I had to chuckle at the TV timeout comments.
As i continue my 4-year sabbatical tour of D2 ball in Oklahoma and Arkansas, I remembered our game a couple of weeks ago.
Kickoff at 2 pm. Final horn: 4:26 pm. Game 2 hours, 26 minutes. The were only one-minute media timeouts (not nearly 5 minutes) and no video replay review timeouts. Yes one team ran the flexbone to perfection for more than 40 points, but some entertaining big plays.
Our party of 12 was seated in plenty of time for our 6:30 pm dinner reservation.
Oh, and a comment on the ticketing system. Most all are touchless, online systems, but very few problems since our crowds are in the couple of thousand category.
But best thing I've seen so far is one of the stadia at the end of one of the Indian Turnpikes in Oklahoma.
We drive up to the guy seated in the folding chair at the chain link fence entrance gate
us: "How much?"
Him: "$15"
Us: "For parking? Where do we buy tickets?"
Him: "That's $15 for your parking and two tickets."
Ok!
Interesting view though was the home fans mainly did not sit in the grandstand. The university had built a four-level terraced grass endzone where the fans could back into their spots and watch the game from the terrace.
How cool and unique!
Louisiana Tech University
Flagship of the University of Louisiana System
I told ya'll when the student vote for athletic fees failed to pass last spring, Louisiana Tech is recruiting the wrong kind of students today. I wasn't kidding. Most of the kids we have on campus now will never give anything back to Louisiana Tech. Most attend school on grants anyway and don't pay heir own way, so it's not "personal" to them. They have no investment in Louisiana Tech University and likely never will.
Louisiana Tech University
Flagship of the University of Louisiana System
I lectured at a Harding photography class last week which included a load of Tech action photos. One was a old, fuzzy pic of a pig-tailed girl dribbing a basketball.
"Anybody know who this girl would be?"
None of the 45 answered to my non-surprise.
"How many of you have heard of Kim Mulkey?"
One lone head nodded.
"Oh," the student said as she nodded.
The pix of Bradshaw drew a little more interest. But not much.
So today's students . . . .
Louisiana Tech University
Flagship of the University of Louisiana System
Yeah if it’s not watching someone on YouTube playing and commenting on playing a video game then the youth of today don’t seem to be interested. If they’re so uningaged that they’d rather veg out and watch someone play a video game than actually play the game themselves then they’re sure not investing themselves in getting up and going to a game. It’s not too much unlike all the hiring signs in Ruston and everywhere else. The younger people of today are simply too lazy and self centered to participate in a person-to-person society.
Louisiana Tech University
Flagship of the University of Louisiana System
I have not read the other comments on this thread, so I may be repeating. The recipe for driving attendance up is always the same - have a winning team and stop the students from leaving at half-time. We are failing at both right now. I am unsure of the answer to keeping the students in the stands after the half, but the first point is part of it and we need to add some type of incentives that they would value. One more "have to" for attendance is getting "name recognized opponents" to come to Tech. They don't have to be top 20 opponents, but they must have the name and, preferably P5, which is hard to do.
My kids were born in 86 and 89. They both attended Texas A&M. I seem to remember something that the athletic dept did at A&M which was highly successful. While I may not get all of the details exactly correct (going from memory), hopefully you will get the gist. Each student was given some sort of athletic card at the start of the semester. There were places for each athletic team and as you attended a sporting event, (basketball (men and women), football, soccer, swimming and diving, etc.) you would get the card punched. At the end of the semester, kids turned in their cards with all holes punched and they were entered into contest drawings (I believe) for some awesome prizes, etc. I believe they would get the punches at different times in the games (to try and keep kids in the stands for some of the lesser known sports), and the overall goal was achieved more that just once. My kids found that they loved the atmosphere at the women's soccer games and started going to the games just for the fun of it. Interesting idea, but maybe something like that "could" make a difference. Just an idea.