Football Attendance Comparison

[HoustonCajun]

It's been like that for years. We've just finished the greatest 3 year run in the program's modern Era of football and these people weren't coming. You can't duplicate the atmosphere of Death Valley at Cajun Field. If winning doesn't bring these people to games, no amount of pre-game activities will change it.

No, we won't duplicate what LSU has and no school in the country does. But, other schools have their own atmosphere that works for them and fills their stadium. We don't have any atmosphere that might bring people back and that is part of the problem. The other part is our schedule and conference.

So, maybe it who we are winning against that causes people to not care. Phil Steele's magazine listed the toughest schedules in the country this year. Louisiana is #130 out of 131. Only FIU has a weaker schedule. We were #123 last year. Not many people are excited to see us play SE LA, E. Michigan, S. Alabama and GA Southern. Arkansas State and Troy bring mild excitement. Florida State, Marshall, S. Miss and Rice are the only games of real interest and they are away. Compelling P5 matchups that are highly publicized become more attractive watching at home than sitting in our stadium.

UL went 13-1 last year, finished ranked in the Top 20 and enters this year with the nation's longest winning streak. We lost our coach and several key players and all of that excitement seems lost this year. Phil Steele has us as down to #81 in the country, well behind App State who he lists as #49 and even Marshall at #75. We are under a new coach who will have to prove to our fans and to the media that UL is still the real deal.

Without a P5 opponent to get fans excited like a win over Iowa State, the excitement of all that we accomplished the past 3 years is lost with our two opening opponents at home. We need to be playing 2 P5 schools each year. Florida State doesn't come around until our second to last game. We need another P5 opponent to start the year like Iowa State or Texas. Win a big early season game and fans get excited and, hopefully, show up. But, can we keep them coming back?

[CajunT]

No, we won't duplicate what LSU has and no school in the country does. But, other schools have their own atmosphere that works for them and fills their stadium. We don't have any atmosphere that might bring people back and that is part of the problem. The other part is our schedule and conference.

So, maybe it who we are winning against that causes people to not care. Phil Steele's magazine listed the toughest schedules in the country this year. Louisiana is #130 out of 131. Only FIU has a weaker schedule. We were #123 last year. Not many people are excited to see us play SE LA, E. Michigan, S. Alabama and GA Southern. Arkansas State and Troy bring mild excitement. Florida State, Marshall, S. Miss and Rice are the only games of real interest and they are away. Compelling P5 matchups that are highly publicized become more attractive watching at home than sitting in our stadium.

UL went 13-1 last year, finished ranked in the Top 20 and enters this year with the nation's longest winning streak. We lost our coach and several key players and all of that excitement seems lost this year. Phil Steele has us as down to #81 in the country, well behind App State who he lists as #49 and even Marshall at #75. We are under a new coach who will have to prove to our fans and to the media that UL is still the real deal.

Without a P5 opponent to get fans excited like a win over Iowa State, the excitement of all that we accomplished the past 3 years is lost with our two opening opponents at home. We need to be playing 2 P5 schools each year. Florida State doesn't come around until our second to last game. We need another P5 opponent to start the year like Iowa State or Texas. Win a big early season game and fans get excited and, hopefully, show up. But, can we keep them coming back?

But, people showed up to the championship game at Cajun Field. It's the largest attendance to date for a SBC Championship game. Winning is the most important factor driving attendance.

But for discussion purposes, what was the attendance for Oklahoma State, Minnesota and Kansas State at Cajun Field? Outside of the games against Alabama and Texas A&M, P5 programs coming to Cajun Field haven't been attended heavily. Today the cost of 2 for 1 deals if you can make them, will not be recouped by attendance at Cajun Field. This is why the neutral site game was a much better idea for splitting the gate financially.

Now, I do agree with you that a more attractive home schedule against the likes of Houston, Memphis, ECU, Fresno State and UAB would be ideal. But you will find that in discussion with Dr. Maggard, he is and has approached a number of these programs and they aren't too excited about coming to Cajun Field since we have this winning stretch.

