Attendance/Marketing Project

[Pony94]

As with many of us, the Beasley tweets bothered me. However, the fact that our attendance is much less than it should be is undeniable. From his point of view, our attendance should have increased while he was on the Hilltop. I don’t know the exact attendance numbers, so I am not going to build an argument around attendance numbers. But I do know this:

1. I know alumni that make it to the BLVD for every game, but never go in the game
2. I know alumni that live in Dallas that have never been to the BLVD or a game in the last ten years
3. I don’t think I could point out more than 2 or 3 other season ticket holders from my graduating class

It has been discussed here before that over the last 25 years we have “lost” or not captured a large group of fans who should now be attending games and that the size of our alumni base makes it difficult to fill the stadium, regardless of our performance.

So what is the answer to getting these potential fans in the door? Would winning games bring to the games or are they lost forever? I don’t know any of these answers, but I think an interesting marketing project would be to fully dissect the attendance and ticket purchase numbers. For instance:

1. How many season tickets have been sold for the last 10/20 years?
2. How many season tickets have been sold to alumni/non-alumni?
3. How many season tickets have been sold by graduating year?
4. How many years after graduating does it take for alumni to buy season tickets?
5. How many season tickets are sold to former athletes?
6. How many season tickets are sold to student association members (i.e. band, young alumni, greek, etc.)?
7. How many season tickets are sold to alumni that did not receive an undergraduate from SMU?
8. How many season tickets are sold to residents of Dallas?
9. How many season tickets are sold to residents within 100 miles of campus?
10. How many season tickets are sold to residents further away than 100 miles of campus?
11. How many season ticket holders from the past 10 years did not buy season tickets in the last year, 2 years, 3 years, etc.?
12. How many people have donated to the Mustang club in the last 10, 20 years?
13. How many people who have donated to the Mustang Club have not purchased season tickets?
14. How many football season ticket holders have purchased single game tickets to away games?
15. How many football season ticket holders have purchased bowl game tickets?
16. How many football season ticket holders have purchased other sports tickets (broken down by sport)?
17. How many basketball season ticket holders have not purchased football season tickets?
18. How many single game ticket buyers have not purchased season tickets?
19. How many BLVD’ers who are on the BLVD during a game have season tickets or single game tickets?
20. How many alumni live in the DFW metrpolex? Within 100 miles, 200 miles?
21. How many alumni outside of DFW have purchased tickets for games in their home town? (such as some one living in Waco that purchased tickets to the Baylor game)
22. How many students attend each game? How far back does this data go?
23. What are the largest groups that have purchased single game tickets? (such as junior cheerleaders or dance squads)
24. What are the largest single game purchases for a game which is not against TCU, ATM, Texas Tech, OSU?
25. How many parents buy tickets for Parents Weekend?
26. How many alumni buy tickets to homecoming for their celebrated year?

I am sure there are plenty of more some one could think of. But from this data, you can better understand if we are not capturing the alumni base (for instance, if an alumni doesn't buy tickets within 5 years of graduating, do they ever). Also, you could use these stats to formulate marketing campaigns, such as:

1. Market to fraternity/sororities to join your greek friends at the game.
2. Market out of town games to out of town alumni.
3. Invite former season ticket holders back. Get them their old seats if possible. Special emphasis on attendees to the first game at Ford.
4. Count the number of people on the BLVD during a game, set a goal of converting them to ticket purchasers. At least ask why they don’t go in?
5. Market to parents during Parents Weekend. Push to local alumni even if they don’t have students enrolled.
6. Push conversion of single game purchasers to season ticket purchasers.
7. When new coach is hired, push to anyone that has purchased a ticket in the last x years that is not currently a season ticket holder.
8. Have players call to help sell tickets (team up with sales staff). I really liked the calls from athletes to thank for donations in years past.

Some of these may work, some may not, but I think the in depth knowledge of who buys tickets is extremely important.

I am sure someone in the marketing department has already done this...if not, they should give it a shot.

[blackoutpony]

Have you watched the team at all this year?

[GreenbeltPony]

Have you watched the team at all this year?

He's asking about trends over the last 5, 10, 20 years.

