Attendance Decline

[CajunFun]

How would improving our gameday operations/atmosphere and maintaining a level of success on the field hurt our community and state?

That's my point. If we aren't explicit about how that leads to a better and more effective university, then we will become like so many other sports-addled colleges, pouring money and attention into athletics to the detriment of the central mission.

You can see it across the country. I will say it again: We have 1/3 of LSU's faculty, 1/4 of her funding, 1/5 of her doctoral programs, and we have passed them up in research funding.

Ask yourself how that could possibly happen. I believe it happened because of what I am proposing: If we don't clearly articulate how athletics supports our core mission, it won't.

Which means that while we are focusing on sports, we are ignoring our core mission.

[Cajunrunner]

Should we design UL around football?

That's what started this discussion in the other thread: We hate LSU we want to be just like them. Some people here seem to advocate that approach, but I may be misinterpreting.

Me, I prefer UL, the way we are now. I love this place, I love this community. I love our priorities: students, and education, and leadership. So I want UL to play to our strengths, so that we might in turn strengthen our state and our world.

And I'm sorry, I don't see how that works by putting football first.

I just don't see that with the LSU model.

Here we go again. We’re “putting football first”. Certainly not at UL, nor will we ever.

[Cajunrunner]

I’ve never seen a reach quite like this one. Makes you wonder what sort of Lucy pulling the football away moves are upcoming from Martin Hall.

Some folks just liked it better when Martin Hall actively strangled and suppressed athletics, even to the point of telling coaches they were not allowed to approach certain people for athletic donations.

[CajunFun]

Here we go again. We’re “putting football first”. Certainly not at UL, nor will we ever.

You're new here, aren't you?

[CajunFun]

Some folks just liked it better when Martin Hall actively strangled and suppressed athletics, even to the point of telling coaches they were not allowed to approach certain people for athletic donations.

Perhaps some did. I'm not one.

What I'm pushing for is that we be very clear about how athletics supports our mission. I think it could be done.

But if we don't clearly explain how that works, and if we don't place a high priority on making it work...

...it won't happen.

[Ragin9221]

Make tailgating like a festival. Get a mascot. Have competitions with different tailgating groups. Introduce food trucks and vendors outside of Cajun Field. Have a designated tailgate area for people who don't want to spend $1,500 a year to tailgate. Get with local artists and come up with songs that appeal to Ragin' Cajun Athletics, and introduce them at the games. Have more interactions with fans, more meet-and-greets, and get out into the community to outreach. Have things for kids like a field day for a elementary school.

Imagine themed game nights, where fans dress up according to different themes—Pirates, 80s, Superheroes. Introduce loyalty programs where attending games and participating in events earns points that can be redeemed for exclusive merch or experiences. Social media challenges and fan content features can keep the community buzzing.

You could even have a “Ragin' Cajun Game Day” app with interactive features like live polling, trivia, and behind-the-scenes content. Make it more than a game; make it an experience.

[zeppelincajun]

No, you're a smart guy. I suspect you could make valid points in a two or three paragraphs.

It has been discussed ad nauseum... without resolution. Nor, as I am trying to pull out here, without clear explanation.

How does increased football attendance improve our students, their education, and our world? Please be brief, and to the point.*

*I once saw a parody of the bar exam. One question was, "Describe the history of the Roman Catholic church, and all of its impacts on philosophy, government, economy, and the arts.

"Be brief, and to the point."

Athletics gives people a vessel to stay connected with their university before they step foot on campus, while they are attending, and long after. It’s obviously not the only option, but it is a very popular one, particularly in the South. Athletics is the reason a majority of our community has a closer relationship to a university that is not within our community. This has nothing to do with trying to be like them. They are just who we are competing with for people’s entertainment dollars. If they are Kart Ranch and we are the movie theater, we don’t need to put go kart tracks down the aisles of the theater, but we have to be the best theater we can be. If they are a Creole restaurant and we are Cajun, we don’t have to starting putting tomatoes in our gumbo, but our gumbo has to be high quality.

