USF and City of Tampa - Marketing Efforts?

[bullman3]

Playing in a smaller on campus stadium would also create demand by having so many fewer seats.  

[Brad]

1 hour ago, Apis Bull said:

I find it disingenuous for the media to slam attendance when USF has been largely ignored by them up to this point.

Zing.  

[Brad]

37 minutes ago, Who'sYourData? said:

Kind of disappointed in this aspect of Harlan's tenure thus far.

And MBB. Seems like an isolationist. Not outgoing with community and fans (I could be wrong, out here in AZ, but my personal experience supports the comment).  I place credit for football improvement with Willie.  Harlan seems no better than Woolard, but less damaging.  I'd like to feel differently, but he seems happy cutting ties with anything USF related prior to his tenure.  Willie has delivered him a good product, what can he do with it as AD?  Same thing Leavitt did for Woolard.  I keep waiting for that Pac12 style big boy leadership, maybe this is it?

[BDYZR]

16 minutes ago, Bull Daly said:

Good point!  The crowd for the McNeese St game was good. Only problem was that USF got blown out and most the crowd left at halftime and never came back.

 

10 minutes ago, Bulls On Parade said:

True, those people don't know what they are missing now. The difference between that team and now unbelievable. 

We were talking about this last night. This is the point in our best years, when the excitement seemed to be building, anticipation of taking that proverbial next step was right in front of us... and SPLAT!   We lay an egg. Top 25 ranking should help with attendance, but man I hope we don't crap the bed in the next game like we have so many times before.

Unfortunately for USF football, IMO, it's that game, when Joe Casual sits up a little, and we go FSU 2016 on them.

GO BULLS!

[Bull Matrix]

12 minutes ago, Brad said:

And MBB. Seems like an isolationist. Not outgoing with community and fans (I could be wrong, out here in AZ, but my personal experience supports the comment).  I place credit for football improvement with Willie.  Harlan seems no better than Woolard, but less damaging.  I'd like to feel differently, but he seems happy cutting ties with anything USF related prior to his tenure.  Willie has delivered him a good product, what can he do with it as AD?  Same thing Leavitt did for Woolard.  I keep waiting for that Pac12 style big boy leadership, maybe this is it?

Ok I will bite. Harlan has been very personal to us when we see him at the tailgates.  He was very positive about a lot of things. He stopped and talked to us at Capogna's Dugout about just about anything.  And that was after the event that Mutt put together. Many other AD's would have rushed out of there. Also, he has been good with social media to us fans. He usually coresponds back. Monthly emails to us. He played a big part in getting CWT to make changes after his second season. Hoops has had bad luck in that his top choice lied on his resume. 

 

[USFBulls727]

3 hours ago, Bausfkid said:

It's time for USF and Tampa leadership to get behind this team.  I've questioned USF Athletics and Alumni's marketing efforts.  Attendance cannot be a grassroots efforts of current ticket holders engaging their friends. 

How about going after Fifth Third Bank's Brian Lamb (USF Alumni) to do something to help drive attendance?  How about Bob Buckhorn (Penn St. Alumni) engaging city officials/businesses to support the Bulls?  Ex-Mayor Pam Iorio (USF Alumni) was a fixture at USF games during her tenure.

CWT and his team have done their part to this point.  They have an entertaining product now it's time for more USF and the city of Tampa to do their part.

Go Bulls!

This, IMO, is the right idea for a solution. We need to show enough support to give them reason to put $30-40 million into an OCS to begin with. I wonder though if they've already looked into some of the ideas above, and what became of it. Kind of pathetic though that we are having one of our better runs ever, and it seems to be going largely unnoticed. 

Edited October 16, 2016 by USFBulls727

[thatBULL]

Forgiven me if I repeat something as I browsed a lot the thread;

First I believe that an OCS would increase attendance, but the primary driver would be students. If you don't plan to be a ray jay you won't go.  However if it's on campus, and their is an atmosphere, or plans change, the walk up crowd for fans would (in my mind) be much larger on the regular.  Also eliminates parking costs, some dui concerns, and time.  The time helps for early games where students have to plan to be there and after a drunk night have difficulty making it early to Ray jay, but could walk up (even a little late) to an OCS.  Look at student crowds for noon games at large programs and the difference between 1st quarter and 3rd is noticeable.

Relating to marketing we do a good job digitally, but that only reaches the following we have. Which is small.  I'm not local any more, so I can't talk to the outreach, but it seems to be lacking.  People may not agree, but a successful team with an OCS, would draw the community to USF.  Mainly because they look at it as a marketing or financial opportunity.  It has to be a two way street and right now it appears one-way with the hope of future gain.

[charsibb]

OCS: I want one as much or more than anyone else, but Willy's on record as saying that RJS is a competitive advantage for him in recruiting. The students LOVE that we play in an NFL stadium. 98% of them will never play in the NFL, but if they sign with CWT and USF, they can at least play in an NFL stadium. We simply cannot willingly throw away the advantage RJS gives us - until the day when the USF brand carries so much prestige that the additional prestige of RJS is negligible (marginal cost-marginal benefit). So until we literally outgrow RJS, we need it more than it needs us.

 

Mktg: the print and digital marketing seems to be a huge improvement under Harlan. #Baymade is first class all the way. The emails are much improved. The photoslideshow that came out  last night was top-rank. Could more be done? Absolutely. Is it better than it was? I think so.

 

Attendance: will come if we avoid the late-season collapse. We've trained our fanbase (even many on here) to be wildly optimistic after early wins, and dangerously despondent after the late losses. We need sustained, season-long winning with consistent end-of-season bowl wins and rankings. CWT's getting us there, but it'll take a couple more years of sustained success before it gets "locked in"

[Who'sYourData?]

1 hour ago, Brad said:

And MBB. Seems like an isolationist. Not outgoing with community and fans (I could be wrong, out here in AZ, but my personal experience supports the comment).  I place credit for football improvement with Willie.  Harlan seems no better than Woolard, but less damaging.  I'd like to feel differently, but he seems happy cutting ties with anything USF related prior to his tenure.  Willie has delivered him a good product, what can he do with it as AD?  Same thing Leavitt did for Woolard.  I keep waiting for that Pac12 style big boy leadership, maybe this is it?

I think Harlan has been marginally better, seems to be decent getting money into the program and maybe a bit more modernization of some things.  But I was really expecting a very outgoing personality, aggressive with marketing, always on the radio and TV pushing the program.  I haven't seen much evidence of that, and that is what you need at this stage, IMO.

[Bull Matrix]

3 minutes ago, Who'sYourData? said:

I think Harlan has been marginally better, seems to be decent getting money into the program and maybe a bit more modernization of some things.  But I was really expecting a very outgoing personality, aggressive with marketing, always on the radio and TV pushing the program.  I haven't seen much evidence of that, and that is what you need at this stage, IMO.

I thought he played a big role at getting USF into the Big 12. He has networked well with TCU AD and countless others. We shall see if he did enough to get USF the 8 votes. I believe he did it but we shall see.