every school in the MAC with a Saturday home game out drew Toledo at the gate

Yea, all 2 other MAC schools with a home game this past weekend.

its noteworthy

Well, Buffalo lies like crazy about their attendance. Remember last season when they had an announced attendance of 10,000+ against Toledo when there were fewer than 1,000 in the stands? Yeah, I doubt they actually had 24,000 at the game yesterday.

OU usually has a decent draw. Plus, I'm sure Marshall brought a few people as well.

OU-Marshall is a rivalry game between area Universities.

Toledo, yes a home opener, but after 2 straight losses (3 straight w/ the bowl game) and an FCS team to the casual fan OR like my father who read the article in the Blade thought they'd get "routed" by EWU stayed home.


if we beat CMU AND Ball State, I expect a nice crowd for the afternoon game against WMU.

The difference was the fair weather fans, who chose to stay home and watch Ohio State.

(09-15-2013 03:16 PM)owen Wrote:  its noteworthy

Just like it's noteworthy that there were only 2 other MAC home games - 1 of them being a rivalry game.

The attendance was a bit lower than most would have liked on such a great evening for football, and a combo of factors probably contributed. What I noticed more was that the fans seemed kinda sedate and not as into the game as I would have thought for a home opener? Seemed like more students stayed thru the 3rd quarter though...

20,500 for a home opener at Toledo is a REAL concern, I don't care who the opponent is. The athletic dept. needs to take a real look at ticket prices and/or their marketing strategies. $25 for a ticket is a lot of money; with a family of four easily dropping $150 with tix, parking, and concessions.
I say drop ticket prices and more people will come. Also have discounted tickets for different groups every home game. Put butts in the seats and if they have a good experience, they will come back.
Go Rockets

(09-15-2013 05:25 PM)letsgoblue Wrote:  20,500 for a home opener at Toledo is a REAL concern, I don't care who the opponent is. The athletic dept. needs to take a real look at ticket prices and/or their marketing strategies. $25 for a ticket is a lot of money; with a family of four easily dropping $150 with tix, parking, and concessions.
I say drop ticket prices and more people will come. Also have discounted tickets for different groups every home game. Put butts in the seats and if they have a good experience, they will come back.
Go Rockets

They run a promo with Huntington bank customers - 2 free tickets + parking pass.

Also, they have other ticket packages that are good:
--Fan Plan
--Rocket Flex Pack - 12 ticket vouchers for $170 ($14.17/ticket). Good for section 8.
--Family Plan - half off, only $85/season ticket ($14.17/ticket). Sections 10 or 26.

(09-15-2013 05:40 PM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  

(09-15-2013 05:25 PM)letsgoblue Wrote:  20,500 for a home opener at Toledo is a REAL concern, I don't care who the opponent is. The athletic dept. needs to take a real look at ticket prices and/or their marketing strategies. $25 for a ticket is a lot of money; with a family of four easily dropping $150 with tix, parking, and concessions.
I say drop ticket prices and more people will come. Also have discounted tickets for different groups every home game. Put butts in the seats and if they have a good experience, they will come back.
Go Rockets

They run a promo with Huntington bank customers - 2 free tickets + parking pass.

Also, they have other ticket packages that are good:
--Fan Plan
--Rocket Flex Pack - 12 ticket vouchers for $170 ($14.17/ticket). Good for section 8.
--Family Plan - half off, only $85/season ticket ($14.17/ticket). Sections 10 or 26.

As noted, cost shouldn't be a problem. Too many discount plans. Good student turnout. We usually have a name opponent for the opener. That hurt.

This isn't 2000 or 2001 anymore and this team has not excited anyone beyond the normal fan base yet. The Rockets haven't won the MACC in 9 years, they got smoked in their last bowl game and come home 0-2 to play a FCS school in a time slot that goes up against "the State's Team", The Ohio State------all in all, that is not going to get too many casual "fans" fired up to come out to the Glass Bowl. So, given the limited size of the hard core fan base, something in the low 20k's is about the best that could be expected under the circumstances.

Until the program shows that it can once again consistently make the Glass Bowl an automatic home win regardless of the opponent and until the program can pull off a big time upset about once a year and until the program shows it can routinely win bowl games and until the team can win a MACC more frequently than once a decade, the attendance is going to be pretty much what it currently is. The trick to building attendance is to create enough excitement to grab the attention of the potential band wagoners and that requires winning, winning and more winning.

The program has made great strides in the past few years, but there is still a ways to go.

Guess coming out to see good defensive play caught a good part of the Rockets fan base by surprise. Perhaps they get the memo and show up for Western and get this bandwagon rolling.

(09-15-2013 06:11 PM)T-Town Wrote:  This isn't 2000 or 2001 anymore and this team has not excited anyone beyond the normal fan base yet. The Rockets haven't won the MACC in 9 years, they got smoked in their last bowl game and come home 0-2 to play a FCS school in a time slot that goes up against "the State's Team", The Ohio State------all in all, that is not going to get too many casual "fans" fired up to come out to the Glass Bowl. So, given the limited size of the hard core fan base, something in the low 20k's is about the best that could be expected under the circumstances.

Until the program shows that it can once again consistently make the Glass Bowl an automatic home win regardless of the opponent and until the program can pull off a big time upset about once a year and until the program shows it can routinely win bowl games and until the team can win a MACC more frequently than once a decade, the attendance is going to be pretty much what it currently is. The trick to building attendance is to create enough excitement to grab the attention of the potential band wagoners and that requires winning, winning and more winning.

The program has made great strides in the past few years, but there is still a ways to go.

Agreed

(09-15-2013 06:52 PM)NewMex RocketFan Wrote:  Guess coming out to see good defensive play caught a good part of the Rockets fan base by surprise. Perhaps they get the memo and show up for Western and get this bandwagon rolling.

Rockets are now tied with BGSU for #1 in Total Defense in the MAC.

What T-Town said. Plus, the schedule this year isn't ideal for home attendance. ONE game in September, and a FCS team at that (albeit a fine one). That makes it a little harder to get the local buzz going. Hopefully we will have a great crowd for Navy. After that you generally start getting into colder weather which does not help. November is sometimes mild, but I wouldn't count on it this year. We would have to win every game from here on out to have a strong enough buzz going into November to draw big crowds. I'm all for it.

I don't care how few conference games were played

I think its a bit of a shock the Rockets home opener was the most poorly attended game among all the MAC

Campbell was too young to be coaching

SEC teams have no problem getting students to come to FREE home games, toledo is doing something wrong if students wont come to the games

(09-15-2013 10:47 PM)KingBob Wrote:  Campbell was too young to be coaching

We've had lots of older coaches who didn't win 11 of their first 17 games. Campbell isn't the problem with attendance. I'm not sure there IS a problem with attendance apart from the ridiculous schedule.