Commentary: Portland St's Tough Schedule

[TexasTerror]

Hey, Portland St is playing a tougher non-confernce than anyone in the Pac-10 outside of USC. How about that? Explains in this article how they'll make $1M off the games and the FB budget is $1.5M which they think they can cover if they do successful on the field...

For PSU, schedule (almost) all about money
Saturday, March 18, 2006

Meehan: Idaho faces similar tough games in 2006

W hat does Portland State football have over the likes of Oregon, Oregon State and most other Pac-10 teams?

The Division I-AA Vikings will play a tougher nonconference schedule than anybody in the Pacific-10 Conference, with the exception of USC. (The Trojans open at Arkansas and play host to Nebraska and Notre Dame.)

But Portland State needn't apologize as it gears up to play California, Oregon and New Mexico.

Oregon needed a game after Utah State canceled to play Brigham Young. The Vikings canceled a home game with Southern Oregon, an NAIA school, to accommodate the Ducks.

http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/sports/1142659533171130.xml&coll=7

[JALMOND]

PSU football does its best to accomodate the Ducks and the Beavers which is surprising to me that the Ducks offered $450,000 and the buyout of S Oregon. I don't know for sure, but I highly doubt the Beavers gave us anything close to that last season. The Cal game makes sense as it is cheaper by far to fly from Portland to the Bay Area than it is to fly anywhere in the Big Sky (other than Sacramento and Spokane). Rumor has it that it is getting more difficult for us to schedule money games as the WAC won't schedule us anymore due to our recent games against Boise, Fresno and Hawaii. Also, rumor has it that we are trying to reschedule the McNeese game for 2008 or 2009. Just rumors, tho, nothing concrete.

[aggie6thman]

From the article:

Walsh said his total budget for football is about $1.5 million. He expects the three nonconference games to gross nearly $1 million. If the team lives up to expectations and draws well, the Vikings have a chance to cover the football budget and earn another $500,000 for the athletic department with four conference home games.

Anyone know what it costs to rent PGE Park? I would assume that it isn't cheap. Here are the numbers from their home games last year:

Slac-4617
Northern Colorado-5371
Montana St-10443
NAU-7243
Weber St.-5313
Average: 6597

The capacity for PGE Park is almost 20,000. That has to hit hard on the pocket book. Hopefully PSU can make it happen and keep their football program.

[89Hen]

Slac-4617
Northern Colorado-5371
Montana St-10443
NAU-7243
Weber St.-5313
Average: 6597
Jalmond, can you offer some insight to this? Is the attendance number growing, shrinking? What is PSU's enrollment? How close to campus? How easy is parking? No local interest/too many Duck and Beaver fans?... etc...

While a baseball stadium isn't the best place for a football game, it still sounds like a nice facility.

[aggie6thman]

Those numbers were hard to find. I looked at the PSU athletics website, but they didn't list the attendence. I found those numbers off the other team's websites.

I know we are pelting you with questions JALMOND, but is there a location for an on-campus facility? Has that thought been floated around before?

[89Hen]

I know we are pelting you with questions JALMOND, but is there a location for an on-campus facility? Has that thought been floated around before?
I just looked up Portland on google maps and it looks like PGE park is only 10 or so city blocks from campus. That's about as far as the Tub is from the main campus in Newark. PGE is between 18th and 20th at the top center of the map and PSU is on the east side of 405 where it says 'South Park Blocks'.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Portland,+OR&ll=45.516452,-122.687416&spn=0.014013,0.042915&t=h

[CrunchGriz]

I just looked up Portland on google maps and it looks like PGE park is only 10 or so city blocks from campus. That's about as far as the Tub is from the main campus in Newark. PGE is between 18th and 20th at the top center of the map and PSU is on the east side of 405 where it says 'South Park Blocks'.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Portland,+OR&ll=45.516452,-122.687416&spn=0.014013,0.042915&t=h

PGE is not far enough away from the campus to have an effect. The real problems, as I see them (I live in the Portland area) are:

1. PSU is largely a commuter school, and doesn't have the level of school support from alums that other schools of similar size have;

2. PGE Park, although a good-sized AAA baseball park, is not a very good venue for football, with poor sight lines and a long distance to the field (not to mention an old rug for a surface); and

3. PSU is overshadowed by UO and OSU in-state. The vast, vast bulk of the media sports coverage is for these two programs. The Big Sky Conference gets very little coverage. PSU is even over-shadowed by the University of Portland when it comes to basketball. Many folks in the Portland area would know more about minor league hockey than they would know I-AA as a separate class of football programs. PSU football is largely ignored, which is a shame considering their very successful (in financial, fan-support, and record senses) Div. II football history.

Another thing that I think hurts PSU is Coach Walsh's history of using a lot of JC and transfer players. I don't know how many he has on the current PSU team, but PSU routinely has the largest number of these players on their team in the Big Sky (or near the top). Although many of these players are very talented, it seems to kill both program continuity and fan interest--it's hard for both the in-coming players and the fans to get invested in the program when they're around for such relatively short periods of time. Just my thought on this--don't know if it's true or not.

