I don't see why WSU can't field a football team already.

[WstateU]

“I have a dream…:”

* WSU will field a football team again before I die… I hope to live another 50 years.
* I will win a multi-state lottery jackpot… we’ll have a team unless I change my mind… money seems to do that to a person… and I don’t currently play the lottery.
* I have a dream that WSU football will be 1A… I don’t want to be on the short end of any 1-AA versus 1-A scores, i.e., 63-0, 70-0, 77-0 and 84-0. I’m sorry; I just don’t want any part of minor league football.
* Cessna Stadium will continue to seat 30,000 +

:goshocks:

[rrshock]

I think that most on here realize how much it would cost to start a football program. The facilities are available to start the needed women's teams that would be used to balance Title IX.

When was the last time the athletic department sent out surveys to alumni and area people to find out the level of support they would have for football? I've never seen one. There are many people who would love to attend WSU athletic events, especially basketball, that can't due to tickets not being available. I would gladly buy season tickets to football if we had a team. I don't care if it starts out D-1AA at first, but would like to see it jump up later on. Who knows though, maybe D-1AA would work out here. How great would it be for WSU to be the one beating the KSUs or Michigans of the BCS world?

I don't think it is out of the question, just JS wants to take care of what he has now.

[1972Shocker]

There are many people who would love to attend WSU athletic events, especially basketball, that can't due to tickets not being available.

Not especially basketball but ONLY Men's Basketball. As far as I can tell seating and tickets are ready available for all other Shocker Sports.

I suppose you could add NCAA Baseball Super-Regionals to that also. Hopefully, hosting Super-Regionals becomes a more common occurrence.

[rrshock]

1972, you're correct. But Basketball is the most popular sport that WSU has. Football, I feel, would be also due to the limited number of games in a season. Cessna stadium holds 30,000, which, even if full every game, would keep a season attendance to around 180,000 people assuming 6 home games. That's probably about the same amount of people that basketball sees.

This was on goshockers.com : * 30,000-seat track and field facility

It's not even considered a football stadium anymore by the university.

[1972Shocker]

I admit my outlook for Shocker football is tainted by having experienced first hand the final decade of Shocker Football.

The Prince McJunkins led 1982 Shocker team was very entertaining and pretty successful going 8-3 including a 13-10 win over KU in Lawrence (the first meeting between the schools in 36 years). Unfortunately, KU got their revenge in 1983 slamming the Shocks by a 56-7 score.

The post-Prince years were pretty painful marked by four consecutive 3-8 records and a heavy dose of fan apathy.

Here is a link to WSU's football results:

http://michigan-football.com/ncaa/f/wichita.htm

I would actually expect they would improve on this track record if they played mostly a 1-AA schedule. If we were able to eventually step up to 1-A hard to say how we would do.

Also hard to predict how strong of a fan base we would have for a 1-AA program. I'm not terribly optimistic that we would draw that well, but a lot would depend on ticket pricing. Of course, that also impacts the economic viability of the program.

[RoyalShock]

The first year or two would draw pretty well. If they were good in the 2nd year, the 3rd would probably also have solid attendance.

I still think that the only way to get football back to WSU, is to get most of the scholarships endowed and hike student fees $3-$4 per credit hour (that would help underwrite the operational costs to the tune of roughly $1mil per year).

[rockemshockem]

The facilities are available to start the needed women's teams that would be used to balance Title IX.

We do? Other than rowing I don't know of any women's sport that could easily be started. There's a soccer field on campus but in no way shape or form would the NCAA consider it acceptable for a D-1 soccer program. Even with rowing the athletic department would still have quite a bit of cost because they would have to purchase and assume the maintnance resposibilities that go along with the team.

How great would it be for WSU to be the one beating the KSUs or Michigans of the BCS world?

