USF Attendance, Marketing...this already posted?

[WoolyBully]

..from today's Trib....

USF's Growth Hasn't Included Attendance

The Tampa Tribune

Published: Dec 7, 2006

TAMPA - In 2003, the University of South Florida football team made its debut in Conference USA. Even with a minuscule marketing budget, USF had an average actual attendance of 25,514 and sold nearly 16,000 season tickets.

Four seasons later, the Bulls just completed their second year in the Big East and are preparing for a second consecutive bowl. The school's marketing budget has increased by half a million dollars.

However, USF attendance numbers are nearly identical to four seasons ago.

So why hasn't USF's actual attendance mirrored the growth of the program or increased with a substantial larger marketing budget?

USF associate AD Tom Veit, who has been the marketing director since 2002, said there are "three" big factors attributed to the Bulls' fluctuating attendance numbers.

"The quality of the product, your schedule and the quality of the scheduling time," Veit said.

Since 2003, the Bulls' quality of product and schedule has improved. The "scheduling time" has hurt attendance because the Bulls have had to move several kickoffs to day starts because of TV and even moved some game dates because of hurricanes.

This season, USF's average actual attendance was 24,775 - about 800 a game fewer than in 2003. Season tickets in 2006 increased to 17,166, third-most in program history, but that included a program-high 3,143 "non-revenue" season tickets.

"Everyone gets so impatient and wants us to sell out the stadium tomorrow," Veit said. "We're very susceptible to outside factors."

This season, USF averaged 4,773 students a game, nearly 3,000 fewer than last season. Veit believes attendance numbers will rebound next year with a more attractive home schedule featuring UCF, Louisville and West Virginia.

"The best answer is we're seeing improvement," said Veit, who resigned his position last month to take a job with Action Sports Media starting in January. "We just have to keep pushing and continue to grow.

"We're still finding our place [in the market]. The program is growing stronger. We still have a long way to go to build our core fan base."

and...

BIG EAST BCS BEASTS: Remember the so-called demise of the Big East? How the Big East may lose its BCS automatic bid because the league wasn't strong enough?

This just in: the Atlantic Coast Conference, not the Big East, is the worst BCS league.

In the past two seasons since adding USF, Louisville and Cincinnati, the Big East champion's average BCS ranking was 8.5 (No. 11 West Virginia in 2005, No. 6 Louisville in 2006), compared to 18 (No. 22 Florida State in 2005, No. 14 Wake Forest) for the ACC.

Of the BCS leagues the past two years, the Big Ten (2.5) has the best average champion ranking, followed by the Pac-10 (3), SEC (4.5), Big 12 (6), Big East (8.5) and ACC (18).

ODDS AND ENDS: By earning a bowl berth, USF coach Jim Leavitt will receive a $25,000 bonus. Also, $75,000 will be added to the assistants pool to be divided among the USF's assistants at Leavitt's discretion. … Bloomingdale senior Robby Carl, the 2005 Class 2A state champion, and Gaither senior Matthew Cooney signed with USF's men's golf team. … National signing day for football is still two months away, but Scout.com already has started ranking football recruiting classes. Based on verbal commitments the Bulls are seventh in the Big East, ahead of only Cincinnati, and rank 66th in the nation.

Listen to reporter Brett McMurphy discuss University of South Florida sports on "Hot Lunch with JP Peterson" on WHBO, 1470 AM, today between noon and 2 p.m.

"This season, USF averaged 4,773 students a game, nearly 3,000 fewer than last season. Veit believes attendance numbers will rebound next year with a more attractive home schedule featuring UCF, Louisville and West Virginia. "

...seems odd to me. I would have assumed student attendance this year to have been

bigger than last year...unless, UCF/FAMU slanted the stats that way as well ....

[MikeG]

yes and no

[JoeB]

Not just UCF and  FAMU slanted it.  We didn't have Louisville or West Virginia this year at home.  We didn't really have a great team come in besides Rutgers, and that was on a Friday night.  Next year expect the numbers to increase dramatically, especially if we start out fast in September.

[mutt]

Bye bye Tom...    We need someone who'll actually promote the BULLS like they need to be pushed.

[Joe]

So those claims of 7-9k students at games were wrong...

I really thought we'd made a lot of progress with the students. The last few days shows we have some work to do.

[Kyle]

The student attendance number is particularly surprising. With the exception of the last game I thought the student turnout was as consistantly strong as I can ever remember. I wonder how much the last home game affected the outcome of those numbers.

[E.T.]

Student FANS need to come and see the BULLS, not the oppnents.

[Bobcat99]

Honestly, last year, a lot of my students seemed to be going to the games. This year, I know of only one student who has gone to a game, despite my constant hyping of the team. They just don't care. They live at home, have jobs, have wives or husbands, and don't seem to care. I don't know what else to do to encourage students to come to the games. I really don't.

[Guest wildrover]

I ran into several of my students at the games.  A lot of them came out, I still think the student numbers in this story are wrong.  Basing that on last years numbers, the student section was strong for almost ever game this year

[The Sheriff]

Hey Tom... excuses are like ********. Enjoy your new gig...