Attendance Woes

[Mr_Sweets]

I am a huge advocate of the belief that "PEOPLE SHOULD ROOT FOR THEIR ALMA MATER"!!! (How many BG Alum are there???)

People ask me all the time "Who is your team?" -- I love saying BG

[Flipper]

This board has been in existence in one form or another since 2001...attendance at football is an annual discussion. FWIW...I recall seeing in the media guide a few years ago that the lifetime average attendance for BGSU @ Doyt Perry Stadium was right around 15,000.

[mscarn]

Saw this today on Facebook, I guess you gotta do what you gotta do...

THIS JUST IN: For every 2,500 students in attendance at Saturday's Homecoming game vs. UMass BGSU Athletics will raffle off an iPad! You won't want to miss this game as the Falcons look to improve to 5-1 on the season!

They're trying, but it's tough to create momentum artifically. A pessimist would say you're just offering them another screen to stare at a boring Big 10 game with the next week.

Flipper's right. 15k plus or minus a couple thousand depending on circumstances is where we're at. It's not ideal or even justifiable given our product but so what? Many if not most other schools not in the south or with 50,000 enrollments are in a similar boat.

[falcon83]

I attended the murray state game and it was terribly boring. You can't expect a good crowd playing a high school team. Akron and UMass aren't much better. However, you better enjoy the bad Saturday crowd because once the week night games start, nobody will be there. I live out of town and cannot get to those games. That is why I will not buy season tickets. Those games look terrible on t.v. with about 5,000 fans. it makes us look like a high school team. When will the MAC ever learn?

[thewebboy]

Whenever I see us on TV I think.... Can't they make everyone sit on the side opposite the cameras? At least make it look like someone is there

[BGDrew]

It could also be because of people like myself. Our stadium sucks. Our traffic flow after the game sucks. Our concessions suck. You're not going to get me to pay to go to a game where it takes 20 minutes to find my seat (miss the first quarter), pay way too much for an undercooked hot dog, and take me 70 minutes to travel the 1.3 miles to my apartment after the game. Or, I can fire up ESPN3, grab a beer out of my fridge, and eat whatever food that I want.

Simply? You have to give me a reason to spend my money. I love BG but when I go analyze my entertainment budget every month I want to be entertained. Games, for me at least, became a chore and not enjoyable. Our AD said as much in his videos: you have to give people a reason to come back. Right now, that's not there for someone like myself.

These are fixable things but things that are going to cost money. The stands need to be torn down and re-built with more tunnels and wider aisles. The stadium needs more concessions choices with dedicated commissaries, and the parking lots/roads need to be analyzed or widened to accommodate more traffic.

[transfer2BGSU]

However, you better enjoy the bad Saturday crowd because once the week night games start, nobody will be there. I live out of town and cannot get to those games.

Do you know that we only have ONE week night game played at home this year? It's the Veterans Appreciation Game (the Tuesday after veterans Day - November 12) against Ohio University

[MarkL]

Whenever I see us on TV I think.... Can't they make everyone sit on the side opposite the cameras? At least make it look like someone is there

I was actually thinking of emailing the AD and making that kind of suggestion. Like move the student section to the opposite side next to the band and communicate the move as best as possible. And besides, having the student section near the opposing team's bench could be kinda fun.

[hammb]

It could also be because of people like myself. Our stadium sucks. Our traffic flow after the game sucks. Our concessions suck. You're not going to get me to pay to go to a game where it takes 20 minutes to find my seat (miss the first quarter), pay way too much for an undercooked hot dog, and take me 70 minutes to travel the 1.3 miles to my apartment after the game. Or, I can fire up ESPN3, grab a beer out of my fridge, and eat whatever food that I want.

Simply? You have to give me a reason to spend my money. I love BG but when I go analyze my entertainment budget every month I want to be entertained. Games, for me at least, became a chore and not enjoyable. Our AD said as much in his videos: you have to give people a reason to come back. Right now, that's not there for someone like myself.

