(2009) I'm the casual fan that has not been to Cajun Field in years

[Damon]

I think chop is writing this post "in character." He has some good points and some things that the fans on this board and the administration need to examine deeply.

Assuming that he's writing in character as an anonymous casual anyfan. If he's writing this as him/herself, then I agree with rhineaux.

[jazzpop]

_ I’m the guy you love to hate, but at the same time I’m the type of person you have to have for a successful program.

You can either cuss me, or listen to what I have to say and maybe just maybe you will win us back again one day. Although I am just one person, there are at least 20K people in the Lafayette are just like me.

I am not one of the 8K people that will go to the game just because they are playing.
Like I said, I have not been to Cajun Field or the Cajun Dome in 10 years.

I don’t expect a National title contender, but I do expect the university to care more then me.

I have been a member of this forum for a while. I can’t say that I spend a ton of time here lurking, but I do spend enough time here to realize that the administration is not the only ones that has a problem.

I hate the attitude of some of the fans. Some of you act like your **** don’t stink because you go to the game to watch an inferior product, and when the people like me go after a 2 game winning streak you pretty much show the cold shoulder. You guys want people at the games, but when they show up you act like its some kind of privileged for us to be there like we are not worthy.

I remember the last game I tried to go to, it was a home game against LATECH. I showed up at 6:45. They had one girl in the whole stadium taking tickets. By the time it got to my turn in line it was almost halftime and the Cajuns were already down 3 TDS, yet they still wanted to charge full price for there incompetence. The next Monday I called Jay Walker about the situation and he blasted me for not showing up at 5PM. Hey DUDE!!!! I think they only had 16K people at that game!!! Why should I have to show up 2 hrs before a game when the stadium is only half full? I can go to a Saints game with 70K people 15 mins before start time and still make the opening KO. The problem is not me, it’s the 1 girl at the ticket window.

The tailgate thread was a joke. I have been tailgating a few times in the last 10 years, and if they ever kick me out once the game starts I promise you, me and thousands of others will never step foot inside the stadium even if they go 13-0.

During the Mitchell and Jake years I was at every game, I have the potential to go to every game again. But until the University and the fans start treating the casual fans with a little respect, I’m afraid you are going to have to live with 8K for football and 800 for basketball.

Robert Lee not getting canned is an insult.

I use to love going to the Cajun dome and watching Marty ball, but for some reason the cajunnecks down here never accepted him and ran him off.

Then Jessie came along, he was not perfect, but at least he brought some level of success to the program, once again the Cajun necks never accepted him and he left for a better job.

Its time to quit blaming LSU for all the problems. Do you know how childish that sounds?

LSU has zero to do with ULs success or failure.

Its time to quit blaming the SUNBELT conference for all of ULs problems. Why don’t you start dominating the SUNBELT first, then maybe just maybe you can make the case that you are ready to move onto bigger and better things.

The problem right now is the administrations no care attitude, and the Alumni and fans ____ poor attitude.


You can like me or hate me, the bottom line is you will never see 25K at Cajun Field or 10K at the Cajun dome without me sitting in one of the seats. _

An "inconvenient truth" that many will not want to hear, but true none the less. Kudos foe speaking it anyway.

[Hammer58]

_ An "inconvenient truth" that many will not want to hear, but true none the less. Kudos foe speaking it anyway. _

True? I think not. The more you read this fairy tale the more holes you can poke in the story. Chop has about as much credibility here as you.

[Ragin Roar]

You really aren't a fan if you haven't been to Cajun Field in 10 yrs. Stop kidding yourself.

[zephyr]

_ Yes, I happen to be in the lost age group of 30 to 40.
I still must have a little bit of care left in me, otherwise I would not have signed up for this site and started this thread.

But the attitude of the 1st 2 posters after my 1st post is a perfect example of the kind of people that I was talking about.

You guys are going to have to get over it.
Sometimes I feel like you want your 6K fans in the stands. You wear it like a badge of or something.

Time to quit thinking that your something that your not.
There are a lot of people in this town that would support this program with just a few changes.

It is a very fine line being a winner, and not being a winner.
I dont think the changes need to be wholesale.
I would support the team if they had Troys success in football or WKUs success in basketball. Im not asking for much. _

Then what exactly are we as fans? I'm not getting your posts. It's very easy to sit back and to feel that you have a "pulse" on 20k potential fans out there with all of the solutions in the world. What's funny is that we've led the SBC for the past 3 years in attendance and while we all agree we haven't taken the next step, this program has at least had moderate success.

You are different from just about everybody here as we consider ourselves die hard fans. We will, as painful as it may be at times, support this school and its athletic programs relentlessly because of our unfading love for it. You obviously have the laissez faire attitude and while I won't bash you for it, its hard for me to find any credibility in what you say because you obviously have no loyalty to any one school. Why is it that a program must win before you support it? Certainy you don't find any fault in that ideology but yet I find it as ludicrous as your views on our blind faith.

Most here do not blame LSU for our lack of success. Although, there are certain points that can be made about the impact of state politics and namely, prominent LSU supporting politicians who have made taxation without representation popular in years past. Just go to the name change debate over the years to find certain reasons why many here have a dislike for the school. I think, if you patrol this site long enough, you would notice that many here are not exactly satisfied or content with the way the administration has guided this athletic program over the years. You will find no harder critics than right here.

