Briggs article

[footballguy51]

https://twitter.com/mid_madness/status/ ... 72192?s=20

Imagine all of the complaining about parking, concessions and walking up and down stairs we could do if Jerrod Calhoun could fill the Stroh like that.

I still firmly believe we have the potential of consistently putting a lot of butts in the seats at the Stroh. I don't think anybody was ever all in with the direction Huger's teams were going, but when they were winning a few years back we had a few games in a row over 3500. Buffalo & UT both hit capacity, I believe. That was in a season where we were picked dead last and surprised everybody by playing well. So, in the course of a single season we were able to go from zero expectations to filling the arena for big games.

I fully believe if we build a program where winning is expected, and the team actually backs that up, we will quickly start seeing thousands of people in attendance again. It's a nice arena, it's a fun place to watch a game, it's winter in NW Ohio. I know I used my ticket swap to bring a buddy and his wife/kid to the UT game, and his son left that game asking if they could come back sometime.

Make the games fun, build a winner, people will come.

I managed to make two games this year with my son. My wife made only one with us. I really wish I had made more games but between a busy life and an uninspiring product, it wasn't worth making the trip. However, I'll be buying my season tickets for next year and hoping for a better product and environment.

When I say environment, here's what I mean. The mascots weren't at either game we were at. My son is almost 3 and that's his favorite part of the game. Well, meeting the birds and eating popcorn. How do you have three sets of mascots and not have them at the game? However, perhaps the new AD can fix the parking mess, the fact that only two concession stands are open and they staff them with 10 volunteers in each but only run two lines at each one, and make things more interactive for the kids. College sports are unique in that they have to attract the big kids (college), the slightly smaller big kids (grades 7-12), and the community (single people and families). Balancing those categories cannot be easy.

[hammb]

https://twitter.com/mid_madness/status/ ... 72192?s=20

Imagine all of the complaining about parking, concessions and walking up and down stairs we could do if Jerrod Calhoun could fill the Stroh like that.

I still firmly believe we have the potential of consistently putting a lot of butts in the seats at the Stroh. I don't think anybody was ever all in with the direction Huger's teams were going, but when they were winning a few years back we had a few games in a row over 3500. Buffalo & UT both hit capacity, I believe. That was in a season where we were picked dead last and surprised everybody by playing well. So, in the course of a single season we were able to go from zero expectations to filling the arena for big games.

I fully believe if we build a program where winning is expected, and the team actually backs that up, we will quickly start seeing thousands of people in attendance again. It's a nice arena, it's a fun place to watch a game, it's winter in NW Ohio. I know I used my ticket swap to bring a buddy and his wife/kid to the UT game, and his son left that game asking if they could come back sometime.

Make the games fun, build a winner, people will come.

I managed to make two games this year with my son. My wife made only one with us. I really wish I had made more games but between a busy life and an uninspiring product, it wasn't worth making the trip. However, I'll be buying my season tickets for next year and hoping for a better product and environment.

When I say environment, here's what I mean. The mascots weren't at either game we were at. My son is almost 3 and that's his favorite part of the game. Well, meeting the birds and eating popcorn. How do you have three sets of mascots and not have them at the game? However, perhaps the new AD can fix the parking mess, the fact that only two concession stands are open and they staff them with 10 volunteers in each but only run two lines at each one, and make things more interactive for the kids. College sports are unique in that they have to attract the big kids (college), the slightly smaller big kids (grades 7-12), and the community (single people and families). Balancing those categories cannot be easy.

We missed less than 5 games this year, but the observations you noted on the couple games you went to were not anomalies. Our son is 7, but he still loves the mascots, possibly his favorite part as well. I cannot count on one hand the number of times my wife noted that the mascots weren't there tonight. Or we'd see them only in the first half. And they almost never left the concourses this season either. Every other year we've gotten pictures of him with the mascots at our seats. This year the only pictures we got were on the concourses. It was to the point that I actually wondered if perhaps they were instructed to stay out of the seats due to blocking people's views.

I have it from the new AD's mouth himself that he'll be addressing the parking issues. I have no reason to not take him at his word at this point.

We went to one game at UT. Savage is still a complete and total dump. The Stroh is and should be better in nearly every way. Yet, in all the things we fail at (Concessions, parking, music, general atmosphere) UT blows us out of the water. As I told the AD when we were talking about the parking stuff. UT has every reason to make excuses for the parking...their arena is in the middle of their campus and SHOULD be convoluted to get to. Meanwhile ours sits at a major intersection immediately off a major highway, and it is US that has a cluster to get in/out of the parking? Fix it.

[Globetrotter]

Here is a thread with a bunch of info from last year.