Maroon and White talk this week- Troy and neutral site games

Spanky.sixpack

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Jul 6, 2012
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You know, you guys are alright......

I enjoyed listening as I ate lunch.

I thought the bit about playing the Troys/UABs/LTechs in Jackson was interesting. I wouldn't be worried about the safety, I'm more concerned with the money aspect. I assume that playing in Starkville is the most expensive and Troy is the least. I would hope Jackson is at least in the middle. If it's the same price for any home game I'd say play them all in Starkville.
 

Coach34

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Jul 20, 2012
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Instead of going to Troy and places like that- I think we should sit down with Jackson and get them to pay half the costs to get teams in and split the gate. We could have 7-8 games in the state of Mississippi every season if we did that. Play 6 in Starkville, and then 1 or 2 in Jackson
 

redbird4state

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I am personally against any game in Jackson, especially with the expansion coming so soon. Our stadium will be the size of the stadium in Jackson and out of town alumni would much rather travel to Starkville than Jackson IMO (Also, the fact that that part of Jackson is not great). I know several Arkansas fans who hate playing in Little Rock wehn they have a much larger and much more beautiful stadium in Fayetteville. I don't mind playing at the Troys of the world as long as our coaches can get our players at least halfway motivated for the games. Just my .02
 

Coach34

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Jul 20, 2012
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I'm out of town alumni- and I would prefer a game or two in Jackson. And I am talking about playing in Jackson as opposed to play at Troy, UAB, and crap like that.
 

oldawg

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Why would the fans who pay extra for club level and sky boxes want to give up games with those amenities to sit out in the elements in Jackson?
 

Coach34

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Why would the fans who pay extra for club level and sky boxes want to give up games with those amenities to sit out in the elements in Jackson?

what club level and sky boxes did they sit in at Troy? When did UAB get skyboxes? We're going to South Alabama in the future- people gonna sit in their skyboxes too?
 

Spanky.sixpack

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Jul 6, 2012
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We're talking about replacing an away game.....

so it's really no loss to us.....except for whatever we'd have to pay Team Sunbelt (or whoever). It's an interesting concept. If the money's not much different, I can see alot of upside to playing this game in Jackson. #1, the City needs all the help it can get. #2, we need to market South Mississippi in my opinion. Give those people a chance to see MSU a hour or two away, and not just USM locally.

We are marketing the "Our State" after all. We've had to play one of these terrible away games seemingly every year, and the games are always close. The only ones that are remotely OK are Tulane and Memphis. The hell with playing at Ruston, Houston, Birmingham and Troy. Unless we're getting some recruiting benefit out of it, I don't see the need in MSU fans spending their money in those cities.
 

johnson86-1

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For the most part, I'd rather have/save money than have the game in Jackson. Playing Tulane, Memphis, UAB, USA or basically any team in a decent city within driving distance is fine. If we end up with a game against La Tech, Troy, or middle Tennessee St., yes maybe it's worth negotiating for a game in Jackson.
 

615dawg

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I've been an advocate of this for a while

Instead of traveling to Troy, Louisiana Tech, South Alabama, etc., Let a group in Jackson pay those schools their gate.

Troy had roughly 30,000 people at the game. At $50 a piece, They had $1.5 MM come in. Let's say expenses, comps and concessions, etc. were a wash.

Coach34 and I offer Troy $1.5 MM for their home game. We book Veterans Memorial in Jackson. Troy is the home team, officially for NCAA purposes, but we market the game as a MSU game in Jackson. We sell 50,000 tickets at $50, $2.5 MM. We also sell $500,000 in concessions. We gross $3 MM, we have to give 10 percent to JSU, so we net $2.7 MM and after patung Troy $1.5 MM, Coach and I have made $1.2 MM.

We duplicate this with an Ole Miss game in off years, and its a nice little deal.

For reference. Western Kentucky and Wyoming have played home games in Nashville, and ULM played a home game in Little Rock a couple weeks ago.
 

patdog

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How hard is it for people to understand he's not talking about moving home games to Jackson. He's talking about getting schools like Troy & UAB to move THEIR home games to Jackson. Trustmark Park has done this with several of our road games at schools like South Alabama, LA-Monroe & LA Tech in the past.
 

