Halftime Retention

[ULGrad@HOU]

Doc, it's simple. They can shoot fireworks and have gourmet nachos, ...

Until we start playing and BEATING upper tier CFB teams, there will always be an attendance problem. Real fans of the game don't care about the ancillary crap at games. We want to see good football and we want to see wins. We want to be relevant, and compete with the best. That's the real draw; that's what made major college football so appealing. Not nachos and fireworks.

Very True.

[DocCajun]

I will be looking down, well I hope looking down, in ten years and saying, "where was all this new experience and entertainment when I was around and attending games..

Amen my friend!

[Cajunsmike]

The game was not something we expected. But we won. What I saw at the half with the score 35-35 was 3/4 of the students left. Now that's something that the Administration should see into. Why is the question. I have a grandchild at UL and she sits on the student side. Loves football and attends every game. She is the one that brought the matter up to me. "Hey Pop, did you notice all the students that left at halftime"? This subject has been brought up many time and no one has the answer. Maybe this university is not a football school and you can't reverse that.

Had the team played better, most students still would have left. Today's students care very little about athletics. It matters little to them what the outcome is. They only go initially for social purposes. It is now that way at most schools that are not part of the P5. Granted it may be worst here. I will repeat a key point. They would have left regardless of how thw team was performing.

[California Cajun]

Yeah, your comments remind me of the Auggie days (sure wish I could recall that OC's name) where we'd lose a game 48 to 45 but most fans left happy because of the fireworks on the field.

Carl Smith?

[ManAboutTown]

Had the team played better, most students still would have left. Today's students care very little about athletics. It matters little to them what the outcome is. They only go initially for social purposes. It is now that way at most schools that are not part of the P5. Granted it may be worst here. I will repeat a key point. They would have left regardless of how thw team was performing.

No Mike, we have cultivated a community of people that care more about the social experience than watching the game. Lubbock, College Park, Boise, Baylor, etc all had apethrtic fan bases until their teams became successful, played house hold names, and eventually got into better conferences. Western Michigan took 40k fans to their NY6 bowl game against Wisconsin. You think they've been packing the stadium at WMU all these years? Of course not.

It will take multiple years of winning big to cultivate a passionate fan base. Not passionate for tailgating, but genuinely interested in going into the game and watching a football game.

[California Cajun]

I saw a few minutes of Texas vs. Maryland on TV from Austin, which I didn't think was very good, and there was a large crowd and student interest. It seemed like a parallel situation to ours except that Texas has a lot of past success. It's like the students are hard-wired to be there whether the team is good or not.

[Cajun Soldier]

There is always a complaint about the students leaving early for me the bigger problem as I sit on the visitor side is how empty the chair back seats are every game. If people aren't going to the game sell the tickets or give them away. To me that site is worst than any student section.

[ULGrad@HOU]

Fan interest and student interest would all be taken care of and generated with having a football program that people are wanting to see. Even winning and going 8-4 will only get you so far when you are still losing to middle FBS teams or barely beating FCS. We need a nationally competitive football program, that strives to be in the top 15 - 30 range, consistently. It can be done. Fans will come out of the woodwork to see a team like that.

[Ragin' Caleb]

Let's face it, students have been sitting in a baking sun forever. That's not the reason that they leave. They're leaving because we're not relevant in the current football world, and top it off not very good at being non relevant.

Current student here. I think this is true and what manabouttiwm said. We aren't relevant and people aren't that worried about staying throughout the game. I'm a huge fan so I always stay but the stadium wasn't that packed to begin with not to mention a lot of non students left as well. Yet all I hear about is students leaving

[Ragin' Caleb]

As a student I stayed the entire game. That's just how I was wired. If you're a student today and you look at the home side, how many empty prime seats do you see? We hold the students to a higher standard than our alumni and those who buy season tickets but rarely show up.

Fact is we played an FCS opponent last night that nearly beat us. Once again a new season started and the team that took the field wasn't prepared to play football. Students, fans, and alumni recognized it. Students will make a move, they have the option to go to bars and night clubs on a Saturday night and have fun drinking, dancing, etc.

This. I think the right questions are being asked but looked at from the wrong perspective. Look at all the other seats open and not being used. Maggard just got here so I think a "change of culture" takes time

[Ragin' Caleb]

I saw a few minutes of Texas vs. Maryland on TV from Austin, which I didn't think was very good, and there was a large crowd and student interest. It seemed like a parallel situation to ours except that Texas has a lot of past success. It's like the students are hard-wired to be there whether the team is good or not.

That's a joke right. UT-the biggest program in college football/the most money/their own network. We are parallel but just haven't been as successful? Gimme a break

[cajundiehard]

The entire student section left at half time

Noticed that... They sit there in the first half sun waving their fans in the heat... Then skip out on the 2nd half when it WOULD be a much more comfortable environment with the sun going down.

Don't understand it - at least from that perspective.

Now - performance on the field... I also don't think that had anything to do with it. I've seen students vacate at the half as well. If the Greeks are getting point for going to the game, tallies should be made and points awarded AFTER the game.

Just MHO.