What will it take to drive game attendance up?

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Originally Posted by PawDawg

Winning didn't help attendance while Holtz was here. That's not a statement or opinion. It's a fact.

Winning a lot helps whey you have a fun offense to watch. We have not had that since 2012.

Speaking of 2012, getting kicked in the sack the way we did really took the life out of our fan base. Winning a pile of bowl games since did not help one bit.

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2016 offense was as fun as the 2012 offense. Didn’t help. I think this generation just isn’t interested in going to games.

Like the which came first thing, the chicken or the egg? Which comes first attendance or a winning team, it’s easily and obviously the winning team. We all know that. Given that I’m not sure with todays apathy towards everything that isn’t mostly ‘me, myself & I’ focused that Tech could fully fill half the stadium even with a genuinely good team. I’m not holding my breath.

Simply consider how good the recent baseball teams have been and it was only in the post season part when the stands were properly filled. The vast majority of season ticket holders don’t come to the games. Now I’m not counting actual empty seats but I’d say that at most games the stadium is most often at least about half empty.

The Tech populous doesn’t support any Tech sport like it should and probably won’t ever.

Let's talk about what it actually cost to support Tech footbal:

A family of 5:
-- general admission East Side Tix -- $20/each = $100.
-- 5 Johnny's pizza and drink (because that's the best thing on the East Side) = $50
-- park a mile away -- free. park at the old softball field = $10

Let's just say the family attends 2 games a month. That equals $320.
If they sat on the West side, the amount balloons to $450 for 2 games. ($35/ticket x 5, 5 chick fil a meals at$10)

For just two games, that's $300 - $450. For 8 hours in North Central Louisiana.
The median income for the 71270 zip code area (including the immediate areas around Ruston) ~ $36,142/year
So, after tax median income is ~ $2500/mo.

Does Tech think someone is really going to spend close to 13-18% of their bring home pay to watch 8 hours of entertainment?
For the product Tech routinely puts on the field, even those of us who make significantly more than the median income aren't going to pay that dollar amount.

I look at this another way. Sure it costs a pretty penny to attend Tech events. It costs a lot of money to do anything. We don’t go to movies hardly ever, maybe 1-2 a year. I know people who take their family of 4 to two movies/month. That’s probably $70/movie in Ruston and you still have to get supper at $70 too. We don’t eat out much, but I know people who eat out 4-5 times a week with their family of 4. Log Cabin, Rotolo’s, Ponch, Portico, and Flying Burger will run you $70-$80. If these families eat out a few times and see a movie, they just burned $300 for their entertainment in a week. I choose to spend my entertainment dollars at Tech or we go hunting. Not saying our product is currently worth the expense, but we are going to spend money somewhere either way if you want to enjoy some form of entertainment.

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Originally Posted by PawDawg

Winning didn't help attendance while Holtz was here. That's not a statement or opinion. It's a fact.

Winning a lot helps when you have a fun offense to watch. We have not had that since 2012.

Speaking of 2012, getting kicked in the sack the way we did really took the life out of our fan base. Winning a pile of bowl games since did not help one bit.

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That's all true. I think it's multifaceted. Some of the most fun I've had at a football game was in Hattiesburg with my brother's in-laws. USM was terrible when we went to the games, but it was an event for the town and the tailgaters. The game was just an excuse to get together with friends and family, eat some good food, and have a few drinks. Tailgating there was easy. We drove up around 8am and parked right next to the tailgate spot to unload. Set up the tent and a few other things and then headed back home. It was all pretty easy. Nobody hassled us about anything.

I think accessibility is the issue that keeps coming up. We probably dropped $300 going to the SFA game and eating before. If the product isn't any good, most folks will say that price is too high. Ticket prices need to come down or the family packs need to be better advertised. I haven't tailgated at Tech since I was a student, so I can't speak to the difficulty there, but many here have said that the administration doesn't make it easy for folks to get set up. That needs to be changed.

A lot of what is hurting our attendance has little to do with the product on the field. The product on the field certainly isn't helping.

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Originally Posted by T1

2016 offense was as fun as the 2012 offense. Didn’t help. I think this generation just isn’t interested in going to games.

