Update on Tarleton Football Stadium

[gruesome]

Re: Update on Tarleton Football Stadium

I forgot about UNO. And they've had their fair share of financial problems (as have all of the Louisiana schools). The UIW thing, I think that was a mad scramble to replace UTSA in the conference once they added football. As for HBU? A Houston presence? Even ACU doesn't make the most sense. Abilene isn't exactly a huge media market, but the University was willing to put in the work to upgrade facilities and put a football stadium on campus. The argument is that adding Tarleton would give the SLC a Fort Worth media presence, but I haven't exactly seen the Fort Worth news crews at Memorial Stadium for anything more than an SHS game during the Briles era.

Will the new stadium change that? Perhaps. "If you build it they will come."

Yeah, the cracker jack stadiums aren't exactly something I want to travel to see a football game in. I went to the Richmond game in Waco a few years ago when Harvey moved the game from H'ville closer to home. I would like to go see them play in Abilene, but beyond that I don't care to travel to any of these other destinations.. Beaumont? Lake Chuck? [insert Louisiana city name here]?

Yeah, somehow that philosophy of being in Houston and San Antionio has been an epic fail. Houston Baptist fudges their attendance numbers and still average 2K and UIW in a playoff season averaged a little better than 2K. Hardly replacing a UTSA which averages over 20K. These attendance numbers are poor even by LSC standards. And to think that the Conference would continue to allow this at a D1 level is unbelievable. My hope is this will improve over time maybe 15 years later. These schools would both be at the bottom of the LSC conference in attendance numbers. I almost would think it would be better for these schools to in towns of 100,000 where they could at least have some awareness.

The Southland Conference is in serious need of revamping and having minimum standards if it is ever to gain any respectability regionally because nationally is out the window for now and some time to come. I will be nice and not even mention the disaster of the LA schools. Thus the earlier statement that the top half of the LSC is better off financially than the bottom half of the Southland.

I don't know this for a fact, but it seems like the SLC is the good 'ole boys club of DI-FCS. Aside from Ivey at SFA and maybe the AD at Central Arkansas, there aren't a whole lot of movers and shakers looking to make the conference elite. A large part of that is the caliber of schools they've brought in over the past decade, but there's a lot of old blood still entrenched in the conference.

Now that you mention it, ACU was the BEST marketing move the conference made when talking about the recent DII call-ups. 100K+ people in Abilene with the biggest show in town in ACU. They market well in the city and the football stadium (much like Tarleton's) will be the icon of the city with folks passing through town.

I'll agree, though. The SLC should put some pressure on the HBUs, UIWs, and UNOs of the conference to step up to the plate and offer better facilities and better products. I know that stuff takes time, but it should be a requirement before joining the conference not something for down the road. All things considered, Tarleton has done the right thing to be proactive with facilities rather than reactive to a scrambling lower-tier FCS conference.

[chrisattsu]

Re: Update on Tarleton Football Stadium

You're right. I'm just not as sure as the AD seems to be that the coveted invite from the SLC (or another FCS school) has been put in the mail just yet. The SLC showed that DII teams can step up and be competitive, but it takes time and I would imagine that the Southland will want to build a more recognizable brand and product before they go courting another DII college. Plus, the feasibility study raised a lot of questions for Tarleton's alignment... Didn't it actually recommend that TSU pursue an invitation from the WAC?

That's not to say that the whole system won't be blown out of the water again in the near future leaving a door open for Tarleton, but it may be further off than what has been advertised.

The D1 benchmark posted on the Tarleton homepage (https://tarleton.edu/division1/fcs-b...ing-study.html) looked at the WAC and a Southland as options. It noted that the Southland was our preferred choice because of geography, football, smaller budget increase and it offered 7 conference mates in Texas. Their findings seemed to align with this. The WAC appears to be included because they were prepared to offer if Tarleton agreed to accept.


It is worth noting that since Tarleton's study was released, Collegiate Consulting has been linked to the WAC as a possible back channel mouthpiece. They conducted the study for Dixie State (utah) to move up. They compiled the D1 report and presentation for Metro State (colorado). Their name was also attached to the Colorado Mesa D1 discussions- which sparked a whole review on College Sport Realignment boards earlier this year.

[chrisattsu]

Re: Update on Tarleton Football Stadium

[QUOTE=Techster88;2381015]

I forgot about UNO. And they've had their fair share of financial problems (as have all of the Louisiana schools). The UIW thing, I think that was a mad scramble to replace UTSA in the conference once they added football. As for HBU? A Houston presence? Even ACU doesn't make the most sense. Abilene isn't exactly a huge media market, but the University was willing to put in the work to upgrade facilities and put a football stadium on campus. The argument is that adding Tarleton would give the SLC a Fort Worth media presence, but I haven't exactly seen the Fort Worth news crews at Memorial Stadium for anything more than an SHS game during the Briles era.

Will the new stadium change that? Perhaps. "If you build it they will come."

Yeah, the cracker jack stadiums aren't exactly something I want to travel to see a football game in. I went to the Richmond game in Waco a few years ago when Harvey moved the game from H'ville closer to home. I would like to go see them play in Abilene, but beyond that I don't care to travel to any of these other destinations.. Beaumont? Lake Chuck? [insert Louisiana city name here]?