BIG EASY

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Aug 22, 2012
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what teams are going to opt to playing another road game in the state of Mississippi instead of home game for them. regardless if it's troy or uab? I could see doing that with an in-state school but not an out of state school doing that. the pay out would have to be huge to get a team to go for that. It would be good for us because it's virtually a home game, but i just don't think teams would go for it.
 

Spanky.sixpack

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Jul 6, 2012
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We should never team with Ole Miss on anything. Just saying......

And if you get rid of that kick back to JSU, you break even. Where did that come from? Is that some state requirement for playing at Vet. Memorial?
 
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patdog

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We did it twice in Florida several years ago. Wyoming moved a home game against Tennessee to Nashville a few years ago. If Troy was given a choice between selling 28,000 tickets at $30 each or selling 60,000 tickets at $50 each, there's a good chance they would do it too. They'd turn $840,000 of revenues into $3,000,000.
 

Coach34

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For the most part, I'd rather have/save money than have the game in Jackson. Playing Tulane, Memphis, UAB, USA or basically any team in a decent city within driving distance is fine. If we end up with a game against La Tech, Troy, or middle Tennessee St., yes maybe it's worth negotiating for a game in Jackson.


but some of the names you just mentioned arent within driving distance for some people. Not all State fans live in Starkville or north Mississippi
 

Spanky.sixpack

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Jul 6, 2012
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Umm, money. Which we'd split with somebody.....

That somebody is the hard part. City of Jackson, Jackson State, Cowbell9, etc.
 

oldawg

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Oct 25, 2009
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I just imagine that folks who pay extra to attend games at DWS would like to see as many games as they can, now that we have 7 games at home, from their seats and enjoy all the other things that go with attending games at home. Maybe, probably, I'm wrong. Playing in Jackson has no benefits that I remember. Traffic before and after the game was terrible, as well as parking. Maybe you gain some fans from south Mississippi but lose some from the northern part of the state. Surely you'll lose me as I vowed long ago to never attend another game in Jackson.
 

Spanky.sixpack

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Highly doubt we'd offer them 3 mil......

and I don't think Troy keeping the gate revenues is part of the deal.

I could see us offering them more than they'd bring in if the home game were at their place, but not much more.
 

Coach34

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what teams are going to opt to playing another road game in the state of Mississippi instead of home game for them. regardless if it's troy or uab? I could see doing that with an in-state school but not an out of state school doing that. the pay out would have to be huge to get a team to go for that. It would be good for us because it's virtually a home game, but i just don't think teams would go for it.

ULM got 1M each to play UPig and Auburn. Teams will do it.

As 615 mentioned, let's get a group to pay South Alabama 1.2M for their home game in 2014. Jackson pays the hotel bill for our team and personnel. The stadium holds 62,500 and would be close to sellout.

State would benefit by not having to go to Mobile.
USA would benefit by getting a little extra money
Jackson would benefit by having all the fans in town spending money in hotels, malls, and restaurants

It's a win for the state and a shorter drive for alot of our fanbase
 

Toby Nash

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Aug 22, 2012
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I live in the Jackson Metro Area so I'm all for it, but there is a big difference in the Trustmark and Veterans facilities. Trustmark is nice and can accommodate the type of crowd that attends the game(parking, etc.). With Veterans, that is not the case. The last major event they held there (NFL preseason game) was a nightmare as far as parking and entrance to the stadium. I'm sure that some of those issues could be overcome with better planning and resources, though. I don't think the smaller schools will care where they play, as long as they get a check.
 

patdog

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May 28, 2007
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We wouldn't pay them anything. It's their home game. They'd pay us the same guarantee they paid us to play in Troy. And yes, they'd keep all the gate revenues and pay the cost to rent the stadium. That's how it works when you're the home team. Now, in the future we could negotiate say a Starkville-and-Jackson deal with a school like Troy and the split for the Jackson game would be a negotiated amount (ie, we'd split the gate in some way). Which is what Arkansas and ULM apparently did for the Troy "home" game in Little Rock.
 

shsdawg

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I live in the Jackson Metro Area so I'm all for it, but there is a big difference in the Trustmark and Veterans facilities. Trustmark is nice and can accommodate the type of crowd that attends the game(parking, etc.). With Veterans, that is not the case. The last major event they held there (NFL preseason game) was a nightmare as far as parking and entrance to the stadium. I'm sure that some of those issues could be overcome with better planning and resources, though. I don't think the smaller schools will care where they play, as long as they get a check.

