Game Day Experience - Next Year

[MustangPride4]

The focus should be on making the overall game experience a social event that makes people (students or others that would prefer to be at a sports bar) want to be inside the stadium. Think minor league baseball. There should be a meeting/think tank with all of the heads of the Greek houses. Ask those students what environment would they want for them to attend and stay at the games (winning alone won’t be the answer).

Idea: Build very large patio decks in South end zone on each side of the scoreboard, on the edge of the flat level, at the top of the hill. Call it the Corral or the Patio. Make them very wide and about 10-12 feet deep. Right behind that raise another level about 3 feet higher and make very deep to accommodate covered bars in the rear, serving beer, wine and water. Maybe naming rights could be sold? Put two large screen TV’s, side by side, on each end with one broadcasting our game and the other showing the next most popular game. Food trucks could be located adjacent to or behind. Populate the patios with tables and chairs and put in some tall palm trees or other type to add style and shade. Open to anyone - no special ticket required.

Down the hill, behind the goalposts, build large platforms for a student section - noisy aluminum platforms for standing only. Can make wide and a few levels high for viewing. Next to that, install stands in the southeast corner of the hill for the bands. Our band and students will hopefully annoy the heck out of our opponents and the noise should fill the stadium better, back into the horseshoe. If we have overtime, you know we will choose to play into that endzone! In the southwest corner of the hill, build 2 or 3 party decks for rental (hopefully to the business community).

A large portion of the north end zone should be tarped. Install a moderately sized video board above the north end zone and use it to display in-house tweets, making the game environment more inter-active.

All of the south endzone activity will be viewed by anyone driving by on Mockingbird, hopefully generating interest. SMU could be known for having the largest cocktail party INSIDE the stadium! During game breaks, shoot T-shirts into the stands or throw red, white and blue Mardi Gras beads - anything to not have a dull moment.

35,000 fans would be awesome, but you’re not getting that anytime soon and you don’t need that. A real 20,000 would be great in this environment as long as the students were along for the ride. Future recruits should be escorted (by attractive student hostesses) to walk the Boulevard, which they do not do now. The combination of the Boulevard and this type of game experience should help with some recruits wanting to be a part of it. Take a time out on bashing the team or the coaching. Coaching and players will change at some point, but you will still have a huge attendance problem to overcome. It most definitely affects recruiting and has an impact on how the team plays (even Vegas recognizes a 3 point advantage to a home team for a reason). It could also affect future coaching candidates. Everyone here wants success, so pool ideas and hopefully they get the right attention and are part of a change for the better. Winning alone won’t fix attendance; however, winning is ABSOLUTELY the endgame. Somebody is going to say that you can pop up Circus tents and it won’t change until .... that thinking is part of the problem and not part of the solution.

I would also move the student tailgate area to the practice fields, next to the stadium.

[SMUer]

I thinks that's why they called them soirées...jk

Awesome ideas...I love the nod to acoustics by putting them in the bottom of the horseshoe...I also like the idea of making "standing room only" sections...maybe make several. Put them at deep discounts and give tons of tickets away to those sections.

[gostangs]

Man you nailed it! I agree with absolutely everything. Can someone please get this to Rick hart and just see if we can do every single thing???

[SMUer]

@AD_RickHart

Pretty active on Twitter

[SMU 86]

Email that to Rick Hart.

[email protected]

[East Coast Mustang]

Ugh, you're stealing my idea about the patios....I like your ideas, though.

My idea, which I've repeated like a broken record, is to make the north endzone now into a party area/patio/whatever with full bar, covered awning, and TVs showing other games- think Katy Trail Ice House, but at Ford Stadium. Instead of tarping off these undesirable seats, we'll make them into a desirable location. Charge a $10 cover for "admission," charge a reasonable amount for drinks and bar food, and I think people would dig it.

I think the grassy area in the south endzone should remain a "family" area with food trucks and the like, but maybe not loads of alcohol.

Definitely like your idea about displaying tweets- maybe install an electronic "ribbon board" in between the floors of the suites now facing the student section that will display tweets/scores/whatever continuously throughout the game. Or just continue doing it now on the big video board during TV timeouts- I'm pretty sure we do something like that now.

To the extent that it's feasible, we should also try to do halftime concerts or postgame concerts. I know that Pi Phi used to sponsor a "Mr University" contest that was a talent show or something like that- what if they did it at halftime of one of the otherwise undesirable AAC games? Just another way to get casual fans and apathetic students interested in what's going on inside the stadium.

Also- the idea about moving studnet tailgates to practice fields- probably wouldn't fly because the fraternities and sororities would pitch a fit, but what if we moved them to the very south end of the Blvd, closest to the stadium? I know people are picky about their spots, but it's something to think about.

