Michigan State AD Mark Hollis yesterday said from a safety and enjoyment standpoint, he is "concerned" about whether his department is "marketing to the wrong fan" for football games, according to Joe Rexrode of the DETROIT FREE PRESS. Hollis said, "We have a lot of folks that are walking away from Spartan Stadium because of what they're seeing in the stands, what they're seeing en route from their car to the stadium. And that's kind of a call to action to all of us. ... Any time you come out and say, 'Stop drinking at football games,' it sounds like we're trying to deliver a bad message, and we're not. We're saying, 'Come to this campus, have a wonderful time, keep it within the environment that is acceptable for an 8-year-old to an 80-year-old.' And I think everybody could have a lot better time, we'd have more (fans) in the stands." Meanwhile MSU has sold "less than 7,000 of its allotment of 13,000" tickets for the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. Hollis and other Big Ten ADs "have spoken out in the past about the need for bowl games to provide better seats for ticket allotments, and he said he recently spoke again about the issue with Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany." Hollis: "The tickets we have remaining are in the upper hithers of (AT&T) Stadium and fans can find seats at lower prices and much better locations than what they can find with some of the remaining tickets we have available to us. Not a good business model for the participating schools" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 12/17).
