On behalf of Charleston Southern, apologies to Citadel fans

[bucs90]

Round 2, a very heated game between CSU and Citadel at CSU. The game itself aside....I wanna apologize on behalf of CSU to fans at The Citadel. Like many of you, we logged onto CSUs ticket sales this morning at 10 am and saw standing room only tickets were all that's available. Apparently Buc Club members were given a week ahead to buy tickets for seated areas and they're all gone. Bush League.

There are 2 CSUs. If you've been on campus....there's the Athletics side on one side of the road...and the actual school on the other. You'll find very different outlooks on each side many times too.

That awful stadium has been one and its not a new problem. In 1998 we hosted SC State and had over 7000 there. Wofford in 2000 was overflow. Coastal every year since the 2005 BSC champ game there (CSU won it too). Citadel last year. For 20 years we've known we need to expand....especially visitor side seating.

The football program...through 3 head coaches, Dowd, Mills, Chadwell...have said so. The AD has. The school has dragged it's feet on it. The school had millions swindled from it from the AL Parish fiasco. But guess what? Thats not The Citadel or Coastal Carolinas fault. If we can't host them....rent Blackbaud Stadium and put up temporary goal posts . Neutral like UGA VS Florida.

We just got 750k from Bama...200K from Troy....and let's say 8000 tickets X $20 Saurday.....that's over a million. And we've had 2 weeks to get ready for this. We can't rent 2000 or 3000 seat bleachers for 1 million dollars!!???? I'm quitting and going into the bleacher rental business if that's the case.




Anyway....Citadel folks....I'm sorry. A Division 1 playoff run shouldn't come to sitting in a lawn chair on some grass looking through a chain fence. CSUs football team....for 20 years....has lobbied across that street on campus to get better facilities and we haven't gotten much. We overachieve as a team anyway and I obviously hope we win Saturday.

But this is ridiculous. Feel free to copy this apology and send it out on Citadel forums too. I love my CSU football team. But eventually the school has to step up and act Division 1 off the field the same way the team plays D1 on it.

[Ibanez]

Does CSU have a message board?

[bucs90]

Does CSU have a message board?

No it costs too much. CSU said use the Post Office.

[Ibanez]

Does CSU have a message board?

No it costs too much. CSU said use the Post Office.

Bazing!!!

[CSUBUCDAD]

http://csusports.com/sports/fball/2015- ... 1130o4tczj

Great press conference with Coach Chadwell today.

[BDKJMU]

Holy shit, only 4k seats That is literally HS size in the south--heck, your avg 4A/5A/6A (whatever the biggest classification is) probably is bigger than that in the deep south.

Heck, back when JMU only had about 12,500 permanent seats they added temp endzone in ONE endzone, 1st about 1k+, then about 3,300 for the last 3 seasons, 08-10'', before began the expansion began to get the capacity up to about about 15,800 08-09'. With temp endzone CSU one endzone CSU could increase the capacity by over 3k to over 7k, and temp in both endzones to over 10k..Heck, I'd think increase ticket revenue would cover most of the cost..

[clenz]

Class 4A in Iowa (the largest) has an average stadium size of about 6k I'd bet.

Maybe I'll do some looking on that.

[JohnStOnge]

It may be bad in one sense but if they allow standing room that's going to be some atmosphere. Reminds me of some high school football playoff games I've been too where everybody in the friggin' town wants to go so you have people standing all round the field four or five deep. Intense, intense atmosphere.

And no I do not consider that to be an insult. The kind of atmosphere I'm talking about is what playoff football is all about.

[Ibanez]

Holy shit, only 4k seats That is literally HS size in the south--heck, your avg 4A/5A/6A (whatever the biggest classification is) probably is bigger than that in the deep south.

Heck, back when JMU only had about 12,500 permanent seats they added temp endzone in ONE endzone, 1st about 1k+, then about 3,300 for the last 3 seasons, 08-10'', before began the expansion began to get the capacity up to about about 15,800 08-09'. With temp endzone CSU one endzone CSU could increase the capacity by over 3k to over 7k, and temp in both endzones to over 10k..Heck, I'd think increase ticket revenue would cover most of the cost..

BDK, the nearest high school is Stratford HS with a stadium built in 1984 that holds 5,700. The next closest high school stadium is at Goose Creek HS with a capacity of close to that of Stratford.

[Ibanez]

It may be bad in one sense but if they allow standing room that's going to be some atmosphere. Reminds me of some high school football playoff games I've been too where everybody in the friggin' town wants to go so you have people standing all round the field four or five deep. Intense, intense atmosphere.

And no I do not consider that to be an insult. The kind of atmosphere I'm talking about is what playoff football is all about.

Jon, they've allowed SRO for years. But it's mostly because they don't have enough seats for even small games. The CSU administration just doesn't care. They want to improve but not take on debt (which is one of the reason they tuition is increasing again) but they aren't smart.

