The sad part for me is like Wood said people from right in your own city don't want this for us . It’s really odd. That's also been something i never could understand about Sacramento is the negativity toward anything that is beneficial or new to the area. Even when it cost locals nothing they find negativity in anything positive or forward moving around this city. It’s odd and it’s sad.
NDSU is paying 18 mil to move up and they are a premiere program. Why, if they are so coveted by everyone, do they have to pay anything? No one is criticizing NDSU, so I find the outrage about the cost paid by Sac State disingenuous.
NDSU paying is sheer desperation, no doubt. But this group of posters obviously want public perception to be in your favor. Public perception is that NDSU’s 10 title from 2011 earned them a bid, and Sac State has a couple recent quarterfinal bids that featured a lad who’d have been a generational talent at most schools. Note: even I’m having to come to terms with the concept that American public perception seems to favor pro/rel, and I’m a soccer fan.
(Side note: the NDSU sheer desperation isn’t lost on me. Makes me think a lot of FCS schools have football programs that are headed for the graveyard, which in Portland State’s case would probably be a mercy killing.)
I remember training to be a referee. The key words were “you will be tested.” This includes the people who think your money should go to their cause rather than yours. Dr. Wood is unrealistic or awfully defensive to express shock that not everyone in Sacramento is in favor of this. I’m surprised that you’re surprised. I know that, if Portland State were in your shoes right now, the blowback would probably be worse. Competition happens.
I suspect many FBS fans (puts on my Oregon hat) think the level is already bloated, and want you to go away. You will be tested.
One burden I have is to think of this as a business case. Who do you want to see actually come to Sacramento? I would guess at least the new Pac-12 schools, if not the old ones. But I recall in the late Idaho FBS days (after the independent year when Fresno State somehow honored their commitment to come to Moscow) that they got a couple of MAC schools, UNLV when they were bad, and a handful of FCS schools, to a stadium bigger than what the Railyards will be at initial completion. One of the answers I received to a post on the facilities thread was that you would be able to host FBS teams now. I doubt you’ll see anyone relevant… until you have a stadium that matters enough. That 2-year-old rendering the Woods produced was two-thirds of the way to what you need to do that. None of the subsequent proposals get you there. Think of it this way… none of the really big SEC schools have ever visited Eugene.