[*****]

Jalmond, can you offer some insight to this? Is the attendance number growing, shrinking?...Portland State Home Attendance
Year - Total - Avg
2005 32,984 - 6,597
2004 35,549 - 5,925
2003 37,561 - 6,260
2002 46,409 - 7,735

High game in bold

2005 32,984 - 6,597
Sep 17 *SACRAMENTO STATE....... 28-12 W 4617
Sep 24 NORTHERN COLORADO...... 41-17 W 5371
Oct 15 *MONTANA STATE.......... 44-41 W 10443
Oct 22 *NORTHERN ARIZONA....... 45-0 W 7243
Nov 12 *WEBER STATE............ 39-14 W 5310

2004 35,549 - 5,925
Sep 02 WESTERN STATE.......... 38-0 W 5703
Sep 25 MCNEESE STATE.......... 35-14 W 6802
Oct 02 *EASTERN WASHINGTON..... 21-41 L 6476
Oct 30 *MONTANA................ 35-32 W 8413
Nov 06 *IDAHO STATE............ 42-21 W 4129
Nov 20 UC DAVIS............... 38-21 W 4026

2003 37,561 - 6,260
Portland State (4-7,1-6)
Sep 04 TEXAS A&M-KINGSVILLE... 34-21 W 10519
Sep 13 NICHOLLS STATE......... 44-37 W 5627
Sep 20 *NORTHERN ARIZONA....... 0-23 L 6832
Oct 18 *SACRAMENTO STATE....... 20-7 W 4921
Nov 08 *WEBER STATE............ 21-45 L 4331
Nov 15 *MONTANA STATE.......... 14-25 L 5331

2002 46,409 - 7,735
Aug 31, 2002 STEPHEN F. AUSTIN... W 31-23 6074
Sep 14, 2002 NORTH CAROLINA A&T... W OT 23-20 10012
Oct 05, 2002 SOUTHWEST TEXAS ST.... W 16-0 5807
*Oct 12, 2002 EASTERN WASHINGTON... W 34-31 5824
*Oct 26, 2002 MONTANA... L 21-24 12733
*Nov 02, 2002 IDAHO STATE... W 27-24 5959

[Ronbo]

Portland State has an enrollment of 23,444 but of that only 9660 are undergraduates.

Compare that to U. of Oregon at 20,296 enrollment with 14,400 undergraduates.

Oregon State has 19,153 enrollment and 15,700 undergraduates.

[McNeese75]

Portland is a great place to visit. PGE Park, although unique in it's own way is not really a good venue for football considering the other Universities PSU is competing with for fans.

I enjoyed my vist (the game sucked) :D

[Ronbo]

Regardless of the ballpark, if you play Portland State try to make the trip. It's the favorite city to travel to for many Griz fans.

[JALMOND]

So many questions....let's see.

1. Portland State, while we are the largest university in the state enrollment-wise, we are largely a commuter school, with a big chuck of the enrollment what we called "non-traditional" when I was in school.

2. As bad as PGE Park might be for football, it is not feasible (given the state economy right now) to build an on-campus facility. The only way I see it is if the city can attract an NFL franchise with a wealthy owner, something that is years away, if even then. Also, PSU has a long history of playing in PGE Park as well.

3. PSU football lacks a wealthy alum, someone who could spearhead a drive to raise funds for the school. Our notable alums are June Jones and Neil Lomax, not necessarily household names outside of Portland, and not with deep enough pockets.

4. Ironically, the best conference of any division from a financial view for PSU to be in is the Big Sky. DII would place us in a region stretching to Iowa. The WAC goes from Louisiana to Hawaii. The Mountain West is pretty much the same travel miles as in the Big Sky, yet no one travels as well as the Griz fans (or the Cat fans either).

5. The JC situation is a little different. Before coaching at PSU, Walsh coached in the Juco ranks in California. The coaches remember him and therefore refer their kids to PSU. Also, even though Portland does not have the population as L.A. or the Bay Area, we are still considered to be a "urban" university.

As much as people have painted a dark picture of our financial situation, I cannot see PSU getting in a situation where they would have to drop football. There are people here who do follow and support PSU athletics. Any time we can schedule the Ducks or the Beavers, it puts our name out there telling those Oregonians that we are a pretty darn good team, too. Portland will always be a Pac-10 city. We could win five I-AA titles in a row and that would still be the case. But people here are cognizant of two facts, 1) the success of our fellow conference member Montana and 2) we have been just on the edge of the playoffs that last few years. I saw what happened when U of Portland won the women's soccer championship and how the city jumped on the bandwagon in support of them. A run through the I-AA playoffs and I think the city would jump on us. Until then, we will get by playing the money games.