I'm wondering how you guys feel about Oregon State's approach to the spring football game. That is, no approach. Conversely, the Ducks marketed their game, created energy for the upcoming season, and had 43,000 fans attend their spring game, which was broadcast on ESPN2 no less. The Beavs had just 5,000 fans. Only the die hards even knew about the game, and there was no video of any kind (it was broadcast on KPAM radio).
I listened to two plays before turning it off due to boredom. What was your experience with the game? Did you go? Did you listen? Do you care? Why is OSU's spring game such a failure?
I feel like this game symbolizes OSU athletics. Haphazard, no creativity, no energy, and just cross the fingers and hope for the best. In short, Bush League.
When I saw the Ducks astronomical attendance figure, I thought to myself that it's another sign of the chasm between programs. The Ducks have embraced technology, the 21st century, and their wild identity. They aren't a passive university. They force issues, make quick decisions, change or adapt when they see opportunity, etc. The Beavers realize they're dinosaurs, and they will adapt…eventually. But that is part of the problem: the Beavers can (and do) recognize areas for improvement, but they take years if not decades before they act. And this is not just an OSU versus Oregon issue. Look at spring attendance figures from around the country. Vanderbilt drew 10,000 fans! Slow and steady wins the race? Maybe that is true for a foot race, but not an arms race.
Looking around the net, some of the old, dying guard are in an uproar about the (lack of) a meaningful spring game. Yet the same people whine if a young fan stands up and makes noise at a regular season game. There is a contradictory, circular (logic) error within our fan base. The people who lived through the lean years need to either adapt to modern expectations or die, because right now they're sending the AD mixed messages that keep the program in perpetual purgatory. Old farts: you can't say you want excitement and energy, and then chastise the young, rambunkshus fan who stands up to cheer the team.
I couldn’t care less about the spring game. If people want to waste a perfectly fine Saturday watching some lame glorified practice, that’s on them. I could get more of one, but at least I have a life.
I agree, I don’t care to watch the game, but it’s a chicken/egg thing. Do I not care because OSU gives me no reason to care, or does the game just suck?
Either way, there is opportunity to use the game for advantage. Hypothetically, Oregon could have mad $86,000 at just $2 per ticket. Plus the telecast on ESPN…etc. It’s “face time” that recruits notice. I’ve made posts that talk about how college football is in decline, etc, and people would counter with “you are naive. it’s big business/good business blah blah”…well, if that is the case, those fans need to be consistent and demand their school squeezes every penny it can. I guess what confuses me is where some fans delineate “good business” from amateur athletics. Apparently the spring game is good old fashion amateur athletic hour…I want to know why. Maybe it’s something obvious that I can’t wrap my brain around and need help with.
I also added some thoughts to the last paragraph. I was trying to bite my tongue, but the old guard are the ones whining about the lack of a spring game. Can’t stand those people.
You don’t care because there’s nothing to care about. The coaches and players are the only ones who should care.
Just tell me how they look and tell me nobody else got hurt. By the time the final practice rolled around, we pretty much had all the answers for this team at this time.
Btw, I knew of the game at Autzen, but there was no real buzz in this town. The police funeral and the marathon got more buzz than did Nikegon’s practice.
This just in: Everyone is still undefeated after their spring games are completed.
Hell, I heard more about the stupid royal wedding than I did about the Duck’s practice.
They also do it on Mom’s weekend every year to sort of market it, but I’m guessing most mothers do not want to go watch a football practice. I know my mother didn’t.
Forget mothers. I don’t know how I can be clear that I don’t want to spend a Saturday watching someone practice.
How about this.
I would rather go to a high school girls hockey game instead of a football practice on a weekend in the middle of fishing season.
If you live in the area and didn’t attend this year, give me the 100% honest reason why. The game wasn’t on Mother’s Day weekend, so that makes no sense in the present context.
Trout season opened on the 23rd.
If it wasn’t for that, the spring chinook run is still on.
Or… I would probably veer off to Alsea Falls or behind Mary’s Peak if I headed in that direction on a weekend. If I made it to Corvallis, I would just go visit friends.
Or you’re asking me to drive through wine country.
16K over Bonneville yesterday…Clearwater here I come!