If we ever build an IPF on the current site of the soccer field or the practice fields, we should make that an area with indoor activities during the Blvd on gameday- Oregon does something similar right next to their stadium- they cover the practice field (obviously) and have drink stations setup everywhere and the dance team and bands perform before the game. It's pretty neat.

[Oliver]

I think you make some good points. A large deck above the grass field where students and fans could grab drinks and mingle at half time would be great, might stop people from hustling out to a bar or restaurant at halftime. I think if you can create a good party zone for people inside the stadium then you have a better chance of creating a Boulevard-like atmosphere inside the stadium. A massive cocktail party of a game might be the only way to keep the non-diehards around.

I don't think we should put the students in bleachers in that endzone though. with a million open seats, there's no reason for the few that stay to want the worst seats in the house. I think we continue to give them a good spot to sit in, and then mainly focus on incentivizing Greek organizations to attend.

Greek organizations need to see actual rewards for staying at games all the way through. Rewards for highest overall attendance per game and staying the whole game need to be worth their while. This basically means party incentives and points toward better events and functions like rush parties, away weekends etc....really make it worth their while at the beginning because it's going to be a tough tough culture of complacency to change.

Beyond that though, it's about an exciting schedule, playing good teams, and winning some of those games. If you want people in the stands you have to give them to beliefs, either A. we are going to upset a good nationally relevant team or B.) we are going to whoop some [deleted] and play exciting lights football, throw up lots of points and position ourselves to go undefeated and be BCS playoff buster at the end of the year. Other than that, no one gives a [deleted] about a close competitive game with UCF or Temple, just DOES NOT move the needle.

[ponyinNC]

Best idea ever

[Maine Mustang]

Add a wet sun dress contest and a Greek dunking booth and we're set...

[MustangPride4]

forwarded to Hart - hopefully he and admin. consider everyone's ideas/input

[AustinPerson]

Will anyone even care next year?

[RyanSMU98]

forwarded to Hart - hopefully he and admin. consider everyone's ideas/input

He's usually pretty good about responding so hopefully you will get some feedback. They are good suggestions, and the key one IMHO is actually reaching out to students (through organizations as well as the general community) and engaging them in the discussion of how to get them to connect with athletics in a way that gets them to come to and stay at games. I have to say few things [deleted] me off more than the Greeks showing up for the Homecoming game in droves, watching the crowning and halftime and then running for the exits when it is over like the damned place is on fire. Happens every year, and is indicative of how the student body seems to connect to the football team (which is little to not at all).

[ponyinNC]

"The Pony Pub" at Ford Stadium.

You're welcome SMU.

[East Coast Mustang]

To the point about Homecoming- we should parade all of the HC court candidates out at halftime like we normally do, but wait to crown the "winner" until after the 3rd quarter.

[SMUSIC 07]

I agree that the south zone needs to remain a family friendly zone. Are the fod trucks a hit? I think it's a great idea, and hopefully there will be more with increased attendance.

As for creating a home field advantage: we should build what we have with the student section right now and try to expand it across the entire the north end zone. Students don't need good seats. They need to be in a place where they can cause the most disruption to the other team, and, for the size of our student body, I think the lower level of the north end zone is perfect. Add to that a special young alumni section or 2 (Red and Blue Army section) and a section or 2 with tickets that include access to a party zone, and we could potentially have an extremely raucous cheering section in the loudest part of the stadium. I think younger alumni that have better seats right now would be more into joining that crowd than they would sitting on the 50 with the olds (not that there's anything wrong with having good seats and trying to enjoy the game). I know I would.

Party zone: not sure if a north end zone party deck is a feasible option without major renovation, but it's a fabulous idea. It's a great way to get people from the Boulevard interested in coming to the game, and I'm sure many non-fans or apathetics would adopt SMU football as their own if the atmosphere is inviting and energetic....and had booze.

Students: adding incentives to greek organizations will get them to the game, but it's not going to turn them into football fanatics. Only winnning can do that. But I agree, do whatever it takes to get them in the stadium and keep them there until the end. Win or lose, the entire student body needs to at least stay for the final Varsity and Peruna with the team. The band always performs a post-game show with a few charts and their standard Shanty-Varsity-Home. I have no doubt the band would be willing to adopt some more student-friendly charts ind include them in the post-game stuff if the students would stay and cheer them on. As a former band member, I can't tell you how disappointing it is to play great music to a quickly emptying stadium. When students did stay and gave recognition, it felt great.

Let's not turn this into Jerryworld. Focus on football, not partying.