How to Increase Attendance?

[RedTails]

If the availability and price of concessions is what's keeping folks home, that's another in a long line of Lafayette excuses. Its not perfect, but I haven't been in a stadium where perfect is on the menue. You should try to get a popcorn or beer at some professional venues, its every bit as bad of an experience.

If you want a big crowd at Cajun Field, the experience has to be better than the experience is at your house or someone's watch party.

You aren't going to draw big crowds of people that attend in person just for the love of the game anymore. Like everyone has said, this will be the reality for live sporting events moving forward with giant flat screen TVs and streaming options.

Chalk it up as a "Lafayette excuse" but if we want the casual fan to come into the stadium with the 15k diehards, we need to figure out the hindrances and address them.

[CajunNation]

So tailgating spots are free butt you must have tickets to enter? I’m good with that But then all tailgate areas would be first come first serve? Don’t know about that.

No. Tailgating would remain the same. Only thing I am suggesting is requiring and scanning a Game Ticket to enter the fenced area around the Stadium

[Cajun_in_NM]

Why can't we do this like festivals? Have people go to kiosks around the stadium, and buy CajunBucks. They can buy them with cash or card. Now, you've solved 60% of your slowdowns by giving everyone the only accepted currency in the stadium - or you can have half the concessions paying as is, and half using CajunBucks.

At least you give the appearance of trying to make concession management better.

[cjr3888]

I figure the more restaurants serving food the less people would be in the line and less time they would have to wait

The local spots have everything already premade so their lines go much quicker. Regular concessions are making every nacho order & filling every large drink cup so that slows them down.

[CajunNation]

Concessions is a big problem. How is a 40,000 seat stadium not setup to handle 16,000 people efficiently?? Every game should be able to handle 30,000 people in a timely manner. Not wanting more people in the stadium because we can’t handle the crowd is backward thinking.

Concessions/Bathrooms are the biggest problem.

We beg people to come and give them the worst customer service experiment possible. They should feel at home, not Shawshank.

[CajunRage]

If the availability and price of concessions is what's keeping folks home, that's another in a long line of Lafayette excuses. Its not perfect, but I haven't been in a stadium where perfect is on the menue. You should try to get a popcorn or beer at some professional venues, its every bit as bad of an experience.

Apples to oranges. Pro venues don't have a demand problem. We do.

[CajunNation]

A game is a game whether you watch it from your couch or from the cheap seats. People may not leave their house for just a game because they already have it at home. A tailgate makes it an EVENT. Get people believing in and looking forward to these events again. All day outings with your friends and family culminating in damn near the most popular thing in this country…a little college football.

...and all I am saying is make that Game Ticket worth more than just a game. It should be your Ticket to the Event. We invite everybody to the Complex every Home game. 25-35k people show up, yet we only count the ones who are in a particular area of the Complex for a couple of hours. It doesn't make any sense.

[CajunNation]

Why can't we do this like festivals? Have people go to kiosks around the stadium, and buy CajunBucks. They can buy them with cash or card. Now, you've solved 60% of your slowdowns by giving everyone the only accepted currency in the stadium - or you can have half the concessions paying as is, and half using CajunBucks.

At least you give the appearance of trying to make concession management better.

Brilliant Idea.

[zeppelincajun]

Can someone clarify this for me? I’m honestly asking not attacking anyone’s point. If concessions are an infrastructure issue with the stadium design, why were concessions not this bad 15-17 years ago? Look at attendance numbers from 2005-2006. Very comparable to what we draw now. We didn’t even have the endzone concessions back then, the concessions weren’t as bad, and the quality of what was being served was much higher. Were we paying people then? Is this ALL due to credit cards? Why are we having this much trouble handling credit card use in 2022??

[GreatestStory]

Tailgating is the party before the game. People tailgating are more likely to go inside the stadium compared to people sitting on their couch.

Tailgating needs a major overhaul. I understand we need to pay if we want to be "big time", but the reality of it is most of the big time programs do NOT charge for tailgating. Sure they have areas for "premium/turnkey tailgating" where businesses/groups can pay to have the spot set up with tables, chairs, catering, etc., but that is only a small portion of their available tailgating area.

Can someone tell me how much Florida, Ole Miss, LSU, etc. charge for tailgating?

They are all known for their tailgating, and they all offer premium turnkey tailgating, but other than that they all have a "first come, first serve" policy.

