(02-23-2016 08:28 AM)solohawks Wrote:  

(02-23-2016 07:59 AM)Seahawkfan716 Wrote:  

(02-22-2016 09:43 PM)CeeHawk Wrote:  Does anyone know if the athletic department is doing anything different for a higher student attendance this game? Seems like free t-shirts just aren't doing it anymore... thoughts or outside the box ideas on ways to get kids there??

There hasn't been anything announced to the students yet about this game.

In my four years here the only big marketing things done by the school were for baseball and soccer. Last fall when Carolina came into town they had it going on Twitter and every other form of social media for over a week to break 2k Tuesday. And a lot of students showed up and we shattered the old attendance record and nearly broke 3,000. And then there was the best coastal day where they were in town for both softball and baseball, this was announced as an annual event and hasn't taken place since. Which is annoying to the students because it seemed like we were making an attempt to have a rival.

So we will see if students show up. I'll be there.

How was the promotion for the jmu game? That had aa strong turnout

There really wasn't one. A few tweets before the game and a sign in fisher by the information desk. It helped it was a TV game everyone shows up for those.

To be honest that was a good turnout but they need to get all non students out of the bleachers, except for the family seating behind the teams. We could fit more rowdy students down there. Students don't like yelling expletives among other things when there's a five year old or a retiree next to you.

This would be a great time for Coach Keatts to send out a mass e-mail to the students like Brownell used to do.

I understand that students get flooded with e-mails more than they ever did in the mid-2000s, but this is the time to do it. Thursday night games are a tougher sell than Saturday, but we need those bleachers packed.

(02-23-2016 09:02 AM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  This would be a great time for Coach Keatts to send out a mass e-mail to the students like Brownell used to do.

I understand that students get flooded with e-mails more than they ever did in the mid-2000s, but this is the time to do it. Thursday night games are a tougher sell than Saturday, but we need those bleachers packed.

He has done that a few times this year. The only issue is that some folks don't credit him with it and think it's the marketing department just signing his name.

Also Thursday night games are preferable to Wednesday's for students at least. Less likely to have exams on a Friday than a Thursday.

They have also had keatts record a message encouraging faculty to come to the games. That got sent out to all faculty before the jmu game week

(02-23-2016 09:09 AM)Seahawkfan716 Wrote:  

(02-23-2016 09:02 AM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  This would be a great time for Coach Keatts to send out a mass e-mail to the students like Brownell used to do.

I understand that students get flooded with e-mails more than they ever did in the mid-2000s, but this is the time to do it. Thursday night games are a tougher sell than Saturday, but we need those bleachers packed.

He has done that a few times this year. The only issue is that some folks don't credit him with it and think it's the marketing department just signing his name.

Also Thursday night games are preferable to Wednesday's for students at least. Less likely to have exams on a Friday than a Thursday.

They have also had keatts record a message encouraging faculty to come to the games. That got sent out to all faculty before the jmu game week

I csn see how students would thiink the emails are canned and therefore not take them seriously. Video messages on social media would probably be more effective

(02-23-2016 09:09 AM)Seahawkfan716 Wrote:  Also Thursday night games are preferable to Wednesday's for students at least. Less likely to have exams on a Friday than a Thursday.

I was thinking more of the social aspect. Unless something dramatic has changed since I graduated way back in 2008, Thursday nights were college nights downtown, with that 7-10 PM block reserved for pre-gaming.

(I sound old)

(02-23-2016 10:38 AM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  

(02-23-2016 09:09 AM)Seahawkfan716 Wrote:  Also Thursday night games are preferable to Wednesday's for students at least. Less likely to have exams on a Friday than a Thursday.

I was thinking more of the social aspect. Unless something dramatic has changed since I graduated way back in 2008, Thursday nights were college nights downtown, with that 7-10 PM block reserved for pre-gaming.

(I sound old)

Yes, yes you do. Hey, do you remember visiting Zacks across the street from UNCW in 1982....? There...feel better?

(02-23-2016 10:58 AM)82hawk Wrote:  Yes, yes you do. Hey, do you remember visiting Zacks across the street from UNCW in 1982....? There...feel better?

Much. Thanks for that.

(<----- Puts in earbuds, flips on some Nirvana and leans back in desk chair)

I remember Home Court Advantage coming into Trask from the pre game celebration at the Patio. When they arrived you could smell the cigarettes and draft beer before they sat down always had a soccer dude stripping down to boxers on court

I miss the days of the Hecklers, Gorilla, Screamin' Seahawks and Amber Bryant. They were there with the ups and the downs. I believe this team has done their part and proven themselves. It's time for the fans and the students to step up. And don't get me wrong. I like the promotions. But I'm not into begging those with entitlement attitudes. I want to fill Trask like we used to. With true fans. We don't need idiot fans that will cost us a game like last year. We need fun loving fans who know enough about the game to give the opposing teams hell and also let the refs know our displeasure with a bad call. Bring back the noise meter. Make Trask, once again, the toughest place to play in the CAA.

Seems like the Athletic department focuses all of their energy on soccer season. For some reason they don't feel the need to mass promote basketball games all over social media like they did for the 2k Tuesday soccer match. I agree that they shouldn't HAVE to shove promos down our throats because as a student body we should already know how big this game is. Unfortunately, that is not the case and it seems like (for now) students need to be reminded of this game every freaking day in order to get the turn out we need.

