Coliseum games give TSU an empty feeling
Tigers enjoy playing in NFL stadium, but don't feel at home
By MAURICE PATTON
Staff Writer
Is Tennessee State getting the seven-year itch? And do the Tigers have the scratch to take care of it?
One of the conditions for the construction of the Coliseum for the Tennessee Titans was that TSU be allowed to play its home games there as well. Both teams have occupied the facility on the east bank of the Cumberland River since the 1999 season.
Over time, though, the arrangement has become less of a privilege and more of a punishment for the Tigers — or certainly for some TSU supporters, who embrace the notion of renovating or rebuilding Hale Stadium on the school's Nashville campus and moving TSU's home games back there.
"The sentiment of most Tiger fans is that there's no place like home," said Jeff Obafemi Carr, a 1990 TSU graduate and local actor. "I think that's the sentiment of most fans anywhere. The preference would be to renovate the stadium on campus and play games there, especially after homecoming weekend (on Nov. 5), when you saw what happens on Jefferson Street and remember how it used to be."
Even in the heyday of the 17,500-seat Hale Stadium — affectionately known as "The Hole" — some games that threatened to draw larger crowds were traditionally moved to Vanderbilt Stadium. Still, taking games off campus permanently has galled a number of supporters, some of whom have responded by staying away in droves.
"A lot of people don't want to go down there," former Tiger running back Sam Smith said. "We're not drawing. The place looks empty. It's really not a home stadium because it's not on campus."
In four games at the Coliseum this season, TSU's announced attendance averaged 15,023. That's a respectable figure for NCAA Division I-AA football, yet a number that gets lost quickly in a structure that seats 67,500.
And it's an average, skewed higher by the 25,342 that showed up for the Sept. 3 John Merritt Classic against Alabama A&M and the 23,481 that turned out for a Nov. 5 homecoming meeting with Eastern Illinois. Against Jacksonville State on Oct. 22, the Tigers drew just 6,490, and in the Nov. 19 season finale against Eastern Kentucky, the game drew just 4,779.
One factor that could be working against TSU's attendance figures is its membership in the Ohio Valley Conference. While the OVC does offer members the convenience of geographic proximity, it has a glaring lack of demographic diversity — TSU stands alone as an Historically Black College competing against predominantly white OVC schools that don't share TSU's legacy.
All that aside, TSU's Coliseum attendance figures could use a boost.
"Is that problematic? Yes," said TSU Athletics Director Teresa Phillips, who estimated the school pays approximately $110,000 for each game it plays at the facility. That includes stadium rental fees, scoreboard operation, emergency medical staff, security, parking and utilities.
"We've got two levels unfilled (and unsold; only the lower-bowl seating is available for TSU games), and such a huge square footage you have to pay security for," she added.
Dollars, cents and emptiness
According to Phillips, the average game-day revenues for the 2004 season were approximately $195,000. That includes concessions, season and game-day ticket sales, and parking.
OK, so those are the actual dollar figures. But what about the intangibles of playing at the Coliseum?
"I think the Coliseum has positives," Phillips said. "Any time a young man has an opportunity to play in a facility of that magnitude is a plus. But obviously, if you're playing away from your campus, it's not your facility. It's away from our home base."
Another concern of playing at The Coliseum has to be perception, at least in the eyes of recruits brought in for TSU home games. It's a balancing act: on the one hand there is the appeal of sharing a first-class facility with an NFL team; on the other, there's all those empty seats, which don't do much to add to the ambiance of the game experience.
Where's the excitement?
"I don't think it's a negative," said TSU Coach James Webster, whose Tigers recently closed out a 2-9 season in Webster's first year at the helm. "I don't think (recruits) look at it and say, 'There are a lot of empty seats,' because we don't dwell on it. We focus on the fact that it's a nice facility, it's a pro stadium, we've got a nice locker room to dress in.
"One of my dreams — not a goal, a dream — is to fill it up. Whether we can do that, I don't know."
Pulling up stakes from the Coliseum and moving back to campus isn't as simple for Tennessee State as saying, "We don't want to play here anymore," though, for a number of reasons.
Since last hosting a game in 1998, Hale Stadium has slipped into disrepair in many aspects. The dressing facilities, restrooms, press box, concessions areas, seating, lighting and scoreboard would all require upgrades. Naturally, that would be expected of a structure that has not been utilized in seven years, and readying it to put on a game could cost as much as $30 million.
Additionally, TSU would have to break its lease with the Coliseum — an agreement that has another 23 years to run. That lease agreement is part of a political back scratch, in which the state helped finance the $302.5 million stadium through the issuance of $55 million in bonds as well as $12 million in road improvements.
In return, TSU, a state institution, was given the keys — at least on some Saturdays each autumn — to have full run of the brand-spanking new home for their home games.
For Tigers fans, though, it means having to make the best of a home-game experience in a huge stadium. The vast, imposing structure can feel particularly cavernous with all those empty seats around them.
More than likely, though, any change won't come easily, or quickly.
"It's a 30-year contract," said Lora Fox, legal counsel for the Metropolitan Sports Authority, which oversees the Coliseum. "The only provision for TSU to get out of it would be if the (state) General Assembly authorizes funding for the construction of a stadium on campus. In that case, they may give one-year's notice."