[footballdad]

"As with many of us, the Beasley tweets bothered me. However, the fact that our attendance is much less than it should be is undeniable. From his point of view, our attendance should have increased while he was on the Hilltop. I don’t know the exact attendance numbers, so I am not going to build an argument around attendance numbers. But I do know this:

1. I know alumni that make it to the BLVD for every game, but never go in the game
2. I know alumni that live in Dallas that have never been to the BLVD or a game in the last ten years
3. I don’t think I could point out more than 2 or 3 other season ticket holders from my graduating class"

----------------------------------

Great points Pony94. Guys like blackoutpony would rather not know the real answers because the truth would show that the vast, vast majority of SMU alums don't/won't support SMU football no matter the wins or losses. They show up in full force on the Blvd to drink and be seen and throw out drunken snide remarks just like blackoutpony.

Just a different, privileged, arrogant breed. The only way to fill that stadium would be to somehow reach out to the casual Dallas football fan and somehow make them feel as if this was Dallas' Team. That in itself is very difficult for the same reason: most view SMU as a privileged, arrogant country club.

I would drop 20,000 free tickets from airplanes all over Dallas prior to each game just to get butts in the seats and make $ off the $8 & $10 beers.

No easy fix. Desperately need outside marketing expertise.

[Pony94]

Have you watched the team at all this year?

As a matter of fact, yes! I even bought tickets for Baylor this year, so I have seen plenty of punts, sacks and negative yardage.

My point is simple, what do the numbers tell us?

[Mustangs_Maroons]

footballd, you strike me as a persont that is following SMU football because of one particular person and not for the program itself. My sense, maybe I'm wrong, is that you wont' be here after the person of interest you are supporting is gone.

so not sure you are qualified to condemn an entire alumni base, unless you know what the alumni base has had to endure over the last 30 years or so.

That being said, I do agree, that it is an issue of reengaging a lost generation because SMU administration didn't give a damn about football. But it takes time to build that up, and it will only be built up if we put a good football product and a coach with interest supporting the school and our traditions, and has the fire to be the face of the program. If that person doesn't give a damn, then it reflects on the overall football program. As of now, we have mostly DITRs, and we have a very uncompetitive team that quite frankly is painful to watch, as much of a supporter or fan as you may be.

And as much as I thank the football players for busting their butts to play and represent our school, this constant shellaking is a mere symptom of the fact we don't have not only the right coaches but also the right football players. And yes, while it may seem tough to hear, but the majority of our football players didn't receive D1 offers, and if it wasn't for SMU would likely not be playing D1 football.

If you seriously think that if we had a football team that closely resembled what Baylor has now that we wouldn't fill the stadium, then I think we do have serious problems, but the fact is that is an empty argument and an assumption, because we have not even remotely gotten close to being that type of team.

there is no easy fix, but it starts with having the right admin support (which I think we have now), and getting the right face of the program to put a good product on the field. Then, judge us.

[East Coast Mustang]

footballdad- We could drop 20k tickets from a plane and our attendance would not noticeably improve. The problem is not the cost of admission, but rather competition for entertainment: 70" HDTVs, five hundred channels with dozens of games on at any one time, and numerous bars and restaurants in Dallas showing multiple games at once, etc.

The only way we're going to get casual fans and previously disinterested alums into Ford is to make it an event people want to say they're going to -- like SMU basketball. To do that, you have to beat relevant teams. It's not easy, especially as an private AAC program in Dallas with just 7,000 undergrads, 40,000 total alumni in the area, and 32,000 seats to fill.

[Charleston Pony]

this would be a good group project to assign to a marketing class in Cox, but I sincerely hope that has been something our students are working on year in, year out. Or maybe there aren't even enough b-school students willing to take that one on?

[Charleston Pony]

this would be a good group project to assign to a marketing class in Cox, but I sincerely hope that has been something our students are working on year in, year out. Or maybe there aren't even enough b-school students willing to take that one on?

[SMUer]

Just how many people do you guys think are still on the BLVD by the 2nd Quarter? I'd bet you'd be hard pressed to find 1,000. Sure some show up and leave: NEWSFLASH every school has 1000s of students who don't give a rip about football. What are you going to tell them that will change their minds? So yes, let's continue to freak out about 2,500 seats we aren't going attract into Ford anyway and ignore DFW where the smallest marketing impact could potentially sell-out Ford immediately.

[footballdad]

footballd, you strike me as a persont that is following SMU football because of one particular person and not for the program itself. My sense, maybe I'm wrong, is that you wont' be here after the person of interest you are supporting is gone.

so not sure you are qualified to condemn an entire alumni base, unless you know what the alumni base has had to endure over the last 30 years or so.