In the meantime, my 8 year old daughter hooked and landed a 5# Kamloops rainbow on a bobber and roe/corky setup on Saturday…sometime during the Spring Game…epic day on the river.
It was on OSU’s Mom’s weekend where mothers are supposed to come and visit the students. Not mother’s day. That is the 100% honest reason, because my mother and my friends’ mothers did not want to watch a glorified practice.
I live 1/2 mile from campus and 1 mile from Reser. We didn’t go because my son had a Little League game. By the time we got home, rain was still a possibility and I just didn’t feel like making the effort to watch a glorified ‘practice.’
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/01/weekinreview/01safe.html
I guess this doesn’t apply to Athletics programs.
In all seriousness, I’m partly with JackBeav and partly with you, Angry. In one hand I usually don’t care about the spring game because most times it just perpetuates the pattern of putting less-deserving upperclassmen into starting roles (McCants, cough, McCants). In the other hand, OSU’s fan base is only passionate about attacking other fans who aren’t happy with mediocrity (as evidenced by fucktards, who can barely write a coherent sentence, coming around to blast me when I say things like throwing one NFL prospect in with an offensive line full of walk-ons fucks him over).
I think at this point, OSU could have at least used the event to garner donations. Maybe raffle off a big prize, or tickets, or beaver gear. The more people you have coming to events, the better. Yet this would require outside of the box thinking and professional marketing which we can’t and shouldn’t ever expect from Bob DeCarolis- so until that bald waste of space leaves the program we shouldn’t hope to match the enthusiasm that another fan base have.
Only thing we fans that want greatness to do is grit our teeth and bear it.
New Oregonian article on the brand images of sports programs in Oregon. Most are succeeding in building their image and popularity. OSU clearly has work to do.
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/05/sports_replay_no-hitter_spruce.html
You do realize that two of those four stories (the first and the last) were about Oregon State athletics. Do you not? A no-no against last year’s CWS runners-up and a story about Beaver love in Hotlanta are clear indicators that OSU has a lot of work to do?
I agree that we need more efficient marketing and branding of OSU. But hyping and unveiling crappy unis like they did at Wazzu and ASU are not the way to do it. Having a singular logo/font and losing the angry muskrat cartoon are the easiest ways to do it. Dumping Nike in a celebratory manner would probably do us the most good in terms of positive exposure, prolonged exposure and providing a unified image. Dumping Nike would also finally give us some quality apparel options instead of the over-hyped crap Nike passes off on the public.
Duck High deserves its little televised practice because they won games last year. Image is nothing when you lose.
You can look at the whole Nike thing in this way:
Nike will care more about the Ducks than the Beavers(or any other college that uses Nike) because they are established there. Could it be that Nike wants to help OSU out in marketing and branding, but OSU sees how the ducks do things and say no?
Also, I’m watching the Texas longhorns spring game right now on ESPNU and the stadium isn’t that full at all. Mac, the Texas coach said something that intrigued me, “Last season these guys seemed a bit uptight and I want them to have fun and enjoy playing in front of the fans and have fun.”
Nike cares more about itself and its bottom line more than anything. But that extends to image and not product value. I can list a good dozen shoe companies who make product I would consider for athletics and another dozen who exist in the moderate product tier. Nike doesn’t register on either of those lists. Saucony, Brooks, Asics, Puma, New Balance and (my personal favorite) Merrell all make outstanding running shoes for road and trail. Nike can’t get past a failed orthopedic technology to even sniff moderate levels of performance and utility. To disengage from their contrived technological failures would be admitting that their image has been built on nothing but image.
Nothing exemplifies this like Nikegon’s costume changes over the last several years. The only reason this technique has been successful is because the O has been unyielding in the face of all this change. People can look at the ugly unis and wonder who they are from a distance. But once they see that O on the helmet, they know what they’re looking at.
ASU wasn’t so lucky with the loss of Sparky. They get ugly unis AND a loss of identity. Wazzu’s unis are so ugly that holding on to their cool WSU cougar emblem doesn’t even matter.
And like all Nike schools, there will be no lasting, unified image in the end. Nike will change that image so often that a senior at any given school won’t remember what the image was when s/he was a frosh.
