Michael Kelly speaking some truth

[puc86]

5 minutes ago, Triple B said:

This thread is, not surprisingly, pretty depressing .....

“#USF Athletics will be as successful as it’s fans want it to be.” ..... and it has been.

Except people did buy in, people did support and people kept up their end of the bargain and USF squandered it. The fans demonstrated they wanted success and it was infectious, that USF decided it didn’t want to be as successful as it’s fans and the community did does not mean they now get to cry about the decisions they have made to dry up the market. You want more fans and more money then do something about it but the downward spiral led to the current situation and not the reverse.

[JTrue]

2 hours ago, bulloni said:

Don't think non USF affiliated Tampa residents will care about USF football unless we're ranked

And that's completely fair. Why should someone who lives in Tampa, but attended another school, care about a bad USF football team? When we were good, I'd be able to bring my football fan friends along to games with me because it was just good football to watch. Now, my kids are even bored at our games. 

[puc86]

23 minutes ago, NewEnglandBull said:

 

I think this shows that with a proper strategy you can create demand for almost anything, certainly they didn’t start with sending people bags of chia seeds and then say if you keep buying these at inflated prices we will eventually transform those seeds into bart simpsons head. You have to have the vision, not the customer and then you have to sell that vision to the customer through proper marketing. We suck but it’s not our fault it’s yours is not a proper vision or marketing strategy, this isn’t a Church it’s supposed to be entertainment (but I can see how that gets lost by the fact it’s been a while since it’s actually been entertaining).

[bulloni]

2 minutes ago, puc86 said:

Except people did buy in, people did support and people kept up their end of the bargain and USF squandered it. The fans demonstrated they wanted success and it was infectious, that USF decided it didn’t want to be as successful as it’s fans and the community did does not mean they now get to cry about the decisions they have made to dry up the market. You want more fans and more money then do something about it but the downward spiral led to the current situation and not the reverse.

Yeah I feel like our attendance was good and people around the area would get excited for games. Then that 3 year stretch of Skip 3-9, Willie 2-10, Willie 4-8 really killed the locals expectations for the football program. Flowers was bringing it back but then these last few years have re-killed it. 

2017 Cincy had 43k.

2018 had 34k for Elon, GT, and ECU. Then 42k UConn as our first game of the season ranked.

The fanbase will show up if the team is just in the 8-9 win range, even against non marquee opponents. 

[JTrue]

4 minutes ago, bulloni said:

The fanbase will show up if the team is just in the 8-9 win range, even against non marquee opponents. 

This have been proven time and time. 

[MaltLiquorBull]

19 minutes ago, puc86 said:

Except people did buy in, people did support and people kept up their end of the bargain and USF squandered it. The fans demonstrated they wanted success and it was infectious, that USF decided it didn’t want to be as successful as it’s fans and the community did does not mean they now get to cry about the decisions they have made to dry up the market. You want more fans and more money then do something about it but the downward spiral led to the current situation and not the reverse.

I'd agree that the people did buy in.  I don't think USF intentionally decided to be unsuccessful, I just think that a string of poor decisions were made that led to where we sit today.

[puc86]

8 minutes ago, JTrue said:

This have been proven time and time. 

I mean sure most people would take that more direct cause and effect approach but it is way more fun to come at it from the opposite direction after all the Cubs and the Red Sox both prove that if you have a rabid, die hard large fan base that continues to support your failings and sell out your games that in 100 short years that can lead to championships so why bother giving anything that even resembles results before that?

 

[puc86]

3 minutes ago, MaltLiquorBull said:

I'd agree that the people did buy in.  I don't think USF intentionally decided to be unsuccessful, I just think that a string of poor decisions were made that led to where we sit today.

I would agree that it was not intentional, simply because we are not good enough at execution to generate this level of "success". I just take umbrage with people blaming the consumer for their failings. There are great reasons why you do not have the level of support that you think you are entitled to, maybe do some reflecting and try to fix a few of them and see what happens. You do not have the level of support because no one can say with a straight face that they believe USF football is better off today than it was 22 years ago, hell I would argue that we were better off 25 years ago. 

[Friscobull]

49 minutes ago, puc86 said:

I mean sure most people would take that more direct cause and effect approach but it is way more fun to come at it from the opposite direction after all the Cubs and the Red Sox both prove that if you have a rabid, die hard large fan base that continues to support your failings and sell out your games that in 100 short years that can lead to championships so why bother giving anything that even resembles results before that?

 

The Cubs really didn’t draw crap until the 80’s, so it took about 60 plus years at Wrigley before they became popular and sold out, before that they were simply a ****** team with no lights and had to play day games in front of sparse crowds.  Not sure this model will work for us but we shall see in another 40 years, fingers crossed. 

[jchem1995]

I think the quote should read “ USF athletics will be as successful as our leadership has priorities for it to succeed.” Bye Judy. Thanks for the memories.