• Today’s Attendance

 #5681  by gofurman
 Sun Nov 04, 2018 5:48 am
FUpaladin08 wrote:
Sat Nov 03, 2018 11:12 pm
I see no reason we shouldn’t give away 1000-2000 tickets every home game for seats in the visitor stands. Hand them out to Greenville county schools, Boy and Girl Scouts, Church youth groups, etc. Those tickets aren’t being sold. At least if we give them away to local groups so we can sell them concessions and it can help grow the local fan base.
Great idea. Can anyone ask about this ? Eve. 500-1000 more fans would make a difference
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 #5682  by The Jackal
 Sun Nov 04, 2018 7:11 am
The football game has to be more interesting than whatever else you could be doing that day. Getting back a winning product helps. The current players, unfortunately, are experiencing what 10 years of malaise hath brought.

The biggest concern I had about the program during these years hasn't been the wins and losses. It's been that Furman is pumping out graduates who only ever knew crappy Furman football. If all you ever remember is crappy Furman football, you are less likely to really be invested in the program going forward.

Folks like to blame the students. There are roughly 2000+ students potentially available to see a game. Paladin Stadium holds 16,000. Therefore, the bigger problem is the "not students." Students soon become "not students," and Furman has to find a way to get those folks back.

Attendance is going to less than it "used to be." We are down several large universities in this Conference with large fan bases. I think winning will help. I also think that we need to stop starting the season 0-3 and losing momentum coming into the season.
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 #5683  by Jasper
 Sun Nov 04, 2018 8:05 am
Yadkin wrote:
Sat Nov 03, 2018 11:22 pm
We already give away, free of charge in the Upstate, a televised broadcast of our home games , and for $4.99/month (not paybale to Furman), a live stream that can watched basically anywhere in the country. How's that for incentive to go buy a ticket or go to the game?
and therein lies the real problem.
 #5684  by gman
 Sun Nov 04, 2018 8:21 am
Jasper wrote:
Sun Nov 04, 2018 8:05 am
Yadkin wrote:
Sat Nov 03, 2018 11:22 pm
We already give away, free of charge in the Upstate, a televised broadcast of our home games , and for $4.99/month (not paybale to Furman), a live stream that can watched basically anywhere in the country. How's that for incentive to go buy a ticket or go to the game?
and therein lies the real problem.
I certainly don’t have the answer, but the games being on tv is not the real problem. I would be willing to bet that fans that used to come to games at Paladin Stadium are not sitting at home watching Furman play on tv. I often wondered why any business would sponsor SoCon football games on tv. The ratings have to be pathetic. The decrease in attendance has been a trend for the last 10 years (or more). The product on the field has been just average, at best, during this period. We no longer play against exciting rivalries like Appy and Ga. Southern. We are playing in a bad SoCon, with no teams that have fans that travel well. The fan experience at Paladin Stadium is terrible. That began with the completion of the new facility “improvements” that greatly disminished the great atmosphere just outside the stadium. I have much faith that Clay will bring in the players to turn around the program, but is it too late to bring the fans back to Paladin Stadium? The big question still remains. Can Furman University afford to fund the program with such low ticket sales?
Last edited by gman on Sun Nov 04, 2018 11:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
 #5686  by MidlandsPaladin
 Sun Nov 04, 2018 8:32 am
With the exception of Pickens County, Tuscaloosa, and selected few others, attendance is down everywhere. It is undeniable that the abundance of games on TV plays a significant role. TV makes it too convenient to stay home, and the cost of tickets today seals the deal.