These are fixable things but things that are going to cost money. The stands need to be torn down and re-built with more tunnels and wider aisles. The stadium needs more concessions choices with dedicated commissaries, and the parking lots/roads need to be analyzed or widened to accommodate more traffic.

I've never had the traffic going home issues that you describe. I always go around the back side of the Doyt, past the tennis courts & ice arena, then turn right onto Mercer. I'm about 4-5 miles from the Doyt but can typically be home within 15-20 minutes of the game ending. At least that's been my experience the past few years. Maybe not as much 10 years ago when we had more people in the stands but nowadays that seems to be the norm.

That said, I agree whole-heartedly about the University and MAC doing a very poor job making people WANT to go to the games. I dropped my season tickets last year, and I really don't miss it. I don't plan my entire fall around BG football anymore. I only made it to one game last year, which sucked, but I've been to a couple this year already, and will be coming to Homecoming as well. Still, there are a lot of great points made here.

I've said it a billion times, but our coach simply must embrace the community and make himself the face of BG football. It's great that Kingston has been so willing to do this, but I don't think it will work from an administrator the same way it works for the coach. When Urban was here he created a buzz...and it wasn't just the quality of his teams either. It was the way he spoke to people, the way he was out in the community, the way he embraced Bowling Green, and the style of football his teams played helped as well. I think Clawson is a very good coach, but he hasn't done enough to get the townies & students excited about BG football, and unfortunately I believe that is a personality trait that really cannot be taught. Urban had it. Dakich had it. Clawson and Orr certainly do not have it.

Beyond that they need to find a way to make the games not feel like a chore, and I don't really know what they can do about that. Every year there are 2-3 opponents that you know going in the game will be either A) A blowout win, or B) A boring sloppy crapfest because we suck as bad as the competition. Every year you can count on at least 1-2 games that are on a weeknight so just GETTING to the game is a chore. And then a good percentage of the time it seems that the games in the latter category also end up falling in the former...a bad matchup on a Tuesday night is a recipe for <8000 people in the seats.

I really don't have answers. I'm not in marketing, and I really can't even speak for why I'm so much more apathetic now than I was 10 years ago. But I do know that 10 years ago I wouldn't miss a game for anything. And I also know that a lot of my friends and family would come out and tailgate with us and we always had a blast. Nowadays I find myself only caring to make it to a couple games a year, and the only people that I can get to come out to watch the games are the die hards. Hell, I think for homecoming I'll be coming out by myself to tailgate since I cannot find a single other soul in my group of friends/family that actually wants to come hang out all day long out there anymore. Tara will join later and eat/go to the game with me, but that's pretty much it.

I wish I had answers, but other than the coach being more involved in leading the charge, I've really got nothing. I just know SOMETHING has changed...

[mscarn]

I've said it a billion times, but our coach simply must embrace the community and make himself the face of BG football. It's great that Kingston has been so willing to do this, but I don't think it will work from an administrator the same way it works for the coach. When Urban was here he created a buzz...and it wasn't just the quality of his teams either. It was the way he spoke to people, the way he was out in the community, the way he embraced Bowling Green, and the style of football his teams played helped as well. I think Clawson is a very good coach, but he hasn't done enough to get the townies & students excited about BG football, and unfortunately I believe that is a personality trait that really cannot be taught. Urban had it. Dakich had it. Clawson and Orr certainly do not have it.

Is that really their job, though? There's a valid argument that in a community such as ours it is. I'm of the opinion that a coach can only spead their time and energies so far. The more silly promotional stuff they have to do means less time spent with the players, less time spent watching film and less time spent recruiting. You don't want a statue but you also don't want Elmer Gentry. For all of his community relations acumen Dakich was done in by failing to field a winning team.

Coaches need to coach and put a winning product on the field. Others are hired and paid to handle the rest and they need to do their jobs. Clawson could be Anthony Robbins and he's still have no control over concessions, parking, traffic flow, etc. whose incompetent handling turns off so many.

[transfer2BGSU]

When Urban was here he created a buzz...and it wasn't just the quality of his teams either. It was the way he spoke to people, the way he was out in the community, the way he embraced Bowling Green, and the style of football his teams played helped as well.

