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Post by FUBeAR on Feb 4, 2019 8:19:15 GMT -5
President Underwood Starts Football InitiativeI think this is very smart. Proactively addressing a potential issue before it becomes as pervasive an issue as it has become for many other schools at all levels of college football. The only ‘criticism’ I might have from what I see in the article is that I think a broader perspective might prove beneficial. In other words, include more ‘stakeholders’ in the initiative, such as representatives of: * Nearby businesses * Communities of potential fans within a 25 or 50 mile radius * Middle Georgia School Sports * Macon-area Youth Sports * Former Players, and, of course* Players Families. Maybe those types of stakeholders ARE involved or will be included in ‘Phase II” of this initiative. Your thoughts? Excerpt from the article... In 2013, the Mercer Football team returned to the field, playing their first game in a little over 70 years. President Underwood’s Chief of Staff Larry Brumley described the day as “filled with excitement” with “tickets for the comeback season selling out long before the games even started.”
A little over six years after the Bears’ triumphant return, alumni and students have started to notice a lull in the excitement surrounding game day at the Five Star Stadium. “The newness is wearing off,” Brumley said. “We are trying to find a way to rebuild the excitement the community felt back in 2013.”
To recreate that excitement, Underwood has assembled a team of individuals made up of “alumni, staff, student life, students and marketing” to meet and discuss different ways to bring the spirit of excitement back to Mercer football gamedays.
“There is nothing wrong, but something that we take very seriously at Mercer is continuing to grow and make things better,” Brumley said. “We are just using this six-year mark as a way to re-evaluate.”
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Post by jackal on Feb 5, 2019 22:30:32 GMT -5
At bottom, a football program (or any sports program, really) has to make their product more interesting than the alternatives. The game has to be the most interesting can't-miss event for the weekend. That is tough for a smaller school in a market dominated by really big fish.
With Mercer specifically, the decrease in excitement is not surprising. When the program restarted, it was new and the team won a lot. Students could say they were building something. Everything was a first. Now, the team is probably objectively better, but the competition is better too. The record isn't as good and the product isn't as interesting.
I think this is a new place for Mercer fans. For a long time, Mercer dominated the A-Sun. Mercer students and alums could strongly back their crown jewel program, men's basketball, that could occupy a space in the collective psyche of Mercer fans that football never can. Everyone can pull for the plucky underdog basketball team. Everyone would just as soon pull for the flagship power in football. Now football is sort of in a rut of .500 seasons and men's basketball has taken a large step backward since joining the SoCon. I think that can cause malaise among fans, especially when there more interesting programs to follow.
The complex position for Mercer is that they have no baseline. The program restarted, they drew 10k plus a game, and then things started to slow down a bit and they are forming committees to look at why. After 6 seasons, Mercer may not yet know whether it is a 6-7k fans a game sort of school or a 10k+ fans a game sort of school. So, the caution is that they start coming up with solutions to fix problems that don't really exist.
I think there is a lot of potential for growth in the Macon community. I also think they'd do well to advertise their product further south in the somewhat football wasteland of South Central Georgia and develop fans in places like Cordele and Tifton - short drives up the interstate for folks that don't have easy access to other D1 football.
At bottom, though, there aren't many problems winning won't solve.