BTW - someone asked what the draw was at Western Carolina. One word for you = band. Take attendance after halftime and see what you get.
QCGlue liked this
 #5687  by Yadkin
 Sun Nov 04, 2018 8:47 am
Certainly no single culprit that’s causing attendance issues, but not winning consistently is certainly a factor, as is assigning no value to your product by putting it on free TV. Whether people want to admit it or not (some on this board have), folks quite often regularly make entertainment decisions based on economics, so when you offer something free to someone when previously they were willing to pay $80-100 (family of four tickets, travel, concessions), it doesn’t take much common sense to appreciate what you are doing to your potential audience. How many folks opted for the free live feed offered by NeedToBreathe recently at BSW Arena? Yep, it didn’t exist. Want to see them? You had to buy a ticket. Have had numerous folks who love Furman football tell me they find it so much easier now to stay home on Saturdays and watch the games.
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 #5688  by Furmanoid
 Sun Nov 04, 2018 8:55 am
Could it be that the local Furman alumni are going extinct? The white hairs in the stands have thick southern accents while students seem to all be Yankees. If several decades go by with all of the alumni moving far away after graduating, where are the FCS type fans (alumni) going to come from? And even if they do stay local, it doesn’t appear that they are into sports much anymore.
 #5689  by Bootie
 Sun Nov 04, 2018 9:07 am
I think Jackal speaks wisdom here. Winning really makes all the difference. Win consistently again, and the fans will come.
 #5690  by Fred Garvin
 Sun Nov 04, 2018 9:18 am
I know what caused the problem and it is going to take a long time to correct the deeds that were done. We are trying to get a small footprint back in the upstate with the help of Ingles and some others. We will continue to see this if our student body comes South for 4 years and then leaves.
 #5693  by apaladin
 Sun Nov 04, 2018 9:59 am
Surely FU makes money by televising home games. Maybe this is a way to make up for declining butts in the seats.
 #5694  by Jasper
 Sun Nov 04, 2018 11:38 am
Furmanoid wrote:
Sun Nov 04, 2018 8:55 am
Could it be that the local Furman alumni are going extinct? The white hairs in the stands have thick southern accents while students seem to all be Yankees. If several decades go by with all of the alumni moving far away after graduating, where are the FCS type fans (alumni) going to come from? And even if they do stay local, it doesn’t appear that they are into sports much anymore.
Finally the real culprit has been unearthed. Lo and behold, it's the "damn yankees" once again. :D

The only problem with that is statistical analysis of the student body's origins does not bear it out. Most Furman students are still from the South, albeit not Greenville County, South Carolina. Furman's excellent academic reputation is fortunately drawing students from all regions of the country. With the price tag for a Furman education being what it is, that is an absolute necessity and is a stated goal of the administration. The fact of the matter is that a growing and attractive Greenville community is drawing many older Americans and that is the expanding demographic that is not being tapped sufficiently. The students from all national universities will generally return to their home regions after graduation. That is not a Furman exclusive condition and is certainly not the reason for the pathetic attendance. I remarked to the folks that I was attending the game with yesterday ( 90% white haired yankees BTW) that the entire Furman game day experience was very pleasant and infinitely civilized. It was a lovely, sunny fall day. We parked about 50 yards from the stadium, hopped on a golf cart to a "free lunch" at the Paladin Club Hospitality tent, sat in the autumn sun in our very reasonably priced season tickets on the 30 yard line, enjoyed the talented Furman regiment band and watched the home team notch a hard fought win on the football field. About 1/2 hour later, I was dozing in front of the TV screen while ostensibly watching a big time contest that I could care less about. Tell me that is not a fun way to spend a fall Saturday in America. After going to the first game of the year in Clemson, you could not pay me enough to do that again. ( that's a lie! ;) ) Put a good and exciting team on the field, stop killing any preseason buzz with 0-3 starts to the season, contend for league and division championships, blackout the local TV market and continue to make the game experience a pleasant one, target the demographic that is growing and stop blaming the students for not being football fanatics and having the audacity to leave grand old ivy after they graduate. Where is this growing demographic? Right in front of us. Do you know that the registration for OLLI@Furman is about to grow larger than the undergraduate student body and they aint going anyplace, yankee accents and all. And that is just a fraction of the population growth in this area. The senior migration in America to the south is fueling much of the economic growth of the region.
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 #5696  by sluggo
 Sun Nov 04, 2018 11:57 am
I would try video ads about FU sports and run them in google AdWords.
GEO IP location can now set your ads to only play for the Greenville area which makes cost per click worth it.
Jasper liked this
 #5699  by apaladin
 Sun Nov 04, 2018 1:47 pm
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    hawg wrote:
    Sat Nov 03, 2018 10:39 pm
    Attendance about 18,000. Alas, that was the total for the year.
    Bad, but not quite that bad. Total attendance was 24,555 Avg. 6,139 still a little better than 2016.
    Last edited by apaladin on Sun Nov 04, 2018 2:43 pm, edited 4 times in total.
     #5700  by Paladawg
     Sun Nov 04, 2018 2:16 pm
    It is heartening to see the responses here. There are some good individual suggestions. It is clear that many people responding understand the equation between winning (including getting out of the gate fast) and the size of the crowd. For us, there is little we can do about the winning part. I know there are some wannabe coaches on the forum. I'm not aware we have anyone who is actually on the staff right now providing input.

