ur76spider wrote:Robins Stadium (that's the name of the on campus stadium) will seat 8700. I know that a number of folks "sneer" at that capacity. However there are a couple of reasons for an 8700 stadium instead of a 12000 to 15000 facility. Richmond is a small private university of around 2800 undergraduates. It is not a 20000 to 30000 student body like VT, UVA, JMU, W&M, ODU, and Delaware. Actually I am not sure about the 20k-30k for W&M and JMU. Also, if UR had proposed a 10000 + capacity, the required approval of the Richmond City Council would not have happened. The neighborhood around the UR campus would fight to keep the stadium under 10k in seating capacity. Also, the people in the Richmond area that do not have "ties" with UR, either having graduating from there or having children who graduated or are currently attending UR, would care less about UR. Richmond is viewed by most non-UR folks as a school that only accepts spoiled, rich, white kids from outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Hence, the measley attendance at UR football and basketball games. It is what it is.
Wow, Richmond sounds quite a bit like Spokane. They'll support GU hoops, Arena Football, and Hockey to the hilt, but EWU and for that matter WSU get very little support considering the population. And we're about an hour closer than WSU as well.
And considering our attendance #'s and the size of our stadium I wasn't intending smack and I like to see the fellow small schools with less of a fan base do well. But I would like to think that a quarterfinal game following a National Championship year would pack 'em in.
Perhaps it's also a marketing problem or lack there of. That's certainly true of EWU.
DJH wrote:CAA is the best conference in football, but when talking about attendance, its pretty weak.
Old Dominion to the rescue!!!!!!!!!!!!
True enough Flagship. No doubt our games will be sold out both places. Have to see how the fan base holds up considering what your record in CAA is likely to be early on, but from what i've seen of ODU fans, +size of school, +many alumni living locally--I think you guys are in business for real.
DJH wrote:CAA is the best conference in football, but when talking about attendance, its pretty weak.
Old Dominion to the rescue!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hell ya! I love what ODU has done. They built a beautiful stadium, have really good fan support and had themselves a nice season. Fahq the CAA come take northern colorado's place in the Big Sky. We would love to have you guys. I think that ODU will be a successful team over the next decade because of the great support and stadium, and let's not forget the 2nd sweetest uniforms in football. You guys have made a fan out of me, plus your basketball coach is our old coach.
-There are football fans, and then there is Griz Nation-
ur76spider wrote:Robins Stadium (that's the name of the on campus stadium) will seat 8700. I know that a number of folks "sneer" at that capacity. However there are a couple of reasons for an 8700 stadium instead of a 12000 to 15000 facility. Richmond is a small private university of around 2800 undergraduates. It is not a 20000 to 30000 student body like VT, UVA, JMU, W&M, ODU, and Delaware. Actually I am not sure about the 20k-30k for W&M and JMU. Also, if UR had proposed a 10000 + capacity, the required approval of the Richmond City Council would not have happened. The neighborhood around the UR campus would fight to keep the stadium under 10k in seating capacity. Also, the people in the Richmond area that do not have "ties" with UR, either having graduating from there or having children who graduated or are currently attending UR, would care less about UR. Richmond is viewed by most non-UR folks as a school that only accepts spoiled, rich, white kids from outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Hence, the measley attendance at UR football and basketball games. It is what it is.
W&M ---5,700 undergrads. JMU --- 16,600.
Slightly off on JMU. Rounded to the nearest 100:
16,900 undergrad, 18,200 total.
Course its come a long way from when I was there. Got there in 93', and there was over 11k. Graduated in 98' and there was under 14k. http://www.jmu.edu/instresrch/project.shtml
Back in 06' there were articles stating that JMU's growth plan for 06'-2013 was to go from 17k-21k. Now it looks like that will be only around 19k by 2013'.
JMU Football:
4 Years FBS: 40-11 (.784). Highest winning percentage & least losses of all of G5 2022-2025.
Sun Belt East Champions: 2022, 2023, 2025
Sun Belt Champions: 2025
Top 25 ranked: 2022, 2023, 2025
CFP: 2025
There's no way that JMU keeps growing their student population and football facilities at their current pace without having a plan to move up in the near future.
Bostonspider wrote:Current stadium seats 22,000 (or almost 8 times student body) New stadium seats 8,700 (or about 3 times the student body).
