Copeland: Getting Students/Fans in the Seats + 5pm Kick-off
Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 10:50 amLatest AD Update on steps to Understand the Issues in boosting Attendance. Combined with Phil's Team coming on stronger, bigger, younger (?), this looks like a plan.
April 30, 2004
Archives
It is hard to imagine, but we are just four short months away from the start of the 2004 football season. As Coach Bennett and his staff are busy getting the team prepared for the fall, our marketing and sales staff is focused on its plans for filling the stadium and enhancing the atmosphere at games. As part of this effort, we enlisted the help of a volunteer committee to examine filling Ford Stadium to capacity each home game.
We broke the group off into subcommittees to examine generating attendance from the following groups: SMU students, SMU Alumni, current season ticket holders, Park Cities residents, and the Dallas community as a whole. The members of the committee have not only brought some great ideas to the table, but they have also been honest in what it will take to get more people to Ford Stadium. I can promise that we are being very aggressive in our approach to the upcoming season, and I want to share some of the plans that we have.
One of the main issues has been that we need to communicate more – not just in terms of content, but also spreading our message to a larger group. We don’t always have the coverage that we want in the media, so we have to take alternate measures to promote all that is going on at SMU. One of the initiatives that we will be undertaking is a new e-mail system that will be able to deliver more targeted information to an increased number of people.
Student attendance has been another major item. A focus group coordinated with the help of Cox professor Dr. Marion Sobol was conducted to gather more information on this matter. We have been working with student leaders, as well as the fraternities and sororities, to address some of the issues, which include making sure that our football players are more visible on campus and creating more awareness on campus for our games.
Another key issue is The Boulevard, which has been one of our greatest assets since we opened Ford Stadium. The issue is with people that stay on The Boulevard and don’t come into the stadium for kickoff. The committee discussed several ideas including closing The Boulevard entirely at kickoff and putting a “countdown clock†by the tents so that everyone on The Boulevard would be reminded how much time was left until kickoff.
Needless to say, the committee has helped to create some interesting ideas, many of which you will see implemented this year.
As for season tickets, I have been pleased with the renewal rate to this point. I always like to compare where we are right now to where we were at the same point a year ago. Despite the disappointment of last season, we are slightly ahead of last year’s season ticket pace. I hope that those of you that have been season ticket holders will stick with us. Last season’s addition of the Kids’ Corral at football games was very positive, and this season we will be adding an enclosed tent for season ticket holders in the south end zone area that we will call “Mustang Stables.†We will have more details on this in the weeks to come, but among the benefits of the tent will be alternate food options, big-screen televisions to view other games and a pre-game “chalk talk†from a member of the coaching staff.
A resounding number of season ticket holders and students wanted to see us play all of our games in the evening. While we have always played our first two games of the season at 7 p.m. to battle the heat, the 2 p.m. kickoffs made it difficult for parents with children that had soccer games and other activities in the afternoon. As a result, we pushed back our start times from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. with the exception of the Homecoming game.
Our marketing staff is working very hard to ensure a wonderful experience for all of our fans, and I sincerely hope that you will choose to be a part of it. You can renew your season tickets online at smumustangs.com or by calling 214-SMU-GAME.
September 4 is right around the corner. It will be here before we know it. The next four months are critical to us as we prepare for the season opener against Texas Tech. We look forward to seeing you on The Boulevard and in the stands at kick off.
Go Mustangs!
Jim
April 30, 2004
Archives
It is hard to imagine, but we are just four short months away from the start of the 2004 football season. As Coach Bennett and his staff are busy getting the team prepared for the fall, our marketing and sales staff is focused on its plans for filling the stadium and enhancing the atmosphere at games. As part of this effort, we enlisted the help of a volunteer committee to examine filling Ford Stadium to capacity each home game.
We broke the group off into subcommittees to examine generating attendance from the following groups: SMU students, SMU Alumni, current season ticket holders, Park Cities residents, and the Dallas community as a whole. The members of the committee have not only brought some great ideas to the table, but they have also been honest in what it will take to get more people to Ford Stadium. I can promise that we are being very aggressive in our approach to the upcoming season, and I want to share some of the plans that we have.
One of the main issues has been that we need to communicate more – not just in terms of content, but also spreading our message to a larger group. We don’t always have the coverage that we want in the media, so we have to take alternate measures to promote all that is going on at SMU. One of the initiatives that we will be undertaking is a new e-mail system that will be able to deliver more targeted information to an increased number of people.
Student attendance has been another major item. A focus group coordinated with the help of Cox professor Dr. Marion Sobol was conducted to gather more information on this matter. We have been working with student leaders, as well as the fraternities and sororities, to address some of the issues, which include making sure that our football players are more visible on campus and creating more awareness on campus for our games.
Another key issue is The Boulevard, which has been one of our greatest assets since we opened Ford Stadium. The issue is with people that stay on The Boulevard and don’t come into the stadium for kickoff. The committee discussed several ideas including closing The Boulevard entirely at kickoff and putting a “countdown clock†by the tents so that everyone on The Boulevard would be reminded how much time was left until kickoff.
Needless to say, the committee has helped to create some interesting ideas, many of which you will see implemented this year.
As for season tickets, I have been pleased with the renewal rate to this point. I always like to compare where we are right now to where we were at the same point a year ago. Despite the disappointment of last season, we are slightly ahead of last year’s season ticket pace. I hope that those of you that have been season ticket holders will stick with us. Last season’s addition of the Kids’ Corral at football games was very positive, and this season we will be adding an enclosed tent for season ticket holders in the south end zone area that we will call “Mustang Stables.†We will have more details on this in the weeks to come, but among the benefits of the tent will be alternate food options, big-screen televisions to view other games and a pre-game “chalk talk†from a member of the coaching staff.
A resounding number of season ticket holders and students wanted to see us play all of our games in the evening. While we have always played our first two games of the season at 7 p.m. to battle the heat, the 2 p.m. kickoffs made it difficult for parents with children that had soccer games and other activities in the afternoon. As a result, we pushed back our start times from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. with the exception of the Homecoming game.
Our marketing staff is working very hard to ensure a wonderful experience for all of our fans, and I sincerely hope that you will choose to be a part of it. You can renew your season tickets online at smumustangs.com or by calling 214-SMU-GAME.
September 4 is right around the corner. It will be here before we know it. The next four months are critical to us as we prepare for the season opener against Texas Tech. We look forward to seeing you on The Boulevard and in the stands at kick off.
Go Mustangs!
Jim