It takes almost $75 to fill the gas tank of a minivan. The price of eggs has risen 80 percent and milk 23 percent over the past two years.
Even the beloved Griz football team, western Montana's pillar of strength for 15 years, appears headed for a downturn. Former marquee players like Lex Hilliard and Kroy Biermann are fighting for their NFL lives in the Deep South while Griz coach Bobby Hauck works frantically to find replacements.
So it's only understandable Montana season tickets aren't ... whoa, what's that you say?
Montana has sold 19,364 season tickets? Almost 20 percent more than 2007 when Griz fans set a record in anticipation of a memorable march to Chattanooga?
“You're always shaking your head,” Montana athletic director Jim O'Day said Thursday. “I don't think a lot of people realize how fortunate we are with our fan base.
“The other day (former UM athletic director/current Oregon AD) Bill Moos called. He read about our ticket sales and was in shock.”
Montana is on par with Pac-10 schools Oregon State and Washington State. Boise State, darlings of an Idaho metro area inhabited by over 600,000, has sold 22,400 season tickets.
Appalachian State and Delaware, the teams in last year's Football Championship Subdivision title game, have sold roughly 11,000 season tickets apiece. Montana State has sold 7,000 and Eastern Washington 1,500. Idaho's athletic department, perhaps not surprisingly, wasn't forthcoming with ticket information this week.
Alas, it's time to put an old notion to rest: It's not just wins that pack the seats at Washington-Grizzly Stadium. At one time maybe it was, like when the Maroon machine was just cranking up. Not anymore.
Montana has become the FCS version of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Game Day in Missoula means more than football. It's the Treasure State at its finest.
O'Day likes to tell a story from two years ago when Notre Dame director of admissions operations Bob Mundy solicited Griz tickets after a recruiting trip to Whitefish.
“He called and asked for three to the Griz-Cat game when it was in Missoula,” O'Day said. “I said, ‘Bob, that's going to be hard.'
“I called him up the next day and said, ‘I'll find you three if you can take care of us for two Notre Dame-USC tickets. I said, ‘We'll use the tickets for the GSA auction,' and they ended up going for $10,000. After the Griz-Cat game, with the atmosphere and everything, Bob came over and shook my hand and said, ‘Jim, those guys that bought the USC-Notre Dame tickets got robbed.' ”
Even if the Griz lose three games in 2008, season ticket sales won't slip in 2009. We're past that point.
There might be a lot of grumbling after last year's 11-1 campaign. But the grumblers whined last year even when Montana was 10-0.
Besides, what would the naysayers have to talk about if they couldn't over-analyze the play-calling? Don't kid yourself: Those who complain loudest would be lost without Montana football.
“It's become the talk of a lot of people across the country,” O'Day said.
O'Day and his associates are constantly looking for ways to keep the show fresh. This year the strong product on the field will be accentuated by a new sound system and video graphics.
Topping 2007 won't be easy. The video introduction was so good it gave you goose bumps. Watching Monte jumping around to “Thank God I'm a Country Boy” was a slice of Montana mountain soul.
My only request for this year is Monte ride in on a horse. Or find out if anyone in the area has a horse-drawn wagon to borrow.
We've all seen enough motorcycles this summer.
Sports columnist Bill Speltz may be reached at 523-5255 or bill.speltz@lee.net.
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