I don't know why everyone assumes that if we start at 1-AA (or I guess technically FCS) we would be a great team there right away. My assumption is that we would be in the Gateway (if they allow us in right away) which is one of the better FCS conferences. If WSU had a football team we would have a very hard time recruiting even local talent considering there's alot of good programs in the area. The top talent will have options from OU, OSU, KSU, and KU. Low level D-1 talent has Tulsa. Players who think they're good enough for D-1 but aren't getting alot of looks have the entire Jayhawk Conference. We'd even be in heated battles for the mid to low level talent because of schools like Emporia St. and Pitt St. who have a history of being competitive at D-II. All this considered, the fact that we're not in a talent hotbed and would be starting from scratch would put us in a huge hole that would take a long time to dig out of. So beating the rest of the Gateway had better be what we strive for in the first decade, not beating KSU and Michigan.

I don't think it is out of the question, just JS wants to take care of what he has now.

Once again I think this is an excellent philosophy to have. We have one of the historically best baseball teams in the country (especially from the north half), a nationally recognized basketball team, one of the top mid-level volleyball programs, and a conferance dominating womens track/cc team just for starters. I would be willing to bet almost every penny I have, that if we started a football program at least 3 of those 4 would be nowhere near the level they are now within 4 years of adding football.

To truely understand just how much money we're talking about to field a competitive football team I think you have to take a look at KSU. Take the complete tour of Cessna Stadium including all the facilities underneath the stadium, then go up to Manhattan and take a tour of their stadium and facilities. Then remember the KSU has one of the smallest athletic budgets in the Big XII. Also remember that the only way they have most of the stuff they do is because they have been at least a middle of the pack team in a major conferance for more than a decade now. Trust me, WSU has nowhere near enough money to start up the team, let alone make it competitive at this point and time.

Here's my prediction for what it will take to start a WSU football team.
1. Huge WSU fan wins the powerball (I'm talking one of those 300 mil jackpots) and donates all of it to WSU but only if it goes towards a football team. 2. Charles Koch dies and in his will he leaves a huge chuck of his 9th richest American money to WSU...also exclusively for football. 3. Bill Parcells agrees to return as head coach at a minimal salary.

Ok, thats personally what I think it will take to get a football program up and running in Wichita. Oh, and LOTS AND LOTS of fan support.[/list][/quote]

[JohnDorian]

ALL of $300 mil to football? the last person that person $300 mil, they got $105 mil due to a lump sum and taxes.... I might give 5 mil to the cause. A person's gotta eat

[rockemshockem]

I don't think 5 mil is gonna get it done to a level that doesn't suck the school dry.

Remember the University right now is trying to raise 5.5 mil for the baseball project, just imagine how much its gonna take for Cessna. Another point, most schools with football have some sort of indoor practice area, somehow I don't think Gene would want to share his.

[WstateU]

The facilities are available to start the needed women's teams that would be used to balance Title IX.

We do? Other than rowing I don't know of any women's sport that could easily be started. There's a soccer field on campus but in no way shape or form would the NCAA consider it acceptable for a D-1 soccer program. Even with rowing the athletic department would still have quite a bit of cost because they would have to purchase and assume the maintnance resposibilities that go along with the team.

How great would it be for WSU to be the one beating the KSUs or Michigans of the BCS world?

I don't know why everyone assumes that if we start at 1-AA (or I guess technically FCS) we would be a great team there right away. My assumption is that we would be in the Gateway (if they allow us in right away) which is one of the better FCS conferences. If WSU had a football team we would have a very hard time recruiting even local talent considering there's alot of good programs in the area. The top talent will have options from OU, OSU, KSU, and KU. Low level D-1 talent has Tulsa. Players who think they're good enough for D-1 but aren't getting alot of looks have the entire Jayhawk Conference. We'd even be in heated battles for the mid to low level talent because of schools like Emporia St. and Pitt St. who have a history of being competitive at D-II. All this considered, the fact that we're not in a talent hotbed and would be starting from scratch would put us in a huge hole that would take a long time to dig out of. So beating the rest of the Gateway had better be what we strive for in the first decade, not beating KSU and Michigan.

