I am done

[huskymedic]

It's a silly position to take. The FB program is hemorrhaging fans. Part of that is realignment related, part of it is we have been bad with little signs of improving. The good news is for those "we don't need fans like you" guys, you will have the stadium mostly to yourself soon.

I hope you don't have me in the wrong group...

Gotta love the fly-by night "I promised myself I'd never post here" guys chastising the fan base. Same dude was calling out people on here and the CR board to send money. It's like he found a new toy.

 

[noeynox]

I hope you don't have me in the wrong group...

Gotta love the fly-by night "I promised myself I'd never post here" guys chastising the fan base. Same dude was calling out people on here and the CR board to send money. It's like he found a new toy.

No, post was directed at the poster claiming good riddance. I quoted your post cause I liked it.

 

[whaler11]

This is silly. Everyone knows it's @Jimmy Serrano 's fault

 

[zls44]

There's a problem in the athletic department that dates back to the mid-90s which is only exacerbated by the current financial situation.

Its totally realistic to look at your fanbase as customers. But the UConn Athletic Department, for too long, has only seen them as customers, only seen things in black and white. They don't care about loyalty, enthusiasm or commitment. They only care about how much you pay- now, not that you may have paid a little less this year because you have the ABSURDITY to pay for, you know, other stuff in life that comes up.

"How much did you pay the UConn Club last year? It was more, right? Well, at least the same? You dropped an extra WBB season ticket? HOW DARE YOU!" That's their mentality.

They need all the fans they can get. Alums, non-alums, Martians, infants, it doesn't matter- they need to realize that they need people. As many as they can get.

Parking is a perfect example. If I'm wrong on this- which would certainly be...probable?...please let me know...but I find it hard to believe that many programs either charge for parking, or charge as much as UConn does. Same for season ticket prices, mandatory seat licenses, etc...this just is not how things operate in college football, especially at a non-P5 level.

Doing something because its the way you've always done it is a recipe for disaster and losing customers in any business. UConn is cooking the same bad meal for the 12th year in a row.

 

[whaler11]

There's a problem in the athletic department that dates back to the mid-90s which is only exacerbated by the current financial situation.

Its totally realistic to look at your fanbase as customers. But the UConn Athletic Department, for too long, has only seen them as customers, only seen things in black and white. They don't care about loyalty, enthusiasm or commitment. They only care about how much you pay- now, not that you may have paid a little less this year because you have the ABSURDITY to pay for, you know, other stuff in life that comes up.

"How much did you pay the UConn Club last year? It was more, right? Well, at least the same? You dropped an extra WBB season ticket? HOW DARE YOU!" That's their mentality.

They need all the fans they can get. Alums, non-alums, Martians, infants, it doesn't matter- they need to realize that they need people. As many as they can get.

Parking is a perfect example. If I'm wrong on this- which would certainly be...probable?...please let me know...but I find it hard to believe that many programs either charge for parking, or charge as much as UConn does. Same for season ticket prices, mandatory seat licenses, etc...this just is not how things operate in college football, especially at a non-P5 level.

Doing something because its the way you've always done it is a recipe for disaster and losing customers in any business. UConn is cooking the same bad meal for the 12th year in a row.

They treat the fanbase like an ATM and that is the root cause of many issues like you stated.

How many programs charge that much to park and a disgusting company like LAZ gets the money and not even the school?

 

[CTBasketball]

If you were really done, you wouldn't have made that post.

See you next week.

 

[JMick]

We need to convert students who don't follow UConn football to undergrads who do follow football to alumni who continue to follow and support football. It will take about 6 consecutive or mostly consecutive years of success to do that imo.

 

[whaler11]

We need to convert students who don't follow UConn football to undergrads who do follow football to alumni who continue to follow and support football. It will take about 6 consecutive or mostly consecutive years of success to do that imo.

Part of that problem becomes the number of out of state students being recruited and the problems we have keeping grads here in Connecticut.

This is the downside of the academic rankings to the football program.

If I were graduating today I probably wouldn't live here either.

