How many FB season tickets were sold this past year?
Printable View
How many FB season tickets were sold this past year?
Not many. I'd say less than 3,500 as a guess to where we normally are. Most people hold 2-4 tickets and some more so that should give you some idea that we only have about 1,000-1,200 season ticket holders in football? Very embarassing.
Well what can we do to increase that number? An aggressive marketing campiagn? Early sign up with a discount?
How about a fund raiser such as the Ducks Unlimited banquet around different areas? Get different businesses to throw some giveaways, get the Hooter girls (blue shorts of course) to sell rafle tickets? ( I know this won't go over well) but anything is better than the norm.
Any ideas?
Not trying to be a smart-aleck about this, but you put an entertaining team on the field that consistantly wins 9-10 games every year (see Boise State), then the fans will come. You can market all you want (and I agree that our marketing is the pits) but the bottom line is that people come to see the team on the field. That is the biggest selling point of all. It would be interesting to know how many season ticket holders we had back when we were consistantly going to the playoffs in 70s and 80s.
One thing that would boost sales IF THEY WOULD MARKET IT is an attractive home schedule. Something like the 4 WAC games plus say, Grambling, then a team like Southern Miss/Tulane/the backside of a BCS 2-for-1.
Playing 4 WAC games plus Jackson State/Sam Houston/Nicholls DOES NOT sell season tickets.
If you have a better product, more people will want to buy it. Just imagine if our home schedule for say 2007 was Boise, Hawaii, San Jose, Utah State, Grambling, and Clemson. THAT is a season ticket package people in North Louisiana would be lining up to buy.
I might would accept that if we had already tried to market this team and gotten no results. With the minimal marketing we did for the Boise game, I think we saw a good turn out. I think if we really try to market this team and set up a good schedule like Nathan said, we would see a decent increase in season ticket sales and attendance. Look at Memphis...they did have a superstar running back, but they still averaged over 30,000 and they've been a disappointing 6-5 team with one of those wins coming against a 1AA opponent. I just think we can blame our record for low attendance only after we do the things we can do off the field to raise attendance...to this point, we've not shown an off the field committment to this team.Quote:
Originally Posted by hookdown
I agree that marketing is important, and I think that you can consider the schedule as part of that, but the number one issue is the team on the field. I think we get that taken care of and the product will market itself to a certain extent. Lets face it a 10-1 team is a lot easier to market than a 7-4 or worse. With this admin, I doubt that the marketing plan would be much different regardless of whatever record we finished with. Unfortunately, it is all tied into the same mindset that guides the current "plan".
Anybody have any studies on whether marketing, record, or some other variable makes the most difference? I am willing to be proven wrong... :o
It's easy enough to say that we are not marketing ourselves, but given how much that argument is tossed around, I'm beginning to think that some of us have our heads in the sand.
There is absolutely no question in my mind that Louisiana Tech is marketing itself on the whole (both athletics and academics) much better than it did say, 10 years ago. I'd say far better than 5 years ago. Look at the upgrades to websites, look at the consistency in uniforms (I know some dislike this, but it is clear that consistency is important in marketing ourselves), look at the quality of materials that we are sending out to alumni and prospective students, etc. We actually have a dedicated marketing team on campus, which wasn't really around about 6 years ago. Unfortunately, a very important member of that team is leaving us, but I'm confident that we'll replace her with a capable person. I'd also add that I do know that the football program has at times refused to use services that were offered out of that department, which I think is a real shame.
I'd say that our improvements in marketing are much more than the larger schools. Of course, we have more ground to make up, but let's not forget where we were 10 years ago.
Realistically, I am not sure how much we can gain by short term marketing campaigns. Marketing for the Boise State game seemed to produce fairly good results, and I hope that is taken as a positive reason to continue aggressive marketing. But can we really expect more short term gains if we continue to advertise like this?
Consider, we're only 2 years removed from a fairly large marketing campaign, the "Moats for Heisman" one. So the question I have is, how much is attendance really affected by short term campaigns, whether it is a full year strategy (Moats, Rattay) or just single game efforts, as in the Boise game?
I wouldn't call the Moats for heisman a large marketing campaign. Did the school spend any money on this? If so I don't recall.
It is about Sales AND Marketing, not just Marketing.
You don't Market tickets. You SELL them.
Marketing is merely a support system to raise awareness, make the phone ring, etc. You have to get out and take to the streets AND make phone call after phone call to sell tickets.
EXACTLY. Martie, when I win Powerball you are my first hire at Tech. Sales is the key concept that we seem to be missing, and it is probably cheaper than buying tons of TV/Radio ads to boot. If we had workers not only calling but also physically walking into area businesses with books of season tickets to sell, and doing a good job with their presentation, I think we would all be amazed at how much our numbers would increase. To my knowledge Tech is not very aggressive in this area.Quote:
Originally Posted by MichiganDawg
I think you might be right, but I think there was a luke for heisman campaign.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gooddawg
OK, but who do we get to do all of this walking? Is it your assessment that the sales area is what is holding back attendance?Quote:
Originally Posted by MichiganDawg
All they would have to do is ask those internet guys for volunteers and it would be a done deal. Free labor from those that love Tech. What a noble idea.
#1 That is not my job, so I don't have to line those persons up.Quote:
Originally Posted by cmendawg
#2 I hope I really don't have to answer your second question.
Marketing is coming up the overall strategic plan to increase awareness of Tech. Advertising, tag lines, literature, and media campaigns. Making Tech a household name in the area.
Sales people are the one who go out and implement the campaign. We have a marketing campaign. It is rather small, but it is there. We do not have anyone following up the campaign.
No one is going out and selling the tickets to the various organizations, corporations, and general public.