2012 New Orleans Bowl

[Just1More]

Sponsor seating is always guaranteed before the teams are chosen. Without those sponsors these bowls wouldnt exist, no matter how many fans a school brings....

Sponsor seating does not comprise that many seats. The I Bowl has chosen to retain a large portion of premium seating for local sales. It's their decision to do so. In certain cases, it burns the bowl. In other cases, not. It always irritates the participating programs' fans.

[cajunwarhawks23]

A school played here, closer in time and distance than UL. It has a better history and higher accomplishments than UL, and brought nowhere near the fans. University of Southern Mississippi is less than a hundred miles from the Mercedes Super Dome, and has numerous big wins against teams like number one FSU.

This year was an uphill battle for attendance for lots of reasons, or excuses if you prefer. I have zero doubt with a good start next year we will shatter Cajun game and season attendance records. Our weak attendance record of this year out draws about just about every school in C USA, so we would be at least as good as 3/4 of the teams currently in or going to C USA.

maybe im wrong but im sure the conf that are looking to expand or add teams like the cajuns cant just look at attendance...i am excited about the possibility of moving to a biiger conf...but i think it may take longer than we all think...more than a couple of winning seasons would help the most imo...but with all of the conferences making so many changes I hope im wrong

[Just1More]

No, but that is one big reason we were on the VISITORS side this year; the NO Bowl has blocks of seats on the home side which did not allow us to seat as many in prime locations as this year. No sarcasm needed.

I saw nothing but ECU fans in the core premium home side seats. Cajun fans flanking them on one side and bowl ticket distribution (sponsor and otherwise) flanking the other side. I agree that we were seated on the visitor side in order to accommodate us with an entire side. It only makes sense to allocate the least participating program fan base primary seating on the same side as sponsors and other ticket distribution.

[moorecajun]

Sponsor seating does not comprise that many seats. The I Bowl has chosen to retain a large portion of premium seating for local sales. It's their decision to do so. In certain cases, it burns the bowl. In other cases, not. It always irritates the participating programs' fans.

You bring up a good point. Some bowls may be able to sell tickets locally, with these tickets being a higher price than the ones iven to the two teams. This works if it works (kind of like Yogi Bera) because it alows them to maximize their profit (and if the state will subsidize them, so much the better).

This is why I think we are spoiled now by the New Orleans Bowl ... they have catered to us because we have made money for them. In the process people have gotten upset by not getting "prime" seats ... the best seats in other bowl games may not be as good as the worst in the Superdome that we got.

[cajun67]

If we were going to Detroit, might not be too bad a rule. Guess it depends on whose ox is being gored. Only the BCS schools benefit from rules like this. Not us.

[Hammer58]

Sponsor seating is always guaranteed before the teams are chosen. Without those sponsors these bowls wouldnt exist, no matter how many fans a school brings....

Wow, you just make these things up as you go?

Actually the I-Bowl exists, in part, because of state subsidies. Maybe a better theory I that those redneck _______s that run the I-Bowl don't know what the ____ they are doing. If they want to come beg for us to sell 20,000 or more tickets to that game they better be ready to change their seating allotments or give UL a guaranteed payout to offset poor ticket sales due to allotted seating areas.

[moorecajun]

Wow, you just make these things up as you go?

Actually the I-Bowl exists, in part, because of state subsidies. Maybe a better theory I that those redneck _______s that run the I-Bowl don't know what the ____ they are doing. If they want to come beg for us to sell 20,000 or more tickets to that game they better be ready to change their seating allotments or give UL a guaranteed payout to offset poor ticket sales due to allotted seating areas.

Maybe we are uncovering a major problem with our state here. Why should the I-Bowl worry about seating locations, amount of seats to allocate, etc. if the state will subsidize their losses. Now I don't know anything about this other than I remember someone posting a line item out of the state's budget report back after we weren't invited.

Anybody with facts out there about how the I-Bowl is funded, state subsidies specifically?

[Just1More]

a regular season home game, not a bowl game 2 hours away at an indoor stadium in the biggest party city in the country..... I love what the Cajun fans have done with this bowl, but where are they from September through November??