However to be offended by responses by some here is pretty rediculous when you have barely a whisper of interest in this program to begin with and tell its fans how they should act or respond. It's kind of like me coming to your business and telling you how to run it.

[Turbine]

It's kind of like me coming to your business and telling you how to run it. _

. . .and your not even a customer . . .

[drsudsey]

Until the administration of my alma mater decides that Martin Hall needs more than a bunch of bobble-head synchophants to advise him/them, there's STILL not a lot more that can be done. There has always been too much of an attitude of: if you're not from here, you can't know what to do. That's truly sad, but that's the way it's been. I've been a Cajun/Bulldog fan since moving to Lafayette in 8th grade in 1967. Yet very little has changed during that time frame but my age. (Except my passion for Cajun athletics is as strong as ever...Perhaps a curse?)

[zephyr]

_ . . .and your not even a customer . . . _

Correct.....

[Just1More]

Guys and Gals... everything that needs to be improved starts with the UL administration. No doubt, fans will carry the load following their actions. But, no matter how hard a group pulls the wagons, if the leaders have you either moving across a desert they aren't commited to crossing, or keep you moving in a circle, or just move back and forth over the same dry parched earth... we as fans cannot fulfill each others' hopes and desires... and we will fight and bicker until our final days... passing on this extremely unfortunate legacy to the succeeding diminishing UL generations.

We have got to stop blaming each other for the irritation we get out of this schools' athletic programs. You people are not in any way at fault. All that we see with disconnected uninterested fans is a totally explainable, understandable condition... lackluster results produce initial irritation followed by eventual natural apathy. We are all UL troopers. Due to poor leadership, those troops that didn't walk off are fighting each other. The only way to make anything improve is to focus the aggravation... even the aggravation you feel for other UL fans and posters... toward the leadership. They can and will eventually have to deal with the dissension.

95% of the battles fought by the UL administration are self-generated by being an extremely proud hard outer shell, with an extremely soft underbelly. UL administration has attempted to always fight their own battles, without ever considering how powerful a united UL alumni would be. United - implies a bond "between the elements"... not radial relationships from a few... directed by and at the will and request of the UL president. One of the most obvious and simple bond creations for alumni throughout the US is athletics. Many schools, far academically inferior to UL, have intelligently utilized their athletic programs to bring together, bond and unite their alumni. They have become powerful entities in any and all endeavors they choose... and are rarely as subject to unprotected mistreatment as UL.

Our administration makes no effort to create a magnitism toward UL for the massive number of supporters they should have and very much need to have. Instead, they take the easiest route and collect only the supporters that are either gentle easy-spoken compliants or people that are generationally connected to them from UL days gone by. It is their way... and it has failed the larger group of us.

I contend that we should have managed our way through difficult issues presented by a massive athletic system (and thus a huge united alumni), in order to protect that which is most important to grow and defend. It is never too late. But... we have to stop fighting amongst ourselves. Chop is not the problem... we are not the problem... the disconnected fans are not the problem... they, he and we are all the solution. The administration has to place the athletics programs on a mission toward undeniable success... and manage it.

This forum is just a drop box of mostly anonymous thoughts. This is not where things actually get done. If you are truly interested in seeing UL succeed... I implore you to begin having direct contact with the UL administration. This forum stuff is all fine and good... but it does not affect the true change managers at UL. Stop fighting each other... remember that we are all on the same team... and start demanding that the people paid to operate the institution honor you and your expectations.

[Frenchie35]

This will be short and sweet. Look real close when you read his post. If he hasn't been to a game in ten years his post is a bunch of lies.

[ULtimateCajun]

As a die hard chop, you want acceptance but if you don't go you're an outsider. To you I say enjoy your walk out of the door. Nothing you said suggested ways of improvement, just complaints about everything UL. I agree with some of what you said but telling us isn't going to improve game day ticket takers, the ath. Dept. Or the admin. So bring your whining to the appropriate outlet.


igeaux.mobi

[raginsaints]

_ Ok guys, I will certainly take your advice and never support the UL program again.
You guys are too good for me, Im not worthy of being in your presence.
Sorry if I still had one little ounce of care left in me for the UL program. Enough care to at least make this thread. You just zapped that little bit of care I still had left in me.

Sorry for the constructive thread that I made in hopes letting people know the thoughts of over 20K people in the Lafayette area. You guys have it all figured out. You dont need the casual fan.

Cancel my membership to this forum.
Enjoy the basketball season. All 259 of you. _

If you say a bad word about any UL team then you're A WAL MART LSU FAN!!!1!! :ANGRY: Pretentious + stupid is a dangerous combo and that's what the majority of this board is.

[CajunRed]

_ If you say a bad word about any UL team then you're A WAL MART LSU FAN!!!1!! :ANGRY: Pretentious + stupid is a dangerous combo and that's what the majority of this board is. _

Wow! Testy... aren't we.

[Just1More]

_ If you say a bad word about any UL team then you're A WAL MART LSU FAN!!!1!! :ANGRY: Pretentious + stupid is a dangerous combo and that's what the majority of this board is. _

You calling a group of athletes "scrubs" is what drew you some minimal, yet deserved criticism.

And, what logic are you attempting to promote when you call the forum "stupid" in a post where you are complaining about being called a name?

Saint, you and Chop have misguided aggravation. Your problems with UL do not reside on this forum.

[raginsaints]

It resides with people who think it makes you a bad fan to complain.