DC SO BE

[SMU89]

http://www.smudailycampus.com/news/smu- ... -1.2796813

[Charleston Pony]

good to hear; we need to be more concerned about attendance than revenue (from ticket sales). Really need to develop a cheap "family plan" to get young families with kids out to the games. That, along with increased student attendance, will go a long ways towards improving the situation. I think we may find the challenge is that a lot of young alumni from the post death penalty years of futility just really don't care about sports and it might not matter to them if we were playing top 10 caliber football/bball.

[SMUer]

I heard the multi-year scholarships didn't pass...

[Mexmustang]

Do you really believe the price of a ticket discourages attendance? We seem to be the best entertainment value in town.

From my perspective, our offense was boring last year. The only regular season game I saw the offense really reveal itself was TCU. Generally, our home games last years were lessons of futility. Just boring and frustrating. The games were not entertaining, I actually enjoyed watching our poor teams of the past 20-25 years overacheive than watch last year's offense underachieve. The offensive line was pathetic. The number of penalties and hits on a injured QB was unacceptable. Yeah, JJ missed open receivers during much of the season, but our senior line play was pathetic.

[AusTxPony]

I do think price discourages attendance. We need a two pronged marketing scheme. First, market to hardcore sports fans by winning, thereby filling the higher priced tickets. Second, market to disadvantaged communities to make Ford a family destination. Turn the open end into a family picnic area with modest admission policies with cheaper food and drink and promote the safety of the Boulevard for grandparents and grandkids (who probably don't care about the game results that much). Designate "cheap seats" areas. Encourage athletes to volunteer on Sundays to go out into these communities and talk to kids about SMU and the game day experience and what it means to them. Get them to want to come to SMU games.

[mrydel]

There are "cheap seat" areas. Every year I buy two season tickets in the end zone to be given away to youth groups or lower income families. I encourage others to do the same. It does not cost a lot of money and will help get more into the stands. I have spoken to the athletic department to insure these tickets are being used and am convinced they are. If every season ticket holder would buy these tickets, we would double our core attendance immediately.

[Charleston Pony]

Mex: yes, I do think the price of admission affects our attendance. Not from the standpoint of our loyal 8k or so that will show up regardless of the product on the field, but the challenge we face is increasing attendance. No question the product on the field will help, but is anyone expecting this roster to win CUSA next year and more important, to beat A&M and TCU which is really what is needed to generate interest?

Let's face it, the majority of kids who went to SMU are spoiled rich kids and those who are not loyal supporters of the program already are not likely to jump on the bandwagon unless/until SMU fields teams like they did in the early 80's. If/when it's the "think to do" and the "place to be seen", we will see more casual football fan students/alumni surface.

The challenge is to get people who are not necessarily associated with SMU interested. My parents moved from the Boston area to Dallas the year before Dallas got the Cowboys' franchise. Tex Schram had a tough time putting 30-40,000 in the Cotton Bowl to watch that 0-11-1 team with little Eddie LeBaron at the helm. They offered a "family package" where my Dad could buy an endzone seat and bring 5 kids free. Worked out great for us because I had 3 brothers so we rotated which one of us could bring a friend but we went to every home game on the cheap. Given the state of the product on the field, I think we are at a point where we need to market aggressively and who better than local school kids, pee wee football teams/leagues, etc... Hype the pre-game activities with jump castle, face painting, cheap food/drinks on the quad. Make it easy (game day ticket lets you ride DART to Mockingbird Station and back home). Yes, it's basically a giveaway, but it's all about putting butts in seats, especially for those games we all know are going to draw only 15-18k.

Our game day atmosphere stinks and we all know it. 10-15,000 empty seats at Ford for most games is not "big time". On the other hand, several thousand screaming kids in those sparsely populated endzones seats, making noise at the urging of our cheerleaders or videoboard might do wonders for the enthusiasm at Ford, not to mention growing a new generation of Mustang Fans.

[PoconoPony]

[quote="Charleston Pony"]Mex: yes, I do think the price of admission affects our attendance. Not from the standpoint of our loyal 8k or so that will show up regardless of the product on the field, but the challenge we face is increasing attendance. No question the product on the field will help, but is anyone expecting this roster to win CUSA next year and more important, to beat A&M and TCU which is really what is needed to generate interest?


