Hell No to Status Quo

[60Shock]

It seems that the preponderant opinion on this board is to maintain our status quo both in remaining in the MVC and not bringing football back.

Yet, history, through the ages has proven, time after time, that if you stand pat and don't move forward, you, at best, are doomed to mediocrity. Lee Iacocca, said it best, "Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way."

I really admire, respect, and thoroughly enjoy the vast membership of this board. Yet, I can not understand this total reluctance to move forward. Wichita and its citizenship were ultra conservative when I lived there in the 1940 -1960 time period and unfortunately, it seems even more so today. Thankfully the pilgrims weren't from SE Kansas nor were the first modern men who departed the dark continent for greener valleys. For if they had been, we would probably never have left Africa.

Yet, you are content to remain in a conference which saw its better days 30 -40 years ago, which has virtually seen all its major schools leave, and which is the least known and possibly the least respected of the top 12 conferences in the land.

A few of you recognize that the only way to get out of this quagmire is to bring back football. But the naysayers amongst us continue to scream "we can't afford it." My answer to you is that you can't afford not too." WSU will never be a power in football. But, we need to play it. And we need to strive to join a conference that does. Even with a bad football team, can anyone of our negative friends honestly state that we could not attract 50,000 fans for a game against Texas, OU, OSU, KU, or KS? We would have no problems initially getting major schools to play us, pay us top dollars, and beat the living crap out of us. Because they need six wins to qualify for a bowl game. The young Florida schools followed this same recipe and after a lot of lickings got pretty good.

The chances are that if we remain at our present status quo, eventually WSU will fall so far behind the power curve that we will no longer be competitive amongst other like schools in virtually all sports. Even today, it is most difficult for our coaches in our two major sports to recruit, and in BB to even schedule worthy opponents. And to further prove the point, we are now no longer even the best baseball school in the state.

It is not too late and it will take a number of years to achieve, but we need to move forward, not tomorrow, but today.

[shockerfan]

Re: Hell No to Status Quo

It seems that the preponderant opinion on this board is to maintain our status quo both in remaining in the MVC and not bringing football back.

Yet, history, through the ages has proven, time after time, that if you stand pat and don't move forward, you, at best, are doomed to mediocrity. Lee Iacocca, said it best, "Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way."

I really admire, respect, and thoroughly enjoy the vast membership of this board. Yet, I can not understand this total reluctance to move forward. Wichita and its citizenship were ultra conservative when I lived there in the 1940 -1960 time period and unfortunately, it seems even more so today. Thankfully the pilgrims weren't from SE Kansas nor were the first modern men who departed the dark continent for greener valleys. For if they had been, we would probably never have left Africa.

Yet, you are content to remain in a conference which saw its better days 30 -40 years ago, which has virtually seen all its major schools leave, and which is the least known and possibly the least respected of the top 12 conferences in the land.

A few of you recognize that the only way to get out of this quagmire is to bring back football. But the naysayers amongst us continue to scream "we can't afford it." My answer to you is that you can't afford not too." WSU will never be a power in football. But, we need to play it. And we need to strive to join a conference that does. Even with a bad football team, can anyone of our negative friends honestly state that we could not attract 50,000 fans for a game against Texas, OU, OSU, KU, or KS? We would have no problems initially getting major schools to play us, pay us top dollars, and beat the living crap out of us. Because they need six wins to qualify for a bowl game. The young Florida schools followed this same recipe and after a lot of lickings got pretty good.

The chances are that if we remain at our present status quo, eventually WSU will fall so far behind the power curve that we will no longer be competitive amongst other like schools in virtually all sports. Even today, it is most difficult for our coaches in our two major sports to recruit, and in BB to even schedule worthy opponents. And to further prove the point, we are now no longer even the best baseball school in the state.

It is not too late and it will take a number of years to achieve, but we need to move forward, not tomorrow, but today.

Yeah, unfortunately most of this city is afraid of change. I'm still amazed and ecstatic that the Arena tax passed. But that mentality still exists and it seems to affect some of our fans and WSU administration.

[shocky]

Well said sir!

:posterwu:

[The Mad Hatter]

If you are going to invoke the pilgrims, at least have the decency to remember Roanoke.

[tw805]

Very well said. I would be willing to wager that the vast majority of folks on this board against this idea still live in Wichita. Wichitans hate progress and change. To add to a previous post, not only did they whine about the arena tax, now that the tax is gone and the arena is profitable, they are still bitching! It's truly incredible.

[Veritas]

Re: Hell No to Status Quo

It seems that the preponderant opinion on this board is to maintain our status quo both in remaining in the MVC and not bringing football back.

Yet, history, through the ages has proven, time after time, that if you stand pat and don't move forward, you, at best, are doomed to mediocrity. Lee Iacocca, said it best, "Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way."

I really admire, respect, and thoroughly enjoy the vast membership of this board. Yet, I can not understand this total reluctance to move forward. Wichita and its citizenship were ultra conservative when I lived there in the 1940 -1960 time period and unfortunately, it seems even more so today. Thankfully the pilgrims weren't from SE Kansas nor were the first modern men who departed the dark continent for greener valleys. For if they had been, we would probably never have left Africa.

Yet, you are content to remain in a conference which saw its better days 30 -40 years ago, which has virtually seen all its major schools leave, and which is the least known and possibly the least respected of the top 12 conferences in the land.

