Revisiting Track Removal/Renovation

[APPdiesel]

There's still a ton of conference opponent unfamiliarity. Probably not as much with us diehards, but with the walk up crowd, absolutely. The Arkansas State games will always do well. We need our fans to become familiar with Troy and ULL so those games do really well too. (Also need both of those teams to step up)

[bcoach]

I just hope we can fill what we have this year.

Let's take a look back in time just to see what our chances are of "filling what we have".

Year Avg Games
2015 21,459 6
2014 23,166 6
2013 24,894 6
2012 26,358 7 *
2011 26,211 7 *
2010 25,715 8 *
2009 24,004 7
2008 25,161 8 *
2007 24,218 9 *
2006 20,546 9

* - Led all FCS attendance per game
It is also fair to acknowledge that during the transition to FBS there was quite a bit of unfamiliarity with our new SBC opponents which contributed to a small drop off in attendance. Last year we also experienced an unusually bad weather season. I expect that based on our historical performance coupled with a good schedule we should expect many butts in the seats this year.

Lots o' seats available for the non-Miami portion of the schedule. If we upset them or UT I expect we'll see a surge in sales. Otherwise we're probably looking at another year with lots of empty seats.

I agree as we have seen a drop each year for the last three. I hope that turns around.

[Yosef10]

And if we're being honest with ourselves that 21.4k is a tad generous. Hopeful this year is better. Its mindboggling to me our attendance has taken this much of a hit because of the coaching change and we moved UP a division. The coaching part I can understand to an extent but the latter I will never understand in any capacity.

[S.Lewis15]

Games on TV has also likely had a big impact on attendance numbers recently.

Last year was a freak year as far as scheduling and mother nature go. 2 Thursday night games, rain, and a Thanksgiving game.
Coming off of an 11-2 season with a Bowl win, and Miami coming to Boone, the attendance numbers can't be worse than last year's.

[Goapps15]

Games on TV has also likely had a big impact on attendance numbers recently.

Last year was a freak year as far as scheduling and mother nature go. 2 Thursday night games, rain, and a Thanksgiving game.
Coming off of an 11-2 season with a Bowl win, and Miami coming to Boone, the attendance numbers can't be worse than last year's.

If we have 32.5K plus for Miami even averaging 21-22K the rest of the season would put us around 23K.

I personally expect with good weather and results we should have roughly 24k at 2 of other home games. Another thing in our favor is no weekday or Thanksgiving home game.

[MDaniels84]

Come on , App Nation ! Let's just roll into KBS around 30,000 strong each and every week and we can bypass
attendance threads , discussing our player development and looking forward to the season instead.

[JTApps1]

Games on TV has also likely had a big impact on attendance numbers recently.

Last year was a freak year as far as scheduling and mother nature go. 2 Thursday night games, rain, and a Thanksgiving game.
Coming off of an 11-2 season with a Bowl win, and Miami coming to Boone, the attendance numbers can't be worse than last year's.

Had the two Thursday games been on Saturday we would ahve been close to 30,000 for each, and the Wyoming HC game would have been close to it as well since the seats were almost sold out prior to the game. Then the downpour happened and it scared a ton of people away.

If we have good weather for the first 3 games I'd expect us to average around 30,000 for them. How we do in those games could create enough momentum to lead the league this year.

[Boone Goon]

The other challenge that hasn't been mentioned is the delayed announcement of kickoff times. Most of us are juggling multiple family commitments and need as much time as possible to arrange calendars.

Ideally the mothership would announce a 3:30 kick-off and say "subject to change". If ESPN picks the game up people would understand.

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

Attendance was doing well until we started having early exits from the playoffs, and losing home games to teams we should have beat. Compliment that with the fact some were butt hurt about the move to FBS, and you have your reason for lower numbers. Continued winning, hosting and competing with nationally known programs should help raise the attendance.

[NO.2]

Attendance was doing well until we started having early exits from the playoffs, and losing home games to teams we should have beat. Compliment that with the fact some were butt hurt about the move to FBS, and you have your reason for lower numbers. Continued winning, hosting and competing with nationally known programs should help raise the attendance.

I am completely fine with losing those that are "butt hurt" about the move to FBS.

[EastHallApp]

Bad weather is not a freak occurrence in Boone. Weeknight games and Thanksgiving weekend games will not be rarities going forward. Those things should be factored into any attendance projections.

If anything, this season - with all Saturday games, no post-Thanksgiving home game plus Miami visiting - is the outlier. With GS, Troy and ULL coming back to Boone next season, I'm sure we'll have at least one weeknight game in '17.

[fjblair]

Bad weather is not a freak occurrence in Boone. Weeknight games and Thanksgiving weekend games will not be rarities going forward. Those things should be factored into any attendance projections.

If anything, this season - with all Saturday games, no post-Thanksgiving home game plus Miami visiting - is the outlier. With GS, Troy and ULL coming back to Boone next season, I'm sure we'll have at least one weeknight game in '17.

Actually it was normal for us to play Thanksgiving weekends before FBS.

[Yosef84]

Games on TV has also likely had a big impact on attendance numbers recently.

Last year was a freak year as far as scheduling and mother nature go. 2 Thursday night games, rain, and a Thanksgiving game.
Coming off of an 11-2 season with a Bowl win, and Miami coming to Boone, the attendance numbers can't be worse than last year's.

Had the two Thursday games been on Saturday we would ahve been close to 30,000 for each, and the Wyoming HC game would have been close to it as well since the seats were almost sold out prior to the game. Then the downpour happened and it scared a ton of people away.