This has to do with being the best version of ourselves. Not having our concessions be an absolute disaster anytime we get any sort of crowd above 15,000. Not blaring music that no one in the stands wants to hear at an insane volume. Not ruining a once proud tradition of tailgating by pricing out our younger fans. Not having empty parking lots inside the gates of Cajun Field because we believe it’s worth X when the market says it’s worth Y. Not running off our students when they finally do attend a game. We got good student attendance for a game a couple years back, and we lined security up and down the aisles like a corral. I’ve sat above the student section and watched a security guard stand two feet behind a couple of the students we had on the rail just waiting for them to say something that wouldn’t be acceptable in mass. How are we serving our students when we discourage them from enjoying a university event?

[CajunFun]

Oh Pearson's, you gave me a version of goose bumps with "Peason's"

I don't know enough about Pearson's to interpret. The lower the dot the better?

Was 2020 high on the chart due to no fans allowed?

You can see the point for 2020... the stats report an average attendance of about 5600.

I was living in Spain at the time, someone else will have to explain the attendance.

You are correct, however, that would pull the graph down a bit. But out of 53 data points, not much.

[Turbine]

How does increased football attendance improve our students, their education, and our world? Please be brief, and to the point.*

Not one iota.... Directly. Its purpose is seemingly unrelated.

Football creates awareness of educational existence.

High attendance motivates people, because an unasailable fact that "people want to be where people are."

A feeling of being with the in crowd motivates donations to the school.

Donations increase educational value.

[CajunNation]

It's all about the money Dr. Fun.

Student goes to Football/Baseball game. Has a blast. Keeps going. Meets girl. Becomes an alum. Keeps going to games. Marries girl. Buys season tickets. Starts Tailgating. Supports the foundation in doing these things. Has little ones. Enrolls them in YRC. They grow up as fans. Attend UL, and the cycle repeats.

This is the reason for athletics. It solidifies and grows the community of people who will support the foundation, and subsequently academics.

Surely, you see this.

[RedTails]

I will say it again: We have 1/3 of LSU's faculty, 1/4 of her funding, 1/5 of her doctoral programs, and we have passed them up in research funding.

If this is accurate, the University does not do a good job promoting itself and its accomplishments to its alumni and the surrounding community.

If perception catches up to that reality, we'd be in much better shape when it comes to the surrounding community.

[CajunFun]

Athletics gives people a vessel to stay connected with their university before they step foot on campus, while they are attending, and long after. It’s obviously not the only option, but it is a very popular one, particularly in the South. Athletics is the reason a majority of our community has a closer relationship to a university that is not within our community. This has nothing to do with trying to be like them. They are just who we are competing with for people’s entertainment dollars. If they are Kart Ranch and we are the movie theater, we don’t need to put go kart tracks down the aisles of the theater, but we have to be the best theater we can be. If they are a Creole restaurant and we are Cajun, we don’t have to starting putting tomatoes in our gumbo, but our gumbo has to be high quality.

This has to do with being the best version of ourselves. Not having our concessions be an absolute disaster anytime we get any sort of crowd above 15,000. Not blaring music that no one in the stands wants to hear at an insane volume. Not ruining a once proud tradition of tailgating by pricing out our younger fans. Not having empty parking lots inside the gates of Cajun Field because we believe it’s worth X when the market says it’s worth Y. Not running off our students when they finally do attend a game. We got good student attendance for a game a couple years back, and we lined security up and down the aisles like a corral. I’ve sat above the student section and watched a security guard stand two feet behind a couple of the students we had on the rail just waiting for them to say something that wouldn’t be acceptable in mass. How are we serving our students when we discourage them from enjoying a university event?

Excellent points. Athletics can connect people to the university.

Is that connection one that grows the university, and its mission? Not if we aren't clear about it it won't

And is that the only connection people have to a university? Because that is one of the things that fascinates me about UL, and is unusual, perhaps unique: people love this place not because of athletics, but independent of athletics.

Stay with me a second.

I mentioned how we have surpassed LSU in research funding. I have a thought about how that works.

