[Vision2020] 17,000 average!

Nicholas Gier ngier at uidaho.edu
Mon Nov 8 14:20:41 PST 2004


Greetings from Blue State Capital,

All the publicity about UI going to IA explicitly stated that we needed to average 17,000 per game, and the 9,000 last Saturday at a homecmoing game simply shows that we do not have the fan or population base to be a IA team.

In response to an earlier post about the AFT call for a return to the Big Sky, I did indeed send our piece to Steve Peterson, who said that it did not contain any errors.  Steve is a former A+ student of mine and also has done economic analyses for the union, but I'm a little concerned about a social scientist now apparently going partisan about IA affiliation.

If the UI thinks that it can make money with a IA football team, it is an absurd proposition.  As we stated in our position paper, the average deficit in IA programs after appropriated funds are substracted is $237,000, and only about six programs actually make money.  And at the UI there are all sorts of hidden costs: maintaining the Kibbie Dome, etc.  Even if they raise private money for a new stadium, the UI will still be stuck with maintenance costs, etc.

If we have to stop this madness now.

Go Big Sky Vandals!

Nick Gier



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