How to Increase Attendance?

[Jacob81]

Stop overthinking it, offer people the same experience per game that “season” fam get. We have empty tailgate spots and empty parking spots out the ass, sell them all per game until we sell them out. Going into a Saturday home game knowing you have 25 unsold TG spots and 1000 empty parking spots and doing nothing with them is ignorant

Not perfect. I know multiple tailgate spots paid for that don’t get used for every game. You will lose a lot of the season tailgate spot buyers that will just decide to buy game by game.

Just like season tickets.

If you offered game by game tg spots you would gain some game by game but lose some season tailgate spot sales. Which could workout. But what about bad weather? Or how soon In advance of a game would you have to purchase a tailgate spot?

[USL]

The only argument that holds water with me is concession times, that needs to be fixed ASAP!

You could pay someone $40/hr to sell beer and they'd make that back for you in 4 minutes.

[CajunVic]

Went to sleep and the most innovative solution disappeared.

Who let the DOGS out?

[cjr3888]

Yes. This attendance issue is frustrating. And honestly when I’m there I don’t care how many people are there with me. We actually looked a lot better after the crowd left Saturday. So stay empty and win is fine with me. Hahaha. My biggest concern about attendance is the issue will eventually trickle down to recruiting and play on the field. Next thing you know we will suck again.

I'm around recruits year round and trust me, fan attendance is not anywhere near the top of their priority list.

[RedBug58]

I saw this past game that there was a little cheerleading clinic and the girls were invited to perform on the field. This pulled in their parents & grandparents. Now on a bigger scale, think if we invited the Lafayette High Band for a game and called it Music Night. They are the “Music” high school in the area and their band is 300+. Let them perform at halftime and play a few songs during the game. With their parents & grand parents you may be adding a couple thousand people and exposing high school kids to UL games.

[moorecajun]

We can build something like this at TG1

Attachment 16825Attachment 16826

IFF we are ever able to afford it, there is the Champions Square development in the plans (at least a few years ago) to replace the Cox building. I think that is a great place for it for a year round entertainment area.

However, as can be seen by our lack of participatory effort (I may have made that word up!), we aren't close to being ready to do that financially.

I agree with what a lot of you are saying; it takes many years to grow a fan base. We may not be patient enough to see that but that doesn't mean its not true.

Also true, winning helps. So, I, like the rest of you, will be out there, cheering on the Cajuns to another win. Eventually, the rest of the area will wake up to it.

[Jacob81]

I'm around recruits year round and trust me, fan attendance is not anywhere near the top of their priority list.

If this is in fact true then I don’t care about attendance anymore. I just want to win.

[RedBug58]

I’m told that Drew Brees lives in The Lafayette area now. Invite him to a game and have him sign autographs inside the stadium. Promote it as Drew Brees night and give away some Saints tickets.

[Jacob81]

I’m told that Drew Brees lives in The Lafayette area now. Invite him to a game and have him sign autographs inside the stadium. Promote it as Drew Brees night and give away some Saints tickets.

Nobody seems to want to give away our tickets. Good luck talking then into saints tickets. That would actually cost the school money.

[RedBug58]

You missed the point. Every kid around here would want to meet Drew Brees; and if it’s in the stadium before the game the kids and parents would have to buy game tickets.

[Duggie35]

I don't think admission to Cajun Football games should be free to anyone on a regular basis. I would be OK with that occasionally for certain groups (kids, veterans, first responders, Boys & Girls Club, etc) for certain games. But not on a regular basis. For anyone to think that UL will make more money on concessions from those getting in free is ridiculous. The concession stands can't handle the volume of fans now, much less adding additional folks trying to purchase. Apparently, each concession area can only handle "X" number of people during the course of a game. Letting more people in for free will only create longer lines and even more frustration for those that actually pay to get into the games.

It's just me, but Saturday night was the first time I have gone to a concession stand to purchase anything DURING a game in maybe 5 or 6 seasons. The only reason I did it Saturday was because I'm a softy and one of my my Grandkids wanted Kettle Corn. Since that was about a 20-30 minute experience, that will probably be my last purchase until the stadium is renovated and someone can get a handle on improving the time it takes to purchase concessions. But for those that go to the games to eat and drink, rather than watch the game, it may not be as big a deal as it is for me.

[Jacob81]

I don't think admission to Cajun Football games should be free to anyone on a regular basis. I would be OK with that occasionally for certain groups (kids, veterans, first responders, Boys & Girls Club, etc) for certain games. But not on a regular basis. For anyone to think that UL will make more money on concessions from those getting in free is ridiculous. The concession stands can't handle the volume of fans now, much less adding additional folks trying to purchase. Apparently, each concession area can only handle "X" number of people during the course of a game. Letting more people in for free will only create longer lines and even more frustration for those that actually pay to get into the games.

It's just me, but Saturday night was the first time I have gone to a concession stand to purchase anything DURING a game in maybe 5 or 6 seasons. The only reason I did it Saturday was because I'm a softy and one of my my Grandkids wanted Kettle Corn. Since that was about a 20-30 minute experience, that will probably be my last purchase until the stadium is renovated and someone can get a handle on improving the time it takes to purchase concessions. But for those that go to the games to eat and drink, rather than watch the game, it may not be as big a deal as it is for me.

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.