Homecoming attendance? 18,132 (merged)

[angeleast]

I’ll sign up for a December game in Boone right now and it can be negative 20 degrees...i bet the coaches and players would also.

Hell yes. I would put n for vacation too

[Boomer]

However that isn't the perception nor do our fans care. Let's see....a home schedule with teams like FAU, UAB, La Tech, USM, Rice and WKU or a home schedule with App St., Georgia St., Georgia Southern, ULM....etc...we allowed ourselves to live in this crap sandwich and you know the best part? We haven't even competed for the championship the last few years....

....But BB...the ones in our conference are ranked higher than the ones you mentioned when the entire conference teams are included!

[CajunSaint08]

Because we don't win.. And I don't mean Sun Belt win.. We need to WIN.

People want to be a part of something special. Beating NMSU isn't special. Even if you do it over and over again.

Bring Boise to town and win. Go beat a Kentucky or Ole Miss on the road, and then come home and dominate the conference. Do something special on national TV when the whole country is watching. That's our problem.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. There are two ways to guarantee 35k+ every home game,
1. bring in the Alabama's, LaSU's, Mich.'s, OK's.....and people will flock to see those teams in Cajun Field and 2. Play those teams at their stadiums and beat them.....then people will come in groves to see the team that just beat those powerhouse teams on the road and beat them bad, no matter even if you play a local high school.

UL had two opportunities this year to bring in 35k+ to our home games, but got royally embarrassed by Miss. St and AL. We didn't even get a "moral victory" this year (which is a term I despise) as in years pass. Now this may happen in Napier's 3rd or 4th year once he gets "his people" in place that we get a real victory against such teams, but I believe people are just tired of waiting for such a team. Plus add on to that the admin's new parking policy and not leaving at half and re-entering...and it all adds up to "is it worth my time and money at this point in time to go watch UL play?"

I was at the game because I will always love and support UL and of course it was home coming. I go to most MBB, baseball and softball games. But's that's just me. I don't fault the people who were not there because of the reasons I have stated here. But don't think for a minute that winning against our Sunbelt opponents and Liberty's, SLA's, NLU's, Nichol's.... will bring the casual fan or student back anytime soon. It's time for the University of Louisiana to make a name for itself and beat Miss. St. next year and beat them bad. Then you will see a boost in attendance. Make this team worth spending the extra parking cost and tailgating cost and whatever additional cost the admin wants to tack on next year. Beat "those" teams and earn respect on a national basis.

This is not an easy fix by any means to have and sustain crowds of 40k+ every week, but nothing that is worth working for ever is. I would love to see this team ranked on a constant basis in the top 20, top 10....and being talked about on ESPN every week.

Geaux Cajuns, Geaux UL!!!

[zephyr]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. There are two ways to guarantee 35k+ every home game,
1. bring in the Alabama's, LaSU's, Mich.'s, OK's.....and people will flock to see those teams in Cajun Field and 2. Play those teams at their stadiums and beat them.....then people will come in groves to the team that just beat those powerhouse teams on the road and beat them, no matter even if you play a local high school.

UL had two opportunities this year to bring in 35k+ to our home games, but got royally embarrassed by Miss. St and AL. We didn't even get a "moral victory" this year (which is a term I despise) as in years pass. Now this may happen in Napier's 3rd or 4th year once he gets "his people" in place that we get a real victory against such teams, but I believe people are just tired of waiting for such a team. Plus add on to that the admin's new parking policy and not leaving at half and re-entering...and it all adds up to "is it worth my time and money at this point in time to go watch UL play?"

I was at the game because I will always love and support UL and of course it was home coming. I go to most MBB, baseball and softball games. But's that's just me. I don't fault the people who were not there because of the reasons I have stated here. But don't think for a minute that winning against our Sunbelt opponents and Liberty's, SLA's, NLU's, Nichol's.... will bring the casual fan or student back anytime soon. It's time for the University of Louisiana to make a name for itself and beat Miss. St. next year and beat them bad. Then you will see a boost in attendance. Make this team worth spending the extra parking cost and tailgating cost and whatever additional cost the admin wants to tack on next year. Beat "those" teams and earn respect on a national basis.

