Topic: At the Game

[herd2win]

And a couple of quick thoughts..

-we had about a third as many fans as we had on a Thursday night game 2 years ago.

-App had an impressive sold out crowd for a 4-4 football team.

-App has a great game day atmosphere.

-the main difference between App and MU as far as gameday is the students.  App is basically locked in the mountains so the students all go to the game because there is no where else to go.

[BigJimslade]

And a couple of quick thoughts..

-we had about a third as many fans as we had on a Thursday night game 2 years ago.

-App had an impressive sold out crowd for a 4-4 football team.

-App has a great game day atmosphere.

-the main difference between App and MU as far as gameday is the students.  App is basically locked in the mountains so the students all go to the game because there is no where else to go.

So whats your point : the sky is falling ?

[goherd24]

And a couple of quick thoughts..

-we had about a third as many fans as we had on a Thursday night game 2 years ago.

-App had an impressive sold out crowd for a 4-4 football team.

-App has a great game day atmosphere.

-the main difference between App and MU as far as gameday is the students.  App is basically locked in the mountains so the students all go to the game because there is no where else to go.

That's (bleep). App has built a program and a culture of fans that are passionate. We used to be like that, our program is dying because of almost a generation of %^&* hires, making football unimportant to students and young people, while our older fans die off. We are right now, 1, maybe 2 bad hires away from being an FIU.

[muherd34]

That's (bleep). App has built a program and a culture of fans that are passionate. We used to be like that, our program is dying because of almost a generation of %^&* hires, making football unimportant to students and young people, while our older fans die off. We are right now, 1, maybe 2 bad hires away from being an FIU.

100% agree.  We are screwed if we don't get the next hire right.  Entertainment is the key to success.

[sardistim]

That's (bleep). App has built a program and a culture of fans that are passionate. We used to be like that, our program is dying because of almost a generation of %^&* hires, making football unimportant to students and young people, while our older fans die off. We are right now, 1, maybe 2 bad hires away from being an FIU.

App State has also just about doubled their enrollment since we were both in the Southern Conference and are now twice the size of Marshall.  We might even have less undergrads than we did in those days.  That is the biggest difference.

[coalherd]

App State has also just about doubled their enrollment since we were both in the Southern Conference and are now twice the size of Marshall.  We might even have less undergrads than we did in those days.  That is the biggest difference.

Sadly, these statements are pretty much true all around and, unfortunately, are NOT just limited to App. State.  I remember reading an article in a Virginia paper, perhaps from Richmond, at least 20 years ago or so, in which an official at JMU stated that he and others at JMU hoped and planned, as much as possible, to follow what Marshall did in building a highly successful FCS football program and then transitioning successfully to FBS.

Today JMU has grown to around 25,000 in enrollment and gets somewhat similar numbers in student applications every year.

Sadly, MU's enrollment remains stagnant, at best, and it is located in a State where, sadly, too many people in the State's population put little or no value on EDUCATION, in general.  With no-growth State population in general, MU has to scratch and claw for every in-State student it gets and faces a steep uphill climb in attracting enough students from out of State, foreign countries, etc., needed to significantly grow its enrollment, particularly in the undergrad area!!

[Refiners]

Don?t know the answer to this , but just pondering. I wonder how many Appy grads still live within easy driving distance on game day vs our grads that have to move away for job opportunities. Like it or not, we are the 2nd school in our state and that impacts our attendance from casual fans as well.

[svherd]

Don?t know the answer to this , but just pondering. I wonder how many Appy grads still live within easy driving distance on game day vs our grads that have to move away for job opportunities. Like it or not, we are the 2nd school in our state and that impacts our attendance from casual fans as well.

Excellent point. My best friend was city manager of Mooresville. We discussed this while in West Jefferson last spring on a fishing trip. He said App isn't a bad drive from Charlotte, Hickory and Asheville, thus many fans drive in for the games.
He also said App keeps their kids on campus and they don't go home at night or on weekends. Big plus there.
That area is growing and much more affluent than Huntington

[Flat Tire 2]

Excellent point. My best friend was city manager of Mooresville. We discussed this while in West Jefferson last spring on a fishing trip. He said App isn't a bad drive from Charlotte, Hickory and Asheville, thus many fans drive in for the games.
He also said App keeps their kids on campus and they don't go home at night or on weekends. Big plus there.
That area is growing and much more affluent than Huntington

It is also maybe the culture of WV. I remember Greyhound or another bus line parked at the Science Hall by the dorms on Fridays to take students home for the weekend in the mid 1960's. Plus we had a lot of "townies" who never participated in campus activities. MU was a place to get a degree and leave WV if you couldn't find a job. A lot of grads of no emotional connection to MU.

