Jackson game thread to answer questions that have been raised

maroonmania

Senior
Feb 23, 2008
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I don't understand why people can't get the primary point of what Coach34 and others are talking about. Its not about what town MSU fans would most like to vacation in. This is about what's good for OUR football program. Its about not sending our football team into places where we have nothing to gain and everything to lose against a team that's jacked up by their home crowd while we are disinterested. The top SEC programs don't put their teams in those situations, they just don't. Hopefully as a byproduct its also much easier for MOST MSU fans to get to a Jackson game than some other away venue OUTSIDE the state but that's not the ultimate reason for doing this if we did it.
 

TUSK.sixpack

Redshirt
Mar 3, 2008
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I thought that was an excellent first post... kudos!

if i were smart enough to give you a point, i would.
 

Dawgzilla

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Mar 3, 2008
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I'm still not sure the math works on this.

According to what I could find -- and knowing the numbers may be a little off -- MSU is paying South Alabama $400,000 for each of its appearances in Starkville. That is a substantial discount off the going rate for paycheck games. I could not find what USA gets paid by other schools, but Auburn paid ULM just over $1 million for their game. Arkansas paid ULM just under $1 million, but it was a ULM "home" game that they could use for their attendance figures.

Lets say that USA could command something around $900,000 to play in Starkville.

If they played 3 games in Starkville, they would get $2,700,000. Instead, they are getting $800,000 for two games in Starkville, plus a home game against MSU.

That means the home game must be worth right around $2,000,000 to them. I'm not saying they make that much in revenue, I'm saying that the benefits of having an SEC team come to their stadium, plus their revenue, is significant enough that they are willing to leave $2,000,000 on the table. That means you have to come up with a lot more than $2 million to get them to move the game.

Or, just looking it at it another way, they need $1,000,000 to make up for the money they could have made just playing two paycheck games in Starkville, plus another million or so to convince them to move their home game against an SEC opponent over to Jackson.

Maybe my math is wrong, but I think your ticket prices just went up.

I don't know all the details of MSU's future schedules, but I'm really hoping that USA, LA Tech, and, I think, UAB are the only possible teams you could talk to about this deal. I like to think that our current status of consecutive sellouts means it is now profitable enough to just schedule paycheck games in Starkville without worrying about these discounted, return trip deals.
 

barely

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Aug 28, 2012
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All the big time programs like bama and LSU and Oklahoma like to play games at some awful ******** of a stadium rather than their own place...oh, wait, just Arkansas does and it turns out that their fan base hates it. Playing a game in Jackson sets the program back 20 years. We are investing in OUR stadium and making upgrades. Can we kill this conversation for once and all.
 

RocketDawg

All-Conference
Oct 21, 2011
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Yes, but La Tech and Shreveport are in the same state. A fairer comparison with Jackson move for Troy or USA would be moving their home game with A&M to, say, Austin.

Troy might agree to move their game with us to Montgomery or Birmingham, but I'm not sure they'd move it out of state, particularly into the "enemy" state. It wouldn't be fair to their fans. GTHOM had a good point in it being a big deal to get an SEC team to play a game on their campus.
 

RocketDawg

All-Conference
Oct 21, 2011
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Well ... the obvious answer to not putting ourselves into "that situation", i.e., the danger of losing to a small football school, is to not schedule them at all.
 

RocketDawg

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Oct 21, 2011
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Why does it cost less for us to have a "away" game in Jackson than it does to have a home game in Starkville?
 

QuaoarsKing

All-Conference
Mar 11, 2008
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Because the WAC is breaking up and Idaho has to go Independent. NCAA rules require 5 home games and 15,000 average attendance to remain in FBS, so Idaho needs someone to throw them a neutral site game that would count as their home game, so we would probably not have to pay them much of anything. It's just a thought - I'm not necessarily advocating it.
 

Maroon Eagle

All-American
May 24, 2006
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My thought exactly. And this is what Idaho and New Mexico State will have to do in order to survive since they're not in a conference and don't have marquee value.
 

Maroon Eagle

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May 24, 2006
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In fact, now that I'm pondering this some more, I believe MSU should do this next season instead of playing Oklahoma State in Houston-- provided of course that there are schedule openings, and now that I'm looking at fbschedules.com, they're both booked for the first weekend of 2013, but definitely something to consider doing in the next few seasons.
 
