Dr Maggard Being Proactive (student support)

[Ragin9221]

"LIKE"

Getting together as a community!! Coming and just coming to hang out, and have a good time. When you just alienate a group of people, or you kick out the average joe you are not making it appealing to them. Chances are they will never come back.

Show the Acadiana area you care. Show them they matter. Can not just make it a Lafayette thing, but we have to make it a Acadiana thing. A regional thing, and eventually a state thing!

You do that you will get your 10k fans !!

[barisaxman]

The sad thing is, we USED to have huge student support at the games, at a time when we were a much smaller USL!! These were taken when I was in the PoA during the late 1970’s and early 80’s…..

[JMV JustMyView]

The idea of having RCAF "outposts" in each major Acadiana parish has always been in the back of my mind. Empower well-connected alumni in these areas as "capitaines." Give them honorary titles and perks. Simply ask them to spread the Cajun athletic gospel.

This is 100% out of Coach Hud's playbook, recalling Ragin Review's interview with him where he said verbatim:

"Giving people roles, people love to have a role to be a part of something."

Another quote from that interview was:

"...I invited people, people want to be invited to something..."

It's not easy to get someone out in the community with as much energy as Coach Hud, but we can learn a thing or two from him and the success he had "bringing the juice" to CF.

Maybe we could hire him back to build the fan base?

[SMD7636]

Coach Hud knew how to talk directly to Cajun Nation in podcasts, interviews, social media, and in person. He told you his expectation and invited you to be apart of the growth. Should Coach Des and RCAF do a summer coach’s road tour around Louisiana (Lafayette, Alexandria, Baton Rouge, New Orleans) to meet and invite fans to the games? I remember when Coach Bustle came to Baton Rouge for a coach’s road tour.

[IberiaCajun]

Doesn't change the need.

That music will "never" pull a player or student in.

But that music will keep entire families away.

A decency protocol is all that is needed.

Amen!

[zephyr]

The sad thing is, we USED to have huge student support at the games, at a time when we were a much smaller USL!! These were taken when I was in the PoA during the late 1970’s and early 80’s…..

Are you pulling pics from the A&M game? When I was in school in the mid to late 90's student attendance was horrible and it obviously got worse with Baldwin and improved marginally with bustle. The pics you show are of a full stadium which were NOT the norm.

[Big Poppa]

1. I would get a committee together made up of 30 people from alumni to student leaders, and come up with things that will improve attendance and realistic changes we could make.

2. Setup every home game as some sort of festival , gumbo, crawfish, shrimp pick one and go with it, have restuarants or have people and compete like a bbq cook off, or gumbo cook off with judges.

3. Setup a huge tailgate area bigger and better.
Get food trucks, and vendors and live bands for every home game.

4. Run Ads on local radio stations and small towns, of our schedule for every home football game

5. I would get volunteers, from students to die hard fans, and I would hit every church and every community event in a 12 parish region.
Opelousas, Ville Platte, New Iberia, Franklin, I would try to hit from Lake Charles to Morgan City to Alexandria. Hand out flyers, talk to people be in there face go hand out schedules and events at the local wal-mart every weekend!! Promoting these events and give actual dates and times.

6. Get a mascot.

7. Have a cheerleader day where high school cheerleaders can come and learn how to be a college cheerleader, or have a band day, or have a cub scout day, we have all these different high schools with all these groups let them know that they can do the same in college.

8. We have to make the event something more then just football!! Make it about as many things as you possibly can.

Do I need to go on. I can write about 30 pages on what I would do .

That all sounds great to get people to show up around cajun field. For many years we had folks show up for the festival atmosphere around Cajun field but they just never went in the game. You never explained how you gonna get them through the turn stiles?

As far as the Cub Scout days, youth football days… that’s all been done since the 80s. Never moved the needle much. Doesn’t build a true fan base.

The biggest challenge is convincing our own alumni who currently drive across the basin every Saturday and are season ticket holders at TSAB, to stay home or we’ll never have consistent crowds. It starts with alumni and trickles out. If you can’t win over your own alumni you’ve got nothing.

[Turbine]

That all sounds great to get people to show up around cajun field. For many years we had folks show up for the festival atmosphere around Cajun field but they just never went in the game.
.

That was the myth we all bought into but the corelation between empty tailgating and empty stands is undeniable.

Fill the parking lot you fill the stadium.

ps And yes there will be those who only notice the stragglers.

[Ragin9221]

Well first we have to get them to Cajun Field. Once we get them to Cajun Field then we can handle the second problem is getting them to go to the game.

This is where the game day experience counts. This is where we need better and speedier concessions. We are going to have to do stadium upgrades to make the gameday more enjoyabe and have certain amenities, and comfort come into play. This is where winning games matter!

First we have to get them to Cajun Field everything is done if we can’t even do that .

[Cajun Soldier]

We need a very diverse set of people to put things together. If you want to build a fan base you need to cater to all of south Louisiana people like the way we choose game day bands. I think they do a good job with that. You have to be creative and prepared for ESPN and the Sunbelt Conference to throw you curveballs like scheduling a top team like Boise State at 11am in the heat of the day. Make a diverse committee with common sense that can work together. I know lots of motivated people that would go out and motivate the fans to come out to games if a committee gave them something worthwhile to sell. Remember you may not like the music in the stadium but someone in the stadium may not like the POA halftime show selection. Be flexible and mindful we are there to watch the Cajuns play football. Teamwork makes the Dreamwork.