The next hire has to make a splash, or you loose the fan base, and people like me who would rather spend my hard earned money supporting other recreational venues. As far as I'm concerned, Mora, possibly Pinkle are the only ones who could do that. I'm not even sure a non DJ descendent will accomplish this simple feat, since the last 5 hires have been a train wreck. Mora would be given 10 years
Your
"train wrecks" perhaps is an exaggeration, but I agree that the last five head coaching hires have not been
splashes, more like
thuds each missing the pool when it comes to keeping or getting back those 25,000 committed fans that the Husky Football base has lost. Our fanbase has continued to hold steady at somewhere between 45,000 and 50,000 after it hit it's low during 0-12 and Willingham's tenure, which absolutely was a
crash and burn.
The stadium renovation with all it's bells and whistles was a success in increasing support only in the areas of new prime seating (Husky Club, Luxury Suites, Heritage Club, etc), but not so much in terms of putting more season ticket buying fannies in the stands. 2013 ticket sales may or may not be disappointing to the AD depending on what he's receiving in total (tickets + donations) revenues from football. Hopefully, pool boy will not be so stupid as to increase pricing again until the product on the field is in far greater demand than it is now.
As for losing more fanbase with the increased ticket and donor pricing we were subject to in 2013, that could happen if the product Sark puts on the field continues to be sloppy, undisciplined, often wimpy and too difficult to watch or get excited about. And if he does not very soon (like in 2014-2015) start challenging with every opportunity the upper half of the Pac-12 (Oregon, Stanford, USC, ASU, UCLA) for conference supremacy, there's probably no hope that attendance will increase. Sark and Woody seem bent on dumbing down our OOC schedule to where it's not likely to attract more than a Big Sky audience, thus Husky Football needs to start posting undefeated or no worse than 2-loss Pac-12 records each season.
Don James showed us what kind of Husky Football we can have and which we have not had since he resigned 20 years ago. I believe most of us who were privileged to experience and enjoy the Dawgfather's brand of Husky Football want it back, not so much in terms of style and scheme for collegiate football has changed in the past two decades. I think we desperately miss the aggressiveness, discipline, and dedication to tough, physical football fundamentals that DJ brought to Husky Stadium with his coaching. And we especially miss the expectation that our Huskies will compete hard and usually successfully against all foes of Washington, not just the FCS donut holes or FBS cupcakes or our fellow dregs of the Pac-12's lower half.