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dawgstudent

Heisman
Apr 15, 2003
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I hope you realize that not everyone going to a game in Jackson would live in the Jackson metro.
 

patdog

Heisman
May 28, 2007
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I think Idaho's already dead as far as staying in I-A is concerned. They've got to schedule 4 more I-A home games for next season to get to the 5 minimum they're required to have. 1 of those will be part of a home-and-home with New Mexico St. that hasn't been scheduled yet (that's how desperate these teams are, they're going to have to play twice next season to have any chance at all). And only 1 of the remaining 3 can be an off-campus home game.

Idaho's already playing a road game at Mississippi next season. I think that's going to wind up giving Mississippi two I-AA games next season. Will be interesting to see if the NCAA will give them a waiver to count both toward bowl eligibility. They should.
 

Maroon Eagle

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May 24, 2006
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I think the Vandals still have a little life in them. All they need are three more home games. Idaho's already scheduled to host Northern Illinois. Throw in a game against a FCS school, that's three home games in seven scheduled games. So they'll need two more home games out of the five remaining games they need-- one would be a "neutral site" home game to help boost attendance figures and another would be a second FCS game.
 

patdog

Heisman
May 28, 2007
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They have to have 5 home games against I-A teams. A game against a I-AA team can count towards bowl eligibility, but not towards the 5 I-A home game minimum. Right now they have the Northern Illinois game. They'll add a home and a road game against New Mexico St. They could probably find someone to play them in a "neutral site" home game. So that would give them 3. They'll be doing real good to find even 1 more I-A team to agree to play them at Idaho at this late date, much less 2. Especially given that any team that agrees to play them is taking a risk that Idaho may have to go to I-AA. Idaho just joined a I-AA conference that's a pretty good fit for them in every sport but football a few weeks ago. It's just a question of when, not if, they'll have to join that conference for football too.
 

Maroon Eagle

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Ah... Okay. I was thinking as long as they hosted five against any Division I opponent.
 
Jan 22, 2009
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I wasn't at that game but I have been to the HS State Championships twuce in the last three years. That side of those games was awful, and I was working press for them and had it way better than the fans.

Late to the party here but what exactly about Jackson Memorial Stadium is so awful? I too attend several of the State Championship games and I'm missing what's so terrible about the place. I'm not asking about game operations (video board, sound system, parking, etc.) just the stadium itself.

Also I've heard that Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Arkansas is a **** hole and even appears to be on tv!!!!! That seems to work out for Arkansas though. So why can't it work for us?
 

SixtonPackerish

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Sep 12, 2008
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Again, is this about you or the program? Would it benefit our program more to play in front of 50,000+ in Jackson as a "road game"....or at South Alabama in front of 20,000? But hey, at least the "coasties" would make up 2,000 of that 20,000. Do you see how silly that sounds to complain about? Is Jackson not closer to the coast than Starkville? I think that's all he was saying. He was not directing that at people that drive from the coast to all 7 home games anyway. I'm not trying to be an ***, I'm just saying don't read more into what he said than is necessary. Maybe I read it differently though

Just for clarification, Ladd Peebles seats 40,000 not 20,000. It's 3 hours from Mobile to Jackson, 3 1/2 Mobile to Starkville and about 2 1/2 to 3 from Gulfport to Jackson. Not enough difference to matter if you live along the MS or AL coast.
 

Dawg Jurist

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Aug 22, 2012
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I would be 100% on board with that. I was praying that somehow Tulane would make it back to the SEC West so that I could have an excuse to go to N'awlins every other year.
 

olblue.sixpack

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Aug 14, 2012
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Tech moved their game vs A&M to Shreveport in order to make more money.

UK has been involved in a couple of these deals. They played Miami in Paul Brown Stadium a couple of years ago - very disappointing crowd.

And they are in the middle of a deal with WKU where they are playing two WKU "home" games at LP Field. The first one was a disaster.

Small sample size, but these cases prove its no slam dunk.
 

KurtRambis4

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Aug 30, 2006
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I think

the point is to try to turn an away game into essentially what would be a home game, but still (technically) a road game...I would venture to guess that there were maybe a few thousand State fans at the USA game. However, there would be 20,000 or more if the game were played at a neutral site in MS.<o:p></o:p>