I always loved those Falcon Club luncheons at the Bowling Green Country Club when Meyer would show up five minutes after the program began and then tell us all how the football program was lacking and we weren't playing like a D-I program yet. Made me so good to know that I had spent my money on two season tickets.

[hammb]

I've said it a billion times, but our coach simply must embrace the community and make himself the face of BG football. It's great that Kingston has been so willing to do this, but I don't think it will work from an administrator the same way it works for the coach. When Urban was here he created a buzz...and it wasn't just the quality of his teams either. It was the way he spoke to people, the way he was out in the community, the way he embraced Bowling Green, and the style of football his teams played helped as well. I think Clawson is a very good coach, but he hasn't done enough to get the townies & students excited about BG football, and unfortunately I believe that is a personality trait that really cannot be taught. Urban had it. Dakich had it. Clawson and Orr certainly do not have it.

Is that really their job, though? There's a valid argument that in a community such as ours it is. I'm of the opinion that a coach can only spead their time and energies so far. The more silly promotional stuff they have to do means less time spent with the players, less time spent watching film and less time spent recruiting. You don't want a statue but you also don't want Elmer Gentry. For all of his community relations acumen Dakich was done in by failing to field a winning team.

Coaches need to coach and put a winning product on the field. Others are hired and paid to handle the rest and they need to do their jobs. Clawson could be Anthony Robbins and he's still have no control over concessions, parking, traffic flow, etc. whose incompetent handling turns off so many.

Yes. A thousand times over YES. It IS their job.

At BG we cannot hire a coach simply based on Xs & Os and winning games. It sucks that this is true, because I agree with you, they only have so much time/energy to expend, but it is absolutely the case here. In fact, I believe that it is without a doubt the #1 most important thing a BG coach can do. These programs struggle to get support winning or losing. If I were Kingston my #1 criteria when looking for a new coach would be somebody willing to make this a big part of their employment.

Then again I tend to think the coaches who have this in their personality also seem to be the ones that achieve pretty good success...and certainly having a larger fan following helps in their cause to build a winning program. Kids want to play for a large riled up fanbase.

Dakich's teams are a good example that you still have to have on court/field success, but look at what he did here. When they were even remotely winning they had much better attendance figures than what we can draw now in a brand new building. Unfortunately he completely lost it and his past several years were dismal in terms of record and attendance, no matter what he did.

In Urban's 2nd year we averaged 17k fans without having a single traditional rival at home...finishing up with a horrible EMU team on one of the coldest games I can remember watching at the Doyt. That game was coming off a 2 game losing streak (destroying the buzz of starting 8-0, and pretty much any hope of a MAC title shot was gone). And on top of that OSU played that afternoon (I think it was even the UM game) while they were in a national title hunt. That game still got almost 13k fans (3k less than any other games that year). Anyone care to guess what a game with those circumstances would draw today?

I definitely think there is something to the coaches embracing the role of creating a buzz in the campus/community.

[jpfalcon09]

I've said it a billion times, but our coach simply must embrace the community and make himself the face of BG football. It's great that Kingston has been so willing to do this, but I don't think it will work from an administrator the same way it works for the coach. When Urban was here he created a buzz...and it wasn't just the quality of his teams either. It was the way he spoke to people, the way he was out in the community, the way he embraced Bowling Green, and the style of football his teams played helped as well. I think Clawson is a very good coach, but he hasn't done enough to get the townies & students excited about BG football, and unfortunately I believe that is a personality trait that really cannot be taught. Urban had it. Dakich had it. Clawson and Orr certainly do not have it.

Is that really their job, though? There's a valid argument that in a community such as ours it is. I'm of the opinion that a coach can only spead their time and energies so far. The more silly promotional stuff they have to do means less time spent with the players, less time spent watching film and less time spent recruiting. You don't want a statue but you also don't want Elmer Gentry. For all of his community relations acumen Dakich was done in by failing to field a winning team.