Ironically, it's what I think that Des is doing in football, and what Robe did with baseball, and what some of our other coaches, professors, and administrators do. When I'm hammering you folks to be clear about how athletics supports our university, I think first of those two coaches.

Listen to Des's post-game last night: this team succeeds because they believe in each other, because they care about each other.

And although Des didn't mention it, I think they share this belief, his belief: Michael believes in UL. He cares about this place. He loves it.

Not just the athletics, I suspect Michael loves what I love, and what President Savoie and Provost Hebert, and dozens of administrators and faculty love about this place.

Brace yourself, it's corny as hell.

They love this place because this place loved them first. They love it because faculty and administrators cared about them, believed in them, urged them to aim high, and not only told them they were capable of excellence, but demanded it.

And they excelled, and amazed all of us.

Think about that, and think about what you've heard about the 'big time' schools. Many, perhaps most, aren't centers of excellence, they're pits of over-funded sloth. Their athletes don't go to class; when the athletes and coaches commit crimes, the university covers for them; and unless the athletes go pro, nobody much cares about them after they can't play anymore.

Many schools are more reformatory than laboratory. Except, of course, it's a reformatory where the inmates are popular and handsomely paid.

So there is at least one answer to my question: athletics can make our university better if our coaches instill into their athletes, and if we insist from ourselves and everyone, the same virtues that make for a great university:

Excellence.

Think about that. Other schools stress superiority: "We're better than you."

But Des, and Robe, and so many others insist on excellence, instead: I am better than me. I am better today than I was yesterday. I will be even better than that tomorrow.

And in an odd contradiction, and in a repudiation of what many players and fans prioritize, excellence also prompts the opposite: I am less than I was.

Because in pursuing excellence, we must choose to become less than the things we love: people, ideals, and institutions. The competition to excel is within: aim high, while also pursuing humility.

Which is, again ironically, aiming low: 'humility' is related to 'humus', dirt. We can be great, if I put myself below everyone, in the dirt (think about that next Ash Wednesday). I seek excellence for all of us, because we are much more important than me.

True leadership isn't atop the ranking, it's below the team. It's supporting everyone from below, not ****ing on them from above. True leadership is the joy of belonging to a group where everyone sacrifices for everyone else.

You think Michael wouldn't throw himself in front of a speeding car to save one of his players? I strongly suspect he would.

Like I said, it's corny: Love.

But walk around campus, talk to the people who are moving us forward, in athletics, in the classroom, in the research center. What unites many of them is a love of this place.

Love pushes us to excel, and to connect, and to strive together.

The narcissism of many institutions pushes their people toward superiority, and exclusion, and from those, laziness. "As long as I'm atop the heap, I don't have to work hard. Who cares if it's a dung heap?" That perspective explains many things we see in the world.

If Michael wins a national championship, it won't be enough for him, because he demands excellence. Superiority has a clearly defined point of satisfaction.

Excellence has none.

So I push you to the same thing that the UL faculty, coaches, and administrators pushed all of us to, and the same thing that great coaches push their players toward: pursue excellence.

Not superiority.

[CajunFun]

If this is accurate, the University does not do a good job promoting itself and its accomplishments to its alumni and the surrounding community.

If perception catches up to that reality, we'd be in much better shape when it comes to the surrounding community.

It's getting out, slowly.

And maybe that's good enough. A faculty member recently landed a huge grant, and immediately grumbled, "Now we have to do the #*@!! research."

We don't have enough room for the students who want to come here. We don't have enough researchers to handle the funding we're getting. We don't have enough administrators to manage the projects we have.

Much more success like this will kill us.



And then there's that great quote, "Mais, dat's Abbeville." At their best, Cajuns & Creoles don't brag much. They don't need to impress people.

And they know that bragging just causes problems.

[Turbine]

Wow

Cerebral.

[Ragin9221]

Excellent points. Athletics can connect people to the university.

Is that connection one that grows the university, and its mission? Not if we aren't clear about it it won't

And is that the only connection people have to a university? Because that is one of the things that fascinates me about UL, and is unusual, perhaps unique: people love this place not because of athletics, but independent of athletics.

