Ed Daniels

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Fred Dowler
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tpstulane wrote:Ed made some interesting points on he and Ken Trahan's radio show today. He said if Tulane were ever able to join the Big 12 they would have to play UT, OU, OSU and West Virginia in the dome for football. And in basketball we'd probably have to play Kansas, Texas, OU and West Virginia in New Orleans Arena because Fogelman wouldn't suffice for the big crowds. So that's part of he reasoning behind his theory. It would negate potential revenue from playing on campus. He also mentioned should Fogelman expand on Freret St. to 7K where would people park?
That isn't what he said.

He said that he thinks that Fogelman Arena should be replaced outright rather then merely renovated yet again and that the new arena should be right where the new football stadium has been proposed to be instead of a new football stadium.


Tulane sports: small football stadium, very small basketball arena, w̶i̶n̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶g̶r̶a̶m̶s̶, h̶o̶n̶e̶s̶t̶y̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶a̶b̶i̶l̶i̶t̶y̶ , but, hey, now there's tailgating.
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tpstulane wrote:
jonathanjoseph wrote:Thank you, Ed! Please help Tulane save itself from Scott Cowen!
+1
I've always said let's win for about 3 to 4 years in a row and then gauge our crowd support and go from there. The sad thing is that for the last 60 years or so we haven't had but a few winning seasons in a row.
There really isn't much to gauge. If you win and schedule well in D1A, you draw over 40K. In New Orleans, that gets to 45K-50K faster than anywhere else.

Tulane is not immune to the laws of supply and demand, and only Scott Cowen's leadership would believe as much.
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jonathanjoseph wrote:
tpstulane wrote:
jonathanjoseph wrote:Thank you, Ed! Please help Tulane save itself from Scott Cowen!
+1
I've always said let's win for about 3 to 4 years in a row and then gauge our crowd support and go from there. The sad thing is that for the last 60 years or so we haven't had but a few winning seasons in a row.
There really isn't much to gauge. If you win and schedule well in D1A, you draw over 40K. In New Orleans, that gets to 45K-50K faster than anywhere else.

Tulane is not immune to the laws of supply and demand, and only Scott Cowen's leadership would believe as much.
Maybe I misunderstood what was said.

I was thinking "don't say that Tulane only needs a small-size football stadium and will never, ever need anything more...until the team mounts a streak of 3-4 consecutive winning years and support is still seen to be not very present."
Tulane sports: small football stadium, very small basketball arena, w̶i̶n̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶g̶r̶a̶m̶s̶, h̶o̶n̶e̶s̶t̶y̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶a̶b̶i̶l̶i̶t̶y̶ , but, hey, now there's tailgating.
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Fred Dowler wrote:
Maybe I misunderstood what was said.

I was thinking "don't say that Tulane only needs a small-size football stadium and will never, ever need anything more...until the team mounts a streak of 3-4 consecutive winning years and support is still seen to be not very present."
No I got it. I'm just reiterating that there is no chance that Tulane is some kind of statistical oddity that can't sell winning college football.
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jonathanjoseph wrote:Thank you, Ed! Please help Tulane save itself from Scott Cowen!
Huge +1, Finally someone in the local media that has a clue of whats going on and decides to speak out on it.... Well said Ed!
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tpstulane wrote:
jonathanjoseph wrote:Thank you, Ed! Please help Tulane save itself from Scott Cowen!
+1
I've always said let's win for about 3 to 4 years in a row and then gauge our crowd support and go from there. The sad thing is that for the last 60 years or so we haven't had but a few winning seasons in a row.

Spot on! Tulane needs to save itself from Cowen and Dickson. Will it happen? I am not particularly optimistic.
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jonathanjoseph wrote:
There really isn't much to gauge. If you win and schedule well in D1A, you draw over 40K. In New Orleans, that gets to 45K-50K faster than anywhere else.
I hate to be Debbie Downer JJ but you spout this line regularly. Tulane has never, ever, not even once, drawn a crowd of over 45K when the other team didn't bring 20K of their own fans.
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ajcalhoun wrote:
jonathanjoseph wrote:
There really isn't much to gauge. If you win and schedule well in D1A, you draw over 40K. In New Orleans, that gets to 45K-50K faster than anywhere else.
I hate to be Debbie Downer JJ but you spout this line regularly. Tulane has never, ever, not even once, drawn a crowd of over 45K when the other team didn't bring 20K of their own fans.
You are correct, but...