The only lasting identity Nike has provided for OSU is that our football team wears sports bras.
According to a recent article (http://www.democratherald.com/news/local/article_5c413fbc-71a9-11e0-bbaf-001cc4c002e0.html) Tinker is starting to tinker with OSU branding…
“He is currently in the early stages of creating a brand for Oregon State, including a new uniform design. He said Beaver uniforms have to be representative of OSU.
“From my conversations I see Oregon State as more classic and value-oriented,” he said.
Hatfield is only in stage one of his work for OSU but said the idea is to bring a powerful, identifiable image to the school.
But then he adds…
“I don’t design mainstream stuff,” Hatfield said. “What I do isn’t for everyone. I look for something that goes beyond the norm and creates controversy. You love it or hate it.”
We’ll see if Nike continues and what the powers that be at OSU say to the end product.
OS, you are lucky I have a no-ban policy.
You should stop posting unrelated crap, though, because it’s been pissing me off for two weeks now and testing my patience.
Your realize they are talking about images of programs and Oregon’s spring game being a big success, right?. Seems very much related to your topic. They didn’t come out and say Oregon State paled in comparison but we already know that. It seemed to fit the “marketing effort at OSU is poor” thesis and how some are strengthening their image and atmospheres. Seems like a good example for OSU.
This is how much i care about the spring game, ” .”
My toenails needed clipping. That’s why I didn’t go to the Beavs final practice.
I was rereading some old material…this one about “life after Quizz” was pretty interesting, since he just left early…
http://angrybeavs.com/athletics/2391
I left McCants off the list for some reason…either way, it doesn’t make the potential RBs more impressive.
This is typical OSU, trying to resolve a glaring weakness in-house and during fall camp. It’s a problem that should have been resolved last May. Last year it was LBs, the year before OL, now RB…the frustrating thing is that anyone with a half functional brain could see the problems looming.
How the hell is Terron Ward the best recruit Riley signed while having an NFL/potential Heisman back on the roster? How is that elite player not parlayed into another elite player?
Oh, and Malcolm Marable should be converted to CB. His size makes him useless as a RB. If you want to say “serviceable 3rd down back”, okay, but he could probably be a starting corner with some coaching.
I think DeCarolis’ contract expires in June and I have not heard any word that it has been extended yet. I think new blood in the AD role would work wonders for the Athletic Department in trying some fresh ideas and growing the brand. I hope Ed Ray decides against extending and we go in a new direction. We might just get actual leadership and focus on building a nationally relevant and prominent brand.
His contract expires June 30, 2011, but they will extend him.
Oddly enough, our apparel contract with Nike ends on that date as well. And we’ve heard nothing about dumping that failed relationship.
his last contract extension was announced May 24, 2006. Here’s the Article about it on the official OSU website. I’d say if we don’t hear anything by this date, then it’s safe to assume that BDC will not get his contract extended. I honestly don’t know if this will happen or not because we are in a hole in terms of $/revenue. So I imagine that we would want to hire a new guy who’s salary would be less than the current AD salary of almost $354,000. Too me….he’s getting paid to be mediocre and status quo…look what happened when the Pac-10/12 got a new commissioner! Things happened! Changes are being made that EARN NEW REVENUE for the league as a whole! This is what OSU needs…a Larry Scott of OSU Athletics! You keep costs at a reasonable price, and more people will buy the tickets. Supply and Demand curves need to be drawn up. There are other sections of the stadium that can boost the attendence( i.e. allow more student tickets to be sold/given out) because how often are the corners of the East side filled? NEVER! Obviously there is room for more students than benches provide because the students stand the entire game! I’d say 100-200 more student tickets would fill the corners of the East side. Also, if we complete the West side, that means even MORE students can come to the game because then they would be behind the visitors bench. So there is plenty of reasons to not hire BDC back…also, can they not sell/give out more student ticket than physical seats due to “fire hazards? Cause I think that’s stupid to even have bleachers in a student section since the stand the entire game anyways including halftime. Isn’t that just wasted money on the stadium?
I think Bob D’s current salary is around $450,000, actually.