Remember the Titans
For the Titans' part, Tennessee State has been a good stadium-mate.
"It's nice to have a situation where they are able to use the stadium," said Titans Coach Jeff Fisher, who played his college ball at Southern California. "They've got a nice locker room setup, and it's been a good situation. It was always the plan to involve TSU because of what they did for us when we first came to town."
The NFL franchise — still the Oilers at that time — held its preseason camps on the TSU campus in 1997 and '98, its first two years out of Houston.
Fisher did say that on weekends when both teams have been on the Coliseum surface on consecutive days, things can get a little dicey, but the impact has been very limited.
"If you have some really hard and heavy rain on Saturday, and we're playing on Sunday, it could be an issue," the diplomatic Fisher said. "But the grounds crew has done an excellent job maintaining the field and keeping it suitable for play."
While Fisher's Trojans play off campus at the nearby Los Angeles Coliseum, receiver Drew Bennett, who played for the cross-town UCLA Bruins, experienced a situation more similar to TSU — a 45-minute excursion from campus to the Rose Bowl.
"The plus was it was the Rose Bowl, and it had some tradition to it," Bennett said. "And I guess being that far out, you got a bigger fan base; it wasn't just the immediate area of UCLA. But I think there were more negatives than there were positives, because a lot of students didn't come because it was 45 minutes out there. We went to Tennessee and saw everyone pouring through the streets, coming through right next to campus. All the (other) Pac 10 schools have stadiums on campus. It's just more fun when you see stuff going on on campus, and everyone is walking up the hill to Memorial Stadium at Cal or something like that."
Back home at the hole
Eddie Cole can relate to Bennett. Cole, a TSU junior and the editor-in-chief of The Meter, the student newspaper, is the nephew of former Tiger standout Waymond Bryant.
"He tells me stories of playing for Coach (John) Merritt, playing in 'The Hole'; I can only imagine," Cole said. "You can't duplicate that atmosphere of playing on campus — looking out your window and seeing the stadium. There would be nothing like a Saturday evening, hearing the band playing, and all you've got to do is put on your sneakers and make a three-minute walk and you're there. As it is, we've got to catch a shuttle or get in the car and come down and find parking.
"You almost feel obligated to go to anything on campus, even if you go for just a quarter. It's right on campus. How do you beat it? The fans, the band, the tailgating — it's all right there."
That atmosphere creates an "electricity," said ex-TSU quarterback Brian Ransom, that doesn't exist at the Coliseum.
"It was a more intimate, much closer feeling in 'The Hole,' " said Ransom, who played from 1979-82. "Your adrenaline tends to be a little more pumped. The bigger arenas are still fun, but you like the smaller facilities, the standing-room-only crowds, the electricity of all that.
"You can't beat the facilities (at the Coliseum), the playing surface, all that you have there. But as far as the crowd, the intimacy — you want to have as close to the number of people that will fit in the stadium as possible.
"We're really stuck between a rock and a hard place, though. With the crowds we've had, we wouldn't fill 'The Hole.' "
Added former TSU great Richard Dent, who went on to NFL stardom and was the MVP in Super Bowl XX with the Chicago Bears:
"There's nothing like The Hole. We liked playing there, in front of all the fans. We took a lot of pride in it. I guess the (Coliseum) is bigger, but in a big stadium, what would be a big crowd (at Hale) doesn't seem so big. In a smaller stadium, the crowd seems bigger, and a team can take advantage of that."
Titans quarterback Steve McNair, who starred at Alcorn State before going to the NFL, sees both sides of the TSU dilemma.
"I think it's good to get into that (large stadium) atmosphere, but I played on campus, and I think it's more of a college-type atmosphere because you've got your students and all that," he said. "At the same time, you're playing on an NFL football field (at the Coliseum)."
Prefer roamin' the Coliseum?
James Dunn, a 76-year-old TSU graduate and Nashville resident, isn't necessarily ready to declare home as being so sweet.
"I like the stadium downtown, but I can understand they don't want to open it for 4,000 people," said Dunn, who along with his wife, Beulah, is one of two "Tiger Gold" members of the TSU Athletics Association — donors giving at the highest level of $2,500 or more annually.
"I feel our school should have a stadium that would accommodate the people, with good parking," Dunn said. "It wouldn't be as nice (as the Coliseum). But when you go to TSU, you can't park, and that's important. We're senior citizens, and neither of us can walk very far."
Dr. Melvin Johnson, TSU president, plans to commission a "blue-ribbon committee" to determine the feasibility of either staying at the Coliseum or returning to campus as part of a study on the future of Tiger athletics.
Though TSU sponsors 13 sports, it's realistic to say football has the highest profile — perhaps the sidewalk leading to the front porch that Johnson calls the school's athletic department. That said, playing in a facility that is, on average, 77.7 percent empty is a high-profile issue as well.
"After seven years, we have to sit it on the table and determine whether it's worth it or whether we need to invest in an on-campus facility," Phillips said. "It's time for that conversation, and wherever that conversation leads, I'm fine with."
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...
Posted By: Rodney e
Wednesday, November 30th 2005 at 5:41PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