If the school allowed for tailgating before the games we would have many more students showing up to the games. I give the SGA credit for attempting to do this. I'm friends with the group that spear headed the effort and it went all the way up to the chancellor this year. But the school simply will not budge on that issue. Aramark had a big say in this matter because of their non compete clause and they argued they would lose sales of students tailgated. They SGA was even willing to have 100's of checks and even a drink limit at the tailgate but that didn't happen.

If the school wants big crowds and student turn out there needs to be clear rivalries which I think is happening. William and Mary has been turning into one in the students minds and Charleston has potential. There also needs to be something that sets us apart from other schools which I know is on the students to make it happen so let's hope that happens and soon

That's a shame. Aramark has a new food truck they could have set up at the tailgate.

Our concessions is an embarrassment. We operate like a Junior HS. This is something I intend to press hard. With tickets at $18 per person, our fan experience needs to be better. Rolling up food trucks is not the solution. Long lines, poor selection, one cash register and two people trying to serve the whole upstairs of Trask is woefully inadequate.

The same thing happened when I went to the UNCW/UNC baseball game last year. If we want to be big time, fans need a big time experience when they come to a UNCW athletic event.

(02-23-2016 03:08 PM)82hawk Wrote:  Our concessions is an embarrassment. We operate like a Junior HS. This is something I intend to press hard. With tickets at $18 per person, our fan experience needs to be better. Rolling up food trucks is not the solution. Long lines, poor selection, one cash register and two people trying to serve the whole upstairs of Trask is woefully inadequate.

The same thing happened when I went to the UNCW/UNC baseball game last year. If we want to be big time, fans need a big time experience when they come to a UNCW athletic event.

Towson has really nice concessions. Delaware, too.

Administrators need to try to find a way to get to "yes", rather than try to find ways that they can say "no".

What's wrong with trying something (or lots of somethings) once and seeing what works better that what's being done now?

(02-23-2016 02:36 PM)Seahawkfan716 Wrote:  If the school allowed for tailgating before the games we would have many more students showing up to the games. I give the SGA credit for attempting to do this. I'm friends with the group that spear headed the effort and it went all the way up to the chancellor this year. But the school simply will not budge on that issue. Aramark had a big say in this matter because of their non compete clause and they argued they would lose sales of students tailgated. They SGA was even willing to have 100's of checks and even a drink limit at the tailgate but that didn't happen.

If the school wants big crowds and student turn out there needs to be clear rivalries which I think is happening. William and Mary has been turning into one in the students minds and Charleston has potential. There also needs to be something that sets us apart from other schools which I know is on the students to make it happen so let's hope that happens and soon

UNCW has always been its own worst enemy when it comes to promotion. Several valid points have been made on concessions. I will also bring up parking and how they force people to park so far away when thrre os plenty of unused parking at Trask they could let people use or even charge $5 or such and make a little bit. When games have been on TV there has been no promotion of where you can watch in your area which is just silly. Also our merch selection is realiy poor. Went to the uncw bookstore before i drove to williamdburg to get CG a shirt. There were exactly 2 teal t shirts for me to chose from. Perhaps we should start a separate thread with our constructive criticisms. Not intending to put a damper on this season at all!

You're dead on about the bookstore being awful. You would think with all the successes we've had within the past year in athletics there would be a better selection but there isn't. When they did their most recent rearranging they took out sections of adult clothes and out in a baby clothes. You're now able to find more baby clothes than adult men's clothing.

The bookstore is run by Barnes and Noble and I have been told they have a contract with Nike and another company and can not sell Addis gear which our teams wear

The bookstore has serious issues. Hardly any teal t-shirts and what is in teal has corny Under Armour slogans on them.

CofC concessions have improved over the past year. They started serving loaded potato chips, two different kinds of specialty hot dogs, and a bacon burger on a Krispy Kreme doughnut among other things. They also just started serving beer which boosted attendance.

When I went to your Homecoming I was surprised I didn't see any special contests for the students or stuff like that. The student section was filled up for that game, but with it being HC I wasn't surprised.

We have had trouble filling our student section especially in the past few seasons. This year we've gotten better (beating LSU helped), but that's with a ton of promotions geared to the students, including free T-shirts at almost every game. There's also been at least 2-3 tailgates before games.

UNCW has a larger student population than CofC (15K to 11K), so there shouldn't be a problem filling the section when you're one of the few games in town, compared to Charleston where there's 20 bars within a few blocks of campus (before they started serving beer, there was a bar literally a couple dozen steps from the arena that people went to during halftime to drink. That is still open).

(02-23-2016 03:08 PM)82hawk Wrote:  Our concessions is an embarrassment. We operate like a Junior HS. This is something I intend to press hard. With tickets at $18 per person, our fan experience needs to be better. Rolling up food trucks is not the solution. Long lines, poor selection, one cash register and two people trying to serve the whole upstairs of Trask is woefully inadequate.

The same thing happened when I went to the UNCW/UNC baseball game last year. If we want to be big time, fans need a big time experience when they come to a UNCW athletic event.

You apparently have not seen the new food truck. It's a huge upgrade at baseball. Serving hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, fries, nachos, etc. Plus Poor Piggy's BBQ has their truck parked right beside it. What should be the number one issue at baseball are restrooms. More restrooms with hot and cold water.
Now Trask is another issue. The health department stopped the sale of pizza because the boxes weren't sealed. SMH.