Coaches need to coach and put a winning product on the field. Others are hired and paid to handle the rest and they need to do their jobs. Clawson could be Anthony Robbins and he's still have no control over concessions, parking, traffic flow, etc. whose incompetent handling turns off so many.

Yes. A thousand times over YES. It IS their job.

At BG we cannot hire a coach simply based on Xs & Os and winning games. It sucks that this is true, because I agree with you, they only have so much time/energy to expend, but it is absolutely the case here. In fact, I believe that it is without a doubt the #1 most important thing a BG coach can do. These programs struggle to get support winning or losing. If I were Kingston my #1 criteria when looking for a new coach would be somebody willing to make this a big part of their employment.

Then again I tend to think the coaches who have this in their personality also seem to be the ones that achieve pretty good success...and certainly having a larger fan following helps in their cause to build a winning program. Kids want to play for a large riled up fanbase.

Dakich's teams are a good example that you still have to have on court/field success, but look at what he did here. When they were even remotely winning they had much better attendance figures than what we can draw now in a brand new building. Unfortunately he completely lost it and his past several years were dismal in terms of record and attendance, no matter what he did.

In Urban's 2nd year we averaged 17k fans without having a single traditional rival at home...finishing up with a horrible EMU team on one of the coldest games I can remember watching at the Doyt. That game was coming off a 2 game losing streak (destroying the buzz of starting 8-0, and pretty much any hope of a MAC title shot was gone). And on top of that OSU played that afternoon (I think it was even the UM game) while they were in a national title hunt. That game still got almost 13k fans (3k less than any other games that year). Anyone care to guess what a game with those circumstances would draw today?

I definitely think there is something to the coaches embracing the role of creating a buzz in the campus/community.

Its really a fine line between both. You see a guy like Fleck who is going over and above in trying to get people involved and its turning off both students and residents. A coach can be rah rah and personable and relate to fans without having to be a visible person in the community. Clawson is an old school football coach which is why Kingston is taking on that role of trying to get people excited. Urban was a unique character in this regard in that he was young, excited, and it was his first ever head coaching gig.

The bigger issue to me lies in the fact that too many students and residents root for other teams and simply don't care about BG football. They've been spoiled the last 5 years of watching Ohio State field top-10 teams and don't care about mid-major football. This wasn't case in the early 2000s when Cooper was running that program into the ground and fans were turned off. Just my two cents...

[kdog27]

I was a student Meyer's two years. Was support really that good because I don't remember it being that way. I remember in 2002 we were undefeated and ranked, and I wrote a letter to the editor about how pathetic it was that we could only draw 16,000 for a game. I think it was a week or two before we lost to NIU. I also always remember being scoffed at by other students that I followed BG first and foremost.

Not saying Meyer didn't try but I'll argue how much of a significance it had or how effective it was. I remember a small group of students wearing Urban Meyer touchdown club shirts. Don't remember him creating much appeal beyond that. Meyer was just some no name then, most people didn't give a rats ass what he was talking about.

[FalconRA]

I agree with JPFalcon. Which is good because I am fairly sure he was a resident of mine. By the way this is P. There is honestly just a lot of competition and the fans we are fighting for have become spoiled with Ohio State and Michigans prominence. I am all for a coach embracing the community but I don't think that is the solution. And I honestly think that Clawson has done a pretty good job of that. I live a little less then 7 hours away in PA and have met him a few times when I have been able to make the trips to games. And that being said I honestly beleive him when he talks about how much he enjoys BG!

The key for BG will actually lie in a coach who is very focused on winning. The issue with our program as well as many midmajor programs is that we are always up and down. If we were to have a coach that took us to the MAC championship games 4 years in a row and maybe even only won 1 or 2 that would help create the consistent Buzz. When I was at BG my first two years were during the Gregg Bradon hold over years when we were still winning a lot and getting ranked by the end of the season and people were excited. We still had to deal with those other fans but we had a base of people who cared. One of my favorite things is actually going on facebook and seeing a bunch of friends and residents from that period of time getting excited for BG Football every year. Winning helps build tradition it really is that simple in my opinion.