I agree with those saying WKU attendance is bad. You'll get plenty of WKU fans trying to defend it, because it's natural to do so, but I think any real fan would tell you in private that we should be better. I hope our success will continue to build the fanbase, but the unfortunate reality right now is that our fanbase is pretty small. Sure, we have a lot of people who "root for the Tops", but their primary focus is on other teams. Nowhere to go but up, I hope.

(12-06-2015 02:34 PM)MTowho Wrote:  You can add (worst attendance in 10 years) to MT.

you think it has anything to do with the move to CUSA or just the season in general. No snarkiness. Just wondering. App is down a little too compared to our SoCon days, but going back compared to the last two years.

(12-06-2015 05:59 PM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  

(12-06-2015 02:34 PM)MTowho Wrote:  You can add (worst attendance in 10 years) to MT.

you think it has anything to do with the move to CUSA or just the season in general. No snarkiness. Just wondering. App is down a little too compared to our SoCon days, but going back compared to the last two years.

Not answering for MT but attendance in general is down. If you look at the students in the stands 80 percent are on their smart phones. I think it will get worse. It is the self absorbed culture of our times. I hope I am wrong. Smaller stadiums with nice amenities will be the way of the future.

Yeh. I don't see App adding little more then a permanent north endzone section that kinda bends toward the east and west side. Probably will dig up the track and plant some hedges like UGA. Add that with some south endzone flair and that'll be it for the my Mountaineers. Cap it at 24,000 and make it pretty.

(12-06-2015 05:41 PM)WVTopper Wrote:  Just looked at your schedule MT Fan and no you did not have that kind of schedule. I count three 6PM Saturday home games,, one 2:30 Saturday home game, and two 11AM Saturday home games. We had one 2:30PM Saturday game, one Thursday night game, one Thursday 11AM day after Thanksgiving game, and three 11AM Saturday games.

Boo hoo. You want some cheese with that whine?

Whine? Something you know all about.

Pathetic.

The conference has to do much much better. Every single team.

(12-06-2015 05:59 PM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  

(12-06-2015 02:34 PM)MTowho Wrote:  You can add (worst attendance in 10 years) to MT.

you think it has anything to do with the move to CUSA or just the season in general. No snarkiness. Just wondering. App is down a little too compared to our SoCon days, but going back compared to the last two years.

It's a complicated and multi-faceted problem. League affiliation is not necessarily one of them.

I broke it down back in April if you want a more in-depth response...

http://csnbbs.com/thread-735370-post-120...id12001251

Tech's was as bad as I've ever seen (except for Southern and ULL... that was the best I've ever seen), but other Tech fans tell me it's always been this bad. We had 3 rain games, but one was for the division title and only about 10,000 showed for that. I don't know what's happening. Maybe the bowl fiasco in 2012, losing to NW State in 2014, and all our games were on local TV. We thought joining CUSA was really going to help attendance (since we were playing more regional teams and not teams from the West coast), but it's getting worse... or at least it seems that way to me. Our actual average was more like 16K and that includes near sellouts against Southern and ULL.

The attendance figures are surprising. I know USM works hard with Hattiesburg with commercials, signs all up and down hardy st., promote mutual marketing merchandise with local businesses, and they have advertisements all over town and on campus. I know if USM would reach farther like to Laurel, Waynesboro, etc. the attendance could improve. My point is what do your respective schools currently do to promote attendance? Just curious.

(12-06-2015 09:12 PM)T_Won1 Wrote:  Tech's was as bad as I've ever seen (except for Southern and ULL... that was the best I've ever seen), but other Tech fans tell me it's always been this bad. We had 3 rain games, but one was for the division title and only about 10,000 showed for that. I don't know what's happening. Maybe the bowl fiasco in 2012, losing to NW State in 2014, and all our games were on local TV. We thought joining CUSA was really going to help attendance (since we were playing more regional teams and not teams from the West coast), but it's getting worse... or at least it seems that way to me. Our actual average was more like 16K and that includes near sellouts against Southern and ULL.

T Won I mean no disrespect because I have really wondered a point you made that maybe it is CUSA who is the attendance problem

Lord, the attendance navel-gazing on this board.

Funny thing is, most of the people who read this foolishness are people who go to the damn games.

(12-06-2015 09:16 PM)SethManKA1 Wrote:  The attendance figures are surprising. I know USM works hard with Hattiesburg with commercials, signs all up and down hardy st., promote mutual marketing merchandise with local businesses, and they have advertisements all over town and on campus. I know if USM would reach farther like to Laurel, Waynesboro, etc. the attendance could improve. My point is what do your respective schools currently do to promote attendance? Just curious.

We have a couple ads around town sometimes...and thats about it.

