When Portland State brought in Nigel Burton and his pistol offense in 2010, and the city renovated Jeld-Wen Field extensively, it looked like the Vikings had found a successful approach to restoring what is usually a competitive program. PSU went 7-4 in Burton's second season there, and opposing teams were having a heck of a time stopping the pistol.
But the upward trajectory flattened out and the Vikings went 3-8 and 6-6 over the last two seasons, and they are 3-5 so far this year. More concerning is the lack of interest in the PSU program. The Oregonian reported PSU sold just over 800 tickets for the Vikings' game against NAU two weeks ago, even though they reported a crowd of over 4,000. (Which, in itself, is a tiny draw for a large city like Portland).
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2014/10/canzano_guess_which_local_coll.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Oregonian columnist John Canzano blames the "minor league baseball" marketing approach for the poor turnout, and says the university needs to better connect with the 165,000 alums it has in the Portland area. The paper also did an unscientific poll on its website, asking what factors most influence PSU's inability to sell football tickets. The top rated factors in the poll were:
--Computer-campus apatheric mentality -- 21.9 percent
--Football team's shaky performance -- 15.9 percent
--Rise in recent years of Ducks-Beavers football performance -- 15.5 percent
--Failure of PSU to connect with 165,000 alumni base -- 15 percent.
During the many seasons I broadcast ISU football, my trips to Portland have always been interesting. You can watch hundreds of cars with Duck and Beaver pennants attached leaving town on football Saturdays, heading to Corvallis and Eugene. The large downtown stadium where PSU plays, which has had many different names and configurations over the years, has always been about three-fourths empty. There has been scant coverage of PSU games in the Oregonian and on local TV stations. The one thing that has kept PSU competitive over the years has been the relatively large local recruiting pool in the Portland-Washington state area, and the fact that kids like to play in the Portland area. (Compare recruiting to Portland with Pocatello, for example).
But financially, the Vikings have struggled, and their president recently told the athletic department they are going to have to be financially self-sufficient. It will be interesting to see how the future of PSU football plays out in the coming years.
But the upward trajectory flattened out and the Vikings went 3-8 and 6-6 over the last two seasons, and they are 3-5 so far this year. More concerning is the lack of interest in the PSU program. The Oregonian reported PSU sold just over 800 tickets for the Vikings' game against NAU two weeks ago, even though they reported a crowd of over 4,000. (Which, in itself, is a tiny draw for a large city like Portland).
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2014/10/canzano_guess_which_local_coll.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Oregonian columnist John Canzano blames the "minor league baseball" marketing approach for the poor turnout, and says the university needs to better connect with the 165,000 alums it has in the Portland area. The paper also did an unscientific poll on its website, asking what factors most influence PSU's inability to sell football tickets. The top rated factors in the poll were:
--Computer-campus apatheric mentality -- 21.9 percent
--Football team's shaky performance -- 15.9 percent
--Rise in recent years of Ducks-Beavers football performance -- 15.5 percent
--Failure of PSU to connect with 165,000 alumni base -- 15 percent.
During the many seasons I broadcast ISU football, my trips to Portland have always been interesting. You can watch hundreds of cars with Duck and Beaver pennants attached leaving town on football Saturdays, heading to Corvallis and Eugene. The large downtown stadium where PSU plays, which has had many different names and configurations over the years, has always been about three-fourths empty. There has been scant coverage of PSU games in the Oregonian and on local TV stations. The one thing that has kept PSU competitive over the years has been the relatively large local recruiting pool in the Portland-Washington state area, and the fact that kids like to play in the Portland area. (Compare recruiting to Portland with Pocatello, for example).
But financially, the Vikings have struggled, and their president recently told the athletic department they are going to have to be financially self-sufficient. It will be interesting to see how the future of PSU football plays out in the coming years.