And it doesn't seem like anyone at USM cares. For decades we've struggled to build up our fanbase, slowly but surely growing to the point of averaging 32k+ under a few years of Fedora. But ever since he left, it has plummeted. There were times pre-2012 that we could play some random school from who knows where and draw 30k+ to open the season. TWENTY-TWO THOUSAND. For an SEC school in Hattiesburg. Are you kidding me? That's absolutely atrocious. But the worst part is, that crowd was a picture of how our administration has viewed USM Athletics for the past few decades.

1. Our staff is absolutely lazy. They have no idea how to sell a product, to go out into the community and meet people and get tickets sold. So what they inevitably do is think of some "hip" social media idea to spam people with instead of actually making money. Instead, they pay IMG to do their job, selling advertisements and season tickets for them (and poorly I might add), then pay IMG a percentage of those sells, so we end up making less money than we should because our own people aren't doing their jobs.

2. Our Gameday atmosphere is awful. It feels like a library. We've complained about speakers since before I graduated high school and they still have not fixed them. And today, when we host one of the biggest name teams on our schedule in recent years, we have them where you can't hear anything. I play music in my car louder than they had it going. And instead of filling commercial time with games and interactive videos to get the crowd involved, we just sit there and show another ad for some random business, probably one of the same five that repeat all game. Why are there only five videos (some of which are USM videos)? See point #1.

3. We make safe hires instead of trying to fire up our fanbase. When we have a coaching opening in a major sport, we've recently gone for the calm, relaxed hire that's safe to get you six wins each year instead of shooting for an exciting young guy. The one time we broke from this gave us Fedora, who excited our fanbase like I haven't seen in a long time and had us recruiting top tier players and winning big games.

4. Eagle Club memebership continues to shrink. This should be so easy to grow. Get a list of all alumni 200+ miles away. Call them up and explain how you understand they can't make every game because of distance, but that if they joined the EC, they'd be helping provide scholarships to our student athletes. And if they can make it to town for a game, to call the AD and they'd get them free tickets. There is an entire untapped piece of our alumni who would love to help, but need to be asked. They can't do season tickets, but they could do this. But once again, a lack of creativity and laziness kills desire to do this.


I could go on. I sat in that stadium today wondering how many games I was going to attend this year. I can handle mediocre offense if we're winning games, but everything was so boring. We are in the business of entertainment and we don't do it. Growing a fanbase takes building an atmosphere. We have to put on a show. We don't do that. It was so dead inside that stadium today, against an SEC opponent. It's no wonder people graduate and leave to never return. We live one life, why waste time at a boring atmosphere when you can go to the one down the street and enjoy an entire experience?

I haven't been around as long as most of you. Many of you have watched us become what we are today. I'm still a young gun. But this is so incredibly obvious to me that it's mind boggling. I had a friend graduate high school a few years after me. He'd grown up a USM fan and had applied, but planned to go to Ole Miss. I was wondering why because I had never seen him even hint at like TSUN. His answer? "Because when I get older and have a family, I want to be able to bring them to campus and have a great time and enjoy the experience. USM does nothing." We can say he's wrong and list some things we do right, but he hits at a very good point and one we shouldn't ignore. We have no experience, no atmosphere, nothing. And we can blame fans all day, but athletic department and it's leadership have let us down time and time again. I can't justify spending $100+ coming to watch us play Southern next week. It's not fun. And I have a feeling I'm far from the only one questioning how much they can justify giving to a group that has shown incompetence and laziness time and time and time again. Because I care, and I know some of you will say nothing will change if I don't give/go to games, but going for the past decade hasn't changed anything at all. It's only gotten worse and there's no end in sight. We need leadership and someone who will put people to work. We need someone who cares about the success of our athletic department, not just sitting around collecting a paycheck. Until that happens, 22,000 may become the new norm. It may become the new high...

