Tuesday, April 20, 1999
The University Daily Kansap
Section B · Page 3
Commentary
Low game attendance can be changed easily
To the Kansas Athletics Department:
You are falling to do anything about the
falling attendance at football games.
The Jayhawks have the lowest attendance in the Big 12 Conference.
And don't expect it to get better when the new season begins in August.
Yes, the team is working hard in spring drills, and it looks good. But even if Kansas wins its first five games and it looks like the Jayhawks will go to a bowl game, the 50,250 Memorial Stadium seats will not fill.
It doesn't matter that this team will play
Notre Dame. Win or lose, that game will not automatically create renewed interest in the program.
The new stadium is great, but a new building does not bring people to games.
Only two things will increase attendance. One is a consistently winning program. That will happen under coach Terry Allen, but it will take a few years.
Spencer Duncan
sports@kansan.com
Of course not every football game can be a sellout. But sinking attendance means something is wrong.
So in the meantime, you must do something to get people in Memorial Stadium. The next four years you have failed
Last year's game against Colorado on ABC was embarrassing. When the cameras panned out, the stadium was empty. What kind of message does that send to recruits and football fans sitting at home watching the nationally? It says that no one cares about Kansas football.
With the season just months away, this is the time to put together plans to bring in the fans.
Some suggestions;
Stop raising ticket prices. You may have to pay for the new stadium, but enough is enough. The prices constantly are changing. Promise fans that prices will not rise for at least the next three years, if not longer. And stick to the promise.
- Give away lots of tickets to charities and organizations. There are a lot of people who love Kansas football but are unable to attend games because they cannot afford a ticket. For example, there are always children's charities, such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Douglas County, that want to send children to games. You do give out tickets on occasion, but do it more.
Discounts. There is no reason there are not huge discounts for families, low-income individuals and large groups.
Most of these people, thanks to $25 to $40 individual ticket prices, cannot afford tickets. It's at least $100 for a family of four to go to a game. That's unreasonable. If you don't believe me, just look at the poor attendance as evidence.
These prices are shutting out some of the strongest supporters of the team. The high prices are keeping young children from attending games. Those children could be future fans and contributors. Instead, they are losing interest because they never experience games in person.
- Update your Web site. It is bad enough that you do not sell tickets through the web. Even worse is that one of the phone numbers you give for information still has the 913 prefix on it, which no longer is used.
- Let students in for free during certain games. It is easy to tell which games will be low draws. Open the gates to anyone with a valid KUID. Students are the backbone of the institution and the best fans.
I have heard the argument within the department: "We can't make money this way."
Bull.
Those seats are empty right now. So if the option is an empty seat or selling it for $10, then making that $10 is better. Besides, concessions are where money is made. When people get in cheap, they spend money on food and drink.
People are not attending games. That lack of support hurts the team and embarrases Kansas in front of the rest of the Big 12. And with no people in the stands, Memorial Stadium is not an intimidating place to play.
It is time for the Athletics Department to try some new things. Otherwise, the situation is only going to get worse.
Duncan is a Topeka senior in journalism and English.
Chiefs sign Emporia State back
The Associated Press.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Brian Shay, the undersized running back from a Division II school who smashed NCAA rushing records, but was snubbed in the college draft, is getting a chance to play for his home town team.
The Kansas City Chiefs, whose stadium is just 45 minutes north of Shay's home in Paola announced Monday that they had signed the three-time Division II All-American as a rookie free agent.
Standing a shade taller than 5 feet 8 inches, weighing 215 and
"I've grown up watching the Chiefs and hopefully now I can make a roster and wear the uniform," said Shay, who rushed for 6,958 yards in four years at Emporia State.
without great speed or quickness. Shay was shunned as NFL clubs drafted a total of 253 players. Despite owning so many rushing records, the problem, he said, was a combination of his size and the small-college competition he played against.
But Shay is confident that he will make it in the NFL.
"I definitely think so. If I'm given the opportunity, I believe that I can," he said.
"And I'm getting the opportunity so I think it's just going to be the same — hard work, put the effort into it and you'll get the results."
Shay averaged 6.9 yards per carry for Emporia State with 81
touchdowns. He also excelled in special teams, totaling 9,301 all-purpose yards, including 1,207 punt-return yards. As a senior, he rushed for 2,265 yards and 29 touchdowns.
say said that getting snubbed in all seven rounds of the draft was disappointing.