 

[JMick]

Part of that problem becomes the number of out of state students being recruited and the problems we have keeping grads here in Connecticut.

This is the downside of the academic rankings to the football program.

If I were graduating today I probably wouldn't live here either.

The good news is that a lot of people who do stay are in and around Hartford/West Hartford/Middletown/etc. And if you get some diehards out of it Boston isn't too far away. It's not much further than I am, granted I don't get to as many games as I'd like - mostly because most people I know don't care about UConn football. There are those of us who find city life exhausting and stick around. I'm in Danbury and couldn't be happier with the quality of life it provides.

 

[CTMike]

We need to convert students who don't follow UConn football to undergrads who do follow football to alumni who continue to follow and support football. It will take about 6 consecutive or mostly consecutive years of success to do that imo.

Bingo.

We've lost an entire generation of UConn fans because of this.

 

[The Viking]

No thanks. a lot of his success was due to finding a special QB in Bridgewater. NFL caliber QBS make coaches look real good. What do you do when you don't have that type of player?

Yeah the thing that really sucks is this. If Randy Shannon doesn't get canned at Miami, Bridgewater doesn't transfer to Louisville.
If Bridgewater doesn't transfer to Louisville there is a real chance that Louisville football isn't in the position it was to take our spot in the ACC.

 

[noeynox]

Yeah the thing that really sucks is this. If Randy Shannon doesn't get canned at Miami, Bridgewater doesn't transfer to Louisville.
If Bridgewater doesn't transfer to Louisville there is a real chance that Louisville football isn't in the position it was to take our spot in the ACC.

I don't think he transferred. Going from memory, Bridgewater decommitted, after Miami took a commitment from a 2nd QB, Stephen Morris. I could be wrong.

 

[BlueDogs]

Unfortunately, leaving is the only thing that gets attention. But, It also precipitates ludicrous conversations about stepping down a level. Conversely, unwavering fan support enables mediocrity. As stated elsewhere, the school has to make a decision to either be competitive and get serious or understand it will preside over its ultimate failure.

 

[Caronimo]

I'd take the 35K

Same here but that's just sad that 35k fans as a result of free tickets is acceptable

 

[whaler11]

Attendance isn't low because of ticket prices.

Attendance is low because people have decided they have things they would prefer to do.

You could open up the gates for Temple and make all the seating first come/first serve and be lucky to get 22k in the stadium.

 

[BlueMAB]

Season ticket holders here talk every week about their inability to give tickets away.

35,000 if tickets were free?

Nah.

 

[BlueMAB]

Attendance isn't low because of ticket prices.

Attendance is low because people have decided they have things they would prefer to do.

You could open up the gates for Temple and make all the seating first come/first serve and be lucky to get 22k in the stadium.

It's that simple.

 

[noeynox]

Attendance isn't low because of ticket prices.

Attendance is low because people have decided they have things they would prefer to do.

You could open up the gates for Temple and make all the seating first come/first serve and be lucky to get 22k in the stadium.

But this is mainly because the FB product just hasn't been good. It's been close to abysmal actually for far too long. I thought Diaco was going to be the guy to start changing this. While I won't go as far as others and say he sucks, and should be fired now or after this year, the evidence isn't there that he is the guy to bring fans back based on results in year 3. I hope he starts a turnaround soon.

I'll say this till I'm blue in the face the perception of going from BCS to G5 relegation has been a huge blow perception wise. Administrators can spout off about supporting the team/program regardless of opponent but even on the basketball board with a nationally competitive program people complain about the conference opponents. How with a bad FB team can you expect people to show their disappointment in any way but not showing up.

I will continue to support the program by buying tickets, but my desire for showing up to watch games that have become less and less enjoyable is waning. I know it's blasphemy to complain about a game we won, but that game against UVA this year was gawd awful to watch.

Some of us are not tailgaters. I commit about 5 hours of my day saturdays to enjoying the game and supporting the team. The enjoying the game part has become very difficult.

 

[noeynox]

Season ticket holders here talk every week about their inability to give tickets away.

35,000 if tickets were free?

Nah.

