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Barnum Dismissed
- Thread starter Pounder
- Start date
My guess is they'll promote Hauck. Tough job to succeed in, though. I would imagine NIL money is low, players can't get excited about playing out in the suburbs at a community soccer field, etc. I think we lost our starting Center three years in a row. If not for the money from the buy games I think they'd be better off focusing on basketball because at least they're competitive there.
It is a very difficult job. I don't really see dropping football unless you can get a Big West invite. I believe football is a Big Sky membership requirement.
ES2X
Active member
Hoping Portland State joins the Big West. They can do what Poly does- Big West most sports, football in the Big Sky.
It seems like the main thing hurting Portland State football (besides the recent record) has been not finding a decent stadium. Hillsboro is alright, but pretty far from campus. Too bad PGE park or whatever it was can't work out a deal. I guess no room to build a stadium nearer campus..
It seems like the main thing hurting Portland State football (besides the recent record) has been not finding a decent stadium. Hillsboro is alright, but pretty far from campus. Too bad PGE park or whatever it was can't work out a deal. I guess no room to build a stadium nearer campus..
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I wonder what the pros/cons of that move would be. Travel might be easier to BW schools, and over the past few years the MBB team is pretty competitive when they play BW teams. Not sure about the other sports.
I think the football team has a bigger issue - even when they were still in PGE Park and got a home playoff game the attendance was weak, only 8k fans. They beat two FBS teams that season including Wazzu, the coach won coach of the year, not really sure what else they can do to get fans excited short of upsetting Oregon and going undefeated for two years straight.
I don't know if there's anything really to be done with the football team. They tried a gimmick hire with Jerry Glanville and fans still didn't show up.
Basketball team has been drawing bigger crowds over the past two seasons, but I don't think they can afford to exist without football taking paycheck games and losing by 50 points.
If Portland State continues to have a football program (looks at Sacramento), leaving the Big Sky is worse than crummy as an idea. Sac State’s move is relatively understandable for having sports that already fit in the Big West.
Now, if Portland State drops football, there aren’t any better achievable options than the Big West. However, the AD has to work to get a following for at least one other sport. Though, at this point (if you read Canzano’s piece), Billings now deserves a tarmac firing. Anyway, another men’s sport will have to be added. Which… gets complicated.
Soccer… the thing to do would be to repurpose Stott Field; so it’s an easier option. But besides the Timbers, U Portland has that market right now and they could end up in the Final Four this year, so it’s hard to compete against that.
Baseball… It’ll be tempting to take advantage of the new Hillsboro ballpark. But I will argue that renting Walker Stadium would not only be cheaper, but practically forces a partnership with the Pickles (who are frankly doing better business). That partnership and a serious (wink nudge) change in how PSU approaches their sports marketing probably reaps dividends. But that’s real grass, getting people on the berms in a wetter season should give pause to many people, so it’s a risk. Question for our Poly freak… do Dirtbag fans travel well?
Volleyball… there’s no men’s volleyball at high school level in Oregon, there cannot possibly be near the demand for this as there are for the first two. But this is the opportunity to create an advantage in the state. Plus Hawaii fans travel well, as that program will remain in the Big West.
No easy answers here. But seeing what’s happened to the UP women’s basketball program this year (they may have lost their Aussie connection), that’s also an opportunity.
Now, if Portland State drops football, there aren’t any better achievable options than the Big West. However, the AD has to work to get a following for at least one other sport. Though, at this point (if you read Canzano’s piece), Billings now deserves a tarmac firing. Anyway, another men’s sport will have to be added. Which… gets complicated.
Soccer… the thing to do would be to repurpose Stott Field; so it’s an easier option. But besides the Timbers, U Portland has that market right now and they could end up in the Final Four this year, so it’s hard to compete against that.
Baseball… It’ll be tempting to take advantage of the new Hillsboro ballpark. But I will argue that renting Walker Stadium would not only be cheaper, but practically forces a partnership with the Pickles (who are frankly doing better business). That partnership and a serious (wink nudge) change in how PSU approaches their sports marketing probably reaps dividends. But that’s real grass, getting people on the berms in a wetter season should give pause to many people, so it’s a risk. Question for our Poly freak… do Dirtbag fans travel well?
Volleyball… there’s no men’s volleyball at high school level in Oregon, there cannot possibly be near the demand for this as there are for the first two. But this is the opportunity to create an advantage in the state. Plus Hawaii fans travel well, as that program will remain in the Big West.
No easy answers here. But seeing what’s happened to the UP women’s basketball program this year (they may have lost their Aussie connection), that’s also an opportunity.
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