The Front Row with MARK NELKE August 8, 2010

My new home page is the one with the web cam showing the football field at Eastern Washington University, where they tore up the natural grass field and are in the process of installing red - yes, red - artificial turf.

OK, that's not really my new go-to page, but it did get me to thinking about my alma mater as it tries to make a name for itself in the world of I-AA (er, Football Championship Subdivision) football.

On the field, the Eagles are starting to do that - four trips to the playoffs in the past six seasons. But getting the general public excited about their program was, is, and probably always will be the toughest sell.

Will the Eagles ever be able to draw 20,000-plus per home game, like their rivals in Missoula, the Montana Grizzlies do? Probably not. Eastern's largest on-campus crowd is 11,583 in 2006 - vs. Montana. That beat the old record of 10,754 in 2004 - also vs. Montana. Before that, the record was 6,879 vs. Idaho in 1992.

In 1998, 2000 and 2002, they moved the games to Albi Stadium in Spokane, and drew much larger crowds in that stadium, which held around 26,000.

Of course, many of those were additional Montana fans who made the trip over, further negating the home-field advantage.

In Cheney, EWU has a lot of students who commute from Spokane and don't make it back out to Cheney on Saturday afternoons. Likewise, the fan base in Cheney isn't going to be enough to fill the stadium, so the Eags must rely on other fans driving out from Spokane and surrounding areas.

And many of the fans there drive down to Pullman instead and support the Cougars. Some go to Whitworth games, and others wait for the Zags to start playing.

Here in North Idaho, fans either head to Moscow to root on the Vandals, or to Pullman for the Cougs, or find a good TV and watch Boise State.

By contrast, in Missoula, other than high school sports, the Griz are the only game in town. And with their success on the football field, they are an easy draw. And the setting at Washington-Grizzly Stadium, with not a bad seat in the house, a nice view of the mountains with the "M" on one of the hills, is second to none in the area.

But that's not to say Eastern shouldn't try, and good for the Eagles for at least trying to make things better out there.

The football team has been good for years, and it's time for the rest of the game-day setting to catch up.

Back in the day, the press box was only slightly larger than a press box you might encounter at a high school game. Other college press boxes in the area feature catered lunches or, at least, hot food. At Eastern in the old days, hospitality consisted usually of sandwiches made by the wife of somebody in the athletic department. And there was no need for the sports information person to get on the loudspeaker if they had some info to disperse - they could just lean over and tell you.

When I was there, EWU was making the transition from NAIA to NCAA Division II to, eventually, I-AA, and the Eagles have been in the Big Sky Conference since 1987.

The press box was rebuilt a few years back and is obviously much bigger and more modern now, so that helps. So does increasing the seating by putting bleachers in the end zones. The team is now a playoff contender pretty much every year, so that should also draw a few more people out.

People poked fun at Boise State in the early days, when they switched to blue turf at Bronco Stadium in 1986. But as the Broncos got better, the turf became less and less of a gimmick and more and more a part of the overall intimidating environment opponents must deal with when they visit Boise.

So if Eastern keeps winning, the Eagles can play on red shag carpet for all anyone cares.

The Eags may never create the same atmosphere as there is at, say, Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula, but they still might be able to carve out their own little niche as a growing I-AA (er, Football Championship Subdivision) school.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via e-mail at mnelke@cdapress.com.