75,000 in Davis Wade Stadium...

BigMotherTucker · May 7, 2010

/Thoughts?

BigMotherTucker · May 7, 2010

/Thoughts?

ScoobaDawg · May 7, 2010

It can be done..of course not in the current infrastructure.
But it can be done in the next 5-7 years with a consistently winning football team.
If MSU can start going to a bowl game every season including this upcoming one..and with an aggressive marketing strategy
connecting with the local fanbase (creating "t-shirt fans..and not just local alumni) we can take over columbus, meridian, tupelo
and get that support.

It all comes down to winning.
If we win...new heights will continue to occur in MSU athletic support.

BigMotherTucker · May 7, 2010

Winning is the key. It just shocked me seeing that number in Stricklins email just now.

8dog · May 7, 2010

ScoobaDawg · May 7, 2010

MSU124 · May 7, 2010

Where can i find this email?

patdog · May 7, 2010

</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes"><td style="BORDER-RIGHT: #ece9d8; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: #ece9d8; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: #ece9d8; PADDING-TOP: 0in; BORDER-BOTTOM: #ece9d8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" valign="top"><h4 style="MARGIN: 7.5pt 0in auto">Letter From New MSU Athletic Director Scott Stricklin

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Dear Mississippi State family,



Over the past couple of years, Mississippi State has seen an unprecedented amount of excitement and optimism surrounding Bulldog Athletics. We've led the nation in increased football attendance and installed one of the largest HD video boards in college sports. Bulldog Club memberships and season ticket sales are at new highs, as are passion and energy for all things Maroon.



Much of the credit for this goes to my predecessor and good friend, Greg Byrne, whose openness and leadership instilled great confidence. But Greg always acknowledged that the real heroes behind this Bulldog Renaissance were the students, alumni, fans, coaches and staff who worked tirelessly in support of MSU Athletics.



Today, I accept the challenge of leading the Mississippi State athletic department and continuing the momentum that we've all worked so hard to achieve. I'd like to thank Dr. Keenum for giving me this opportunity to positively impact the future of our University. It is a role that I've dreamed of ever since I arrived in Starkville and began working in college athletics 22 years ago.



Mississippi State is my home and college athletics is my passion. I'm humbled and blessed to be able to have the job of a lifetime in a place that means so much to me and my family.



So what's next for us, the Mississippi State family? Our staff will continue to provide an unbelievable Bulldog experience on game day and beyond. The emphasis on customer service remains the same, as do the dreams and vision of what we need to take our athletic programs to a new level of success. And there'll continue to be a strong emphasis on communicating with the students, alumni and fans, whether by Twitter, weekly emails, or good old fashioned face-to-face meetings.



By focusing on our student-athletes, possessing great integrity and aggressively marketing and promoting Mississippi State, we can and will compete for championships. We'll also continue to challenge our loyal supporters to join the Bulldog Club and buy season tickets, thereby giving our energetic and innovative coaches and staff the tools necessary to lead our student-athletes to victory.



And, finally, we'll do some dreaming. We'll dream of a day when a majority of Mississippians wear Maroon on Fridays. We'll dream of a day when 75,000 fans routinely fill Davis Wade Stadium on fall Saturdays. We'll dream of a day when every Bulldog sport competes in postseason play and every student-athlete graduates. And we'll dream of a day when everyone recognizes what we already know, that Mississippi State is a dynamic brand in the world of college athletics, one synonymous with winning, excitement and fun.



The last lines of our fight song, "Hail State," implore us all to "Fight for Mississippi State, Win that Game Today." Notice that it doesn't say anything about "trying" or "doing what's convenient" for MSU, or to "make a good showing today." It says "fight" and "win" - two powerful words that embody what being a Bulldog is all about.



Let's go fight and win together. For Mississippi State.



Go Dawgs!



Scott





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ScoobaDawg · May 7, 2010

If we kept the ratio of student tickets to overall at ~20% as it is right now that bumps up from 11k to 15k,
So from 55,000 + 4k to 75,000 is still another 16,000 more tickets.

