Cajun Field Size ... Capacity Tenacity

[Big Buds]

Merged 3 similar threads.

Got it.

[fanof71]

Flat out attendance was terrible last night….Good news is we are getting on national TV a lot…. It takes time to build a brand and this will help…. We need to limit mid week home games to only 1 a year, but I don’t think that is possible because ESPN owns us

New contract with ESPN has that 40% of televised SBC games will be weekend games...when does that go into effect?

[jaxmc1023]

Flat out attendance was terrible last night….Good news is we are getting on national TV a lot…. It takes time to build a brand and this will help…. We need to limit mid week home games to only 1 a year, but I don’t think that is possible because ESPN owns us

We're getting on TV alot and showing potential students, potential fans, etc. that -- even when we have a good team -- the stands are going to be freakin empty, and the most fun you can expect to have to is getting drunk in the student section

[CajunFan3406]

Just to put attendance into perspective, I took a look at the attendance for some games in peer conferences. While we need to do better that 16k last night, the nearly 29k for an 11am kickoff is better than most. Here we go.

Let's start with the midweek Maction from Tuesday and Wednesday this week:

Central Michigan @ Western Michigan: 13,137
Ball State @ Akron:7,683
Miami (OH) @ Ohio: 15,940
Eastern Michigan @ Toledo: 14,997
NIU @ Kent State: 6,076

Our worst crowd beat all of those. The MAC is like a rivalry game every week and several of those were matchups of teams that were .500 or better.

Now onto some games from last week.

Navy @ Tulsa: 16,279
#2 Cincy @ Tulane: 17,012
UCF @ Temple: 19,595
FIU @ Marshal: 18,466
USM @ MTSU: 10,721
Hawaii @ Utah State: 19,219
ECU has a nice crowd of 34k or so and App had 29k or something like that.
This one really stood out. A now ranked Fresno State vs #21 SDSU:11k and some change.

While I think we need to take care of our own affairs, but this gives you a picture what what it's like in the G5 at the moment.

You may be unaware of SDSU’s stadium situation, but they get an automatic pass on any low attendance numbers this year. They’re playing their “home” games in LA, 2+ hours away from campus. They also did that last season. Every one of their home games is basically neutral site. They are building a new stadium where Qualcomm/SDCCU stadium used to be and they should be back in SD by Fall 2022.

[CajunT]

I don’t think I criticized anyone. I named the thread “Cajun Field”. This is about positioning Cajun Field as wisely as possible moving forward; capacity, optics and etc.

No, and I understand what you were talking about. But building an entire new grand stand with reduced seating is about optics, capacity, etc. is it not? My comments are in general to the sentiment that the fan base is not showing up and supporting the team. To that, I would suggest to others our core fan base is the 16K that showed up last night, and your alumni in Texas, North Shore and New Orleans weren't driving in on a Thrusday night game on a short week after a homecoming game.

[cajun4life]

thanks for the work...however, When you threw ECU and App in there, you see the proof that reaching a goal of 31k can be done. Actually, I don't see how comparing our apples to those oranges on that list makes much sense. None of those other teams are ranked, btw, or were playing with a 7 game win streak.

If you honestly think App would compare to what UL would bring to game day atmosphere if we shared a similar history of success I can help you. We would mirror ECU at their best if we had 30+ years of winning tradition.

Instead we have had more success since 2010 than we have had in our entire history. We haven’t fully committed to football before 2012. Give the Cajuns 15 years of 9-12 win seasons with Top 25 rankings every 3rd year or so. We would have sell outs every Saturday game.

[shof]

No, and I understand what you were talking about. But building an entire new grand stand with reduced seating is about optics, capacity, etc. is it not? My comments are in general to the sentiment that the fan base is not showing up and supporting the team. To that, I would suggest to others our core fan base is the 16K that showed up last night, and your alumni in Texas, North Shore and New Orleans weren't driving in on a Thrusday night game on a short week after a homecoming game.

Absolutely correct! And many of those outliers are season ticket holders. I maintained my season tickets for several years while living in San Antonio. Finally gave them up a few years ago. But even then I’d only make 1 game a year on average.
Totally agree on the optics too. No more mostly empty upper deck.
Really looking forward to attending a couple games next year and DEFINITELY when the new press box side is complete. That will bring a whole new dynamic to CF!

[IHateLaState]

We're getting on TV alot and showing potential students, potential fans, etc. that -- even when we have a good team -- the stands are going to be freakin empty, and the most fun you can expect to have to is getting drunk in the student section

Worked for me when I was a student. Just sayin

[bbhstiger5]

We are at the height of our history. Not suggesting it’s our apex but damn we win more games than Clemson. Something needs to be thought out before we break ground.

I like the idea of painting the concrete red/white or ect. 30K max.

Hell let’s just bulldoze it and put out some lawn chairs. Well hit capacity every time!

[Big Buds]

If you honestly think App would compare to what UL would bring to game day atmosphere if we shared a similar history of success I can help you. We would mirror ECU at their best if we had 30+ years of winning tradition.

Instead we have had more success since 2010 than we have had in our entire history. We haven’t fully committed to football before 2012. Give the Cajuns 15 years of 9-12 win seasons with Top 25 rankings every 3rd year or so. We would have sell outs every Saturday game.

100%. We can always add on when that times comes.

[Cajunsmike]

TWO football games in 5 days is not easy on the wallet.

2 weakest crowds have come 5 days after the largest Saturday crowds. Tough to promote the Thursday game with limited time to do so. Makes it real tough for out of towners as well. We had some out of towners for App as it was easier to plan that trip as it had good spacing between games. Dr. Maggard was on with Scott Prather yesterday morning. I think he knew how much of a challenge last night would be as he spent as much time trying to promote the possible home conference championship game (Saturday December 4) as he did the Georgia State game. Hopefully having more teams in the league will help reduce the number of times one team is faced with having a multitude of these. Ideally, one mid week on the road and one at home would become the normal schedule.

[RaginCajun309]

I think we need 30k seating with ability to flex more into GA on hill or to make standing bar top seats at the top of both end zones. Im either way on the hill, leave it alone or terrace it with picnic style seating. Also, not sure how much flex attendance these would allow but if we could seat 30k with a flex capacity of another 5-10k that’s all we would need.

Gotta create smaller seating to drive demand. Oh, and gotta keep winning. Not sure what Apps capacity is but no need to have any more than that. If we can emulate them we are on the right track.