(09-02-2017 07:35 PM)EagNBran Wrote:  And it doesn't seem like anyone at USM cares. For decades we've struggled to build up our fanbase, slowly but surely growing to the point of averaging 32k+ under a few years of Fedora. But ever since he left, it has plummeted. There were times pre-2012 that we could play some random school from who knows where and draw 30k+ to open the season. TWENTY-TWO THOUSAND. For an SEC school in Hattiesburg. Are you kidding me? That's absolutely atrocious. But the worst part is, that crowd was a picture of how our administration has viewed USM Athletics for the past few decades.

1. Our staff is absolutely lazy. They have no idea how to sell a product, to go out into the community and meet people and get tickets sold. So what they inevitably do is think of some "hip" social media idea to spam people with instead of actually making money. Instead, they pay IMG to do their job, selling advertisements and season tickets for them (and poorly I might add), then pay IMG a percentage of those sells, so we end up making less money than we should because our own people aren't doing their jobs.

2. Our Gameday atmosphere is awful. It feels like a library. We've complained about speakers since before I graduated high school and they still have not fixed them. And today, when we host one of the biggest name teams on our schedule in recent years, we have them where you can't hear anything. I play music in my car louder than they had it going. And instead of filling commercial time with games and interactive videos to get the crowd involved, we just sit there and show another ad for some random business, probably one of the same five that repeat all game. Why are there only five videos (some of which are USM videos)? See point #1.

3. We make safe hires instead of trying to fire up our fanbase. When we have a coaching opening in a major sport, we've recently gone for the calm, relaxed hire that's safe to get you six wins each year instead of shooting for an exciting young guy. The one time we broke from this gave us Fedora, who excited our fanbase like I haven't seen in a long time and had us recruiting top tier players and winning big games.

4. Eagle Club memebership continues to shrink. This should be so easy to grow. Get a list of all alumni 200+ miles away. Call them up and explain how you understand they can't make every game because of distance, but that if they joined the EC, they'd be helping provide scholarships to our student athletes. And if they can make it to town for a game, to call the AD and they'd get them free tickets. There is an entire untapped piece of our alumni who would love to help, but need to be asked. They can't do season tickets, but they could do this. But once again, a lack of creativity and laziness kills desire to do this.


I could go on. I sat in that stadium today wondering how many games I was going to attend this year. I can handle mediocre offense if we're winning games, but everything was so boring. We are in the business of entertainment and we don't do it. Growing a fanbase takes building an atmosphere. We have to put on a show. We don't do that. It was so dead inside that stadium today, against an SEC opponent. It's no wonder people graduate and leave to never return. We live one life, why waste time at a boring atmosphere when you can go to the one down the street and enjoy an entire experience?

I haven't been around as long as most of you. Many of you have watched us become what we are today. I'm still a young gun. But this is so incredibly obvious to me that it's mind boggling. I had a friend graduate high school a few years after me. He'd grown up a USM fan and had applied, but planned to go to Ole Miss. I was wondering why because I had never seen him even hint at like TSUN. His answer? "Because when I get older and have a family, I want to be able to bring them to campus and have a great time and enjoy the experience. USM does nothing." We can say he's wrong and list some things we do right, but he hits at a very good point and one we shouldn't ignore. We have no experience, no atmosphere, nothing. And we can blame fans all day, but athletic department and it's leadership have let us down time and time again. I can't justify spending $100+ coming to watch us play Southern next week. It's not fun. And I have a feeling I'm far from the only one questioning how much they can justify giving to a group that has shown incompetence and laziness time and time and time again. Because I care, and I know some of you will say nothing will change if I don't give/go to games, but going for the past decade hasn't changed anything at all. It's only gotten worse and there's no end in sight. We need leadership and someone who will put people to work. We need someone who cares about the success of our athletic department, not just sitting around collecting a paycheck. Until that happens, 22,000 may become the new norm. It may become the new high...

Good post but I disagree with one thing....
22,000 was for an SEC team we could beat on an absolutely beautiful day.
The crap teams we play will bring that average down by about 10,000.

Sadly, that's a great post. Nothing but the truth.