(12-06-2015 09:19 PM)SethManKA1 Wrote:  

(12-06-2015 09:12 PM)T_Won1 Wrote:  Tech's was as bad as I've ever seen (except for Southern and ULL... that was the best I've ever seen), but other Tech fans tell me it's always been this bad. We had 3 rain games, but one was for the division title and only about 10,000 showed for that. I don't know what's happening. Maybe the bowl fiasco in 2012, losing to NW State in 2014, and all our games were on local TV. We thought joining CUSA was really going to help attendance (since we were playing more regional teams and not teams from the West coast), but it's getting worse... or at least it seems that way to me. Our actual average was more like 16K and that includes near sellouts against Southern and ULL.

T Won I mean no disrespect because I have really wondered a point you made that maybe it is CUSA who is the attendance problem

Well, Southern brought about 8K fans and Tech had about 18K, which is a normal Tech turnout historically. The sellout was due to Southern bringing so many. Then for ULL we had our "Time Out for Tech" where we invite tons of high school students and their parents to tour the campus and attend the football game. And ULL probably brought a couple thousand fans. We probably still had our 18K there. Everything was fine at that point.

FIU was a beautiful day and there was maybe 15K there. A bit of a drop, but still, okay maybe the out-of-towners had already been to a couple of games and didn't plan on coming to this one.

Then we had 3 rain games and people were saying, "Tech fans aren't going to sit in the rain and watch us play MT and North Texas." So that can be related to CUSA a bit (combined with the rain). Then it rained for the Southern Miss game, but students were out of school (that cost about 5K fans), it was Thanksgiving weekend (maybe 500 couldn't make it) and we played poorly against UTEP the week before (maybe another 200 were disgruntled).

We normally have 18-20K butts in the seats when we have an average team (6-6 or so). When it rains it may fall to 12K. This year seemed like 15-18K on good days and 5-8K on rainy days.

(12-06-2015 09:12 PM)T_Won1 Wrote:  Tech's was as bad as I've ever seen (except for Southern and ULL... that was the best I've ever seen), but other Tech fans tell me it's always been this bad. We had 3 rain games, but one was for the division title and only about 10,000 showed for that. I don't know what's happening. Maybe the bowl fiasco in 2012, losing to NW State in 2014, and all our games were on local TV. We thought joining CUSA was really going to help attendance (since we were playing more regional teams and not teams from the West coast), but it's getting worse... or at least it seems that way to me. Our actual average was more like 16K and that includes near sellouts against Southern and ULL.

IMO, three things negatively impacted LA Tech's last three home games this year:

1) Rain - and I mean COLD rain. It was literally the worst weather I've seen (over 3 different games in a single season) since I've been a Tech fan (which covers 40 years.) And even though the rain wasn't heavy for the USM game, it was an absolute downpour just a few miles west of the stadium. From Dallas, I drove in 4 solid hours of non-stop hard rain just to get there. Lots of fans just aren't going to do that.

2) Poor "On field" Performance - LA Tech fans respond very directly to how their team performs the previous week(s). And there's no doubt in my mind that when Tech fans saw Skip and the boys give up at Miss St (a loss) and UTEP (a very narrow win), many fans got turned off and refused to go the next week. Skip lost 'em.

3) Students out of school - Boom! At least 5K students that ordinarily attend our football games disappeared immediately for Thanksgiving and Quarter break.

I'm not saying those fans who skipped the USM game should have done that, but looking back they were right. Holtz and his team didn't show up that day.

One thing most of the schools in this league dont do is work on the game day experience. Our group has put a lot into it over the last few seasons and things are improving.
You have to make it fun if you want folks to keep coming back.

Most of the places ive been in this league you drive up and a game happens. That will not cut it with what we all battle because of geography and the bigger leagues that surround us.

UTSA needs to strive for 30k+

Word is next year no upper level season tickets will be sold as the upper deck will be tarped off.

We have a pretty good tailgating culture, maybe a little too good as you can always find a few thousand "fans" still in the lots during the games. They have also set up a Family Fun Zone in the new IPF where they have inflatables and such on game days to try and get more young families out.

We have what I call the hardcore 20,000. Those fans are there rain, shine, freezing cold, good team, bad team. The only thing that prevents them from showing up is work, family emergency, or death. We have another 10-12,000 that come to some games, but not all. Then we have the 5,000 to 6,000 "if everything is perfect" fans. So if we get the right opponent, at the right time, on the right day, we'll pull a great crowd like we did for Purdue. First game of the season, 3:30 kick, beautiful day.

Weather has really hurt us in the last few seasons. The rain seems to hit half of our home games.

Next season we will have one of our best in attendance, bolstered by ehat should be a special season, coupled with louisville at home and pitt on the road, giving us a shot at an early top 25 ranking, with wins.

And Banker, id say that hardcore base is 22-24k. Then, we need good weather and a decent opponent to get the others in the Joan.