Unfortunately, I have a friend in town, and we're about to hit the road (well, beaches) right now. Since the prior thread was becoming cluttered, I've created this one as a placeholder.
I don't have time to write any thoughts about the game. It's probably better that way since OSU's been making me eat crow.
Maybe I should keep doubting them since it's been working so well.
Hmm, yeah: Wetzler is garbage. He'll be done by the second inning after serving up a grand slam to the bat boy's sister.
There, that should do the trick.
I was confident about this game until I found out Ben Wetzler was getting the start. I don’t get why he would start. Hell, I would be less nervous about this game if James Freakin’ Nygren got the start. What has Wetzler done to start over Schultz? Wetzler’s last start in conference he lasted 1/3 of a inning. Has Schultz even pitched since his start vs Stanford? Until Wetzler proves otherwise I have no confidence in him making this start.
Angry,
It’s not like your doubts are ever for merit or just to be critical for critical’s sake. You see an on-field product that could use improvement and you say it.Unlike me. I rant. A lot. Mainly because I get far too passionate about this shit. See: Coach Cav/Langsdorf rants that lack coherent thought and are rabble rabble moments. So have a little crow, but don’t eat too much because this IS Beaver athletics we’re talkin’ here and as soon as they start succeeding they are known to drop the ball.
Does UO AD Rob Mullens get an A+ and Bob DeCarolis a D for the spring game strategies of building their brand, engaging the fanbase, staging an event with production value, and supporting the community?
UO attendance was 43,468
OSU attendance 5,519
UO allowed you to get in free with two cans of food. Perhaps others paid $5 who did not have cans. I don’t know how that worked. But undoubtedly they probably ended with 75,000 cans of food or more. They had the whole town buzzing and got coverage on ESPN2 but they still all showed up with passion. I am sure concessions sales alone made up for this strategy by Rob Mullens and one would guess about $100K or so was made on concessions.
OSU effort: OSU went with a pay $5 strategy which is not excessive but does keep out some community members who otherwise would have liked to have intended because they are on a fairly tight budget. Perhaps with the price of gas it also dissuaded some people from driving down from Portland coupled with if they brought a couple of children over age 11 that would be another $20 for a family of 4. Regardless OSU would have got 26K from the gate if all were 12 and up. They weren’t so we should probably assume the take was not likely much above 20K. Taking a similar average to the Ducks for concessions of around 2.30 per guest that adds $12,700 to the 20K at the gate for $32,700 total.
If UO made 100K on concessions + a small amount for those who may have given $5 instead of cans, we will be conservative and say they raised 105K. But they had a HUGE crowd that involved much of the community and they ALSO collected 75K cans of food to do ALOT of good.
OSU just raised $32,700 with no other added benefit of major collection of food to support the community, without the community buzz that made it a hyped event for many in Eugene, and without the national exposure.
Can OSU continue to just be status quo and not try to improve anything? UO had 25K fans last year and improved that by 18K this year to 43,468. Nearly a 74% improvement.
Bob DeCarolis just doesn’t seem like an inspired enough individual at times for Oregon State.
What would have been the right strategy? They could have said $5 OR 3 cans of food at the gate maybe and put out the word a few weeks early. Maybe then they would have gotten a bigger crowd of 8-9K and still had close to 20K at the gate but also 12-15K of cans collected and close to 20K in concessions.
In that scenario they could have collected possibly $37-40K and also 12-15K of cans for the community. When you try you actually can do better. My feeling is that BDC thought that a mere 5K potential increase in actual $$ wasn’t worth getting cans involved. Maybe he thinks he is too good for that.
Hence I stand by my A+ for Rob Mullens and D for Bob DeCarolis who was vacationing while all this was going on.