#thechoir

it's been sad watching this disintegrate.......

the OP isn't wrong....

it started with cockbrain mausoleum to pride band field......

fk'n idiots the 'heads' are.....

they just don't have a clue what generates "interest"

i must say though; at the same time, if Hop isn't a freaking idiot and simply plays Griggs at QB from here on out, the team will be dominate the rest of the year.....AND.....we have Griggs next year too. so the product on the field is looking pretty damned good for the future. we also have a good freshman QB waiting in the wings. lot of talent on this team and a lot of young talent. i was/am shocked about the attendance. that feels like a punch to the gut as much as the game today. guess if i had to choose one or the other, id pick having 10,11,12 wins averaging 20k a game than going 4-8 with 30k. they aren't mutually exclusive though and hopefully the wins will help with attendance. it usually does. the low attendance of 22k today against an SEC team is certainly as confusing as Hop playing Keon the entire first half, if not moreso.

(09-02-2017 07:35 PM)EagNBran Wrote:  And it doesn't seem like anyone at USM cares. For decades we've struggled to build up our fanbase, slowly but surely growing to the point of averaging 32k+ under a few years of Fedora. But ever since he left, it has plummeted. There were times pre-2012 that we could play some random school from who knows where and draw 30k+ to open the season. TWENTY-TWO THOUSAND. For an SEC school in Hattiesburg. Are you kidding me? That's absolutely atrocious. But the worst part is, that crowd was a picture of how our administration has viewed USM Athletics for the past few decades.

1. Our staff is absolutely lazy. They have no idea how to sell a product, to go out into the community and meet people and get tickets sold. So what they inevitably do is think of some "hip" social media idea to spam people with instead of actually making money. Instead, they pay IMG to do their job, selling advertisements and season tickets for them (and poorly I might add), then pay IMG a percentage of those sells, so we end up making less money than we should because our own people aren't doing their jobs.

2. Our Gameday atmosphere is awful. It feels like a library. We've complained about speakers since before I graduated high school and they still have not fixed them. And today, when we host one of the biggest name teams on our schedule in recent years, we have them where you can't hear anything. I play music in my car louder than they had it going. And instead of filling commercial time with games and interactive videos to get the crowd involved, we just sit there and show another ad for some random business, probably one of the same five that repeat all game. Why are there only five videos (some of which are USM videos)? See point #1.

3. We make safe hires instead of trying to fire up our fanbase. When we have a coaching opening in a major sport, we've recently gone for the calm, relaxed hire that's safe to get you six wins each year instead of shooting for an exciting young guy. The one time we broke from this gave us Fedora, who excited our fanbase like I haven't seen in a long time and had us recruiting top tier players and winning big games.

4. Eagle Club memebership continues to shrink. This should be so easy to grow. Get a list of all alumni 200+ miles away. Call them up and explain how you understand they can't make every game because of distance, but that if they joined the EC, they'd be helping provide scholarships to our student athletes. And if they can make it to town for a game, to call the AD and they'd get them free tickets. There is an entire untapped piece of our alumni who would love to help, but need to be asked. They can't do season tickets, but they could do this. But once again, a lack of creativity and laziness kills desire to do this.


I could go on. I sat in that stadium today wondering how many games I was going to attend this year. I can handle mediocre offense if we're winning games, but everything was so boring. We are in the business of entertainment and we don't do it. Growing a fanbase takes building an atmosphere. We have to put on a show. We don't do that. It was so dead inside that stadium today, against an SEC opponent. It's no wonder people graduate and leave to never return. We live one life, why waste time at a boring atmosphere when you can go to the one down the street and enjoy an entire experience?

