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Even though I'm excited about this season and the new stadium, I feel kinda let down to know that only around 1000+ students are being seated on the new east side seats out of 5,500 student tickets.

With all these DJ promotions and promotion of students benefiting from the new part of the stadium, and how more students will be seated in east, the pre stadium ad is kind of misleading and false advertisement.

Does anyone know the exact seating space for students on the east stand?

Harry only mentions "more than 1000 students including the band". This is nearly as same as before + the band?

That has always been the plan.

5500 students would take up more than half the sideline. The economics don't make sense to do that.

(08-28-2019 08:02 AM)Beans N Cornbread Wrote:  5500 students would take up more than half the sideline. The economics don't make sense to do that.

What are you taking about, it's their team. Students each pay about $500/yr in fees and provide over half of the support for ODU athletic programs. They deserve some good seats. That's why Duke MBB gives the best seats to the students, plus they provide an excellent gameday experience. If you want students to show up, you need to give them something better than the NEZ.

(08-28-2019 08:18 AM)DaBigBlue Wrote:  

(08-28-2019 08:02 AM)Beans N Cornbread Wrote:  5500 students would take up more than half the sideline. The economics don't make sense to do that.

What are you taking about, it's their team. Students each pay about $500/yr in fees and provide over half of the support for ODU athletic programs. They deserve some good seats. That's why Duke MBB gives the best seats to the students, plus they provide an excellent gameday experience. If you want students to show up, you need to give them something better than the NEZ.

100% agree. That’s how you build loyal followings. Treat them right and you develop a fan base when they graduate.

(08-28-2019 08:18 AM)DaBigBlue Wrote:  

(08-28-2019 08:02 AM)Beans N Cornbread Wrote:  5500 students would take up more than half the sideline. The economics don't make sense to do that.

What are you taking about, it's their team. Students each pay about $500/yr in fees and provide over half of the support for ODU athletic programs. They deserve some good seats. That's why Duke MBB gives the best seats to the students, plus they provide an excellent gameday experience. If you want students to show up, you need to give them something better than the NEZ.

He is right the economics doesnt work with the seat fees. Fans are paying way more than students when you consider $500 per year to attend every sporting event is a pretty good deal. Also its not like the ODU students show up for every game if that was the case maybe they would have more leverage.

The bottom line is not that we should move students to the best seats but to improve the seats in the NEZ. This needs to be done asap.

Not all 5,500 tickets need to be sideline, but you give them some so the active and engaged students will try for those seats and they become the "you don't want to miss seats". That buzz is what's needed, we need students to be engaged and they deserve it. The ODU students contribute $28 million dollars to athletic programs. It's $500/semester or $1,000/yr.

(08-28-2019 08:18 AM)DaBigBlue Wrote:  

(08-28-2019 08:02 AM)Beans N Cornbread Wrote:  5500 students would take up more than half the sideline. The economics don't make sense to do that.

What are you taking about, it's their team. Students each pay about $500/yr in fees and provide over half of the support for ODU athletic programs. They deserve some good seats. That's why Duke MBB gives the best seats to the students, plus they provide an excellent gameday experience. If you want students to show up, you need to give them something better than the NEZ.

THIS ^^^^

(08-28-2019 08:51 AM)cbank Wrote:  

(08-28-2019 08:18 AM)DaBigBlue Wrote:  

(08-28-2019 08:02 AM)Beans N Cornbread Wrote:  5500 students would take up more than half the sideline. The economics don't make sense to do that.

What are you taking about, it's their team. Students each pay about $500/yr in fees and provide over half of the support for ODU athletic programs. They deserve some good seats. That's why Duke MBB gives the best seats to the students, plus they provide an excellent gameday experience. If you want students to show up, you need to give them something better than the NEZ.

THIS ^^^^

ODU students have great seats at the TED and its usually half full. Why should I believe they will show up for every game if we gave them great seats at SB Ballard Stadium?

Nah, we just continue to let up and comers like Liberty show us how to create college atmosphere while we think that our attendance is going to decrease if we don't let the gray hairs stretch their legs out, sit up front, watch the big screen in the corner and emulate their living rooms.

Nutzo.

Unleashing the students is what will change ODU's profile. And that is what matters to recruits too.

(08-28-2019 09:01 AM)FearTheLion Wrote:  Nah, we just continue to let up and comers like Liberty show us how to create college atmosphere while we think that our attendance is going to decrease if we don't let the gray hairs stretch their legs out, sit up front, watch the big screen in the corner and emulate their living rooms.

Nutzo.

Unleashing the students is what will change ODU's profile. And that is what matters to recruits too.

Liberty doesn't have a bad seat in the house. ODU has 5,000 bad ones. We could debate all day if fans or students should sit in the current NEZ but answer is fixing the NEZ so that we dont have a bad seat in the house.