[BDKJMU]

It may be bad in one sense but if they allow standing room that's going to be some atmosphere. Reminds me of some high school football playoff games I've been too where everybody in the friggin' town wants to go so you have people standing all round the field four or five deep. Intense, intense atmosphere.

And no I do not consider that to be an insult. The kind of atmosphere I'm talking about is what playoff football is all about.

Jon, they've allowed SRO for years. But it's mostly because they don't have enough seats for even small games. The CSU administration just doesn't care. They want to improve but not take on debt (which is one of the reason they tuition is increasing again) but they aren't smart.

You wouldn't have to take on debt for temp endzone seating..

[Ibanez]

Jon, they've allowed SRO for years. But it's mostly because they don't have enough seats for even small games. The CSU administration just doesn't care. They want to improve but not take on debt (which is one of the reason they tuition is increasing again) but they aren't smart.

You wouldn't have to take on debt for temp endzone seating..

DING! DING! DING!

And we've come full circled back to the problem The school just doesn't care!

[bucs90]

You wouldn't have to take on debt for temp endzone seating..

DING! DING! DING!

And we've come full circled back to the problem The school just doesn't care!

Yep. The football team and fans do though. Just sorry you guys and Citadel fans have to get shitty visitors side experience. On field rivalry aside....fans of opponents deserve decent experience.

[CID1990]

Holy ****, only 4k seats That is literally HS size in the south--heck, your avg 4A/5A/6A (whatever the biggest classification is) probably is bigger than that in the deep south.

Heck, back when JMU only had about 12,500 permanent seats they added temp endzone in ONE endzone, 1st about 1k+, then about 3,300 for the last 3 seasons, 08-10'', before began the expansion began to get the capacity up to about about 15,800 08-09'. With temp endzone CSU one endzone CSU could increase the capacity by over 3k to over 7k, and temp in both endzones to over 10k..Heck, I'd think increase ticket revenue would cover most of the cost..

BDK, the nearest high school is Stratford HS with a stadium built in 1984 that holds 5,700. The next closest high school stadium is at Goose Creek HS with a capacity of close to that of Stratford.

You're forgetting McKissick which I think may be closest, and the published seating is lower but you can get 10k in there.

[pantherrob82]

Jon, they've allowed SRO for years. But it's mostly because they don't have enough seats for even small games. The CSU administration just doesn't care. They want to improve but not take on debt (which is one of the reason they tuition is increasing again) but they aren't smart.

You wouldn't have to take on debt for temp endzone seating..

Have you ever priced the stuff? I'm not sure how much they are charging for tickets, but I was blown away by the price of temporary bleacher sets in Iowa.

[bucs90]

BDK, the nearest high school is Stratford HS with a stadium built in 1984 that holds 5,700. The next closest high school stadium is at Goose Creek HS with a capacity of close to that of Stratford.

You're forgetting McKissick which I think may be closest, and the published seating is lower but you can get 10k in there.

Yep. They said the money from playing Troy and Alabama is going to new visitor seating next season. The AD says they just finished new restroom and concessions facility on the visitor side....apparently been working on it since August and just finished (Why in the hell start it in AUGUST for a football facility and finish it after the season would typically be over?????).

Anyway....the on field game aside.....I'm sorry the school is being so embarrassing about all this to both teams fans.

[Ibanez]

BDK, the nearest high school is Stratford HS with a stadium built in 1984 that holds 5,700. The next closest high school stadium is at Goose Creek HS with a capacity of close to that of Stratford.

You're forgetting McKissick which I think may be closest, and the published seating is lower but you can get 10k in there.

No, McKissick is 8.2 miles away.

I was just talking with a few Citadel alum who are laughing that they have to bring camping chairs to the game.


Shame on CSU for not renting bleachers and for not taking this seriously.

[Ibanez]

You're forgetting McKissick which I think may be closest, and the published seating is lower but you can get 10k in there.

Yep. They said the money from playing Troy and Alabama is going to new visitor seating next season. The AD says they just finished new restroom and concessions facility on the visitor side....apparently been working on it since August and just finished (Why in the hell start it in AUGUST for a football facility and finish it after the season would typically be over?????).

Anyway....the on field game aside.....I'm sorry the school is being so embarrassing about all this to both teams fans.

Really? I wonder where the construction was taking place b/c I drive by CSU often and haven't seen any.

[rokamortis]

All of this discussion about seats is why I was a little surprised that they gave CSU a seed. The Citadel could have easily been seeded with their record and beating SC. But this is all part of the growing pains of trying to build a program from little investment. This is hard now but at least should serve as motivation for CSU to build the proper facilities for FCS football.

Coastal baseball actually went through this as well, hosted regionals but our stadium was small and didn't have the proper facilities. We brought in temp seats one year and in others we hosted at an off-site minor league stadium. Now we have a pretty nice baseball stadium after enduring through those issues.

[Ibanez]

All of this discussion about seats is why I was a little surprised that they gave CSU a seed. The Citadel could have easily been seeded with their record and beating SC. But this is all part of the growing pains of trying to build a program from little investment. This is hard now but at least should serve as motivation for CSU to build the proper facilities for FCS football.

