also, unless I am doing my math wrong, we averaged 11,266 per game this regular season, which is above the official capacity of the stadium. While I agree butts in seats may not be always be filling that number, I also think realistically the benefit of jumping to MW for football, would increase interest both in the stadium and on tv. I can’t image the MW allowing us to keep our current stadium capacity in joining, especially since we should even in the stadiums current forum upgrade food, bathroom, and fan experience things (like a fan shop), all of which could be housed under or in conjunction with addition rows of seating. I’d image mw teams have better traveling fans, and more alumni locally and regionally. I also think moving to FBS makes UC Davis the FBS team of the north valley/nor cal region. The grass berms make it seem less full at times, as well as people standing on the concourse (which would be possibly smaller with seat additions), but having space for potentially larger matchups, increased local support, and events seems potentially advantageous, especially if we are going to move to a larger conference. I think at the minimum increasing our fan experience through facility upgrades and limited seating additions would be a benefit, both for people at the games, but also recruits visiting, potential students, and university appearance.

I’m curious what the distribution will be when/if we join without football as well. I guess it’s hard to place numbers on costs and investments before they happen, especially since it’s what, 2 years before we join? Idk interesting to think through and I’m sure stuff will be more clear in the coming months. With football, I think balancing success/$/and school exposure/fan experience would be hard to gauge since what expanding/renovating the stadium would look like, the team player and coaching wise, and fan support is impossible to totally understand (especially since it would be moving up to a different level of the sport with different competitors, opposing fan bases, and potentially different regional/non-davis student or alum interest in the team).

Now that the Niners are most likely out of the playoff picture… Ags all the way!!

I’m aware this is an older image apparently, but seeing as it was the last image shared by our ad, what do we think about this design?

they have the welcome rally at the football stadium with the basketball team dancing at it, and then they have going to the first game on the orientations schedule.

I would be interested to see tv metrics too… attendances across the west are on average lower % to full than Midwest or southern schools I feel. Big sky attendances in general scare me even more honestly, especially considering we don’t get much tv viewership.

I feel like from just tv revenue we could substantially make that up (the 5 mil) possibly

Pretty sure SJSU is more like 20k after the renovation they did… don’t see why Davis expanding to 20-25k seats playing mw teams wouldn’t get a good 17k or more averaging per game.. especially with the better fan experience with the upgrades everyone seems to talk about, and increased relevenacy in the sac/nor cal area. I don’t even think a huge increase (but it would be bigger) amount of student support would stop us from getting more consistently big crowds… something Wyoming size seems reasonable.

If I remember correctly we had a pep rally at silo last year or 2 years ago? Was rad with the band and all!! I do think just basically saying “look free football game with good food, music, and venue every Saturday this fall” plastered all over social media and on campus through pep rallys, coach riding in golf cart saying free tickets, etc would help.

I think your point about food, wine and the store are super worth thinking about. A few Montana state fans were asking on their forum if Mondavi had like a tasting room or something, that would be so cool! A merch store would be worthwhile too, my family whenever they come up always wish they could buy football gear. Food options beyond cold pizza and food trucks would be awesome too, maybe even leave some of the food trucks to be in tailgate areas… in connection to cell service and such, I think having bigger tvs at food stands and such would be great. Also, lean into the freakin ag/cow/historical aspects of the school. I’m talking a mural of toomey, really centering the steam engine touchdown awesomeness, and make cowbells just a thing at games. I think we also need bigger bathroom facilities which like everything else, could be included in an expansion of decks on the sidelines.

this is a great thread. Personally, I would be a huge fan of building up on the sidelines and leaving the grass berms. Another level of seating on the student side and a second row with a few luxury boxes and press box on the home side would be my biggest suggestion. Adding some more foliage behind one of the grass berms would be super rad too! I think building up on the sides will help lock in fan noise too, even better since the field is kinda a lower bowl now. Would love to hear other perspectives!

hey another student! exactly my experience, and like the 15 people I reached out to about the game...

this is a great episode guys!! Love it :)

exactly. dont think our admin is that misguided to join without football in mind.

I think the MW wants 10 football members at the end of the day (at least for now). This is partially why I feel there is potential that Davis could be that 10th member…

Interesting move, idk NIU has been okay at football recently, I was reading about stuff and people have been saying this has been discussed/rumored before (I don’t remember ever hearing that??) but yeah we shall see

none of those things happened from what I understand, and not a single person I know knew we had free tickets until I sent them the link from this forum.

Yeah i didnt really add enough of this perspective. The surrounding areas (both solono, north bay, sac, northern delta, etc) do not have an FBS or major conference level team. Davis from an academic and athletic standpoint IMHO could step up and provide that. I feel like GCU gets a ton cause its near a big metro, and has been aggressive in facility upgrades, a HUGE social media presence (our stuff has been getting more views too).

this i totally agree with.

yeah the paint is chipping on the outside..

I think its sorta a big mix of things. I think students do like free stuff, but again I think who we are playing matters a bit now adays, especially with social media. Kids seem to only talk about the sac state, montana state (because of the level of competition) or cal poly games (less because we just blow them out all the time). I think people just like going to games where they recognize the other schools name. I will say unless frat culture becomes big again (idk if it was before), or we get them to come out, thats def not a driving factor at games right now crowd wise. I mean ill be honest, experience at the game wise, the concessions that are not food trucks is like cold woodstocks pizza and beer. I think that could be better for sure. I think leaning into the tailgate would be really good, and I think (again) , playing teams with loyal, large fan bases would make us want to come out and support our team. Everyone I talked to wanted to go to the montana state game because it was a "big team" that has a lot of fans, and the environment is fun when there is some competition. idk it just is more exciting, motivating, and fun when you play big teams.