Judy Rose was right

49RFootballNow · May 21, 2009, 8:50pm

The AD and the BoT are committed to FBS because its the only thing that will do us any good. The administration on the other hand is full of wishy-washy hand-wringers who are afraid of their own shadows. That’s why we have no solid FBS timeline, just a long term “plan” with no PLANS.

To me FSL’s were putting the cart before the horse IMHO. This U should have raised the $40 million in donations first, put out a stadium design/plan, then when they had some of that in hand offer seats at the stadium based on contributions to the Athletic Foundation with a points system similar to what we have for basketball.

Now the reputation of this still very young effort is having the somewhat poor FSL sells used against it like a 2x4 to the head. Lets face it folks, in a good economy selling seat licenses to an FCS level program would be EXTREMLY difficult. The fact we have sold 33% is very good. We all know some fans that would buy season tickets but are more than happy to wait and see. For every fanatic like me theirs a casual fan that will just wait till game day and buy tickets at the booth and laugh at those of us who bought FSL’s

When we do take the field, if we still have not sold all our FSL’s then those of us who did buy better get something D*** good as an extra besides a couple $1000 dollars worth of football poster.

stonecoldken · May 21, 2009, 9:47pm

We’re only 1/3 of the way to the 5,000 who pledged to put down $1,000 per season ticket license for football.
You can now buy it monthly at $26 a month for 4 years. This is the most cost efficient for people in a down economy.
You can also buy Annually for 4 years at $250 a year.
As Alums, we have to get out the word, & if we don’t step up, no one else will.
The only ones who can stop the Niners is ourselves.
Everyone be sure to sign up yourselves & your families, & encourage all of your friends to sign up.
Let’s Go Niners!

I just sent this e-mail to 22 Alums.

stonecoldken · May 21, 2009, 9:51pm

I think the something good the FSL Holders should get, since we started the thing, would be our names in brick on the pavement into the stadium.

49RFootballNow · May 21, 2009, 9:53pm

[QUOTE=stonecoldken;409566]I think the something good the FSL Holders should get, since we started the thing, would be our names in brick on the pavement into the stadium.[/QUOTE]

I think lifetime “club” level access would be more appropriate, AND A BRICK! If there’s less than 1000 of us on game day 2013.

Normmm · May 21, 2009, 10:02pm

I thought the whole "FBS or bust" idea was wrong to start with, especially with an apathetic alumni base. I agree that we will need to be FBS someday (7,10,20, 30 years away), but we should not set any kind of timeframe. Doing that up front may scrap this whole thing. The money needed for FCS, now and later, is nowhere near the level needed for FBS. I'm not saying that we should have set expectations low, but they sould have been set realistic, and given the current economic climate it is really setting in that this is going to be an even greater uphill climb. I don't know what kind of punter we have on staff, but I hope we have a good one and that we don't turn this thing over on downs or throw a pick six trying for a touchdown.

Exactly.

Normmm · May 21, 2009, 10:04pm

Yes! Let's play FCS football indefinately! The Arena Football of college athletics! Our very own WNBA equivalent!
Guess I was the only one who read the committee report that showed Longterm FCS football would be a financial DRAIN and only FBS would work for our program’s conditions?

We could have sold 10000 FSL’s to the public by now with a published FBS commitment and timeline. But no, let’s dedicate our program to half-a55ness forever. Then we can join the 2000 other folks who would ever show up for a game not involving App St.

Charlotte is a notorious front-runner city. Even as FCS Champions we would never be a front-runner in this city as FCS.

Commit to Success People!

You must have missed the part where he said that ultimately we need to be and he wants to be in FBS.

49RFootballNow · May 21, 2009, 10:08pm

[QUOTE=Normmm;409572]Exactly.[/QUOTE]

No commitment to FBS other than this nebulous “eventually” is one more reason why the public/alums/city at large could care less.

FCS + Charlotte = FAIL

FBS + Charlotte = Interest

Satisfaction with FCS is satisfaction with mediocrity. We have that at a much cheaper level already.

FCS is a pit stop, not a destination.

And Herm Edwards said: “YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!”

Normmm · May 21, 2009, 10:09pm

We can't afford to drop $10 million on Memorial Stadium upgrades for the NCAA to allow us to play there just to turn around and hand that investment over to the city for free. The city doesn't want to invest anything in the stadium and will own anything we do to it at the end of the day. We aren't staying there long enough to justify that kind of a give away. If the city wanted to kick in half I'd listen but otherwise we should play at Belk Track and you all know how I hate that idea.

