Not even the brightest minds in sports marketing could find an easy way to sell tickets to a game like this.
San Diego State vs. Idaho?
Both are among the nation's “Bottom 10” teams and will engage in the “pillow fight of the week” tomorrow when they play at Qualcomm Stadium, according to ESPN.com. SDSU owns the nation's second-longest losing streak (six games) and ranks in the nation's bottom 20 – out of 119 teams – in seven major statistical categories. Idaho (1-3) ranks among the bottom 20 in eight.
So how can SDSU (0-3) convince people to go to this game?
One way is to pay them. SDSU is giving out 5,000 cards worth $5 each in free gas.
But after those are given out before kickoff, how do you get the fans to stay?
“Make it exciting for the fan,” coach Chuck Long said. “We've started to open it up more anyway (throwing the ball). We want to be able to throw it and make it exciting. That's what we've had in the past, and we like doing it. We feel like we have the personnel to do that.”
That would be a little different from their most recent game, when the Aztecs ran the ball 41 percent of the time in a 35-10 loss at San Jose State. It's also far different marketing from Long than his first season in 2006, when he said SDSU would “instill toughness by running the football.” This week, Long says there will be more shotgun and spread formations and less switching of personnel. But the reality is small crowds are likely to be the norm this season, except for Oct. 11, when the annual postgame fireworks show draws its usual 50,000.
SDSU has about 23,000 “tickets out” for tomorrow's 5 p.m. game, including trade-outs and freebies. This means the Aztecs will be lucky to get 20,000 in the seats and may have their smallest crowd for a September home game since at least 1991.
“I wish it was packed,” senior offensive lineman Mike Schmidt said. “The reality is it probably won't be packed. But we're 0-3. We're fighting for our season right now. The motivation is there. We're looking at it as a new start. We had a bye week (last week), and now we're coming back like it's our first game.”
Without postgame fireworks and without a winning team, it's still a tough sell for SDSU, a school whose athletics budget has been stressed for years because of football revenue shortfalls. This year, SDSU projected $1.775 million in football ticket revenue, even less than the $1.89 million SDSU earned during last year's 4-8 season. But that projection came before SDSU went 0-3. The announced crowd for SDSU's season opener against Cal Poly (26,851) was its smallest for a season opener since 2003. The loudest noise at times during that game was the artificial crowd noise pumped in on key third downs.
“It is a big stadium, but I tell our guys that whether you play in our stadium or the parking lot of Target, you've got to be able to compete,” Long said. “It doesn't matter where you play. We appreciate the fans who do come, and they do make good noise.”
Notable
Starting receiver
Darren Mougey was held out of yesterday's practice with a hamstring injury. Long said it will be determined tomorrow whether he plays against Idaho. Safety
Corey Boudreaux (neck) is expected to start after missing the San Jose State game.
SDSU's winless record has come against the 106th-toughest schedule in the FBS (out of 119 teams), according to NCAA data based on past opposition. That data doesn't count games against teams from the small-school Football Championship Subdivision. SDSU's Football Bowl Subdivision is 75-2 against teams from the FCS. The only FBS teams to lose to FCS teams were SDSU (to Cal Poly) and Army (to New Hampshire).
Of last year's 64 bowl teams, none had started 0-3. Only four rebounded after starting 0-2.
Idaho's cheerleaders had been wearing outfits deemed too racy, forcing them to change uniforms. Meanwhile, the cheerleader coach who was responsible for the old uniforms resigned this week. The school had received complaints that the two-piece uniforms were too skimpy. Before that, they got rid of player uniforms that featured the school logo on the buttocks.
Brent Schrotenboer: (619) 293-1368; brent.schrotenboer@uniontrib.com