[John Cocktolstoy]

But, people showed up to the championship game at Cajun Field. It's the largest attendance to date for a SBC Championship game. Winning is the most important factor driving attendance.

But for discussion purposes, what was the attendance for Oklahoma State, Minnesota and Kansas State at Cajun Field? Outside of the games against Alabama and Texas A&M, P5 programs coming to Cajun Field haven't been attended heavily. Today the cost of 2 for 1 deals if you can make them, will not be recouped by attendance at Cajun Field. This is why the neutral site game was a much better idea for splitting the gate financially.

Now, I do agree with you that a more attractive home schedule against the likes of Houston, Memphis, ECU, Fresno State and UAB would be ideal. But you will find that in discussion with Dr. Maggard, he is and has approached a number of these programs and they aren't too excited about coming to Cajun Field since we have this winning stretch.

Hopefully some day playing in the best G5 in the country will be enough to get people to cajun field. If Troy and Ark St and Ga Southern were all as good as they once were and South Al should be on the rise this year that home schedule would be very attractive. Then in other years. You’d have So Miss, ULM, TX St mixed in with either App, Coastal, Marashall, JMU, out of the east. IF you follow college football and can’t get excited about that schedule then you you’ll never get excited about cajuns football.

[Cajun_in_NM]

At what point does the university get with the city, and do downtown alive at Cajun Field - for home football games?

[zephyr]

Just started reading this thread so still catching up halfway through, but we live in south Louisiana. People love to party here, we need to bring that to Cajun Field.

Too bad crawfish season doesn't coincide with football, we could host the world's largest crawfish boil at Cajun field. We need to think outside the box and bring the festival atmosphere to our football games.

We used to have an even better tailgating experience than we do now. There were games where I thought Cajun field would be nearly full due to the people I saw tailgating. You know what happened? Most of them just stayed and hung out outside.

[Turbine]

We used to have an even better tailgating experience than we do now. There were games where I thought Cajun field would be nearly full due to the people I saw tailgating. You know what happened? Most of them just stayed and hung out outside.

It was great advertising though.

If someone happened to drive by at game time, a part of them wanted to go to the game.

[cajun55]

We used to have an even better tailgating experience than we do now. There were games where I thought Cajun field would be nearly full due to the people I saw tailgating. You know what happened? Most of them just stayed and hung out outside.

We were not having the success we are now when tailgating was better. It seems like tailgating started trending in the wrong direction when we started really winning. Our schedule has done us zero favors also. Getting schools like Southern Miss and yes even someone like the dreaded LA Tech, real regional rivals that drive fan interest make a huge difference. Our schedule has been very lackluster combined with midweek games.

[Cantstandza]

We were not having the success we are now when tailgating was better. It seems like tailgating started trending in the wrong direction when we started really winning. Our schedule has done us zero favors also. Getting schools like Southern Miss and yes even someone like the dreaded LA Tech, real regional rivals that drive fan interest make a huge difference. Our schedule has been very lackluster combined with midweek games.

Tailgating started to suck when people realized $1k to cook in a parking lot is a bad deal.

[zephyr]

It was great advertising though.

If someone happened to drive by at game time, a part of them wanted to go to the game.

Did they? It didn't seem to affect overall attendance

[KajunKrazy]

At what point does the university get with the city, and do downtown alive at Cajun Field - for home football games?

Maybe when home games are on Fridays? I think that was actually done against OK St on a Friday years ago.

[KajunKrazy]

Tailgating started to suck when people realized $1k to cook in a parking lot is a bad deal.

1k? Pretty sure my spot is 500 bucks and no one TGs alone, split with a couple of friends that is nothing. Plus I am pretty sure all the reserved TG spots are sold.

[zephyr]

We were not having the success we are now when tailgating was better. It seems like tailgating started trending in the wrong direction when we started really winning. Our schedule has done us zero favors also. Getting schools like Southern Miss and yes even someone like the dreaded LA Tech, real regional rivals that drive fan interest make a huge difference. Our schedule has been very lackluster combined with midweek games.

I understand and agree. That's my point. Our success on the field doesn't affect our tailgating as our fan base is largely rooted in LSU