This is not an easy fix by any means to have and sustain crowds of 40k+ every week, but nothing that is worth working for ever is. I would love to see this team ranked on a constant basis in the top 20, top 10....and being talked about on ESPN every week.

Geaux Cajuns, Geaux UL!!!

After reading only your first sentence I was thinking "This guy is smoking something". However, I agree with the thoughts here. We invest to play with the big boys, both as a university and consumer but we don't compete with, much less beat the big boys so our status in the pecking order of things always seems static and who wants to stay in that spot?

[zephyr]

Well, this is a "family" event. We got the kids dash. We got the end zone play area. Last game, the woman in front of us gave us mean looks because we woke up her 4 month old who was having a sleepy after her bottle. This is what the administration wants right? Just a bunch of family picnics on a lazy old Saturday afternoon watching the kids play.

We are so stupid with this nonsense.

This was funny

[fanof71]

I’ll sign up for a December game in Boone right now and it can be negative 20 degrees...i bet the coaches and players would also.

Its not the cold but the wind...have never been to Boone in the colder months when its not windy. BTW, there have been times where the wind chill is below 0...and school stays in session and activities are not canceled.

[zephyr]

45k and 50k people had the same “passion” when we were winning. Year in and year out, baseball is top 20 in the country in attendance.

The truth is, people are fickle bandwagon jumpers. Especially in Lafayette.

Not really. The 40,000-50,000 people you speak of showed up for one game, likely because it was in NOLA and there was an event with lots of things to do in a great city. The fact is, while we were putting those types of numbers into the seats in the Superdome, we were still averaging just over 20,000 for games at home.

[CrazyCajun]

Its not the cold but the wind...have never been to Boone in the colder months when its not windy. BTW, there have been times where the wind chill is below 0...and school stays in session and activities are not canceled.

I just meant that everyone would take a championship game in December even if it meant playing in Antarctica or the sahara desert.

[ULvictory]

Not really. The 40,000-50,000 people you speak of showed up for one game, likely because it was in NOLA and there was an event with lots of things to do in a great city. The fact is, while we were putting those types of numbers into the seats in the Superdome, we were still averaging just over 20,000 for games at home.

True, but what MAT was saying is accurate. A good number of people went to the bowl games as a way "to be seen." It was similar to the conversation we had about Rhythms on the River last week. People went because it was a Lafayette fad to go to that game. And don't get me wrong. It created an electric atmosphere in the Dome. But we need that type of energy and "fad" to happen at Cajun Field.

[zephyr]

Repost it again for the late comers.....

Perception is the Sunbelt is a crap football conference. We are a member of said crap football conference. How many outright Sunbelt Conference Championships have we won? We've spent a considerable amount of time in the middle of the pack in the Sunbelt. What does that say about our football program? What message does it send to the community about our football program?

Perception by many of our fans is that we are above the Sunbelt. If that is the case shouldn't we be dominating the competition? It's nice to have goals of beating Top 25 football programs, but shouldn't we also have a goal of winning the Sunbelt Conference Championship year in and year out. Dominating the conference year in and year out, competing with and beating P5 programs will generate buzz and open doors.

#Truth

[ManAboutTown]

Not really. The 40,000-50,000 people you speak of showed up for one game, likely because it was in NOLA and there was an event with lots of things to do in a great city. The fact is, while we were putting those types of numbers into the seats in the Superdome, we were still averaging just over 20,000 for games at home.

We averaged 30k a game that year.

[zephyr]

True, but what MAT was saying is accurate. A good number of people went to the bowl games as a way "to be seen." It was similar to the conversation we had about Rhythms on the River last week. People went because it was a Lafayette fad to go to that game. And don't get me wrong. It created an electric atmosphere in the Dome. But we need that type of energy and "fad" to happen at Cajun Field.

But he was talking about those large numbers having passion for our program when we were winning. Not really. We never had those numbers attending home games and donating to the RCAF. Like you said, they were there for an event, not the program.