Hudspeth Contract

If they keep winning people will come, even though this may take some time. As much as I want attendance to be higher it won't win us any championships. We had higher attendance last year and didn't win a conference championship and we probably won't this year either. We are only in year 2 of a major transformation of this program and people haven't bought into it yet. One day the light bulb will go off with folks and start coming to the games. They will then have to buy a ticket in the nose bleed section and realize even further that they should have been here at the beginning.

The only game that surprised me attendance-wise was this past Saturday. I never realized Thanksgiving week, hunting season, etc had that much of an impact. Hud can't set attendance figures as a goal for himself or fans. He's doing his part to win over the available fans. Here are items that will help future attendance:

1. Good weather
2. Better home opponents
3. No midweek games
4. Avoid conflicts with LSU home games
5. Stadium renovations announced and started
6. Always conquer/never defend
7. Improve marketing

I think the weather and the Tuesday night game screwed us attendance-wise. The new coach buzz and finally reaching a bowl is last year's news. The home opponents aren't exciting anyone. And I guess Thanksgiving/hunting season messed with us this past Saturday.

As for things we can control, the opponent schedule has the greatest effect. I also believe we shouldn't be delaying the stadium improvements. All of the biggest things we can control sit on the back of T-Joe and Scott. There is no point in condemning the customers. They always, without exception, do want they want, not what you tell them they should do.

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Originally Posted by duggie85

To answer your question, never been that close.

Hudspeths OWN goal was to avg 35,000. According to your numbers, we're at 23,000. You can do math.

Answer this: if he's significantly short of his own goal, you think he deserves a bonus??

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Yes, if the contract is structured extra $5k for 20k avg, extra $10k for 25k avg, extra $20k for 30k avg, then yes... He should get the money that is negotiated in his contract. That's why they are called incentives

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Originally Posted by Just1More

The only game that surprised me attendance-wise was this past Saturday. I never realized Thanksgiving week, hunting season, etc had that much of an impact. Hud can't set attendance figures as a goal for himself or fans. He's doing his part to win over the available fans. Here are items that will help future attendance:

1. Good weather
2. Better home opponents
3. No midweek games
4. Avoid conflicts with LSU home games
5. Stadium renovations announced and started
6. Always conquer/never defend
7. Improve marketing

I think the weather and the Tuesday night game screwed us attendance-wise. The new coach buzz and finally reaching a bowl is last year's news. The home opponents aren't exciting anyone. And I guess Thanksgiving/hunting season messed with us this past Saturday.

As for things we can control, the opponent schedule has the greatest effect. I also believe we shouldn't be delaying the stadium improvements. All of the biggest things we can control sit on the back of T-Joe and Scott. There is no point in condemning the customers. They always, without exception, do want they want, not what you tell them they should do.

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Last year everything on your list happened except #2 and #5

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Originally Posted by crazycajun

Last year everything on your list happened except #2 and #5

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True. We know that weather had the biggest effect. The other issue I believe enhanced last year's attendance was the "new shiny coach" and the buzz of a winning season and our first bowl berth in half a century.

Finally, someone with a great response and comment.
Contracts should be honored and respected. Do we get into a bidding war every year. We still need to build on our success. Basketball has to get to a least 5-8 K average attendence.
Our RCAF is TOO LOW for our size budget needs. We need 5-10 k membership, Do the math on that one.

Good post.
Thanks
Geaux Cajuns

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crazycajun

Yes, if the contract is structured extra $5k for 20k avg, extra $10k for 25k avg, extra $20k for 30k avg, then yes... He should get the money that is negotiated in his contract. That's why they are called incentives

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Fair enough, I get that. He reached a set goal therefore he should absolutely get the bonus set for reaching said goal. Completely agree. But, my issue is not with Hudspeth reaching the set goal and accepting the incentive/bonus money.

My issue is with the university setting the bar lower than last years results.....Last year for 5 games, 150k (5x30k/game) people showed up to Cajun Field. This year for 6 games, 138k (6x23k/game) people showed up to Cajun Field, which after this weekend, 23k is probably being extremely generous......Not only did the university lose out on money attendance wise this year (ticket sales, concessions, etc.) compared to last year, we are having to pay extra for doing so!!! I completely agree that weather, a tuesday night game and thanksgiving have hurt attendance. IMO, I just don't think the university is in a good enough financial situation to pick up the tab when it comes to those factors.

