begging for attendance

[professorjackson]

An email follows of the things BGSU is doing to convince students to come to the game Friday. Pathetic.

- FREE Thunderstix to the first 3,000 BGSU Students
- $500 in Adidas credit to be split amongst the Top 3 Greek organizations in attendance
- Pizza party prior to a select BGSU Hockey or Men's Basketball home game for the top Greek organization in attendance
- Pizza party prior to a select BGSU Hockey or Men's Basketball home game for the top Residence Hall in attendance
- Ca$h prizes for the Residence Hall Councils of the Top 3 Res Halls in attendance $300, $200, $100
- First 200 BGSU Students to stop by the Falcon FANatic Store tent inside The Doyt will receive FREE hand-warmers
- One student resident in attendance will WIN a FREE Fall 2010 Semester Bronze Meal Plan valued at nearly $1,500

[It's the Journey...]

An email follows of the things BGSU is doing to convince students to come to the game Friday. Pathetic.

- FREE Thunderstix to the first 3,000 BGSU Students
- $500 in Adidas credit to be split amongst the Top 3 Greek organizations in attendance
- Pizza party prior to a select BGSU Hockey or Men's Basketball home game for the top Greek organization in attendance
- Pizza party prior to a select BGSU Hockey or Men's Basketball home game for the top Residence Hall in attendance
- Ca$h prizes for the Residence Hall Councils of the Top 3 Res Halls in attendance $300, $200, $100
- First 200 BGSU Students to stop by the Falcon FANatic Store tent inside The Doyt will receive FREE hand-warmers
- One student resident in attendance will WIN a FREE Fall 2010 Semester Bronze Meal Plan valued at nearly $1,500

We can all thank the MAC and Rich Chryst for bending over to ESPN without asking for any Vasoline for this fine mess.....

[bgsufalcon24]

Alright, I understand the frustration with having a game at 5:30pm on a Friday. It sucks. But it is what it is, and I what I don't understand is calling a good faith marketing effort aimed mostly at students pathetic. Aside from the hand warmers one, which is pretty stupid, most of these promotions are examples of stuff that BG should be doing for EVERY home game, not just the ones in which we're afraid of potentially terrible attendance. I especially like the marketing towards the residence halls and the greeks. The residence halls typically get students in big numbers, but with most games on the weekend, a lot of these on-campus students hit the road and go home for the weekend and miss out. Having some games during the week allows them to get out to the stadium without messing up plans for the weekend. Aggressive marketing to the residence halls helps, because it's alarming just how many of our students have NO FREAKING IDEA when the games are. (Admittedly, our scheduling doesn't help here)

Also, we all know that the greeks haven't been...ahem, all that supportive of our athletic programs in recent years. (I know, a total understatement). Marketing toward those organizations might actually inspire some of them to turn out. And this game is a perfect situation for getting some tailgating in after class, hitting the stadium, and then hitting up the bars/clubs following the game's conclusion.

And the giving away the free meal plan? Brilliant! That's a big deal, something they probably couldn't do every week, but I think giving away a $200/$250 or so book scholarship every game would work just as well and get some of the more brainy/fiscally prudent students to at least think about coming out.

Unless you have a program that sells itself, like Ohio State, you've got to do whatever you can to help the attendance numbers. These things that they are doing this Friday are a good start, but I'd like to see this kind of stuff happen for every game.

[professorjackson]

"Unless you have a program that sells itself, like Ohio State, you've got to do whatever you can to help the attendance numbers."

Maybe our students will just never care all that much...I don't know.

[factman]

At least it's better than "FLINKO" off the back side of the Doyt!

[Bleeding Orange]

At least it's better than "FLINKO" off the back side of the Doyt!

Would you care to elaborate on this one a bit?

[AyZiggy97]

It is useless. The students did not attend what was in essence the East Division championship game last year. Why would they show up this Friday?

Not that our non-student fans are an impressive lot either.

[falconfan1]

bgsufalcon, very, very good post. This type of stuff every game. I agree.

We don't control all schedule dates and start times- no one in the MAC does.

Not pathetic. Just realistic. We are rebuilding in a variety of ways. BG is moving- check the construction sites and building news- but it takes awhile coming off of certain things. One would be a coach who simply berated our fans even BEFORE games. That is changed. And so is the team.

Go Falcons!

[BGDrew]

I just wish the athletic department would use their marketing budget for more than 1 sport.

[BGFalconfromCincy]

Alright, I understand the frustration with having a game at 5:30pm on a Friday. It sucks. But it is what it is, and I what I don't understand is calling a good faith marketing effort aimed mostly at students pathetic. Aside from the hand warmers one, which is pretty stupid, most of these promotions are examples of stuff that BG should be doing for EVERY home game, not just the ones in which we're afraid of potentially terrible attendance. I especially like the marketing towards the residence halls and the greeks. The residence halls typically get students in big numbers, but with most games on the weekend, a lot of these on-campus students hit the road and go home for the weekend and miss out. Having some games during the week allows them to get out to the stadium without messing up plans for the weekend. Aggressive marketing to the residence halls helps, because it's alarming just how many of our students have NO FREAKING IDEA when the games are. (Admittedly, our scheduling doesn't help here)

Also, we all know that the greeks haven't been...ahem, all that supportive of our athletic programs in recent years. (I know, a total understatement). Marketing toward those organizations might actually inspire some of them to turn out. And this game is a perfect situation for getting some tailgating in after class, hitting the stadium, and then hitting up the bars/clubs following the game's conclusion.

And the giving away the free meal plan? Brilliant! That's a big deal, something they probably couldn't do every week, but I think giving away a $200/$250 or so book scholarship every game would work just as well and get some of the more brainy/fiscally prudent students to at least think about coming out.

