Cajuns football attendance: Seriously, how bad is it?

[RaginDave]

I was watching Kent State play EMU, both Kent was 5-6 and EMU was 6-5 and the game was in Yipsalani, Mi. The two teams are less than 3 hours apart. The announced attendance was 13,444, but when they showed the stadium, their might have been 1000 people in the stands. The stadium seats 30K and I swear the side they showed could not have had 500 people there. Now the weather today in Yipsalanti was 34 degrees and cloudy, but these were two teams fighting for bowl eligibility that were less than 3 hours from each other.

[Turbine]

...A good friend of mine told me this week that in this area, we need people promoting the program face-to-face almost like an old-school approach from going door-to-door (not literally in the sense). In that regard, win some more; and the people will show up. It's very possible, and I really don't think the school to east has too too much to do with it because if you recall, they were undefeated and #1 in the country in 2011. And that year, we set a record for average attendance at Cajun Field.

So promote effectively, win, and they will come.

Word of mouth, real door to door networking, is what occurs with ticket redemption games.

Robichaux understood this.

Most people think it's rewarding the "couldn't make it" crowd. That's not it, they already have a ticket to the last game.

Ticket redemption efforts turns them into salesmen.

[Rainman66]

No, I disagree. In college football, your football coach is THE face of your program. It’s not like the pros where you can put your QB or RB up in front of people and use them to get support. Your head coach is THE guy.

He has to be an integral part of the marketing and fundraising if you want your marketing and fundraising to be successful.

Nick Saban ?

[Rainman66]

The sanctions didn't turn the fans against him. He did that by himself with the video fiasco and the ridiculing of fans. Had he not done that, he might still be here.

We want more people in the stands. The last thing we need is even a hint of ridicule from the administration, coaching staff, or media outlets. They are getting dangerously close to crossing that line.

Maybe people are feeling ridiculed, but that is today's 'softness' in fans. Dr Maggard is not ridiculing anyone, he is simply pointing out that he has addressed quite a few top concerns relayed by fans without seeing measurable results.

Dr. Maggard is not a dumb guy, so I would hope he doesn't expect an average of 30,000 fans based upon one year of changes. I do believe it is fair for him to believe that with the changes made and the record, that the floor for attendance would be higher than 14,000.

As I said before, we all think Lafayette is a sleeping giant, but maybe we are wrong. I hope not, but as the administration keeps knocking down attendance excuses, the more difficult it is to believe otherwise.

[Duckster]

Recall reading in SI or Sporting News an article about Saban at Alabama after he was hired but prior to his first season's games. It had been reported Saban was being resistant to glad handing alumni around the State turning down speaking opportunities, etc. Instead he wanted to spend his time resurrecting the football program and publicly said so. Naturally he was testy with the reporter about it, yet it straight up acknowledged he was hired during to coach football, win championships. That wasn't going to happen if he played golf, etc, he needed to put he time into building the football team. There would be time for the PR stuff later on. Now Bama didnt have an attendance problem in 2007, but it had a culture problem Saban needed to correct for future success. Seeing echos of Saban in Napier. I mean, you are who you are. And Coach Napier is still growing into his job. JMHO.

[CajunNation]

I was watching Kent State play EMU, both Kent was 5-6 and EMU was 6-5 and the game was in Yipsalani, Mi. The two teams are less than 3 hours apart. The announced attendance was 13,444, but when they showed the stadium, their might have been 1000 people in the stands. The stadium seats 30K and I swear the side they showed could not have had 500 people there. Now the weather today in Yipsalanti was 34 degrees and cloudy, but these were two teams fighting for bowl eligibility that were less than 3 hours from each other.

I can top that.

From 2008 to 2018, NIU went to 10 Bowl games, including an Orange Bowl.

In 2018 they went 8-5, and averaged a little over 10,000 per game.

[Cajunrunner]

I am telling you that with our current coaches and scheduling philosophy in mens and womens basketball, we will never be accepted into the AAC, no matter what football does. If we are committed to those coaches and that philosophy, we should cut basketball to the bone and give the money to sports that understand committmemt to excellence.

I’m ok with that, but I know some of y’all are passionate about basketball.

[Cajunrunner]

Football is worth it ... MBB & WBB sure ain't driving the bus

+5

[GeauxCajuns]

The sanctions didn't turn the fans against him. He did that by himself with the video fiasco and the ridiculing of fans. Had he not done that, he might still be here.

We want more people in the stands. The last thing we need is even a hint of ridicule from the administration, coaching staff, or media outlets. They are getting dangerously close to crossing that line.

I disagree. They have done everything they possibly could do and it didn’t hold results. After that they have every right to call them out

[Cajunrunner]

The kind of self-inflicted stupidity we're dealing with from our own people.