Ragin Review Postgame: Troy Trojans

[shof]

Finally had a chance to listen last night. Love the passion. Keep on pounding away! Really pleased to hear a couple of current students chime in. Sad to hear how poorly the university is communicating to what should be the MOST IMPORTANT part of our fanbase— the students! You can’t grow a strong fanbase without capturing the students NOW. Seeing the student section on TV Saturday was demoralizing!! And UNACCEPTABLE. This administration better wake the &ell up and FAST. I’ve been a fan of this program, my alma mater, since the early 70’s. Rarely missed a game during my student years. It freaking hurt to see such a putrid turnout and particularly for our senior football class. Unacceptable is an understatement!!!

[BabbForHeisman]

Listened this morning. One thing that stood out…the students talking about no promotion. Isn’t that one of the key functions of the UPC? Where are they? Or have things changed?

When I was a student, the NCAA had a rule about if you didn’t average 15K in the stands, you might get sent down to I-AA (lol to think about that now). It was literally all hands on deck to get to students to the games.

DO WE NOT CARE ANYMORE?

[zeppelincajun]

Listened this morning. One thing that stood out…the students talking about no promotion. Isn’t that one of the key functions of the UPC? Where are they? Or have things changed?

When I was a student, the NCAA had a rule about if you didn’t average 15K in the stands, you might get sent down to I-AA (lol to think about that now). It was literally all hands on deck to get to students to the games.

DO WE NOT CARE ANYMORE?

What scares me is that if you follow any of the people associated with this program on social media it’s easy to see they think they are doing nothing wrong and it’s all on the fans.

[CajunVic]

What scares me is that if you follow any of the people associated with this program on social media it’s easy to see they think they are doing nothing wrong and it’s all on the fans.

Well, only a fan can show up. Who else can it be on . . .

[moorecajun]

I don't think we have to start that young. If we can just educate the students at Freshmen orientation, that would go a long way. It took Hud all of one calendar year to get fans packed into Cajun Field. Maybe even less than that.

I do agree with you last sentence. But lots of UL alumni were once taken to LSU&A&MC games, and Tulane games and Tech games. The difference is, when we stepped foot onto campus and understood what it meant to be a Cajun, we got rid of any other loyalty. That's the difference.

IMO, I think we need to actively pursue the families; give them a financial break by letting all grade school children in for free. Let high school (I am calling that grades 9-10) in for a buck. Generate excitement by getting a crowd in the stadium. The kids are a lot more vocal too. The parents can spend their money on concessions.

Let's generate excitement.

[moorecajun]

Remember that time the UPC organized a color party instead of an on-campus USM watch party? I remember


There should be a giant inflatable projector screen with all away football games on in Cypress Lake Plaza, otherwise what was the point and use of beautifying that area?

That is a GREAT idea!

[JamesTheJeweler]

IMO, I think we need to actively pursue the families; give them a financial break by letting all grade school children in for free. Let high school (I am calling that grades 9-10) in for a buck. Generate excitement by getting a crowd in the stadium. The kids are a lot more vocal too. The parents can spend their money on concessions.

Let's generate excitement.

They'll do nothing. It's 2 days before the game FFS. Don't expect them to do anything that they haven't done all year. Whoever is in charge of promotion and marketing is an abject failure. He/she is stealing money at this point.

[ManAboutTown]

What scares me is that if you follow any of the people associated with this program on social media it’s easy to see they think they are doing nothing wrong and it’s all on the fans.

This is a fact. Try talking to them. It's always deflection. Blame donors and fans. A person in the RCAF office that just left for another job after 6 months (shocked) literally fabricated a story about me sending a "nasty email" to them. I've literally never emailed the RCAF. I've dealt with them personally for every issue I've ever had, outside of asking for my account number. Too many people take things personally; too many people take feedback as criticism. We are broken, as an organization, at pretty much every level and until someone starts taking personal responsibility for failures, nothing will ever change.

[zeppelincajun]

This is a fact. Try talking to them. It's always deflection. Blame donors and fans. A person in the RCAF office that just left for another job after 6 months (shocked) literally fabricated a story about me sending a "nasty email" to them. I've literally never emailed the RCAF. I've dealt with them personally for every issue I've ever had, outside of asking for my account number. Too many people take things personally; too many people take feedback as criticism. We are broken, as an organization, at pretty much every level and until someone starts taking personally responsibility for failures, nothing will ever change.

I'll give a small scale example of the mindset I'm talking about.