Are you a Johnny Come Lately to UL football? We had the largest percentage increase in fan home game attendance in the country. We had close to the NO Bowl Cajun fan crowd with an average of 29k (with an average of 250 opponent fans). This past year dropped by 4k average due to weather, a middle of the week game, and two home games bookending Thanksgiving. Excuses... but precisely what caused the drop.

We've had a half century where everyone else grew their programs and we did not. You think with no good opponent teams to attract even more fans, that 25k to 30k is not that good? Every higher conference knows that UL, taking what we have in stock right now, added to their conference, is going to a) add to our attendance with their programs visiting Cajun Field, b) add money strictly from their revenue (TV and bowl sharing) that will enhance us further, c) help UL generate even more support from our system of reachable fans that will come under the entire sports opponent match ups.

Our only deficit as we take these severely impressive football outcomes, is a weak and indecisive administrative oversight of our athletic future. There is no monetary deficit we cannot overcome. There is no fan participation deficit we cannot blow out of the water. Our deficit is an athletic leadership void at the very top. He has no idea that the much much softer side for his future resides in demanding our athletic footprint future be sized for very large shoes... and he goes two more sizes above that... because he's that damn smart. You do not haul in big fish with little nets. T-Joe had better take our current emotional currency, take the necessary monetary loans, and enjoy the luxurious problems that will... without question... come the way of UL.

[CajunNation]

Right on Z! We have won the National championship to the "ole USL establishment" We must raise the bar!

+1000

People I talk to in the know continue to tell me that the administration and most of the old timers feel as though we have reached our final goal with the NOLA Bowl. Mission accomplished. They don't see the need to go anwhere else. For decades, all they worked for was to get in a 1-A conference with a bowl game. To them, everything else is just noise, and those schools switching conferences are just acting silly.

How do you shake the adminstration from this extremely short sighted viewpoint? Is it even possible?


I don't know, but I can tell you this. If and when Louisiana athletics comes to an end because of this head in sand mentality, I won't lose a wink of sleep over it. And, we'll all know who the names are of the people who killed Ragin Cajun Athletics.

[Hammer58]

Maybe we are uncovering a major problem with our state here. Why should the I-Bowl worry about seating locations, amount of seats to allocate, etc. if the state will subsidize their losses. Now I don't know anything about this other than I remember someone posting a line item out of the state's budget report back after we weren't invited.

Anybody with facts out there about how the I-Bowl is funded, state subsidies specifically?

I don't mean to indicate that they have an annual subsidy (although given he history of this state I guess it is possible). I was referring to their habit of going to the state after the fact to cover their losses as was the case when they picked NIU and lost their asses due to poor ticket sales. That was not the first time they received state funds.

[raoul]

Enjoy the moment for at least a few hours, jerk.

[Just1More]

maybe im wrong but im sure the conf that are looking to expand or add teams like the cajuns cant just look at attendance...i am excited about the possibility of moving to a biiger conf...but i think it may take longer than we all think...more than a couple of winning seasons would help the most imo...but with all of the conferences making so many changes I hope im wrong

We may have some pimples right now... after all, we are only teenagers in athletics. But, you don't get to your goal of a better situation by waiting for someone else to see your "potential". Our leadership has to put together our arguments and pound on the doors of better and better options, daily.

UL management reminds me of the guy that sees a really nice looking girl late in life. She says, "hey, why didn't you ever ask me out?". UL: "I just figured you'd never be interested (along with a silent admission that he was scared she might say "yes")". Girl: "Oh no, I always thought you were a great guy. You should have asked me out. By the way, have you met my husband?". UL: (Silently... "Dear Lord... what a loser"). She dismisses her worthless husband and turns and says (as she lifts her skirt over her head) "All of this could have been yours for the asking. Oh, and my dad is rich and he hates my husband. He likes guys like you. I "did" too... and I only love monogamous sex more than cooking and keeping up my husband. But, apparently, when they were handing out balls, you were reading a political science textbook and arguing with a true intellectual that has a more worldly view than you. I'm going to put my skirt down now... one last look at what you could have had... you dumbass."