How do you increase attendance?

[fhemmer209]

This is a good thread with good responses. I fit in that pre-football alum season ticket holder since day 1 category and so wish we had better support after 20 years. The Holtz era did derail things a bit but I am not sure if our problem isn't general apathy in our area.

I had 8 season tickets until last year when I cut down to four. I couldn't give them away so I am not sure how much benefit we would get from lowered prices. I do think night games would be better. We can act like the heat isn't a problem but it is. A good amount of the season ticket holders around me were not in their seats during the early nooners, they were in the Club. So tough to expect casual fans to deal with that. I can't imagine we draw so well on TV that changing game times for TV makes any difference for the networks.

The in-game experience is good enough not to turn people off so not sure doing anything there will make a difference.

I do agree with the need for more and better marketing but I think that winning is the best singe thing we can do.

[Joe]

Realistically, it could be tough. 

Just think back 8ish years ago, only a few of our games made TV. Now we have this culture of connectivity and it's. It just with every game on TV, but in our pockets.

College (and Pro) football attendance is down across the country. The difference is what numbers of fans for Florida and FSU that have stopped showing rings a lot harder on us. 

Attendance will go up, but only a handful of ways.

[bullcocky101]

It's easy. What draws people to college football? Bragging rights and the feeling that you are a part of a community. Uf fans are competing with fsu and miami fans for bragging rights and they have a large community of fans as does fsu. Every game is big because the people in the office talk about it and fsu fans give you hell if you lose. I have never met a tulsa or tulane fan. No one cares if you win or lose that game and nobody in your office cares if you win or lose that game. Need to pick on the big boys and start some drama to get people to notice. Maybe taggart or AD can call out uf for stalling on the second game? 

Edited November 30, 2016 by bullcocky101

[WoolyBully]

2 hours ago, E.T. said:

It was solely due to being a new team, being on the ground floor to help build a football team.

I left the BUCS to be a JAG FAN ... I left UF to be a BULL. Moved to Florida from Connecticut after Jr. High and became a Gator fan. 

I see, I see! I just have to ask...were you as rabid of Gator as you are a Bull? And you're strapped into the virtual polygraph so you have to answer truthfully! I agree that it was good to get in on the ground floor of USF football - which was exciting in and of itself...wide open frontier...lots of dreams, even playing the likes of Drake & Valparaiso. Great days indeed. 

[Paisa el Toro]

6 minutes ago, Ned A Starr said:

If what you say is true, why wasn't RJ full for the "War on Is-4?

.

Not enough people have jumped on the "feeling part of a USF community" thing yet. I'm shocked at the amount of alumni that we have that completely separate themselves from USF athletics like its the plague. It's like USF was good enough to provide a 4yr education, but not good enough to follow consistently on the athletic side of things. I've never understood that disconnect. 

[Triple B]

 

4 hours ago, bullcocky101 said:

It's easy. What draws people to college football? Bragging rights and the feeling that you are a part of a community. Uf fans are competing with fsu and miami fans for bragging rights and they have a large community of fans as does fsu. Every game is big because the people in the office talk about it and fsu fans give you hell if you lose. I have never met a tulsa or tulane fan. No one cares if you win or lose that game and nobody in your office cares if you win or lose that game. Need to pick on the big boys and start some drama to get people to notice. Maybe taggart or AD can call out uf for stalling on the second game? 

 

1 hour ago, Ned A Starr said:

If what you say is true, why wasn't RJ full for the "War on Is-4?

What part of what he said, if true, would have affected RayJay being full for the contrived "War"? Answer: None ..... and you've given up your football season tix so why are you even still concerned with this stuff?

[ArmyBull]

Every day that goes by without an OCS is tradition lost.  You can't buy it, it grows organically over time, perhaps decades.  It brings alumni back to campus, it brings fans to campus, it brings excitement to campus.  Students grow up attached to the game day experience.  Our students turn into alumni without any connection between campus and football, that is sad and short sighted.  UCF did it right and now they have a 10 year head start on us.  10 years of students attending games on campus and turning into alumni.  They will always have higher attendance, on average, because there is interest in coming back to campus.  They built what they could afford and have added on over the years.  The OCS is the long game.  Build whatever we can afford, the investment will pay off for generations to come.  It may not be the greatest stadium in college football, but it will be ours.  The BE days are gone and we should have taken advantage back then, but we were tricked by inflated attendance based on regular P5 opponents.      

Edited November 30, 2016 by ArmyBull

[Apis Bull]

Army, i applaud your enthusiasm, but the evidence suggests otherwise.

[Bull94]

13 hours ago, WoolyBully said:

I have to ask...as there have been a number of posts touching on ticket prices.

What do you think club-level season tickets should sell for?

What do you think individual tickets should sell for?

Is our pricing in line with other FBS schools? We need a revenue stream to operate the program at this level. I can't imagine dropping down to FCS because 'that's what people can afford'. There's a part of me that says that live sports pricing is not set for the...how to phrase this ... 'working class disposable income households (that's not offensive is it?)

I know that when the annual Talbot's Marketing Alumni Baseball night rolls around, we get the cheapest tix we can.~$10 or so. And we (me) only hit that one game per year. So I'm sure the Rays management would not consider me to be a 'fan who supports the Rays'. I s'pose that makes me a casual baseball fan. 

Market should determine the price of tickets. If there is an oversupply then they need to lower prices.Condense season ticket sections to just most desirable areas in the middle of the field. between the 20's. Use donations to determine those levels.

set individual ticket prices low enough to fill out the stadium. take the discount airline approach. They always fill out their planes. All season ticket holders would become "first class" passengers so to speak. They would all get most desirable seats between the 20's and club access. Heck you could even fill out the East side with the student section. Sell the remaining seats for no donation and much cheaper. Casual fans do not want to pay ridiculous prices but I bet they would be willing to pay $12 per ticket in the end zones

[BDYZR]

311,000 Alumni, and not all season ticket holders are Alumni. I think this is an area where marketing should be a focus. I know they have events for the "football alumni." Does the Alumni Assoc. have specific events to draw the rest of the Alumni in for athletics?

Of course there are only 35,000 Alumni Association members, so that may be the answer to my question. If they can only get 11% to join the Association, what percentage of those would be season ticket holders?