The challenge is to get people who are not necessarily associated with SMU interested. My parents moved from the Boston area to Dallas the year before Dallas got the Cowboys' franchise. Tex Schram had a tough time putting 30-40,000 in the Cotton Bowl to watch that 0-11-1 team with little Eddie LeBaron at the helm. They offered a "family package" where my Dad could buy an endzone seat and bring 5 kids free. Worked out great for us because I had 3 brothers so we rotated which one of us could bring a friend but we went to every home game on the cheap. Given the state of the product on the field, I think we are at a point where we need to market aggressively and who better than local school kids, pee wee football teams/leagues, etc... Hype the pre-game activities with jump castle, face painting, cheap food/drinks on the quad. Make it easy (game day ticket lets you ride DART to Mockingbird Station and back home). Yes, it's basically a giveaway, but it's all about putting butts in seats, especially for those games we all know are going to draw only 15-18k.

As a frosh at SMU in 1963 I used to go to Cowboy games in the Cotton Bowl. I would buy a $1.00, yes one dollar, end zone ticket. The end zone in those days entended from the 20 yard line all around the end zone to the 20 yard line on the other side. This was the same on both ends of the stadium. I would move over to the 20 yard line, separated from the rest of the side line seats by a chain link fence, and watch. The $1.00 tickets were supposed to be for people 18 and under, but they would sell to anyone. The end zones in those days literally had no one and I could take any seat on the 20. Yes, the Cowboys had a great deal of trouble for the first 4 years getting crowds of more than 20,000 which looked really small in a stadium of 72,000. CP makes a great point that winning changes everything. By the time I finished law school in 1970 season's tickets were the only way you could get into a Cowboy's game and Texas Stadium was the venue.

[Topper]

I have extra tickets between the yardlines on the home side that I always try to give away to people who otherwise wouldnt buy a ticket. Most of the time they go unused. People would rather watch the Big 12 from the comfort of home. I also get the feeling that some people feel that the Park Cities are not a very inviting place for working class people.

[AusTxPony]

Exactly, Topper, and we need to change that. I'm older and one thing in life I've learned that never changes is that change will occur. So let's change that untrue perception with MARKETING. Give a can, not a can't. Ideas please. Maybe someone is listening.

[PonyKai]

Anyone who saw half our games last year would need to be forced at gun point to watch one again. We beat Tulane by almost 3 touchdowns and it was such boring, miserable, un-entertaining football game that I wanted to carve my eyes with a dull spoon. Let's start with fixing that.

[GiddyUp]

i would have to agree that the penalties, bumbles, and mistakes made this a tough watch season. Not to mention trotting over to the sidelines every play really slow down the game. (I guess that will never change)

[mustangbill67]

Anyone who saw half our games last year would need to be forced at gun point to watch one again. We beat Tulane by almost 3 touchdowns and it was such boring, miserable, un-entertaining football game that I wanted to carve my eyes with a dull spoon. Let's start with fixing that.

some of you guys are unbelievable. I have been going to SMU football games for time immemorial. This previous year 10 games in attendance missing three away games. While I have often been disappointed, I have never been bored, miserable, un-entertained or forced to go. I am a SMU dedicated football fan. I go to games because I support the team and the program win or lose.

[BIGHORSE]

I am never bored no matter who we are playing, especially if we are winning!!!

[PonyKai]

Oh please, unbelievable my elbow. Look, pretty sure we all love this school and program more than 99.9% of people walking the Earth. Having said that, sorry, if you're going to sit here and try and rationalize with yourself that these football games as entertainment products are stellar, we aren't living in the same world. Our HC game against Tulane was incredibly boring. The play was staggered, slow, there were long breaks in the action, the game atmosphere was terrible, and it was the most underwhelming 20 point victory in quite a while.

If you don't like that, fine. If you choose not to believe it, fine. If you want to pretend it doesn't exist, fine. But tough nuts- a lot of the games we play simply aren't fun to watch. And guess what, people aren't just going to randomly show up and keep coming back when it simply isn't fun. It's not like my opinion is some bizarre outlier here. Plenty of people felt the exact same way that day, and our attendance numbers don't exactly refute the assertion. Deal with it.