Brady Hoke in his first season has found that winning football games and ridding a program of its losing ways are much easier than putting fannies in seats at Qualcomm Stadium.
In a scheduling nightmare, his San Diego State team hosted New Mexico at 4:30 pm on Halloween. Add in a winless opponent, a New Mexico team that never draws well on the coast and years of local apathy, and there was never a chance that $1 hot dogs were going to attract anyone to the game. About 60,000 fans at The Q were dressed as empty blue seats for Halloween.
The previous home game, two weeks ago vs BYU, might as well have been held in the Mormon Temple in La Jolla.
Meanwhile, Hoke has the Aztecs at 4-4, two winnable games away from a minor bowl bid, which would be a major accomplishment considering how bad the program was when he took over. No doubt there's a serious disconnect between the football program and San Diego County sports fans.
There is no question that apathy toward the Aztecs has hit a low. I don't recall any kind of general buzz in the community about Aztecs football since Marshall Faulk. That's when crowds of 40,000 to 50,000 regularly showed up in expectation that SDSU was just about to hit the big time, but managed to lose nearly every game that could put the school on the gridiron map and often looked terribly inept in doing so. The end of the era of Coach Al Luginbill destroyed any credibility San Diego State once had in the community at-large. You just don't walk into a given conversation and discuss the ins and outs of Aztecs football.
The rebuilding of SDSU football will be a lot like coming out of a recession. Usually we're out of an economic downturn before we realize it. Only when we take notice do companies begin hiring again, which is why job growth always tails the financial upturn. In the case of Aztecs football, the Aztecs might go to one or two bowls before locals realize what's taken place.
The one trouble is that a couple more budget-busting years could put the program on an economic deathwatch, especially considering how poorly the state of California is doing economically. So Hoke doesn't have a whole lot of time to get fans back into the seats.
Here are a few things that can ease the path:
1. Keep winning. Okay, they won't beat TCU next week, but playing them hard and mistake-free would really help.
2. Just in case someone shows up, make sure the parking and concessions people have a clue. They're costing SDSU customers among even the hardcore fans.
3. I don't believe they have ever taken advantage of the Clear Channel radio contract. There should be an SDSU presence across the dial the rest of the season.
4. The marketing staff has to make aggressive use of social media, from Twitter to Facebook to You Tube. Remember that crazy blocked extra point for a touchdown against Southern Utah? I went to You Tube a couple of days later with thoughts of sharing a video on my Facebook page. You guessed it, I didn't find it. My FB friends include a former all-conference lineman, a sports-loving fellow alum and a lot of sports fans who live here in town. They'd have enjoyed it. Instead, their pages just lay there and don't reach out to anyone. I took the Aztecs FB news feed, but you have to go to it to sign up, it doesn't come to you with an invitation. You have to be aggressive.
Right now, there's no reason to go see a game. If the Aztecs go to a bowl, who cares? Really. Family is more important, so people are opting for things like Halloween and their third cousin's, twice-removed AYSO soccer game. Hey, at least we have perspective. SDSU people have to reach out, grab us and reel us in and, so far, they're not doing so.
What really concerns me is that no one in the past few weeks has mentioned basketball beyond the Lakers starting up. Both the men's and women's teams might be ranked at some point this season, yet there's no buzz there, either. You have both Steve Fisher and Beth Burns begging for fans to come to Viejas Arena, and I'm betting their pleas will go unheard.
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Meb Keflezighi is proof that just because you're down, you're not down for good. Sunday he became the first American man since 1982 to win the New York City marathon. In the three years leading up to 2009, the San Diego High grad has dealt with a broken hip and poor performances, including a 21st in NYC and two non-finishes in London. This year he has two personal bests, including this victory, a win in a half-marathon in San Jose and several first-place finishes at shorter distances. Great comeback for adversity.
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