What is behind UL football's attendance woes? Numerous obstacles keep fans from Cajun Field

[NewsCopy]

What is behind UL football's attendance woes?

Numerous obstacles keep fans from Cajun Field.

Advocate Subscribers ONLY

[CajunJack55]

anyone have the cliff notes....

[Cajunrunner]

Over $100 for a year subscription to The Sadvocate. EL OH EL.

[nathancpike]

What is behind UL football's attendance woes? Numerous obstacles keep fans from Cajun Field

BY KEVIN FOOTE

There were so many great results of UL’s dramatic 34-30 comeback win over Texas State Oct. 7 at Cajun Field.

Topping that list was avoiding an 0-2 start to Sun Belt play and keeping the Ragin’ Cajuns from enduring an open date coming off a loss.
There was, however, one disappointing aspect of the win. Only 15,053 fans showed up.

Attendance has rarely been good. When the Cajuns went 13-1, were ranked in the Top 25 for much of the season and won the Sun Belt championship for the first time, there were four home crowds under 21,000.

The conference championship game was better at 31,014, but wasn’t even close to a packed house.

The top five attended games in Cajun Field history are all because of the opponent — Southern twice, Texas A&M, Alabama and McNeese.

In my mind, if the crowd isn’t coming to see you play, it’s fool’s gold.

There was the 2011 season when UL averaged 29,172 fans in coach Mark Hudspeth’s first season. It was fun.

Of the five home games that year, 26,339 was the smallest crowd and the North Texas game of 32,823 is really the largest UL crowd in school history in my mind.

But the novelty of the program’s first bowl berth since 1970 didn’t last long. By 2012, the average dipped to 22,865, and that was only because the Tulane game drew 29,758.

Four of the other five games were 21,109 and below.

“I don’t think there’s one answer out there,” Bryan Maggard, Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics, said of football's longtime attendance woes.

“If there was one sure answer out there, someone would market it, retire and make a lot of money.”

That doesn’t mean Maggard doesn’t have a single focus in terms of a solution, however. His department’s mission is to have a renovated Cajun Field for the 2025 season.

“Right now, it’s just a situation where we don’t offer a lot for that in-game experience,” Maggard said. “We just don’t. We’re not there yet, but again, that’s why we’re doing this renovation.

“We always say we’re competing with the flatscreen television and the comfortable living room.”

Maggard is convinced offering fans a special live experience is the only true solution.

"Right now, what we can’t do is provide a premium experience," he said. "We can’t even provide a great experience for the average fan. Currently, we have chairback seats that are broken, we have chairback seats that are small, we have tread depths that aren’t what they should be.

“Outside of being a loyal fan of Ragin’ Cajuns football, there’s just not a whole lot that’s going to draw you to Cajun Field as it exists today.”

So far this season, UL ranks ninth in the Sun Belt in home attendance.

Appalachian State is on top at 36,831. The Mountaineers truly have a football tradition and dedicated fan base — an aberration in the world of mid-major football.

Troy is second at 26,973, doing a nice job of capitalizing on the momentum of last year’s Sun Belt crown with a second-year head coach.

Marshall (26,409), Southern Miss (24,922) and James Madison (24,910) are all enjoying a honeymoon period with the novelty of being in a new conference for all and the history of a winning tradition at lower levels for some.

Since his arrival in Lafayette in 2017, Maggard’s heard all the reasons for low football attendance.

They range from LSU football being 50 miles away to UL being a commuter school to a lack of football tradition.

“It’s not that I don’t buy any of those things,” Maggard said. “We just don’t spend a lot of time worrying about things we can’t control.

“There’s just a level of apathy toward the experience that people might achieve when they do come to a football game. We need to find ways to overcome that.”

In addition to the renovated stadium in two years, Maggard said his other top priority is building a quality team.

“Personally, I’d rather make sure I’m hiring the right people from a coaching perspective and providing them the resources we need to be successful in both recruiting, player development and hiring a good quality staff,” he added.