I kid you not. I can't give away tickets and a parking pass now, I never "sold" my seats but if word was out I couldn't attend a game I'd easily get half dozen offers to buy them.

 

[whaler11]

But this is mainly because the FB product just hasn't been good. It's been close to abysmal actually for far too long. I thought Diaco was going to be the guy to start changing this. While I won't go as far as others and say he sucks, and should be fired now or after this year, the evidence isn't there that he is the guy to bring fans back based on results in year 3. I hope he starts a turnaround soon.

I'll say this till I'm blue in the face the perception of going from BCS to G5 relegation has been a huge blow perception wise. Administrators can spout off about supporting the team/program regardless of opponent but even on the basketball board with a nationally competitive program people complain about the conference opponents. How with a bad FB team can you expect people to show their disappointment in any way but not showing up.

I will continue to support the program by buying tickets, but my desire for showing up to watch games that have become less and less enjoyable is waning. I know it's blasphemy to complain about a game we won, but that game against UVA this year was gawd awful to watch.

Some of us are not tailgaters. I commit about 5 hours of my day saturdays to enjoying the game and supporting the team. The enjoying the game part has become very difficult.

Yes, the games are boring.

They have become boring to people like us who can name 3/4ers of the redshirts - can you even imagine what it's like for normal people?

I don't go to nearly as many basketball games as I used to because they are tedious.

 

[politics]

Attendance isn't low because of ticket prices.

Attendance is low because people have decided they have things they would prefer to do.

You could open up the gates for Temple and make all the seating first come/first serve and be lucky to get 22k in the stadium.

Yeah, at this stage of the season. Gonna say if UConn was 8-0 might be a different story.

 

[politics]

We need to convert students who don't follow UConn football to undergrads who do follow football to alumni who continue to follow and support football. It will take about 6 consecutive or mostly consecutive years of success to do that imo.

Oh, like say 2007-2010.

 

[Hoophound]

As I said - we need non-alum fans, but they are only going to stay if the product is good. Don't for a minute think that I'm bashing non-alums - they just have a different perspective.

I think the bulk of hardcore fans are still non-alums. The beauty of the UConn athletic program has been that the state rallied behind it during the dream season and then Geno brought along the women and whole new set of fans was created. I'd bet the true hardcore fan base is 70% non-alumni.

However, the northeastern mentality is nothing to dismiss. You have to win or it isn't worth their time. That is both obnoxious and endearing at the same time, but it is a fact. Northeasterers are never going to support mediocrity or worse due to loyalty or responsibility. They don't have that gene.

 

[noeynox]

I think the bulk of hardcore fans are still non-alums. The beauty of the UConn athletic program has been that the state rallied behind it during the dream season and then Geno brought along the women and whole new set of fans was created. I'd bet the true hardcore fan base is 70% non-alumni.

However, the northeastern mentality is nothing to dismiss. You have to win or it isn't worth their time. That is both obnoxious and endearing at the same time, but it is a fact. Northeasterers are never going to support mediocrity or worse due to loyalty or responsibility. They don't have that gene.

I know people say it's northeast thing but very few places don't feel the effects 6 consecutive losing years, which is where we are headed.

 

[auggie22]

The first sentence says it all - he isn't an alum. Which makes this purely entertainment for him.

TBH I only really get irritated at the alums that walk away. As Calhoun said when he was in NYC a couple of weeks ago - the school needs us more than ever.

I have not scrolled fully through this post, so apologies if the following point has been made already:

I am not an alumni. This was my father's team, along with the sox and the patriots. We went to the basketball games when I was a boy, and bought season tickets to the FBS huskies when I was a young man. At that time my father was still in good health. We enjoyed many seasons together, but as his health deteriorated, the only team in which he maintained an interest was the uconn football team.

If I am breathing, I will be a season ticket holder and support the team and school long after the hardiest alumnus has bailed. Even if they brought P and D back. I can say this without condition.

There is a tier of fan that sits above alumni as the most loyal. We need to get more fans into that top tier and that will take generations. But it is a guaranteed strategy to build the fan base. If you don't already, and if they are old enough to cheer, bring your kids to the games.