Fan base culture shift

[bullcocky101]

Everyone is jumping on the fan bashing, why isn't attendance better band wagon. To understand why it isn't better, you have to do a little research into our past and understand something about college football. Rivalries, trash talking, and high stakes draw people to the college game. People in my home state of South Carolina whether they are Carolina or Clemson fans can't stand losing because all week at work they have to hear it from the other side and from family and friends. This puts an emphasis on every game that was born out of the intense rivalry. This fires people up and they become  much more intense in their fandom. When I was a student, we had teams like WVU and Rutgers in our conference. When WVU would come to town, their fans would drive through campus with their car flags waving, the fight song blaring, and shouting insults out the window at students in the dorm area. You better believe this fired us up. We wanted to beat those dirty b!@#$!#@ and the students came out in record numbers. Rutgers stomped on our logo and destroyed our locker room...along with rude fans and a despised coach, the fans got fired up. We also hated losing because UCF would talk trash all over the internet and on our boards. We don't have that anymore. I have not heard of any UCONN fans driving through campus stirring students up. I have not met any smu fans, and apart from once a year, the UCF and USF heat seems to have died down. Our fans seem to have lost that fire that  makes college gameday so successful because the stakes are  much lower now. Gators and Noles fans won't care if we win the AAC or not. That's why the FSU game was our season to  most fans. While a ranking will definitely help with attendance (higher stakes), we will not get the fans back until it becomes personal again....that is just how our fan base works.

[Guest PCBull14]

NO excuses. Show up end of story. 

I'm tired of making excused for our half assed fans. People keep saying well once we play better teams people will show up. Well, we played FSU and our fans promptly sold at least half their season tickets to FSU fans and turned that into an FSU home game.

Done with them. I sit in my section and enjoy the company around me. No use in getting mad anymore, disappointed but nothing seems to change so what's the use in getting mad. Our fan base is pretty bad. Sorry but it's the truth.  

[Bull Matrix]

46 minutes ago, PCBull14 said:

NO excuses. Show up end of story. 

I'm tired of making excused for our half assed fans. People keep saying well once we play better teams people will show up. Well, we played FSU and our fans promptly sold at least half their season tickets to FSU fans and turned that into an FSU home game.

Done with them. I sit in my section and enjoy the company around me. No use in getting mad anymore, disappointed but nothing seems to change so what's the use in getting mad. Our fan base is pretty bad. Sorry but it's the truth.  

Those football players are wearing full pads in the same heat that our fans sit through. Why are we hearing fans complain about the heat again ?

[WoolyBully]

46 minutes ago, bullcocky101 said:

Everyone is jumping on the fan bashing, why isn't attendance better band wagon. To understand why it isn't better, you have to do a little research into our past and understand something about college football. Rivalries, trash talking, and high stakes draw people to the college game. People in my home state of South Carolina whether they are Carolina or Clemson fans can't stand losing because all week at work they have to hear it from the other side and from family and friends. This puts an emphasis on every game that was born out of the intense rivalry. This fires people up and they become  much more intense in their fandom. When I was a student, we had teams like WVU and Rutgers in our conference. When WVU would come to town, their fans would drive through campus with their car flags waving, the fight song blaring, and shouting insults out the window at students in the dorm area. You better believe this fired us up. We wanted to beat those dirty b!@#$!#@ and the students came out in record numbers. Rutgers stomped on our logo and destroyed our locker room...along with rude fans and a despised coach, the fans got fired up. We also hated losing because UCF would talk trash all over the internet and on our boards. We don't have that anymore. I have not heard of any UCONN fans driving through campus stirring students up. I have not met any smu fans, and apart from once a year, the UCF and USF heat seems to have died down. Our fans seem to have lost that fire that  makes college gameday so successful because the stakes are  much lower now. Gators and Noles fans won't care if we win the AAC or not. That's why the FSU game was our season to  most fans. While a ranking will definitely help with attendance (higher stakes), we will not get the fans back until it becomes personal again....that is just how our fan base works.

Well, now. I'd say there's more than a wee bit of truth in there. I know, I know, we're not s'posed to say this - but landing in the AAC did a lot to let the air out of the excitement balloon. It's making the best of a bad situation. If it were anything but, we wouldn't be on bended knee beggin' for airline tickets to Tejas and Oklahoma. 