I watched the UofO spring game for a little bit and it seemed to me that with ESPN there and the season the ducks had last year fans wanted to see their team in action. Also, there are more duck fans on the western side of the state than OSU fans. Also, duck fans seem to not care what the cost of something is(paris hilton anyone) while OSU fans are more conservative with how they spend money. I don’t think a can drive would help OSU all that much to be honest because OSU fans are generally farmers or people with a modest income and with a sunny saturday, why would I go watch a scrimmage live when I can listen to it on the radio and get yard work done or in my case, I work on saturdays and I can’t make it down to corvallis without getting time off. So to me, it comes down to fans priorities. Ducks will always draw bigger crowds than the beavers will. Also, there were quite a bit of beaver fans at the UCLA Baseball game yesterday. Honestly, people will follow the current sport that’s doing well over the sport that is in practice mode.
My thinking is that the $ could have been about the same but we could have had atleast another 2500 fans that benefit the program in seats had we tried harder as well as doing something very positive for the community.
Baseball is doing fantastic, but football is the economic engine and we have to get more aggressive in maximizing our exposure and increasing lifelong fans.
OSUProf has a good series on how we have to atleast get mentally started on our west side expansion plans so that in 3-4 years we can start to dig dirt and secure the economic soundness of our athletics. I am confident we could support 55K fans in 4 years but not if we continue to take a passive approach to our efforts, brand and promotion. That is why I support Tinker Hatfield’s conclusion that the main thing we need is a:
POWERFUL and recogizeable brand
BDC has stated that he knows Pat Reser would like to help funding to complete a new west side of we sell out the stadium over the next 2-3 years, but what % can the Reser family do and what must OSU and all its other supporters do. BDC hasn’t really done much to get the process started so we can have confidence we would be able to start in 3-4 years. With Washington and Cal doing MAJOR stadium upgrades to secure their economic futures and fortunes we also must move forward if we want to stay and become more relevant in the PAC-12.
I feel like Larry Scott has injected great new energy into the league and the new PAC-12 TV contract with up to 20 million per team a year will help alot. If we can improve the brand image and make it much more POWERFUL then I think we will be on track to start expansion in the next 3-4 years. College Football is such a HUGE sport and will only continue to grow. With a 55K stadium we can have an attractive facility, have more fans and sustain at a nice level with the enthusiasm it will take to be successful. We have to try harder though and learn from baseball how much energy can be galvanized with success. OSU can become better in alot of sports if we start at the pinnacle..football…and work on continuing to build a winner with outstanding fans cheering loudly from a COMPLETED and dynamic stadium and improve the gameday experienec and production value by putting more into the games besides USC which we will only have at home 1 year out of 4. Get rid of the “Whose Muscle” stuff and work hard to have a great production and experience and we will get the sustained support we need to have little problem selling out and maximizing revenue with 55K fans at football games.
If you love how the ducks run their program so much more than ours, why don’t you become a duck fan?
Its about the Athletic Dept. putting out some effort and trying instead of being happy with barely trying. That isn’t the case with Pat Casey or many of the coaches, but Bob DeCarolis is the guy responsible for helping Oregon State to put its best foot forward and help drive some growth of the fanbase and excitement in the program and he is missing the few opportunities we have by not even showing up. It is a major concern how inept we are at making the most of our one spring opportunity to entertain the fans and garner more support. BDC is passive like Oregon State in general. He reminds me of Tom Hansen..willing to move at a snail’s pace instead of Larry Scott who is giving it is all to maximize the potential of our league. If BDC just acted like he was trying or commicated some efforts it would go a long way but we are getting a low production value from his lack of leadership and missing chances year after year to grow and strengthen the program and Oregon State brand. It is very disheartening when I see the opposite at Oregon where they used to be more like us but have stood up, demanded more and are achieving great success as a result. They are tapping into their potential and it is being revealed just how much more you can accomplish when you actively try. Will we ever wake up? :(
Nikegon hasn’t demanded more. They have been gifted more by 300% in similar circumstances by their apparel contracts. Duck High has yet to win a BCS bowl, yet they rake in the bucks threefold to an actual BCS winner and slight favorite within an applicable market.