    What we should be focused on is generating discussion about the larger strategy. Gman pointed out that the game-day experience is terrible. I agree. There is no organized effort to consider every aspect that can generate some enthusiasm. There are a few individual pieces in place, but it is clear that there is no strategic thought on how to engage people who otherwise aren't connected to Furman through the game day experience. It feels like there are a lot of disparate pieces thrown together without any consideration on how they fit. The band, the cheerleaders, the dancers, the promotional giveaways all have the feel that they are out there on their own. There is no central strategy on how to engage the crowd.

    Here are a couple of examples I've noticed of fairly simple things that just don't get done anymore. The cheerleaders and dancers are parked down there side-by-side the whole game. They used to change ends of the home side by quarter. Does it matter? If you can generate some enthusiasm on both ends of the stadium, yeah, it matters. People in the crowd need cues on when to respond. "Another Farm Bureau insurance FIRST DOWN." Sounds straightforward. Obviously requires some leadership. Has anyone told the cheerleaders, dancers, or band their role is to lead that effort? Doesn't appear so. When the old t-shirt toss used to occur, it was done with what I suppose you call an air cannon. Now it is done by cheerleaders who can't get the shirts five rows up. Simple stuff that shouldn't cost much. Furman, for some reason, finds it distasteful to do the FU 1 time cheer. I've noticed that there are a band of renegades who have started it back. Good for them. All those things make a difference in the game-day experience. The only thing out of the three that is now happening is because somebody said, "We're gonna do the FU 1 time" cheer. It's planning and leadership that pays attention to those details. I don't see that happening. I will leave the complete lack of continuity with the DJ out of this. I bet a group of ten people could sit down and make a lengthy list of things that could be done that provide direction to the crowd on how to be engaged. It might be as simple, as my son pointed out, of surveying season ticket holders to understand what they see and experience.

    I don't believe tv is the culprit. It keeps some people home, but I dare say, those people aren't staying home to watch Furman. They are staying home to watch FBS games. If the experience is good, people will come. In terms of revenue, it is clear there is an asset sitting empty across the way because Furman's opponents these days don't travel well, unless the bellhops get bussed in. That being the case, discount tickets on the visitor's side to youth groups. In fact, if the cost of getting a family in is an issue, charge full price for adults and let kids in for $5 each. When I was in high school, you could drive to Clemson and sit on the bank for $5 with a "high-school ticket." It wasn't very valuable real estate back then. When the value of something goes up, increase the price, but until it does, use group sales and the same tactics minor league sports use to fill the seats. When demand goes up, take prices up with the demand.

    If you are a Paladin Club member and a season ticket holder, stop for a minute and think about how much communication you get from the athletic department. In my case, very little. Email is free. I can't see that it is being used in any strategic way. It appears Furman's whole communication strategy is around Twitter and the web page. How many of you are active Twitter users? Furman has to get out in the community to sell athletics. It has been done before. It can work, but there has to be a consistent, years-long strategy. And it needs to be done on a relationship basis.

    I think there is hope for Furman. The on-field product is great. Furman is finishing 1st and 2nd in the Commissioner's and Germann cups on a regular basis. Furman athletics has to be more intentional about getting its name out in the community, not just the Furman community. There are three retired guys that sit behind me that live at the Woodlands. They did not grow up in Greenville. Others have already pointed out that there are people flocking to Greenville. What will it take to get them engaged? I think Furman can draw decent crowds. Winning will make a difference, but optimizing the outcome of having a good team takes outreach in a world awash in other activities. The question is whether Furman has the will to do it and whether we are willing to be part of it.
    AHB1188, dornb, QCGlue liked this
     #5704  by Furmanoid
     Sun Nov 04, 2018 5:01 pm
    Jackal, I am sorry if I offended by using the word Yankee. And you are right, students from the upper latitudes are a minority at Furman. But the student population is very geographically diverse. And it is perfectly natural for them to go home after graduating. Since even alumni are unlikely to drive more than a couple hours for an FCS game, having your alumni scattered all over hell is a challenge. It wasn’t always that way. In my father’s era Furman was mostly a fairly local thing. So when you had decades worth of Furman people accumulated near Furman I’m betting that made it easier to sell tickets. Maybe I’m wrong but no need to be so nasty about it.

    If you think you can get northern transplants to start going to Furman games go for it. But while I agree with you about how pleasant FU game days are, I am one of very few people I know who would consider going to a non fbs game. People just aren’t into it. So I doubt there will be many takers.

    I think some other posters are on the right track with the ticket giveaway idea. I would especially target all youth football leagues in the area. You get the coaches to bring their teams. If the kids have fun (and they will) they talk their dads into bringing them back. And you grow a local base. But price has to be looked at. A Furman game shouldn’t cost more than some SEC games.