Eagles Pay Their Own Way, So Far
Eastern Washington University athletic director Dick Zornes said gate receipts from last Saturday’s first-round Division I-AA college football playoff game against Northwestern State were enough to let his school break even financially - give or take a couple of thousand dollars - in its role as host.
A paid crowd of 6,384 witnessed the Eagles’ 40-10 triumph at Albi Stadium and Zornes said the revenue from ticket sales more than covered the $30,000 guarantee Eastern made to the NCAA in order to secure a first-round home game.
“The total gate was right at $40,000,” Zornes explained, “but we’ve got expenses (stadium lease, security, transportation, etc.) on top of that guarantee, so it’s going to be close. We could end up one or two thousand to the good - or bad.
“We’re happy with what we got, but we’d like to do better this weekend.”
If they don’t, the Eagles could be looking at a substantial deficit because the NCAA’s guarantee for this Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. quarterfinal game against Western Kentucky jumps to $40,000.
“Which mean we’ll probably need about 8,500 to break even,” Zornes said.
Tickets for this weekend’s game are priced the same as last Saturday’s - $8 for adults ($7 when pre-sold to groups of 20 or more) and $5 for college and high students with proper identification and children. But with EWU students back on campus following a Thanksgiving break, Zornes figures the average profit per ticket sold is going to drop from about $7 to $5.50.
“I’m really hopeful that we can get 10,000 to Saturday’s game,” Zornes added. “But to be honest with you, our first-day sales weren’t as good this week as they were last week.”
Crying woof
Several members of Northwestern State’s defense got caught crying “Woof” during last Saturday’s 40-10 first-round playoff loss to EWU and paid a dear price.
As Eagles coach Mike Kramer recalls, the Demons - despite trailing 20-3 at the time - were a bit overly exuberant about temporarily knocking his starting tailback, Rex Prescott, out of the game with a gang tackle midway through the second quarter.
“That was a key moment in the entire game,” Kramer said, “because they stood over Rex and woofed … and you should have seen our offensive linemen. They were in the huddle biting on their mouth guards like nothing I’ve ever seen.
“You could see as we came out, on the right side - we’ve got (Jim) Buzzard and T.J. Ackerman over there - that their eyes were like slits. And I said right then that somebody was going to pay the price on this play.”
A moment later, backup tailback Mike MacKenzie raced through a huge hole over right tackle for a 67-yard gain that gave the Eagles a first down at the Demons’ 3-yard line and set up the touchdown that made it 27-3.
Radio daze
Go ahead and touch that dial. If you don’t, you might not be able to find the broadcast of Eastern’s I-AA playoff game against Western Kentucky this Saturday.
Last Saturday, because of a conflict with men’s basketball, the Eagles’ game was switched from KPPL (630 AM) to KTRW (970 AM). This Saturday, to accommodate a larger listening audience, it moves to KXLY (920 AM). The game will also be carried on KREW in Sunnyside and KGVO in Missoula.
Quick kicks
Western Kentucky (10-1) is a I-AA independent in football, but plays basketball in the Division I Sun Belt Conference. … Hilltoppers coach Jack Harbaugh is the father of NFL quarterback standout Jim Harbaugh… . Western Kentucky’s only loss came to Division I Alabama-Birmingham, 20-16… . The Big Sky Conference’s playoff record against I-AA independents is 1-10, but eight of the losses came against Georgia Southern or Youngstown State. Another came in 1985 when EWU, not yet in the Big Sky, hung a 42-38 defeat on Idaho.
, DataTimes