GoUSFBulls.com USF Athletics strategic plan to be unveiled

[DELdaBull]

Interesting 

[Sellular1]

13 hours ago, ArmyBull said:

 

No, we would not be in foreclosure, stop that.

Regarding the Kinghts stadium, it may started as garbage, but every year they seem to add something to it to improve it.  I saw something on Twitter a couple of days ago about new giant video boards.  At some point, with upgrades, their 45mil piece of garbage turns into the 150mil stadium that we want, all this while our leadership just says, sorry, we are poor.  I don't buy any of it!

Building things like an OCS that get the alumni back to campus help increase donations.  So, perhaps you are on the wrong end of the "chicken or egg" analogy.  Perhaps if we would have built an OCS years ago, not only would we not be in foreclosure, but our fan and donation base would be near our aspirational goals.  This is the type of investment minded and forward thinking leadership we need.  Again, UCF, FAU, Cincy, and Houston are not in foreclosure.  We are not poor and I am tired of the "blame the fans" message that keeps coming across.  

I'd give you 100 up votes if I could instead of just the one.

[Triple B]

17 hours ago, ArmyBull said:

 

No, we would not be in foreclosure, stop that.

Regarding the Kinghts stadium, it may started as garbage, but every year they seem to add something to it to improve it.  I saw something on Twitter a couple of days ago about new giant video boards.  At some point, with upgrades, their 45mil piece of garbage turns into the 150mil stadium that we want, all this while our leadership just says, sorry, we are poor.  I don't buy any of it!

Building things like an OCS that get the alumni back to campus help increase donations.  So, perhaps you are on the wrong end of the "chicken or egg" analogy.  Perhaps if we would have built an OCS years ago, not only would we not be in foreclosure, but our fan and donation base would be near our aspirational goals.  This is the type of investment minded and forward thinking leadership we need.  Again, UCF, FAU, Cincy, and Houston are not in foreclosure.  We are not poor and I am tired of the "blame the fans" message that keeps coming across.  

Check out Page 31 of the athletics strategy. That figure is not an aberration .... and the foreclosure thing was more symbolic than literal. Point was, if we were sitting here with a start up piece of crap stadium like UCF's and had gone through what we did 2013-15, the place would have been an even bigger ghost town than RayJay was and revenue would have been a lot worse. I do agree that there's a chicken or egg analogy here and I'm not sure which is the right end. Obviously I see it the same as the previous regime did. Maybe Harlan rolls the dice and goes the other direction. I do just think that we have a different breed of fanbase, with a lot of that having to do with the relative "youth" of it and what they've been accustomed to as far as a playing venue from the beginning and that's going to make Harlan's job tougher when projecting an OCS.

I do hope, though, that all those agreeing with you on the being tired of the "blame the fans" message are members of the Bulls Club.

[Cubanbull]

49 minutes ago, Bausfkid said:

We have a fantastic, newly remodeled, OCA for hoops and we can't get 5K fans to show up for either men's or women's basketball in a city, including the surrounding areas, with an estimated population of 4M. 

Build it and they will come is a movie line and not real life.  Why does no one show up?  Your answer can be it's basketball and/or we are not good.  In the very recent past both teams have made the NCAAs and still no one showed up.  Football had a very solid year last year and no one showed up.  Ticket sales have not increased this year, why?

Actually your last line is not correct. Harlan announced a 90% renewal of season tickets from last year and 2200 new ones.

i believe last year we had like 12k season tickets sold, so following the math, 90% of that is 10.8 + 2.2= 13k and we aren't in June yet. I will say that when all its said and done we will sell 15k season tickets which will be an increase from last year. Anyone expecting a huge turnaround after 1 winning season it's dreaming.

but I do agree with you that many on this board act like we should be a P5 while our fan base support is that of a Sun Belt school. You want an OCS and P5. Buy season tickets and donate to Athletics, if you already do that get others to join in.

[Apis Bull]

42 minutes ago, Bausfkid said:

Thanks Cuban. 15K season ticket holders in an area of 4M people is embarrassing.  Even if you double that number it's still an embarrassment.  Lack of support runs far deeper than USF Alumni and students. 

There are no OCS conversations with USF leadership. (There are obviously conversations)  An OCS is not the linchpin to a P5 invite. (I agree, because if it were, we'd be building on already)  APR has far more to do with our invite than an OCS. 

Might just be me "bashing".  Sorry.

Go Bulls!

 

[Paisa el Toro]

8 hours ago, Triple B said:

I do hope, though, that all those agreeing with you on the being tired of the "blame the fans" message are members of the Bulls Club.

Bingo, Trips. Do we want bigger and better? Page 31 of the report indicates, as clear as a Tampa summer day, we need more donors--at all contribution levels. Woulard courted the whales, we need more people in on the ground floor of this green and gold lunacy. 

[Triple B]

4 hours ago, Bausfkid said:

Thanks Cuban. 15K season ticket holders in an area of 4M people is embarrassing.  Even if you double that number it's still an embarrassment.  Lack of support runs far deeper than USF Alumni and students. 

There are no OCS conversations with USF leadership.  An OCS is not the linchpin to a P5 invite.  APR has far more to do with our invite than an OCS. 

Might just be me "bashing".  Sorry.

Go Bulls!

I don't think you're really bashing, per se, but just making a lot of ill informed assertions. You keep repeating that there are no conversations with USF leadership about an OCS and that's obviously not true. Nobody really knows what the linchpins are going to be in this next round so we have no idea where APR stands in regard to anything .... and saying that having 30K season ticket holders here would still be an embarrassment, given the size of the area is, for lack of a better word, just plain clueless. I'm pretty sure that SMU and Houston don't have a 30K season tix base either and like us, would be thrilled with a base like that at our current level. Could there be more local financial corporate support given the size of the area , absolutely, but the season ticket number falls mainly on USF Alumni ..... and with the size of the school and number of alumni probably within convenient season tix distance, there's your embarrassment.

[Skingraft]

I rarely read about the share of wallet issues in Tampa....  USF competes with the Lighting, Bucs, Rays, Storm, MLB spring training, and Rowdies for season ticket spend...  

It is a lot easier to pack a stadium when you're the only game in town

Even from a state perspective they compete with the Magic and the Dolphins for local spend...

It's going to take quite a bit more than just winning to pack that stadium again, but I guess that has to be the first step

Edited May 22, 2016 by Skingraft

[Cubanbull]

30k season tickets it's tough even for most P5 outside the big names and in a big city with professional sports even tougher which is why a 50k OCS makes sense for USF. If we can avg 25k season tickets and 10k students you are on a good situation for demand to fill in the rest.

the problem with RJS is that because of its size it makes it more difficult to get fans to make a commitment, when they know they can just show up game day and get a ticket cheaply and without any problems for all games. It's the same problem Miami even in a P5 has on a consistent basis

Edited May 22, 2016 by Cubanbull

[Cubanbull]

1 minute ago, Ned A Starr said:

Miami's undergraduate enrollment is far less than USF's, and the number of alumni living in the Miami area is tiny in comparison to USF alumni in the Tampa area.

The lack of commitment you mention is the reason Harland said, USF isn't 1 or 2 on any P5's expansion list.

You are correct in the undergraduate numbers but UM has a higher buy in from the non alumni community in the area than USF. USF needs to improve in getting better student, alumni and non alumni support in the area. I like Taggart's Bay- made line, we need non alumni to support the team if we want to get into the 50k+ crowds.