Some hooligan tweeted this video out last Friday showing that basketball tickets could not be purchased by the general public online:

https://twitter.com/agr7416cajun/sta...ImfThKqa6ICsPg

Brandon Domingue (Director of Premium Seating and Memberships for RCAF) responded 9 hours later, "I apologize for your experience! This issue has been resolved. If you have any additional questions or concerns please contact me directly."

On Sunday morning the following tweet is sent out by a Cajuns fan, "UL shouldn’t have to go around advertising games 24/7. Students and fans should want to know when the Cajuns play. They don’t have these issues for baseball…it’s a fan issue not a admin issues IMO." No shade to this fan intended at all. They are a great fan and entitled to their opinion, but who should like the tweet? Mr. Domingue. The same dude who needed to be told by fans on Twitter 3 days before the start of basketball season that season tickets were unable to be purchased online. Kindly please take a seat sir. Zero self reflection. Zero accountability. I'm sick of it. Wake up or get out is all I have left to say to these people.

[ManAboutTown]

I'll give a small scale example of the mindset I'm talking about.

Some hooligan tweeted this video out last Friday showing that basketball tickets could not be purchased by the general public online:

https://twitter.com/agr7416cajun/sta...ImfThKqa6ICsPg

Brandon Domingue (Director of Premium Seating and Memberships for RCAF) responded 9 hours later, "I apologize for your experience! This issue has been resolved. If you have any additional questions or concerns please contact me directly."

On Sunday morning the following tweet is sent out by a Cajuns fan, "UL shouldn’t have to go around advertising games 24/7. Students and fans should want to know when the Cajuns play. They don’t have these issues for baseball…it’s a fan issue not a admin issues IMO." No shade to this fan intended at all. They are a great fan and entitled to their opinion, but who should like the tweet? Mr. Domingue. The same dude who needed to be told by fans on Twitter 3 days before the start of basketball season that season tickets were unable to be purchased online. Kindly please take a seat sir. Zero self reflection. Zero accountability. I'm sick of it. Wake up or get out is all I have left to say to these people.

There is a reason why we don't even have 2k members of RCAF. And look, I get that they're understaffed. But when the blueprint of starting a student membership program is handed to you, explained in detail how to make it work and results are in front of you... And your answer is "we just don't have time for that right now", I'm sorry, that is absolutely unacceptable. I have conversations with people all of the time about how this whole concierge thing is just not working. People feel like the RCAF staff are cultivating them at all times. (Another problem we have, is milking the same cows for more milk.)

The exact quote from a woman I was speaking to at a tailgate Saturday: "They need to hire people like us. When we talk to you, or Gerry or Nick, y'all make us want to support the sports teams. Because y'all care. It's not a job to y'all."

I'm not sure you can replicate fans being fans, or stick them in a blazer and tie and expect that same level of familiarity, but man, if I had a dollar for every time I've been told something like that, I'd be our biggest RCAF donor.

[fanof71]

I'll give a small scale example of the mindset I'm talking about.

Some hooligan tweeted this video out last Friday showing that basketball tickets could not be purchased by the general public online:

https://twitter.com/agr7416cajun/sta...ImfThKqa6ICsPg

Brandon Domingue (Director of Premium Seating and Memberships for RCAF) responded 9 hours later, "I apologize for your experience! This issue has been resolved. If you have any additional questions or concerns please contact me directly."

On Sunday morning the following tweet is sent out by a Cajuns fan, "UL shouldn’t have to go around advertising games 24/7. Students and fans should want to know when the Cajuns play. They don’t have these issues for baseball…it’s a fan issue not a admin issues IMO." No shade to this fan intended at all. They are a great fan and entitled to their opinion, but who should like the tweet? Mr. Domingue. The same dude who needed to be told by fans on Twitter 3 days before the start of basketball season that season tickets were unable to be purchased online. Kindly please take a seat sir. Zero self reflection. Zero accountability. I'm sick of it. Wake up or get out is all I have left to say to these people.

Yet another worthless hire...can't beta test the season ticket site? Must be all the Lafonda lunches getting in the way...

[ManAboutTown]

Yet another worthless hire...can't beta test the season ticket site? Must be all the Lafonda lunches getting in the way...

I'm not ready to call it a worthless hire. I think he's learning some hard lessons early on in the job. But there has got to be change. This group of staffers will either dig us out of an enormous hole or bury us for good, financially. We are in a new day and age with regard to collegiate athletics. We have GOT to get the next few years right.