Plus you have the declining population of WV. VA; NC; SC; GA: FL and the other southern states are growing and filling up their state college systems. The grads have jobs in state after graduation.

[svherd]

Don?t know the answer to this , but just pondering. I wonder how many Appy grads still live within easy driving distance on game day vs our grads that have to move away for job opportunities. Like it or not, we are the 2nd school in our state and that impacts our attendance from casual fans as well.

Agree, people will drive 3 hours to the Hole and watch a 5-7 WVU some years and they get 50K plus a game. We won't have 20K this Saturday after losing 5 straight.

[goherd24]

Agree, people will drive 3 hours to the Hole and watch a 5-7 WVU some years and they get 50K plus a game. We won't have 20K this Saturday after losing 5 straight.

We still have one of the best G5 fanbases and brands. People watch us on ESPN and we are generally known.

It isn't just losing 5 straight. It's losing for 9 years. It's not being relevant by mid november for the 9th time in a row basically. It's a culmination of about 20 years of mediocrity to middling on field performance by 3 straight bad head coach hires.

I've said it before, as far as Marshalls fan base goes, I'm a spring chicken at 38. Since 2003, when i attended Marshall and had my own way of getting around, I've only missed a hand full of games. We had a group of 30-40 die hards. We progressed from poor college student tailgaiting to using a camper to a motorhome. From the old sheetz lot to the engineering area to the new south lot.

During that time, it's gotten harder and harder to find motivation to prioritize that, over so many other things, save a brief couple years of Cato, where we still choked away a game at Rice. Smh. Then we ended up playing NIU in a bowl that sucked the prestige out of that season after blowing the WKU game. Even in those years, we ultimately got let down. We've been let down for 2 decades. A title in 2014 was nice but the access bowl and/or an undefeated season was right there and we got doc blocked, again.

But over that time, I've seen die hards dwindle away, people that bleed green, less and less. Some dying, like my father, and some losing their passion. Our group is now 4 most games. And I don't even know if i want to go anymore this year instead of spending time with family doing something else. I've seen another huge tailgate with friends go to 0 in that same time. I have not seen any younger people join in or care. I don't see any marshall on any kids at any of my kids sporting events, i invite people to games constantly with free tickets and can't give them away.

Imagine another 4-5 years of doc/snyder/huff, and what the fanbase will look like then? We are on the precipice. We simply can not hire another failure. Once these people are gone, youll have to win big for several years to get some back. Winning, and being an exciting program to watch, is the only thing that will make people want to come and be here. Winning 7-8-9 games isn't gonna do it. Evidence is everywhere of that.

Look at soccer. People don't even know the rules and what they are watching and they are there, sold out, lol. We need a Grassie in football and we have to follow that up with a guy like grassies assistant that wvu hired. (Can't remember his name). We need to string 2 good ones together. If a coach in this day and age is here more than 3 years, they failed.

[svherd]

We still have one of the best G5 fanbases and brands. People watch us on ESPN and we are generally known.

It isn't just losing 5 straight. It's losing for 9 years. It's not being relevant by mid november for the 9th time in a row basically. It's a culmination of about 20 years of mediocrity to middling on field performance by 3 straight bad head coach hires.

I've said it before, as far as Marshalls fan base goes, I'm a spring chicken at 38. Since 2003, when i attended Marshall and had my own way of getting around, I've only missed a hand full of games. We had a group of 30-40 die hards. We progressed from poor college student tailgaiting to using a camper to a motorhome. From the old sheetz lot to the engineering area to the new south lot.

During that time, it's gotten harder and harder to find motivation to prioritize that, over so many other things, save a brief couple years of Cato, where we still choked away a game at Rice. Smh. Then we ended up playing NIU in a bowl that sucked the prestige out of that season after blowing the WKU game. Even in those years, we ultimately got let down. We've been let down for 2 decades. A title in 2014 was nice but the access bowl and/or an undefeated season was right there and we got doc blocked, again.