That makes my point even more so…Are we going to continue to give our AD a “Riley” Contract or are we going to say, “Hey BDC, it’s been great, but we need someone new and save money and hire a new AD who will accept a $150,000-250,000 salary(or less too). This would help OSU athletics make up at least $100,000 a year in hiring a new AD and it would allow us to work towards (not the right word, but) dissolve the Angry Beaver logo and go with an OSU or a modified OSU logo.
I was thinking for the uniforms, why not have the home jerseys say BEAVERS on the chest like the TEXAS for our home game jersey’s and OSU or OREGON STATE on our road jerseys? That would be consistent with our baseball teams jerseys would it not? (OS this is related because I had mentioned seeing the Texas spring game earlier and this is in regards to branding the OSU athletic department. Notice how I didn’t bring colors, or designs other than stating a small change that would be a good look for OSU and something different.)
OSU would save 100-200k per year in salary, but I’m not sure they’d get a better AD in the 150-200k range you’re suggesting.
He’s not a terrible AD, nor is he a good AD. He’s somewhere in between…extending Riley for life was his dumbest move. Lifetime contracts kill motivation (just look at Federal Employees).
I really hope we find a new savvy individual for AD too. It bugged me how not only does BDC not try any ideas for marketing and building our football program/brand but he also WON’T even hold a brief conversation with Cliff Kirkpatrick of the local Gazette Times who just wanted to ask a couple simple questions about the Fiesta Frolic situation. He just puts everyone on Mute and goes through the routine. You get the right guy and you could see a bunch more energy and enthusiasm to make OSU into a prominent nationally aware football program and drive our future athletic success and branding through smart marketing and bold leadership. Things we lack with BDC.
I heard BDC when he spoke on 860am last and the way he talked about how he doesn’t understand the internet or figured out facebook yet was just a complete joke. You can’t have a person stuck in their ways that aren’t working when the game is changing and you are being left behind. You need someone who is excited by the changing landscape of college football and pushes hard for their program to be in the thick of it and succeeding and being in the national conversation on a consistent basis.
1. I don’t understand your student section comments? Students do sit at halftime, some don’t stand all game and students have the upper corner as a student section. They often find ways to sneak into the better seats because those are horrid seats. Finally, students don’t pay for tix (except in student fees). If you give out more student tix, you gotta charge more student fees which will result in a major on campus backlash or lose more money as a department.
2. You get what you pay for in AD’s. You can’t pay less and get a quality AD. Plus what is 100,000 in salary reflected against a multi-million dollar shortfall. Cost/benefit analysis would say that probably spending more on an AD salary would reflect better budget management and overall savings for the department.
OSBeavs and an OSBeavers? How will/can we tell these 2 apart? Or are they 1 and the same?
Anyways, OSBeavs, are you a student? Have you sat in the student section or have seen the view the students actually have? From the first what, 10-15 rows is the student section on the East side. I don’t see many students sitting at halftime, maybe 100 at most out of about what, a 1,000 or so? The point of the student section is to make it appear the stadium is full and the corners of the East side are ALWAYS empty or have about 15-20 students in them. All the students huddle as best they can around center field. Look at Autzen stadium, their student section is PACKED! I guarantee you that their athletic department doesn’t give out student tickets to how many seats there are…because that’s what OSU does and the section isn’t full. You don’t need to raise the student fees to add about 100-200 more student tickets to the list. just leave those unaccounted for because all it is is paper. The amount of student tickets handed out should be enough to fill the entire student SECTION(defined from dictionary.com as: “a distinct part or subdivision of anything, as an object, country, community, class”)
So my point is, to make it a true subdivision, we must make it completely full as seen here: http://www.soundandcommunications.com/archive_site/applications/2005_11_apps.htm
It looks tacky to call it a sell out when there are empty seats/part of a section of the stadium that could be filled with about 100-200 more students. What are they going to do when they expand Reser to the full 55k? Are they going to increase the number of student tickets to have the entire first 10-15 rows around the horseshoe or even the lower bowl(depending on the final design) to have as many students as possible be in those seats, or are they going to keep the students to the home team side and leave the amount of student tickets as is when the stadium is totally completed?