Unless you have a program that sells itself, like Ohio State, you've got to do whatever you can to help the attendance numbers. These things that they are doing this Friday are a good start, but I'd like to see this kind of stuff happen for every game.

great post sir

[BGFalconfromCincy]

I just wish the athletic department would use their marketing budget for more than 1 sport.

6am hoops and hockey games like St. Peters had this morning

[Bleeding Orange]

I just wish the athletic department would use their marketing budget for more than 1 sport.

First of all, I have to give credit where credit is due. Good on ya, 24, for a hell of a post. I missed it on my initial read, but I've been hard on you in the past, but you really knocked it out of the park here. There is absolutely nothing wrong with trying to engage the student body in any way possible.

And Drew, I have to completely disagree with your above statement. The list that Prof. J. posted above that I guess was supposed to be offensive seems to me to be comprised primarily of corporate sponsorship giveaways. Now, I would love to live in a world where corporate sponsors spread their money out evenly between all of our major sports, but looking at things from a purely business perspective, it makes a heck of a lot of sense why some of these things happen only at football games.

If students are the target population - and here they clearly are - how many students, on average, are at football games compared to hockey/basketball? I won't pretend to know the exact numbers, but based on personal experience, I would say that the numbers are much higher for football than the other sports in question. So, it makes sense for companies to focus their investment on the venues that offer the highest probability of return.

I do think that there needs to be a greater focus on turning students out to basketball and hockey, and especially the Greek community. The university has finally started to focus on getting the Greek community into football games. I always found it quite embarrassing on Homecoming weekends to see so many current Greek members and alumni tailgating outside of the stadium, but never going into the stadium once the game began. In my mind, the Greek community is supposed to be a community leader on campus, not only in service, but also in fostering school spirit - and this is something that I think has been a weak point at BGSU for quite some time. I think I've mentioned this around here before, and I think I remember getting ripped six ways to Sunday by many former Greek community members for it. But, of those people I ask, even though you may have been at the games, how many of your brothers and sisters were?

[Ydfalcon]

It is useless. The students did not attend what was in essence the East Division championship game last year. Why would they show up this Friday?

Not that our non-student fans are an impressive lot either.

Thanks for the input, Gregg. You really do need to focus on your new team, though.



Seriously though, were you at that game? Because I was. It was miserable. 6pm on a Friday, with a team that won just one game at home all year, in weather somewhere around 20 degrees and snowing at kickoff, I'm not in the slightest surprised that there weren't many people there. This year, we're doing a little better at home, and the weather isn't supposed to be quite as bad, from what I hear.

[It's the Journey...]

And Drew, I have to completely disagree with your above statement. The list that Prof. J. posted above that I guess was supposed to be offensive seems to me to be comprised primarily of corporate sponsorship giveaways.

I don't think any of us can make that determination. Here is the list again.

- FREE Thunderstix to the first 3,000 BGSU Students
- $500 in Adidas credit to be split amongst the Top 3 Greek organizations in attendance
- Pizza party prior to a select BGSU Hockey or Men's Basketball home game for the top Greek organization in attendance
- Pizza party prior to a select BGSU Hockey or Men's Basketball home game for the top Residence Hall in attendance
- Ca$h prizes for the Residence Hall Councils of the Top 3 Res Halls in attendance $300, $200, $100
- First 200 BGSU Students to stop by the Falcon FANatic Store tent inside The Doyt will receive FREE hand-warmers
- One student resident in attendance will WIN a FREE Fall 2010 Semester Bronze Meal Plan valued at nearly $1,500

As I see it, only the Adidas credit could be put down as "Corporate", the others show no indication whatsoever where the prizes are coming from. They could all be paid for by Meijer for all we know, but that information isn't provided.

I guess I consider this more bribery than marketing. I remember my first football season at BGSU, 1995 for those keeping score. Our season and home opener was on a Thursday night under portable lights. There was a huge push focused on greek and other student groups and these types of prized for attendance were part of the promotion. The same push was made for the second home game only without the prizes and it failed miserably. I won't go into the rest of the season because it stunk. That was tried at least one more season that I can remember, but I can't remember if it was 97 or 98. The result was the same, great participation when prizes were on the lines and terrible when they were not.

I have no problem marketing to the student body. How it is being done in this case is what I have a problem with. Once the precedent is set making prizes available, the numbers will drop dramatically if there is nothing "in return" for attending an athletic event. First of all, we don't have the budget to do prizes for every home game. Secondly, if we did have the budget, it could be spent on many other necessities than prizes.

I don't expect to get a lot of agreement with this line of thinking because many feel we need to do whatever it takes to just put buts in the seats. I just don't agree with that, especially when we are playing a game at 5:30 on a Friday night.

[AyZiggy97]

It is useless. The students did not attend what was in essence the East Division championship game last year. Why would they show up this Friday?

Not that our non-student fans are an impressive lot either.

Thanks for the input, Gregg. You really do need to focus on your new team, though.



Seriously though, were you at that game? Because I was. It was miserable. 6pm on a Friday, with a team that won just one game at home all year, in weather somewhere around 20 degrees and snowing at kickoff, I'm not in the slightest surprised that there weren't many people there. This year, we're doing a little better at home, and the weather isn't supposed to be quite as bad, from what I hear.

Not sure who Gregg is. The home record at that point last year was 1-and-3. This year's home record is 1-and-3, so it's hard to say they're doing any better at home. But yes, I was at the game and the weather was very uncomfortable. If that's a factor for some then it's understandable for them to stay away. But I'll take being damn cold for the opportunity to watch my team win the division title.

I agree that there will be a few more students there this week, but not many more. I hope to goodness that I'm wrong. I'd love to see more people support the team if they're playing well, poorly, or somewhere in between.