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Post by DaBear on Nov 2, 2014 13:39:42 GMT -5
Anyone have any comments or possible solutions to the ever growing attendance problem we are having? I have spoken to many players and they are noticing the attendance dropping.
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Post by BearDownMU on Nov 2, 2014 15:05:05 GMT -5
Just had a long conversation about this and I do have some thoughts.
First, I'll start with some of the apologist comments. We are, by a long shot, the conference leader in attendance as a function of % of seats sold every week. While we have some issues I'll address in a minute, we are still getting much more support than everyone else. Almost all the other schools are lucky to get 50% capacity at games and we stay in the 90% plus capacity area. We are still a new program and trying to figure things out, but support has been great. And, we still haven't had a chance to develop traditions and all the other things that will come with time.
Now, on the other side of things, we have definitely had down moments, especially yesterday when a lot of people left at half time. Again, not apologizing for everyone, but it was really cold and there were two things I really noticed about the exodus. The first thing is that people were woefully unprepared. I looked around when we first got into the stadium and saw people in a wind breaker with no gloves or hats and I thought "There's no way they stick around when the sun goes down." Also, and I think this was a lot of it, that TD by The Citadel at the end of the first half was a killer. We get the ball with a couple of minutes left and are think about cutting it to 21-17 and then getting the ball to start the 2nd half and we give it back to them and they score in 35 seconds with less than 2 minutes to go and stretch it to 28-10. I could see the air come out of the stands around me. And, we had zero success stopping them in the first half. They did end up with almost 500 yards rushing. My impression was people thought there was no chance of stopping them, we are now down 3 scores, and it's freezing.
All that being said, it's tough to try and figure out how to deal with the issue. I have some definite opinions. First of all, I personally think the school should consider getting the football players' families and the students over into the West stadium. I am a season ticket holder and sit on the 50 yard line just a few rows up. It is really hard to get people engaged. There aren't any chants or cheerleaders or any people around us that are fired up. Me and a couple of guys around me are "football people" and I'm always standing up and yelling and waving my arms, but I'm definitely in the minority in my area. I still don't know any of the chants the students are doing or what they are yelling during kickoffs or anything. We need to figure out how to coordinate crowd participation and have people leading the effort. Hence my idea about potentially getting parents and players over into the season ticket holder side of the stadium. Just an opinion.
I really also think, unfortunately, we are a little spoiled. We never lost at home until this year. And one of the down sides to last year being so great is that we've had a tougher year this year (as expected in a much more competitive conference) and I wonder if people are frustrated. Again, I don't think that is an excuse, but may be a reality.
Anyone else have any thoughts/ideas?
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Post by MUfan on Nov 2, 2014 16:55:29 GMT -5
Need to turn the football fans in middle Georgia into Bears fans.
A few local recruits through the next few years could help get a few more fans in the seats.
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Ghost
Baby Bear
Posts: 37 
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Post by Ghost on Nov 2, 2014 17:02:44 GMT -5
No pun intended but it was a ghost town on the mercer sideline stands after halftime. While I think most of it had to do with the cold and us losing I also have to wonder how much have football games become a social event for the students and alumni? You mentioned crowd participation... lets be honest that's not going to happen on the season ticket holder side unless the students lead. There is no coordination within the student section for cheers and all that. So at times during games I've noticed its been very quiet. It will be interesting to see if some of that changes into next year.
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Post by BearDownMU on Nov 2, 2014 17:10:24 GMT -5
That's precisely my point about the season ticket holder side. No one knows what to chant. There has to be someone leading. And, no one knows anything yet or and traditions just haven't been started. I know the students do some kind of chant during kickoffs, (like the Go Dawgs, Sic 'em thing at UGA). I still have no idea what they are saying. So how can I do it too? Just need to get everyone together on things.
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MU22
Baby Bear
Posts: 38
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Post by MU22 on Nov 2, 2014 18:03:22 GMT -5
Three things affected attendance yesterday. Weather, season results & UGA-FLA playing at the same time. Maybe even homecoming, but that is probably a stretch.