This is my main point, it’s the students that create the atmosphere inside of the stadium, not the joe schmoe of beaver nation(I will use it) to create the atmosphere because it’s as Angry has stated, a bunch of old fogies who sit down to watch a game and only cheer for touchdowns and interceptions. We should have as many students in the stadium that their specific section will hold. That’s the whole purpose of having students at games! They are already spending enough money and why deprive 100-200 students of getting into the game without raising their student fees by what, a $1 a ticket for each student…that seems fair.
Beavers4life, can you possibly read? Does reading comprehension escape you? It would be inconceivable that I and OS_Beavers are the same. We often have opinions that are in stark contrast. Why would anyone come onto a website with two diverse personalities with two separate monikers? This is as foolish as the people who claim that all the comments are made by Angry and that he has dissociative identity disorder. Are you a holdover from rivals? It is insulting to me that you would lump me in with the troll. Second, on the old blog, I posted a comment quite a while ago stating that it was weak sauce for OS_Beavers to take a moniker similar to mine. I have had this moniker for too long to give it up now, if you actually read the comments you would see that we are two different people despite the moniker.
Now on to the topic at hand, I was once a student, I graduated almost a year ago now. I have been to approximately 25 games as I student, I fully understand how the student section works. While people do leave at halftime, they do not leave as much as they used to. The exact game when this mentality changed was USC 2008. We were up 21 at halftime, no one left. Since that game it has been significantly harder to get student tix and not nearly as many people leave at halftime.
As to student tix, they give out 6000 each week to students (the 2008 USC game they gave out 8000 because they sold out too quickly, they didn’t deem it fair to other students). Now, as for increasing total student tix on a long term basis, at approximately 45 dollars a game, 100 tickets will cost 4500. The athletic department will want that money, one way or another, nothing is free in life. Meanwhile, 100 tickets would only increase overall student attendance by about 1.67%, would that even be noticeable? The issue is that students are not actually going to the crappy seats, would you? There are too many holes in gameday security, it is way too easy to sneak into the better seats while the good part of the student section is over fire capacity. The AD cannot knowingly give out more tix than a section can hold, that is fire code. He would be sued. Simply raising the price of fees 1 dollar also would not fly either, they wanted to raise the cost 6 dollars (per term I believe) in 2007-2008 and their was a massive push back from ASOSU. Also, any comparisons to UO’s student section are garbage, they have horrible seats and a horrible process to get tix. If you like their program so much go be a Duck fan.
Finally, are you OS_Beavers, you seem to be one of the few people who thinks that it is a good idea to build this 55K monstrosity without actually addressing the reality that we don’t have enough people to fill those seats. This is not the field of dreams, they will not come because we built it. It is a fallacy, that kid probably made the design himself. 2014, try 2024 for an expansion. Their are not enough fans in the Willamette Valley, if the were enough fans the stadium would already be sold out.
If I had to venture a guess, I would say OSBeavers is around 18-21 years old. Cause if you have to defend your point by stating, “It seems to me that this falls under the category of (Fill in category hear).” Then your point is 95% of the time not related to the topic and you misinterpreted the article.
Haha.
To be fair, it’s not like the article has an obvious point. I’m feeling fans out, trying to understand if this spring game is all it can and should be. I don’t have a strong opinion about the game (other than I found it too boring to listen to on radio), but I’ve read articles and comments by people who feel this game should have been more. The Ducks obviously feel the spring game should be more, too.
I can’t say that someone who was out fishing should have been at the game. If the game is to be more than what it is, then OSU has to give fans good reason to attend. The administration is not very good at doing that because it requires creativity and marketing skills (it’s not coincidence the Ducks set the Pac-10 record for spring game attendance…they also have the most creative marketing).
I would have loved going to the Spring ‘Game’ with a couple friends and tried making them more into Beaver football like myself but OSU provided very little reason to get fans even remotely energized. We only use the stadium for 6 games a year and this is our 1 chnace in the offseason to get Beaver fans geared up and help build the loyalty to the program. We know Cal and Washington our doing big stadium upgrades/expansion yet we are OK with just having a near high school west grandstand? There is huge room for improvement. We are all apathetic about it because OSU is doing such a poor job and missing its chance to build the fanbase and get a good outing of people on the I-5 corridor for one more game built to reward the loyal fans and recruit new fans. We have our stadium capacity pretty good now but we can’t afford to slip and we do want to get around to west side expansion in due course relatively soon. We can be getting those thousands of new fans who we don’t have room for now by getting more involved in the product in the Spring and showcasing the Oregon State program and fans. It takes buzz and high energy in your ranks to help push teams to a higher level os success. If we want BCS bowl capable teams we have to act like it and continually work to push the program forward.