That being said, I do agree, that it is an issue of reengaging a lost generation because SMU administration didn't give a damn about football. But it takes time to build that up, and it will only be built up if we put a good football product and a coach with interest supporting the school and our traditions, and has the fire to be the face of the program. If that person doesn't give a damn, then it reflects on the overall football program. As of now, we have mostly DITRs, and we have a very uncompetitive team that quite frankly is painful to watch, as much of a supporter or fan as you may be.

And as much as I thank the football players for busting their butts to play and represent our school, this constant shellaking is a mere symptom of the fact we don't have not only the right coaches but also the right football players. And yes, while it may seem tough to hear, but the majority of our football players didn't receive D1 offers, and if it wasn't for SMU would likely not be playing D1 football.

If you seriously think that if we had a football team that closely resembled what Baylor has now that we wouldn't fill the stadium, then I think we do have serious problems, but the fact is that is an empty argument and an assumption, because we have not even remotely gotten close to being that type of team.

there is no easy fix, but it starts with having the right admin support (which I think we have now), and getting the right face of the program to put a good product on the field. Then, judge us.

Correct, I am not an SMU alum, merely a football dad, football fan, and volunteer coach (my pee-wee teams are bad *ss)

Whether I am a life long SMU fan will largely depend on the next hire and the future of the program. Since we will have an SMU alum in the family at some point I could just as easily wear the colors proudly and support the team both monetarily and in attendance, until I'm old and gray, if they get their act together.

Also, I don't believe I've condemned the entire alumni base, although I guess you could say a large majority. In that regard, I'm just calling it like I see it and I don't think what I've said is any revelation to anyone who has been to an SMU game.

As far as our current players, we could have better, we could have worse. GG leaving obviously shows the importance of the QB position, and I truly believe June's scheme simply doesn't fit the actual talent we do have on the roster. We could go on and on about this but when I look at our current recruiting class for instance, vs. the rest of the AAC classes right now, we are middle of the road. To say we have zero talent, and this is the worst ever, and we'll need 3 recruiting classes to even think about competing I just think that is nonsense. As I've said a hundred times here.....get the right coach and staff, with the right scheme, who will inspire the team and the campus, and I believe we'll be competitive in the AAC quickly.

I 100% agree that we should recruit better and this is nearly a given just because June is gone. The majority of our classes should be 3 stars with offers, a couple 2 stars, and a 4 star mixed in here and there. There are simply too many good Texas players that should be attracted to what SMU has to offer for this to not be the case. Majority 3 star classes will put us right at the top of any AAC recruiting ranking and fill our roster with plenty of talent for the future.

As far as us ever closely resembling Baylor (as long as we remain outside of the P5) I just don't know how you can even have that expectation? It's apples and oranges, P5 vs. the rest. Our goal should be to dominate the AAC and see how this P5 collusion works itself out over the coming years.

No reason that December 2014 can't be the beginning of something great with SMU football and the beginning of my life long support for the program.

Kudos to those that are hanging in and staying positive.

[Johnny Utah]

Wow! Pony94, everything you laid out is a waste of money and time. And the rest of you talking reengagement, lost generation is a joke..... Concentration and money needs to be 100% behind winning, not vomiting a nicely packaged product on alums in hopes they will bite...

Understand, Football is the contemporary predecessor to tribes doing mortal battle with each other. Most fans want to go to games if they can field proud about their team and be able to talk S to the opposing fans if they want to (and have a basis to)... It's not about nor will it ever be, let's support the losers because we are loyal...

All the alumni from big state schools who are s-talkers about SMU shut up F up when they saw what SMU did in Basketball..

Build a winner and they will come..

[smupony94]

There's only one true 94

[East Coast Mustang]

The whole deal about "reconnecting the lost generations" of SMU fans is silly IMO. We reconnected those lost generations with SMU basketball in about six weeks last season after we beat UConn, Cincy, and Memphis at Moody. Friends of mine who'd never been to an SMU basketball in their life were suddenly calling me and asking if I had extra tickets.

[East Coast Mustang]

It's a [deleted] shame we couldn't build off of any of that basketball buzz last year with the football team this year. I really, truly thought we'd be decent this year. I was very, very wrong.