LATECHvsULM: The community does not care.

[Dawg06]

Last night disproved the theory that "Tech playing ULM is so great for the community." That is the "go to" line for ULM fans and the local media who try to tell us we should be playing every year.

This game was built up in the media everyday for weeks. Everybody in the community knew about it. Wickstrom got close to 8,000 essentially free tickets distributed to the community, and less than half cared enough to show up.

The community does NOT care about Tech playing ULM. It's crystal clear that the only few who still care are the local media and the few remaining NLU fans. That "rivalry" died over 15 years ago. As much as the local media and ULM fans hate to hear this, the "rivalry" has gone the way of the dinosaur.

What does the Northeast Louisiana community care about now? LSU football and the Saints. That's the relatively recent problem that needs to be addessed, and Tech playing ULM is obviously not the answer. If the local media truly wants the local schools to better fulfill their potential, then they need to stop promoting the teams from South Louisiana.

[bluecrew]

Why would you stop promoting a professional franchise in your state that is part of the most popular sports league in the country? That's terrible business.

[Gladzilla]

face it, people only go to ULM FB games because they do not have a LSU ticket

[Dawg06]

Why would you stop promoting a professional franchise in your state that is part of the most popular sports league in the country? That's terrible business.

Because LSU and the New Orleans are not part of our community. They don't need our help. Those teams have never done anything for North Louisiana, and they never will. It's about the opportunity cost of promoting South Louisiana teams instead of the local teams that are an integral part of the community and actually have a significant impact on the local economy. Fully supporting our local teams has the potential to have a transformative effect on our community. Support for South Louisiana teams contributes to apathy for our local teams. That is terrible business.

[LouisianaSelect]

Last night disproved the theory that "Tech playing ULM is so great for the community." That is the "go to" line for ULM fans and the local media who try to tell us we should be playing every year.

This game was built up in the media everyday for weeks. Everybody in the community knew about it. Wickstrom got close to 8,000 essentially free tickets distributed to the community, and less than half cared enough to show up.

The community does NOT care about Tech playing ULM. It's crystal clear that the only few who still care are the local media and the few remaining NLU fans. That "rivalry" died over 15 years ago. As much as the local media and ULM fans hate to hear this, the "rivalry" has gone the way of the dinosaur.

What does the Northeast Louisiana community care about now? LSU football and the Saints. That's the relatively recent problem that needs to be addessed, and Tech playing ULM is obviously not the answer. If the local media truly wants the local schools to better fulfill their potential, then they need to stop promoting the teams from South Louisiana.

Who should we be playing? Names/School?

[bluecrew]

Because LSU and the New Orleans are not part of our community. They don't need our help. Those teams have never done anything for North Louisiana, and they never will. It's about the opportunity cost of promoting South Louisiana teams instead of the local teams that are an integral part of the community and actually have a significant impact on the local economy. Fully supporting our local teams has the potential to have a transformative effect on our community. Support for South Louisiana teams contributes to apathy for our local teams. That is terrible business.

It called supply and demand. A sports director would be fired if they cut out talking Saints and LSU..I mean that's just dumb. Im with you on promoting the local teams no doubt but come on man. How about the community start stepping up first. That's just a shitty excuse to blame it on the local media..Geez.

Let me guess. You don't like the Saints or the NFL and you probably have some friends who are the same way so of course NOBODY should care about it.

[Dawg06]

Who should we be playing? Names/School?

My post didn't really have anything to do with who we play. My point was that the community truly does not care about Tech playing ULM like many would make you believe. However, I've been pretty clear in other posts on teams I think we should be playing instead of the likes of ULM. Schools like UALR and UT Arlington. Those are schools that I know we can schedule in markets that are important to us. Now my wish list would look a lot different. Houston, TCU, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa, MVC, A-10, MW, AAC, etc. But none of those teams would solve this issue that I brought up in this thread.

[stodgdog]

It called supply and demand. A sports director would be fired if they cut out talking Saints and LSU..I mean that's just dumb. Im with you on promoting the local teams no doubt but come on man. How about the community start stepping up first. That's just a shitty excuse to blame it on the local media..Geez.

Let me guess. You don't like the Saints or the NFL and you probably have some friends who are the same way so of course NOBODY should care about it.

I certainly want to hear about the Saints, but I really don't think Glen Guilbeau's drivel should be in the News Star very often at all. He is also the absolute worst writer I have ever read. LSU should never be featured over area teams in any medium.

[Blue Dawg]

I don't care that the Saints are featured up here. Not because they are "Louisiana's team," which is true. They are South Louisiana's team, which is a different state. But being a professional organization puts a different spin on how the area should react.