So are you suggesting that we improve our brand? Have you given any thought to new uniforms?
…
I actually have a new field design drawn up with a new central logo that I think would be well received. I am waiting to see what Tinker comes up with to compare. It is just a couple jpegs I made. BDC never has tried doing it.
Personally I kinda wish we did a design contest. There are some talented artists at OSU and throughout the west coast who I would be interested in seeing their ideas. I think Tinker will do a good job myself, but I think we could incorporate a couple slight thoughts or adjustments through the public or even vote on a few things. Tinker could design 10 possible uni combos and we could pick 7 of them or something like the number Oklahoma State ended up with. I like their combos and it was nothing too outlandish. I could see OSU happy with similar results that elevated the brand, gave us more attention and possibly help us to land a few more touted recruits.
I think doing more with the field though including the endzones is a way OSU could set itself apart and create more atmosphere. His original scrapbook called for a checkered endzone that would help give OSU the feeling of a fiesty Tuscan hilltop town and its colorful pageantry (some towns use checkered flags even). It fits the OSU persona. We can’t be Florence or Rome but we can be a scrappy Siena.
Check out the colors of the 2nd rider in this famous race in Siena:
http://cache.boston.com/multimedia/sports/bigshots/070709/bs17.jpg
A grass field and checkered endzone would be sweet.
I strongly feel incorporating this Palio di Siena theme is part of a good solution for keeping and enhancing the tradition of OSU. These traditions have some interesting parallels with college football/athletics. The Siena flag is black and white and in the below link are the official 17 Contrade of Siena. If we up the pageantry and keep but build on the tradition we will earn more loyal fans over time and enhance the gameday experience. With checkered endzones, a good logo and a number of flags at the top of Reser we would have a unique atmosphere with colored pageantry and heart-pounding action.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrade_of_Siena
Personally, I think OSU chose very bad colors many years ago. Black and orange are pretty awful colors… orange is ok, black is great if you’re going to a formal dinner or a funeral, but not for a sports team IMO. They could do way more with orange and blue (NY Mets, Boise St., etc.). But that’s just my preferred color palette.
Seriously.
The Denver Broncos and Chicago Bears use blue and orange, too. Do schools ever change their colors?
Oregon changes their colors all the time… I think they have 6 different team colors? I heard that soon they will be wearing orange because black wasn’t enough.
I didn’t go to the game. Not sure what they could have done to make it exciting. The Duck game didn’t sound exciting either but I am not sure if that is becuase a meaningless football game isn’t my thing or if it is because the Ducks are not my team. I am not sure what they could do to get me to go. I only live about 20 minutes away and found playing a round of tennis with my wife to make for a great Saturday.
College Football Live thinks Rusell Wilson, the ex NC State QB would be a good fit in the Pac-12, for UCLA or someone else. He has 76 touchdowns in the last 3 years compared to #12 NFL Draft pick Christian Ponder who had 48 and the next highest Jacory Harris of Miami with 50.
We gave Ochocinco a chance and he turned into a major star who is well loved by many NFL fans. Does Oregon State not take a chance to make their team stronger and more of a threat, especially considering he would be lethal with our receivers? I think OSU needs to get aggressive or turn in its man card. I think we should put our hats in the chase for this guys since 12 schools already have. We could maybe beat Oregon with a difference maker like that working with our receivers. Or is Angry right and are we just BUSH league and prefer wandering in the winds of college football haphazardly and with no creativity?
We have a QB, Wilson will not come to OSU to be a backup, he could do that at NC State. Wilson has a penchant for running (more than Katz) and doesn’t really fit our system, it would take time for him to produce, he is looking for an offense that fits his style (see LSU type system, e.g. multiple formation offense). Also, if we were short sighted enough to use Wilson for a year we wouldn’t drastically improve and we would ruin Katz. This would make no sense. Now UCLA, that would be a much better fit for him.