Tulane has also been a very inconsistent winner, at best, when there haven't been long streaks of losing, which has been most of the time.

The closest that I can recall seeing to such a phenomenon was in the late 1970's - early 1980's.

I do believe strongly that in order to really test the theory that people would respond to seeing Tulane have success that there needs to be around 3-5 years of consistent on-field success, including some wins against well-regarded opposition -- and that hasn't happened since the aforementioned time period.

45,000 does seem like a stretch, though...but I also believe strongly that if you aren't drawing 30 to 35,000 game after game and then 35 to 40,000 at least some of the time your status as "big time" Div. 1 FBS is pretty tenuous. This is the real key issue. You either move forward and grow and have the program going places or else you slip back -- and in Tulane's case there isn't room for a whole lot more backward slippage without falling into the ranks of a lower classification.

Tulane, therefore, needs to really get after it and vastly expand the regular following and general interest level -- and then it also seems like the window of opportunity to move out and up is closing quickly given the number of programs that have already passed Tulane by.

Nonetheless there's this plan to move into a definitively smaller venue.

How are they really going to be able to do that and at the same time do what's genuinely needed in terms of vastly expanding the regular following? They can't. If they really want to have this new and much smaller stadium they might as well not even try to build a 30,000 capacity stadium. It would be a waste, and a 15,000 capacity facility will probably be quite sufficient.
Last edited by Fred Dowler on Sun May 13, 2012 2:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Tulane sports: small football stadium, very small basketball arena, w̶i̶n̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶g̶r̶a̶m̶s̶, h̶o̶n̶e̶s̶t̶y̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶a̶b̶i̶l̶i̶t̶y̶ , but, hey, now there's tailgating.
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Just take the current practice field, add some metal bleaches and voila, you have your new Tulane stadium
which will clearly fit the bill unless we start winning consistently and unless we move up conference wise. If things
do not change, then I do not think there is any point or need in any indoor football practice facility either.
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ajcalhoun wrote:
jonathanjoseph wrote:
There really isn't much to gauge. If you win and schedule well in D1A, you draw over 40K. In New Orleans, that gets to 45K-50K faster than anywhere else.
I hate to be Debbie Downer JJ but you spout this line regularly. Tulane has never, ever, not even once, drawn a crowd of over 45K when the other team didn't bring 20K of their own fans.
I spout facts. For starters, Tulane has never drawn 45K or over because they haven't won or scheduled well in 30 years. I don't disagree that Tulane cannot draw if they don't win or schedule well and have never suggested as much (and the stadium explicitly prevents the possibility of scheduling up).

in 1979, when Tulane went 6-0 in the Superdome, we averaged 48K with LSU, BC, Ole Miss and Ga Tech on the schedule. In 1987 Tulane averaged 39K with Virginia Tech and LSU on the schedule. The 1973 bowl team averaged 46K and the 1980 bowl team averaged 38K. The smallest average attendance for a Tulane bowl team playing a good schedule has been 38K and the average is 42K. 1998 was the exception not the rule because they played no one of note besides Southern Miss which is not a national draw.

To put those attendance figures in context, LSU averaged 67K in 1973, 72K in 1979 and 77K in 1987 and they are at 92K now. If you assume that college football attendance is up about 20% across the board since the 70's/80's, apply a 20% bump to 42K and you are at 50K.

Which makes sense becauselots of opposing teams bring their fan bases. That is an advantage Tulane has, not a liability. So yes, it's still suggests relatively "weak demand" for Tulane football by noting that a good Tulane program in a world famous venue/city could "only" draw 50K, or a little above NCAA average. And that would make sense for a smaller student body, private school, etc. TCU drew 42K playing a MWC schedule (will surely get to 50K playing Big 12), Miami averages 53K, USC averages 80K. Etc.