I haven't been around as long as most of you. Many of you have watched us become what we are today. I'm still a young gun. But this is so incredibly obvious to me that it's mind boggling. I had a friend graduate high school a few years after me. He'd grown up a USM fan and had applied, but planned to go to Ole Miss. I was wondering why because I had never seen him even hint at like TSUN. His answer? "Because when I get older and have a family, I want to be able to bring them to campus and have a great time and enjoy the experience. USM does nothing." We can say he's wrong and list some things we do right, but he hits at a very good point and one we shouldn't ignore. We have no experience, no atmosphere, nothing. And we can blame fans all day, but athletic department and it's leadership have let us down time and time again. I can't justify spending $100+ coming to watch us play Southern next week. It's not fun. And I have a feeling I'm far from the only one questioning how much they can justify giving to a group that has shown incompetence and laziness time and time and time again. Because I care, and I know some of you will say nothing will change if I don't give/go to games, but going for the past decade hasn't changed anything at all. It's only gotten worse and there's no end in sight. We need leadership and someone who will put people to work. We need someone who cares about the success of our athletic department, not just sitting around collecting a paycheck. Until that happens, 22,000 may become the new norm. It may become the new high...

I'm an outlier in that I grew up a fan but didn't go to USM. I didn't consider going to the game. Most of it is simply lost interest in college football as a whole (I'm generally disgusted by college football ethically) but I would go to more games if they were fun. The gameday atmosphere is nonexistent. Our opponents are a joke. Our talent level dropped off a cliff. The stakes are lower. There is just nothing that resembles major college football anymore--the championship win over Houston was our last moment.

Everything you said is right. I was a grad assistant in a major athletic department and saw some of the planning and organization that goes into minute details of gameday. Based on the gameday product I've seen at USM, we are probably 20 years behind. That said, the media and productions staff was probably 5x bigger there than at USM...so you can't put much blame on anyone below administration.

(09-02-2017 09:30 PM)stinkfist Wrote:  #thechoir

it's been sad watching this disintegrate.......

the OP isn't wrong....

it started with cockbrain mausoleum to pride band field......

fk'n idiots the 'heads' are.....

they just don't have a clue what generates "interest"

Are you talking about the Trent Lott building they built after tearing down the old field house? If so, I agree 100% because that area along with the huge vacant area between the Rock and Hwy 49 was the "Tailgate center of the world". They jammed in vehicles so tight, leaving alley ways between rows, that one could hardly navigate the entire area. Literally thousands of people elbow to elbow enjoying refreshments and tasty delights of every description (I liked those in short shorts best). One could break out their canopy and goodies and share with all as just about everyone would stop by as the day progressed. They eliminated that area and the fans were strewn to the wind and our spirits left as well.

(09-03-2017 07:43 AM)eager eagle Wrote:  

(09-02-2017 09:30 PM)stinkfist Wrote:  #thechoir

it's been sad watching this disintegrate.......

the OP isn't wrong....

it started with cockbrain mausoleum to pride band field......

fk'n idiots the 'heads' are.....

they just don't have a clue what generates "interest"

Are you talking about the Trent Lott building they built after tearing down the old field house? If so, I agree 100% because that area along with the huge vacant area between the Rock and Hwy 49 was the "Tailgate center of the world". They jammed in vehicles so tight, leaving alley ways between rows, that one could hardly navigate the entire area. Literally thousands of people elbow to elbow enjoying refreshments and tasty delights of every description (I liked those in short shorts best). One could break out their canopy and goodies and share with all as just about everyone would stop by as the day progressed. They eliminated that area and the fans were strewn to the wind and our spirits left as well.

yup....that's XACLY! what they did and what subsequently happened....

not only was it a huge mistake, it's an architectural eyesore....

I don't think anybody can dispute anything stated in the OP, but I would like to address a couple of things and raise some more questions.

1) Re: IMG, I've asked this before an no one's ever given a definitive answer: Did they actually bring in new people to take over the various duties for which we contracted them, or did they just take over the HR & payroll responsibilities of the people we already had in those roles? If the latter, maybe we do save a few bucks over the long haul, but no, not a whole lot was ever going to change. There are some major, major programs who also use IMG but sure seem to do things better.

