Leatherneck Nation

RedNeck wrote:

sealhall74 wrote:I think a smart AD will "under report" attendance early in the season and lean the other direction as the season progresses. Life is all about showing improvement. Don't believe me, just watch CNN, MSNBC, and Fox this time of year.

Umm, NCAA keeps track of all stats, that includes attendance. WIU will most certainly want their total attendance for the season to be as large as possible so that when recruiting coaches can literally provide links to NCAA documents that verify what the coaches say that i.e. " we average over 12,000 spectators per game on campus." (the reported number isn't off by a few hundred but a few thousand )

If we are recruiting a kid that is also receiving offers from an FBS Kent State, Ball State or Eastern Michigan. Our coaches can counter with a "Yes son those are some fine FBS schools however we have this winning tradition, X amount of NFL products, playoff appearances and are beloved and supported by the Leatherneck Nation.....in fact young man We average more attendance/support than all of those FBS programs"

UNDER REPORTING HURTS WESTERN'S ABILITY TO RECRUIT.

Kids will pass up offers all day to go to FBS MAC schools if they are being offered by NDSU. NDSU is percieved to be well supported, popular, and a winner. SO sometimes FCS is > than FBS.

Iif you tell a kid we average 12K for home games, invite him to campus, and heaven forbid we have lost a couple of crucial games leading up to it leaving us suddenly out of the playoff picture and only 3K people show up, is it a good thing or a bad thing? If I am that kid, I would immediately be asking for the standard deviation, tangential slope, and probably a couple of other things to help measure true fan support.

Realistically, our only chance to out-recruit NDSU, which I agree should be our goal, is to beat them on the field of play fairly consistently and in that regard as well as the attendance issue, I offer the following:

“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

But here is a challenge for someone in Leatherneck Nation. I would do it myself but I won't be in attendance until that all-important NDSU game. Next home against ISUb in four weeks, someone take two panoramic photos near start of 2nd quarter, one from 50 yard line at top of west stands and another from 50 yard line at top of east stands. Post them on this site and we can start counting heads for ourself.

sealhall74 wrote:But here is a challenge for someone in Leatherneck Nation. I would do it myself but I won't be in attendance until that all-important NDSU game. Next home against ISUb in four weeks, someone take two panoramic photos near start of 2nd quarter, one from 50 yard line at top of west stands and another from 50 yard line at top of east stands. Post them on this site and we can start counting heads for ourself.

I will set a reminder to bring my good camera and try to get that done.

Seal, you weren't at the game. I was.

I have been at games in previous years where the crowd looked similar and the attendance reported was essentially twice as much. West side was 80% full East side was 70% full, also there were plenty mingling around the track and sitting on the hills.

I was at the EIU game and for sure there were less people there by far than were at Hanson Field Saturday. Funny thing is EIU announced that their attendance was 1000 more than were "reported" at Macomb this past Saturday.

For a guy that is worried about details on whether something should be called a pipeline vs. a tunnel, I guess maybe one might have naturally concluded you might be concerned about a minor detail of the reported attendance being off by 4,000 people.

Congrats to the Leathernecks on a nice win! You guys have got yourselves a really good team this year. Nice balance! I can't imagine that there is a better receiver/Running Back combo in the country. QB is solid too, and he will get better. Big and tough in the trenches.

Good luck the rest of the way .

RedNeck wrote:Seal, you weren't at the game. I was.

For a guy that is worried about details on whether something should be called a pipeline vs. a tunnel, I guess maybe one might have naturally concluded you might be concerned about a minor detail of the reported attendance being off by 4,000 people.

Off by 4000 or 2000 or 500 does not in the least concern me. My only real concern about the crowd on Saturday is based on something I picked up from the radio broadcast via Dr. Tom Cody and according to him, the crowd was not into the game early on. Is that why we fell behind early? Not sure but it could not have helped matters any. Hey, all I ask for is improvement every week. We are off to a very good start IMHO.

And in the future, I will try to frame my whimsical comments and whatever else with appropriate emoticons. I know I have not been particularly good at that but I am a bit lazy at times.

Sights and Sounds from Saturday's game (2 minute highlights):

sealhall74 wrote:

RedNeck wrote:Seal, you weren't at the game. I was.

For a guy that is worried about details on whether something should be called a pipeline vs. a tunnel, I guess maybe one might have naturally concluded you might be concerned about a minor detail of the reported attendance being off by 4,000 people.

Off by 4000 or 2000 or 500 does not in the least concern me. My only real concern about the crowd on Saturday is based on something I picked up from the radio broadcast via Dr. Tom Cody and according to him, the crowd was not into the game early on. Is that why we fell behind early? Not sure but it could not have helped matters any. Hey, all I ask for is improvement every week. We are off to a very good start IMHO.

And in the future, I will try to frame my whimsical comments and whatever else with appropriate emoticons. I know I have not been particularly good at that but I am a bit lazy at times.

For what it's worth, where we were sitting/standing on the hill, we could hear students talking as they walked into the stadium. Old school as I am, I couldn't believe the number of kids that said they'd never been to a football game. They also didn't know who the players were - I heard lots of cheers for "Number 7", but they had no clue his name was Lance Lenoir, Jr, which given the press he's gotten, I can't imagine.

I don't know if it's where the kids are from, or whether football isn't as big in high school as it used to be, or what.

That one I'm not sure how to rectify, as it seems the football program is pretty active as far as having schedules and posters and the like all over the place.

Ideas, anyone?

rocki wrote:

sealhall74 wrote:

RedNeck wrote:Seal, you weren't at the game. I was.

For a guy that is worried about details on whether something should be called a pipeline vs. a tunnel, I guess maybe one might have naturally concluded you might be concerned about a minor detail of the reported attendance being off by 4,000 people.

Off by 4000 or 2000 or 500 does not in the least concern me. My only real concern about the crowd on Saturday is based on something I picked up from the radio broadcast via Dr. Tom Cody and according to him, the crowd was not into the game early on. Is that why we fell behind early? Not sure but it could not have helped matters any. Hey, all I ask for is improvement every week. We are off to a very good start IMHO.

And in the future, I will try to frame my whimsical comments and whatever else with appropriate emoticons. I know I have not been particularly good at that but I am a bit lazy at times.

For what it's worth, where we were sitting/standing on the hill, we could hear students talking as they walked into the stadium. Old school as I am, I couldn't believe the number of kids that said they'd never been to a football game. They also didn't know who the players were - I heard lots of cheers for "Number 7", but they had no clue his name was Lance Lenoir, Jr, which given the press he's gotten, I can't imagine.

I don't know if it's where the kids are from, or whether football isn't as big in high school as it used to be, or what.

That one I'm not sure how to rectify, as it seems the football program is pretty active as far as having schedules and posters and the like all over the place.

Ideas, anyone?

Are game day programs (those paper things that list players, coaches, advertisers, etc) still sold or given out for free? I dont recall getting one last time I was there which was opening EIU game last year.

They've got them, but I don't believe they are free - the ones I've seen are pretty nice and on heavy paper.

Maybe they should have "student copies" that leave out all the bells and whistles (records, stats from previous years, connections with the NFL, and that type of thing) that they can hand out - more like they give at high school games.

Oh, and I didn't see any available at the "side gate" - the area where the little "will call" ticket booth is (kind of behind the west stands). They just had kids there checking tickets. Lots of students came in from there, though - I think many of them had been to the Union and came through the first gate they saw.