Football Attendance

Athletics Department, Facilities, etc.
huskie
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How about going to all the high schools in west central Illinois and giving all the kids tickets? Might help with recruiting.
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ST_Lawson
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huskie wrote: Mon Nov 06, 2017 8:23 am How about going to all the high schools in west central Illinois and giving all the kids tickets? Might help with recruiting.
Good idea. I'd imagine that they wouldn't even have to send out tickets though. Pretty much all high schools have student ID cards now, right? You could instruct the people at the ticket booth that anyone showing a student ID can get 1 or 2 free general admission tickets (go with two...bring a friend or something). They could just have the people at the gate let anyone with a student ID through, but then they wouldn't necessarily be counting them in the attendance number. If you give them tickets at the booth, then they get counted as attendees.

Promote it with all the area high schools, but allow anyone with a high school ID in...so even if we have some kids down from Naperville, Mt. Pleasant, IA, or Springfield, they can get in too. Make sure to reach out to area football coaches too, get them to make sure their players know about it. We don't get a ton of recruits from area high schools generally, but these are kids who we know enjoy football, but most won't be playing football at the collegiate level, so for any that decide to go to Western, we want to get them interested too.

The only issue is that the IHSA football playoffs are still going on, but of the teams still in the playoffs, the only ones in our region are: Orion (up by the QC area), Pleasant Plains, Rochester, Peoria Notre Dame Richwoods and Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin, so there's plenty of high schools around here that are done with football for the season.
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rocki
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huskie wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2017 7:48 pm I would first start with Darian Westerfield he was brought in to be head of promotions.
d-westerfield@wiu.edu
298-3018

Matt Tanney is Athletic Director
m-tanney@wiu.edu
298-1190

Michael Jones is in charge of Development
m-jones2@wiu.edu
298-1190

I would email all three with your ideas to make sure they can't use the excuse they had no idea.
Done. Now let's see if they use any of them or come up with an alternative of their own.
rocki
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Got a "form" email back from Tanney, nothing from the others. Anyone else up to "yanking their chain"?
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sealhall74
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rocki wrote: Mon Nov 06, 2017 11:12 am Got a "form" email back from Tanney, nothing from the others. Anyone else up to "yanking their chain"?
I am leaving for Palm Springs/Palm Desert tomorrow for a few days. While there, I could maybe masquerade as a retired California socialite with deep purse strings if that helps any. ;)
Embrace the pace of the race.
rocki
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Hahahaha!!! Whatever works!!!
wiu712
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ST_Lawson wrote: Mon Nov 06, 2017 9:11 amThe only issue is that the IHSA football playoffs are still going on, but of the teams still in the playoffs, the only ones in our region are: Orion (up by the QC area), Pleasant Plains, Rochester, Peoria Notre Dame, and Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin, so there's plenty of high schools around here that are done with football for the season.
Don't forget about West Hancock (2A). They are 11-0 and will have a home game in Warsaw on Saturday afternoon vs Maroa-Forsyth.

Other teams in the Springfield-Peoria area that are still alive in the playoffs include:
Athens (1A)
El Paso-Gridley (2A)
Williamsville (3A)
Dunlap (5A)
Peoria Richwoods (5A)
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ST_Lawson
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wiu712 wrote: Mon Nov 06, 2017 11:57 am
ST_Lawson wrote: Mon Nov 06, 2017 9:11 amThe only issue is that the IHSA football playoffs are still going on, but of the teams still in the playoffs, the only ones in our region are: Orion (up by the QC area), Pleasant Plains, Rochester, Peoria Notre Dame, and Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin, so there's plenty of high schools around here that are done with football for the season.
Don't forget about West Hancock (2A). They are 11-0 and will have a home game in Warsaw on Saturday afternoon vs Maroa-Forsyth.

Other teams in the Springfield-Peoria area that are still alive in the playoffs include:
Athens (1A)
El Paso-Gridley (2A)
Williamsville (3A)
Dunlap (5A)
Peoria Richwoods (5A)
Oh right, I forget West Hancock is our area. Still, there's a lot of schools that won't be doing much of anything with football the weekend before thanksgiving. Get them to Hanson Field.
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wiu712
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The MAC has mid-week night games for the last 5 weeks of its season. Tuesday night's game at Miami (Ohio) showed mostly empty stands on the ESPN telecast.

Mid-week night games in November cannot be popular with season ticket holders and alumni.
rocki
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So, has anyone heard anything at all about the powers that be doing anything to try and bring a bigger crowd for Senior Day?

Like I said, I got the form email back from Tanney, but that was the only response. Apparently I was spitting into the wind.

How do you say it? At least I gave it the "old college try". :roll:
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