Coach Napier's EXit

[Million$Mullet]

At 25k we would have had 2 sellouts this season. You guys act like we have anything but a losing tradition.

Hudspeth gave this program a tiny glimpse of what it can be like. Napier is building the foundation of this program. Give it time. We have 35 plus years of neglect to make up for. It doesn’t happen overnight.

In fact if we get 5 Saturday home games, with good weather and Napier still the coach next season. We will average over 30k per game. Especially if the game times are at 4pm or 6pm.

That’s why I said 25k seats with overflow on the hill. Could fit another few thousand on there. I’d rather have 20k really nice chairbacks with 5-7k bench style seats for the student section.

[cajun4life]

Want to bet?

Absolutely!!!

You understand that we need 15 more wins to be a .500 program right?

What everyone here is seeing is not the peak of this program. Yes, we can’t win much more than 10-12 games a year. But this program is in its infancy stages of winning tradition.

Nicholls 26k
Texas St 28k
ULM…..good weather 28-30k
SBC Champ game…good weather 30k+

[CajunVic]

Absolutely

This ought to be interesting . . . Just trying to set the parameters . . .

[covcaj]

Absolutely

Probably a very safe bet. The chances of Louisiana having five Saturday home games next year start just about nil and go down from there.

[HOUCajun]

At 25k we would have had 2 sellouts this season. You guys act like we have anything but a losing tradition.

Hudspeth gave this program a tiny glimpse of what it can be like. Napier is building the foundation of this program. Give it time. We have 35 plus years of neglect to make up for. It doesn’t happen overnight.

In fact if we get 5 Saturday home games, with good weather and Napier still the coach next season. We will average over 30k per game. Especially if the game times are at 4pm or 6pm.

Since there is < a 1% chance we have:
5 home games
With good weather
In the desired time slots

I guess I agree with you?

[Cajunsmike]

Of all of the his accomplishments, this has to be one of his biggest disappointments. At the end of the day, fan support solves many problems and engenders all things positive for a program.

I am not as worried about this as some. Reason is all our mid week games. 2 of the 3 have occurred 5 days after a Saturday home game making it difficult to promote. Our 2 Saturday games would have both been sellouts at Tulane. Would be interesting to see what the support would be with only 1 midweek home game. Now if we get to host the championship game with good weather and it is not well attended, he will be disappointed.

[Frenchie35]

I am at the point in life where attendance don't mean much. I sit with one on my left and one on my right. So that's sold out. I read here that some say "scale down because of our attendance, others say build for the future of having 40K. I would hate to think if we sold out at 25K and 10K are outside wanting tickets to get in.....

[Cajunsmike]

If they do, it would be a bad decision, based upon history. On average 90-95 underclassmen declare for the NFL draft over the past 5 years. The average number drafted is less than 30 and the G5 underclassmen drafted average less than 5 and those are mostly within the first two rounds.

Unless they REALLY need the money, the odds of them being drafted are slim and then they are going the UDFA route, which is usually better than a 6th or 7th round pick, in terms of making the team.

Max Mitchell projects as a fourth round pick. He won't return.

[BananaHammock]

Not sure why folks want to have a stadium that isn't at capacity. Build it for 25k people, having a sell out every game with people looking for tickets is exactly what you want. Otherwise there isn't much pressure for fans to buy season tickets when they can always get them elsewhere. IMO you always want the demand to be a bit more than the supply when it comes to sporting events.

Think back when the Icegators were selling out games every night of the week. It was the it thing to do and people either bought season tickets or you missed out on lots of games. You can't tell me that we can't sell out 5-6 home games/year in football when hockey was selling out 4-5x that many games/year on a regular basis. That's the kind of demand you want from our football team and stadium capacity.

[HOUCajun]

I am not as worried about this as some. Reason is all our mid week games. 2 of the 3 have occurred 5 days after a Saturday home game making it difficult to promote. Our 2 Saturday games would have both been sellouts at Tulane. Would be interesting to see what the support would be with only 1 midweek home game. Now if we get to host the championship game with good weather and it is not well attended, he will be disappointed.

I am assuming tickets for the championship game will be expensive. So there won’t be companies handing out hundreds of tickets, and McDonald’s promos. Will 40k people rally shell out 30-40 bucks to watch UL? I HOPE so. But I have my doubts.

Hopefully students will be let in for free. If not…

[Esqueleto]

Not sure why folks want to have a stadium that isn't at capacity. Build it for 25k people, having a sell out every game with people looking for tickets is exactly what you want. Otherwise there isn't much pressure for fans to buy season tickets when they can always get them elsewhere. IMO you always want the demand to be a bit more than the supply when it comes to sporting events.

Think back when the Icegators were selling out games every night of the week. It was the it thing to do and people either bought season tickets or you missed out on lots of games. You can't tell me that we can't sell out 5-6 home games/year in football when hockey was selling out 4-5x that many games/year on a regular basis. That's the kind of demand you want from our football team and stadium capacity.

BINGO! This man gets it

[BananaHammock]

BINGO! This man gets it

It's utilization, you want 100% utilization not 85%. It's no different than running a restaurant or other business that depend on lots of foot traffic from the general public. You want every table full for dinner and a wait time to get in, not every person seated and still available capacity. A lot of that is perception b/c perception becomes reality. Ever go in a restaurant that is way too big for it's clientele base? Even if the food is great the perception is that it can't be good b/c "it's always empty."

Same with our football stadium, bar, hotel, apartment, restaurant, commercial shopping plaza, etc... Even airlines do this.