If we have good weather for the first 3 games I'd expect us to average around 30,000 for them. How we do in those games could create enough momentum to lead the league this year.

EXACTLY! Those two Thursday night games killed us, plus the hurricane causing bad weather with travel advisories all across the state 2014 was also full of unusually bad weather (rain and snow) in addition to a terrible start to the season. We have always relied on game day sales to get our big days, so weather hits us harder than it does the major programs who sell out everything before the season starts. I think we have excitement and momentum coming into this season, and barring an unexpected collapse, I believe we'll be back in the 24K - 25K range as an average. If we upset either Tennessee or Miami, it will be higher.

When planning capital projects, we don't build for where we are today. We build for where we expect to be. Solid forecasts are the key but there are no guarantees. I'm not wild about going further into debt either, but those who think we need to average 30K before STARTING an expansion are missing the boat. I don't think we can continue to live by selling grass seat tickets. This year will probably be key in determining when an expansion is needed. If we don't show a very positive trend coming off of last season and with this schedule, it would be very hard to project the need to justify a significant expansion.

[Yosef84]

Bad weather is not a freak occurrence in Boone. Weeknight games and Thanksgiving weekend games will not be rarities going forward. Those things should be factored into any attendance projections.

If anything, this season - with all Saturday games, no post-Thanksgiving home game plus Miami visiting - is the outlier. With GS, Troy and ULL coming back to Boone next season, I'm sure we'll have at least one weeknight game in '17.

Your statements are true, but 2014 had more "bad weather" games than we've had in a long time and when the bad weather falls on Homecoming and includes statewide travel advisories, that is NOT the norm. Also, having TWO Thursday night games...both at home against our most anticipated opponents....that's a bit unusual also. That took an outstanding home schedule and neutered it before we got started. You're absolutely right that those factors are a reality that will have to be considered, but hopefully they don't line up the way they did in 2015 consistently.

[NewApp]

IMO this needs to be priority #1 on the docket. It really is small time and not aesthetically pleasing either. If we're taking money out of the equation the it's absolutely realistic to have it out of there in 5 years, Duke did it in an off season. As for problems with digging down, I would assume if they had no problems putting the track down there shouldn't be any problem tearing it up. Could be wrong, though. Not sure how I would feel about what Nevada did either, I kinda like it but the on the other hand it's a cheap fix and still doesn't look great.

Do you remember the post where asu66 told how much Duke paid?

[EastHallApp]

Bad weather is not a freak occurrence in Boone. Weeknight games and Thanksgiving weekend games will not be rarities going forward. Those things should be factored into any attendance projections.

If anything, this season - with all Saturday games, no post-Thanksgiving home game plus Miami visiting - is the outlier. With GS, Troy and ULL coming back to Boone next season, I'm sure we'll have at least one weeknight game in '17.

Your statements are true, but 2014 had more "bad weather" games than we've had in a long time and when the bad weather falls on Homecoming and includes statewide travel advisories, that is NOT the norm. Also, having TWO Thursday night games...both at home against our most anticipated opponents....that's a bit unusual also. That took an outstanding home schedule and neutered it before we got started. You're absolutely right that those factors are a reality that will have to be considered, but hopefully they don't line up the way they did in 2015 consistently.

The thing about weeknight games is, that's where the Sun Belt (along with ESPN) schedules its showcase matchups. So as long as we're one of the league's top teams, our games against the other top teams are going to be on weeknights. Last year it happened that all of those were at home; this year they're all on the road (or, in the case of A-State, off the schedule).

The flipside of having no weeknight games at home - because our strongest opponents are on the road - is that the in-conference home schedule includes a bunch of bad teams that many fans just don't care about (if they've even heard of them). So the good news is, the games are on Saturday. The bad news is that you have to convince people to come to Boone in November to watch us pound the likes of ULM and Texas State.

I think we can go ahead and plan for App-GS to be played on a weeknight almost annually for the foreseeable future. And again - as long as we're winning - I'd expect at least one more weeknight game per year. And they're always going to be against the better opponents, at least based on preseason expectations.

[Black Saturday]

At the least if the track stays make it charcoal color

Careful...Somebody might want to make the track white..ala the "whiteout"..

[Yosef10]

IMO this needs to be priority #1 on the docket. It really is small time and not aesthetically pleasing either. If we're taking money out of the equation the it's absolutely realistic to have it out of there in 5 years, Duke did it in an off season. As for problems with digging down, I would assume if they had no problems putting the track down there shouldn't be any problem tearing it up. Could be wrong, though. Not sure how I would feel about what Nevada did either, I kinda like it but the on the other hand it's a cheap fix and still doesn't look great.

Do you remember the post where asu66 told how much Duke paid?

It was a $100 million dollar renovation all together, couldn't find a specific price for the removal.

However, from doing a little research on the internet it seems the typical cost of removing a track is around $15k. I would think we could afford the initial cost of removal, it what's we do after the removal that might be out of our price range.

[appbud]

Does the track team have another place for their meets at the current time?

[APPdiesel]

Blasting 10 ft of rock out of the entire field, digging down, replacing the field, and adding a couple rows of seats on each side seems like a much more expensive and time consuming option than moving the field 25 ft towards the home stands and building a new lower deck on top of the existing visitor's side concrete slab.

I'm OCD when it comes to stadium symmetry and that should allow us to match the pitch of each side's lower decks.