Win The Event?

[Bandwagon King]

So you mentioned the Gumbo Cookoff and Tailgate Cookoff are New Iberia and Loreauville events that average 30k and 4k each. Take the parishes of Lafayette, St. Martin, Iberia, Vermilion, Acadia, and St. Landry combined. That's almost 600k in population. There's a lot of potential fans to go around with these events, but I'm talking about events within Lafayette Parish alone. Comic Con, Festival Acadiens, Latin Festival....the low hanging fruit here is the communication between these festivals and the local community within the parish. And look, it may not work. I don't know. But we will never know if we don't attempt to, again, TRY.

The people I spoke with at Old Tyme which is what? 4 blocks from the campus at most, didn't even know there was a game on Saturday. That was like 5 out of 6 tables of people. ULMH isn't trying to market their product. They are attempting to not market their product.

[ManAboutTown]

No festival is having an "annexed version" of their event at a separate location. You're thinking of it as a benefit to UL. They could care less about football. They only care about making money for themselves. Their events also usually end around 10 or 11. What time does a UL game end? At the same time.

I'm speaking from the festivals point of view. I work with groups that put on multiple events and that's their way of thinking. Just like you're thinking abut it from the UL point of view.

So you work directly with CODAFIL? You work directly with the DownTown Development Authority? I'm going to guess no because I grew up with Louie Ancelet and I've had conversations with Barry on more than one occasion about bringing the Acadien Festival together with UL athletics in some capacity. An Annex version is simply a small sample to get you to buy the entire 3 course meal. Further than that, you don't speak for all the festivals around the area. We're not talking about an event in Loureauville. We're talking big time events that will get people to the games. And btw, having an annex version of a larger festival absolutely benefits them by getting the awareness to 20k+ people, many of which are new students, out of towners, and football fans that might not even know about these festivals. It benefits both parties.

Also, its FREEEEEE to ask questions. It's FREEEE to have a meeting. It's FREEEEE to negotiate.

Stop with the culture of CANT.

[cjr3888]

So you work directly with CODAFIL? You work directly with the DownTown Development Authority? I'm going to guess no because I grew up with Louie Ancelet and I've had conversations with Barry on more than one occasion about bringing the Acadien Festival together with UL athletics in some capacity. An Annex version is simply a small sample to get you to buy the entire 3 course meal. Further than that, you don't speak for all the festivals around the area. We're not talking about an event in Loureauville. We're talking big time events that will get people to the games. And btw, having an annex version of a larger festival absolutely benefits them by getting the awareness to 20k+ people, many of which are new students, out of towners, and football fans that might not even know about these festivals. It benefits both parties.

Also, its FREEEEEE to ask questions. It's FREEEE to have a meeting. It's FREEEEE to negotiate.

Stop with the culture of CANT.

Never said I work with CODAFIL or DTA but I do work with other events and organizers in the area. Want to get an annexed version of a festival to Cajun Field on a Saturday? You better start planning now. Oh wait, the conference schedule isn't out yet so you don't even know if a festival will be scheduled on game day. I'm just pointing out the reality of scheduling. Your opinion of what will bring people is just that, your opinion. It's not a culture of CANT, I'm pointing out the viewpoint of the other side.

[Esqueleto]

Another great point. Why have the replays gone down so much? Almost never see replays on the video board. And can we please get back to updating CF crowd on SBC games around the country???

Agreed, I thought ULM did a great job of reporting conference scores throughout the game.

[Turbine]

When I ran the old scoreboard we used to scroll scores of interest across.

Only problem was, if there was a drizzle at any point in the 72-hours leading up to the game, it would quit working.

[zeppelincajun]

Failed miserably again.

WOMP WOMP

Unfortunately agree. Waiting and hoping for the day we aren’t talking about this.

[ManAboutTown]

Never said I work with CODAFIL or DTA but I do work with other events and organizers in the area. Want to get an annexed version of a festival to Cajun Field on a Saturday? You better start planning now. Oh wait, the conference schedule isn't out yet so you don't even know if a festival will be scheduled on game day. I'm just pointing out the reality of scheduling. Your opinion of what will bring people is just that, your opinion. It's not a culture of CANT, I'm pointing out the viewpoint of the other side.

You're pointing out why the admin shouldn't be blamed for being stuck in neutral. Like you always do. Working "with groups" to do cook-offs in Loreauville means nothing when you're talking about relationships between the University and private organizations that promote our culture world wide. I'm sure you'll probably take that the wrong way, but it's not meant to be a shot. We have too many people that think nothing exists outside of how they do things in St. Landry or St. Martin or Iberia or Acadia or whatever parish. Small time thinking gets you small time results.

The amount of people or the desire to commingle Louisiana culture and Louisiana Athletics is not an opinion: they are long standing facts. Festivals attract large crowds in this area and promoters want to do business with Louisiana Football. Somebody, somewhere can figure something out. Again, it is FREEEEE to TRY.

[cjr3888]

You're pointing out why the admin shouldn't be blamed for being stuck in neutral. Like you always do. Working "with groups" to do cook-offs in Loreauville means nothing when you're talking about relationships between the University and private organizations that promote our culture world wide. I'm sure you'll probably take that the wrong way, but it's not meant to be a shot. We have too many people that think nothing exists outside of how they do things in St. Landry or St. Martin or Iberia or Acadia or whatever parish. Small time thinking gets you small time results.

