I think that LSU should play a game in Houston every year with the Aggies. They should do what they do at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas for UT and OU...basically jack up the prices to about $70/seat. Sell 1/2 to LSU and 1/2 to the Aggies and hold it at Reliant Stadium. This would go a long way for LSU's recruiting efforts in Houston and Texas. Just a thought. :champs:
I thought TexasAM wanted to drop the games with LSU because of recruiting. And while Houston is a rich high school football area, so is most of the south. We get our fair share of players from in state and out of state. Could we do better? Sure, but I doubt Saban is ignoring Houston recruits . . . he does have to compete with Texas, Texas AM, OK, Ark, etc . . . not to mention all the smaller schools in the area that can promise almost unlimited playing time and national TV games (even if they are during the week). When they limited scholorships it helped the smaller schools in the South, but now with more TV games than ever, that is helping the smaller schools as well. Anyway, I think we do fine with recruiting. Don't we usually land in the top 5 under Saban?
LSU dosen't need to give up a home game for a road game in Houston to be able to compete for the best Houston prep talent. Those kids know who LSU is just as well as they know about Texas, OU and A&M.
LSU wouldn't be giving up anything from a revenue standpoint. In fact they'll probably come out better financially due to the increased cost of tickets. There is no way that LSU has the respect as Big XII schools like Texas and OU in the state of Texas. No way. This would go a long way in the recruiting battle.
Let's see .... a home game is $36 times 92,000 fans, plus concessions, minus the cost (about $400,000) to bring in an OOC team. Are you telling me we could play a road game, split the money with another team, and come out better financially? Would love to see the math on that one! Secondly, I didn't realize our recruiting was to the point where we need to play away games to attract talent!
Before being so pessimistic...try doing the math. I said $70.00 per ticket (like OU vs. Texas). Split the seats in 1/2, so approximately 40K seats. 280,000 per team per season. It would help recruiting...that's all. Last time I checked...not one of the #1 prospects in the country considers LSU (besides Perrilloux...and he's heading to Texas). Recruiting may have been top 5 the past few seasons, but we've missed out on a lot of big talent.
You dropped a zero there - it would be 2.8 mil, which would fall short slightly of the home game take. 1/2 of tickets would only be about 35K to 36K. So, tickets would have to be about 80 a pop, assuming Tigerwins numbers are good. That's a lot per ticket. And then, there is all of the lost revenue for the state of Louisiana... As much as I'd love to see a game in Houston (but NOT against the Ags!), I just don't see it happening.
I'm just being realistic. Skip would play in Iraq tomorrow if he could make a few bucks. The numbers just don't support swapping a home game for a road game right now. I don't see a problem with our recruiting. We managed to win a national championship last year. We are a QB away from being 7-1 this year and in the hunt for Atlanta.
Miami plays at Tech in Shreveport last year then in Houston against Houston this year. You think they did that to be nice to those schools. No Miami is not stupid, they know the talent that comes out of Shreveport and Houston every year and want to establish a recruiting base in those areas. Talent is attracted by going to the kids and showing them who you are. Kids will not go to LSU just because it is LSU. You determine where the talent is, establish a base there and hopefully attract the kid you want by making the athlete think LSU is the place to be.
I'll ask again ... do we have a recruiting problem that I'm not aware of? We're 6-2 following a national championship year and all of a sudden recruiting is an issue?