"Toward the end of the fifth round, my parents and a few close friends of the family were watching, and I went upstairs away from the TV," he said. "I was playing solitaire. I figured they would yell if they saw something. But they didn't, I was frustrated. But when I went to bed last night, I felt good about my decision."
He said that he got free-agent inquiries from about 10 teams, including Washington, Tennessee and Dallas, and that he
narrowed his decision down to the Chiefs and Redskins.
But Shay said it was easy to go with the team he had followed all his life.
"I just kind of went with an instinct. Close to home, great organization," he said.
Shay, however, will have to compete against other running backs, including an NFL veteran and a second-round pick in this year's draft to earn a spot on the Chiefs roster.
The Chiefs drafted Mike Cloud of Boston College with their second-round choice and will open training camp with Bam Morris as the top runner on the depth chart.
"I know they drafted a running back, and they've got some backs in camp," he said. "Just as much of an opportunity here as anywhere else is the way I saw it."
Saints put turnaround hopes on Williams
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — After facing the fans and media on draft day, next weekend's New Orleans Saints minicamp should be a breeze for Ricky Williams.
"I think the first thing I need to do is go in there and show the veterans that I'm going to go out there and work as hard as they do," Williams said. "Show them that I'm not going to be just an overpaid rookie, but I'm going to be a football player."
Williams was more modest.
One thing Williams doesn't have to do is convince his coach.
hare to is convince his coach.
Coach Mike Ditka donned
shoulder-length dread locks to
welcome Williams to the Saints
on Sunday. And he told about
4,000 fans — most of whom wore
"We got Ricky" T-shirts,
chanted, screamed for autographs and snapped pictures — that Williams was the key to getting to the Super Bowl.
Williams was more modest.
"I wouldn't say I'm a savior," he said. "Life's a puzzle, and hopefully, I can be the missing piece to that puzzle."
New Orleans, which hasn't
had a winning record in six years or a 1,000-yard rusher in a decade, traded away every pick after the first one this year, and its first- and third-round picks next year to get the Heisman Trophy winner.
"We drafted him because he is a great football player," Ditka said. "He's the first marquee player this organization has had in a long time."
Ditka, who joked he'd had his hair restyled Sunday morning to celebrate getting the big back, compared Williams to Walter Payton, the Hall of Fame back who carried the Chicago Bears and Ditka to glory in the 1980s.
Williams said that was an exagregation and insisted that he just played hard and loved doing it.
"I just run the ball and try to get to the end zone, and whatever happens in between is just pretty much all instinct," he said.
New Orleans has back-to-back 6-10 records under Ditka. Last year, the offense was ranked 28th in the NFL — dead last in vards rushing.
Getting Williams will change that. Saints officials believe.
"This is one player who's going to make our football team a lot better on offense," said general manager Bill Kuharich. "It's an awful lot of pressure to say that one player can get us to the Super Bowl. But if he can carry us on his back, God bless him. But I'm not putting undue pressure on h i m , " Kuharich said.
Actually, the pick puts enormous pressure on everyone in the organization.
Dit k a promised when he took the job
Williams: The Saints are counting on him to spark the offense.
that he would only stay three years if he could not turn the team into a winner. Now, with the sacrifice of eight potential players over two years, he's betting everything on Williams sparking a turnaround in the worst offense in the league.
"No excuses now," said quarterback Billy Joe Go on to the playoffs, or every one of us is going to be finding a new job next year."
Williams' association with rapper Master P and No Limit Sports, which represents him, was reportedly one reason the Indianapolis Colts passed on him with the fourth pick. But the Saints and Williams' agent, Leland Hardy, said they expected no problem working out a contract.
"Talk about his signability is of non-interest to me because all parties here are going into negotiations with a common interest," Hardy said. "And that is to get Ricky Williams signed and in camp on time and try to get this football team to the playoffs and the Super Bowl as soon as possible."
Based on what Chicago Bears rookie running back Curtis Ennis received in the No. 5 slot last year, Williams would get a five- or six-year contract worth about $2 million per season. The deal will include a signing bonus in the range of $7.5 million.
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