Press Box
[ AROUND THE WAC]
San Jose State trying hard
to draw fansTHERE'S creativity, and then there's, well, good old tackiness.
Holding a party before a college football game to increase attendance falls into the first category.
Closing the dining halls and serving the dormitory meals at the stadium to do so? Definitely the latter.
San Jose State's five-hour pregame fiesta before today's home game is a good idea. Five bucks gets you into the party and the football game against Texas-El Paso.
It's part of the Spartans' plan to build their attendance base so they can stay in Division I. The NCAA has new requirements -- including 15,000 (paid or not) attendance for football games -- going into effect in 2004.
Other good ideas:
>> The Spartans will give away a semester's tuition at each home game, and another student will get to try a field goal for books.
>> A fireworks show is planned for the Nov. 9 game against Louisiana Tech.
>> A motorcycle will be given to a student at the Fresno State game Nov. 23.
San Jose State -- which averaged 10,207 attendance last year, according to the NCAA -- hasn't decided to force students to take their meals at the stadium on gameday, but the administration is considering it.
It probably wouldn't cause student activism to rival that of the 1960s, but I can already hear the chants of "Hell no, we won't go."
How far would you walk for a hunk of Salisbury steak?
The idea had UH athletic director Herman Frazier, just back from his first WAC AD meetings, scratching his head.
He said the NCAA has forced the borderline institutions toward desperate measures.
"People are trying all sorts of innovative things," Frazier said. "I'm usually not much of a critic of the NCAA, but why make a rule that you can get around just by doing things like that?"
While Frazier doesn't have to worry about attendance numbers, at least in this sense, he does have to add another men's sport to meet the NCAA's new minimum, while remaining within gender equity guidelines. No easy task.
But it's still easier than scrambling around to magically increase your fan base substantially in less than two years.
WHICH BRINGS us back to San Jose State's problems.
You'd figure an upset against a big-name team from a big-name conference, like the victory over Illinois (so what if the Illini aren't that great a team -- half of college football is perception), would have new fans rushing the Spartans' ticket office.
Not necessarily.
Winning doesn't cure everything. It doesn't do anything about the economy, or the fact that many football fans in San Jose would rather go watch Cal and Stanford -- not to mention the 49ers. Plus there are a couple of pretty good big league baseball teams in the Bay Area.
The Spartans aren't the only ones in trouble.
Nevada is expecting only 17,000 fans today against No. 25 Colorado State, despite a great start, including a home victory over Brigham Young .
Still, give San Jose State credit.
It's trying. Hard. Almost as hard as a serving of good old dorm mystery meat.
Dave Reardon, who covered sports in Hawaii from 1977 to 1998,
moved to the the Gainesville Sun, then returned to
the Star-Bulletin in Jan. 2000.
E-mail Dave: dreardon@starbulletin.com