But over that time, I've seen die hards dwindle away, people that bleed green, less and less. Some dying, like my father, and some losing their passion. Our group is now 4 most games. And I don't even know if i want to go anymore this year instead of spending time with family doing something else. I've seen another huge tailgate with friends go to 0 in that same time. I have not seen any younger people join in or care. I don't see any marshall on any kids at any of my kids sporting events, i invite people to games constantly with free tickets and can't give them away.

Imagine another 4-5 years of doc/snyder/huff, and what the fanbase will look like then? We are on the precipice. We simply can not hire another failure. Once these people are gone, youll have to win big for several years to get some back. Winning, and being an exciting program to watch, is the only thing that will make people want to come and be here. Winning 7-8-9 games isn't gonna do it. Evidence is everywhere of that.

Look at soccer. People don't even know the rules and what they are watching and they are there, sold out, lol. We need a Grassie in football and we have to follow that up with a guy like grassies assistant that wvu hired. (Can't remember his name). We need to string 2 good ones together. If a coach in this day and age is here more than 3 years, they failed.

Because soccer is a sport many younger than 30 grew up playing. And Grassie demands the best. He should coach all our sports. We need more like him, especially football and basketball.
Huntington is dying. We have a huge brain drain, city leaders don't care what happens to this town 10-15 years from now. They just pat themselves on the back because they secured millions in drug money from the Fed to fix a problem that's only gotten worse. No future here.

[elginherd]

Marshall has been and still is a commuter school. Historically, most of the support and atmosphere at FB & BB games are because of nonstudents. Even during the DD & MD years, the Field House was filled with residents of Huntington and area, not students.
The drop in population has been noted many times and the remaining people don't have as much disposable income as was the case when there was a lot of blue collar jobs around.

Another issue that is not mentioned around here are the major differences in various regions of WVa.
Huntington is kind of Ohio/Kentucky, the northern panhandle is Ohio/Western PA, and the eastern part of eastern panhandle is DC, MD, Northern VA. The central part is played out coal country. Morganhole is very much an extension of western PA & Pittsburgh. Despite being such a small state in area & population, it is one of the least cogent states in the Union.

[muherd34]

We still have one of the best G5 fanbases and brands. People watch us on ESPN and we are generally known.

It isn't just losing 5 straight. It's losing for 9 years. It's not being relevant by mid november for the 9th time in a row basically. It's a culmination of about 20 years of mediocrity to middling on field performance by 3 straight bad head coach hires.

I've said it before, as far as Marshalls fan base goes, I'm a spring chicken at 38. Since 2003, when i attended Marshall and had my own way of getting around, I've only missed a hand full of games. We had a group of 30-40 die hards. We progressed from poor college student tailgaiting to using a camper to a motorhome. From the old sheetz lot to the engineering area to the new south lot.

During that time, it's gotten harder and harder to find motivation to prioritize that, over so many other things, save a brief couple years of Cato, where we still choked away a game at Rice. Smh. Then we ended up playing NIU in a bowl that sucked the prestige out of that season after blowing the WKU game. Even in those years, we ultimately got let down. We've been let down for 2 decades. A title in 2014 was nice but the access bowl and/or an undefeated season was right there and we got doc blocked, again.

But over that time, I've seen die hards dwindle away, people that bleed green, less and less. Some dying, like my father, and some losing their passion. Our group is now 4 most games. And I don't even know if i want to go anymore this year instead of spending time with family doing something else. I've seen another huge tailgate with friends go to 0 in that same time. I have not seen any younger people join in or care. I don't see any marshall on any kids at any of my kids sporting events, i invite people to games constantly with free tickets and can't give them away.

Imagine another 4-5 years of doc/snyder/huff, and what the fanbase will look like then? We are on the precipice. We simply can not hire another failure. Once these people are gone, youll have to win big for several years to get some back. Winning, and being an exciting program to watch, is the only thing that will make people want to come and be here. Winning 7-8-9 games isn't gonna do it. Evidence is everywhere of that.

Look at soccer. People don't even know the rules and what they are watching and they are there, sold out, lol. We need a Grassie in football and we have to follow that up with a guy like grassies assistant that wvu hired. (Can't remember his name). We need to string 2 good ones together. If a coach in this day and age is here more than 3 years, they failed.

Beautiful post 24