I’m just not buying that it would cost $10 million for Memorial. My point isn’t that Memorial is a great option or stadium. My point is that if takes 5,000 FSLs to be able to play at Belk track, and we’re currently at 1,600, I would rather play at Memorial than not play at all.

Normmm · May 21, 2009, 10:11pm

No commitment to FBS other than this nebulous "eventually" is one more reason why the public/alums/city at large could care less.
FCS + Charlotte = FAIL

FBS + Charlotte = Interest

Satisfaction with FCS is satisfaction with mediocrity. We have that at a much cheaper level already.

FCS is a pit stop, not a destination.

And Herm Edwards said: “YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!”

Again, you must have missed the part where he agrees that ultimately we need to be in FBS. Nobody is saying “Yea, FCS forever!”.

49RFootballNow · May 21, 2009, 10:14pm

[QUOTE=Normmm;409576]I’m just not buying that it would cost $10 million for Memorial. My point isn’t that Memorial is a great option or stadium. My point is that if takes 5,000 FSLs to be able to play at Belk track, and we’re currently at 1,600, I would rather play at Memorial than not play at all.[/QUOTE]

Sure, Memorial is better than nothing, but I don’t want the U giving the city a dime for that rat hole, and that’s what we’d have to do to get the NCAA to approve the place. A decent scoreboard alone will cost us 2 or 3 mil. Upgrades to the press box would run that much too. See, I just found 6 mil in out-of-our-pocket money. Do you think there’s not at least 4 mil more we haven’t thought of?

49RFootballNow · May 21, 2009, 10:17pm

[QUOTE=Normmm;409578]Again, you must have missed the part where he agrees that ultimately we need to be in FBS. Nobody is saying “Yea, FCS forever!”.[/QUOTE]

I did not miss that point. I’m saying not having a solid timeline for FBS, be that 4, 6, or 10 years is hurting the football effort today. I’d rather him come out tomorrow and say “NO FBS EVER!” then say “well…um…we plan to go FBS…um…one day…um, well…yeah.”

Normmm · May 22, 2009, 2:11am

Sure, Memorial is better than nothing, but I don't want the U giving the city a dime for that rat hole, and that's what we'd have to do to get the NCAA to approve the place. A decent scoreboard alone will cost us 2 or 3 mil. Upgrades to the press box would run that much too. See, I just found 6 mil in out-of-our-pocket money. Do you think there's not at least 4 mil more we haven't thought of?

There’s an NCAA scoreboard requirement? Wouldn’t we have the same scoreboard and press box issues at Belk track, plus building a field, seating, bathrooms, concessions?

Normmm · May 22, 2009, 2:18am

I did not miss that point. I'm saying not having a solid timeline for FBS, be that 4, 6, or 10 years is hurting the football effort today. I'd rather him come out tomorrow and say "NO FBS EVER!" then say "well............um...............we plan to go FBS..................um......................one day...................um, well...................yeah."

Fair enough. I guess we just see that differently. I don’t think there’s anybody saying “Well, I don’t know if they’re ever going to go FBS so I’m not going to buy tickets”. Most of the people who are going to buy tickets are going to do so whether its FBS or FCS. Look at the support ASU, Furman and Georgia Southern have without any intentions of going FBS.

I think it’s more detrimental to have a 5,000 FSL requirement, with only 1,600 commitments, or the football initiative is a possible no go.

Normmm · May 22, 2009, 2:27am

WCU, Elon and VMI stadiums

[URL]http://www.catamountsports.com/facilities/wcar-whitmire-stadium.html[/URL]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RhodesStadiumEmpty.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2008-0831-VMI-AlumniMemorialField.jpg

Over40NINER · May 22, 2009, 2:38am

Question to think about: What would happen if the Big East invited us to join their conference tomorrow, on the condition that we get football?

X-49er · May 22, 2009, 3:19am

[QUOTE=919R;409542]If this is the case, then we might as well quit now, because the SINGLE BIGGEST (not the only) reason for doing football according to our Administration is to “protect” our other sports (ie; make sure men’s basketball is eventually in a power conference—all of these are football driven) where we can be one of the “decision-makers”, not someone who just has to deal with decisions of other schools/leagues. FCS will do NOTHING to help put us into this position.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=49RFootballNow;409510]Yes! Let’s play FCS football indefinately! The Arena Football of college athletics! Our very own WNBA equivalent!

Guess I was the only one who read the committee report that showed Longterm FCS football would be a financial DRAIN and only FBS would work for our program’s conditions?