Stay with me a second.

I mentioned how we have surpassed LSU in research funding. I have a thought about how that works.

Ironically, it's what I think that Des is doing in football, and what Robe did with baseball, and what some of our other coaches, professors, and administrators do. When I'm hammering you folks to be clear about how athletics supports our university, I think first of those two coaches.

Listen to Des's post-game last night: this team succeeds because they believe in each other, because they care about each other.

And although Des didn't mention it, I think they share this belief, his belief: Michael believes in UL. He cares about this place. He loves it.

Not just the athletics, I suspect Michael loves what I love, and what President Savoie and Provost Hebert, and dozens of administrators and faculty love about this place.

Brace yourself, it's corny as hell.

They love this place because this place loved them first. They love it because faculty and administrators cared about them, believed in them, urged them to aim high, and not only told them they were capable of excellence, but demanded it.

And they excelled, and amazed all of us.

Think about that, and think about what you've heard about the 'big time' schools. Many, perhaps most, aren't centers of excellence, they're pits of over-funded sloth. Their athletes don't go to class; when the athletes and coaches commit crimes, the university covers for them; and unless the athletes go pro, nobody much cares about them after they can't play anymore.

Many schools are more reformatory than laboratory. Except, of course, it's a reformatory where the inmates are popular and handsomely paid.

So there is at least one answer to my question: athletics can make our university better if our coaches instill into their athletes, and if we insist from ourselves and everyone, the same virtues that make for a great university:

Excellence.

Think about that. Other schools stress superiority: "We're better than you."

But Des, and Robe, and so many others insist on excellence, instead: I am better than me. I am better today than I was yesterday. I will be even better than that tomorrow.

And in an odd contradiction, and in a repudiation of what many players and fans prioritize, excellence also prompts the opposite: I am less than I was.

Because in pursuing excellence, we must choose to become less than the things we love: people, ideals, and institutions. The competition to excel is within: aim high, while also pursuing humility.

Which is, again ironically, aiming low: 'humility' is related to 'humus', dirt. We can be great, if I put myself below everyone, in the dirt (think about that next Ash Wednesday). I seek excellence for all of us, because we are much more important than me.

True leadership isn't atop the ranking, it's below the team. It's supporting everyone from below, not ****ing on them from above. True leadership is the joy of belonging to a group where everyone sacrifices for everyone else.

You think Michael wouldn't throw himself in front of a speeding car to save one of his players? I strongly suspect he would.

Like I said, it's corny: Love.

But walk around campus, talk to the people who are moving us forward, in athletics, in the classroom, in the research center. What unites many of them is a love of this place.

Love pushes us to excel, and to connect, and to strive together.

The narcissism of many institutions pushes their people toward superiority, and exclusion, and from those, laziness. "As long as I'm atop the heap, I don't have to work hard. Who cares if it's a dung heap?" That perspective explains many things we see in the world.

If Michael wins a national championship, it won't be enough for him, because he demands excellence. Superiority has a clearly defined point of satisfaction.

Excellence has none.

So I push you to the same thing that the UL faculty, coaches, and administrators pushed all of us to, and the same thing that great coaches push their players toward: pursue excellence.

Not superiority.

I'll say one thing: I think the administrators need to consider this perspective too. Sports are about community, festivals are about community, and Mardi Gras is about community. We have to look at it this way. We are part of this community, whether you went to the school, are an alumni, grew up here, or have some other connection. It doesn't matter whether a person is Black, blue, green, white—whatever. Just like beliefs, whether you are Protestant, Baptist, Catholic, Buddhist, or Muslim, we all share a common interest in the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns. So, we need to emphasize community! No one does it better than us. Don't focus on money. If you focus on community, the money will take care of itself! I think that's where we've lost our way.

I can sit next to the man next to me could be a murderer doesnt matter when we talking and say that was a great play or whatever, and that is what it is about.

Football or any sporting event is exactly that my community is going against another community. The players and coaches or anyone part of that organization is the ambassadors to that community.