The parking, entrance to the stadium, and the concessions at the HS state championships are nightmares. That is for crowds in the 3k to 18k range.
 

Xenomorph

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Feb 15, 2007
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The highest priced ticket at Troy was $35, not accounting for whatever increased donations they took in regarding season ticket holders. A large portion of the 29K in attendance was general admission. Lower than the $35.
 

Maroonthirteen

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Aug 22, 2012
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I believe Arkansas' game with ULM; was a ULM home game. Arkansas plays 8 games in Arkansas this year. Point is, we would have to find a school struggling to meet the FBS attendance requirements, and have a State person with a milion dollars to fork over, plus line pockets in Jackson to use the stadium. You might find a school willing to play us in MS as their home game. However, I doubt you find anyone associated with State that has that much money and interest in having a game in Jackson.

I think as close as we will come to this happening is playing a 3 or 2 for 1 with the Nasty Bunch in Hattiesburg. Speaking of which, I see they are going to Fayetteville next season. That will be a nice WalMart check.
 

Coach34

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Jul 20, 2012
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It doesnt have to be a State person to get the game there- and the group that puts it together would make money doing it. It would also be easy to get the JSU people to support it:

Group- "We want State to play a game at the stadium on Oct 13th. We will pay you 125K to make that happen"

JSU- "where do I sign?"
 
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KurtRambis4

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Aug 30, 2006
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Pops,

read the posts...he's talking about replacing an AWAY game...not replacing a HOME game, an AWAY game. Nobody that has club level/skybox tickets at our place will be losing out on this.
 

BulldogLegacy

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Recently, I have found that the board has imploded with posters who choose not to read the body of a post or just read whatever they choose to notice.
 

Spanky.sixpack

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Jul 6, 2012
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In a current 2 for 1 contract, that may work.....

but we're talking about scheduling them in Jackson as OUR home game, in the future. If I understand this correctly.

We'd have to pay them the guarantee, which we'd likely split with some Jackson entity. Then split the revenue. I figure to convince them to do this, most teams would want a guarantee of more than they'd bring in at a home game. But honestly, if we didn't have a 2 for 1 in place, they wouldn't have that leverage. But they could leverage other big schools' offers for home games though.

And the Arkansas/ULM game was a home game all the way for Arkansas. They have always purposely played 2 games at War Memorial every year.
 
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HotMop

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May 8, 2006
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I'm all for what you said EXCEPT for moving any of the Egg Bowls to Jackson. Home, Away, then Jackson...NEVER.
 

oldawg

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Oct 25, 2009
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read the posts...he's talking about replacing an AWAY game...not replacing a HOME game, an AWAY game. Nobody that has club level/skybox tickets at our place will be losing out on this.

I'm pretty sure I understand what's been suggested, sonny. But, I still don't see a need in playing any games in Jackson, for whatever reason, ever again. Especially at a SWAC stadium. Especially now that we're expanding DWS. Especially now that we have a great gameday atmosphere on campus, which has to be good for recruiting. How do those things travel to Jackson? Have the rules changed? Can you even bring recruits to a game in Jackson now? Maybe so. I think someone is putting the cart before the horse, that's all. "Pops" has been down this heady road before. There's time to think about all this stuff. But, right now, big time football is played in Starkville. Not Jackson.
 

RocketDawg

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I fully agree. MSU is located in Starkville, not Jackson. And Troy (and other "smaller" schools) are located in their respective towns. There's nothing magic about Jackson. I certainly wouldn't go to a game down there. When I was a student, most of our games were there (and Ole Miss's too, I think) and as a student I couldn't afford to make the trip. I can see no reason to have a game there.
 

patdog

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May 28, 2007
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You're definitely not understanding this correctly. NO ONE is talking about moving any games from Starkville to Jackson. No one. They're talking about playing a future game in Jackson INSTEAD OF ON THE ROAD in a 2-for-1 deal. For instance, instead of playing 2 in Starkville and 1 in Mobile, which is the contract for this weekend's game; we'd play 2 in Starkville and 1 in Jackson.

