Bill Moos was delighted when Washington State’s latest “home” football game in Seattle drew another big crowd Saturday night, but Moos won’t be completely satisfied until the Cougars sell out 67,000-seat CenturyLink Field.
Moos, WSU’s athletic director, hopes that first sellout might occur as soon as next year. Moos plans to bring Oregon or Oregon State to Seattle each year, and if the powerful and highly popular Ducks come to CenturyLink next season, Moos likes to think the Cougars could sell out and net between $1.5 million and $2 million.
Not all WSU fans are happy about moving a home game from Pullman, but all the Seattle games have drawn more fans than Martin Stadium holds (35,117 before this year’s temporary reduction because of pending construction).
“Seventy percent of our undergraduate enrollment at Washington State is from the west side of the mountains,” Moos said. “We’ve got 80,000 alumni on the west side of the mountains. The vast majority of corporate people and businesses (in Washington) are on the west side.”
APPLE CUP STAYS
Moos again stressed that he will never permit WSU’s bi-ennial Apple Cup home game with Washington to be played anywhere but Pullman.
Jim Sterk, Moos’ predecessor, drew heavy criticism when he discussed the possibility of playing all Apple Cups at CenturyLink. Those games would have paid the Cougars millions more than can be made in Pullman.
This year’s Apple Cup, a Washington home game, will be played Nov. 26 at CenturyLink because of construction at Husky Stadium.
CONSTRUCTION NEWS
Moos said everything remains in place for suites and other premium seats to be added at Martin in time for the 2012 season. The final touches on design plans for the school’s football operations building – planned for completion in the summer of 2013 – are being made in anticipation of the WSU board of regents’ vote of approval Nov. 18.
Moos said the two projects, funded largely with bonds, each figure to cost in the neighborhood of $40 million. Next year, WSU will begin receiving millions of additional dollars in television income thanks to new Pac-12 deals.
IN THE RED
Moos vowed to upgrade facilities when he replaced Sterk last year, and improvements have cost millions.
Figures for the fiscal year ending June 30 have yet to be finalized, but a school spokesman said the athletic department losses will total $800,000 to $1 million.
The vast majority of college athletic departments lose money. The Cougars have operated at a loss the past three years, but turned a profit each of the previous eight years.
THANK STERK
Sterk, who began home games in Seattle in 2002, arranged for home-and-home games with Wisconsin and Boise State that Moos recently finalized.
Moos, who just signed a deal for home-and-home games with BYU, changed the seasons for the Wisconsin games and firmed up the BSU deal after the firing of Broncos AD Gene Bleymaier.
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