Increasing Attendance at Our Sporting Events

[CajunNation]

... Marginal fans? You see the results. Mike has to clean up his public engagement communications. Also he has to do a lot more events...

Cajun people are known worldwide for our expressive, outgoing personality. In a way, Hud was more Cajun than any Head Coach we've ever had. It's why he connected with the fan base so much.

[CajunNation]

None of that matters if the horses get to the trough and its filled with ___, like every single time we get people to the stadium in the past. People will not drop a couple hundred bucks per game to have a bad time, doesnt matter how many key note speaker events our coaches do. Im not the one missing the point. Casual fans want to be entertained on gameday and I hate to break it to you but our target audience is not in board meetings. That is not who we are going to fill the stadium with.

We play in Our Lady of Lourdes stadium. CMD should be on a never ending speaking tour with all KC chapters in Acadiana. Make a cultural connection. Expand from there.

[ZoomZoom]

you go to to church listen to the preist, people dont pay to listen to mike talk.

And if enough butts (donors) aren’t in the pews, the church closes. It’s the business part of religion.

[babysitter]

You can make all the suggestions you want but WINNING cures all. WINNING and winning a lot. WINNING games against quality opponents in all major sports. Football has beaten no one since Texas A&M. If you want to count Iowa St on the road, go with that. Point is, people [FANS] want a good product to spend their time and their money on. If you think this newly renovated stadium is the cure all, think again. At first like anything new in Lafayette, people will go see and experience early on but that will wear off real quick. Too many examples of that in the past. If this administration doesn't get their ____ together quickly for the fans sake [especially for football] we'll be rockin and rollin in D1-A. It's really pathetic times that we're witnessing.

[cajun55]

How about Electronic UL billboards in strategic locations. Have one off or near I-10. One off 90 towards New Iberia and a couple in Lafayette. Would be showing our matchup vs #19 James Madison right now. That could reach more potential fans than the internet blasts do in my opinion. We need to find the budget for things like this if we are serious about increasing attendance.

[ManAboutTown]

You can make all the suggestions you want but WINNING cures all. WINNING and winning a lot. WINNING games against quality opponents in all major sports. Football has beaten no one since Texas A&M. If you want to count Iowa St on the road, go with that. Point is, people [FANS] want a good product to spend their time and their money on. If you think this newly renovated stadium is the cure all, think again. At first like anything new in Lafayette, people will go see and experience early on but that will wear off real quick. Too many examples of that in the past. If this administration doesn't get their ____ together quickly for the fans sake [especially for football] we'll be rockin and rollin in D1-A. It's really pathetic times that we're witnessing.

Winning requires commitment. Not just sometimes. Not just when the economy is right. Not just when the booster clubs fall in love with the coach. Not just when academics/enrollment are down.

Consistent commitment.

[Turbine]

The problem before if it was a problem was we were not capitalizing on tailgating.

Their defintion of capitalizing is the traditional one "make more money" off this phenomenon.

Capitalizing should mean cap it all off with something even better.

[babysitter]

Winning requires commitment. Not just sometimes. Not just when the economy is right. Not just when the booster clubs fall in love with the coach. Not just when academics/enrollment are down.

Consistent commitment.

Is there such a word as "Commitment" around here ? I get what you're saying. But that would require that dirty little four letter word [WORK].

[jaxmc1023]

And if enough butts (donors) aren’t in the pews, the church closes. It’s the business part of religion.

Except that's not UL's model.. They want the donations from the congregation but really couldn't care less if the people actually show up to pray

You can make all the suggestions you want but WINNING cures all. WINNING and winning a lot.

No it doesn't. The veil is lifted. There was always this imaginary hump that we were SO CLOSE to getting over.. Hud was close, going to our first bowl game. Napier was closer, with our first national ranking. But in the end, the end result was the same -- lame bowl game against a mid-tier G5 team. There is no corner, there is no hump. The system is designed to keep G5 teams where they are -- fighting over one or two scraps, while churning out talent -- players and coaches -- for P5 teams to poach when necessary. Advertising players and coaches is pointless because they will rarely stay long enough to have a lasting effect.

