Over the last 50 years, WSU's home attendance has dipped below 6,000 fans per game exactly once (1993-94, 5,982 per game) despite sucking eggs for the entirety of the 90s along with other less severe dry spells. Evidence is available on P. 173 of the Factbook available here:
http://goshockers.com/sports/2015/11/12 ... path=m_bkbThe institutional support necessary to have a large budget does not require massive leaps of faith when assessed in the context of this attendance (which, for decades, has generally required mandatory SASO contributions, which are astronomical when we are good, just for the right to buy season tickets) and support.
Charles is a nice ace in the hole but he has been rarely tapped and was completely invisible until Jim Schaus and Mark Turgeon came on the scene. Since then, his cameos, while greatly appreciated, still make up a miniscule percentage of WSU's support.