to be sure other conferences know we would be very interested? Maybe work with the Montanas, SDSU and others to create a new FBS conference? Fans shouldn't have to call direct to get this info.

One could argue that they are pursuing a vision. What is NDSU working on right now? Facility upgrades including a practice facility. These items not only lure and serve student athletes but also show prospective FBS conferences we are serious. I would argue we are building the foundation to be in the right spot if the situation arises. To say "there is no vision and we are staying at the status quo" I don't think is representative of what is happening.