Now I Know Why Few Come to Our Games

[cougar king]

I still don't think it's a viable excuse to blame attendance woes in the conference when other AAC teams in cities just as big and bigger cities than Tampa have drastically bwtter attendance with similar schedules.

[Triple B]

2 hours ago, cougar king said:

I still don't think it's a viable excuse to blame attendance woes in the conference when other AAC teams in cities just as big and bigger cities than Tampa have drastically bwtter attendance with similar schedules.

It's a viable excuse because of the spoiled/entitled feelings of some of our fanbase. How many of the old BE teams have better attendance than USF?

[smazza]

On 10/6/2017 at 4:07 PM, George_Bullnard_Shaw said:

Could get into a Bill Wirtz Sr. vs. Bill Wirtz Jr. discussion here.

Sr. wouldn't broadcast home games of the Chicago Blackhawks to force fans to come in person. Jr. believed a televised game was the best showcase for his product to encourage people to come to see the team in person. He also made sure to put together a quality team. Jr.'s philosophy looks to have been the winning philosophy in this instance.

jr is the right philosophy

[Boomer]

We spend a lot of time debating what one factor is keeping people away, but it's the combination of a lot of things.  I'm hoping from all the debate that someone has the answer to this, but what school has better football attendance than us that:

- has no on-campus stadium

- are in a G5 conference

- play the first two or three home games in either God-awful heat and humidity (or a good chance of rain or lightning).  Remember the first two games it was raining before the game which most likely killed the walk-up crowds.

- have not one, not two, but three other local major-league sports teams that take people's disposable income away and play at the same time as our team plays

- have a local major theme park

The first one we have control over.  The second one, some would argue we have some control.  If we can take care of those, we'll still be disadvantaged, but should be able to get our numbers back to being respectable.  Consistently winning big should get us more than respectable numbers.

 

 

 

[dabull80]

See ECU.  They have had a loyal fan base for years and have had excellent attendance for years.  I want to say 40,000 plus but I am not 100% sure.  Problem we have is a lack of alumni that care.  For those of you that complain about the students and an OCS I see it as a sad statement on our alumni.  You are an embarrassment to USF and your school.  So many want to be cool and cheer for the Gators or the Noles or even maybe the "U" yet you can't even attend a game from the school you graduated from.  Even on the board with all the die hard Bulls fans I keep reading how joining another conference or getting an OCS will solve all our problems.  I call "BS"......we just have a sad group of alumni and I for one am sick of them and really don't care anymore.  I will continue drive 4 1/2 hours round trip to see my Bulls play and proudly display my USF tag on my truck.  Screw the rest you alumni.....shame on you for being MIA.

[Apis Bull]

23 hours ago, Boomer said:

We spend a lot of time debating what one factor is keeping people away, but it's the combination of a lot of things.  I'm hoping from all the debate that someone has the answer to this, but what school has better football attendance than us that:

- has no on-campus stadium  Won't increase attendance.

- are in a G5 conference  P5 would increase attendence.

- play the first two or three home games in either God-awful heat and humidity (or a good chance of rain or lightning).  Remember the first two games it was raining before the game which most likely killed the walk-up crowds.  Bucs play in the same heat and humidity

- have not one, not two, but three other local major-league sports teams that take people's disposable income away and play at the same time as our team plays  This is an issue that we can't do anything about.

- have a local major theme park  IMO, if it's too hot to go to a game, it's too hot to go to Busch Gardens

The first one we have control over.  The second one, some would argue we have some control.  If we can take care of those, we'll still be disadvantaged, but should be able to get our numbers back to being respectable.  Consistently winning big should get us more than respectable numbers.

 

 

 

 

[Boomer]

2 hours ago, Apis Bull said:

 

We spend a lot of time debating what one factor is keeping people away, but it's the combination of a lot of things.  I'm hoping from all the debate that someone has the answer to this, but what school has better football attendance than us that:

- has no on-campus stadium  Won't increase attendance. An on-campus stadium is not on the top of my solutions to better attendance, but I do believe it would at least increase student attendance.  Would that increase be offset by those (St. Pete residents) that would feel it's too far of a drive now?  Maybe, but I'm still betting that it would have a net positive impact.

- are in a G5 conference  P5 would increase attendance. Agree

- play the first two or three home games in either God-awful heat and humidity (or a good chance of rain or lightning).  Remember the first two games it was raining before the game which most likely killed the walk-up crowds.  Bucs play in the same heat and humidity The Bucs are a pro team.  I'm asking about college teams.  There are WAY MORE citizens of the Tampa Bay area than USF alumni which means a small percentage of people that will bear the heat for the Bucs is a much larger number of people than that same percentage of USF alumni.

- have not one, not two, but three other local major-league sports teams that take people's disposable income away and play at the same time as our team plays  This is an issue that we can't do anything about. True - still hurts our attendance though.  All three of these teams play during college football season.

- have a local major theme park  IMO, if it's too hot to go to a game, it's too hot to go to Busch Gardens True but I'm no longer talking about heat in this bullet.  I'm talking about the other things people can do instead - or have to work at.  Busch Gardens employs a ton of college students.  Busch Gardens and Adventure Island are not just theme parks but also have concerts and other events (Hallowscream) that pull people away.

The first one we have control over.  The second one, some would argue we have some control.  If we can take care of those, we'll still be disadvantaged, but should be able to get our numbers back to being respectable.  Consistently winning big should get us more than respectable numbers.

 

 

[Apis Bull]

I see what you're saying, and yes, we may get a bump in student attendance.  As far as the Bucs vs. the Bulls, I'd be interested in how many alumni we have that live in Tampa, Hillsborough County, Tampa Bay area, etc.

[Boomer]

4 hours ago, dabull80 said:

See ECU.  They have had a loyal fan base for years and have had excellent attendance for years.  I want to say 40,000 plus but I am not 100% sure.  Problem we have is a lack of alumni that care.  For those of you that complain about the students and an OCS I see it as a sad statement on our alumni.  You are an embarrassment to USF and your school.  So many want to be cool and cheer for the Gators or the Noles or even maybe the "U" yet you can't even attend a game from the school you graduated from.  Even on the board with all the die hard Bulls fans I keep reading how joining another conference or getting an OCS will solve all our problems.  I call "BS"......we just have a sad group of alumni and I for one am sick of them and really don't care anymore.  I will continue drive 4 1/2 hours round trip to see my Bulls play and proudly display my USF tag on my truck.  Screw the rest you alumni.....shame on you for being MIA.

Why should we look at ECU?  They have an on-campus stadium, they don't play their first few games in the heat, they have no pro teams in the area, and I'm not sure they have any theme parks or other things to distract large numbers of people from going to a football game.  Apples and oranges.  Just like WVU - the only game in town.

For someone like you, I can see how it can be frustrating to hear the excuses people bring to the table.  I've been to every home game since '97 except for maybe two, but I know there are fans that are more rabid than me (like you probably).  But I know the average fan for any college team is not as die hard as you'd like them to be.