I don't think it is out of the question, just JS wants to take care of what he has now.

Once again I think this is an excellent philosophy to have. We have one of the historically best baseball teams in the country (especially from the north half), a nationally recognized basketball team, one of the top mid-level volleyball programs, and a conferance dominating womens track/cc team just for starters. I would be willing to bet almost every penny I have, that if we started a football program at least 3 of those 4 would be nowhere near the level they are now within 4 years of adding football.

To truely understand just how much money we're talking about to field a competitive football team I think you have to take a look at KSU. Take the complete tour of Cessna Stadium including all the facilities underneath the stadium, then go up to Manhattan and take a tour of their stadium and facilities. Then remember the KSU has one of the smallest athletic budgets in the Big XII. Also remember that the only way they have most of the stuff they do is because they have been at least a middle of the pack team in a major conferance for more than a decade now. Trust me, WSU has nowhere near enough money to start up the team, let alone make it competitive at this point and time.

Here's my prediction for what it will take to start a WSU football team.
1. Huge WSU fan wins the powerball (I'm talking one of those 300 mil jackpots) and donates all of it to WSU but only if it goes towards a football team. 2. Charles Koch dies and in his will he leaves a huge chuck of his 9th richest American money to WSU...also exclusively for football. 3. Bill Parcells agrees to return as head coach at a minimal salary.

Ok, thats personally what I think it will take to get a football program up and running in Wichita. Oh, and LOTS AND LOTS of fan support.[/list]

[/quote]

rockemshockem, by any chance do you need a job? I could use a brain like yours in my organization. The majority of us just shoot from the hip when we post... you actually apply reasoning skills with logic thrown in... it's refreshing indeed.

:yes:

[SpanglerFan316]

The facilities are available to start the needed women's teams that would be used to balance Title IX.

We do? Other than rowing I don't know of any women's sport that could easily be started. There's a soccer field on campus but in no way shape or form would the NCAA consider it acceptable for a D-1 soccer program. Even with rowing the athletic department would still have quite a bit of cost because they would have to purchase and assume the maintnance resposibilities that go along with the team.

NCAA women's bowling would be easy for WSU. The soccer field at the Metroplex could be upgraded fairly quickly if money were available; I could serve as the soccer coach if needed. :whistle: Does women's field hockey exist as a NCAA sport?

[rockemshockem]

rockemshockem, by any chance do you need a job? I could use a brain like yours in my organization. The majority of us just shoot from the hip when we post... you actually apply reasoning skills with logic thrown in... it's refreshing indeed.

:yes:

Haha, thank you, but I'm pretty well occupied with school and my current job. I know I'm not the most frequent poster on here but that's because I tend to only post when something really catches my interest. Trust me, I would LOVE to see football at WSU. I attended KSU my first 2 years of college and the gameday atmosphere is so much fun. However, I'm also an all around sports fan and would much rather see us field a top notch team in all sports like we do now. And as far as recreating the gameday atmosphere at football, I don't think it would be too hard to do at WSU baseball if we had enough people who knew what they were doing.

[rockemshockem]

NCAA women's bowling would be easy for WSU. The soccer field at the Metroplex could be upgraded fairly quickly if money were available; I could serve as the soccer coach if needed. :whistle: Does women's field hockey exist as a NCAA sport?

First we'd have to convince bowling they'd be better off, I know a few people who think that bowling would be downgrading by joining the NCAA. Trust me, if you've ever played on the Metroplex field you know it needs a lot of work before it would be considered ready for D-1 soccer. And yes women's field hockey is a NCAA sport, but it would cost us alot of money to field that team because we'd have to travel to the east coast all the time
.

[dregn]

The heskett field would be better suited for soccer and/or field hockey. If you take away that field though you need more space for intramurals.

[rockemshockem]

The Heskett field needs alot of work too, both have a pretty bad case of uneveness