Boulevard spots

[JasonB]

The regulars around my season tickets were missing both from the boulevard and the game. Hoping the weather kept them away, as well as others, but there sure were a lot of empty spots up and down the boulevard.

[Arkpony]

I learned this last year, unfortunately, that after 60 something years of supporting SMU athletics and sending my son thru college there, I'm still just a source of money to the administration and nothing else.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

I learned this last year, unfortunately, that after 60 something years of supporting SMU athletics and sending my son thru college there, I'm still just a source of money to the administration and nothing else.

It's a sad reality.

[mrydel]

I learned this last year, unfortunately, that after 60 something years of supporting SMU athletics and sending my son thru college there, I'm still just a source of money to the administration and nothing else.

You may start sending financial support to me if you wish. I need it more.

[PerunasHoof]

Boulevard is still full and there is a waiting list.

I know because we tried to move spots. They told us there were no empty spots. I would assume some of the empty areas this year are because of the dislocation due to the IPF. Our area had a lot of new people and smaller areas because they moved the Parents of Players tent next to us.

I didn't get a chance to go up north to the flagpole on Saturday so I don't know what it looked like. Maybe people just didn't show up due to weather and it being a Friday? No idea.

[Arkpony]

I learned this last year, unfortunately, that after 60 something years of supporting SMU athletics and sending my son thru college there, I'm still just a source of money to the administration and nothing else.

You may start sending financial support to me if you wish. I need it more.

Got ya on my Christmas list as well as in the Residuary Clause of my Last Will and Testament Mark! You are set my boy!

[SMU_Alum11]

SMU doesn't release specific numbers but you can reverse engineer and come pretty close.

2016-17 FY included 12.2mm in current use $. of which 5 came from MC. The MC donor guide showed that 38% of revenue reflected in the budget comes from fundraising/gifts. If 12.2mm represents 38% of revenue, that puts your revenue around 47mm... While that's just my monkey math, it meshes closely with numbers publicly reported like in this article
https://www.sbnation.com/college-footba ... u-wants-in

Crowd funding has been mentioned as an option for a number of things, the stables being one of them - second pic is from an email that went out last week.

I gotcha. Thank you for the walkthrough. I'm glad they're following the trend for the crowdfunding approach. I think there's room for improvement with making some sort of reward program if you donate X amount you get Y. I always liked the paver idea which I bought 2 of those because it's something you can tangibly see with your donation. I personally hate when I get a call from donation when I rather participate in something internet based.

Going with the above reward program, they should create a webpage that houses all initiatives by each sport and show the funding needed. They should make the payment transaction process streamless and then also have back-office solution to give people their YTD contributions for taxes. This would also help with knowing who of their alums are contributing and where they are coming from so they know how to better advertise. I know that probably sounds easier than said than done but I think it would be worth the investment given millennials generally like using internet based solutions. If we already have something similar to this then I guess I just never have seen it and marketing should be doing better on sharing via distributions channels like Twitter/Facebook.

[RGV Pony]

I agree with you, and those are all great ideas/suggestions. Keep them coming and I'm glad to pass along

The annual "Mustangs Give Back" day of giving is something that is done very similar to what you describe. Last year SMU used the "thunderclap" feature on facebook where everyone who was 'following' the event shared the message at the same time, increasing exposure etc. I'll make sure that in the run-up to next year it's shared here too.

This is after-the fact, but on the landing page for Mustangs Give Back, you can see the different projects and amounts that were sought, and how much was raised. While this is a university-wide initiative, Athletics regularly raises the most.

http://blog.smu.edu/mustangsgiveback/?s ... 3#projects

[SMU_Alum11]

Thanks RGV. The website does look exactly what I was describing so it's great to see they have that feature already. I'm curious if it has the back-office items at the minimum of annual gift amount for tax info for people. Anyways, I'm glad to see they have some things in place. It might be worth it to at least make it semi-annual but I guess it looks better to get a bunch of money all at once versus possibly splitting it out.

[Buddha]

But it bothered me because it made me wonder how clearly would I have to tell Pottkotter and Company how I feel before they would actually take me off the list? It's disrespectful and lazy. They couldn't even be bothered to put a note in my file. I just get a call from some kid like there was never a problem.

Don't they farm out ticket sales to an outside company? My guess is that many in administration and those making calls for tickets don't know each other. Young whippersnappers trying to make a buck on first job out of school, etc.

And didn't someone here say that there's an effort to get people to the Doak statue side of the stadium for additional tailgating, dressed up as an effort to get more folks to leave the Boulevard and actually go into the stadium? I'm torn on that. Obviously you want people in the game, not just partying on the Boulevard, but wouldn't splitting some from the herd just tempt them to go home and watch on TV?

[SMU_Alum11]

But it bothered me because it made me wonder how clearly would I have to tell Pottkotter and Company how I feel before they would actually take me off the list? It's disrespectful and lazy. They couldn't even be bothered to put a note in my file. I just get a call from some kid like there was never a problem.

Don't they farm out ticket sales to an outside company? My guess is that many in administration and those making calls for tickets don't know each other. Young whippersnappers trying to make a buck on first job out of school, etc.

And didn't someone here say that there's an effort to get people to the Doak statue side of the stadium for additional tailgating, dressed up as an effort to get more folks to leave the Boulevard and actually go into the stadium? I'm torn on that. Obviously you want people in the game, not just partying on the Boulevard, but wouldn't splitting some from the herd just tempt them to go home and watch on TV?

I don't think proximity is the issue. I think even if you put boulevarding inside Ford stadium, dumb I know, you would still see a huge drop off. The main issue is game interest in-itself. If you don't put a stellar product that can not only compete but win against P5s, you will never see the percentage rise. The only reason we have the 10k die-hard fans is because majority of them saw SMU at it's best and they want it back. Sadly, the majority of people able to make a game has never witness it. At best we had 8 wins with most of them from cupcakes.

In terms of boulevarding, don't take away something that gets people to campus and get them excited at least before the game. If we could get 90% of our normal, good weather, boulevard attendance, we would have a full stadium but we need to have a solid and consistent product. Taking away boulevarding would kill all potential fan interest for good. Adding surcharges to boulevard spots is a step in that direction that I wish would reverse course.