Nikegon made more in actual dollars 15 years ago than the Beavs do now from their apparel contract. What the hell are you talking about?
Check that… I forgot the Nikegon vs. CU game in 2001.
No.
I understand what you’re saying, but ultimately at the end of the day, the spring “game” is an inter squad scrimmage. I didn’t expect many people to show up to a “game” with J Rod, Halahuni, et al. out of the scrimmage. The backups were playing. the only ‘team’ that was really at full strength was the defense. So it makes sense for the defense to have dominated the offense yesterday. Grant it, I probably wouldn’t have gone to the scrimmage game if I didn’t work. It’s just not worth my time.
As far as the stadium expansion goes, there needs to be consecutive sell outs this season and seasons to come before BDC would consider expanding. I think to help in the 1% of the stadium that wasn’t sold out, the top 3 rows of the North Endzone will be closed off and anyone who had season tickets there to be renewed will be moved to another area of the season(that’s what happened to us) with the better seats and grandfathered in without having to pay the donation fee if required. So I guarantee you if we had the amount of fans we did for the USC game last year, that would be a sell out this upcoming season. So BDC is trying to figure out ways to claim “sell outs” I also feel that since the students stand the whole game and huddle near each other, they should give out more student tickets this season to completely fill up the corners of the East sidelines cause those corners are NEVER filled! IMHO of course.
It almost seems like DeCarolis doesn’t want to grow the program and doesn’t want to do more than the minimu as far as promotion of the program and treating the fans to a day designed for them at the Spring Game. It seems like he is just lazy and doesn’t care much. This effort was so AWFUL that I really belive his recent performance makes him one of the worst ADs.
It just takes some effort and there is next to NONE. With the excitement regarding the Pac-12 and our TV contract and how huge the sport is across the nation, this lack of effort is just embarassing and it is getting to the point where Ed Ray should seriously consider replacing BDC. I would give it my all out heart and energy for 35K a year and I could do a much better job. I have no doubts about that.
I would do my $2 and 2 cans of food or $5 idea and then have more games for kids in Parker Plaza or Truax field. It would be a real game and I would shoot out some memorabilia T-shirts like they do at Blazer games. It would be run where it was just as safe for players to play this game instead of “situational” stuff that would be done in other practices. I would have a couple of well produced videos on the scoreboard and a simple program with players names and numbers.
I then would encourage Steven Jackson and other NFL alum to show up and sign some autographs for 15-20 minutes since they are showing up for practices. I would also make sure there was FULL radio broadcast and get the word out that we want a big crowd.
BDC is just pathetic in his efforts and even though we could support 55K in a Phase 3 stadium if marketing, promotion and the brand was done right………well, it just seems like BDC would rather be in Palm Springs or wherever he was vactationing. He is out of town for a couple weeks and missed the uninspired event. He pretty much is screwing the pooch right now. :(
Palm Springs? Really Duck dude? Duck High got one tenth of the metro population to show up for some meaningless crap practice, and you’re making it out to be Armageddon?
COUPLE OF THINGS:
1) OSU is leaving WAY too much VALUE on the table by playing this 35 yard line “situational” garbage. They can do that any day of practice. The Spring Game needs to be an event put on FOR the fans and BUILDING the program. It needs to be a real 4 quarter game like at UO and they just tell the players to take it easy on the hits and there are no sacks.
2) We have Economics professors. The Valley View seat pricing was highly successful and a study in supply and demand.
OSU needs to figure out how to max the Spring game and the real games and do a study on the best strategy to usually fill up a 55K stadium. I think improving the game day experience which will be partly done with a new west side can take care of most of it.
For the Spring Game maybe OSU is best served by a $2 and 2 cans of food or $5 without cans approach. Then they they get some revenue from all fans, but it really is not limiting more than 1 or 2% of the population. Something like that is probably our winning formula and can be done with guesswork or a quick talk with an economics professor. Then you probably get 3000 extra butts in the stands and easily if you play a real game. It isn’t rocket science. ;)
Hopefully Wetzler doesn’t put the Beavers in a hole here.
