Last week the Daily Mail ran this story about WVU's future schedules. It brought about some controversy on the message boards and on the Statewide Sportsline. I know you've all been wondering my take on the situation, so let me pontificate for a few paragraphs, including a neat little idea Charley and I have discussed on numerous occasions. I know everyone would love to have USC, Texas, and State Penn on our schedule year in and year out, but the fact is that they would only play us on a neutral site or a two for one. Teams do not want to travel to Morgantown because of our home field advantage and they can make money playing at home against South West Missouri State of Southern California.
I'm on board with Mike Parsons and CRR about only playing neutral site games for the right price. The University needs a seventh home game because our athletic department is self sufficient. The Morgantown business community relies on big football weekends for its money. Six million sounds perfect to me because that may be the amount we lose if we were to get beat and somehow miss a BCS game.
Because of money and home field advantage I would take a seventh home game over almost any neutral site game. This brings me to a neat little idea.
Imagine the above picture, Bristol Motor Speedway, with a football field at the center, filled to the brim with fans wearing gold and orange. My dream neutral site game would be WVU v. Tennessee at Bristol. Both teams would equally share the ticket allotment and revenue from the game. With a seating capacity of 160,000, not to mention the fact that seats would likely be placed on the track, it would break a college football attendance record and make a lot of money. A national TV audience would tune in to see the Mountaineers take down the Vols.
This will never happen but it is pretty sweet to think about.
6 comments:
Would love to see the WVU/UT matchup and we all know what happens in Bristol... I think it was around 27ish?!?
I want to apologize to Amelia for not giving her credit for this story idea.
She is a smart and beautiful lady!
I don't have to have credit... I just wanted to hear your take on it. While I do realize the monetary issue, as much fun as we always have at bowl games, the idea of the destination game appeals to me. Maybe it will be possible in the future...
Regional games versus Penn State and Ohio State would be great, but we all know about the politics in those places. Perhaps if Joe Pa left, PSU would schedule a game with us. In Morgantown or State College would be great, but if it had to be at a neutral site where would you play it? Heinz? Lincoln Financial Field?
Please not The Linc, I hate everything about Philly, except for the cheesesteaks.
Because of our fan base it is almost impossible for us to play a "neutral site" game anywhere other than Pittsburgh or DC. We may be able to do it in North Carolina too but it would be tough for our fans to travel to a neutral site game and then to a BCS game because of money issues.
The Kickoff classic was a bust. As I recall it was far from a sellout, and nebraska kicked our butt.
The game against ecu in charlotte, well, was a sellout but we lost.
How about a game at Cleveland Stadium, or perhaps Bristol!
Great Idea whoever thought it up, and Bristol would be an easy drive.
Post a Comment