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Post by FUBeAR on Feb 6, 2019 10:09:56 GMT -5
At bottom, a football program (or any sports program, really) has to make their product more interesting than the alternatives. The game has to be the most interesting can't-miss event for the weekend. That is tough for a smaller school in a market dominated by really big fish. With Mercer specifically, the decrease in excitement is not surprising. When the program restarted, it was new and the team won a lot. Students could say they were building something. Everything was a first. Now, the team is probably objectively better, but the competition is better too. The record isn't as good and the product isn't as interesting. I think this is a new place for Mercer fans. For a long time, Mercer dominated the A-Sun. Mercer students and alums could strongly back their crown jewel program, men's basketball, that could occupy a space in the collective psyche of Mercer fans that football never can. Everyone can pull for the plucky underdog basketball team. Everyone would just as soon pull for the flagship power in football. Now football is sort of in a rut of .500 seasons and men's basketball has taken a large step backward since joining the SoCon. I think that can cause malaise among fans, especially when there more interesting programs to follow. The complex position for Mercer is that they have no baseline. The program restarted, they drew 10k plus a game, and then things started to slow down a bit and they are forming committees to look at why. After 6 seasons, Mercer may not yet know whether it is a 6-7k fans a game sort of school or a 10k+ fans a game sort of school. So, the caution is that they start coming up with solutions to fix problems that don't really exist. I think there is a lot of potential for growth in the Macon community. I also think they'd do well to advertise their product further south in the somewhat football wasteland of South Central Georgia and develop fans in places like Cordele and Tifton - short drives up the interstate for folks that don't have easy access to other D1 football. At bottom, though, there aren't many problems winning won't solve. As you would probably have assumed, I don’t agree with the overall tone of your comment, but I don’t disagree with most of the content. The one totally inaccurate thing that you said that is “the product isn’t as interesting.” I have attended upward of 30 Mercer Home Football games since the program restarted and exactly 1 of those was not either extremely fun and/or extremely exciting - Samford in 2017. That game was a certified “poop show” and I certainly never hope to see that sort of display in Five Star Stadium ever again. If you are narrowly defining “the product” as what happens on the field, then it doesn’t get much better than that kind of ‘hit rate.’ Using that narrow definition, IF one assesses “the product” as “interesting” if it wins and “uninteresting” if it loses, then (besides being a typical SEC Fan) one could apply your characterization. It certainly would have been difficult to sustain winning all 8 home games, as Mercer did in 2013, and I like to think FCS Fans, like oenophiles or craft beer aficionados, have a more refined palate as to what is considered “interesting,” than Bud R. SixPack sitting in the cheap seats in Tuscaloosa. That said, winning (A LOT) does go a long way toward solving most attendance/excitement problems at any level of college Football. So, while your statement is completely inaccurate, I will agree that some (too many) inaccurately perceive it as less “interesting.” Your opening comments, on the other hand, are absolutely SPOT ON. And, I think, in contrast to most SoCon schools, Mercer has done an exemplary job of thinking of and responding to Football Saturdays as an overall “Gameday Experience,” as opposed to the, “we’re having a game, we hope some people show up to watch it” approach I’ve seen previously at most SoCon schools. I’ve also seen that changing in recent years and I believe Mercer’s efforts & results (attendance & ‘fan experience’ -wise) enlightened some SoCon schools to make changes, along with those schools’ drastically flagging attendance numbers. I am so glad to see Mercer doing this. Pure ‘stinkin’ thinkin’’ to say, “well, maybe we are really a 6-7k Football attendance school and perhaps we should be satisfied with that” and not get motivated and creative to say, instead...”Let’s examine what we can do to ensure we are a 12-15k Football attendance school.” ... and, FUBeAR believes that is much more what this initiative is about. I certainly hope that Mercer Football will never fall into being defined by the ‘comforting limits of pessimism,’ which is what you describe. I am confident as long as President Underwood occupies his office in the Godsey Administration Building, that will NOT be the case. |
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Post by jackal on Feb 6, 2019 11:24:53 GMT -5
I think we both agree that Mercer, as a school without a football tradition, view the problem as one where they are going to make a game day experience and then add a football game. At most other schools with longer football history, you do the opposite - there's a football game and the game day experience is a creation of that game.
I am not saying that the football product is not interesting, it just is not "as" interesting otherwise attendance numbers wouldn't have fallen off. That's the reality of college football, with the ability to stream most games, the success of flagship universities' programs, you have to get people more interested in the game.
That's not a problem just Mercer has. Furman's attendance has fallen off to half of what it was 10 years ago. Alabama has a problem with students leaving at half time. If Alabama has an issue, then it is probably an everyone issue.
