Leatherneck Nation

In an effort to get more students at the game on Nov 17th, the Athletic Dept should have contests with the different student groups for most attendance and participation at the game. Have 3 different groups, Greek, Residence Hall and Campus Group. Have the best group from each 3 groups win a Pizza Party during finals week. Announce the winner mid way through the 4th Q. Unless there's something on the academic calendar I'm not aware of, Nov 17th should be a busy weekend on campus, with the Thanksgiving break being the next weekend. Maybe we could get a couple thousand students in the stands? Thoughts?

GV Dad wrote: ↑Mon Oct 29, 2018 10:32 amUnless there's something on the academic calendar I'm not aware of, Nov 17th should be a busy weekend on campus, with the Thanksgiving break being the next weekend. Maybe we could get a couple thousand students in the stands? Thoughts?

I'm not saying that's not a good idea, but just fyi, November 17th is the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Students get the entire next week off, which means that the vast majority of students will have gone home a day or two before. Also many of the faculty and some of the staff will be off on vacation. If we have a home game on the last weekend of the regular season like this year, we usually have SIGNIFICANTLY fewer people there. The best success we've had with stuff that weekend was the previously mentioned (in the other attendance thread) 2010 game against UNI when we were fighting for a playoff spot. Athletics targeted alumni with a promo involving taking the Amtrak down and back from Chicago for the game and had significantly cheaper admission and concessions to make it much cheaper for local families to attend. You can't target the students with stuff since they'll be gone, but you can target local people with promotions.

This is a good idea that has been used in past years at Western basketball games. But it will have to wait until the 2019 season for it to be used at football games.

The students will be long-gone out of town for Thanksgiving Break for that November 17th game.

They get the entire WEEK off? Man, I don't want to sound like the waled 5 miles to school in the snow uphill both ways, but these kids get an amazing amount of time off! We got out on Thur and Fri only during Thanksgiving

GV Dad wrote: ↑Mon Oct 29, 2018 1:46 pm They get the entire WEEK off? Man, I don't want to sound like the waled 5 miles to school in the snow uphill both ways, but these kids get an amazing amount of time off! We got out on Thur and Fri only during Thanksgiving

I don't think it's a "this generation" thing though...WIU has taken that week off as far back as I can remember. I know we did when I was a student in the '90s.

GV Dad wrote: ↑Mon Oct 29, 2018 1:46 pm They get the entire WEEK off? Man, I don't want to sound like the waled 5 miles to school in the snow uphill both ways, but these kids get an amazing amount of time off! We got out on Thur and Fri only during Thanksgiving

Yep. That was the extent of our Thanksgiving break.....but I'm old enough I was there before semesters. We were on quarters.