Really... Where are all the students?

[windbane]

attendance will go up when we get more recognition.  most people on usf campus are still fans of the other florida schools.  people in tampa will show up more as well.

[USF03]

I wish SG would "speed up" as well. I  hope they even serve students.

Would this be an educated or uneducated comment?  In other words, do you really know what you are talking about?

No offense... but anyone can point fingers...

[WoolyBully]

I gotta ask....

What else can possibly be done to 'market to students'* ?

At what point does this become an exercise in hand-holding.

I find it extremely difficult, in this age, to believe that as a

student you are ignorant (unless you choose to be, see the

survey JimUSFSig posted on here a while back regarding

the attitude towards USF) of football and basketball games.

How can it be that I, in the dark ages of no internet, was able

to know the basketball schedule? I may not have attended, but

I did follow the team.

Face it, sportsfans. The number one activity between the ages

of 18-21 is the mating game. Unless you have a party (see

endzone comments), there's very few students that are going to

live, eat, sleep and breathe USF athletics.

Seriously...what do you think would constitute 'marketing to students'

to get them to actually show up (oh, and that means aside from

when your frat/soro has some points contest)?

* hopefully you're not going to say "hand out flyers"  :

[crambone]

A lot of the people in the student section have been graduates recently. I have 4-5 people who graduated with me that still sit there.

Class of 2004 right here.  I only went to ONE game while I was a student, so I guess I'm making up for it now.  16 USF games in two years ain't too shabby...

And yes, I still do sit in the Student Section.  There is nothing quite like the feeling one gets when EVERYONE is into the game.

[WoolyBully]

I would imagine the number from USF comes from card-swipes. The number in the student section or hanging out at the end-zone could be much larger, given that there is probably a quantity of non-students who prefer that environ.  

[BullDoug]

A lot of the people in the student section have been graduates recently. I have 4-5 people who graduated with me that still sit there.

This is an interesting phenomenon that is signs of growing.  In two or three yrs, those grads will realize they are beyond sitting with drunken 19 & 20 yr olds and buy season tix.  New stu's seeing that the EZ is large attraction for what appears to be stu's will begin to show in numbers.  

With that said and agreeing with W'Booly's "mating game" comment, in reality, only the female students need to be marketed to to get more students to the game because if the girlz are there the boyz will follow.  Maybe shopping coupons and free hair & nail salon trips should be given out with female game entrance.  Okay, I'm being fa-she-shas.

Finally, until USF can drop $500K-$800K on bringing a low level MAC, WAC, CUSA besides the UCF'rs, or MWC, the D1AA game is always gonna throw a wet blanket on attendance.  And with UL-WVU coming every other yr, attendance will always fluctuate.

[HaulingBull Sucks]

I ask myself where all the caual usf student fans are. All i can think about is the huge line for UCF tickets that doubled back through the MC with students who wanted tickets. While i am fully aware its an excuse maybe students feel disenfranchised.

We have A LOT of students that like to attend things.  In real life... 8,000 to 10,000 regular students is A LOT.  But, when you think about it... 4,000 out of 43,000 isn't so great.

Sg only gave out 1,200 or so tickets... which is amazing attendance for an away game (best ever in USF history).  But it was in our backyard... an hour drive... against a team most people say we hate.  We SHOULD get more than we did!

Everything will "come with time."  BUT, I hope efforts by SG, student affairs, athletics, etc speed it up a bit.

To be fair one must look at the actual number of fulltime students on the Tampa campus which is not anywhere near 43,000.  There also many  fulltime USF students who are working fulltime or near fulltime jobs and therefore unlikely to have the time to attend many football games or other campus activities.  I believe that USF has more of these students than many universities.

While the number of people who traveled to the UCF game may have been a record for USF. It  was a poor turnout for a game just an hour away...Forget the excuse about who the  opponent was...it goes to show the true interest in USF football...real fans wouldn't miss a game that close to home.  While there are some people who can attend a particular game for reasons beyond their control, however 75 to 80 percent do not.

One must also face the fact that many people (students or otherwise) have little to no interest in attending football or other sporting events..  What pecentage of the Tampa Bay population is knocking down the doors to buy season tickets to the Bucs, the Rays, or the Lightning?

[USF03]

I ask myself where all the caual usf student fans are. All i can think about is the huge line for UCF tickets that doubled back through the MC with students who wanted tickets. While i am fully aware its an excuse maybe students feel disenfranchised.

We have A LOT of students that like to attend things.  In real life... 8,000 to 10,000 regular students is A LOT.  But, when you think about it... 4,000 out of 43,000 isn't so great.

Sg only gave out 1,200 or so tickets... which is amazing attendance for an away game (best ever in USF history).  But it was in our backyard... an hour drive... against a team most people say we hate.  We SHOULD get more than we did!

Everything will "come with time."  BUT, I hope efforts by SG, student affairs, athletics, etc speed it up a bit.

To be fair one must look at the actual number of fulltime students on the Tampa campus which is not anywhere near 43,000.  There also many  fulltime USF students who are working fulltime or near fulltime jobs and therefore unlikely to have the time to attend many football games or other campus activities.  I believe that USF has more of these students than many universities.

While the number of people who traveled to the UCF game may have been a record for USF. It  was a poor turnout for a game just an hour away...Forget the excuse about who the  opponent was...it goes to show the true interest in USF football...real fans wouldn't miss a game that close to home.  While there are some people who can attend a particular game for reasons beyond their control, however 75 to 80 percent do not.

One must also face the fact that many people (students or otherwise) have little to no interest in attending football or other sporting events..  What pecentage of the Tampa Bay population is knocking down the doors to buy season tickets to the Bucs, the Rays, or the Lightning?

Fine...

System Wide: 43,885

Tampa Campus: 37,645

If you want to really get into it... here is the link for all of the numbers: http://usfweb2.usf.edu/infomart/eprofiles/currentprofile/eProfilesUSFSystem.htm

EITHER way... we should get more than 20,000 students on homecoming... at least

[USF03]

BTW: We say St. Pete, Sarastoa, and Lakeland can not, or don't come to games?

They are part of the established 5 county bay area... not far to drive.  It's not like it's UF's south florida campus (as far as distance from stadium).

[TheBullies]

My contribution: I don't give a sh1t. I'll go, tailgate, and enjoy the games no matter what.

As the program develops, students will flow naturally. A good way to jumpstart this would be winning the Big East next year! Sure some students are UF, FSU, or Miami fans... But if USF made it to a BCS game, you bet your arse the bookstore would be sold out of Bulls gear.