The myth: Winning cures everything

GiddyUp · Post by **GiddyUp** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 9:58 am

Where does this high ticket misconception come from? And is $25 too much really?

GiddyUp · Post by **GiddyUp** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 10:00 am

2ndandlong wrote:Three seasons of barely eking out .500+ is not winning. That doesn't even equate to one freshman to senior cycle.

And barely over .500 is insufficient for newcomers if it is insufficient for most of us.

Winning has to become a culture. Attendance was lower under Bennett and Cavin but the marketing spend was a lot higher.

I want to increase marketing dollars but the right way.

what is the right way? Id say no marketing is not the way - operation sellout was ok for utep and failure for ucf.

Mestengo · Post by **Mestengo** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 10:12 am

It won't cure crabs

redpony · Post by **redpony** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 10:15 am

Mestengo wrote:It won't cure crabs

Sounds like a personal problem to me.

Maybe you've been hanging out with stallion too long.

GO PONIES!!!

mrydel · Post by **mrydel** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 10:16 am

Check out the ticket prices at other schools. $25.00 is a steal for a D-1 football game. Now whether or not the product on the field is worth it can be discussed but not the price.

I am pretty sure that shortly after the BE announcement is made, so will the increase in ticket prices. They might possibly wait until 2013 but I would imagine they will do it now just like they increased the Blvd prices after Jones was hired but before the winning seasons.

redpony · Post by **redpony** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 10:28 am

An increase in ticket prices would likely be better accepted if at the same time they announced a major marketing program to put more butts in the seats.
BTW- IIRC I have always paid like $35.00-40.00/ ticket for single game tickets.

GO PONIES!!!

PonySnob · Post by **PonySnob** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 10:34 am

mrydel wrote:Check out the ticket prices at other schools. $25.00 is a steal for a D-1 football game. Now whether or not the product on the field is worth it can be discussed but not the price.

I am pretty sure that shortly after the BE announcement is made, so will the increase in ticket prices. They might possibly wait until 2013 but I would imagine they will do it now just like they increased the Blvd prices after Jones was hired but before the winning seasons.

With all of the extra money from the BE, there is no reason that ticket prices need to go up at all. Certainly SMU tickets prices are a bargain compared to UT or A$M but we barely draw 20K to games or even have all that many season ticket holders. Even with the BE schedule, it's not like that will be bringing a bunch of top 25 teams to Ford and all of a sudden, we will be selling out our stadium on a regular basis. Hard to raise prices when supply is far greater than demand............

2ndandlong · Post by **2ndandlong** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 10:39 am

GiddyUp wrote:
2ndandlong wrote:Three seasons of barely eking out .500+ is not winning. That doesn't even equate to one freshman to senior cycle.

And barely over .500 is insufficient for newcomers if it is insufficient for most of us.

Winning has to become a culture. Attendance was lower under Bennett and Cavin but the marketing spend was a lot higher.

I want to increase marketing dollars but the right way.

what is the right way? Id say no marketing is not the way - operation sellout was ok for utep and failure for ucf.

it is multi-pronged and costs more than we currently have. The marketing budget is currently funded by the Morgan campaign. These are funds available to orsini for his pet projects.

1 local presence - the banners discussed above touched on this. Yard signs should also be free at area Tom thumbs for every game. I'd put one up every week. Cups and koozies with the SMU athletics brand should be available for purchase if not required on the boulevard. A cup that you could take to your office the rest of the week.
2 regional presence - you need a blended approach using paper, radio and Internet media advertising that reaches all of DFW. The stampede is a good start for now.
3 national presence - the "grass roots" efforts on smu2bcs have been great and has played a major role in conference realignment discussions (done deal). This needs to go corporate. Ads on The stampede should be expanded to espn among other nationally recognized media like SI or YahooSports.

This is spitballing for conversation sake. In reality we need to engage a National marketing firm to spearhead this. I just participated in a rebranding of my firm. We changed our name by dropping two words at the end of a five word name. This cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars for the one time change and will continue to cost us 80-100k per month going forward.

