WSU Football: 2014 a Big Year for Advancing Cougar Football in Martin Stadium
By Josh Davis
Oct 31, 2013; Pullman, WA, USA; General view of Martin Stadium during the NCAA football game between the Arizona State Sun Devils and the Washington State Cougars. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
An article went up today by Mark Sandritter of CougCenter on the attendance being down last season, despite the better team performance.
As mentioned in the CougCenter piece, there are some reasons for the dip; the weak schedule, the dates, the team wasn’t as good at home, etc. But there’s no excuse for 2014 Cougar fans! The schedule is ‘prime-time’, there are no terrible dates for students, the only Thursday game is in Seattle to start the season, Apple Cup is on Saturday, not on Black Friday and the Cougs are coming off of a bowl season into the third year of Mike Leach.
2014 is a huge season for the next step in the advancement of Martin as well. Of course A.D. Bill Moos has overseen a multi-year process that has taken Martin from the bottom of the Pac-12 Conference (and most of college football) to the top in terms of facilities. But it still is by far the smallest stadium in the conference.
There is a master-plan to ultimately expand and add thousands of seats in an upper level along either the West Endzone or North side — I think I have my directions right — but it won’t even be put into play until the WSU fans can consistently prove that it would be worth the addition for at least a few years. Of course the logistics of cost come into play here as well, and WSU is going to wait out all of the projects that will be put into play after the football ops building is complete in May, then probably attack Beasley renovations before advancing Martin any more.
But this is a big year nonetheless for showing the athletic department that we care as a fan base about our football team as much as they do. Martin Stadium will finally be a beautiful, upscale place to convene for a football game and with the schedule there is no excuse for Cougar fans to miss out on the 2014 season. I think there’s a precedent for all of us when looking at the 12th Man of Seattle and watching what they did to opposing offenses and teams by just showing up and being loud for 60 minutes of a football game. Plus, we would never want to be outdone by the Huskies and you know they are going to feed off of that Seattle championship run in Husky Stadium to help Chris Petersen and the Dawgs.
We can once again make Martin Stadium one of the toughest places for visitors to come in and walk out with a victory against our beloved. With the likes of Oregon, USC, Arizona, Cal and Washington coming into Pullman in 2014, and all on Saturday, there are no excuses available! Let’s get it done Cougars!
Go Cougs!