http://www.csnbbs.com/thread-743340.html

I saw this thread on the CUSA board and wanted to know if anybody had any potential solutions. I know population in the Rust Belt is decreasing, but with the MAC being the most geographically tightened FBS conference, one would think that people would be more than willing to drive to the next town over to see the games and also the history between the various schools.


As an outsider, can I get some insight on this?

Stop weeknight games. Play more G5 home & home series.

Marketing and getting into the hearts & minds of people within that town/city. Basically much the same way as "How do I get people to come to my party?"

You have to:
a) Have/Make people want to party

b) Have/Make people to see your house as a cool place to party

c) Have/Make your house AS a cool place to party, too

Yes, Tues & Wed night games don't do so well in the cold weather months for teams that would require people traveling several miles.

NIU doesn't really have a school the next town over, WMU is the closest at 3+ hours away from DeKalb (at least), the others are all farther. Someone else already mentioned that the MAC prefers exposure on TV to attendance, by putting all the big games on Tuesday nights in November, the coldest time of the football season.

NIU has also had some piss poor OOC scheduling for over a decade, though our new AD is rectifying that.

Invite JMU

Don't lose to an instate fcs opponent

the key to increasing the MAC's attendance is by exploiting the conference's greatest feature- geographical proximity. MAC teams are so close together that most conference away games are a short drive. Every team in the MAC needs to work on fostering a culture that encourages and welcomes traveling fans. Some suggestions-

- An easy incentive would be to have all MAC stadiums honor the season tickets of the visiting MAC team. For the same price a season ticket will now get you into all 6 of your favorite team's home games, plus all 4 of their MAC road games.

- Develop affordable travel packages for students to travel to conference away games. For an affordable price you get a bus ride to and from the game, a ticket, and a meal. Its very common for students at MAC schools to have friends that attend other MAC schools, a day trip to and from another college might be attractive to some students.

- Continue to develop the tailgaiting/gameday exp. To get students and season ticket holders excited about traveling there has to be something entertaining to do beyond the game itself. Buffalo was very creative last year in starting a concert series as part of their game day festivities and its impact was reflected in their boost in attendance.

MAC stadiums are small, avg capacity is only around 26K. With a few thousand more away fans you'll attract a few thousand more home fans and a stadium that is near or at capacity, even a small one, makes for a great fan experience.

Hiring strippers instead of cheerleaders. Dollar dogs and drinks. Midget wrestling during halftime.

Concert / band show after the game.

Short-term: Start serving booze if you aren't already.
Long-term: Post's suggestions, plus a general upward trending of MAC football in general. If we always have one or two ranked teams and our worst programs become strong enough to beat most of their FCS and weak G5 opponents, then people will show up if we can properly communicate to them that MAC football is on the upswing.

Get the Big 10 to drop football.

Haha they mentioned me by name there! All these flavors and they choose salty... plus their misconception about a tv market and what it entails is maddening, but i guess that's what a marshall degree means these days lol

Make every Sat home game a HS band day. Band members are normally good students, are involved in activities at their high schools and are likely more socially involved at the universities they attend. Those are the kinds of students every university wants coming to their schools. It's easier to get students like that to enroll at your university if you can get them on campus. HS band days are a great recruiting tool for that purpose and let's face it with the rising cost of college, recruiting is necessary to get new students enrolled.

Have 5 to 6 different HS marching bands every week, that gives you 25 to 35 per season. Put more fans in the stands, you also have a chance to get their parents and younger siblings on your campus as well.

perimeterpost ' Wrote:  - An easy incentive would be to have all MAC stadiums honor the season tickets of the visiting MAC team. For the same price a season ticket will now get you into all 6 of your favorite team's home games, plus all 4 of their MAC road games.

Maybe not all the road games but offer single game tickets to road games with ticket packages and mail them as soon as the allotment comes in. With some coordination the tickets could be sent directly from the home teams ticket office.

Free Beer in stadium.

Play less FCS teams and more G5 teams and have those games on Saturdays.

Sell beer somewhere in the stadium...but not everywhere.

No November MACtion games get put on ESPN3.com. If we are going to sacrifice a game to the middle of the week for ESPN then they had better put us on real TV for the exposure.

I've kind of thought post-game concerts would be neat.

Maybe not Taylor Swift, but a 'big name' performer 30 minutes after the game ends.

After half time, special tickets would be needed to enter the stadium. They could be priced differently than regular game tickets.

(07-24-2015 09:31 AM)emu steve Wrote:  I've kind of thought post-game concerts would be neat.

Maybe not Taylor Swift, but a 'big name' performer 30 minutes after the game ends.

After half time, special tickets would be needed to enter the stadium. They could be priced differently than regular game tickets.

That might work for the students but I am done after a game...especially with my 3 little ones.

There must be intensive reach out to locals not normally affiliated with the Universities so that locals embrace fandom for generations. For instance:

Give two season tickets and a marketing package (posters, shirts, sticker etc) to every small business owner within some pre-determined distance of the stadium and encourage them to use or give away those tickets for every game. If there are large corporations within this impact zone, scale up accordingly. Use their attendance at the games to enroll these businesses in the athletic and university support programs and donor rolls.

Downtowns must be decorated with university flags, banners, posters and other paraphernalia.

Get the university art departments to paint logos on old barns, blank walls and other visible canvas - for instance at NIU they used to paint red Huskie paw prints on roads in random areas. A gentle reminder that you were in Huskie Territory.

Put athletic logos on billboards along major highways, preferably taunting the local BigEleventy school.

Have local tractor dealers and car dealers offer a no-cost or subsidized "School Upgrade" package so you can buy a tractor or a vehicle with appropriate school logos and maybe even colors. How awesome would a Huskie package Mustang be in Cardinal and Red or an F-150 in Ohio Green and White?

Remember, all of this is setting the stage so that families and kids ID with the local MAC schools long before they need to choose a college. And if those families don't have kids, this stage allows those families to build a deep and lasting fandom with the university that they otherwise may not think to incubate.

Warm weather....and less wind. DeKalb has to be the windiest location in college football add that with freezing temps or rain and you will get an empty stadium.