Coastal baseball actually went through this as well, hosted regionals but our stadium was small and didn't have the proper facilities. We brought in temp seats one year and in others we hosted at an off-site minor league stadium. Now we have a pretty nice baseball stadium after enduring through those issues.

This. Saturday was my first time seeing the "Sports Complex" and I was impressed. It's an incredible complex of stadiums and quite frankly, long overdue.

[bucs90]

Yep. They said the money from playing Troy and Alabama is going to new visitor seating next season. The AD says they just finished new restroom and concessions facility on the visitor side....apparently been working on it since August and just finished (Why in the hell start it in AUGUST for a football facility and finish it after the season would typically be over?????).

Anyway....the on field game aside.....I'm sorry the school is being so embarrassing about all this to both teams fans.

Really? I wonder where the construction was taking place b/c I drive by CSU often and haven't seen any.

That's exactly what I was thinking. By "construction" it may be like those wooden sweet grass basket stands on 17 north to Georgetown.

[bucs90]

All of this discussion about seats is why I was a little surprised that they gave CSU a seed. The Citadel could have easily been seeded with their record and beating SC. But this is all part of the growing pains of trying to build a program from little investment. This is hard now but at least should serve as motivation for CSU to build the proper facilities for FCS football.

Coastal baseball actually went through this as well, hosted regionals but our stadium was small and didn't have the proper facilities. We brought in temp seats one year and in others we hosted at an off-site minor league stadium. Now we have a pretty nice baseball stadium after enduring through those issues.

Exactly right. CSU never intended for its football team to be THIS. They started it as a D3 team along with the name change from Baptist College to boost enrollment. NCAA rule forced the jump to D1 in 92. School never cared to make big investments....and still doesnt..

The problem is......CSU can win. It's a very easy place to recruit to being in this area. The program has been on a steady incline since 1999 and 3 different HCs have taken it to the respectful "next level" from where it was, from early 90s 1-11 seasons to mid 2000 5-6 wins and competitive, to 2005 BSC chamsp....to now THIS.

As I said....CSU football is the most over achieving scholarship FCS program in the South. Even if the host school doesn't give a crap.

[Ibanez]

All of this discussion about seats is why I was a little surprised that they gave CSU a seed. The Citadel could have easily been seeded with their record and beating SC. But this is all part of the growing pains of trying to build a program from little investment. This is hard now but at least should serve as motivation for CSU to build the proper facilities for FCS football.

Coastal baseball actually went through this as well, hosted regionals but our stadium was small and didn't have the proper facilities. We brought in temp seats one year and in others we hosted at an off-site minor league stadium. Now we have a pretty nice baseball stadium after enduring through those issues.

Exactly right. CSU never intended for its football team to be THIS. They started it as a D3 team along with the name change from Baptist College to boost enrollment. NCAA rule forced the jump to D1 in 92. School never cared to make big investments....and still doesnt..

The problem is......CSU can win. It's a very easy place to recruit to being in this area. The program has been on a steady incline since 1999 and 3 different HCs have taken it to the respectful "next level" from where it was, from early 90s 1-11 seasons to mid 2000 5-6 wins and competitive, to 2005 BSC chamsp....to now THIS.

As I said....CSU football is the most over achieving scholarship FCS program in the South. Even if the host school doesn't give a crap.

You guys better not get too successful. You'll be cut like your tennis program.

[clenz]

You wouldn't have to take on debt for temp endzone seating..

Have you ever priced the stuff? I'm not sure how much they are charging for tickets, but I was blown away by the price of temporary bleacher sets in Iowa.

To be fair, I'm going to assume a D1 university has a couple more connections than some random guy calling for bleachers for his semi pro team playing at the local city park.

That's not a knock at what you did. I think that was pretty sweet and wish it would have continued to work out for you. That's just likely the simple truth of it

[CID1990]

All of this discussion about seats is why I was a little surprised that they gave CSU a seed. The Citadel could have easily been seeded with their record and beating SC. But this is all part of the growing pains of trying to build a program from little investment. This is hard now but at least should serve as motivation for CSU to build the proper facilities for FCS football.

Coastal baseball actually went through this as well, hosted regionals but our stadium was small and didn't have the proper facilities. We brought in temp seats one year and in others we hosted at an off-site minor league stadium. Now we have a pretty nice baseball stadium after enduring through those issues.

The problem is......CSU can win. It's a very easy place to recruit to being in this area.

Let's be honest here... Chadwell is a good recruiter, but he has the advantage of being able to take literally anybody.

Wofford, Furman, The Citadel, heck - even WCU can't touch half the players on CSU's roster. The APR at CSU is lower than the equivalent of a 50% graduation rate- the lowest in the Big South.

If CSU had decent facilities a coach like Chadwell could produce a national champion- but the million dollar question is if the Big South was to fold, where would CSU go? FBS?