I think there's actually a much more recent event to consider.
Think about the spring game last year. Lots of folks wanted to believe that having the concert and selling tickets would be instant money and the athletic department had a stroke of genius to think of it. If you listened to "This is Our Show" this week, Stricklin himself said "we aren't going to do a concert this year because we didn't do as well as we wanted to financially."
Now, I would honestly put watching State play against South Alabama only slightly above a spring game on the entertainment/drama scale. And while I went to the spring game and would go to a game in Jackson provided I didn't have a work conflict, I think you'd have a similar situation. So if I'm an investor, how can I look at the way the spring game deal played out, when State's Ath. Dep. didn't have to pay stadium fees (other than simple operation), paid significantly less for band/stage/etc than any of these teams would accept to move their game, had built in surrounding events to draw people from (it was Super Bulldog Weekend for crying out loud), charged similarly for tickets, and came to the conclusion that they don't want to try that again, WHY would I want to put myself out there with minimal chance of success?
Now, if we have folks who simply want to throw money at this away game situation to make it go away, that's fine. But I agree with DowntownDawg, to act like this is easy money is erroneous. I would love to our team be able to avoid those trips, but it won't surprise me if we still end up making them.
