Commentary: The Thoughts

The Boiling Point: “The Thoughts” is a new feature offering one writer’s opinion on a variety of topics, most of which are Purdue related.

Welcome to “The Thoughts,” a Wednesday feature at TheBoilingPoints.com which will offer my thoughts on a variety of Purdue and college sports subjects in around a paragraph per topic. Much like most crappy sitcoms, this feature’s future is forever in doubt, so we’ll see if it’s still here next week. As always, your comments are welcome and I’d love to hear your thoughts on anything included, or even something I didn’t cover. Anyway, without further adieu, “The Thoughts”:

• I’ve made it clear since before this season started I think Danny Hope needs to go, but I (a Liberal Arts guy) finally got around to doing some math to justify it. I’m not talking about the simple math like how many wins Purdue was getting before he took over compared to now. I’m talking about where it counts: ticket sales. In 2007, Tiller’s last season before Hope’s takeover was announced, Purdue sold 14,000 more season tickets than they did this season. With season tickets being priced the way they are, that’s $3, 620,000 in lost revenue based solely on the LOWEST possible ticket price. That also doesn’t factor in the amount of money lost with 14,000 less people in the stadium buying concessions and merchandise, nor does it factor in that many fewer people coming to town on gameday and frequenting local businesses, which would give them more advertising dollars to spend. I know I’m not very good at math, but I hope Morgan Burke learned the lesson here that with football programs it’s usually more expensive to get a cheap coach than it is to simply pay a good coach. 

• Season Ticket Sales
• 2011: 28,914
• 2010: 31,701
• 2009: 34,523
• 2008: 40,824
• 2007: 42,880

I think Purdue really missed an opportunity by not coming out with black helmets Saturday night. I know a lot of people don’t think this important or needed, but Saturday was called by many the most important recruiting night in years for Purdue athletics. Why not do something special for it to maybe combat all the negative that the actual on-field performance. It’s clear recruits and college athletes in general get real excited about new and different uniforms, so why not show a recruit you can have some fun with it too? It may seem trivial, but it seems like a blown opportunity to me.

Someone told me Danny Hope said on his weekly radio show that he invites anyone that wants to talk in to his office to talk about the progress that is being made with the football program. Sounds like someone is getting desperate to me. I can also guess what he’s going to say: “Well, the team’s GPA is up, the number of arrests is down, etc.” Hey Danny, the number of wins is down. That’s what counts to fans. We’re not the ones the get a monetary bonus for team GPA. Purdue football doesn’t need a salesman, it needs a coach and a winner.

Trying to end on a positive note: How awesome is Ryan Kerrigan doing in the NFL? Really representing Purdue well. Also, it was neat to see Bernard Pollards “BOILERMAKERS” on the Sunday Night Football introductions, despite how he parted ways with the team years ago.