Farmaggeddon is kinda funny and I'll be there saturday, but it has to go. Nobody is going to pay big money to see us play ISU in Arrowhead. When we were good and played Iowa there in 2003 or whatever the tickets practically sold out in 5 minutes. If we are gonna do a KC game, and I'd definitely like us to, we have to find a better opponent than freakin IOWA STATE.
When Weiser was here, everybody complained that he wasn't doing anything for the KC market. Now K-State plays multiple games in the KC area every year, and yet nobody in KC shows up to the games. In either sport. The one KC game by K-State that was well supported at all was Beasley's year vs a crapty opponent. Every other game has been terrible in fan support.
So you're saying that K-State needs to find better opponents — my response is you had best show up to the Sprint Center MBB games this year, esp the UNLV game. Because from the K-State AthDept perspective, there is growing sentiment that spending time and $$ in KC is a waste since nobody goes to games there. If the UNLV games draws poorly, combined with the ISU games, I wouldn't be surprised if K-State does Wichita games and no more KC games.
I agree, ISU should be on campus. But KC people or pro-KC exposure people need to realize that K-State has made a concerted effort in that market the last few years, and KC Cat fans have not responded. At all. Support the Cats, and go the f'n game
If this is the perception in the K-State athletic department, which it may be, given the poster, then there are some other factors I hope they keep in mind.
KC has responded well to K-State games in the past...the Cal and Iowa games were cited earlier in this thread. What KC has gotten over the past few years is games against mediocre (at best) opponents, with K-State teams that weren't great themselves. The exception was the Beasley game, and then last year, IIRC, the KC bball game occurred early, before we were ranked and had really beaten anyone. And, IIRC, the game was over a holiday weekend, too.
So if you schedule your unranked team to play an unexciting opponent on a poor date, then don't get annoyed when people don't show up. "Look at this great gift we have given you, K-Staters of Kansas City! You can drive 20 minutes to see a schedule-filler game!"
Also, if the AD's perception is spending time and $$ in the KC market is a waste, then they're missing the point of it. Especially with the crapty opponents, the main point of the exercise should be to maintain a K-State presence in KC, not to fill up the arena.
What's the number of K-State alumni in KC? 30,000? 12,000 tickets sold already is over a third, which isn't bad, given that not every alumni is into sports. There will be plenty of KC-area walk-ups, too, given that they're all aware that there will be plenty of tickets to be had from scalpers. I don't know this for sure, but anecdotally, from my convos with season ticket holders outside KC who aren't coming to KC and view this as an opportunity for an off-week, the bigger problem here may be not KC-area alumni, but rather out-of-KC alumni who don't view this as worth the effort to make a trip and spend the extra $$ to watch Iowa freakin State. Economy may be a factor here, too.
Just some things to keep in mind before the athletic department decides to re-concede the KC area to KU and Mizzou.