But ALL of the evidence suggests a successful Tulane program that schedules well should draw 50K.
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Can someone who is tech savvy and has time please forward this to all of the board members. I'm sure there was a thread on this site w/all of their e-mails. Thanks in advance. This will let them know it's not just a few fans who see it this way but also a long time member of the local media who has always wanted to see Tulane win.
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jonathanjoseph wrote:
ajcalhoun wrote:
jonathanjoseph wrote:
1998 was the exception not the rule because they played no one of note besides Southern Miss which is not a national draw.
And even then that average skewed downwards because of tropical storm warnings, and mismanagement wrt ticket windows. Better management and little bit luckier in the weather and Tulane would've averaged about 32,000. Not terrific, but given the hole Tulane was digging from, respectable.
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Can someone who is tech savvy and has time please forward this to all of the board members. I'm sure there was a thread on this site w/all of their e-mails. Thanks in advance. This will let them know it's not just a few fans who see it this way but also a long time member of the local media who has always wanted to see Tulane win.

Plus 1...Someone please take on this project.

Would not hurt to throw this info out to the Board Of Admin for consideration... Especially if Stadium gets bogged down with City Counsel, and we do well under CJ and Big 12 shows interest. State of the Art practice facility and 7,000 new basketball arena, makes so much more sense at that point. Staying in the dome to play Big 12 scheduled would be a must.
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ajcalhoun wrote:
I hate to be Debbie Downer JJ but you spout this line regularly. Tulane has never, ever, not even once, drawn a crowd of over 45K when the other team didn't bring 20K of their own fans.
That is false.
In the 1970s and 80s, Ole Miss wasn't sending anywhere near 20k to the superdome. Not even close. That's a recent phenomenon. Georgia Tech brought 20K? LOL. They never brought anywhere near that many. Now maybe we never drew 45K for G Tech. But we drew 40K and they never had 5K much less 20K.
Where I do agree with Joseph is that the demand for college football has swelled dramatically, particularly in the SEC.
We'll draw if we win and if we play a legitimate schedule.
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if you wish to send an email to the board , address it to [email protected]
she will forward a proper letter expressing an opinion contrary to the university
give her your name and address and relationship as an alumnus or friend or whatever
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DrBox wrote:
ajcalhoun wrote:
I hate to be Debbie Downer JJ but you spout this line regularly. Tulane has never, ever, not even once, drawn a crowd of over 45K when the other team didn't bring 20K of their own fans.
That is false.
In the 1970s and 80s, Ole Miss wasn't sending anywhere near 20k to the superdome. Not even close. That's a recent phenomenon. Georgia Tech brought 20K? LOL. They never brought anywhere near that many. Now maybe we never drew 45K for G Tech. But we drew 40K and they never had 5K much less 20K.
.
Georgia Tech 10/25/75 L 0-23 63,333

Georgia Tech 10/27/79 W 12-7 51,963
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DrBox wrote:
ajcalhoun wrote:
I hate to be Debbie Downer JJ but you spout this line regularly. Tulane has never, ever, not even once, drawn a crowd of over 45K when the other team didn't bring 20K of their own fans.
That is false.
In the 1970s and 80s, Ole Miss wasn't sending anywhere near 20k to the superdome. Not even close. That's a recent phenomenon.
Dr you're wrong on Ole Miss as well. We crushed John Fourcade and his Rebel bunch on National television during that period in front of 40k plus in the Dome for a day game.
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ajcalhoun wrote:
jonathanjoseph wrote:
There really isn't much to gauge. If you win and schedule well in D1A, you draw over 40K. In New Orleans, that gets to 45K-50K faster than anywhere else.
I hate to be Debbie Downer JJ but you spout this line regularly. Tulane has never, ever, not even once, drawn a crowd of over 45K when the other team didn't bring 20K of their own fans.
Georgia Tech, '73?, '75
Stanford '79 (maybe a little less than 45)

I agree it has been rare. However you DID say NEVER. :mrgreen:
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tpstulane
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Ok since we're talking about attendance I went back to an old media guide and dug up some interesting numbers:
All games listed were played at home in the Dome (Terrence Level was opened back then)
1979 (9-3) Larry Smith
Stanford 44,326 win 33-10
SMU 42,563 win 24-17
Georgia Tech 51,963 win 12-7
Ole Miss 45,647 win 49-15
LSU 73,496 win 24-13

