Championship Subdivision Football | FCS Football | Stadiums | Blogs | Forums

Recently seeing where Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin are going to begin playing the annual contest at Reliant Stadium in Houston got me thinking of how cool it would be if SUU and Weber could potentially play a yearly game at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, UT. MLS stadium that holds around 20K. Being that most of the SUU and Weber alumni are located in the Salt Lake Valley, I definitely think the game would be near capacity.

Weber barely packs their stadium half full for games vs. Montana, I don't know how a SUU/WSU game would be near capacity.

Wow. Some Montana fans must have been really offended by the low turnout for their 2008 game in Ogden. Even Montana Western drew more fans.

2008 Weber State attendance:
Montana Western 5182
Dixie State 8201
Montana 3753
Northern Colorado 7320
Portland State 8164
Eastern Washington 8841

2009 Weber State attendance:
Idaho State 8467
Montana State 6112
Sacramento State 8218

Now for the original question. I think it would be a good idea.

They should be playing each other, but they don't need to play at Rio Tainto, Either stadium would be fine, swap it every year.

Mike Johnson wrote:Wow. Some Montana fans must have been really offended by the low turnout for their 2008 game in Ogden. Even Montana Western drew more fans.

2008 Weber State attendance:
Montana Western 5182
Dixie State 8201
Montana 3753
Northern Colorado 7320
Portland State 8164
Eastern Washington 8841

2009 Weber State attendance:
Idaho State 8467
Montana State 6112
Sacramento State 8218

Now for the original question. I think it would be a good idea.

I love it. Your biggest crowd last year (and so far this year) was the one that watched EWU ruin Weber's hopes of BSC perfection.

I think developing a tradition with a game between WSU and SUU in Salt Lake is intriguing. That said, I am not sure that it would immediately attract that many fans. I doubt there would be that many more WSU fans in the Salt Lake valley going to Rio Tinto rather than Stewart Stadium. This difference in distance isn't all that signficant. The increase in Salt Lake WSU fans would be counteracted by a loss of fans from Ogden. In other words a wash.

Now, I wonder how many more SUU fans would attend in Rio Tinto rather than Stewart Stadium.

In my mind, however, the merits could be in creating a tradition and maybe getting a little notice in the Salt Lake media.

The idea may have to wait until UVU starts football and UVU-WSU set up such an arrangement.

Screamin_Eagle174 wrote:

Mike Johnson wrote: I love it. Your biggest crowd last year (and so far this year) was the one that watched EWU ruin Weber's hopes of BSC perfection.

Good point. However, it does beat the 5370 fans that were at Woodward Field when Weber State exacted their revenge.

Of course, Eastern Washington fans may care about as much about Weber State football as apparently Weber State fans care about Montana football.

Duplicate

Mike Johnson wrote:

Screamin_Eagle174 wrote:

Good point. However, it does beat the 5370 fans that were at Woodward Field when Weber State exacted their revenge.

Of course, Eastern Washington fans may care about as much about Weber State football as apparently Weber State fans care about Montana football.

The real issuse is whether Weber fans care about Weber football. Not enough to come to games.

Mike Johnson wrote:Wow. Some Montana fans must have been really offended by the low turnout for their 2008 game in Ogden.

That was a cold wet day, I think that was why it was such a low turn out. It wasn't a fun day for the weber fans either, even with the Weber win.