I don't think it's the facility, it's just cultural. I don't know how else to explain it.
By way of example, KU football has been largely bad, with occasional bright spots. But Lawrence High is good, and gets big crowds Friday night. Even with an aging stadium and often poor team, students show up Saturday morning, there are loads of student rented houses and apartments next to the stadium, most of them with parties, pig roasts and the like before the game. Fraternities are doing similar things. Alumni drive and tailgate. It's a thing, and it's a bigger thing when the game is big and you have visiting student fans. Nebraska, OU, UT, Mizzou all gone, but K-State will bring a load of people there.
Alumni are more likely to feel connected to the football program if they walked to games and were part of the experience as students. We know that from how it works for our basketball program. I just think there is some level of doubt that we can build a football culture with the Rent. It's not fatal.