I know this: I will be there Saturday helping out the attendance number as I'm sure you will be too!! Happy Thanksgiving!

It's all part of getting a contract done, we couldn't afford to give him a minion dollar salary so you give him incentives. HUD doesn't control advertising dollars, he can only promote so much through his shows and social media. It's up to the university to do the rest, which they are Terrible at. The extra attendance more than pays for his incentive bonus. Good deal for both sides, bring in an extra $100k of tickets and we give you $10k

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crazycajun

It's all part of getting a contract done, we couldn't afford to give him a minion dollar salary so you give him incentives. HUD doesn't control advertising dollars, he can only promote so much through his shows and social media. It's up to the university to do the rest, which they are Terrible at. The extra attendance more than pays for his incentive bonus. Good deal for both sides, bring in an extra $100k of tickets and we give you $10k

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Minion dollar salary. Lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crazycajun

It's all part of getting a contract done, we couldn't afford to give him a minion dollar salary so you give him incentives. HUD doesn't control advertising dollars, he can only promote so much through his shows and social media. It's up to the university to do the rest, which they are Terrible at. The extra attendance more than pays for his incentive bonus. Good deal for both sides, bring in an extra $100k of tickets and we give you $10k

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I agree with you that the University is horrible at promoting and raising dollars. To my knowledge they have yet to formally come out with the Master Plan for the various athletic complexes nor having a date to get it started and completed. I have no idea why they can't put the plan out and say we need X amount of dollars by X date if there is any chance of this happening. And then keep everyone posted weekly on how much more money we need versus what has been given already. Instead, they have Gerald Hebert politicing and giving the same speech for the last 10 years (like the kids playground that was supposed to be put in at the baseball field).

If people put up this pathetic performance in the private sector they would be fired in a heart beat. But it's a public entity so you get to do a crappy job for however long you want and then retire with excellent benefits.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Just1More

The only game that surprised me attendance-wise was this past Saturday. I never realized Thanksgiving week, hunting season, etc had that much of an impact. Hud can't set attendance figures as a goal for himself or fans. He's doing his part to win over the available fans. Here are items that will help future attendance:

1. Good weather
2. Better home opponents
3. No midweek games
4. Avoid conflicts with LSU home games
5. Stadium renovations announced and started
6. Always conquer/never defend
7. Improve marketing

I think the weather and the Tuesday night game screwed us attendance-wise. The new coach buzz and finally reaching a bowl is last year's news. The home opponents aren't exciting anyone. And I guess Thanksgiving/hunting season messed with us this past Saturday.

As for things we can control, the opponent schedule has the greatest effect. I also believe we shouldn't be delaying the stadium improvements. All of the biggest things we can control sit on the back of T-Joe and Scott. There is no point in condemning the customers. They always, without exception, do want they want, not what you tell them they should do.

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One game had rain before the game and cleared out by game time for perfect game weather......other than that game the weather was great. What was the excuse for the WKU game. If it's lsu each and every year, than be satified with the attendance we have. Because Lafayette lsu fan will not jump over to see UL.

Look, the almighty LSU didn't even have a packed house last week against Ole Miss. It's that time if year, losing the Florida game hurt this past weeks attendance. This week I expect about the same around 22-25k

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Originally Posted by Frenchie35

One game had rain before the game and cleared out by game time for perfect game weather......other than that game the weather was great. What was the excuse for the WKU game. If it's lsu each and every year, than be satified with the attendance we have. Because Lafayette lsu fan will not jump over to see UL.

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No, we had a horrible weather gameday for one game. All the tailgating areas were under water. Then, we had the next game where weather was predicted to be bad and wasn't. Both cost us attendance. WKU was a mystery to me. But, others have explained it as the weekend before Thanksgiving (?) and hunting season being the problem. I wouldn't be surprised if the Florida game hangover added to it. LSU has always had an effect. But, we still can't tell what the UL ceiling is on attendance until we're firing on all cylinders. We are in the infancy of good football.