I'm not going to link them all, but here is the Ole Miss' policy: With the exception of approved University-sponsored tents, all spaces are first come, first served. (SOURCE: http://olemissgameday.com/football/tailgating/ )

We could keep the whole TG1 area closest to the oak and the first couple rows of the other TG1 along Reinhardt (where they have the Cajun Walk) as reserved, other than that let people tailgate and do their thing. People would set up in the free spots as close to the stadium as possible, which would cause tailgating to be more concentrated toward the front of the stadium and not randomly spaced out all over the place.

Tailgating used to have a waiting list and the university took advantage of the situation by raising costs. This generated more revenue (which was the correct thing to do at the time). Unfortunately, increased pricing and requirements over the years caused a lot of tailgaters to give it up. Tailgating started to suffer and they never made changes to evolve with the "current state of tailgating".

SUMMARY: It's time to take a look at the current tailgating model and make major adjustments.

[RedTails]

Brilliant Idea.

If manpower is preventing some of these ideas from coming to fruition, they need to reach out for help. I get it, running an athletic program is hard enough without having to worry about putting on an event.

I think whoever is in charge of gamedays and events at the university needs to reach out to the executives at Festival International. They specialize in putting on big events that speak to the typical person in Lafayette and surrounding areas. I believe the team at FIL recently took over putting on Downtown Alive, Rhythyms on the River, and Festival Acadien.

If there was a way to get them onboard for 2023 and beyond and allow them to plan and run football events, I think it would do wonders for the gameday experience. From technologies (RFID like referenced by Cajun_in_NM), to the overall experience period.

I know Turbine has coined the phrase, "They are head over heels in love with the concept of outsourcing work to disinterested parties" but FIL team would be an interested party.

I really think it would make a way better gameday experience and allow the athletic department to maintain their focus on supporting our coaches and student-athletes.

Plus an announced partnership in the local media would generate some buzz.

[Cajun_in_NM]

If manpower is preventing some of these ideas from coming to fruition, they need to reach out for help. I get it, running an athletic program is hard enough without having to worry about putting on an event.

I think whoever is in charge of gamedays and events at the university needs to reach out to the executives at Festival International. They specialize in putting on big events that speak to the typical person in Lafayette and surrounding areas. I believe the team at FIL recently took over putting on Downtown Alive, Rhythyms on the River, and Festival Acadien.

If there was a way to get them onboard for 2023 and beyond and allow them to plan and run football events, I think it would do wonders for the gameday experience. From technologies (RFID like referenced by Cajun_in_NM), to the overall experience period.

I know Turbine has coined the phrase, "They are head over heels in love with the concept of outsourcing work to disinterested parties" but FIL team would be an interested party.

I really think it would make a way better gameday experience and allow the athletic department to maintain their focus on supporting our coaches and student-athletes.

Plus an announced partnership in the local media would generate some buzz.

Why isn't downtown alive moved to Cajun Field 6 times a year, for home football games? I'm sure the downtown businesses could be shown plenty of space to do pop-up shops in the tailgating area, and not lose revenue. Moreover, if you bring your ticket stub to the after party (downtown or tailgate), you get 20% off (only valid after 3rd quarter)).

[GreatestStory]

Regarding parking:

We know exactly how many passes to each parking lot have been sold. Instead of keeping each lot the exact same size every year, and having hundreds of unsold spots, make the size of each lot reflect the amount of passes sold (and throw in some extra in each lot for possible issues).

The lots for highest donors are closest to the stadium and work your way outward. That will leave all the unsold spots in the back of the lot towards Bertrand instead of sprinkled throughout each lot.

Then sell those unused spots in the back for $20 a pop (which is currently above their face value). Not only would this generate more revenue, but no drive up customers are getting better parking spots than fans who bought parking passes for the entire season.

When we have a lot of unsold parking spots, I don't understand the need to be an RCAF member to buy a parking pass for the season. Why add that extra restriction? Extra restrictions should only be added when we are sold out of parking spots and still have a demand.

I have covered quite a few issues regarding parking and tailgating, maybe later I can get to all the issues inside the stadium.

GEAUX CAJUNS!!

[moorecajun]

I stopped getting 20 tickets that we would hand out to customers because of the digital ticket situation.

What is the digital ticket situation? They will print them out for you at the Cajundome if you go by.

[RedTails]

Why isn't downtown alive moved to Cajun Field 6 times a year, for home football games? I'm sure the downtown businesses could be shown plenty of space to do pop-up shops in the tailgating area, and not lose revenue. Moreover, if you bring your ticket stub to the after party (downtown or tailgate), you get 20% off (only valid after 3rd quarter)).

Nah that will never happen. Downtown businesses/customers/DDA love Downtown as much as posters on this site love Cajun Field. Not saying there couldn't be some mutually beneficially promotion created between the two, but DTA would never leave DT.