The Arkansas-ULM game was structured as a ULM home game to help ULM with the attendance requirement. It was essentially a buy game for Arkansas in real terms though. Again, NO ONE is suggesting that we move a buy game from Starkville to Jackson.
 

Coach34

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Jul 20, 2012
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I fully agree. MSU is located in Starkville, not Jackson. And Troy (and other "smaller" schools) are located in their respective towns. There's nothing magic about Jackson. I certainly wouldn't go to a game down there. When I was a student, most of our games were there (and Ole Miss's too, I think) and as a student I couldn't afford to make the trip. I can see no reason to have a game there.

So going to Troy and Mobile is better than playing in Jackson instead?

You guys are looking at this wrong. Nobody is saying to move games from Starkville- we are saying to move games away from podunk away stadiums. It's not a comparision of Starkville vs Jackson. It's a comparision of Troy vs Jackson, Mobile vs Jackson, Ruston vs Jackson...
 

barely

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Aug 28, 2012
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Jackson is fine for a basketball game once a year....we should NEVER go there in football. Troy, UAB, or whoever will want the same amount to travel there as they would to Starkville. If the people and businesses in Starkville support MSU football, then MSU football should support them. I live in Birmingham and would rather go to Murfreesboro or Mobile than to go to Jackson.
 

Coach34

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thats just stupid. Did you go to Ruston to watch us play? Or would you have been likely to go if it was in Jackson instead?

You people arent understanding apparently. We are trying to avoid having road games at podunk schools campuses. By playing in Jackson, the money stays in-state, bigger crowds, and we have the home-crowd advantage instead of being on the road.
 

oldawg

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Oct 25, 2009
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thats just stupid. Did you go to Ruston to watch us play? Or would you have been likely to go if it was in Jackson instead?

You people arent understanding apparently. We are trying to avoid having road games at podunk schools campuses. By playing in Jackson, the money stays in-state, bigger crowds, and we have the home-crowd advantage instead of being on the road.

Damn, I thought I was through with this. The money stays in MS when the game is played in Starkville. And it'll help Starkville more than it'll help Jackson. But my biggest thing is "bigger crowds"! Sez who? Granted we had huge crowds there years ago, but the biggest were double header games with Mississippi playing there on the same day. Give me a break. DWS will be as big as Veterans in 2014, we'll have a definite home crowd advantage, and we can show recruits a good time easily enough. Why would we want to show them Jackson? The only reason we're talking about this is that we've played in Jackson before. And a lot of people, myself included, came to hate the experience. We don't owe Jackson anything. Why do we want to emulate Arkansas. If we do this, anytime soon, then yes, we are Mississippi State. It would be just like us to ruin a good thing.
 

johnson86-1

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Aug 22, 2012
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but some of the names you just mentioned arent within driving distance for some people. Not all State fans live in Starkville or north Mississippi

No where is within driving distance for everybody. New Orleans, Memphis, Birmingham, and Mobile are about as easy of a drive as you're going to get if you're trying to find a football opponent in a city with enough hotels and restaurants to accommodate the fans. If you can find a way to make money off a Jackson game or to at least end up in roughly the same place financially as you would playing at a La Tech or Troy, great, I don't think anybody that understood that concept would disagree. But otherwise, being in Jackson isn't really any better than Memphis, Birmingham, or New Orleans.
 

Spanky.sixpack

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Jul 6, 2012
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No, I get it.......

But if that's the case, you won't need any Jackson entity or MSU to cough up dough to play Troy. They collect the gate proceeds, and that is that.

I think the original point was basically not a 2 for 1, but basically just a buy game on our part, located in Jackson. Some Jackson entity helps us pay for the guarantee.

Where this differs from a regular home game, is that we can afford to play an extra game in the State of MS instead of signing up for 2 for 1s. But there's a down side to that. Then we don't get those 2 games in Starkville either.