What would it take?

[deacon]

I don’t know if this has been mentioned but as a father of kids ranging from 13 - 1 I have seen the proliferation of fall travel sports and think this is a huge factor in attendance for young families. I’m an 80’s kid. The only sport in the fall was football and even at the pee wee level that was on a Thursday night. So from pee wee up through HS I never played a game on a Saturday. That was always for NOLA HS’s that shared fields. And if you didn’t play football you weren’t playing anything. And nothing was going on on saturdays except community events or college football. Constrast that with now. I have a niece the plays fall softball. I know families that TRAVEL to play fall baseball and soccer. There are now travel football teams! Add to that cheer and gymnastics competitions. Young families have money and will travel. It’s just that their kids are now consuming these things at a much higher rate than even 5 years ago. Dad’s are either the perpetrators or are getting guilted into playing along.

Add to this all the factors already stated. Length of game, cost, parking, concession, length of game, poor product, length of game. Did i mention length of game?

My advise. Make the very best seats very expensive and almost give away the gen admin. I should pay for a football game about what it would cost me to take the family to the movies. Raise all merch and concession prices 10-15% and sell beer to offset. Every church youth and young adult group should get free tickets. Any student from ANY school should be able to get in free with a student ID. And prorate the tickets for the second quarter and then free after halftime.

[PawDawg]

I don’t know if this has been mentioned but as a father of kids ranging from 13 - 1 I have seen the proliferation of fall travel sports and think this is a huge factor in attendance for young families. I’m an 80’s kid. The only sport in the fall was football and even at the pee wee level that was on a Thursday night. So from pee wee up through HS I never played a game on a Saturday. That was always for NOLA HS’s that shared fields. And if you didn’t play football you weren’t playing anything. And nothing was going on on saturdays except community events or college football. Constrast that with now. I have a niece the plays fall softball. I know families that TRAVEL to play fall baseball and soccer. There are now travel football teams! Add to that cheer and gymnastics competitions. Young families have money and will travel. It’s just that their kids are now consuming these things at a much higher rate than even 5 years ago. Dad’s are either the perpetrators or are getting guilted into playing along.

Add to this all the factors already stated. Length of game, cost, parking, concession, length of game, poor product, length of game. Did i mention length of game?

My advise. Make the very best seats very expensive and almost give away the gen admin. I should pay for a football game about what it would cost me to take the family to the movies. Raise all merch and concession prices 10-15% and sell beer to offset. Every church youth and young adult group should get free tickets. Any student from ANY school should be able to get in free with a student ID. And prorate the tickets for the second quarter and then free after halftime.

Fall sports like soccer and little league football don't help, but I put them in the same category as fall weddings and hunting. We were late for some games tailgating, but if the schedule included late afternoon games we just didn't do it. Tech football was a family activity and took priority over most things.

If $10 tickets in an area that is empty 99% of the time are available there is no need for pro-rating. Our smallest package is for 20 people. There should be a game day package for various group sizes.

I'll be surprised if the WKU game has any new discounts offered.

[Bulldawg81]

I don’t know if this has been mentioned but as a father of kids ranging from 13 - 1 I have seen the proliferation of fall travel sports and think this is a huge factor in attendance for young families. I’m an 80’s kid. The only sport in the fall was football and even at the pee wee level that was on a Thursday night. So from pee wee up through HS I never played a game on a Saturday. That was always for NOLA HS’s that shared fields. And if you didn’t play football you weren’t playing anything. And nothing was going on on saturdays except community events or college football. Constrast that with now. I have a niece the plays fall softball. I know families that TRAVEL to play fall baseball and soccer. There are now travel football teams! Add to that cheer and gymnastics competitions. Young families have money and will travel. It’s just that their kids are now consuming these things at a much higher rate than even 5 years ago. Dad’s are either the perpetrators or are getting guilted into playing along.

Add to this all the factors already stated. Length of game, cost, parking, concession, length of game, poor product, length of game. Did i mention length of game?

My advise. Make the very best seats very expensive and almost give away the gen admin. I should pay for a football game about what it would cost me to take the family to the movies. Raise all merch and concession prices 10-15% and sell beer to offset. Every church youth and young adult group should get free tickets. Any student from ANY school should be able to get in free with a student ID. And prorate the tickets for the second quarter and then free after halftime.

I agree with most of your post, but not raising concession prices. Concessions are already overpriced. Mississippi State has drastically reduced concession prices this year for all venues (https://hailstate.com/news/2018/7/12...ll-venues.aspx). I don't know if we can do that, but I certainly don't think raising concession prices is a good idea.

[Tech52]

You can’t raise concessions. $4 is already too much for a hot dog.

[DocMarvin362]

Never mind what I said here. The fact that this site logs me out far too soon and far too often screws up my posts.

P.E.B.K.A.C. error.

[BruceWillisDawg]

Early season optimism
An opponent that travels really well (bring 10K)


That's all we need to fill the stadium. We have been close twice in the last several years and both of those factors were the driving force. Also, the school needs to find a way to get the students back in greater #s by making the game day atmosphere a more student friendly event. If you can get them there to tailgate they will likely walk in the stadium.

[Bulldog Tom]

P.E.B.K.A.C. error.

As opposed to an IBM error.