He escapes without any damage. Still scoreless heading to the fourth.
Any updates on the game?
0-0 in the top of the fourth. Beavers have a runner on second with 1 out
Scoreless through 4 innings.
Top of the 5th, 0-0 and Wetzler seems to be allowing players to get on base and get all the way to 3rd base, but that’s as far as they are getting. I think UCLA will score 2+ runs in the bottom of the 5th. That’s just my prediction.
The Beavers third base coach runs them out of an inning. Nothing new.
UCLA scores 1 in bottom of 5th… 1-0.
…and that’s all they get in the 5th.
1-0 Bruins now. I would bring someone in for the sixth to take over for Wetzler. He has escaped a ton of jams but now he’s being hit hard. He could get really smacked around in the sixth.
Beavs get 2 singles (Keyes, Hayes) in top of 6th. Runners on 1st and 2nd, nobody out.
Beavers have runners on first and second and no outs. Have to take advantage here.
Dunne lays down sac bunt, runners on 2nd & 3rd, one out. Berberet hits sac fly, Keyes scores. 1-1 now. 2 outs.
Runners on second and third and 1 out.
Sac fly by Parker Berberet and it’s 1-1.
Tyler Smith walks. Runners on 1st & 2nd, 2 outs for Beavs.
Nice small ball there. Wetzler will stay if he takes down the back half of the line-up, but he won’t go against the top of it again. They’re just giving him fits.
Stamps flys out to shallow right. That’s it for the 6th, Beavs tie it at 1.
Willie Mays Hayes flies out. 1-1 after 5 1/2 innings.
Have to think about going to the ‘Pen here. Lead-off walk for UCLA.
Crap, 2 on, no outs
Wetzler has to go
Really Schultz? Really? if we lose this game it’s not the end of the world, we got the series which is what matters! :)
Schultz was set up to fail. I won’t get on Schultz’s case too much.
This one is on Pat Casey. He knew Wetzler was struggling and struggling and waited WAY too long to make a change. A reliever who hasn’t pitched in two weeks in a bases loaded situation with 1 out? He had no chance.
I think the Bruins have this game. I’m done listening to the game. I have hw to attend to and I need to get ready to go out. Cheers all and hope we can pull from behind, but not likely at this point unfortunately.
1 out double by Ryan Barnes. They have to chip away now, down 5-1.
RBI single by Norris and it’s 5-2 now.
Single by Kavin Keyes. Two on and 1 out for Hayes.
Danny Hayes stares at strike three and runners on second and third with two outs for Ryan Dunn
Beavers only score one. Pat Casey put his team in a hole that they may not come out of.
Parker Berberet is in a deep slump
Single for Tyler Smith with 1 out
Single for Stamps. Runners on first and second and 1 out
Bloop single by Luke Acosta. Bases loaded with 1 out
Double play. This will be one of those games where Pat Casey’s horrendous pitching changes in the sixth are the difference in the game.
Oregon State is 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position so far. Ouch.
BB20,
How disappointed are you with BDC’s total lack of effort in providing a Spring Game event worth attending and promoting Oregon State? Many on pure-orange think we can get 15K and about triple attendance if the event is done right for the fans.
I have no feelings in regard to the spring game or how many people attended.
Not worried at all.
Today has been just odd. Pat Casey with some truly strange decisions.
Sixth inning decisions by Pat Casey backfire and the Beavers lose 5-2. This is an extremely irritating loss. This should have been a win, they just couldn’t hit with runners in scoring position at all and Wetzler was left in too long.
BIN LADEN is DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rude.
Come on man! This is too pathetic to even enjoy a little schadenfreude.
http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2011/05/oregon_football_kiko_alonso_ar.html
In the words of General Patton, “We got the poor bastard!”
Patton was one of the most pompous, sociopathic dickheads to ever walk the earth.
In the words of idiot boy, “I know that human beings… and fish can co-exist peacefully.”