Football Attendance

Athletics Department, Facilities, etc.
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sealhall74
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Does anyone have about $50M that is burning a hole in their pocket? University-owned on-campus hotels are the latest trend. Hands-on learning experiences for students. You could probably make them good enough that even D1 football teams would want to stay there.
Embrace the pace of the race.
leatherneckcountry
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As much as people didn’t like TVA for obvious reason the one thing I will give him credit for is that him and the people around him did a great job of making game days a show and more than just the game. This staff in my opinion has done a very poor job of filling in the dead time during games in my opinion. Really other than the band there isn’t much during these times and I hate to admit it but a lot of students don’t pay much attention during that time and many who aren’t students fill the same way. I won’t harp on the media timeouts cause I have done that plenty on here but when I came back in to the stadium during the delay I brought this issue up with some of the staff and they obviously didn’t want to say to much about it cause it brings in money but when I did mention assistant AD Jones who’s 1st name I always forget was standing right there. Another concern I have is I’m not sure what the requirements for the AD are to be involved with game day events but I don’t feel like I see him or anything of the non student staff at the game’s much. I know it’s probably part of the budget cuts but I don’t think they ever replaced Kelsey because I’m pretty certain Karissa is still a student and she does a great job but it seems like she has to do everything on game day .
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ST_Lawson
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wiu712 wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 9:44 am Sections F and G on the west side were filled with students. The students sitting next to me in Section F said that they did not want to sit on the east side because they wanted to be on the same side as the team and cheerleaders. Makes sense to me.

The marked, designated "Student Section" this year is the far northern section on the east side. Those seats are in the endzone. Not the best seats in the house. And the marked "Purple Platoon" section is the adjacent section (10 yard line). The Purple Platoon section was on the west side last year.

With the amount of money that the students are paying in Athletic Fees, they really should have the best seats in the house.
Might be hard to do with the current configuration (moving the students to the middle) since it would displace some of the season ticket holders (even though it seems like a lot of them don't actually sit there) and I don't know what mechanism there is for retaining the same season ticket seats year-to-year. What I would really like to see though, is when we build the new west side, the upper section of maybe a couple hundred seats is set aside for season ticket holders initially. Then, the student section is moved to the lower middle section, essentially where the purple backed seats are now.

Kinda like this:
Image

Season-ticket holders would get their great view of the field, priority seating, easy access to get in and out and get to bathrooms, concessions, etc.
Students get to be right in the middle, right behind the team, directly across from the band, loud and excited.
Also, with the walking space between the lower and upper sections, the season ticket holder section's view won't be obstructed even if everyone in the lower section is jumping up and down and going nuts.
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wiu712
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I am wondering if the "new west side" will go the same route as the Performing Arts Center ????
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Tere North
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wiu712 wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:16 pm I am wondering if the "new west side" will go the same route as the Performing Arts Center ????
Well, the PAC was State money that has been put on hold. The West side would likely never get to the Capital Development Board status, making that aspect of it being a "no go" a negative. However, I suspect something will have to be done, simply from a safety standpoint, even if the minimalist approach is to shut the west site down.
meganeck
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wiu712 wrote: Sun Oct 15, 2017 8:12 pm We have had Homecoming and Family Weekend so far in this 2017 season. They are usually the largest crowds of the season.

The crowd for Homecoming was 5,631. The crowd for Family Weekend was 3,217.

Last year, we had 5,487 for Homecoming and 6,732 for Family Weekend.

Seems like our attendance has been trending downwards. We could be replacing Indiana State as the team with the lowest attendance.

So far in 2017, Indiana State has had crowds of 4,670 and 4,743.

We used to have big crowds at Hanson Field. So what has changed ??? We need to find a remedy and get it implemented.

There was a group of football recruits on campus this weekend. Seeing a mostly empty stadium is not an asset.
I think it was unanimous that there were more people than 5,000 at Homecoming and with the weather forecast for last Saturday i don't think you can blame people for staying away. I'm not saying attendance isn't a problem just pointing some things out
wiu712
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Tere North wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:33 pmI suspect something will have to be done, simply from a safety standpoint, even if the minimalist approach is to shut the west side down.
Question: Is the west side subject to current Life Safety Code standards, or is it "grandfathered in" ??? Is there a risk that a State Architect could close down the west side for safety violations ???
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ST_Lawson
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wiu712 wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 7:46 pm
Tere North wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:33 pmI suspect something will have to be done, simply from a safety standpoint, even if the minimalist approach is to shut the west side down.
Question: Is the west side subject to current Life Safety Code standards, or is it "grandfathered in" ??? Is there a risk that a State Architect could close down the west side for safety violations ???
I don't think it would be. They closed one part of QU's stadium for a season, I believe, for similar reasons. They replaced it the next year, but there was a section they weren't allowed to use. Ours might be getting close to that.
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Neckfansince71
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As I said in an earlier post, the Westside-reno is not being financed by any state capital funds!! Just by generous people who love WIU! ;) jc
rocki
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Neckfansince71 wrote: Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:28 am As I said in an earlier post, the Westside-reno is not being financed by any state capital funds!! Just by generous people who love WIU! ;) jc
How much more generosity do we need to make this happen? Just curious.
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