2) For every person complaining that the place is too quiet, you've also got people complaining that the music is too loud and "Can the PA guy just STFU for 15 seconds?" You're never going to make everybody happy. Best you can do is try to accommodate your target audience as a whole the best you can. Of course, our athletic dept has historically had no clue what its target audience even is, so....

3) Ellis Johnson would be better characterized as a "bat-sh** crazy hire," than an "exciting" one, but take him as an example of what happens when a risk goes badly. I certainly haven't agreed with many hiring decisions, but sometimes the safe hire is just that. When your fandom is already hanging on by a thread, maybe just treading water for a while and getting a streak of winning seasons under your feet again isn't the worst strategy. As someone who's often pushed the notion of hiring a successful head coach from the lower tiers of football, it'd be hypocritical of me to crap on the Hopson hire. Frankly, I think he's doing a pretty danged good job overseeing the general management & direction of the program. He's just in over his head when it comes to game day right now. Let him have his 4 years before we tag him a bust.

4) The untapped, dormant fanbase may well be the keystone issue to most of our other woes. Too many people kinda care and sorta pay attention, but haven't ever been moved to act. The person who solves that needs a statue erected in their honor on top of the administration building dome.

One thing I'd like to see is big donations solicited with a higher purpose. Instead of hitting up a car dealers & surgeons for checks for general operations, set up a campaign to raise $100K specifically to hire two new people to get an alumni list from the registrar's office and spend a year selling EC memberships and season ticket packages. A new marketing grad with any clue what they're doing could do the job. We just haven't made doing that particular job a priority. We've got our people who by their job title should be out soliciting funds doing 50 other things as well because "we can't afford another position." You're not going to bring in money without properly investing in the means to do so.

(09-03-2017 02:38 PM)HarborPointe Wrote:  I don't think anybody can dispute anything stated in the OP, but I would like to address a couple of things and raise some more questions.

1) Re: IMG, I've asked this before an no one's ever given a definitive answer: Did they actually bring in new people to take over the various duties for which we contracted them, or did they just take over the HR & payroll responsibilities of the people we already had in those roles? If the latter, maybe we do save a few bucks over the long haul, but no, not a whole lot was ever going to change. There are some major, major programs who also use IMG but sure seem to do things better.

2) For every person complaining that the place is too quiet, you've also got people complaining that the music is too loud and "Can the PA guy just STFU for 15 seconds?" You're never going to make everybody happy. Best you can do is try to accommodate your target audience as a whole the best you can. Of course, our athletic dept has historically had no clue what its target audience even is, so....

3) Ellis Johnson would be better characterized as a "bat-sh** crazy hire," than an "exciting" one, but take him as an example of what happens when a risk goes badly. I certainly haven't agreed with many hiring decisions, but sometimes the safe hire is just that. When your fandom is already hanging on by a thread, maybe just treading water for a while and getting a streak of winning seasons under your feet again isn't the worst strategy. As someone who's often pushed the notion of hiring a successful head coach from the lower tiers of football, it'd be hypocritical of me to crap on the Hopson hire. Frankly, I think he's doing a pretty danged good job overseeing the general management & direction of the program. He's just in over his head when it comes to game day right now. Let him have his 4 years before we tag him a bust.

4) The untapped, dormant fanbase may well be the keystone issue to most of our other woes. Too many people kinda care and sorta pay attention, but haven't ever been moved to act. The person who solves that needs a statue erected in their honor on top of the administration building dome.

One thing I'd like to see is big donations solicited with a higher purpose. Instead of hitting up a car dealers & surgeons for checks for general operations, set up a campaign to raise $100K specifically to hire two new people to get an alumni list from the registrar's office and spend a year selling EC memberships and season ticket packages. A new marketing grad with any clue what they're doing could do the job. We just haven't made doing that particular job a priority. We've got our people who by their job title should be out soliciting funds doing 50 other things as well because "we can't afford another position." You're not going to bring in money without properly investing in the means to do so.

his name is warren hood....and it has to happen outside of carolyn's tennis patch....

somehow, some way, any way.....

all of your prose is accurate....