Old
New
Look at all the people in the stands in the old stadium! There are literally TENS of People! The new stadium looks really nice though. I look forward to checking it out next season when Elon heads to Richmond again
CAA is the best conference in football, but when talking about attendance, its pretty weak.
Delaware averages 20,000 and travels in the thousands also.
Have to give it up to UD fans. You always fill our away seats. Read somewhere recently that Delaware football program tops in FCS in revenue, with Montana 2nd. App State was also doing well, I think. Looking forward to coming up to your place next year.
green&gold75 wrote:
Have to give it up to UD fans. You always fill our away seats. Read somewhere recently that Delaware football program tops in FCS in revenue, with Montana 2nd. App State was also doing well, I think. Looking forward to coming up to your place next year.
I could buy that Delaware is #2 or #3 in revenue, but I'm pretty sure they're nowhere near Montana. I don't have any recent official data for UM and I don't have any data at all for Delaware, but in 2004, the Griz had $3.38 million in ticket sales. Among those public schools that submitted their data for that '04-05 financial reports survey, Montana led all FCS schools while Montana State was a distant second at $870,734. Delaware apparently did not submit their info.
I could buy that Delaware is #2 or #3 in revenue, but I'm pretty sure they're nowhere near Montana. I don't have any recent official data for UM and I don't have any data at all for Delaware, but in 2004, the Griz had $3.38 million in ticket sales. Among those public schools that submitted their data for that '04-05 financial reports survey, Montana led all FCS schools while Montana State was a distant second at $870,734. Delaware apparently did not submit their info.
UD may be #1, #2 or even #3, but your "nowhere near" is a pipe dream. 2007 was $3.5mil in ticket sales and 2009 $2.5mil in Grant-In-Aids are the two numbers I am aware of. I won't claim leadership in either category, but to say we are "nowhere near" is plain wrong.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 1946 · 1963 · 1971 · 1972 · 1979 · 2003
RUNNERS-UP · 1974 · 1978 · 1982 · 2007 · 2010
5 time Division 1-A National Champions & 5 - Final Fours
jd of de wrote:
Delaware averages 20,000 and travels in the thousands also.
Have to give it up to UD fans. You always fill our away seats. Read somewhere recently that Delaware football program tops in FCS in revenue, with Montana 2nd. App State was also doing well, I think. Looking forward to coming up to your place next year.
Thanks green&gold75. We will try to be as gracious in victory as you were in at your place this year. *GRIN*
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 1946 · 1963 · 1971 · 1972 · 1979 · 2003
RUNNERS-UP · 1974 · 1978 · 1982 · 2007 · 2010
5 time Division 1-A National Champions & 5 - Final Fours
green&gold75 wrote:
Have to give it up to UD fans. You always fill our away seats. Read somewhere recently that Delaware football program tops in FCS in revenue, with Montana 2nd. App State was also doing well, I think. Looking forward to coming up to your place next year.
I could buy that Delaware is #2 or #3 in revenue, but I'm pretty sure they're nowhere near Montana. I don't have any recent official data for UM and I don't have any data at all for Delaware, but in 2004, the Griz had $3.38 million in ticket sales. Among those public schools that submitted their data for that '04-05 financial reports survey, Montana led all FCS schools while Montana State was a distant second at $870,734. Delaware apparently did not submit their info.
I haven't been able to backtrack to the source I mentioned above (It reported TOTAL football revenues of over 4 million for UD and UM), but I contacted information at UD athletic dept. They advise that football revenue info isn't routinely given out, so I have to wonder if my data is suspect. Can tell you that UD football website reported in 2008 that Delaware was only FCS school with over 20,000 ave attendance for each of last 9 yrs. UD info for this yr is that top attendance FCS schools for this yr are 1-Montana, 2-App State, 3-Yale (because they draw 50,000+ for Harvard game), 4-Delaware.
Suspecting that most of us live in the real world, I wasn't going to mention this, BUT, IN THEORY, top 4 list for football attendance could change if "eleventy billion" Nova fans show up tomorrow night.
green&gold75 wrote:Suspecting that most of us live in the real world, I wasn't going to mention this, BUT, IN THEORY, top 4 list for football attendance could change if "eleventy billion" Nova fans show up tomorrow night.
