I've been tough on JP, but regarding CY Stephens, I'm totally on board with him there. What exactly does the Arts crowd want him to do? As it stands now, CY Stephens will not get much more funding at all unless either the Arts crowd opens up their pocketbooks OR the athletics department thrives and can afford to put some money into it.
Well.... athletics will not thrive without football, and fans in the stands. So if you are for saving CY Stephens you probably shouldn't be yelling at JP that he can't have fans..... that seems pretty stupid.
And the City of Ames should be doing everything and anything they can to help JP out as well. Without football and fans..... they will go under big time too.
And ISU will go under without students on campus too obviously.
It is a huge conundrum for all parties involved..... ISU, the AD, the Arts, the City of Ames, etc especially when you factor in Covid.
My contention though is, and always has been, if we aren't willing to sacrifice to do what's necessary to get somewhat of a handle on Covid, then this financial nightmare for all the parties involved will only linger on longer and be much worse in the long run. We cannot have a short term outlook right now, or this Covid will be MUCH more costly in the end.
JP does a great job of showing how low (basically non existent) the Covid numbers are within the athletic department, and that is awesome. It does appear that having football players playing football is actually safer for them than not when you look at Iowa's Covid numbers. I was wrong about that I will freely admit.
But this is exactly why bringing fans in creates a huge problem. Bringing them in, will increase greatly the chances of the Covid numbers in Story County and in the state of Iowa of going up..... and if those go up... then the chances of having fans at future games goes down. Like I said.... it's quite the conundrum.
I do hope that what JP said in this podcast will wake everyone up in Ames and at ISU to come together and do the right thing so it's a win-win for everyone. My fear is that won't happen though.... and if so... we possibly lose JP. It sure sounds like he doesn't want to be in Ames anymore at all.
Maybe all the rich people living in Gilbert should move into Ames so their tax dollars can help Ames out? Just a thought! Half joking on that last part!