One is out of control (weather), the second is expected based on moving up in quality of play and the last one was preventable in scheduling unless homecoming events dictated a 4pm start. In any case, homecoming activities could have occurred easily with a noon or 1pm start.
There are a lot of casual fans in the stands turning out that have no ties to Mercer. I know this because I work with them in the community and they aren't interested in driving to Athens, Gainesville, Columbia or Tallahasee even though they may have those allegiances. They view Mercer football as a good value event to bring the kids to, relax and enjoy a nice atmosphere.
We had a chance Saturday to capture a full house crowd and fell short but I would not put it on the season results. The casual fan stayed at home in the warmth to watch UGA-FLA or a host of other captivating games. The weather was the biggest factor, in my opinion.
As for the product on the field, it's fine. We are competing at a much higher level than we SHOULD be based on this being our first year in the league. The league is in a down cycle as far as competitive level, but close games usually drives interest TO the games, not away.
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Post by bear38 on Nov 2, 2014 18:51:38 GMT -5
I think, as a new program, we are going to have acknowledge that we can't compete with UGA. Whenever possible, we have to schedule our starting time as far away as possible as UGA. I know that is difficult because SEC schedules are sometimes only made a couple of weeks or week in advance. But with the cold and wind yesterday and the start of UGA-FL at almost the same time, I think that we are expecting too much of our fan base. Maybe in the future, but not now.
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Post by underscorex on Nov 3, 2014 11:53:56 GMT -5
It seems like we do very well with "casuals", folks from the area who want to see college ball without going to town/athens and paying through the nose.
Mercer has a chance to be "Macon's/Middle Georgia's Team" if the community is engaged. There's not a lot else to do down there on a Saturday these days, I don't believe.
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Post by FUBeAR on Nov 3, 2014 12:56:16 GMT -5
Just posted this in the BRRR!!!! thread where someone requested ideas for improving attendance, fan 'retention,' and support of Team/Players....they may not have actually asked for all that, but those are the things I had in mind while I was a-spit-ballin' OK - I'll 'SPIT-BALL' this....some ideas may be unfeasible....but they are just that, ideas....up to others to make something work... 1) Move students & Mercer's Players' Families to East Side behind team where the Players can hear & feel the support and the fans on that side can be enlivened - it MATTERS! 1b) Move Mercer Players to other sideline if 1) above doesn't work - IT MATTERS! 2) Move band to end zone bleachers near Drake Field House - they can be seen and heard well by both sides of stadium and frees up more 'traditional' seats to sell 3) Add attendance 'policy' to giving level to develop priority list for 2015 (can be done retroactively (who showed in 2014?) because of 'scans') and some folks may need to be relocated to the west side 4) Offer oppty to Re-Scan tix in 4th quarter and on the way out for Bonus Attendance points next year for 2016 ticket priority 5) Offer Prizes (Road Trip with Team - Sideline Access, Oppty to do something to win a car (insurance policy against winning - makes it affordable & more exposure for Coaches' Cars donor-dealers) to season ticket holders who attend - must be present to win - winner selected at end of 3rd quarter - 5 minutes to claim prize not there - next name...stuff like that) 6) Give out color-coded by game "Reserved Seat" cards when ticket holders enter (1 per ticket)...at end of 1st quarter, announce all non-reserved seats are now General Admission and allow Berm-Seated Attendees to sit in those seats that aren't occupied or "Reserved" 7) Establish an online ticket exchange - can be as simple as a message board, but I imagine the App they are using for handling Players' Comp's now has functionality to extend to Season Ticket holders...if not, BearDownMU needs to add this App to his Sports Technology Business Empire! 8) Allow people to leave & re-enter - that's risky, I know...maybe some people just want to warm up or have a beverage at their vehicles during halftime and would come back, but they leave instead...just spit-ballin' - I understand the downside of that 9) Extensive Marketing study, conducted by an independent firm, of current season ticket holders, students, and a cross-section of Middle GA residents to find out their thoughts and make changes based on what is learned from that study 10) Dome  Again - I think Mercer Athletics & Mercer Football have done an amazing job so far, but as a GREAT Football Coach told me about 50 times after big wins, "We can still get SO MUCH better!" |
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Post by jackal on Nov 3, 2014 13:03:04 GMT -5
It is FCS football in the South. There is a lot of competition for eyeballs on Saturday, and most "local" fans didn't grow up "Mercer fans." All SoCon schools have a similar problem, IMO.