It's not an excuse. It's a simple fact. People will only buy what you're selling when what you're selling is seen as valuable. We have enough alumni within the bay area to fill that stadium to the brim. But we don't fill it. There's a finite amount of alma mater / altruistic support support schools can rely on. Does any reasonable graduate believe, really, that simply by virtue of graduating from a school, you have a moral obligation to spend discretionary income on tickets? Does anyone have  an obligation, simply because you sat in the classrooms, that you should continue to dole out your folding green for a product you don't value / have an interest in? Of course not.

USF is up against it. Wanna fill that stadium? You have to have a new / different product that is akin to the BE years. UF, FSU & UM are ingrained in the community; have been for some time. The new product has to be a legit, real, exciting offering. And, again, being honest - AAC teams just don't have the draw. The attendance numbers are what they are for legitimate - not lame excuse - reasons.

 

[Brad]

22 minutes ago, WoolyBully said:

USF is up against it. Wanna fill that stadium? You have to have a new / different product that is akin to the BE years. UF, FSU & UM are ingrained in the community; have been for some time. The new product has to be a legit, real, exciting offering. And, again, being honest - AAC teams just don't have the draw. The attendance numbers are what they are for legitimate - not lame excuse - reasons.

Back to the argument.  What has more value? Win over FSU or winning the AAC?  While Houston might still be the hot babe of the AAC at season's end, few in Tampa will care.  

[ZeroBullChip]

29 minutes ago, WoolyBully said:

Well, now. I'd say there's more than a wee bit of truth in there. I know, I know, we're not s'posed to say this - but landing in the AAC did a lot to let the air out of the excitement balloon. It's making the best of a bad situation. If it were anything but, we wouldn't be on bended knee beggin' for airline tickets to Tejas and Oklahoma. 

It's not an excuse. It's a simple fact. People will only buy what you're selling when what you're selling is seen as valuable. We have enough alumni within the bay area to fill that stadium to the brim. But we don't fill it. There's a finite amount of alma mater / altruistic support support schools can rely on. Does any reasonable graduate believe, really, that simply by virtue of graduating from a school, you have a moral obligation to spend discretionary income on tickets? Does anyone have  an obligation, simply because you sat in the classrooms, that you should continue to dole out your folding green for a product you don't value / have an interest in? Of course not.

USF is up against it. Wanna fill that stadium? You have to have a new / different product that is akin to the BE years. UF, FSU & UM are ingrained in the community; have been for some time. The new product has to be a legit, real, exciting offering. And, again, being honest - AAC teams just don't have the draw. The attendance numbers are what they are for legitimate - not lame excuse - reasons.

 

This!  They have also reduced the price of the product in a way that I think makes sense.  The donor level for good seats is less as you can buy per seat now and not in blocks of 8.  The other issue is they would not pro-rate a mid season purchase, why buy now if they won't pro-rate?

[Guest PCBull14]

Not legit reasons but we can continue to debate this topic until the cow come home. Fans don't show up because they don't want to. No excuse can be made for a fan base that chooses to sell it's tickets to the biggest game of the year to date. I saw all I needed to at that game. All I do is laugh now. What else can you do? Besides giving tickets away, nothing else the school can do. #dosomething wasn't  just for the players...

[Guest PCBull14]

5 minutes ago, ZeroBullChip said:

This!  They have also reduced the price of the product in a way that I think makes sense.  The donor level for good seats is less as you can buy per seat now and not in blocks of 8.  The other issue is they would not pro-rate a mid season purchase, why buy now if they won't pro-rate?

Buy a flex pass if three games are left. If more then three are left, buy a flex and single game tickets. If not buy single game tickets. Solutions for every problem!

Edited October 16, 2016 by PCBull14

[BullFan98]

It's pretty bad when the announcers plead for the fan base to show up to games. 

[Bulls Are We]

33 minutes ago, WoolyBully said:

We have enough alumni within the bay area to fill that stadium to the brim. But we don't fill it. There's a finite amount of alma mater / altruistic support support schools can rely on. Does any reasonable graduate believe, really, that simply by virtue of graduating from a school, you have a moral obligation to spend discretionary income on tickets? Does anyone have  an obligation, simply because you sat in the classrooms, that you should continue to dole out your folding green for a product you don't value / have an interest in? Of course not.

Apathetic students breed apathetic alumni.   If they didn't care enough to go to the games when they were students, why do we think they will go to the games as alumni?  

I do believe it is a culture thing with USF.