I have the honor to be Your Obedient Servant - B.Aud
We all live in stories... It seems to me that a definition of any living vibrant society is that you constantly question those stories... The argument itself is freedom. It's not that you come to a conclusion about it. Through that argument you change your mind sometimes... That's how societies grow. When you can't retell for yourself the stories of your life then you live in a prison... Somebody else controls the story. - S. Rushdie
Outside of all the reasons why it won't be possible - Watching the Butler game made me feel like 35k watching the Bison was more representative of where we are at as a program than 19k.
How the great high-arching heaven
Looks and laughs upon it all!
Newer competition might help with attendance a little too with the curiosity factor.
Run the damn ball!! PRO FBS
Nobody builds stadiums anymore sized for one event per year. Except perhaps SDSU, who fills theirs once every two years because they thought it was a dick measuring contest. The idea most all sports teams adhere to today is not to maximize attendance, but to maximize overall revenue, which brings us to...
I don't see any way a new stadium could earn more profits than the Fargodome does. Unless somebody donates $200+ million.
It's not about being stuck in the past. It's nice to dream but nobody has any ideas on how to pay for it. If anything, the people who believe they should build a 30,000 seat stadium because they may fill it once in a while are the ones stuck in the past.
For a little perspective:
TCF Bank stadium - 50,800 expandable to 80,000. ~ $305M. No roof
US Bank stadium - 66,500 capacity. - $1B with roof
Twin Cities metro population - 3.28 million.
What is the population of FM metro?
Don't believe everything you think.
bad comparison for attendence. do Lincoln or Ames or Manhattan next!
NDSU could fill a 35,000 easily! 45,000 is the sweet spot for Fargo and NDSU ... why you ask?
because the 2nd deck would had 10-15,000 seats at $25/ticket with no donation required. Cheap small town nodaker's would devour that! right now you can't get into Fargodome for $50...
NDSU TO FBS. HAVEN'T WE WON ENOUGH?
I think 30,000 is about right with the possibility to expand 38,000 Something like the Saskatchewan Roughriders Mosaic Stadium with a roof. Cost probably around $310 mill. No small chunk of change.
I’m an expert.
Run the damn ball!! PRO FBS
not sure about THAT, lets not get carried away. although it is true that a 100$ donation plus $50/ticket couldnt get me into any of my top TWO games this year for 2 tickets. so there is an element of truth in there. I go to one game a year unless there is a special occasion like Target field or the SDSU game this year. I have been to more than 1 game precisely 0 times because I cant get more tix than that unless I exclusively want to see the cupcake games or go over hunting. If prices were lower, and tickets more accessible i would go to at least 4 games including playoffs annually.
Realistically, I think we could maybe do 23-28ish per game (VERY similar to Montana IMO), and that would be considering adding a significant number of seats with no donation.
I am not negating the "HOW DO WE PAY FOR IT" argument, I'm strictly talking about how much TRUE demand is there?
1. The FCS was the Best option for NDSU for a very long time.
2. As a general rule- the FCS sucks at football and has proven that is not committed to football at all.
3. It's time to go FBS
This is pretty realistic with who we play right now. With a little better competition than what we are seeing now we could probably draw 30,000 depending on the opponent.
Run the damn ball!! PRO FBS
Better competition in the form of whom? Home/Home with a MAC or maybe a CUSA school? Im not sure a Home/Home with even a perennial FCS playoff team would make the general population look twice. Hell, Colgate beat JMU last year before coming to Fargo and the attendance was somewhere in the 15kish range. People didnt care bc they had no idea who the hell Colgate was. I also highly doubt the "big boys" of FCS (JMU, EWU, Maine, JSU, Central Ark) are going to want to bite on a home/home when they can go play an FBS match up, get paid, and then wrap their noncon with a couple cupcakes.
The MoVal offers up several marquee match ups each year, many times pinning top 10 foes against each other.
The issue is accessibility. For me personally, I dont go to games because I cant get tickets. And even if I could, with a family of 5 Im looking at at least $250 to just get in the door. I am interested in what Montana, James Madison, or Jacksonville State charges for single game tickets.
This is not 'Nam. This is Bisonville. There are rules here.