I actually had the oppty to go to the game Saturday (my wife has a good friend who is a season ticket holder and she offered up tix). I really had no desire to go, didn’t realize the game was even happening – a few other chores to do, etc. For me, it’s not football season, so I’m not thinking about football (except the draft and what my NFL team did). It’s BASEBALL season and OSU has a GOOD baseball team worth following, the football team isn’t of the same caliber, and certainly not worth following in the offseason.
I admit I’m not as rabid an OSU fan as most on here are, and also a bit of a “fair-weather” fan. I’m not an OSU alum, just a local who has evolved and adopted OSU mainly due to proximity. And I have also been quite frustrated with the Mayberry approach to things here (but nost local fans seem to like it like that), which is why I was attracted to this blog.
I have developed a strong distaste for UO however. I think their jump in attendance has probably more to do with their success last year as any brilliant marketing campaign they may have run. There’s a lot of “fair weather” fans in Eugene and the surrounding area, it’s become chic to be a Duck fan (this happens to any team who becomes successful). If the ducks go 6-6 or 7-5 next season, the interest will drop off pretty rapidly, I’m sure. I wouldn’t read more into the Duck story than what it is. I saw the same effect with the 49ers (my nfl team) in the early 80’s – I was a fan since the early 70’s, but when they started winning and set the gold standard in the 80’s, it became very trendy to be a 9ers fan. Now, the fanbase is a lot like most bad team’s… very grouchy, critical, and impatient.
Wilner reporting the Pac-12 deal is almost done for 230 mil+. It should be complete within a week barring a huge last minute bid. He’s saying Fox or Comcast (strange he doesn’t know which one…)
Here’s the Link.
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/collegesports/2011/05/02/pac-12-football-and-basketball-updating-the-tv-negotiations/#more-19603
Bidding war still? Sure would be nice if they are still bidding, though at this late stage it is probably down to a single partner.
Bart Houston to Wisconsin.
Here’s the Wilner blog entry: http://blogs.mercurynews.com/collegesports/2011/05/02/pac-12-football-and-basketball-updating-the-tv-negotiations/
Funny, Paul Chryst, his recruiter, is an old OSU guy.
I think Wisconsin is a good fit for him.
Another name from De La Salle to consider is 6’0″, 185#, 2012 PG Amadi Udenyi. He’s a great facilitator and has a nice perimeter shot. His AAU team is the Drew Gooden Soldiers, so he will blow up this summer. But Coach Rob and a few mid-majors are all that have talked to him thus far.
I think Wisconsin is a good fit for him, too. He looks (i.e. skill set) like a prototypical Badger QB.
Is it time for a 2012 recruiting post? I think we have only 13 or 14 seniors on the team, so it looks like another small class. We need big hosses and CB’s… unless the Commish and Wallace are expected to take those duties.
Anyone have any priority targets? I mean, besides Isaac Seumalo? I hear we probably have a silent commit in the Bend LB Skotte. Question…. Is it really silent if I’ve heard about it?
It’s done.
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/collegesports/2011/05/03/pac-12-tv-negotiations-the-deal-is-done/comment-page-1/#comment-68017
$225m per year for 12 years.
We get Fox, ABC, ESPN, FX and Fox regional networks for coverage. That Scott dude is a wheeler-dealer.
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Morning-Buzz/2011/05/03/Pac-12.aspx
On top of that, Utah will be graduated into the revenue sharing plan over the next four years at 25% increments… only wholly sharing in the CCG revenues.
And Scott held rival games in reserve as Pac 12 proprietary properties. An eventual Pac 12 Network will have first dibs for the CW and all others if it so chooses. This doesn’t necessarily mean the best of those games will be shown on a league network every year. But it does mean that there will be an annual bidding war for whomever wants one.
@ Scott held rival games in reserve as Pac 12 proprietary properties
Wow. Great move. I’m not surprised at the amount of money in total, I figured it should be well over $200 million considering the markets out west. But there seems to be so much more to this deal that I didn’t expect – like the Pac-12 keeping all rivalry games to itself if it wants them. That’s amazing.
