Fan base culture shift

[Guest PCBull14]

2 minutes ago, Bulls Are We said:

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.  

Most of the people in section didn't even have USF football when they were a student...yet are some of most diehard USF fans.

[tburns]

We had  less show up last night then we did against NIU. Hopefully Navy on a Friday night we will get 30k. 

[WoolyBully]

24 minutes ago, Bulls Are We said:

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.  

When I spoke of alumni, I was referring to the generations of alumni since '63 (first graduating class) - who did not have a football team, but were students at USF*. I don't see how that population can be tapped, other than "my old school" - to attend games. Maybe fifty-odd years down the road, things will be different. But just twenty years into the experiment, and given the shift in college football alignment, this is probably as good as should be expected. 

 

* Oh, and you're probably right about apathetic student participation today not miraculously evolving into enthusiastic alumni support tomorrow. 

Edited October 16, 2016 by WoolyBully
rewording

[charsibb]

4 hours 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.

Rivalries will definitely help attendance, but even WVU and RU were not rivalries overnight. It took a a couple of years to build up.

Navy and Memphis losses last year kept us out of the CCG even though we ran the table in our division.

We should amp the crap out of these two games

REVENGE IS MINE, SAYETH THE BULLS!

 

[CRBULL]

Probably somewhat still lagging the team culture change and still needing more hype. Not till we had the hype of the 2007 season did we see the attendance trend up the following year. We asked some of these same attendance questions and fan quality questions up to 2007. Remember those days when it seemed half or more of the fans wouldn't even wear team colors and it was hard to find gear in local stores? We thought BE membership would equate to instant attendance and recruiting impact and it didn't. The full effects of winning take time

[Paisa el Toro]

Need to show up and support your Bulls, no matter what conference we happen to be in, end of story. See you at Navy. 

[CousinRicky]

7 hours 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.

 

So is having a mostly full stadium of the other team's fans the way to go?  The problem in getting USF fans in the seats, not fans of the other guys.

[WoolyBully]

1 hour ago, Bourbon Bull said:

So is having a mostly full stadium of the other team's fans the way to go?  The problem in getting USF fans in the seats, not fans of the other guys.

Point being we showed up to see WVU x USF....L'ville x USF. We're not showing up see Tulsa x USF and Uconn x USF. I don't think it's overly realistic to expect the stadium to full simply because we're playing. It's gotta be the total product: us and the competition. 

[Fold FB Invest in BB]

Maybe deriving enjoyment from vitriol, braggadocio and uncouth impulsive behavior doesn't do it for folks down here like it does for folks in South Carolina.

[Paisa el Toro]

15 hours ago, WoolyBully said:

Point being we showed up to see WVU x USF....L'ville x USF. We're not showing up see Tulsa x USF and Uconn x USF. I don't think it's overly realistic to expect the stadium to full simply because we're playing. It's gotta be the total product: us and the competition. 

"We" didn't show up for WVU v. USF. The local media was buzzing regarding USF that year, and a bulk of those people were just curious Tampa residents that snagged tickets to come watch the "hot dog environment." I think the "we" that you refer to is actually quite small with room for expansion--just look at our season ticket and athletics donation numbers. 

Although we're 6-1 this season, the local media has been really, really quiet. Why? No clue. Talk up your Bulls and head to the games; they're fun again. Again, this little corner of the internet isn't the problem, it's getting Tampa Bay to buy-in locally on its Bulls.