ULM attendance

[JMV JustMyView]

Oh look, another excuse provided by the "insider". I'd be willing to bet JMV found a pretty good excuse to stay home last night.

You want to get the casual fans to attend and you consider yourself a true die hard fan right? Then how about changing your attitude first. You didn't believe the Cajuns would win saturday, yet you want the casual fans to believe that they will win and show up to support them? Believe in the team first and others may follow.

[Esqueleto]

You want to get the casual fan to attend and tyou consider yourself a true die hard fan right? Then how about changing your attitude first. You didn't believe the Cajuns would win saturday, yet you want the casual fan to believe that they will win and show up to support them. Believe in the team first and others may follow.

I thought distractions would be too much, and I was nearly right. Glad I wasn't.

Should I sugar coat the sad truth that this region (you're welcome T-bine) doesn't give a rat's ass about supporting our local university's football team?

[CajunConnection]

Need to put last night game to bed . Thanks to all that came. Let pack the place next week
I am anticipating a super crowd
App is coming for revenge and we all need to be ready.
CC

[Cajun Monkee]

Note to self: don’t go to festivale Internationale next spring because the economy is down and I can’t afford it.

Also note to LCG: stop with the $75,000 contribution you make the festivale; You’re throwing good money after bad because the economy is down and nobody will go.

[fanof71]

Note to self: don’t go to festivale Internationale next spring because the economy is down and I can’t afford it.

Also note to LCG: stop with the $75,000 contribution you make the festivale; You’re throwing good money after bad because the economy is down and nobody will go.

Nice...love this post

[JMV JustMyView]

I thought distractions would be too much, and I was nearly right. Glad I wasn't.

Should I sugar coat the sad truth that this region (you're welcome T-bine) doesn't give a rat's ass about supporting our local university's football team?

I said from the beginning that you were mostly right about the region not caring. But you said folks are going to restaurants etc now. Were they not going when Hud was here? I can assure you the restaurant business isn't what it was like during Huds years. The economy once again is part of the reason.

[CajunRebel]

Now that I’ve had a night to reflect on it, I’m a little less disappointed than I was yesterday.

I really think this is part of a larger trend taking place with CFB attendance. With ESPN+ I end up watching a lot of non-marquee matchups and attendance is drastically down everywhere. You won’t notice it if you’re watching primetime SEC games because those games are top matchups against the biggest programs. Of course they are packed. But even at P5 schools the stands are empty. For example, LSU announced 90,000 last weekend against ULM, and I don’t doubt that they sold that many tickets, but there probably weren’t more than 40,000 butts in seats. Earlier in the season Kansas hosted Oklahoma who was the #2 team in the country at the time and there were so few people there (maybe 20k) that they announced on the radio that anyone could just walk in for free. UAB sold out their first game in their brand new stadium, but had maybe 10,000 at their second game.

As far as the Sun Belt is concerned, besides App State, nobody is drawing any better than we are. Same thing goes for C-USA, and some of the MAC games have literally only had a few hundred people there.

Attendance simply hasn’t been a focus of the athletic department or Coach Napier. One thing I’ve learned over the past few years is that our marketing team almost
exclusively markets to recruits, not fans. I can’t argue with the results on the field, but it comes at the expense of a disconnect from the community.

Coach Hud knew how to get the community to care. He convinced people that UL football was important, that being a fan and showing up to games was meaningful and rewarding, and that supporting UL would pay big dividends for the community. As great as Coach Napier is at being a football coach, I don’t think he ever really tried to get that same message across.

I mention this because it means we have an opportunity to do better. I just think we need to put more of a focus on it as an athletic department. We need to develop a marketing plan, and then dedicate resources to executing it.

[Esqueleto]

I said from the beginning that you were mostly right about the region not caring. But you said folks are going to restaurants etc now. Were they not going when Hud was here? I can assure you the restaurant business isn't what it was like during Huds years. The economy once again is part of the reason.

Ok. Agree to disagree. Cheers. See you at Cajun Field next Saturday!

[fanof71]

Now that I’ve had a night to reflect on it, I’m a little less disappointed than I was yesterday.

I really think this is part of a larger trend taking place with CFB attendance. With ESPN+ I end up watching a lot of non-marquee matchups and attendance is drastically down everywhere. You won’t notice it if you’re watching primetime SEC games because those games are top matchups against the biggest programs. Of course they are packed. But even at P5 schools the stands are empty. For example, LSU announced 90,000 last weekend against ULM, and I don’t doubt that they sold that many tickets, but there probably weren’t more than 40,000 butts in seats. Earlier in the season Kansas hosted Oklahoma who was the #2 team in the country at the time and there were so few people there (maybe 20k) that they announced on the radio that anyone could just walk in for free. UAB sold out their first game in their brand new stadium, but had maybe 10,000 at their second game.

As far as the Sun Belt is concerned, besides App State, nobody is drawing any better than we are. Same thing goes for C-USA, and some of the MAC games have literally only had a few hundred people there.

Attendance simply hasn’t been a focus of the athletic department or Coach Napier. One thing I’ve learned over the past few years is that our marketing team almost
exclusively markets to recruits, not fans. I can’t argue with the results on the field, but it comes at the expense of a disconnect from the community.

Coach Hud knew how to get the community to care. He convinced people that UL football was important, that being a fan and showing up to games was meaningful and rewarding, and that supporting UL would pay big dividends for the community. As great as Coach Napier is at being a football coach, I don’t think he ever really tried to get that same message across.

I mention this because it means we have an opportunity to do better. I just think we need to put more of a focus on it as an athletic department. We need to develop a marketing plan, and then dedicate resources to executing it.

And our next coach (If there is such a thing) needs to bring some of that HUD energy...as GREAT as CBN is, he's not a promoter...

[JMV JustMyView]

Ok. Agree to disagree. Cheers. See you at Cajun Field next Saturday!

10-4 Geaux Cajuns.