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Are you sure you heard him right Ruff? I don't know Rusty at all, and so I don't mean to put him on the spot. But if I am the Mr. Coonan, I would be very worried if my main fundraiser is spending even 1 second talking or thinking about about bringing back football.

SCU85 was right but didn't go far enough. So i'll be very clear on this: WITH ALL DUE RESPECT TO THE FINE YOUNG MEN WHO PLAYED AND THE PHENOMENAL PEOPLE WHO DEDICATED THEIR TIME TO COACH, THE ECONOMICS OF FOOTBALL FOR SCU DON'T WORK. THEY DIDN'T WORK IN THE '90s AND CERTAINLY DON'T WORK NOW.

One only has to look at Stanfurd and woeful SJS to see the issues here. We don't have enough students (min FCS enrollment is at least 7k and goes up dramtically from there, and nobody came to the games when we had a team) or local alumni to draw a minimum level of support (Cal's viability has squeaked by on this), the local sports market is crowded and incredibly diverse, people only want to watch winning teams (see 'Furd, SJS, Raiders, and SCU Hoops for most games except Zags and SMC), nobody cares about FCS football (can anybody name last year's champion?) and there is NO money in it, football is incredibly expensive both in terms of schollies and program expenses, and football won't put SCU on the map. Only men's basketball can. (Well, maybe women's hoops, but you need long-term success and a big--possibly lunatic--personality running the program.

So are you sure the punch wasn't spiked Ruff?

PS: On the niners stadium....unless Mr. Davis wants to do a Jets/Giants thing, the DeBartalo Taj Mahal will be a bust for a the city and tie up my taxpayer $$ that could be used for something that will benefit the entire city 365 days a year (say, like a real downtown), not for something for few thousand non-residents and millionaires for 10 days a year and then empty the next 355. Maybe if the NFL promises not to black out games in Santa Clara, i might be for this. Otherwise, no.

Been a die-hard bronco since the moment I walked onto campus and dodged Alameda traffic to get to dinner. Married in the mission.Everybody on the altar was a Bronco.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE football and some of my best friends to this day played football. It was sad the see how underfunded the program was in its existence, embarrassed to see the manner in which it was dropped, and sad to see that there was one less place to play for very good non-D1 athletes/people who loved the game.

But it's not a matter of love, it's a matter of economics and viability. Sorry for my rant, but it drives me crazy that this topic, now 16 (SIXTEEN!) years old, manages to rear its little head, even in casual conversation, and especially by a current staff member.

Yes, I'm a Bench member too. Have the plaque (that the wife makes me hang in my office and not at home) and a few golf tournament shirts (the old-school ones with the stiff collars) to show for it.

If there is indeed some firm, active school- and athletic-administration endorsed plan in the works to bring back football, then i stand uninformed. Certainly that would be an exciting reality for football alums, die-hard fans and young men who want to have a place to play.

However, my stance is that its not something that SCU needs and it doesn't make financial sense (unless a sugar-daddy is going to underwrite the whole thing or SCU doesn't care about a having another sport that can't pay for itself). Until the Broncos are a serious Dance contender every year and Leavey is SRO every night, then I don't think we need another sport to distract the athletics program. Zags are doing just fine without football and I'd rather see any extra $ committed to other sports. Wouldn't it be great to see softball go toe-to-toe with Furd and UCLA?

If indeed I am uninformed about a grand plan, then Mr. Weeke's comments, although thusly grounded in some reality, are still pie in the sky as far as I am concerned. USD's '08 average attendance was 3609--and that was for a team that was predicted to win the conference and ended up going 9-2. Those numbers, in a geography/market less crowded than Silicon Valley, don't quite fill up the new Niner's stadium, nor pay the rent. (there is a reason why the Broncos--and Stanford for that matter--don't play at the Arena anymore--only BYU could bring enough fans to a Cable Car game there.). And it's a mediocre number at best for Buck Shaw. Sure, UC Davis averages 9K a game, but really, what else is there to do in Davis?

So to think we should hope for the Niners to suck up the city of santa clara's redevelopment funds so it will be a place the Broncos could play, just doesn't hold water for me. No disrespect to Mr. Weekes, but can the school and athletic department REALLY be thinking that?

That's my opinion and I'm entitled to it. Even as a alum and Bench member.

(Bronco66: Is there another area we should move this debate to?)