It is hard to shift folks' allegiances away from big time SEC football to smaller (more likeable, IMO) FCS football. Every SoCon school except for App State (who really played in a state without any big time programs) have had to deal with this. GSU fans will tell you they have always struggled to compete against UGA.
Mercer's got a good product. They've got something to sell.
Just from Furman's perspective, I've seen Paladin Stadium with 18k folks. I've seen them average 13k in good years. Now they are drawing between 8-9k. SoCon football and attendance requires a special combination of on-field success and great atmosphere. Winning brings folks, folks bring atmosphere, more atmosphere brings more folks.
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badnewsbear
Penfield Bear
"May they defend this house like and angry bear defends its den." - C. McMahon
Posts: 51
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Post by badnewsbear on Nov 3, 2014 13:59:14 GMT -5
3 solutions:
1) Don't schedule your homecoming the week of Ga/Fl, and if you do just know that you aren't going to set any attendance records, particularly if the Ga/Fl game gets the same time slot that your game is set for.
2) Start winning again (like we will next year) and get in the hunt for conference championship.
3) Raise season ticket prices.
I talked to the head of tickets sales the other day and the problem isn't in selling the extra tickets, but rather getting the season ticket holders to show up. Many season ticket holders bought 8 tickets at ridiculously low cost. Them not showing up leaves an entire row empty. Limit the number that they can buy (particularly if their tickets aren't getting scanned in) and increase the cost.
Overall, I don't think attendance was awful at the start of the game. Also, with ESPN 3 airing our games, many people were watching both the GA/Fl game and the mercer game from the warmth and comfort of their couch- or even better from Margaritas. Margaritas- which was showing both games- was absolutely slammed.
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badnewsbear
Penfield Bear
"May they defend this house like and angry bear defends its den." - C. McMahon
Posts: 51
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Post by badnewsbear on Nov 3, 2014 14:01:17 GMT -5
It could be worse; we could be furman...
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Post by catamount87 on Nov 5, 2014 9:11:52 GMT -5
Attendance at college football is becoming an issue everywhere. There are a lot of drivers behind it with cost and an ever growing list of entertainment options being two big ones. Student apathy is also one of the biggest concerns across the college football world. Even big, highly successful programs aren't immune to the diminishing student support.
That all said, y'all are doing pretty darn well given you are only two years in and this year hasn't been as successful as last year. There's a good base/foundation being built in the face of some pretty stiff competition. (I'm thinking UGA, GaTech, GSU and the rest of the SEC and ACC here.)
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badnewsbear
Penfield Bear
"May they defend this house like and angry bear defends its den." - C. McMahon
Posts: 51
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Post by badnewsbear on Nov 5, 2014 9:33:35 GMT -5
Attendance at college football is becoming an issue everywhere. There are a lot of drivers behind it with cost and an ever growing list of entertainment options being two big ones. Student apathy is also one of the biggest concerns across the college football world. Even big, highly successful programs aren't immune to the diminishing student support. That all said, y'all are doing pretty darn well given you are only two years in and this year hasn't been as successful as last year. There's a good base/foundation being built in the face of some pretty stiff competition. (I'm thinking UGA, GaTech, GSU and the rest of the SEC and ACC here.) Agreed. In addition, we knew it was going to taper off a little after last year. Once we start winning these close games and start getting into contention for a conference championship, the environment will be better and more people will come. We really don't have a big problem here. |
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