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Post by FUBeAR on Feb 6, 2019 12:42:02 GMT -5
I think we both agree that Mercer, as a school without a football tradition, view the problem as one where they are going to make a game day experience and then add a football game. At most other schools with longer football history, you do the opposite - there's a football game and the game day experience is a creation of that game. I am not saying that the football product is not interesting, it just is not "as" interesting otherwise attendance numbers wouldn't have fallen off. That's the reality of college football, with the ability to stream most games, the success of flagship universities' programs, you have to get people more interested in the game. That's not a problem just Mercer has. Furman's attendance has fallen off to half of what it was 10 years ago. Alabama has a problem with students leaving at half time. If Alabama has an issue, then it is probably an everyone issue. You mentioned “attendance numbers wouldn’t have fallen off”...so, let’s look at it. A few caveats...there are anomalies each year - weather, big games, visiting crowds, etc. & there is the age-old tickets purchased vs. actual attendance conundrum. Best to ignore both of those because the numbers we have are the numbers we have...and that’s ALL we have. Anything else is subjectively speculative. Overall
Average | 10,197 |
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| 2013
| 9,379 | Y2Y change |
| | 2014 | 10,000 | 6.62% |
| | 2015 | 10,692 | 6.92% |
| | 2016 | 11,237 | 5.10% |
| | 2017 | 10,545 | -6.16% | Y1-Y6 Change | | 2018 | 9,803 | -7.04% | 4.52% |
So...yep, you are correct. Though Mercer has seen a 4.52% increase in reported attendance from Year 1 to Year 6, the trend shows steady annual increases from Year 1 thru a peak in Year 4 and then a decline, at an, apparently, increasing rate of decline, in Years 5 & 6. All things being equal, projecting the same rate of increasing decline for 2019 projects 2019 average attendance to decline by 8.02% and dip to 9,017; below the Year 1 attendance average. Attendance started well and grew nicely, but given the 2 year decline, this initiative makes perfect sense. I think the 1st question to ask is what are the root causes of the decline after 2016, after 3 years of growth? 2016 was the final year of the “Day 1’s.” Possible correlation? We got a new US President in 2016. Could that have impacted Mercer attendance? Who knows...but 1st doing that kind of root cause analysis will serve to inform the recommendations as to how to stem the issue (if there really is one), and, more importantly, inform the decisions made to spur renewed growth. |
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Post by Guest on Feb 6, 2019 21:09:18 GMT -5
You don't need a committee to understand what jackal said, "there aren't many problems winning won't solve". Winning will solve any attendance problem.
Win and the attendance will increase, stay middle of the pack, attendance will continue to decrease.
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Post by jackal on Feb 6, 2019 22:27:32 GMT -5
I think we both agree that Mercer, as a school without a football tradition, view the problem as one where they are going to make a game day experience and then add a football game. At most other schools with longer football history, you do the opposite - there's a football game and the game day experience is a creation of that game. I am not saying that the football product is not interesting, it just is not "as" interesting otherwise attendance numbers wouldn't have fallen off. That's the reality of college football, with the ability to stream most games, the success of flagship universities' programs, you have to get people more interested in the game. That's not a problem just Mercer has. Furman's attendance has fallen off to half of what it was 10 years ago. Alabama has a problem with students leaving at half time. If Alabama has an issue, then it is probably an everyone issue. You mentioned “attendance numbers wouldn’t have fallen off”...so, let’s look at it. A few caveats...there are anomalies each year - weather, big games, visiting crowds, etc. & there is the age-old tickets purchased vs. actual attendance conundrum. Best to ignore both of those because the numbers we have are the numbers we have...and that’s ALL we have. Anything else is subjectively speculative. Overall
Average | 10,197 |
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| 2013
| 9,379 | Y2Y change |
| | 2014 | 10,000 | 6.62% |
| | 2015 | 10,692 | 6.92% |
| | 2016 | 11,237 | 5.10% |
| | 2017 | 10,545 | -6.16% | Y1-Y6 Change | | 2018 | 9,803 | -7.04% | 4.52% |
So...yep, you are correct. Though Mercer has seen a 4.52% increase in reported attendance from Year 1 to Year 6, the trend shows steady annual increases from Year 1 thru a peak in Year 4 and then a decline, at an, apparently, increasing rate of decline, in Years 5 & 6. All things being equal, projecting the same rate of increasing decline for 2019 projects 2019 average attendance to decline by 8.02% and dip to 9,017; below the Year 1 attendance average. Attendance started well and grew nicely, but given the 2 year decline, this initiative makes perfect sense. I think the 1st question to ask is what are the root causes of the decline after 2016, after 3 years of growth? 2016 was the final year of the “Day 1’s.” Possible correlation? We got a new US President in 2016. Could that have impacted Mercer attendance? Who knows...but 1st doing that kind of root cause analysis will serve to inform the recommendations as to how to stem the issue (if there really is one), and, more importantly, inform the decisions made to spur renewed growth. We've gone over this umpteen times, but you know as well as I do that the reported figures are hardly correlative of the actual attendance. The more interesting figure - and the figure I suspect the athletics administration is working around - is the drop in fannies in the seats. A small drop in attendance, but still recording capacity crowds, wouldn't likely set off a commission to look into the "lull in the excitement." They are more likely concerned with the drop in actual attendance. |
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Post by 94Bear on Feb 7, 2019 8:20:43 GMT -5
I have been a season ticket holder since day 1. The crazy thing is the $10 to park. There are also very few places to actually tailgate without getting there at 9 am. The big parking lot behind the baseball field that is reserved for MAF parking is never more than half full before a game and definitely almost empty after the game. Corporation seats rarely have anyone sitting in them. My seats are on the 45 on the home side and are great seats, there is almost never anyone sitting around my 4 seats. The students don't come to the games and if they do they leave at halftime. Macon is a good sports town if the team is winning. The Macon Bacon drew well the first year, lets see how the second year pans out. It may be that the novelty of that has worn off just like Mercer Football games.