This is an interesting debate. We definitely need to do a better job of engaging and energizing students. We definitely do not want a couple thousand empty prime seats because students didn't use their allotment either. Also, don't want to put everyone who attempts to walk up and buy tickets in the NEZ, because then we lose out on creating a potential loyal fan there. I think maybe they nailed it with 1000 sideline seats for students. If the demand remains high throughout this season, then maybe you can look at increasing the number of student seats on the sidelines each season until demand is tapped out.

First of all has anyone ever polled real students at ODU asking them to tell us how they feel about the current situation and what is that they need to have/see for them to show up at games consistently? With out that this discussion is just a banter of couple of alumni discussing what is best for the students irrespective of how much of our athletics revenues comes from their fees etc. IMO they should at least get half of their allotment out of NEZ and fans who can't afford side line tickets can purchase the $99 season tix in the rest of the NEZ. College FB games need student engagement so our AD needs to get a poll out there to see what needs to be done to get more students to show up for the FB games.

Have students buy a sideline season ticket for $20 (give em a T-shirt with purchase). The NEZ seats should be "free" for students. That way, the prime sideline seat student has a small financial commitment made to being in their seat, increasing the likelihood of them actually being there.

(08-28-2019 09:55 AM)monarx Wrote:  Have students buy a sideline season ticket for $20 (give em a T-shirt with purchase). The NEZ seats should be "free" for students. That way, the prime sideline seat student has a small financial commitment made to being in their seat, increasing the likelihood of them actually being there.

This is a brilliant idea! Get the diehard kids that are invested locked in on the sideline. If you have more kids that want this than seats that is a good problem. You either have a waitlist or move the band back to the endzone.

(08-28-2019 09:55 AM)monarx Wrote:  Have students buy a sideline season ticket for $20 (give em a T-shirt with purchase). The NEZ seats should be "free" for students. That way, the prime sideline seat student has a small financial commitment made to being in their seat, increasing the likelihood of them actually being there.

I think that's a good idea. If you have a ticket it makes you more likely to use it. Just have to watch the secondary market, which the students seem to sell tickets on.

I wonder when they did the season ticket survey, did they ask students for their input.

(08-28-2019 10:07 AM)ODU2K1 Wrote:  

(08-28-2019 09:55 AM)monarx Wrote:  Have students buy a sideline season ticket for $20 (give em a T-shirt with purchase). The NEZ seats should be "free" for students. That way, the prime sideline seat student has a small financial commitment made to being in their seat, increasing the likelihood of them actually being there.

This is a brilliant idea! Get the diehard kids that are invested locked in on the sideline. If you have more kids that want this than seats that is a good problem. You either have a waitlist or move the band back to the endzone.

Pretty sure the band is where they are for the purpose of seeing seats full from the TV camera angle.
If you did sell tickets for students that wanted better seats, then the band could be moved to the NEZ. But then again, the band is made up of students that put in a lot of work. They deserve good seats.

Virginia Tech sells student tickets for around $110 for those that want a guaranteed seat at all games. These are assigned seats but not sure where they are located. I'm assuming in the front of the overall student sections.

$20 or $25 is the right price point to do this at ODU, in my opinion.

(08-28-2019 08:34 AM)DaBigBlue Wrote:  Not all 5,500 tickets need to be sideline, but you give them some so the active and engaged students will try for those seats and they become the "you don't want to miss seats". That buzz is what's needed, we need students to be engaged and they deserve it. The ODU students contribute $28 million dollars to athletic programs. It's $500/semester or $1,000/yr.

And a small amount of those paying actually care.

I agree that we should improve the end zone seating, but as someone that had season tickets there for a few years, it's not like they are terrible seats. Id take those seats anyday over the seats I had last year (45 yard line 6 rows up.....I couldn't see ****, but got to see Jeff C yell at the DL!).

I think charging diehard fans that want assigned seats on the sideline is a good idea.

Our students are so hit or miss. Its hard to predict when they show and are rowdy. It would probably be a bad look for us to play Marshall at a noon start (hypothetical) and have 500 students in prime seating with 4,500 empty seats.

(08-28-2019 09:06 AM)cmett003 Wrote:  

(08-28-2019 09:01 AM)FearTheLion Wrote:  Nah, we just continue to let up and comers like Liberty show us how to create college atmosphere while we think that our attendance is going to decrease if we don't let the gray hairs stretch their legs out, sit up front, watch the big screen in the corner and emulate their living rooms.

Nutzo.

Unleashing the students is what will change ODU's profile. And that is what matters to recruits too.

Liberty doesn't have a bad seat in the house. ODU has 5,000 bad ones. We could debate all day if fans or students should sit in the current NEZ but answer is fixing the NEZ so that we dont have a bad seat in the house.

Yep. And Liberty also doesn't have a large fanbase buying season tickets. They did have an impressive student section but if the students were put somewhere else those seats likely would be empty

Out of curiosity, what schools outside of liberty put their students across the sideline? I've always thought that for the most part students were in the end zone/corners. I could be completely wrong though