So the remaining 11 schools get ~ $20.23m, $19.81m and $19.39m over the first three years of the contract.
Just Utah and not CO?
I think that is genius, but I also think it should be both schools. Why not CO, because they are used to a big pay day???
Technically… yes. The phrase being used is “equity invested”. Because CU paid themselves out of the Big Joke, their value is assumed to be equal to previous revenues. That buy-out is also their buy-in for the Pac 12. It was probably a tenet of the deal created at the outset of Scott’s expansion moves last year.
DUDE!
Wilner with more updates:
*** 7:55 a.m. update: Hearing that 1) the initial figures are light — the actual deal is more lucrative than what has been reported thus far. Could be $250 million annually? … 2) Pac-12 Network still very much a possibility … Also, I think there still a big piece of this that has NOT been disclosed. None of the info is coming from the Pac-12. The league could release all the info Wednesday.
*** 8:30 a.m. update: NYT confirms my suspicions: Reports Pac-12 deal is worth $3 billion over 12 years, or $250 million/year … or $21 million/school/yr. League will have its own network and a digital channel like ESPN3.
For a done deal, this contract is getting better by the minute.
And we’re getting a digital outlet as well as the league network?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/sports/04sandomir.html?ref=sports
Next they’re going to announce that all sports will be played in the field across the street from my home, and someone will carry my La-Z-Boy and cooler over there for me.
Here’s the synopsis of the pac-12 tv contract…
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/collegesports/2011/05/03/pac-12-tv-deal-the-details/
Back to your original question, I would never drive up to Corvallis to watch the spring practice. I think that there are some fundamental differences in fans between the UofO and OS. I think the Oregon experience is much broader but less deep. Their image drives a lot of their fans which by definition is going to lead to a superficial fan base. Not to say that it is a bad thing as their fans in general may not be able to name 3 players on their team but are willing to spend money on merchandise. While there are some of those types of OS fans as well, they are the minority. I just don’t think you would fill Reser with the OS fan base (many of whom do not live in Corvallis) even if you turned into a marketing show. A saturday in May is a hot commodity that I don’t think many OS fans are willing to give up for “fake” football.
I had to spend a Saturday afternoon at a b-day party last year with a bunch of Duck fans while a game was on. I kid you not… half of them didn’t know why a backwards pass was a fumble instead of an incomplete pass.
21million should erase our 4mill in the red from last year… With a little left to play around with. I bet we will not do shit with it. This will be BDC test, is he really terrible? Or has he only been working with what he was given? His future contract could depend on the choices he makes with our new found monies.
It will probably be more than 21 million for a few years if Utah isn’t fully vested. I just read CO won’t be fully vested for a couple years, either, but it wasn’t from a reliable source. We’ll see.
I think I remember someone reporting that CU would not share in 2011-12 except for the CCG revenues. But they were expected to be fully vested in year two.
He’s not been bad. I think he’s been as conservative as he’s needed to be given the reality of our revenues. They don’t hand out awards like Western Region AD of the Year to people like Bobby D because they’re bad.
Once this deal gets under way a year from this fall, We will hopefully have a new AD who knows something about finances and spending wisely and on things that OSU needs as far as recruiting, a sports psychologist for the school or maybe 2 of them(1 for male sports, the other for female sports), MARKETING/advertisement, and so on.
There is so much money at play here that can be used, but we should pay off our debt at about $750,000 over the 12 year period until we are out of debt. That’s where that money should go FIRST. De-allocate at least $750,000 towards paying off the debt each year, and not all at once(this would be stupid and a waste of resources and make us even further behind and limit our spending to $13 Million instead of ~$19-20 Million each year.
The money should also be saved, so save about $2-3 Million over the 12 years and by the end of the contract we will have ~$24 Million saved up by that time as a “Rainy Day” Fund. This would leave us at ~ $17-18 Million at this point each year.
That is still a lot to spend. The money saved should be saved for traveling and expenses to BCS, NCAA tourney for BBall and other sports, as well as the CWS travel expenses. We could also get chartered flights or our own airplane for the school. I think that would be worth spending money on right there, no?
There’s a new post to discuss this deal…let’s take it over there.