Wisconsin Game

BobLovely · Mon Sep 08, 2014 5:23 am

I returned to the Kansas City area from Madison yesterday. It was a pleasant drive on a beautiful day.

Some final thoughts: Wisconsin knows how to put on the game day experience. Everything is well orchestrated. The students definitely support the football team and you can certainly tell the football games are a "can't miss" event on campus. This was largely the tradition even when the Badgers were not a national football power. I sat in the Wisconsin section and there were vocal Western fans scattered throughout my section [DD]. The Wisconsin fans were good natured and polite to us Western fans as well. Except for the safety on the opening kick-off, I thought the Leathernecks competed at a high level for the first half. In the second half, it was a different story line as is often the case for a visiting FCS team playing against a high level FBS team. No question, the game environment was intimidating with a vocal 77,000+ in attendance.

I hope this game was a confidence builder for the Leathernecks against FBS teams. Northwestern is beatable.

Bob

sealhall74 · Mon Sep 08, 2014 8:50 am

The tidbit I walked away with from that game is just how important the game day "experience" is to college kids these days. The students slowly filled up their sections and were finally ALL in place by halftime. After jumparound and buttercup song, probably half of them hit the exits with the game no longer in doubt. After game, a good number of them did stick around for the 5th Qtr band show which included a bunch of alumni band members. I would have loved to hand out a survey to the students coming in the gate and find out exactly how many of them knew who the opponent was.

rocki · Mon Sep 08, 2014 9:58 am

sealhall74 wrote:The tidbit I walked away with from that game is just how important the game day "experience" is to college kids these days. The students slowly filled up their sections and were finally ALL in place by halftime. After jumparound and buttercup song, probably half of them hit the exits with the game no longer in doubt. After game, a good number of them did stick around for the 5th Qtr band show which included a bunch of alumni band members. I would have loved to hand out a survey to the students coming in the gate and find out exactly how many of them knew who the opponent was.

But, what exactly is it about the game day experience that gets them fired up? Back in the "olden days" when I was at Western, we went to games every weekend. Stands were packed. It was THE thing to do. We didn't get stuff tossed to us in the crowd, we didn't have the Purple Haze, etc., bars were open, and while we didn't have cell phones and internet, there was plenty of other stuff that passed as entertainment. The fact that some of these kids haven't seen a winning season, in some ways, doesn't completely make up for it, either. Freshmen, in particular, usually come in after attending their high school football games for 4 years. (Not all of them had winning seasons, either) The carryover should be fairly easy, I would think. Kids I know do attend the games, mainly because it's what they've always done in regard to "their" school.

I don't know - do they need free trinkets thrown at them to keep them interested? If so, what would be most enticing?

WIU0812 · Mon Sep 08, 2014 10:07 am

I think they need to advertise to students more that it is free entry. Also having rain the first game does not help as any freshman who were interested and showed up were very underwhelmed as some of the most loyal fans did not even make it. I kind of wish the first game of the year was away and that they would have our first home game the 2nd weekend on a Saturday just so there is a better turnout of alumni as well as students. If I go to an event and am unimpressed the first time the chances of me going back drop drastically unless someone else convinces me.

sealhall74 · Mon Sep 08, 2014 11:43 am

I honestly believe not having enough student seats for your entire student body does a lot to keep the students coming back for more. There are 42K students at UW but only about 20K students have guaranteed season tickets. Others have to stand in long lines a day or two before game day and hope they get one. There they can mingle and build a little cohesive bond with other students. I am not sure how that insight helps us, but I do think there is some substance to it.

wiu712 · Mon Sep 08, 2014 11:48 am

These Thursday night games don't seem to be getting big crowds.

We had 3,584 for the game this year. The storm coming through an hour before the game certainly played a part in the small crowd.

For last year's Thursday night game with Hampton, the attendance was 6,437.

Even NIU had a small crowd of 12,000 for their Thursday night game this year.

rocki · Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:00 pm

I wish the night games had better turnout. I really like them, especially the early ones where it can help beat the heat. Unable to get to Saturday games due to work, so night games are the few I can actually watch. (Yeah, I'm in the minority, but what the heck....)

WIU0812 · Mon Sep 08, 2014 1:22 pm

I agree though I love night games they are awesome, I wish we would play at least 2 night games a year in beginning of year. Also, I wish we would wait to play our first home game until the 2nd weekend in Sept or whichever weekend is not Labor Day weekend and get rid of the Thursday games.