It can be done.. the support is there if we win.

8dog · May 7, 2010

ScoobaDawg · May 7, 2010

and I hope Scott will finally get the student bulldog club up and running.
Students will be more likely to continue being invested in the bulldog club if they are already involved and earning credit as a student.

MY BIGGEST QUESTION and PEEVE.. is this...we just graduated over 2,000 students who we did not attempt to recruit in the Bulldog Club at all. Nobody from the BC
contacted them, gave out any info, or anything. THIS IS A MAJOR LOST CHANCE that CONTINUES to occur every year. Now the BC will have to RE-RECRUIT these alumni.
Other university's are very proactive in this area with either student groups while in school (such as the student bulldog club I mentioned above) or by giving the student a free year of dues free membership in the club.

AdamDawgDude · May 7, 2010

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May 3, 2010

Dear
Wildcat Fans,

I cannot
begin to tell you what an honor it is for me to begin work and serve the
University of Arizona as the 11th Director of Athletics. 

First off,
I want to thank Dr. Shelton and the Arizona Board of Regents for entrusting
me and my family with this position and the responsibility that goes with
it. Regina, Nickand Davis are anxious to join me in Tucson this
summer.

Obviously,
anytime there is a change in leadership in any organization the day-to-day
and long-term look of the organization will evolve. That will happen
here, but it will not be done by one person. I am going to spend my
first few months meeting with our coaches, staff, student-athletes and
donors/fans. We will review our academic structure, study the facility
master plan, analyze the budget, and make sure that we are up-to-date on the
issues and challenges we face. 

We will
not promise you a certain number of wins or a certain graduation rate
(although we will never be happy unless it is 100%). What we will
promise you is that we will give Relentless
Effort each day as we serve the University of Arizona, our
student-athletes and our fans. As we give that kind of effort, we will
demand our student-athletes give that same effort in their academics,
athletics and making themselves the best people they can be. 

We will
also ask our donors and fans to give great effort in supporting the
University of Arizona. It will be our goal to be the best overall
athletics department in the Pac-10 and consistently one of thetop 10
programs in the country. That cannot happen without great effort on our
part and great support from our fans. It will take all of us pulling in
the same direction. We need you to market and promote the
University of Arizona every opportunity that you get andALL of us need
to be doing that together. We will be communicating with you regularly
about steps we all can take to be involved and promote the University of
Arizona. 

We are in
the experience business. We want the best possible experience for our
student-athletes so that the best student-athletes in Arizona and the country
want to become a Wildcat and stay engaged after they graduate. We also
want our fan base to have a great experience and, because of that, we will
insure that you receive excellent customer service when interacting with our
ticket office, Wildcat Club and every other part of our department, as well
as our athletic venues. 

You also
will hear from us on a regular basis through social media networks like
Twitter and Facebook. In fact, I would encourage you to follow me
personally on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Greg_Byrne
and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/GregByrneAD.


We soon
will begin writing a weekly blog/email to our fan base. This will be a
short piece that will address issues and subjects within our athletic
department on a weekly basis. In my next email, we will include information
on how you can become a permanent part of this weekly email list. All
my weekly email communications will be archived on http://arizonawildcats.com/adblog.

Thank you
for taking the time to read this and please share with others that you feel
would enjoy getting updates from me and Arizona Athletics on a regular basis.

Bear Down!

Greg Byrne
Director of Athletics
University of Arizona
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Porkchop.sixpack · May 7, 2010

we are headed for mad people and gnashing of teeth in a year or so over season football ticket sales. Our average crowds were almost at stadium capacity. And if things continue, we are going to run out of seats way before we can deliver more. I don't think we can deliver more seating (like we are going to want to build) in less than 1 year after breaking ground. And the word is that we are 2 years away at least from breaking ground. If things keep up, in three years, we are going to have people who are used to gettting season tickets who don't get any -- sort of like basketball.

75,000 is just not that far away if you ask me. You could probably put 75,000 in an Egg Bowl game now.

BigMotherTucker · May 7, 2010

he is gone.

