Attendance Ideas and Solutions

rocki
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Question: Is that Fall Break contractually-obligated to come at the 8-week mark of the semester ??? If not, perhaps it could have come one week earlier (Oct 6) or one week later (Oct 20) when the team was on the road


Would have made sense to me to have taken it on Monday when a lot of things were closed for Columbus Day............
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sealhall74
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rocki wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:33 am
sealhall74 wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 8:24 am After Saturday night's lackluster attendance againt #1, I would definitely consider bringing in a consulting firm to do some research into campus and town factors which might be hurting attendance. I think we have to be realistic with our expectations. Fixing this will not happen overnight.
I agree attendance was bad. Not sure if paying a consulting firm would be the smart thing to do, budget wise.

As people have mentioned (although I enjoyed it), it was a night game in October. It wasn't brutally cold, but chilly enough to have people thinking about watching it on ESPN+ or listening on the radio. I don't think realistically any of us expected to pull off an upset, and we have no stake in NDSU , so why go and watch us get clobbered? We did play a fairly good half of a game, but the last half? Now THAT was brutal to watch. Not sure how much it plays in, but it was the last weekend of the Spoon River Drive (and the first weekend had bad weather) and a lot of people go on that.
Well, then you have to do it inhouse via the Business/Marketing department. If you don't do it while season is in progress, your data will be suspect at best.
Embrace the pace of the race.
GV Dad
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sealhall74 wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 8:24 am After Saturday night's lackluster attendance againt #1, I would definitely consider bringing in a consulting firm to do some research into campus and town factors which might be hurting attendance. I think we have to be realistic with our expectations. Fixing this will not happen overnight.
I like where you are going here sealhall, but not sure we need a consulting firm to accomplish it. Also, not sure of the cost of such a thing, so if it's cheaper than it sounds then I'm all for it.

Don't we have a Sports Management program at Western? Maybe they can have a research project on increasing attendance from the area (within a 2 hour drive). I know when I was in the MBA program at UMKC, we did Marketing Research projects for several small local companies. Or maybe even a Sports Marketing class in Undergrad could help. It would look great on a resume' and if it helps out any at all it would be very beneficial to Western Athletics.
vatusay
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Bring back the peach blossoms. The real ones.
#ALLIN #YOLO
rocki
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vatusay wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:07 pm Bring back the peach blossoms. The real ones.
Those were the good old days, eh? They were the most fun ever! :lol:
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Tere North
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rocki wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:25 pm
vatusay wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:07 pm Bring back the peach blossoms. The real ones.
Those were the good old days, eh? They were the most fun ever! :lol:
I understand why they lost their balloons and skirts, but that decision did pretty much put an end to Peach Blossom. They've tried, but no longer have the same zest.

I'd hope FB is about more than drinking beer.

I wonder what would happen if we used a 12noon or 1pm kickoff and had pancakes and sausage served during tailgate, free for students, $5 for others, with the food happening inside the stadium (students enter free anyway), say a tent with tables, etc. on the north end. Maybe that would be a reason to come to the game, and maybe they would stay.
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sealhall74
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Tere North wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 11:52 pm
rocki wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:25 pm
vatusay wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:07 pm Bring back the peach blossoms. The real ones.
Those were the good old days, eh? They were the most fun ever! :lol:
I understand why they lost their balloons and skirts, but that decision did pretty much put an end to Peach Blossom. They've tried, but no longer have the same zest.

I'd hope FB is about more than drinking beer.

I wonder what would happen if we used a 12noon or 1pm kickoff and had pancakes and sausage served during tailgate, free for students, $5 for others, with the food happening inside the stadium (students enter free anyway), say a tent with tables, etc. on the north end. Maybe that would be a reason to come to the game, and maybe they would stay.
Decades of tradition and abut 10 seconds of YouTube time today pretty much says everything you need to know about the demise of the Peach Blossoms. Once you have lost it, the culture, the memorable game day traditions, etc., it is pretty damn hard to get it back. One of the advantages of having the students all on the east side is that you have a safe haven for all of that crazy stuff to happen. You also have plenty of room to grow your base over there. Dumb decision curtailing the Peaches antics and moving the Purple Plattoon or whatever it is over to the West. It is time to start field trials to see whether or not the track surface around the field will withstand the pounding of a beatup old green pickup truck making a few rounds on it. ;)
Embrace the pace of the race.
vatusay
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To me it’s not all about drinking beer (or anyone else really as the attendance at last Saturday’s game proves that) but it’s about entertainment value. It’s about the niche. It’s about getting more people involved. The things that wiu was once known for have all but been stripped away. The whole PC world we live in now sucks. Have fun, live a little, laugh instead of get mad. It sure makes life easier.

Kind of went off on a tangent there.

Get peach blossoms back and let them be then.

Maybe that gets frats and sororities more involved.

Team with the local large employers get some sort of competition going between them that boosts both company morale and community involvement.

Student give-aways.

But most importantly, win games. That’s something you can’t promote or buy.
#ALLIN #YOLO
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sealhall74
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I think ST met with the assistant AD yesterday.

We're waitin', we're waitin', we're waitin' for the report.
We're waitin', we're waitin', we're waitin' for the report.
...

Sorry, I had a flashback to my much younger days when we were anxious for the AHS Cardinals to emerge out of their locker room. ;)
Embrace the pace of the race.
GV Dad
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Tere North wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 11:52 pm
rocki wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:25 pm
vatusay wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:07 pm Bring back the peach blossoms. The real ones.
Those were the good old days, eh? They were the most fun ever! :lol:
I understand why they lost their balloons and skirts, but that decision did pretty much put an end to Peach Blossom. They've tried, but no longer have the same zest.

I'd hope FB is about more than drinking beer.

I wonder what would happen if we used a 12noon or 1pm kickoff and had pancakes and sausage served during tailgate, free for students, $5 for others, with the food happening inside the stadium (students enter free anyway), say a tent with tables, etc. on the north end. Maybe that would be a reason to come to the game, and maybe they would stay.
Love the idea of having promotions inside the stadium! Some will still leave since it's free, but hopefully the majority will stick around. Free food, especially on the weekends, would be a HUGE draw I believe. The dorms are not an easy place to find a meal on the weekends, which still blows my mind!
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