Jump to content



UAlbany Athletics- America East-
SOCIAL MEDIA: UAlbany Facebook- UAlbany Instagram- UAlbany Twitter- UAlbany Blog-
MEDIA: Albany Student Press- America East TV- ESPN3- Schenectady Gazette- The Team 104.5 ESPN Radio- The Team 104.5 ESPN Radio Archive interviews- Times Union College Sports- Times Union Sports- WCDB- WOFX 980-
FALL SPORTS LINKS: CAA Football-
WINTER SPORTS LINKS: College Insider- Pomeroy Ratings- Real TimeRPI-
SPRING SPORTS LINKS: Inside Lacrosse- Lax Power Backup Stick-
OTHER FORUMS: America East Forum- Any Given Saturday Forum- Championship Subdivision forum(1-AA Discussion) The Hen House - Siena Forum- Stony Brook Forum- Vermont Forum

Butts in the Seats 2018 edition


Recommended Posts

 

There have been threads on this in the past, but I can't seem to find them from the mobile browser. With attendance seemingly down this season (I don't know of that's true as I haven't seen the numbers, and this is just from being at the games) I think it's time to start this discussion again.

 

I just got back into the country from a cruise (I was on the pier in Playa Del Carmen when the ferry exploded) and I won't be back in the 518 until after the game tomorrow, but I'm curious on everyone's thoughts on where to go from here...

 

I bring up the cruise, because I wore one of my great Danes t shirts on the boat one day, and while sitting in the sports bar watching a college game (Wisconsin vs. Northwestern) a guy started a conversation with me who's son will be a freshman next year from the Newburgh area. He was a college basketball fan, but his son isn't into sports, and will be a finance major. He didn't know that UA was D1, nor that they were any good. He had no idea that the LAX team was ranked #2, nor that the football team was FCS and has a guy named Vinny Testaverde on the roster next season.

 

How can we grow the fanbase, put butts in the seats, when a sports fan, with a kid attending next season, just over an hour away from Albany didn't even know the program was growing and having success?

 

This starts as a failure of marketing, and also speaks to the relatively new upgrade to D1.

 

Suggestions?

 

I think people need to recognize that butts in seats is the culmination of engaging students in the right way while they're still on campus. It's a cultural thing that has been done so poorly for years, and by most accounts, students still think the school is doing a crappy job. This I put on the student affairs staff. They just have the wrong people in leadership positions who then hire people that are equally as weak.

 

The stories that I've heard make my skin crawl. Students are pretty shrewd and they sense when you're feeding them a line of *h*t There isn't a marketing budget big enough to fix that kind of grass roots problem. Obviously I have specific examples. Fixing something after the fact is hard. The culture has to be changed to the point where students are seen as the priority rather than a something that staff has to deal with to get ahead.

 

A better question maybe would be "How do you change an on campus culture?"

 

I think the issue is so much bigger than us. I haven't lived in the Northeast in over 20 years but i'm not aware of any college football programs that draw well in the Northeast - Syracuse, BC, Temple, Rutgers, UNH, Maine, Stony Brook, even Maryland struggle. i guess Penn State would be the exception. I do know that, for the most part, college sports is very different in the south and other parts of the country. I don't think changing marketing is going to work - we had these same conversations when i was a student over 30 years ago.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agree with reeder on the Northeast culture. Whether because there are so many small colleges splitting the market, or something else.

 

Perspective: this year we're currently ranked 169 in attendance - slightly behind Bing by 100, SBU by 200, UVM by 300, but ahead of 180 other schools. This year's attendance of 2542 with two games to go is almost the same as last year except for no bump from Siena at home this year. And this chart shows that winning does have an effect, but it's not permanent, Actually this year's count is almost exactly the same as 2005-06, our first championship season.

 

UA_attendance.png

Edited by UAalum72
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Speaking of butts in the seats...

 

Has anyone seen anything on social media postings, billboards, advertisements at all to the general public tickets about our MBB game on Saturday?

Edited by MRSGDG
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nope, but if they want people in there they should just run a promo where if you bring your lacrosse ticket from the Cornell game you can get in for free.

Not 100 percent sure but I don't think u can. This is a tournament game. I think the money goes to the conference. I think the tix prices are set by the conference. Could be 100 percent wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Nope, but if they want people in there they should just run a promo where if you bring your lacrosse ticket from the Cornell game you can get in for free.

Not 100 percent sure but I don't think u can. This is a tournament game. I think the money goes to the conference. I think the tix prices are set by the conference. Could be 100 percent wrong.
I believe only the championship gate goes to the conference. I could be wrong as well.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

Nope, but if they want people in there they should just run a promo where if you bring your lacrosse ticket from the Cornell game you can get in for free.

Not 100 percent sure but I don't think u can. This is a tournament game. I think the money goes to the conference. I think the tix prices are set by the conference. Could be 100 percent wrong.
I believe only the championship gate goes to the conference. I could be wrong as well.
That would be crazy if that's the case. In the Albany/ Brook game: who sets prices? Who gets the money ? 50/50 split?

 

Bc if the home team gets to set prices then why not make non chairback tix like $1?? Pack the place and make it a real home court advantage.

 

That's why I think it's set by the conference.

Edited by UA1882
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

 

Nope, but if they want people in there they should just run a promo where if you bring your lacrosse ticket from the Cornell game you can get in for free.

Not 100 percent sure but I don't think u can. This is a tournament game. I think the money goes to the conference. I think the tix prices are set by the conference. Could be 100 percent wrong.
I believe only the championship gate goes to the conference. I could be wrong as well.
That would be crazy if that's the case. In the Albany/ Brook game: who sets prices? Who gets the money ? 50/50 split?

 

Bc if the home team gets to set prices then why not make non chairback tix like $1?? Pack the place and make it a real home court advantage.

 

That's why I think it's set by the conference.

Im all in favor of making it $1, but the school wants to make some money as well.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agree with reeder on the Northeast culture. Whether because there are so many small colleges splitting the market, or something else.

 

Perspective: this year we're currently ranked 169 in attendance - slightly behind Bing by 100, SBU by 200, UVM by 300, but ahead of 180 other schools. This year's attendance of 2542 with two games to go is almost the same as last year except for no bump from Siena at home this year. And this chart shows that winning does have an effect, but it's not permanent, Actually this year's count is almost exactly the same as 2005-06, our first championship season.

 

UA_attendance.png

I like this graphic. I think it shows an upward trend with the good years being better and the down years not being as bad. I think it also shows that winning has a big effect the following year.

 

That up year in 15 should be the teams goal for down year attendance though. The area has the population and the income to support it. The school just needs to figure out how to make it happen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nope, but if they want people in there they should just run a promo where if you bring your lacrosse ticket from the Cornell game you can get in for free.

With the change of the lacrosse game they should do if you buy a ticket for tomorrows basketball game it is good for the lacrosse game. So easy to get people to go
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was interested to see similar to what Alum72 did but with a Logarithmic trend-line and factoring in the rest of the games this year...it looks like this...

 

ZcBphyL.png

 

You have to ask yourself (Benson really) why some of our best teams are trending down last 2 years in attendance before a very slight bump this year (28+ people bump).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you remove the first 3 years which are outliers...it's not a great picture. Granted, they have significantly (I believe) raised prices, require mandatory GDAC donations for season tickets, charge $10 per car in far lot. I think they are doing this all wrong...I remember before I starting parking in SEFCU lot, the far lot was free. The math must be really working in their favor because some of these policies are absolutely suppressing attendance.

 

HUgVoIC.png

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...