Current students, here is your challenge

1987alum · Post by **1987alum** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 12:18 pm

There are concerns about the attendance for the Temple game voiced in various threads across the board. At this point, most of use old-timers (and out-of-towners) have decided whether or not we're going to be there.

But what about the students?

If you're a current student, you can have an impact. I'll assume (dangerous as that is) that most of the current students who post here will be at the game. If that's so, here's a challenge for you: How many people can you bring to the game that probably wouldn't be there otherwise?

This is a big game not just for this team, but for our program. We're unveiling a new field and a new student-athlete center.

So how about it? How many people are you bringing with you?

BGDrew · Post by **BGDrew** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 12:25 pm

Students have never, and won't be a problem. It's townies that need to show up.

1987alum · Post by **1987alum** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 12:26 pm

BGDrew wrote:Students have never, and won't be a problem. It's townies that need to show up.

Never? Won't? I hope they prove you right!

jpfalcon09 · Post by **jpfalcon09** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 12:42 pm

I've convinced a few OSU fans to make it out since the Bucks are playing Northwestern, who can't even beat Duke. The noon start may hurt a little bit for student attendance because of all the hungover kids from Friday night, but I'm sure there will be a strong group. I'd like to see the university do more to promote students going to the game.

redskins4ever · Post by **redskins4ever** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 1:03 pm

Where is the dead horse named student attendance?

Im always curious what more the university could do to remind students that there is a game on Saturday.

Table Top Reminders in Dining Halls. Check

Emails. Check

Sandwhich boards. Check

Beer Fountain in the student section... well it'd be nice but it will never happen!

What else?

Free T-shirts.... Done that.

Student Giveaways... Done that.

Asking the "Townies" to come out is a little pointless. The better thing to do is to recruit your alumni to comeback. For the first year graduate alumni, you'd get two or three games of free tickets, 2 seats to every alumn. The second year you send them two tickets to a single game. Yes you give away 6000 tickets over 5 or 6 games, but going to games has to be ingrained in students, and alumni. If you can get them to come, have a good time, they are more apt to return.

bgbill · Post by **bgbill** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 1:12 pm

Do students have tickets for admission, or do they just flash their ID's?

BGSUfalcons · Post by **BGSUfalcons** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 1:13 pm

jpfalcon09 wrote:I've convinced a few OSU fans to make it out since the Bucks are playing Northwestern, who can't even beat Duke. The noon start may hurt a little bit for student attendance because of all the hungover kids from Friday night, but I'm sure there will be a strong group. I'd like to see the university do more to promote students going to the game.

Everyone can tell their OSU loving friends that the BG game starts at noon and the OSU game starts at 3:30.

eRichFalcon · Post by **eRichFalcon** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 1:34 pm

bgbill wrote:Do students have tickets for admission, or do they just flash their ID's?

We just flash our ID's

factman · Post by **factman** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 1:35 pm

........or just "FLASH" depending on the ticket taker!!!

bgbill · Post by **bgbill** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 1:55 pm

OK, if an ID is all that's needed, what's to keep people from going through several turnstiles at a given game? I'm just asking.

eRichFalcon · Post by **eRichFalcon** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:00 pm

bgbill wrote:OK, if an ID is all that's needed, what's to keep people from going through several turnstiles at a given game? I'm just asking.

If I remember correctly, they stamp you and ask that you come in through a re-entry gate.

I guess all that would be stopping that would be the stamp, which I imagine could be washed off. Also the possibility of being recognized, but that's solved easily enough

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:07 pm

I'm with Drew on this one. When I was in school the student attendance was disgustingly low. There were rarely more than a couple thousand students there. Until my Senior year when we hired Urban. Finally we weren't the only ones out tailgating anymore, and there were thousands flocking into the stadium to watch this team play.

Since then it seems to me as though we've been pretty consistent in that regards for the past 5 years. There are usually plenty of tailgaters, a good portion of whom are students. I would bet we've averaged between 4000-7000 students in attendance over the past 5 years as well. I'm not sure as though we can really expect more than that from a student population in the 20,000 student range. There are only so many of them that are going to be interested in football.

What we need to get is the alumni and locals out to the games. You would think that these larger student attendance numbers would result in people connected to the program and eventually we'd see more consistent alumni attendance as well. Hopefully that will be the case and we'll continue to see increased attendance figures. Still, I don't think the students have been the problem, recently.

CapitalFalcon · Post by **CapitalFalcon** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:16 pm

hammb wrote:I'm with Drew on this one. When I was in school the student attendance was disgustingly low. There were rarely more than a couple thousand students there. Until my Senior year when we hired Urban. Finally we weren't the only ones out tailgating anymore, and there were thousands flocking into the stadium to watch this team play.

Since then it seems to me as though we've been pretty consistent in that regards for the past 5 years. There are usually plenty of tailgaters, a good portion of whom are students. I would bet we've averaged between 4000-7000 students in attendance over the past 5 years as well. I'm not sure as though we can really expect more than that from a student population in the 20,000 student range. There are only so many of them that are going to be interested in football.

What we need to get is the alumni and locals out to the games. You would think that these larger student attendance numbers would result in people connected to the program and eventually we'd see more consistent alumni attendance as well. Hopefully that will be the case and we'll continue to see increased attendance figures. Still, I don't think the students have been the problem, recently.

When I went there (later Blackney era) tailgating was pretty much unheard of, not to mention that going to the game was an after-thought. Glad to hear things have greatly improved!!!

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:23 pm

CapitalFalcon wrote:
When I went there (later Blackney era) tailgating was pretty much unheard of, not to mention that going to the game was an after-thought. Glad to hear things have greatly improved!!!

Thank Urban for that re-birth; both in regards to the product on the field, and his charisma with the students.

Like I said, my FR-Jr years were the final of Blackney's tenure. My buddies and I started tailgating for every game our sophomore year, I think, and we were pretty much the only ones out there (by the overpass on the south end of the lot. Later we went to the north end after finding this website and meeting the great folks here. It wasn't until the Meyer era, though, that tailgating became a "cool" thing to do on Saturdays in BG. That seems to have maintained pretty steady for the last 5 years too.

jpfalcon09 · Post by **jpfalcon09** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:52 pm

eRichFalcon wrote:
bgbill wrote:OK, if an ID is all that's needed, what's to keep people from going through several turnstiles at a given game? I'm just asking.
If I remember correctly, they stamp you and ask that you come in through a re-entry gate.

I guess all that would be stopping that would be the stamp, which I imagine could be washed off. Also the possibility of being recognized, but that's solved easily enough

This year they're scanning them, kind of like how you do at the Rec Center. I think this will more accurately determine how many students do come to the games.