I did not realize there are 400 student athletes.
I did not realize there are 400 student athletes.
The correct answer to Nico's question is .... Improve the name recognition of opponents at The Swamp.
There isn't a single Sunbelt school that sells tickets. That's it.
Outside of glued on fans, and a few unique exposures, NO ONE in Louisiana's footprint knows who App State and Coastal are. And that's the crème de la crème of the Sunbelt.
Pull in a draw week in and week out and attendance will begin to sky rocket.
Secondly, kill the midweek games.
Thirdly remember what happened to 11,000 Ice Gator attendance when they moved to a perceived weak league.
jmo
He barely slipped it in bur Pecot nailed it with the "habits" comment.
Ryan's overall theme "People want to be where people are" was spot on.
I like parking on campus, near Mcnaspy, for free. Signed, Gulf States Conference fan
Ok, but that doesn’t come close to explaining why every other school in the country, including P5’s, are having the same attendance issue as we are. Also, I remember very well the exictment and attendance we saw during the glory days of Hud…….with the very same level of opponents.
For all the bad things Hud did you cannot deny that he was able to drum up excitement and hype around the program which gave us a good glimpse of what kind of fans we can, and will eventually draw.
Napier was left to dig us out of the huge hole that Hud left, so he needs credit for getting us back up to where we are. And I certainly don’t agree with it, but to the ‘casual’ fan a person like Hud is more important than a nuts-and bolts guy like Napier. To me that’s the most frustrating thing about the lack of attendance we are experiencing during one of the greatest periods of the program: empty hype beating proven, long-term success.
Hopefully that will change as we continue to succeed.
Hud was on the leading edge of a new flavor. Winning.
The memories of quality attendance came on Louisiana Saturdays.
Midweek games are bloodletting College Football across the board. As Ryan said "habit." Midweek games are a habit killer.
When Saturday does come around, you just remember how you felt about the midroll game. Not good, that in turn, hurts weekends.
People want to be where people are but the memory is they weren't there for the last game a midweek game so the drive for the game day habit on Saturday is diminished as well.
For once I don't really disagree with you, especially about the midweek games but once again and Jay Walker or Maggard can confirm, they aren't going anywhere. SO, if we are discussing options to help not only our brand but those of other SBC members, the removal of midweek games is just not an option as they both say they're here to stay.
The other thing is that you keep banging on our conference and are pining for independence but once again, we all know this is not happening as the Indy model is just not realistic.
The difference between the administration and the fans is the administration understands the impact of national television. The fan talks about their own inconvenience.
Midweek games aren't going anywhere. And, as long as we are good, we'll play more than one every year. (But I agree, the more away from home the better.)
I thought Nico had some very intuitive remarks regarding the Acadiana fan.
Nico's stock went up.
Would it be possible for the conference to work with ESPN to limit the number of times any school has to play mid week at home. This year we have four of those but three are at home. Let's work to limit those to 2 home mid week games per year. That is a reasonable compromise.
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