Yeah, somehow that philosophy of being in Houston and San Antionio has been an epic fail. Houston Baptist fudges their attendance numbers and still average 2K and UIW in a playoff season averaged a little better than 2K. Hardly replacing a UTSA which averages over 20K. These attendance numbers are poor even by LSC standards. And to think that the Conference would continue to allow this at a D1 level is unbelievable. My hope is this will improve over time maybe 15 years later. These schools would both be at the bottom of the LSC conference in attendance numbers. I almost would think it would be better for these schools to in towns of 100,000 where they could at least have some awareness.

The Southland Conference is in serious need of revamping and having minimum standards if it is ever to gain any respectability regionally because nationally is out the window for now and some time to come. I will be nice and not even mention the disaster of the LA schools. Thus the earlier statement that the top half of the LSC is better off financially than the bottom half of the Southland.

It seems like the Southland was taking notes from other conferences at the time and decided to focus on "Markets" rather than quality teams when selecting HBU, UIW, and UNO. Attendance was never going to be great at this schools. However, for recruiting purposes it ensures that you have schools located in the large cities- Houston, San Antonio, and New Orleans. There are athletes there. You can pluck kids out of those cities and tell their parents that they will play in their hometown over their career. These cities also serve as alumni bases for the existing conference members.

Then there is the TV angle. In the years following the last big realignment push (A&M SEC), all conferences (including the little ones) were looking at expansion via new markets in hopes that it would improve their media dollars. PAC tried to move into the Central Time Zone but settled for Utah (Salt Lake City) and Colorado (Denver), Big 10 pulled Rutgers (NYC), Maryland (Baltimore/DC). SEC took A&M and Missouri. All were rewarded with new better media contracts.

The Big East grabbed Houston, Central Florida, Memphis, and Tulane in order to get markets. CUSA expanded taking North Texas (to get Dallas), UTSA (SA), Middle TN (Nashville), FIU (Miami).
The WAC lost a bunch of schools and reloaded with Chicago State, UM-Kansas City, and Grand Canyon (Phoenix).

The Southland and the WAC were never going to get big money like the major conferences. However, when selling their digital rights to ESPN, they could point to the fact that they had teams in these major markets to potentially drive clicks, views, or listen.

On the surface a team like Tarleton in rural Texas doesn't move the needle compared to that. We have had to continue to narrative that we are "just outside" the DFW metroplex to garner attention and be attractive to the market chances.

However, I think we are starting to see bounce back from the market focused realignment thanks to schools like Southern Miss or App State. Gruesome and others are touching on the fact that maybe conferences should focus on smaller cities/markets. Tarleton is not going to move the needle in DFW media, but being slightly isolated means we're they only show in town. Fans in Hattiesburg support Southern Miss because its the only show in town, Same with SFA in Nac and the Hogs in Kingsville. Showing 10-15k in a stadium in Kingsville looks better on TV than 2000 in the stands for HBU

[wisdomgymrat]

Re: Update on Tarleton Football Stadium

They had an open house last night of the new stadium. Haven't found pictures. Will get back to you when I do.

[Texan37]

Re: Update on Tarleton Football Stadium

They had an open house last night of the new stadium. Haven't found pictures. Will get back to you when I do.

so are they waiting to give the grand opening until they have completed a face lift on the visitor press box and finished the replay board? or was the open house the opening? if so it was a lame showing.

[TSUTexans]

Re: Update on Tarleton Football Stadium

From what I have heard, there will be a Grand Opening in early August. The open house last night was made available to allow individuals looking to purchase season tickets the opportunity to pick out their seats.

[Texan37]

Re: Update on Tarleton Football Stadium

Tarleton sports has a few new photos up on instagram, they are ripping up the track to resurface it. They have a good picture of the stadium, it looks to be complete (all purple seat backs are in). i'm ready to see the new score board goin up.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByTBjy2F53X/

[ASURAM2010]

Re: Update on Tarleton Football Stadium

Tarleton sports has a few new photos up on instagram, they are ripping up the track to resurface it. They have a good picture of the stadium, it looks to be complete (all purple seat backs are in). i'm ready to see the new score board goin up.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByTBjy2F53X/

Sucks that they couldn't find a place to put the track somewhere else. But other than that, it looks great!

[Buff Fan 05]

Re: Update on Tarleton Football Stadium

Tarleton sports has a few new photos up on instagram, they are ripping up the track to resurface it. They have a good picture of the stadium, it looks to be complete (all purple seat backs are in). i'm ready to see the new score board goin up.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByTBjy2F53X/

That home side is very nice. From the outside it looks better than WTs, IMO. I'm impressed

[AngeloFan]

Re: Update on Tarleton Football Stadium

Did another drive by on Friday looks nice

[Techster88]

Re: Update on Tarleton Football Stadium

Is the new track surface going to be purple? The tennis courts are purple.

[Texan37]

Re: Update on Tarleton Football Stadium

Sucks that they couldn't find a place to put the track somewhere else. But other than that, it looks great!

i know! it would be great if they could move the track else where and make it a football only stadium. they have a turfed Rec field with a small set of bleachers would be a nice place for them to put the track.

[Texan37]

Re: Update on Tarleton Football Stadium

so the new video board is going up there are some good pictures up on the Tarleton Athletics Facebook page. they say in the post that it will be 66 foot and it is located on the field house side. LOOKIN GOOD!! how big is the WT board gonna be?

[BuffTough]

Re: Update on Tarleton Football Stadium

36 Feet tall and 50 Feet wide. They are almost done installing. Going to be pretty.

[ras619]

Re: Update on Tarleton Football Stadium

36 Feet tall and 50 Feet wide. They are almost done installing. Going to be pretty.

Confirmed that 50' wide is the video screen with the entire scoreboard being 70' wide.