Here are a few suggestions.
1. Bring the greek organizations and student tailgate as close to Cajun Field as possible.
2. Reduce the cost of kids under 12 until we can command full cost.
3. Create Cajun Football Ambassadors. They should hold court by having breakfast with fans at some of Acadiana's most notable spots. I.E., Poches(Breaux Bridge), Victor's Cafe (New Iberia), Cannata's (Morgan City). Even if people don't show up initially, be consistent, they will come.
4. Capture the 35-45 year old demographic. Get serious about a younger RCAF group. Put a few on the board. Create a "Stay & Play" package for those outside of Acadiana.
Hilton Cajundome, game tickets, alumni tailgate access.
5. Dr. Maggard is doing a great job, but we all may have to pitch in and accept volunteer roles to get this thing going. Dr. Maggard is making this happen with a skeleton crew. He should be applauded. He'll need as many of us as he can get.
Geaux Cajuns
I was discussing 4 and 6pm windows. I offered no other conclusion. Just the data
Stanford last two home games are free in an attempt to get new fans.
Thanks for sharing. Very sobering look at our attendance regardless of kick off time. Attendance, not that we were ever consistent, ticked down somewhat after the 2016 through 2019 fans not even returning when Napier restored a winning record. The 2020 season attendance was an anomaly and 2021 was a partial pandemic year. But 2022 everything is open everywhere, and coming off a championship season seeing the stubbornly low attendance/fan apathy is surprising. Granted hyper inflation is taking a big bite out of disposable income this year but people are getting out and about again. Still we need to step up marketing to coax our fickle fan base to pay a visit to next home game. And the University needs to focus group with students to recruit them back to games. That aspect seems completely broken but can be revived with consistent effort.
USLJim is right on the money. I want to take a poll and I bet at least 80 To 90% are 55 and older who are on this forum. My parents generation make up the majority of Cajun Fans .they are the heart and soul of this university.
The University better do something because they manage to cut out the 40 and younger crowd.
Now with Maggard! What has he done? He found a great football, softball, and baseball coach . Okay I give him that and that is his job .
Where he is lacking is fan support, and renovations.
He needs to focus now on fan interaction, fan engagement, and fan support, and renovation and amenities inside Cajun Field. Whether he likes that job or not that is his job.
Personally I think that part would be the greatest part of the AD job. Figuring out how to build a University to become the premier football experiences in all of college sports.
Something needs to be done because in 10 yrs we gonna have 5k people show up on game day.
Our attendance, to this day, is tied at the hip to the Oil industry. In the history of Cajun Football, our 2 greatest attendance spikes both occurred during Boom times for local oil business, late 70's, early 2010's.
Apart from that, we have done a very poor job of retainment of fans due to poor gameday experiences and periodic knee capping of the program by you know who.
1-The RCAF must be independent like the TAF.
2-Gameday experience must be fixed permanently. (Concessions, music, restrooms, etc)
3-Youth programs must be expanded and made permanent.
4-Community outreach to local working class families is paramount.
We do all of the above, I promise you that we will see exponential growth of attendance and fundraising.
I agree. Most 35-45 year olds are in their peak earning years.
They're past the "party" stage of life and they can appreciate a good family friendly event.
Most UL graduates in this demographic also attended school with half of our coaching staff.
We have to get this group re-engaged.
Simple and yet powerful....I would add poor in game experience, pre-game outside CF is solid...
Let me leave a hint for Evan Roberts and Sam DeMuzio...start calling around, or even better, visiting schools that have developed solutions, real solutions to the problems we face with attendance. Go to Utah, Go to App, Capitalize on the assets we have as a community and a culture. There is no sin in stealing an idea...which we obviously lack as the proof or the efforts are seen each home game. Schools that have loosing records and reputations have better attendance than UL. The school is on a 2 year, 17-4 run...and you can't draw any students or create excitement during the week for a Saturday game...Oh, Oh, Alice Shu had a home game...big whoop. Ever seen a billboard for an airport asking you to fly the local port instead of driving an hour away to fly? Same principle, local airport gives REASONS to fly local. But....and this is a big but...UL football and athletics has too , I said has too, stay visable year round. Easy enough to do with digital products, reaching students is so easy now days anyone can do it. This situation is really no different than a service or a retailer whos looking to increase traffic. Its really that simple...I just don't get it when all the resources are already available to tackle this issue.
Speaking of young fans, what ever happened to letting little kids run on the field before the game. Maybe go to all the elementary schools and offer free tickets to the students and say they are allowed to run on the field pre-game. I'm sure they will have numerous kids begging their parents to go to the game to run on the field and the parents would then have to buy tickets.
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