The Chanticleer

Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Matt McRae Talk of upgrades to Paul Snow Stadium remains despite low attendance at JSU football games.

The stage was all set this past Saturday.

You see, with a win over Eastern Illinois, the Jacksonville State Gamecock football team would have almost been assured a playoff spot.

It was by far the team's biggest game of the year.

Never mind the final score (37-23 in favor of the other guys). We've all seen the same football movies. You know, the ones where in spite of the team's loss, the fans were there, screaming and cheering on every misguided play, chanting the name of every heroic underdog. Capacity stadiums, filled with fans who would love and crave nothing more than to see the team--their team--win the big game, or at least leave bloody and bruised trying.

Saturday in Jacksonville, the big game was there.

The blood and the bruises were there, too.

The fans, however, were not.

Paul Snow Stadium, home of the Gamecock football team, seats about 15,000 fans.

Saturday? The recorded attendance was 8,202. And those who were there say that number is being nice.

"If there were 8,000 people in that stadium, I will personally walk into [JSU head coach] Jack Crowe's office and French kiss him," as one anonymous attendee put it bluntly.

Crowe put it frankly himself.

"The atmosphere didn't help us any," he told reporters after the game. "I don't know what we have to do to get people to realize that Eastern Illinois is always a big game."

Some said you could hear a pin drop in Paul Snow Stadium on Saturday, it was so quiet.

Again, this was the biggest game of the year.

JSU lost, sure. A team losing is nothing new in football. It happens in every college football game, after all.

But what makes JSU's situation so unique and so prone to criticism is the fact that those in charge have, as some would put it, delusions of grandeur.

They want the stadium to be bigger. With more seats.

Naturally, most who hear this idea have one similar question.

Why?

Bottom of its own state

In the state of Alabama, football is life. Anyone who has seen a 16-year-old linebacker's father crying during the second quarter of a September high school football game can tell you that.

JSU has the unfortunate burden of playing college football in a state with two gridiron kings: Alabama and Auburn.

Oftentimes, they have to schedule their Saturday games at the same time that one of these schools is playing.

Safe to say that there are more people in Jacksonville who would rather sit at home and watch the Tide or the Tigers play on TV than they would take one of the empty concrete seats at Paul Snow on a muggy October afternoon.

Athletic director Jim Fuller is well aware of this fact. There's just not much he can do about it.

The attendance figures for 2007 show it. Of JSU's five home football games in 2007, the average attendance was 9,767 according to numbers provided by JSUs sports information department.

There are those who think that the quick fix of moving all of JSU's home games to Thursday nights to avoid competing with Auburn or Alabama games.

However' JSU's lowest attendance of the year came on its only Thursday night game, an October 4 game against Tennessee-Martin. Only 5982 were reported to attend that game.

"The scheduling of the games is on me," Fuller said. "But we have to keep our competition's interest in mind, too. There's also things like Preview Day and Homecoming when we have to account for all of our out-of-town visitors."

Money talks, but does it win?

To get the money to pay for the expected renovations and upgrades (more seats, a new press box and luxury skyboxes) there is only one ticket.

Football--it is the one sport that makes money at practically every university.

Fuller recalls the first time he saw new tennis courts at the University of Alabama.

"I asked [athletic director] Mal Moore, 'How did ya'll build this court?' And he said, 'Fuller, how do you think we built it?' Football money."

To make money in the FCS (formerly Division 1AA, JSU's current division) a football team usually either has to win its conference, something JSU did twice in 2003 and 2004, or receive money from an FBS (formerly Division 1A) school who is looking for an easy win.

In the world of big-time college football, JSU is what is termed as a "cupcake," or an easy win for a big-time school.

There is no shame in accepting money from the likes of an Ohio State or Florida to play you if you are a smaller school that maybe, just maybe can pull off a big upset and gain some national notoriety (re: Appalachian State's victory over Michigan in 2007). It's an extremely common practice.

Over the past few seasons, JSU has played the likes of Memphis, Mississippi State, Kansas, UAB and in 2008 will travel to Georgia Tech. They lost each of these previous games, but they were all nice paydays for the school.

OVC rival Tennessee Tech played Auburn in 2007. JSU has tried to schedule Alabama or Auburn on its schedule for years, knowing a game against one of the state's two powerhouses would be a huge boost in revenue.

And what about the worst-kept secret on campus: JSU not only wants to upgrade its stadium, it wants to move up to the big boy's division. Will that mean more money?

According to NCAA information, only 23 university athletic programs netted a profit in 2006. A move up to the FBS likely would mean more of a net loss for JSU athletics every year.

To make up for that money, Paul Beezly, Assistant Professor of History and outspoken opponent to a potential move up in divisions, the students' tuition would likely be the main source.

"Moving up in division doesn't appear to make any sense at all," Beezly said. "We need to spend the money elsewhere."

In the works

To sweeten the deal for detractors, and to help generate revenue for the planned upgrades and renovations, the stadium upgrade plan has been coupled with the much needed addition of student housing.

According to the President's Report at the October 15 Board of Trustees meeting, 96 percent of JSU's available beds were occupied, and it was "highly recommend[ed] that the University consider adding at least 400 beds to campus."

Fuller sees the school's need for housing as a unique opportunity to gain revenue for stadium upgrades.

"Since we started discussing stadium improvements, several avenues [for revenue] never went through," Fuller said. "So we started looking at other avenues. There is a need for housing on campus. Other than traditional dorm room and shared facilities."

What he proposed was including the rooms as part of a stadium annex that could also house a luxury skybox and a much needed upgraded press box.

The proposed annex, which is still very early in the developmental process, would provide revenue from not only students who rent out the rooms, but also from people interested in renting out the skyboxes (most likely corporate sponsors).

"It's a rather unique deal," Fuller said. "We need both [rooming and stadium upgrades]. The question is, 'Can we combine them both?'"

To appease the detractors, Fuller is well aware how to start.

With a winning football team.

"I know it all starts there," Fuller said.

Beezly agrees, but says even that won't be enough to warrant a move up in division.

"I think it's necessary to carve out a niche in your own division, become a dominant team there. Look at Appalachian State," Beezly, an Appalachian state alum, said. "People know them, now."

As for the stadium upgrade, Beezly is like most who simply ask, "Why now?"

"Honestly, when was the last time you couldn't get a ticket for a JSU game?"

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Kevin Jeffers is the managing editor of The Chanticleer and an intern at The Anniston Star. He can be reached at (256) 782-8192 or at chantyme@gmail.com. You can read his weekly ramblings at kevinflashjeffers.blogspot.com.

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