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Post by FUBeAR on Feb 7, 2019 12:51:53 GMT -5
Cool...some good conversation here.
On “winning” - No great insight is required to realize or state that winning will improve fan interest & attendance. Winning a single Football game is one of the hardest things there is to do, known to humanity...well, there’s that cold fusion stuff that’s pretty hard too. Millions upon millions of lines of text have been written on message boards with good intent and voluminous advice and ideas instructing Coaches & Players exactly what they need to do to win Football games. I would wager that not one character of this text has ever changed one outcome of a single Football game. So, FUBeAR wholeheartedly agrees that there is no need to form a committee to discuss winning more Football games. Also, probably no need to discuss that on a message board either. We can all just stipulate that more winning will improve fan interest/attendance and move on to productive conversation, which actually might have some impact. People, decision-making people at Mercer, do read this Board. They may never publicly admit that they do, but they do. Trust FUBeAR...they do.
Paid Attendance vs. Actual Attendance - thought I covered that in my caveats before my really cool table, but it does merit a bit of discussion, I guess. I would speculate that these reported attendance numbers are “paid attendance.” I don’t know if Mercer keeps records of actual attendance, but I hope that they do...and I hope they use those numbers in whatever ‘looking-behind-the-boat’ analysis this initiative undertakes. But...there is some value to Mercer for those paid/not attended seats. Maybe apply a formula using attended + 1/2 paid/not attended to assess the change in ‘game attendance value’ over time...Anyway, back to my caveat...we got what we got & that’s all that we got (here). I was enlightened when I calculated that and saw the rise, peak, and rent 2-year decline...so yeah, it’s definitely worth looking at from all aspects (including ‘winning’... but as noted, no sense in discussing that)...
which brings me to the 94Bear’s comments...
Good stuff, 94Bear...Not cool to pay $10 to park; not be able to find a place to park, and see all of those empty spaces in prime locations, is it? Kinda pisses you (and everyone else) off, doesn’t it?
Reckon if dynamic pricing and secondary market business principles could be applied to that unproductive ‘real estate?’ Huh? Well....as an example, Mercer could continue to ‘sell’ those spaces to donors (primary market)...and set up a very easy MercerFootballParkingHub.com site (Computer Science majors could do it for class credit)...bolt it onto a general Mercer Athletics mobile app...and if those donors don’t plan to attend, they just check toggle out of their space...and it goes on the secondary dynamically-priced market (pricing fluctuates based on location, demand and time remaining before kickoff). 94Bear pulls up to the Stadium, opens his MU app, sees a PRIME space open in the front row and is happy to pay $20 for it on his CC (confirmation of which he shows to the attendants) rather than pay $10 to park goodness-knows-where. Mercer gives the parking company their share of $10, pockets the difference, and credits the original purchaser with $20 on their lifetime giving account. WIN / WIN / WIN / WIN / WIN ...But let’s say the original purchaser doesn’t toggle even though they don’t plan to attend...Welp, it would have been very clearly communicated to them when they purchased...if they don’t arrive & get scanned into their spots by 1 hour before kickoff, their spot is subject to re-sale UNLESS they, actively, report their planned late arrival. Details to work through, of course...but, speaking as a fan...I know there’s not much more irritating than trying to find a decent place to park & Tailgate (paying $10 for that privilege) and seeing all that prime, available ‘real estate’ unused.
GREAT COMMENT 94Bear...Mercer Football CAN do Parking better and can enhance the Fans’ Gameday Experiences by doing so. I hope this initiative will look long and hard at this component.
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Post by wcugrad95 on Feb 8, 2019 10:05:48 GMT -5
This is a topic on just about every school's minds - attendance, keeping students/fans in the stadium after halftime, butts in seats versus tickets sold, etc. Winning helps. Cool gameday experiences help. Tailgating atmosphere helps. Price and "ease" of attending are also always going to factor in. Heck, even location helps (or hurts).
