Perhaps to much surprise to those of you declaring you're "jumping off the band wagon," the enthusiasm and culture itself for Eastern Michigan athletics has completely changed. With the largest freshmen class EMU has seen in 15 years, there is A LOT of buzz around campus about this year's football team and Eastern pride in general.

I am an officer for the Eagle Nation Fan Section. Some of you are familiar. We are a recognized student organization, and the official embodiment of the student section. We attempt to bolster attendance and spirit of students at athletic events.

By the end of this past academic year, we had just over 100 official members. At this point, with students being moved in on campus for less than 5 days, we are already over 200. 200! Doubled before the first home game! We're expecting to gain a great amount more before kickoff Saturday as well (200 paying members, mind you. Actual student attendance will be much much higher).

We are expecting more students than ever tailgating at Saturday's game, and much much improved attendance through out the football season.

We have the best chance to support and make the most out of the athletic programs we care so deeply about. As a committed and devoted Eastern Michigan fan/student, I ask that we all do anything we can to build pride and support for this fall's athletic seasons.

For football, the best each individual can do is go to the games. GO TO THE GAMES. We really have an opportunity to great improve our attendance and image that we are harped upon so often. Please help the school we all share love for reach what is has for so long deserved.

The Eagle Nation Fan Section would appreciate any sort of help you could offer to the organization itself. For students, join by finding us at the game or purchasing the membership on our Facebook page: facebook.com/EagleNationFanSection

Alumni, there are several ways we could use your support as well. On the Facebook page linked above, we are selling EMU Hurons shirts as a fundraiser. By liking our page, you'll be able to contact us. If there is anything you'd like to share with us, or perhaps share an event/meeting with us, we'd be more than willing to discuss any other ways that we could help each other.

Thank you. And of course, GO GREEN!

Keep up the great work Frank! It's great to see student body excited about EMU sports, and you guys are at the forefront of this movement. Awesome job!

I'm coming from out of town and bringing at least 2 with me, a 200% increase in attendance over 2011. :)

We will be tailgating somewhere...

(09-04-2012 12:19 PM)FrankAnderson Wrote:  Perhaps to much surprise to those of you declaring you're "jumping off the band wagon," the enthusiasm and culture itself for Eastern Michigan athletics has completely changed. With the largest freshmen class EMU has seen in 15 years, there is A LOT of buzz around campus about this year's football team and Eastern pride in general.

I agree with you Frank.

In sports for many fans attitudes change SLOWLY, both positively and also negatively.

If the K.C. Royals go on a 3 game win streak (oops, they did last week ) fans in K.C. aren't going to start celebrating.

They understand what a 3 game series means and it doesn't negate years and years of losing.

In the case of EMU, THIS year we'll see the + results from last year in both FB and men's hoops.

One might have thought that a 'bandwagon effect' would have started in say mid-October or late October but it really didn't.

There will be more fans present Saturday vs. a 1-AA team than the critical game vs. BSU last season.

I've been on this board since 1/1/2004 and we have the largest online counts I've ever seen.

When there is a big news story (e.g., Murphy) we hit say 25+ concurrent viewers - registered users and guests.

Couple years ago we'd get 1/2 that number.

Frank/Alex: You might wish to make your members aware of this board. It is a good clearinghouse for info.

(09-04-2012 01:21 PM)emu steve Wrote:  Frank/Alex: You might wish to make your members aware of this board. It is a good clearinghouse for info.

All the officers/leaders at least read or have an account here. But a link to this board from our page could be helpful. Thanks for the advice.

Good job Frank, I enjoyed attending both football and men's hoops when I was a student at EMU even when our teams weren't the best it was great fun. Hopefully more EMU students take advantage and come out for the games.

I would like to send a shout out to Frank and all the other board members for getting this thing rolling. Its been hard but finally in the third year it seems to be stable now and the returns have been great. Last year we signed up about 125 members all year. This year, we have already surpassed that number before the first day of classes.

I also want to thank all of the people on this board for helping to keep me encouraged on this project that started 5 years ago for me. As a co-founder/first president, I'm sad that I will be less involved this semester with student teaching, but at the same time cannot wait to support the org as an alumnus after graduating in December. Every once in a great while I look back on those "reputation points" that have been left for me on this board and it always gets me motivated to keep up what I've started.

I've always enjoyed tailgaiting at EMU as opposed to other area universities. First the parking lots are right next to the stadium, granted attendance has been poor in recent years but still its nice to not have to hike 5 miles after drinking some beers and eating some brats. I've always found the fans to be friendly and even the University allows quite a bit of freedom. The police are there ofcourse but they seem to let people have a good time minus the occasional drunken idiot who needs to be addressed. All and All EMU doesn't have the same tradition in terms of tailgaiting/game day culture but as an alumni I love going to EMU games. Plus if you get a chance to try that chuckwagon place under the west stands (home side), it is worth it that place has the best food in the stadium.

(09-04-2012 01:21 PM)emu steve Wrote:  I've been on this board since 1/1/2004 and we have the largest online counts I've ever seen.

When there is a big news story (e.g., Murphy) we hit say 25+ concurrent viewers - registered users and guests.

Couple years ago we'd get 1/2 that number.

Frank/Alex: You might wish to make your members aware of this board. It is a good clearinghouse for info.

I've only been on the board since December of 2011...and I've already seen EMU's traffic on this board increase dramatically.

(09-05-2012 12:06 PM)EA3 Wrote:  

(09-04-2012 01:21 PM)emu steve Wrote:  I've been on this board since 1/1/2004 and we have the largest online counts I've ever seen.

When there is a big news story (e.g., Murphy) we hit say 25+ concurrent viewers - registered users and guests.

Couple years ago we'd get 1/2 that number.

Frank/Alex: You might wish to make your members aware of this board. It is a good clearinghouse for info.

I've only been on the board since December of 2011...and I've already seen EMU's traffic on this board increase dramatically.

Agree. We seem to have a lot of concurrent guests even though there is no pressing stories.