Well I took some time off from the board and came back for the start of the football season. All I can say is WOW.....It looks like I will be going back into my little hole on the beach for the next few weeks.
Printable View
Well I took some time off from the board and came back for the start of the football season. All I can say is WOW.....It looks like I will be going back into my little hole on the beach for the next few weeks.
BM has become/fallen into the Martin Hall cult since his new title of VP. We need change at the very top to change the "culture "..
Which is why we’ve been hollering at them to get the festival model back to the parking lots. None of the people in our athletic administration were here to experience those times. And they certainly have no idea how to recreate it.
It’s like TBoy says, “In south Louisiana, you can’t Manufacture fun. You don’t need to anyway.”
Give the tailgates back over to the people and let us fix the problem. Do some premium sponsor slots near the stadium but other than that, turn the fans and students loose again.
I have my frustrations with the administration and the athletic department as much as the next guy. I have moved around most of my adult life and traveled allot in those areas for work that all had G5 schools near them, schools like Charlotte, UNT, App State, ECU, SMU, Houston, Coastal, ODU, JMU amongst a ton of others. I will say this most of these schools are terrible about marketing themselves, just like we are. But I would say, and I think Fanof71 would agree, one of the best at doing this and getting the community behind them is App State.
We do a great job of rewarding businesses in Acadiana that are large donors/sponsors of the program, but we do a terrible job of promoting those that can only give a little. This was a push a few years ago for companies to put signs up that supported UL, but it ended up dying on the vine. If you travel to Boone, Banner Elk, Blowing Rock and West Jefferson, NC you will drive by restaurants, boutiques, antique stores, construction companies and everything in between promoting the hell out of App. These are not 5K or 100K donors, but instead small businesses that support them the best way they can. Flags are flying year-round, signs are up year-round. We need to be better at this and we suck at it, to be honest.
I always tell people when I go somewhere that has a UL flag or sign in it, I feel a sense of pride. A business like The Crawfish Boss (formally in Broussard) or Judice Inn or others. They are proud to be supporters of the Cajuns, we have thousands of businesses in Acadiana who can't give the big donation, but could support them in other ways. Why not reward these guys every way possible. For instance, we should have feet on the street year round going to these businesses and asking them for a small donation, maybe it is $1000 or maybe it is $500, I don't know the amount, but in return you will give them a flag, banner and sign to display as well as X amount of tickets to sporting events, based on the dollar amount to give to all of their employees and/or hand out to customers. If the seats are going to be empty anyway why not offer our GA tickets out to these guys.
The university should randomly throughout the year promote these guys on digital and promotional advertisements and also announce them periodically throughout the year at sporting events and other events. Between the grassy knoll, the NEZ and the upper decks, we have tons of free seats that could be given out and when you drive around town you would see UL flags, banners and signs everywhere, much more than we see now.
And for those of you that say, we just don't have the staff to do it, you don't need a staff, you have students in the marketing and business departments that could get extra credits or rewards for selling these promotions.
This is an easy, grassroots approach to getting arsses in seats and getting people around Acadiana to proudly promote their support for the Cajuns.
ECU and JMU are both good at this as well. I am sure there are others. People in this world love free _____, if you give them free _____ for the most part they will use it. The good news is if businesses see this working others will come along for a small fee, plus those that are on board might just up the ante each year if they see it working for their small businesses.
Just a thought.
Some of these thoughts are great I travel a lot and see some of the same things. I once saw an App St flag hanging on the ceiling of a cabana in Cozumel my buddy and I ask if we could hang a Ragin Cajun Shirt up their and they were trilled. Imagine if we could get business to do things like that inside and outside of their places. I wish I had the answer of how we could go around the administration if needed to make this happen.
. . . the administration brought in one of those tree excavators, dug up the money tree and brought it to the dump . . . since then his hands have been completely tied . . .
THIS!!!!! What a post. When they decided to "revamp" the tailgating and jack up the prices after a couple years of success, I always thought it was going to be a bad idea. A couple years of success and they thought they could jack up prices. In my opinion, this is where they started to lose the momentum that was gained just a couple years before.
I think the bottoming out of Fracking had more to do with the drop off in attendance than anything else, but we need to discuss this more. There is a bigger issue here.
The changes in pricing and tailgating were supposed to go hand in hand with what the Alden Report suggested to grow revenues. Remember, the reason that report was wanted in the first place was to prepare ourselves for the next realignment. Well, here we are. I don't think that Big12 invite is coming any time soon.
Perhaps, it is time to ditch that way of thinking and grow our revenues the Cajun way. The way we know best. We tailgate our asses off! I believe we need to embrace who we are, invite all of our cousins back home for the BBQ and to Hell with the freakin' Alden report, reseating, and price hikes!
I have been saying this for years. Search my post history and you will see how many are regarding "fix tailgating".
I remember when tailgating was the talk of the town during football season. It was very similar to the vibe generated by Downtown Alive: let's go out there, meet up with our friends, make some new friends, have a few drinks, eat some food, and have a great time. It was all organically grown by the fans, for the fans.
Then the university decided to take over the tailgating scene. Every year the restrictions, requirements, and pricing increased to the point where it became more of hassle for casual fans to tailgate. Gone was the Downtown Alive vibe. It felt as if tailgating was no longer an event open to the public, but rather a membership type atmosphere. Instead of just showing up to tailgate, you had to try to find a group to tailgate with.
We are one of the few universities that charge for basic tailgating. Yes, most universities have premium tailgating and/or turnkey tailgating, but those same universities still have free "first come, first served" areas for general tailgating. I don't think it's a great idea for there to be zero free tailgating.
I agree with having premium spots next to the stadium, but cut the students and fans loose and let them do their thing. People in South Louisiana definitely don't need to be told how to party.
GEAUX CAJUNS!!
Imo they need to first, get off the students backs and let them cultivate a atmosphere. Then they need to get the party back at tailgating, they have made it where there isnt really anything for tyhe 1,2,3 games a year people. They are forcing peopole to be all in, rcaf, season tickets parking passes and giant tailgate spot. A lot of people that cant go to every home game dont see the value in that. Figure out how many actual spots you need forthe passes you sold on the pavement, save a few extra and open up the rest to game day pay to park. I have a parking pass but would gladly pay to park in the morning so i can leave my wife the parking pass to come later in the day with the kid. Have per game tailgationg spots available somewhere inside the gate. A good start would be to take the unsold 30' x 30' TG spots and cut them in half which would allow 2 diiferent groups to put pop up tents on the same spot for half the price and teh university gets twice the money bc you know, they are empty. I think families have been priced out in that aspect and not everyone needs room for a 20' x 20' tent and 2 vehicles, offer something more practical. We will never get people in the stadium if we cant even get them outside the stadium.