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That's absolutely NOT TRUE at many schools........

College football is an entertainment business. Entertain people, and they will come.

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Originally Posted by T1

2016 offense was as fun as the 2012 offense. Didn’t help. I think this generation just isn’t interested in going to games.

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one of many Skip choke years. Also the first year that our president and the boy wonder decided to destroy the tailgating atmosphere

Yeah but we beat a ranked Navy team in the bowl game, in what was voted (by fans on an Internet site) one of the Top 5 most entertaining bowl games that year (2016). Ryan Higgins had one of the best seasons for a QB in Tech history. Set some seasonal records.

Whatever else happened, or didn't happen, as a fan 2016 was a fun year. Haven't had such, with the possible exception of 2019, 10-3 and the bowl win over Miami, since then. But, while 2019 was "successful" it was not a fun season. It was more of a grind, week to week. Kudos to the players and coaches for the 10 wins, but it wasn't exciting football.

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Originally Posted by johnnylightnin

That's all true. I think it's multifaceted. Some of the most fun I've had at a football game was in Hattiesburg with my brother's in-laws. USM was terrible when we went to the games, but it was an event for the town and the tailgaters. The game was just an excuse to get together with friends and family, eat some good food, and have a few drinks. Tailgating there was easy. We drove up around 8am and parked right next to the tailgate spot to unload. Set up the tent and a few other things and then headed back home. It was all pretty easy. Nobody hassled us about anything.

I think accessibility is the issue that keeps coming up. We probably dropped $300 going to the SFA game and eating before. If the product isn't any good, most folks will say that price is too high. Ticket prices need to come down or the family packs need to be better advertised. I haven't tailgated at Tech since I was a student, so I can't speak to the difficulty there, but many here have said that the administration doesn't make it easy for folks to get set up. That needs to be changed.

A lot of what is hurting our attendance has little to do with the product on the field. The product on the field certainly isn't helping.

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Like many of you I enjoy seeing what other schools do on campus on gameay. I agree about USM, the atmosphere seemed very fun, it was basically what we were trying to build before our admin killed it in its sleep.

Surely some of you have complained directly to the administration about tailgating. Have they given any of you an answer or explanation?

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Originally Posted by Rama Jama

- Hideaway Park, specifically (the legendary) Garland Gregory Hideaway Park being where the students are corralled.
What is the thinking here? Do the students want to have their own space away from all the old folks? Or did TECH push them over there? Students provide the energy at a game, not necessarily the alumni, or the corporate tents. The energy in Bulldog Village vs Hideaway Park is night and day. I understand that alumni contribute to the university and therefore earn a position closer to the stadium whether it be parking or tailgating, but can we not try incorporating more students into the tailgate area that’s closer to the stadium? Let’s not forget we were all students and we were probably a little bit wilder than we are now right?

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I keep thinking Bulldog Village should be IN Hideaway Park. Use the parking lot for....parking.

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Originally Posted by T1

2016 offense was as fun as the 2012 offense. Didn’t help. I think this generation just isn’t interested in going to games.

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Worth noting that successful and high scoring teams like Alabama have struggled with student attendance.

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Originally Posted by thewyldman

Worth noting that successful and high scoring teams like Alabama have struggled with student attendance.

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Exactly, I think it has more to do with kids today than it does the product(which doesn’t help).

Our high school football team had 60 kids, in 1A, when I was in school. Less than 40 play now. Baseball had 20, now 15. It’s a new world and I’m not fond of it.

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Originally Posted by techman05

Exactly, I think it has more to do with kids today than it does the product(which doesn’t help).

Our high school football team had 60 kids, in 1A, when I was in school. Less than 40 play now. Baseball had 20, now 15. It’s a new world and I’m not fond of it.

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Yeah the students aren't as interested in sports as they used be (or at least supporting the local one). It's not just Louisiana Tech, but with the type of students we tend to bring in and some local qualities, it can be a little bit more noticeable at times.

25 juniors and seniors in my appraisal class this quarter. None of them knows who Landry Lyddy is and none of them saw the game Saturday.