2ndandlong · Post by **2ndandlong** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 10:42 am

Winning got us attention. Marketing used it to get us in the Big East conversation. Keep winning and hope we see some additional revenue from a new conference tv deal. Then we can discuss executing what we need to do.

For now I'm content with the grass roots stuff.

redpony · Post by **redpony** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 11:08 am

2nL- don't disagree except that the 'grass roots' activities haven't done much to put butts in the seats. I realize we will not fill Ford overnight as there are too many hurdles to overcome but we need to start seeing subtantial progress.

GO PONIES!!!

peruna11 · Post by **peruna11** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 11:13 am

Totally agree with Hoop Fan & CMF.

You've got to win, but you also have to beat relevant teams to keep drawing new fans. Sorry, but your SEC & B12 buddies aren't going to even give you a pat on the back for squeaking by Rice come Monday (you'll most likely get teased for it). I feel this season was a step in the right direction, but we also still left a lot on the table which is disappointing.

As far as ticket prices go, think about it this way. Imagine you are not an alum. Imagine you don't have a 6 or 7 figure income. Imagine, and I know this might seem hard to believe, but imagine you haven't even heard of SMU. Given all that, would you pay $20-30 to come see the product we have put on the field this year? I doubt I would.

Personally, every time I bring a non-alum to a game, I have to talk them into it AND provide the ticket. Not ONCE has anyone not related to SMU called & said, "man, good news! i decided to buy tickets to the game! yall are whooping some CUSA butt, and i cant dream of missing this weeks matchup vs UAB." Hasn't happened.

I have no experience in this field, but where we are now, an $8-10 visitor bleacher seat seems a LOT more reasonable if you''re truly trying to draw new fans. Hell, if blocks of seats are still unsold come friday afternoon, take stacks of them to the local high schools and give them away. At least you'll get some concession income out of them.

Mitch McConnell · Post by **Mitch McConnell** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 11:21 am

A lot of schools use weighted ticket prices. High profile games are more expensive than others.

For example, LSU charged something like $40 for its NW St game and $70 for Florida.

Something we should look at unless we believe all CUSA teams are the same. Maybe it's worth exploring if this Big East ting ever comes to fruition.

mrydel · Post by **mrydel** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 11:23 am

All I am saying is look at the history of the Orsini tenure (and I think he has and is doing a great job). They tend to raise prices before the product improves and stress that you had better get on board before it is too late. As I said, look at the Blvd. Many said they would give up their spots because of the price increase and I am sure some did. But others came in and took them. Blvd spots appear to be all sold and more desired.

I do not want a ticket increase. Personally I would not increase the price. However, based on what I have seen, I do expect and increase after the BE announcement if not 2012, then 2013 for sure.

2ndandlong · Post by **2ndandlong** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 11:39 am

redpony wrote:2nL- don't disagree except that the 'grass roots' activities haven't done much to put butts in the seats. I realize we will not fill Ford overnight as there are too many hurdles to overcome but we need to start seeing subtantial progress.

GO PONIES!!!

not enough but attendance is still up compared to when we had a larger marketing budget.

Define substantial progress. I'll need to find the thread but one of the frogs on here showed that we are mirroring their experience of 2 steps forward 1 back in terms of attendance growth and they started their run from a much more advantageous point.

mr. pony · Post by **mr. pony** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 11:40 am

Hoop Fan wrote:6 or 7 wins in CUSA does not qualify as winning in Dallas. Its barely better than Bennett did when he got fired. FIRED. 8 wins is winning. 9 wins is good. 10 wins is getting it done. 11 gets serious respect. 12 is BCS contention. 7 with wins over Tulane and Rice over the past 6 weeks aint cutting it. This is grim, but without Hurricane Katrina causing Tulane to fall off signficantly from where they were, how much improvement have we really done ourselves? TCU win was great though.

Yep. Exactly.