“What happens on the field, we can’t control that, but we can control things leading into that.”

Perhaps some didn't like Maggard's choice of head coach. That opinion isn't holding water as time goes on.

Perhaps some incorrectly thought the Old Dominion loss was an "embarrassing" example of poor decisions. As it's turned out, the Monarchs are 3-3 and 2-1 with that one loss being to highly touted Marshall at the wire after leading most of the game.

Over the years, the reasons for not showing up range from politics to tailgating issues to parking. Most of them are simply empty excuses without any true pattern.

"That’s the nature of our beast," Maggard said. "When you win, the naysayers are quiet and when you lose, they clink. But if I made my decisions based on that small percentage of people who think they’re helping the program when they do that when in reality they’re hurting the program, I wouldn’t be in this chair very long."

[Million$Mullet]

At least he acknowledges that we don’t offer jack schitt for the in game experience. What I don’t like is that it seems like he is putting all his eggs into the reno basket. Work with what we got now and build on that.

[KajunKrazy]

I don’t disagree with you, but he hasn’t got anything to work with that the no shows haven’t seen already. I think the new stadium will get many people curious and they will come at least once to see it. Hopefully the have a good experience.

I can see next year being a cluster f____ with all the construction going on and only having the east side and the end zones available. No need to build new fans now when you will have to turn them away next year.

[cajungrad2001]

At least he acknowledges that we don’t offer jack schitt for the in game experience. What I don’t like is that it seems like he is putting all his eggs into the reno basket. Work with what we got now and build on that.

It’s hard to build up a fan base when you have Martin Hall chasing the Greeks and students away with all their ideas. Had a good turnout student wise for the first game but after that stunt they pulled a few weeks ago not as many showing up and I can’t blame them.

[Cajunsmike]

Even though that situation may have been overblown, it appears it did damage the relationship between students and athletics. That needs to be repaired. I wish Kevin and Dr.Maggard would have discussed that situation

[zeppelincajun]

At least he acknowledges that we don’t offer jack schitt for the in game experience. What I don’t like is that it seems like he is putting all his eggs into the reno basket. Work with what we got now and build on that.

This is how I took it as well.

Tailgating and parking are two things that have been fails that we could try to improve without a state of the art stadium.

[KajunKrazy]

Even though that situation may have been overblown, it appears it did damage the relationship between students and athletics. That needs to be repaired. I wish Kevin and Dr.Maggard would have discussed that situation

I don’t see it as being overblown at all. I am one that thinks the Greeks should have abstained from all homecoming activities this week and show them what homecoming looks like without a Greek system. It is not just about the tailgate a few weeks ago its been going on since they hired Hidie Lindsay.

[KajunKrazy]

This is how I took it as well.

Tailgating and parking are two things that have been fails that we could try to improve without a state of the art stadium.

Definitely need a place for walk up first come first serve tailgating like every on campus has. It needs not be where current tailgating takes place.

[Cajunsmike]

I don’t see it as being overblown at all. I am one that thinks the Greeks should have abstained from all homecoming activities this week and show them what homecoming looks like without a Greek system. It is not just about the tailgate a few weeks ago its been going on since they hired Hidie Lindsay.

I will not argue that point. It just adds to my position that this is something that Kevin should have brought up in his article. Note, that comment is not meant to be overly critical of Kevin’s article. It was well written and balanced.

[fanof71]

Props to Foote for at least recognizing the issue at hand...That's a better job than the rest of the UL Blow Buddy's in the local "media"...

[CajunEXPRESS]

We absolutely have to repair the relationship between the school and the students, especially this overblown worry about alcohol. Get a few more Acadian ambulance with alcohol overconsumption specialists if an emergency happens.

Ultimately that’s about all you can do to people who have reached majority age for everything except alcohol, gambling, and maybe firearms. Nonsense all three

[cajun4life]

You can’t market to something that doesn’t exist. Start building your base now! Market to on campus students and high schools. 2 decades of that and maybe, we might see some support start to grow.