The amount of people or the desire to commingle Louisiana culture and Louisiana Athletics is not an opinion: they are long standing facts. Festivals attract large crowds in this area and promoters want to do business with Louisiana Football. Somebody, somewhere can figure something out. Again, it is FREEEEE to TRY.

Once again, you don't have any idea what we do when it comes to these groups and events. Yes, we work with organizations that promote our culture world wide. We work with Grand Reveil Acadien, La CommissionDe L'Odyssee Acadienne, Louisiana Travel & Billy Nungesser, Iberia Parish Tourist Commission. Oh yeah, the Canadian Government is also helping us with a project. But our (event coordinators) way of thinking that brings in tons of money to our area wouldn't help UL and "larger events" because we have a small way of thinking.

I never said not to try, just pointing out the scheduling reality & that's just one issue.

[ManAboutTown]

Once again, you don't have any idea what we do when it comes to these groups and events. Yes, we work with organizations that promote our culture world wide. We work with Grand Reveil Acadien, La CommissionDe L'Odyssee Acadienne, Louisiana Travel & Billy Nungesser, Iberia Parish Tourist Commission. Oh yeah, the Canadian Government is also helping us with a project. But our (event coordinators) way of thinking that brings in tons of money to our area wouldn't help UL and "larger events" because we have a small way of thinking.

I never said not to try, just pointing out the scheduling reality & that's just one issue.

Congrats on your work and it helps to actually identify what "groups" you were referring to. So you're saying that those groups think it's a bad idea to get in business with a University that brands itself as Ragin Cajuns? Please explain this to me.

[cjr3888]

Congrats on your work and it helps to actually identify what "groups" you were referring to. So you're saying that those groups think it's a bad idea to get in business with a University that brands itself as Ragin Cajuns? Please explain this to me.

Grand Reveil Acadien doesn’t care about sports and promoting at football games. They’re actually not a very well run group.
La Commission De L'Odyssee Acadienne is very well run out of Canada but once again football is not even in their train of thought.
Louisiana Travel does partner with UL.
We even have Dr Rees on campus and I’ve worked with him through the New Acadia Project. He sets up a booth at our events & will talk to a tree to get the word out about our history. However, put him at a UL football game and many people will ignore him.

Many of these cultural groups are full of great ideas but don’t have any “doers” that will make the ideas a reality. UL has taken many of the ideas brought up on this board & tried them. They just haven’t gained traction.

[RedTails]

What we do well: Nothing. Anything that is being done properly is at the fan level. We tailgate like no other.

What we need to address: Every freaking thing.

Small issues that can be changed immediately: Rip up the Sodexo contract. Hire experienced event staff and stop trying to train on the job. Spend money on marketing and promotion, especially within the Acadiana outskirts area. Fill the RCAF roles that are open and STOP chasing white collar donors. Blue collar folks fill you stadiums and support your teams with passion. Get RCAF separated from the Foundation. Hire more event staff people so that we can efficiently usher people into our events. Leave the damn students alone. Stop blaring music over the band. Teach people about the game of football. Teach the band when and what to play. Spruce up the stale halftime same ole - same ole. Fix the tailgating structure. Lower the costs in the RV area until you return to the wait list. Add another band stand and make the tailgate spots a long the Betrand/Congress fences free, first come / first served basis. Add tents to both band stands to keep people out of the sun. Bring Festivals to CF parking lot. Promote the music acts in the tailgate WAY more. Bring back and prop up local vendors. Stop pricing them out of the market by trying to take too big of a cut. (They already operate on razor thing margins. Bring the food tracks back to CF and create a food truck alley at Gate C. Teach the cops how to handle traffic control. Consistency with game day schedule from beginning to end. SELL MERCHANDISE THAT PEOPLE WANT TO BUY. Stay consistent with the branding and make what we wear a fun thing again. Stop telling the customer that they are the problem. Get back to making the students feel like a big part of the equation and teach them game etiquette. Get a damn mascot. Put a cap on corporate season tickets so that the tickets we actually sell have butts in those seats. (Thats how you create atmosphere.) Bring back cocktail hour before the games. Let people tailgate inside the stadium.

That would be a decent start. There you go, Vic.

Create a numbered list of these things and go nail it to the doors of Martin Hall. Call it the Cajun Reformation.

[ULvictory]

Grand Reveil Acadien doesn’t care about sports and promoting at football games. They’re actually not a very well run group.
La Commission De L'Odyssee Acadienne is very well run out of Canada but once again football is not even in their train of thought.
Louisiana Travel does partner with UL.
We even have Dr Rees on campus and I’ve worked with him through the New Acadia Project. He sets up a booth at our events & will talk to a tree to get the word out about our history. However, put him at a UL football game and many people will ignore him.

Many of these cultural groups are full of great ideas but don’t have any “doers” that will make the ideas a reality. UL has taken many of the ideas brought up on this board & tried them. They just haven’t gained traction.

The last paragraph sums it up. Not as many "doers," and some of these ideas have not gained traction. The next thing to ask is why haven't gained traction. Better yet, what exactly did we do that didn't allow it to gain traction. Those questions need to be asked.

Time to switch gears. UL sporting events need to be treated as a tourist attraction. What kind of marketing does it take to get people into these events such as festivals? What kind of ads do they use to promote them? This is where UL can benefit by getting people through the gates. We have already established many times that the school to the east brands itself which is why people naturally go there. We have to put more of an effort than we are doing now.