USF football & Tampa Bay

[79 Bull]

Ticket price was main factor for the FSU game.  Last sell out tix were $35 to $50.  This year $85 and $95.

[Rocky Style]

2 hours ago, 79 Bull said:

Ticket price was main factor for the FSU game.  Last sell out tix were $35 to $50.  This year $85 and $95.

That's a Siege the Day kind of price.

Edited December 17, 2016 by Rocky Style

[JoeB]

It is a strange situation...at this point we should be selling more tickets, but we're not...USF needs to ignite the Tampa area, especially with the alumni that don't participate.  We were definitely going in the right direction at one point and it seems we've flatlined.  Holtz can't be blamed for all of that.  Strong will have more tix sold this year, but thats just new coach mojo.  Sad too, 2016 and 2017 will be our most successful teams ever.

[Joe]

It's a trend around college football (and sports as a whole) that has hurt the smaller programs more. People can watch Every sporting event they want on TV, and it hurts attendance.

Not sure we'll ever be where we were 8 years ago consistently.

Edited December 18, 2016 by Joe

[BDYZR]

3 hours ago, JoeB said:

.  Strong will have more tix sold this year, but thats just new coach mojo.

Agree, BUT, it's his job to make sure those come back in 2018 and bring friends.

[WoolyBully]

3 hours ago, JoeB said:

especially with the alumni that don't participate.

It is my contention that twenty-years into this endeavour, we are drawing the maximum number of alumni we can. The pre-football area alum are tapped out...if they're not showing up now, they won't ever. USF football is no longer the shiny object. Of all the USF alumni, there is a small sub-set that remains connected post graduation, be that via the alumni association - and to a much lesser degree - USF football. You can't force people to buy a product that they, honestly, do not want nor care about. There is no magic formula (well, no formula that we haven't discussed ad nauseum) that we're just not seeing that is going to jack attendance with the alumni. 

 

1 hour ago, Joe said:

Not sure we'll ever be where we were 8 years ago consistently.

Yep. I think we all know the factors that move that needle. 

[raptorcj]

19 minutes ago, WoolyBully said:

1 hour ago, Joe said:

Not sure we'll ever be where we were 8 years ago consistently.

Yep. I think we all know the factors that move that needle. 

I'm not sure we were really consistent then either...at least not in conference play.

[WoolyBully]

3 hours ago, raptorcj said:

I'm not sure we were really consistent then either...at least not in conference play.

Yeah, that is true. Start strong, finish mired in mediocrity.

[CousinRicky]

On 12/17/2016 at 11:32 AM, BDYZR said:

MARKETING

USF still does not do a good job of marketing to the public. Winning will help. Charlie Strong will help. 

People in the Bay area probably know how "HUUUUUUUGGGEEE" a car dealers promotion is more than they know about USF. Why? because it's there everyday, several times every day. They might hear about USF if, IF something happens.

 

I'm betting that idiots marketing budget is 100 x the USF budget.

[JTrue]

On 12/17/2016 at 10:03 AM, FarEastBull said:

No doubt scheduling impacts attendance. But I was really surprised when FSU came to town. I thought for sure it would be sold out, etc. And it wasn't. (I wonder if that guy I saw at then entrance was able to dump his tickets. Funny.) And it was a noon game, hot as hell, blah, blah... Yes, it was hot. But that shouldn't have kept folks away.

Tampa Bay showed up for the first-ever USF game; they showed up for the that first few season. And there were reasonable numbers until Lou Holtz Jr. took us to great lows.

I have new theory. The face of USF football plays a huge roll. CWT (Cash Willie Taggart) came from WKU. And even when he turned the program around last year and this year, I think the image was that USF had become small time. All the reputation that USF had garnered as the new kid on the block left with Leavitt.

 

My prediction is that home attendance will go up next year, even with a bad home schedule, because of Coach Strong. Texas to USF, that's a lot of reputation passed on to USF. I mean when was it ever the case that somebody spied at the airport to see if coach was coming to USF to interview?

 

Tampa Bay is a strange population. They want a winner, but they also want reputation power.

 

This doesn't make any sense. CJL had no reputation when he was hired. CWT had some. CSH had the most, by far. Attendance was the exact opposite. Bottom line, people want a winner and quality opponents. They don't care who's coaching.