A few of you recognize that the only way to get out of this quagmire is to bring back football. But the naysayers amongst us continue to scream "we can't afford it." My answer to you is that you can't afford not too." WSU will never be a power in football. But, we need to play it. And we need to strive to join a conference that does. Even with a bad football team, can anyone of our negative friends honestly state that we could not attract 50,000 fans for a game against Texas, OU, OSU, KU, or KS? We would have no problems initially getting major schools to play us, pay us top dollars, and beat the living crap out of us. Because they need six wins to qualify for a bowl game. The young Florida schools followed this same recipe and after a lot of lickings got pretty good.

The chances are that if we remain at our present status quo, eventually WSU will fall so far behind the power curve that we will no longer be competitive amongst other like schools in virtually all sports. Even today, it is most difficult for our coaches in our two major sports to recruit, and in BB to even schedule worthy opponents. And to further prove the point, we are now no longer even the best baseball school in the state.

It is not too late and it will take a number of years to achieve, but we need to move forward, not tomorrow, but today.

Well said and I agree 100%
We do need a leader to pull all of the pieces together. That leader can be the mayor, governor, Eric Sexton, WSU's president, or perhaps a Shocker Legend such as Linwood Sexton. We are faced with the greatest opportunity in decades to move this endeavor forward.


The fans are ready. The Alumns are ready. The time is now.

[ShockerFever]

Very well said. I would be willing to wager that the vast majority of folks on this board against this idea still live in Wichita. Wichitans hate progress and change. To add to a previous post, not only did they whine about the arena tax, now that the tax is gone and the arena is profitable, they are still bitching! It's truly incredible.

It is incredible. The town is so backwards it isn't even funny.

All the big, growing metropolises in the region have vibrant, young, forward-thinking governments.

[calfan]

I agree with you.

If WSU had felt the same way about Baseball in 1979 or so, we wouldn't have Shocker Baseball today.

I'm sure there was someone back then that said WSU Baseball wouldn't make any money or have any success.

[ICT Ragman]

It is incredible. The town is so backwards it isn't even funny.

All the big, growing metropolises in the region have vibrant, young, forward-thinking governments

Football aside for a minute, but speaking as one old enough to know what this city was like for a young person 10-20 years ago, objectively you must admit A LOT has changed. Old Town Development alone is worth bragging about and as a prideful citizen I do just that to out of towners.

With all the suburban growth (Bradley Fair, Waterfront etc) and CBD ( Arena, Old Town, Museums, Final Fridays etc) activity - not to mention WSU itself- a person from 20 years ago would hardly recognize the city.

A lot of progress has been made both publicly and privately. When you are in the middle of something its hard to recognize that sometimes, but the negative sentiments some have above are pretty much what the citizens of a lot of cities think about themselves. We don't need to apologize, and in fact just be doing just the opposite to get where we want to be.

[Ta town]

It is incredible. The town is so backwards it isn't even funny.

All the big, growing metropolises in the region have vibrant, young, forward-thinking governments

As one old enough to know what this city was like for a young person 10-20 years ago, objectively you must admit a LOT has changed. Old Town Development alone is worth bragging about and as a prideful citizen I do just that to out of towners.

With all the suburban growth (Bradley Fair, Waterfront etc) and CBD ( Arena, Old Town, Museums, Final Fridays etc) activity - not to mention WSU itself- a person from 20 years ago would hardly recognize the city.

A lot of progress has been made both publicly and privately. When you are in the middle of something its hard to recognize that sometimes, but the negative sentiments some have above are pretty much what the citizens of a lot of cities think about themselves.

I think a lot of people fail to realize that OKC metro (1.2 mil) is roughly DOUBLE the population of Wichita metro (600K). It seems OKC is always compared to and the population gap between the two is ignored. Wichita should continue to develop and look for growth, just need to keep the comparisons in line with metros of the same size.

[giskard]

Does anyone have any hard data on how much it would cost and realistically how many people would come watch football, especially if the team did not achieve success quickly? There have been a lot of opinions divided between it is too expensive and will bankrupt the department on the one hand and build it and they will come on the other.

All of the conference realignment drama makes it clear that we need hard data to be able to make a decision because not having a football program hurts the university. Building a successful football program will be difficult. Anyone who says otherwise is delusional. But some of the best things in life are hard and a successful football program would help the university in many ways. We need a well thought out plan and exceptional leadership to make WSU football a success. Without those, bringing football back would be a boondoggle.

[SpanglerFan316]

So this whole thread is about (people on SN) whining about (people in Wichita who are) whiners? .....

[shocker3]

Omaha taxpayers just spent over $150 million to build a new baseball stadium just for 2 weeks of college baseball a year.

And the taxpayers to the county south of them (Sarpy) are spending millions more to built a stadium for the Omaha Royals.

The Wichita community is more than capable of funding and supporting a football team at WSU.

We just need the leadership with the vision to make it happen. The sooner the better.

[Ta town]

Omaha taxpayers just spent over $150 million to build a new baseball stadium just for 2 weeks of college baseball a year.

And the taxpayers to the county south of them (Sarpy) are spending millions more to built a stadium for the Omaha Royals.

The Wichita community is more than capable of funding and supporting a football team at WSU.

We just need the leadership with the vision to make it happen. The sooner the better.

Would it be legal for the county to bring up a vote for a temporary 1% sales tax to be used as start up money for a football program at WSU? Just curious if thats a possibility. What was the total amount raised and time for the arena tax? I wonder what the community could raise for WSU football with say a 6 month temporary tax sales tax increase?

Again I don't even know if that would be legal even if the people of the county voted yes. I have no clue........

[shocker3]

I don't know why not. The county already levies a 1.5 mill levy property tax to help fund WSU.

The Arena sales tax was raising over $6 million a month during the last few months of the 30 month tax.

A six month county-wide one cent sales tax should raise between $35 and $40 million. :wsu_posters: