Attendance Decline

[GreatestStory]

Festival International and Festival Acadiens all pull from the same pool of folks we fail to capture, and that number whittles down when you filter on hobbies.

Festival International and Festival Acadiens do not use the strategy of "Our event is well attended, thriving, and people really like it, let's jack up the price every year and see what happens".

I honestly can not believe we killed tailgating. You can't ruin tailgating, drive the people away, and expect them to come back anytime soon.

Can someone please tell me where we got our current tailgating strategy from? I can't find any other university that has this ridiculous model?

People want to tailgate in TG1 and be close to the action, but that requires a $1,200 investment. And for that $1,200 what do you get... some crooked lines spray painted on the ground and a cardboard box to throw your trash into.

...or you can tailgate in TG4 for $450 and be on the corner of Congress and Bertrand completely removed from all football activities, not hear the band, not see the Cajunwalk, etc.

Good grief, what a joke.

I don't know what LSU does but it seems to work magnificently. Let me check with ChatGPT:

[Ragin9221]

Festival International and Festival Acadiens do not use the strategy of "Our event is well attended, thriving, and people really like it, let's jack up the price every year and see what happens".

I honestly can not believe we killed tailgating. You can't ruin tailgating, drive the people away, and expect them to come back anytime soon.

Can someone please tell me where we got our current tailgating strategy from? I can't find any other university that has this ridiculous model?

People want to tailgate in TG1 and be close to the action, but that requires a $1,200 investment. And for that $1,200 what do you get... some crooked lines spray painted on the ground and a cardboard box to throw your trash into.

...or you can tailgate in TG4 for $450 and be on the corner of Congress and Bertrand completely removed from all football activities, not hear the band, not see the Cajunwalk, etc.

Good grief, what a joke.

I don't know what LSU does but it seems to work magnificently. Let me check with ChatGPT:

Why would people think that would actually work?! The thing that Chat GPT said. Joking please our AI gods know better then the Adminstration. That probably took all but 5 seconds. Lmfao

[fanof71]

It starts with the obvious fact that no one in athletics knows how to run a business, much less how to promote FB games to a relatively small group of students and fans. Anyone who attends a game is a customer of UL, willing to pay for an enjoyable experience...UL has all the assets within it's reach to change the culture of a game experience...People don't mind spending a reasonable amount of money IF some benefit was gained from the experience...part of that experience is customer service and satisfaction by the customer

Nothing with attendance will improve, ever, with the current Athletic Dept team that's in place...they care nothing about customer service or experience....what they do care about is $$$. Any local business that puts profit ahead of customer happiness is doomed to go broke..
Aside from the football being played, they care nothing about their customers...this is so easy to fix, it's not funny...once the customer experience and attention to detail return so will the fans. Until then, fans will continue to get fleeced . Damn the Fans, let's make money seems to be the attitude. Theyre ripping fans off with this 'Premium Experiance' BS. A new stadium is nice, but it's not going to solve the attendance issue...

[RedTails]

Can someone please tell me where we got our current tailgating strategy from? I can't find any other university that has this ridiculous model?

Alden Report

[cajun4life]

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.

Why is it when sports become more successful, which in turns becomes more visible, you feel the need to remind everyone about Academic Excellence?

No one will deny the primary function of the university is to educate people. But while we are talking about attendance decreases, what about the drastic decline in degree seeking students? Isn’t that a bigger problem?

[Ragin9221]

It starts with the obvious fact that no one in athletics knows how to run a business, much less how to promote FB games to a relatively small group of students and fans. Anyone who attends a game is a customer of UL, willing to pay for an enjoyable experience...UL has all the assets within it's reach to change the culture of a game experience...People don't mind spending a reasonable amount of money IF some benefit was gained from the experience...part of that experience is customer service and satisfaction by the customer

Nothing with attendance will improve, ever, with the current Athletic Dept team that's in place...they care nothing about customer service or experience....what they do care about is $$$. Any local business that puts profit ahead of customer happiness is doomed to go broke..
Aside from the football being played, they care nothing about their customers...this is so easy to fix, it's not funny...once the customer experience and attention to detail return so will the fans. Until then, fans will continue to get fleeced . Damn the Fans, let's make money seems to be the attitude. Theyre ripping fans off with this 'Premium Experiance' BS. A new stadium is nice, but it's not going to solve the attendance issue...

Well if the administration is wondering why we will not get a great crowd with a 7-1 record and a chance to host a conference championship game. All they have to do is look 50 miles across the basin at TSAB when they are hosting Alabama, and wonder why we only have 14k at the game.

Blame the fans! Administration hurts my head seriously $”it is not rocket science, it really isnt hard to figure out!

They probably think everyone on this board is just being a cheap skate, and trying to get over on them.

I promise it is not the case.

[Turbine]

They probably think everyone on this board is just being a cheap skate, and trying to get over on them.

I promise it is not the case.

Cypess Swamp froze over in the 1960's.

That was a cheap skate.

[RedTails]

Well if the administration is wondering why we will not get a great crowd with a 7-1 record and a chance to host a conference championship game. All they have to do is look 50 miles across the basin at TSAB when they are hosting Alabama, and wonder why we only have 14k at the game.

We won't be able to stop anyone from going across the basin to watch the game within tiger stadium, but we should be able to keep anyone from crossing the basin to go tailgate and watch a game on TV in a parking lot.

[Turbine]

We won't be able to stop anyone from going across the basin to watch the game within tiger stadium, but we should be able to keep anyone from crossing the basin to go tailgate and watch a game on TV in a parking lot.

Louisiana had that

[Cajunsmike]

If you break down the population of Louisiana and consider that LSU's popularity is equal throughout the state and greater in parts where there is no option.... Then Tiger Stadium only has room for 14,000 from Acadiana.

They have room for hundreds of thousands more watching their games on TV. Having all the LSU games on TV (where viewers don't have to search for it) hurst us more than having all our games available for viewing. Once again that is due to all the attention paid to the SEC by the entire media landscape.

[GreatestStory]

Alden Report

I have a copy of the Alden report in hand. The only mentions of tailgating I see are:

- Tailgating spots sales efforts creates confusion and frustration among targets and often reduces sales potential.

- Create Tailgate Tent for people who do not have a tailgate space. Subscription based or incremental fee to enter.

- Create pre-game tailgate area for families with small children at Blackham.

- Create new tailgate area for students at Bourgeois Park

Maybe I am missing the part that recommends increasing tailgating prices until a ghost town atmosphere is created.

If anyone has access to the report, can you please point me to where it says to increase tailgating prices. I am not trying to be a smarty-pants, just genuinely curious if the Alden report was what actually led to the tailgating price increases and demise of tailgating.

GEAUX CAJUNS

[GreatestStory]

We won't be able to stop anyone from going across the basin to watch the game within tiger stadium, but we should be able to keep anyone from crossing the basin to go tailgate and watch a game on TV in a parking lot.

This is the comment that speaks the most about the current tailgating situation!

They have completely neutered the tailgating atmosphere and people are now driving across the bridge to be a part of what we used to have at Cajun Field.