1980 (7-5) Vince Gibson
USM 44,698
Rice 40,321
SMU 42,563
Kentucky 42,139

1981 (6-5) Vince G
Ole Miss 43,685
Clemson 45,736
LSU 71,546 win 48-7

1982 (4-7) First losing season in a few years. The crowds begin to drop off....
Miss St 53,641 was the first game of the year we lost and didn't get a plus 40K crowd outside of LSU until 1986 vs USL (44,132)

1987 (6-6) Mack Brown
Ole Miss 40,302
LSU 70,168

Next 40K plus crowd outside of LSU was Alabama in 1992 under Buddy T (2-9) 50,240
It took another 10 years after that when we played Southern in front of 40,337, then Texas 46,678 in 2002.
And outside of LSU we haven't cracked 40K since.
Losing and playing in a very unattracted league sums it up.

To draw it's pretty simple. You only need two things:
1) Win
2) Play attractive "football" opponents.

Where you play the game means nothing.
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tpstulane wrote: Losing and playing in a very unattracted league sums it up.

To draw it's pretty simple. You only need two things:
1) Win
2) Play attractive "football" opponents.

Where you play the game means nothing.
Absolutely. And the OCS prevents Tulane from being able to schedule attractive opponents. The OCS is suicide.
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This was posted on the other site by coach mac who is a good guy and who is/was on a committee of younger fans who met w/Tulane over time to try to get changes made. He doesn't post as much as over time things that he believed Tulane committed to didn't get done. However I thought I'd put it here to show that the board does need to hear from Tulane fans about their unhappiness w/ SC/RD's leadership,or lack thereof, of our athletic dept..


I actually live one block from campus and two blocks from these people. I noticed the other day while on Audubon Blvd, there were 6 stadium yard signs, 19 no residential stadium signs, and 3 very influential home owners who did not have any signs. Those 3 are all on the side of TU here. This stadium is going to happen. I have legal friends representing TU here who have stated so much. Plus, we may have a contractor already picked out for the stadium any day now. We are going forward, now we have to push the university towards better conference affiliation. A number of folks on the TU board, in the athletic dept, and some big TU donors are concerned with our current situation and are going to push for some type of action. That would be even bigger than the stadium.
Tulane didn't have a stadium issue it had a program and facilities issues. To the new President- we want a new AD , a football facility and an IPF. We want top 25 programs in football and basketball the only two sports that count.
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We are going forward, now we have to push the university towards better conference affiliation. A number of folks on the TU board, in the athletic dept, and some big TU donors are concerned with our current situation and are going to push for some type of action. That would be even bigger than the stadium.
Good Luck with "the push". But that's like putting the cart before the horse. The push should have come long ago. And unfortunately it has nothing to do with some supporters wanting to leave CUSA. It has everything to do what SC wants and what other conferences see in your actions. Fourteen years of neglect is difficult to overcome . That IMO has been what has caused our current situation more than anything. Building a 25k seat stadium and having a 3k seat Fogelman that's over 80 years old will crush any push IMO. SC will never pay the $10MM exit fee from Tulane funds. This new CUSA is his "baby". Good Luck Coach Mac. Should that happen the new OCS would put a ceiling on the program. It would be much too small. But this just sounds like another diversion from what's really going on at St Charles Ave. Similiar to hiring a name football coach. Maybe Tulane finally wants to but the outsiders still don't believe it because of the poor reputation out there in the football community. Going to the Big 12 would have 100 times the impact of any 25k seat OCS.
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tpstulane wrote:
We are going forward, now we have to push the university towards better conference affiliation. A number of folks on the TU board, in the athletic dept, and some big TU donors are concerned with our current situation and are going to push for some type of action. That would be even bigger than the stadium.
Good Luck with "the push". But that's like putting the cart before the horse. The push should have come long ago. And unfortunately it has nothing to do with some supporters wanting to leave CUSA. It has everything to do what SC wants and what other conferences see in your actions. Fourteen years of neglect is difficult to overcome . That IMO has been what has caused our current situation more than anything. Building a 25k seat stadium and having a 3k seat Fogelman that's over 80 years old will crush any push IMO. SC will never pay the $10MM exit fee from Tulane funds. This new CUSA is his "baby". Good Luck Coach Mac. Should that happen the new OCS would put a ceiling on the program. It would be much too small. But this just sounds like another diversion from what's really going on at St Charles Ave. Similiar to hiring a name football coach. Maybe Tulane finally wants to but the outsiders still don't believe it because of the poor reputation out there in the football community. Going to the Big 12 would have 100 times the impact of any 25k seat OCS.
Right. How can anyone not very easily understand that a 25K seat stadium PREVENTS Tulane from being considered for any conference. Even mentioning the number is enough to be disqualified.
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wavedat wrote:This was posted on the other site by coach mac who is a good guy and who is/was on a committee of younger fans who met w/Tulane over time to try to get changes made. He doesn't post as much as over time things that he believed Tulane committed to didn't get done. However I thought I'd put it here to show that the board does need to hear from Tulane fans about their unhappiness w/ SC/RD's leadership,or lack thereof, of our athletic dept..


