Announcement at 4 pm re UAB Football reinstatement.

I think UAB's biggest crowd ever was about 45,000 for the 2003 Southern Miss game, but that was largely because there was a halftime concert by Ruben Studdard, Birmingham native and then-recent American Idol winner.

Predictably, most of the crowd left after the show.

 

I'm guessing Studdard is available for all of the halftimes between 2016 and when diabetes eventually claims him.

 

Hell, no. Part of the problem is that even a good crowd looks small in Legion Field. It makes it hard to sell season tickets as well, because it was actually cheaper to buy GA tickets as a walkup and you were certain to be able to get a good seat anyway. There have been crowds in the 38k to 42k range, but that was back before PBJ started his campaign to hamstring the program. One of them does not count because Reuben Studdard from "American Idol" sung at half time right after he won and the place was packed with locals who went home after the half.

The first season back is going to be pretty brutal. 25k or so would be good, more would be lovely. That does not sound like much (and it isn't) but it would be middle of the pack for C-USA and a similar number this season put UAB third in the state in attendance behind UA and AU. That was one of the standard retorts to the "Leave 'em shut down, nobody goes to the games anyway. If the UAB fans went to the game it would not have been shut down" - "UAB was third in the state in attendance behind UA and AU. Are you also saying that Troy, South Alabama, West Alabama, Jax St., A&M, and all the rest should be shut down?"

 

There was a 38k crowd vs TCU for a Thursday Night ESPN game in 2004, which was a win and got the team to #24 in the BCS. UAB also beat Baylor and Miss. St. that season, which was pretty much the high water mark.

 

The way that sentence ended made me sad and laugh at the same time. Kudos.

 

I'm guessing it wouldn't move the needle on attendance.

 

I'm pretty sure BWIP did not consider that UAB plays in an 80K-seat stadium. But the point is a good one ... if they don't draw large crowds, it's just going to look bad.

 

Me too. I laughed a little more, which reflects poorly on me.

 

I want to be sympathetic but that's not a program that will ever make money. And in the South, football is the ONLY thing that makes money.

How much money will they get from their conference this year? $2 million? Big Ten schools get $31 million plus draw large crowds that will watch mostly shitty games and boring teams.

This is a cute We Are Marshall story about UAB but, five years, how much more money will get burned up in stacks of Benjamins?

 

UAB should just play FCS. 63 scholarships instead of 85, make the playoffs and, for the local fans, the recruits who wash out at Alabama or Auburn can transfer there and play right away. Delaware, Montana and Illinois State make their names in it and, in that world, drawing 12k to 25k a game is good.

Done, done and done.

 

Yes, maybe sellout was not the best way to put it, but to go to these lengths to get football back, then not support it in a monster way, both with ticket sales, booster funding, etc., will only make it easier to kill the program a second time. And who will be the bad guy that time?

And I agree with both of hack's last 2 posts, word for word.

 

Problem with UAB going FCS is that they desperately want to stay in Conference USA (yeah, I know) for their other sports, which actually do quite well, and they can't do that going FCS in football.

Everything about football at UAB hinges on getting a plan up and construction going for a 30-35K on-campus stadium ASAPronto. As long as they're stuck in Legion Field, they're going nowhere, but if they get a new stadium on line, they have a tangible future they can point toward.