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Ohio Football

Topic: Neutral site games

Topic: Neutral site games

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Pataskala
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Neutral site games

Posted: 9/1/2011 10:39:57 PM

I'm watching the Western KY-UK game on ESPNU. It's a "home" game for WKU, but it's played in the Tennessee Titans' stadium in Nashville -- one hour from WKU and 2 1/2 hours from Lexington. They're in a 68,000 seat stadium that's maybe half full (they may come up with higher numbers, but the upper two decks are very sparsely populated; I'm sure that a lot of fans were moved to the lower bowl to make it look fuller for TV). Granted, it is a Thursday night and both teams are coming off losing records (UK 6-7; WKU 2-10). But it's gotta be disappointing for the schools to not have a better showing. UK's home stadium seats 67,000, so they've got to be thinking they'd been better off at home.

We've had discussions about playing "home" games against Big 6 schools at neutral sites, such as Cincy, Cleveland or Pittsburgh). Rule 1, though, is stay away from midweek games. Rule 2: If you play in an NFL stadium, don't play at the same time the NFL team is playing. The Titans are playing at NO right now, so there's got to be a lot of potential attendees sitting at home watching them.

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Robert Fox
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Location: Knoxville, TN
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RE: Neutral site games

Posted: 9/2/2011 8:46:48 AM

Amazing that two state of KY schools would agree to play a game in another state. Why not play a neutral game in ANY Kentucky city? Keep the revenue in-state.

OhioCatFan
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RE: Neutral site games

Posted: 9/2/2011 9:43:33 AM

Robert Fox wrote:

Amazing that two state of KY schools would agree to play a game in another state. Why not play a neutral game in ANY Kentucky city? Keep the revenue in-state.

WKU is fairly close to Nashville and draws some students from that area. I suspect that was part of the thinking of the WKU people in setting this up. In any Kentucky city they would be a higher ratio of UK fans.

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TWT
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RE: Neutral site games

Posted: 9/2/2011 12:23:44 PM

Pataskala wrote:

We've had discussions about playing "home" games against Big 6 schools at neutral sites, such as Cincy, Cleveland or Pittsburgh). Rule 1, though, is stay away from midweek games. Rule 2: If you play in an NFL stadium, don't play at the same time the NFL team is playing. The Titans are playing at NO right now, so there's got to be a lot of potential attendees sitting at home watching them.

I would be in favor of playing Big Ten schools in mini series where 1 game is at their place and the other in a neutral site (either Cleveland, Cincinnati). Penn State in Cleveland or Nebraska in Cincinnati would sell a boat load of tickets that with OHIO as the home team profits. You could put the tickets to payday games home or away in season ticket packages. You could bump the price of regular season tickets from $88 to $110 but that would include the price of a payday ticket against the Big Ten valued at $50 dollars. That would help sales to those road games since fans would automatically be buying those games with the season ticket purchase. It would also give OHIO football a chance at a 7th home game every couple of years that would draw 40,000 plus.

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71 BOBCAT
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RE: Neutral site games

Posted: 9/2/2011 4:06:17 PM

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY.
Even the bigger schools are going this route especially if school hasn't opened yet. Check out Sat. nite game at the Jones Palace in Big D.

GO BOBCATS

Last Edited: 9/2/2011 4:06:51 PM by 71 BOBCAT

Robert Fox
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RE: Neutral site games

Posted: 9/2/2011 5:28:10 PM

If it's about the money, then KY and Western aren't exactly whistling to the bank. I hear they had less than 25k in attendance in Nashville.

L.C.
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RE: Neutral site games

Posted: 9/2/2011 7:09:46 PM

OhioCatFan wrote:

When I lived in Nashville, I was unaware of any such support. Support for Vandy, yes, Suport for UT, yes. There was even some support for MTSU, but I never heard anything about WKU.

Last Edited: 9/2/2011 7:35:55 PM by L.C.

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Pataskala
General User

Member Since: 7/8/2010
Location: At least six feet away from anybody else
Post Count: 9,365

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RE: Neutral site games

Posted: 9/2/2011 7:43:45 PM

Robert Fox wrote:

Amazing that two state of KY schools would agree to play a game in another state. Why not play a neutral game in ANY Kentucky city? Keep the revenue in-state.

I doubt they had any suitable "neutral" site in KY. UK has the biggest stadium in the state; Louisville is next, but UK hates to go there to play L'ville, let alone to play another school; and WKU is only other 1A school in the state. Nashville and Cincy would seem to be the best "neutral" sites, but Cincy is in UK's backyard. Nashville was the logical choice. They just picked the wrong night.

We will get by.
We will get by.
We will get by.
We will survive.

OhioCatFan
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Location: Athens, OH
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RE: Neutral site games

Posted: 9/3/2011 12:05:24 AM

L.C. wrote:

OhioCatFan wrote:

When I lived in Nashville, I was unaware of any such support. Support for Vandy, yes, Suport for UT, yes. There was even some support for MTSU, but I never heard anything about WKU.

Well, when I lived in Murray, Ky., the home of the "real western Kentucky university," we were aware of the recruiting area for both schools, and both MSU and WKU drew some students from the bordering areas of Tennessee, and Nashville was the largest population center in the area.

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