Exciting, yet scary times. Congratulations!

Scary is right. This entire thing has been all over the place. To say this thing is on shaky ground is an understatement. We'll see how it all plays out I guess!

This high school looks like a good fir for Sac St. to connect with, given the kind of recruits they're bringing in. The former coach is also looking for a job, so maybe he can join the Hornet staff?

https://www.si.com/high-school/california/california-high-school-football-2024-championship-vacated-due-to-cif-violations-01jsjh2gh61r

Why not have the Hornets play hoops at Memorial Auditorium?

They tried that several years ago. Not sure why they went back to on campus games, but I would guess it had something to do with expenses, parking, attendance…

Cursed location for them: "Sacramento State was the last regular sports tenant to call Memorial home, playing basketball there from 1996–2000. The Hornets lost 34 consecutive games—a sports legacy best forgotten."

Ugh. Any idea how attendance started out?

Memorial Auditorium is better suited as an event space for graduations,plays, or concerts-events where people are using the stage. In it's current configuration it's not well-suited for basketball.

Cost was likely a huge motivation to move the games back to campus. I think I remember someone saying they were trying to get more students to attend. It is over 3 miles from the school. That said I think it really was about money. They had to pay for the upkeep of Hornet Gym regardless of whether or not they played games there, so why not use it and stop paying to use a venue that was too large anyway ? I believe Cal State Bakersfield came to the same conclusion with its basketball arena.

In my opinion Sac State will always have problems getting students to attend most sporting events regardless of where they're hosted. This is just because it's more of a commuter school. People don't have time to hang around school as much when they have jobs/families to support/they live off-campus. The notable exception is football (especially the Causeway Classic). That it's largely a barbaric sport, full of yelling, hitting, and tackling, played on Saturdays, gives it a wider appeal. Also, the Causeway Classic always draws out the low-brow types who just want to get drunk and be nasty.

Now that Sac is moving to FBS, I like to compare Sac to Fresno State. Fresno State is primarily a commuter school and they've had big attendance success in the past. The key ingredient is winning. I saw some pretty sparse attendance in the past few years with more losses.

Its hard to say if Sac can match Fresno State in football/basketball attendance though. Fresno and Sac are pretty different towns in a few ways - there seems to be a connection between the Valley and FSU athletics- this is lacking bigtime with Sac. Fresno's surrounding areas (counties) may have a higher population which helps.

Fresno State is the only game in town in Fresno for much of the year. Before the economic downturn in the late 2000's (and the later demotion to Single-A) the Fresno Grizzlies also used to draw very well despite not being very good.