I actually live one block from campus and two blocks from these people. I noticed the other day while on Audubon Blvd, there were 6 stadium yard signs, 19 no residential stadium signs, and 3 very influential home owners who did not have any signs. Those 3 are all on the side of TU here. This stadium is going to happen. I have legal friends representing TU here who have stated so much. Plus, we may have a contractor already picked out for the stadium any day now. We are going forward, now we have to push the university towards better conference affiliation. A number of folks on the TU board, in the athletic dept, and some big TU donors are concerned with our current situation and are going to push for some type of action. That would be even bigger than the stadium.
Trying to state things as they are and still be as fair and gentle as I can be, that person, I have to say, is a charter member of the group that looked to portray themselves back in 2003 as being the independent "voice of the people" and then turned right around disgustingly to being administration-admirers and apologists (as well as defenders of the same old Model) and propagandizers telling everyone constantly how great things are and how great success on the field is just right around the corner and how terrific that the new stadium is going to be (conflating those two assertions) and how Tulane is actively being considered by one or the other of the major conferences for membership.

Is he really upset now with the lack of commitment from the school or with having been sold a bill of goods by administration?

It didn't look that way going by those comments.
Tulane sports: small football stadium, very small basketball arena, w̶i̶n̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶g̶r̶a̶m̶s̶, h̶o̶n̶e̶s̶t̶y̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶a̶b̶i̶l̶i̶t̶y̶ , but, hey, now there's tailgating.
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tpstulane wrote:
We are going forward, now we have to push the university towards better conference affiliation. A number of folks on the TU board, in the athletic dept, and some big TU donors are concerned with our current situation and are going to push for some type of action. That would be even bigger than the stadium.
Good Luck with "the push". But that's like putting the cart before the horse. The push should have come long ago. And unfortunately it has nothing to do with some supporters wanting to leave CUSA. It has everything to do what SC wants and what other conferences see in your actions. Fourteen years of neglect is difficult to overcome . That IMO has been what has caused our current situation more than anything. Building a 25k seat stadium and having a 3k seat Fogelman that's over 80 years old will crush any push IMO. SC will never pay the $10MM exit fee from Tulane funds. This new CUSA is his "baby". Good Luck Coach Mac. Should that happen the new OCS would put a ceiling on the program. It would be much too small. But this just sounds like another diversion from what's really going on at St Charles Ave. Similiar to hiring a name football coach. Maybe Tulane finally wants to but the outsiders still don't believe it because of the poor reputation out there in the football community. Going to the Big 12 would have 100 times the impact of any 25k seat OCS.
Tulane just unfortunately has very little to bring to the table.

A new (but very small) football stadium coupled with a new and nice college baseball facility certainly will not do the trick.

Then one couples that with the old and very small bball arena, the lack of success in recent times of the two major sports programs, the (understandable) lack of regular attendance and support from the public and there is a formula for people thinking and saying if somehow some major conference actually were to invite Tulane "what? Are they nuts?"

Any conference is going to want some new member who expands the interest that people have in that conference and is going to not want some new member who would just dilute the same revenue stream.
Tulane sports: small football stadium, very small basketball arena, w̶i̶n̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶g̶r̶a̶m̶s̶, h̶o̶n̶e̶s̶t̶y̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶a̶b̶i̶l̶i̶t̶y̶ , but, hey, now there's tailgating.
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