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Message: [QUOTE="Orangepace, post: 1080705, member: 322"] I surely hope Gross doesn't leave. The athletic department as a whole appears to be in much better shape than it was when he arrived. Granted, the spending sprees seem ludicrous on their face, however, I still think Jake C. is more to blame for that. He literally pulled money out of the AD for years when the program was successful instead of capitalizing on that success and reinvesting into the program, both through marketing or facilities upgrades. SU needed a "dreamer" when Gross arrived and by most accounts, he's delivered. I believe judging Gross based on solely the years he's been in the driver's seat is not fair. The SU brand, and as a piece of that the athletics notoriety, erosion began long before Gross arrived on campus. I also don't like the constant negative posting about the NYC marketing campaign. The ONLY reason SU was such a quality candidate for the ACC or B1G was due to its proximity to the NYC market. Transplant the school, even given its history, into North Dakota and there are zero sh!ts given about luring SU to a major conference. While the campaign on its face may not be yielding results and there may be more intelligent/creative ways of marketing in NYC, I still believe to this day that SU needs to continue to attempt to elevate its presence in NYC for branding purposes. This not only impacts sports though. Elevating the awareness of SU in NYC also is important for academic reasons. It's the closest metropolitan area to the school and as such, very significant to students looking for jobs after graduation. Also, anyone trying to make the argument that marketing in NYC should lead to a significant increase in attendance is ignorant. The marketing campaign is about the brand and further the brand doesn't only relate to sports or attendance. Btw... this attendance discussion is somewhat for the birds.. Should they and could they do more locally to promote the team, sure. I can't seem to find the 2013 attendance average, but in 2012 average attendance was 37,953 ([url]http://www.nunesmagician.com/2012/12/12/3756680/syracuse-football-attendance-down-6-lowest-since-2008[/url]). I realize that represents tickets sold and not butts in seats, but data for the butts in seats isn't readily available. So in 2012, football game tickets sold represented 77% of capacity (49,262 - [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_Dome[/url]). Just for giggles, I decided to look at the NFL team from a very popular blue collar city in the US for 2013. The Pittsburgh Steelers averaged home game attendance of 57,311 ([url]http://espn.go.com/nfl/attendance[/url]), or 87% of capacity. Over the last 10 seasons, Pittsburgh has been to the playoffs 5 times, including 2 superbowls, winning 1. Yet they can't fill the stadium. The Pittsburgh metropolitan area has 2.3 million souls, or 347% more than Syracuse metro area, yet cannot fill a stadium that has 25% more capacity. Additionally I assure you that they have a much larger marketing budget than SU. I know this isn't apples to apples, but what do I mean by all this?! I could probably write a dysertation on this which would have to delve much further into the statistical analysis, but I would generalize that blue-collar towns typically have a much harder time filling stadiums. I would further hypothesize that the only real way to fill these stadiums to capacity would be to demonstrate sustained success. The momentum is building and significant improvements to the foundation have been made. There's still a ton of work to do, but the bus is moving in the right direction. I have confidence that Chancellor Syverud knows what he's doing and will continue to drive the Syracuse University brand forward. I sincerely hope that he and Gross can find a common ground and learn from each other, but not lose the vision of what needs to be done. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?