In the end, the old value = quality / cost is what prevails. So it isn't just one of those things that matter - it is all of them. I'll be honest, the gameday experience (primarily tailgating, the band, and the natural beauty surrounding Cullowhee) seem to be what has driven WCU's ability to stay at or around the top of the SoCon in attendance (both tickets sold and butts in seats). Winning will drive increased giving, a larger/stronger Catamount Club, it ***can*** lead to a stronger university because of increased applications, etc. But I wouldn't expect it to lead to a significant (25% or more) increase in attendance by itself at most SoCon schools.
The schools that had a crazy fanbase and saw that kind of rise in attendance have already left (Marshall, App State, and Ga Southern). Furman has gotten dramatically better and started winning, but I think they still face plenty of issues in filling their stadium. Western has ranged from absolutely awful, to almost good, to mediocre and continue to have decent crowds. So again, winning obviously helps but will not solve all the problems.
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Post by 94Bear on Feb 8, 2019 13:25:14 GMT -5
On game day, I normally get up and get to the parking areas behind the baseball stadium (since this is one of the few spots that has grass) at 9 AM and purchase 2 parking tickets, put my tents out in two parking spots and come back about 4 hours or so prior to kickoff to tailgate. There have been times I have been told that all of the spaces have been sold and no more parking is allowed. I then show them my two tickets already purchased and they let me in. This is a problem. Mercer wants you to tailgate behind the stadium in the grass field by the softball field. Problem is that is all MAF parking, who wants to carry their stuff that far twice, not me. The new medical school building or science building took up valuable green space to tailgate.
Parking is an issue at Mercer. They are doing away with the old dirt lots by the new lofts and are adding more loft space left and right, yet parking is going away. Being one who lives in Macon, I think that the Macon area people who used to come to games no longer come because of the parking situation. No longer can you show up 20-30 minutes prior to kickoff and find a spot. If you do, you will end up parking way on the other side of the medical school. I think Mercer should have given greater though to the location of the stadium and how parking 10 years later would be adversely affected by the ongoing loft construction. I will say getting out is easier than getting in on game days.
Mercer is doing great things for Macon and the surrounding areas.
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Post by jackal on Feb 9, 2019 6:59:39 GMT -5
On game day, I normally get up and get to the parking areas behind the baseball stadium (since this is one of the few spots that has grass) at 9 AM and purchase 2 parking tickets, put my tents out in two parking spots and come back about 4 hours or so prior to kickoff to tailgate. There have been times I have been told that all of the spaces have been sold and no more parking is allowed. I then show them my two tickets already purchased and they let me in. This is a problem. Mercer wants you to tailgate behind the stadium in the grass field by the softball field. Problem is that is all MAF parking, who wants to carry their stuff that far twice, not me. The new medical school building or science building took up valuable green space to tailgate. Parking is an issue at Mercer. They are doing away with the old dirt lots by the new lofts and are adding more loft space left and right, yet parking is going away. Being one who lives in Macon, I think that the Macon area people who used to come to games no longer come because of the parking situation. No longer can you show up 20-30 minutes prior to kickoff and find a spot. If you do, you will end up parking way on the other side of the medical school. I think Mercer should have given greater though to the location of the stadium and how parking 10 years later would be adversely affected by the ongoing loft construction. I will say getting out is easier than getting in on game days. Mercer is doing great things for Macon and the surrounding areas. I'm not sure where else Mercer could have put the stadium and kept it on campus. |
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Post by jackal on Feb 9, 2019 7:14:07 GMT -5
This is a topic on just about every school's minds - attendance, keeping students/fans in the stadium after halftime, butts in seats versus tickets sold, etc. Winning helps. Cool gameday experiences help. Tailgating atmosphere helps. Price and "ease" of attending are also always going to factor in. Heck, even location helps (or hurts). In the end, the old value = quality / cost is what prevails. So it isn't just one of those things that matter - it is all of them. I'll be honest, the gameday experience (primarily tailgating, the band, and the natural beauty surrounding Cullowhee) seem to be what has driven WCU's ability to stay at or around the top of the SoCon in attendance (both tickets sold and butts in seats). Winning will drive increased giving, a larger/stronger Catamount Club, it ***can*** lead to a stronger university because of increased applications, etc. But I wouldn't expect it to lead to a significant (25% or more) increase in attendance by itself at most SoCon schools. The schools that had a crazy fanbase and saw that kind of rise in attendance have already left (Marshall, App State, and Ga Southern). Furman