NCAA Attendance...a room for improvement

[smu'06]

Link: <A HREF="http://www.ncaa.org/stats/division1%20football/attendance/IA_CAPACITY.pdf" TARGET=_blank>http://www.ncaa.org/stats/division1%20football/attendance/IA_CAPACITY.pdf</A>

This is the 2003 NCAA Football Attendance Capacity rankings.

As you can see, there is much room for improvement.

57% is abysmal and is uncalled for. If the game can't be sold out, give the tickets to youth or church groups. At least get a hot dog or coke sale out of it, as opposed to an emppty seat.

[This message has been edited by smu'06 (edited 06-21-2003).]

[GoRedGoBlue]

Those are valid ideas, but you have to consider what would happen to the tickets you ARE selling if you start GIVING away too many tickets.

Back in the ROTTON BOWL, as a season ticket holder, it used to [deleted] me OFF that I paid for nice seats and then people would buy end zone seats for $5 and sneak into the good section. I imagine, in fact I know that many people who USED TO buy season tickets started to buy the end zone tickets and then sit where I was.

That LOWERS revenue overall. Ticket givaways are nice in theory, and I don't mind super discounted 'U.S. Service Day' or "Buy two get two free kids in" type promotions...but as a marketer, you cannot JUST think about the increased coke and hotdog sales by 'giving away' tickets.

Case in point, STUDENTS used to have to BUY their tickets. The thought was that they will just INCLUDE tickets with enrollment, and that should increase STUDENT attendance...well, has that happened?

I counter that something gotten for free is not perceived as being as VALUABLE, so not using it doesn't COST the student anything whereas, if they paid cold hard cash, either theirs' or their parents', then they would be MORE likely to actually use the tickets.

Alas, the great Mustang Mania of the 80s always boasted that they went from 6k to 60k for Rice game in one year. But they used PROMOTIONS, not just givaways.

[LA_Mustang]

Good idea smu'06 but CP is right. If you just start giving tickets away no one will buy them. There is an easy solution to this problem, start winning.

[Stallion]

....or you target people who otherwise would not likely to experience SMU Football-the Boy Scouts, YMCAs. There are ways to market without destroying your base. frankly, I want whats best for SMU and empty seats will destroy this program. Consider this next time you get pissed off-without Russ Potts and Mustang Mania there would have been no Eric Dickerson, Craig James et al. Mustang Mania and increased attendance came before winning. So enjoy all that extra leg room and space around you next year but remember you'll likely be watching yet another losing team. We've got the best game day product ever at this school now with the Boulevard, a new on campus Stadium a promising freshman class-and most of Dallas has never seen it.

[This message has been edited by Stallion (edited 06-21-2003).]

[Charleston Pony]

no question about it. a little marketing to the right target audience goes a long ways. Youth groups, especially those having to do with organized sports, is a good place to start. I've always liked the strategy of trying to fill those end zone seats by selling Dad/Mom a ticket at full price and allowing them to bring 2 kids free...or for $1 each...make it attractive enough that you might get someone out for the 1st time. If they have some fun on the blvd, see a reasonably entertaining game and do it with a group of friends, they just might want to come back for more. That's the way the Dallas Cowboys locked me in as a lifetime fan. I will always remember running around in the Cotton Bowl end zone seats as the miserable Cowboys were losing to Washinton, Philly, NY, etc...in front of what was probably 30-40,000 fans. Sure would be a nice way to put 20k buts in the seats for Boise, UTEP & Rice (might not need to for Fresno with it being Homecoming?). I'd be making that offer for all those games. Might have a DISD day for one of those games, letting 2 kids in with one adult end zone purchase. I'd love to see 18,000 paid look more like 22k with some people actually sitting in the end zone.

[Sam I Am]

18,292 as the average attendance is the most telling statistic about SMU football, not the per cent of stadium capacity utilized. Our numbers are embarassingly low for
Div. 1-A.

[EastStang]

Russ Potts by the way is the Chairman of the Virginia State Senate education committee, and almost lost his bid for re-election in the Republican primary. It seems when he first ran for office, he ran on a "term limitation promise". Funny how things change once you've been in office. He won his primary by less than 1% and there may be a recount.