Update: The Stadium that Almost Wasn't

I couple days ago a posted an entry about the failed proposal to build a joint UO/OSU stadium. I touched up the article (re-read the article and applied myself as a fact-checker, then removed some of the anti-Oregon rhetoric to make it more appropriate for a more public venue) and it then was picked up as an entry on the OSU Archives blog. (Actually the OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center blog... but that is just being nit-picky.)

It is not much different, except that the pot-shots against the green toilet seat are removed, and a picture of the article is included.

Link to Blog Entry

We almost had to share a stadium...

It is not too uncommonly known that Oregon State lent alumni to its little brother to build a football stadium and in the naming of that stadium's field (the reason why Oregon's stadium is named after an Oregon State grad, and an OSU football player became the UO coach for which the field is named), but did you know they almost had to share a stadium too? In June of 1952, over $300,000 had been raised to build a new stadium next to the impressive Gill Coliseum. Old Bell Field was worn out, and the football team--and its fans-- desperately needed a new home, so the money was raised to build it. Such a large fundraising effort was very impressive for 1952, and fans eagerly awaited the new stadium, but then, before the dream became a reality, disaster almost struck. A proposal mulled around with the Board of Trustees (the article was fairly vague-- this was perhaps for the Oregon University System) about the possibility of building a joint stadium for the two schools, perhaps in Junction City, halfway between Corvallis and "the landfill" (highlight the blank spot if you want to see what the landfill is actually called --> eugene). On paper, it seemed like a good idea; one facility could house ten or eleven games per year rather than just four or five, potentially saving the state a lot of money. Furthermore, one facility meant half as much maintenance required. Fortunately for everyone, reason won out when, added to the disgust of forcing each team and student sections to travel for "home" games each week, the funding was not transferable-- funding raised for Parker Stadium was earmarked for a stadium next to Gill, so building in an alternative location would instantly dissipate $300,000 already raised, a figure daunting enough to cancel the plan.

All information regarding the plans for a new stadium was gleaned from an article in the Barometer in June of 1952 which joyfully reported the demise of the proposal.

OSU Football Attendance Trends

For my research project, one of the factors I decided to consider is a comparison between the OSU Football team's win/loss record and attendance at home games. If boring explanations get to you, skip to the bottom for the quick version. Everyone knows that seasons during which the team is doing well, attendance spikes, and likewise, after losing seasons attendance drops, right? I knew that the correlation had to be there, but just "knowing" the answer does not make any conclusion valid, so I did some number crunching, and I found a mildly surprising result. Based on data from Oregon State between 1946 and 1988, while attendance did tend to fluctuate in accordance with the wins percentage, the overall trend had relatively little impact. Apart from a spike during 1968 (the year after a Rose Bowl season), a spike which did not happen after the previous Rose Bowl season (1957), attendance actually stayed fairly consistent, with a gradual upward trend. Of course, it had its highs and lows, but generally those highs and lows fit the form of a gradual increase. For comparison, here are two graphs I made. (I don't have good software installed on my Mac yet, so you'll have to pardon that I don't have the graphs on a single image and that the images need to be cropped--click on the images for a bigger version.) The first graph shows the average home attendance (though as some "home" games were played in Portland's Civic Stadium, I included separate statistics for averages with and without the Portland games), while the second shows the percentage of wins in the season (wins only, no ties).

The quick version:

Average attendance at home games increased over time even though the W/L ratio generally decreased over time. Results of an individual season often result in a spike or dip in attendance, but not enough to impact the overall trend, with the exception of the 1967 Rose Bowl team.

Special thanks to the OSU Sports Information office for granting me access to its "archive," from whence the 1989 Football Media Guide supplying my data came.