The Cyclone Fan's White Whale

The South Endzone Project rears its head again.

I understand that lots of Cyclone fans feel that as long as Trice a sort-of-open south end zone it will have a "second tier" look to it. But right now Iowa State is a second tier football program! Playing not-quite-.500-football doesn't justify a $50 million dollar upgrade.

But let's play what if from a business viewpoint: $50 million would replace 5000 current end zone  and hillside seats and add, best case, 10,000 new seats. Dream scenario, $50 per seat for 6 games equals $4.5 Million per season, giving you a payoff of roughly 12 years. But that's best case scenario.

As it stands now, end zone seats go for ~$30 on a season ticket. Hillsides are ~$20. Do you think all those fans are going to suddenly jump to $50 for a high end zone seat? Nope. They will have to be heavily discounted, probably in that $20-$30 range. Half the revenue means double the payback period. 25 years on a project? No. Way. It just doesn't pencil out.

Add in that the number of visitor tickets has dropped dramatically with Nebraska and Mizzou out of the league (not that Mizzou fans travel, but they could have), and the project gets even harder to pull off.  I know, luxury suites could be added to drive some revenue, but how much can you charge a high-roller for a lousy view? The article is right- unless someone donates $10+ million for the project, the South Bowl will remain a pipe dream.

Not that it wouldn't be cool and help our Cyclones look First Tier- but they have to win a lot of games before that will become a reality.

Seats- or Not

This will become moot once the B12 implodes and we find ourselves hosting Louisiana Tech instead of Texas Tech, but I would argue we expand the south bowl using Stand Up Tickets.

I attended a Bundesliga match back in the last century, and the cheapest tickets were behind the goals and everyone stood because there literally were no seats. The section was tiered with 6 to 8 inch steps, each step was a couple feet wide, and the front of each step had a waist-high railing to lean on. You could cram a bunch of people in there at very low cost, and, being cheap, it attracted a rowdy involved crowd.

It isn't that big of a leap from what the Jack already has in the SRO corners, but this would add some structure and order to what is current a rather free-for-all. It can become an football Cyclone Alley for adults.

Best of all, since you aren't dumping a lot of cash into it, if it doesn't work, no biggie.

Adding bodies to Game Day, even at discount, is a good thing.

Peter

No-Shows

SUI fans are so confident they will beat ISU this year they returned 1200 tickets from their allotment to the game.

Now that's confidence in the outcome.

Those 1200 tickets are being used as the anchor for a 3 game mini- pack.

Peterclone