Some people can only make one or two games a year, that is why it is so important to reach a wide array of people.

MOST people can only make one or two games a year. Yet the school relies completely on using season ticket pricing as the main 'promotion' to get people to games.

I would bet my house that their big marketing push this season will be to buy season tickets so that you have a spot in line to renew them for the new stadium. They'll sell about 5-6k of them...

People continue to comment that tickets are too expensive, and are always met with "season tickets average out to $18 per game!". The only way that deal works is if by some miracle you can free up 5 Saturdays and a Thursday night to use them all.

It’s not about the price it is about the experience, the price is just the excuse because they really don’t want to go to the game .

When I say price I am not willing to drop 1,500 for one game to tailgate for one game.

This is why we need to have festival type atmosphere where I may drop 100 on drinks, food and tailgating before I even walk into the stadium.

We are always going to have coaching and roster turnover. We are always going to have crummy home games. There is no magical season coming where we reach a playoff spot, then suddenly we're in the national conversation every year. We will always regress to the ebb and flow of G5 football inconsistency.

Focus your attention on building Cajun Gameday. The football program will always rise and fall, but the one thing you CAN control is the fan experience on Saturday.

Saw a comment say tailgating is not a money maker. In what world is that true?

Every Saturday you could turn Cajun Field into a giant cash machine. A stage playing local music, surrounded by local drink and food vendors (festival int.). A row of local vendors selling their wooden spoons, soaps, etc. (Moncus farmers market). A row of local amateur cooks, in a chili/gumbo/bbq cookoff each Saturday -- $10 gets you a tasting sample from each tent and a vote.

The Lafayette model is proven year after year -- get people in the door, and they'll spend money.

Get people into Cajun Field, and they'll shoulder some of the cost of reducing single game ticket prices.

[Ragin9221]

Except that's not UL's model.. They want the donations from the congregation but really couldn't care less if the people actually show up to pray



No it doesn't. The veil is lifted. There was always this imaginary hump that we were SO CLOSE to getting over.. Hud was close, going to our first bowl game. Napier was closer, with our first national ranking. But in the end, the end result was the same -- lame bowl game against a mid-tier G5 team. There is no corner, there is no hump. The system is designed to keep G5 teams where they are -- fighting over one or two scraps, while churning out talent -- players and coaches -- for P5 teams to poach when necessary. Advertising players and coaches is pointless because they will rarely stay long enough to have a lasting effect.



MOST people can only make one or two games a year. Yet the school relies completely on using season ticket pricing as the main 'promotion' to get people to games.

I would bet my house that their big marketing push this season will be to buy season tickets so that you have a spot in line to renew them for the new stadium. They'll sell about 5-6k of them...

People continue to comment that tickets are too expensive, and are always met with "season tickets average out to $18 per game!". The only way that deal works is if by some miracle you can free up 5 Saturdays and a Thursday night to use them all.



We are always going to have coaching and roster turnover. We are always going to have crummy home games. There is no magical season coming where we reach a playoff spot, then suddenly we're in the national conversation every year. We will always regress to the ebb and flow of G5 football inconsistency.

Focus your attention on building Cajun Gameday. The football program will always rise and fall, but the one thing you CAN control is the fan experience on Saturday.

Saw a comment say tailgating is not a money maker. In what world is that true?

Every Saturday you could turn Cajun Field into a giant cash machine. A stage playing local music, surrounded by local drink and food vendors (festival int.). A row of local vendors selling their wooden spoons, soaps, etc. (Moncus farmers market). A row of local amateur cooks, in a chili/gumbo/bbq cookoff each Saturday -- $10 gets you a tasting sample from each tent and a vote.

The Lafayette model is proven year after year -- get people in the door, and they'll spend money.

Get people into Cajun Field, and they'll shoulder some of the cost of reducing single game ticket prices.

Amen to this !!