ScoobaDawg · May 7, 2010

We will sell out season tickets this year..that is a fact
As long as we have a winning season and even better sneak out a bowl win next season will create never before ticket demand.
What happens then is more people pay the premium to the bulldog club for guarnteed tickets, the $115 sky dawg reduced rate ticket package goes away..same as the partial season tickets promo packages. Everything goes to the full price except for student tickets.
This is a very good problem to have for 2-3 years as you are planning and building.

Having a premium on your ticket is the key for our product, much like how you can not get a ticket at the top schools in the conference for football (and like the Hump).

AdamDawgDude · May 7, 2010

BigMotherTucker said:
he is gone.

He still loves me....

I got this e-mail because I signed up for some Arizona sports version of 'Maroon to the Max' when we played a baseball series out there. They would periodically send me e-mails and I never got around to taking myself off of the list. I just got this on the other day and found it interesting.

FlabLoser · May 7, 2010

Porkchop said:
we are headed for mad people and gnashing of teeth in a year or so over season football ticket sales. Our average crowds were almost at stadium capacity. And if things continue, we are going to run out of seats way before we can deliver more. I don't think we can deliver more seating (like we are going to want to build) in less than 1 year after breaking ground. And the word is that we are 2 years away at least from breaking ground. If things keep up, in three years, we are going to have people who are used to gettting season tickets who don't get any -- sort of like basketball.

75,000 is just not that far away if you ask me. You could probably put 75,000 in an Egg Bowl game now.

Do you think Florida fan, Bama fan, or LSU fan can just up and casually go pick up some season tickets? No. Those places are in high demand.

Now is sucks that our house is small. I've been preaching to you folks that we need to build it bigger. I guess now there's some belief to that.

Dawgbreeze · May 7, 2010

That is most folks. i also think we have many on these boards who never buy a season ticket, yet they ***** the loudest. That is ashamed. I hope one day nobody can get a ticket unless they buy a season ticket. Then, we will have arrived and there are no more excuses.

missouridawg · May 7, 2010

Is that I think this would be his dream job... and there's nothing else out there for him to look at.<div>
</div><div>If he's a great AD, then we're really lucky to have him.</div>

nsvltndog · May 7, 2010

In 1985 we had 32,000 seatsat Scott Field.
1986-2001 - 41,200 seats ~Cost $7.2M
2002-2010 - 55,082 seats ~Cost $30M

We are up 23,000 seats in 25 years and actually the capacity was in placein just 17 years. I think most would admit that we finally grew into our current stadium capacity this past season, but that it is definitely time to move forward on another expansion.Our projected 20,000+student body being a part of some upcoming winning seasons could create a much larger conversion rate to alumni season ticket holders than we had during the rather lackluster last decade.

Securing some large lead gifts plus a lot of $25K and above pledges over 5 years is critical to movingthe stadium expansion and new dedicated football facility from the current renderings to the construction phase.

mstatedawgs · May 7, 2010

it would be nice.. that'd add another level of club seats/suites = premium prices. i've been wishing they'd bowl it in since i was a freshman (97)

ArrowDawg · May 7, 2010

My thoughts are that expansion is an absurd notion for a program that hasn't done **** in a decade, and rarely did anything before that except for the 1990s. Expanding the stadium won't draw better recruits, and it won't make us win. The only way it'd do that is if we had better facilities than everyone else, and that ain't happening.

Like Scooba said, it'll take several years of winning to do it, and honestly there's no reason to do it unless we prove we can win. What we have right now is plenty capacity for the fans who still blindly followthis loser football program. If or when Mullen changes it into a winning program, then we may have a capacity issue. I'm cautiously optimistic he can do that, but it's hard to believe inanything at MSU until I see it.

vhdawg · May 7, 2010

sheesh

Mr Meoff · May 7, 2010

dawgstudent · May 8, 2010

[No message]

patdog · May 8, 2010

he's managed to go this long without killing himself. Based on his posts, I think that's quite an accomplishment for him.

wbc40 · May 8, 2010

Sweet Lord, she is stunning.

75,000 in Davis Wade Stadium...

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