I've never heard "You should be a Saints fan because you're from Louisiana." (for the record, I am but I also follow the Jags pretty closely). We have 49ers, Cowboys, Falcons, Eagles, Giants, whatever, all with more than a few fans in the area, and that's pretty much the case wherever you go. Saints are closest and identify with "Louisiana" so they're more common than most.

On the other hand, I hear "You should be an LSU fan because you're from Louisiana" about 100x a month, 12 months a year. That's completely different.

TLR; LSU support is treacherous by North Louisiana and a threat to ULM's tenuous and imaginary fan base (and to a lesser degree our fans), but I'm not sure NFL support plays into it.

[theprofessor]

Last night disproved the theory that "Tech playing ULM is so great for the community." That is the "go to" line for ULM fans and the local media who try to tell us we should be playing every year.

This game was built up in the media everyday for weeks. Everybody in the community knew about it. Wickstrom got close to 8,000 essentially free tickets distributed to the community, and less than half cared enough to show up.

The community does NOT care about Tech playing ULM. It's crystal clear that the only few who still care are the local media and the few remaining NLU fans. That "rivalry" died over 15 years ago. As much as the local media and ULM fans hate to hear this, the "rivalry" has gone the way of the dinosaur.

What does the Northeast Louisiana community care about now? LSU football and the Saints. That's the relatively recent problem that needs to be addessed, and Tech playing ULM is obviously not the answer. If the local media truly wants the local schools to better fulfill their potential, then they need to stop promoting the teams from South Louisiana.

You do realize that any time you get 4,000 fans at either the TAC or Fant-Ewing, that's pretty much proof that the community does care, right? It's not often that either school draws that many fans for its basketball games. I'll never understand why Tech fans act like unless this game sells out, nobody cares. News flash: Neither team ever sells out, no matter the opponent, and both schools are jumping for joy when they get 4,000-plus for a game.

[theprofessor]

Because LSU and the New Orleans are not part of our community. They don't need our help. Those teams have never done anything for North Louisiana, and they never will. It's about the opportunity cost of promoting South Louisiana teams instead of the local teams that are an integral part of the community and actually have a significant impact on the local economy. Fully supporting our local teams has the potential to have a transformative effect on our community. Support for South Louisiana teams contributes to apathy for our local teams. That is terrible business.

I'm not quite sure you really understand the media business. A) I'm not in the business of "promoting" anything? I'm not in marketing. I'm in the news business. You want something promoted? Purchase an ad. That's how things get "promoted" in my paper. B) I am in the business of giving my readers what they want to read about. In my community, that's LSU and the Saints. Behind that are prep sports, Louisiana College and Northwestern State. In northeast Louisiana, the biggest draws are LSU, the Saints, local colleges (ULM, Tech and Grambling) and preps. It's essentially the same for northwester Louisiana, except there's a bigger Cowboys contingent and less (little) interest in ULM. LSU and the Saints are not part of my community, but I certainly treat them as local news. Why? Because there are a whole lot of LSU and Saints fans who live in my community. Ignoring those people would be "terrible business."

[T1]

You do realize that any time you get 4,000 fans at either the TAC or Fant-Ewing, that's pretty much proof that the community does care, right? It's not often that either school draws that many fans for its basketball games. I'll never understand why Tech fans act like unless this game sells out, nobody cares. News flash: Neither team ever sells out, no matter the opponent, and both schools are jumping for joy when they get 4,000-plus for a game.

That's hard to argue. The problem I've seen is that Tech and ULM are rarely well-attended matchups. It does happen on occasion, but you can't guarantee it's going to happen or predict when it's going to happen. I guess it's usually when ULM thinks they have a chance.... which is not very often.

[Dwayne From Minden]

I think yesterday proved one thing in spades that I hope our admin pays attention to -

Free tickets are of NO value to the holder - none what so ever

My guess is that the promo got maybe 1,000 additional butts in the stands at max based on the past history of the previous two games in the series and part of that bump has to be attributed to the fact some of the injun fans came this time cause they thought they had a chance because of their games at KU and LSU

I would say that there was more interest in the USL game, the USM game from last year (both), the NWST game and the about 4 other games from last year due to what people were willing to PAY to see

That's the kicker -

I'm interested what the USL & NWST game would of done on a Thurs, Mon or Sat night and I really think the game last night would of had 1000 more people through the doors on a Saturday afternoon or evening with the same promotion

[Champ967]

Bluecrew & professor -- When I ask why people in LR are fans of the Dallas Cowboys and St. Louis Cardinals, ya know what they say?

"It's what was on the radio / sports page / tv news when I was a kid. I've been a fan ever since."

People become fans of the teams covered by their local media. You know this ...

[PawDawg]

No way there were 4K there last night. 3K tops...THAT is the best they've done since the guy who blocked all the shots 10 years ago.