What's more critical to vitality of program?

[NewEnglandBull]

1 hour ago, Brad said:

If we can just get back the ones we lost in the post-Leavitt era.

Are those people still alive? 

[Brad]

More than likely.  

[Outlaw]

Next year we are in the same field to start as UCF. The magic streak is over, they lost their bowl game, and ended their season with a bowl loss. We need to take advantage of this momentum and break our loss streak versus them.  

[USF Bulls Football]

If it were a simple snap of the fingers, the correct answer is ocs. It isn’t, so I guess an IPF.

[USFBulls727]

The IPF is going to happen first. The question is, will it ever make financial sense to build an OCS. I don't think the casual CFB fans in Tampa will ever flock to Ray Jay in huge numbers to watch an AAC matchup (except vs. UCF). If we're broke now, what do we have to do to be better off 5 years from now? 10 years from now? It will obviously take a lot more than a few dozen on this forum contributing $$$ to the program. There are many who see us, and the AAC in general, as minor league, somewhat small time football. Not sure how on Earth that changes without a P5 invite. What new can be done that we haven't tried yet that can draw interest, and eventually $$$ to the program? If an OCS doesn't make financial sense now, then it probably never will as long as we're in the AAC, because the football program will likely always bleed money in this conference. I just don't get how some of the lowliest G5 teams managed to do it, and we never could.

[CousinRicky]

5 minutes ago, USFBulls727 said:

The IPF is going to happen first. The question is, will it ever make financial sense to build an OCS. I don't think the casual CFB fans in Tampa will ever flock to Ray Jay in huge numbers to watch an AAC matchup (except vs. UCF). If we're broke now, what do we have to do to be better off 5 years from now? 10 years from now? It will obviously take a lot more than a few dozen on this forum contributing $$$ to the program. There are many who see us, and the AAC in general, as minor league, somewhat small time football. Not sure how on Earth that changes without a P5 invite. What new can be done that we haven't tried yet that can draw interest, and eventually $$$ to the program? If an OCS doesn't make financial sense now, then it probably never will as long as we're in the AAC, because the football program will likely always bleed money in this conference. I just don't get how some of the lowliest G5 teams managed to do it, and we never could.

You need enough alums to get older, make money in their businesses and jobs, enjoy sports (football especially) and then they donate and build a stadium.  I don't see any other way.

[BrassBulls12]

3 hours ago, Brad said:

I asked the question because I likely missed the convo on it.  Both facilities are in need.  One has a perceived impact to recruiting and practicing, one has a perceived impact on attendance and game day experience.  Would the attendance and gameday experience (growth of program) perhaps make the IPF more readily attainable?   I guess from a "strategic" perspective, it seems to me we need to go all in on the OCS first.  Re-establish the pulse, then worry about higher end player/coach/practice accommodations.  An IPF won't do a thing to reverse the trend in apathy whereas an OCS has the potential to.

 Though a IPF doesn't do much for the gameday experience, it does greatly effect the product on the field. A good product could bring bring people back into the fold. 

[USFBulls727]

9 minutes ago, CousinRicky said:

You need enough alums to get older, make money in their businesses and jobs, enjoy sports (football especially) and then they donate and build a stadium.  I don't see any other way.

Which may or may not happen in large enough numbers any time soon to make much of a difference. Again though, South Alabama is a much newer program than we are. How are they pulling the OCS thing off? They don't have to wait on alums to get older, and they're doing it while drawing 16K to home games. How does that compare to our own attendance? Also, just out of curiosity, what does Ray Jay cost us per year?

[Brad]

They probably arent paying coaching and admin salaries like we are either.  

[E.T.]

21 minutes ago, CousinRicky said:

You need enough alums to get older, make money in their businesses and jobs, enjoy sports (football especially) and then they donate and build a stadium.  I don't see any other way.

Game One in 1997, we had nearly 50K in the stands.What happened to them?

BULLieve we are about a 3rd towards the $40 Million for the IPF.

Go BULLS !!!