has gotten dramatically better and started winning, but I think they still face plenty of issues in filling their stadium. Western has ranged from absolutely awful, to almost good, to mediocre and continue to have decent crowds. So again, winning obviously helps but will not solve all the problems. I think setting helps. Five Star Stadium is a very nice facility, but isn't helped by the natural setting. Paladin Stadium is too big for the school. It has filled up a few times, but Furman doesn't need a stadium that seats 17k, especially now that App and GSU have left the conference. I think you'll continue to see a rise in attendance, though, as Furman gets better. Watching what Coach Richey has done for the men's basketball program will undoubtedly raise the profile of athletics (Furman has sold out a few upcoming men's basketball games, which is a rarity). I noted it earlier, but I do think Mercer's men's basketball has something to do with it. That was, for a long time, the school's flagship sport. They have gone from beating Duke a few years ago to the bottom third of the SoCon. They've gotten worse each season. When your most marketable athletic asset is losing its footing, I think that is going to temper enthusiasm among all athletic programs. It creates a sense of malaise amongst the students and alums. The biggest concern I had with Furman going into its dark period much of the last 10 years was that one graduating class after another wouldn't have a close connection to Furman football (because the team stunk). Those folks are not likely to become active athletic supporters in the future, drive to attend future games, and stay involved with the program they have no personal connection to. Mercer runs the risk of that as well, which would perhaps be more acute given the university's lack of long-time football supporting alumni. |
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Post by FUBeAR on Feb 9, 2019 10:59:12 GMT -5
On game day, I normally get up and get to the parking areas behind the baseball stadium (since this is one of the few spots that has grass) at 9 AM and purchase 2 parking tickets, put my tents out in two parking spots and come back about 4 hours or so prior to kickoff to tailgate. There have been times I have been told that all of the spaces have been sold and no more parking is allowed. I then show them my two tickets already purchased and they let me in. This is a problem. Mercer wants you to tailgate behind the stadium in the grass field by the softball field. Problem is that is all MAF parking, who wants to carry their stuff that far twice, not me. The new medical school building or science building took up valuable green space to tailgate. Parking is an issue at Mercer. They are doing away with the old dirt lots by the new lofts and are adding more loft space left and right, yet parking is going away. Being one who lives in Macon, I think that the Macon area people who used to come to games no longer come because of the parking situation. No longer can you show up 20-30 minutes prior to kickoff and find a spot. If you do, you will end up parking way on the other side of the medical school. I think Mercer should have given greater though to the location of the stadium and how parking 10 years later would be adversely affected by the ongoing loft construction. I will say getting out is easier than getting in on game days. Mercer is doing great things for Macon and the surrounding areas. More good stuff 94 - Yeah...that Tailgating on the intramural field is fine (if it’s not too wet) for Groups that are supplying everything and hosting the Tailgate, but Joe BearsFan doesn’t want to & isn’t going to tote everything (Tent(s), Coolers, Grill, Generator, A/V System, etc.) down there from some faraway parking place and then tote it back before kickoff...or after the game (if Joe is willing to risk theft/damage). Just not going to happen. What could be done there though, similar to what they do in “The Grove” at Ole Miss, is designate THAT area (or part of it) for the big donors and include set-up, security, and tear down as part of their “Gameday” package. Then have the big donors park their vehicles farther away & be shuttled to their already-beautifully-set-up tailgate area right beside the stadium. The by-product of that is opening up the more car accessible spots to the lesser donors and/or to the pay-$10-as-you-go peeps. Probably not going to relocate the stadium or tear down/not build more Lofts (which I think have really added to the setting)...but...at Alabama, they run buses all around the area to bring the distant parkers to the Stadium....take it down a notch...Mercer could add some shuttles trolleys / golf carts running out to those farther away lots and shuttle people from/to their cars. Lots of details to work out, but creativity could make that work...Tie-in Sponsorships of the shuttles maybe OrthoGeorgia (helps people move better...get it?), Uber or Lyft (not saying this would be an Uber/Lyft service, but it would make sense for them to sponsor such)...Macon Brewing (samples, maybe?)... Speaking of Uber/Lyft...what about a co-marketing thing with them to get those Macon peeps back to the game...take Uber/Lyft to the game, hang with your Friends at the Tailgate they sponsor (xtra optional charge for the Tailgate) on the intramural field...and get a discounted game ticket. How bout dat! No problem that creativity can’t fix...we put men on the moon, right...and we’ve got the Green New Deal coming....oops strayed off the track there, huh...sorry. |
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