Charlotte is a notorious front-runner city. Even as FCS Champions we would never be a front-runner in this city as FCS.

Commit to Success People![/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=49RFootballNow;409575]
Satisfaction with FCS is satisfaction with mediocrity. We have that at a much cheaper level already.

FCS is a pit stop, not a destination.

And Herm Edwards said: “YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!”[/QUOTE]

Sometimes when you go for broke, that’s exactly what you get. If you guys would be happier with no football team than a 20-year FCS team, then that mindset may just leave us without a team. FCS will not fail here. If it can work in Boone, and Statesboro, it can definitely work here. Are you going to cancel your FSL’s and season tickets if we play FCS for a long while? I wouldn’t. Hell, I would prefer to build up the program for more than the minimum and play in a FCS conference and try to win something rather than wander around in oblivion for the next 10 years at both levels. If we’re successful at the FCS level after 5-6 years, then we can move up.

Having A football team > Having NO football team

Some need to come to grips with that and quit expecting us to become Florida in 10 years. Football will bring in its own group of supporters who don’t care about any other sport. That’s fine, but if you think that group is larger than the group that already supports an underfunded athletic program at this point I’d say you’re wrong.

[QUOTE]
We could have sold 10000 FSL’s to the public by now with a published FBS commitment and timeline. But no, let’s dedicate our program to half-a55ness forever. Then we can join the 2000 other folks who would ever show up for a game not involving App St.[/QUOTE]

That’s hogwash. We haven’t even sold the 5000 that people PROMISED to buy, and you think we’re going to add another 5000 on top of those just because we announce we’re going to FBS in 5 years? It was already announced that we will go [B]as soon as the support is there[/B], be it 5 years, 8 years, 10 years, or 20 years. Guess what, it ain’t there yet. We are going to FBS when it is. Anyone that does not know that has not been paying attention. Blame it on the economy, an apathetic fan base, or whatever other reason you want to conjure up, but blaming the low FSL sales on not announcing a timeline to FBS is laughable.

49RFootballNow · May 22, 2009, 3:20am

[QUOTE=Over40NINER;409599]Question to think about: What would happen if the Big East invited us to join their conference tomorrow, on the condition that we get football?[/QUOTE]

Chapel Hill and Raleigh would do everything in their power to shut us down! Right now only ECU and App. St. fans see us as a threat. Add BCS money and we’ll be on more important radars then!

49RFootballNow · May 22, 2009, 3:29am

X, I would not have paid $2000 on the premise of NO FBS. My $2000 FSL purchase is conditional on us having a dedication to playing at the top possible level.

I would buy season tickets to FCS football but NOT, NOT a seat license. There is no justification to expect upfront money from your fans for FCS level football.

No one expects us to be Florida in ten years but I sure as hell expect us to be at the same level as ECU in 15 years and will except nothing less and you or any other fan shouldn’t either.

If you think anyone besides you, me and Over are going to sit through 30 years of FCS in the city of Charlotte then you need to put the bong down friend. We’ll still be # 6 at best in this city as FBS. At FCS we will be nothing, ever.

Over40NINER · May 22, 2009, 3:38am

Question to think about: What would happen if the Big East invited us to join their conference tomorrow, on the condition that we get football?

Chapel Hill and Raleigh would do everything in their power to shut us down! Right now only ECU and App. St. fans see us as a threat. Add BCS money and we'll be on more important radars then!

I won't argue with that, but the point I wanted to make is this:

I think FSLs would be gobbled up and paid off if it were announced the Big East wanted us in their league. The actual hype is much less when no one knows exactly which direction we’ll be headed.

49RFootballNow · May 22, 2009, 3:45am

[QUOTE=Over40NINER;409614]I won’t argue with that, but the point I wanted to make is this;

I think FSLs would be gobbled up and paid off if it were announced the Big East wanted us in their league.[/QUOTE]

FSL’s were a mistake at this point anyway. I don’t even know if a Big East gaurantee would sale those FSL’s.

I do know this:

There are at least 15,000 casual fans who would buy game day tickets in this city for FCS football.

There are at least 35,000 casual fans who would buy game day tickets in this city for non-BCS FBS football.

There are at least 65,000 casual fans who would buy game day tickets in this city for BCS FBS football.

But none of them at any level want to invest in, dare I say it? [B]FANTASY SEATS[/B]!

This U is trying to do this cheap and have US pay for this when every other U that has done this in the last 3 decades had to lead the investment in football, not follow it.