Attempting to Improve the Game Day Experience is merely one piece of the puzzle

[SubbaBub]

Winning and competition is key. Move Michigan into the AAC with a losing record and see how many seats are filled in that 100K+ stadium.

The AAC is a problem, but I'm not setting my sights on becoming Michigan in my lifetime. UM was pretty bad until last season, we almost beat them under PP. They still filled their stadium despite a revolt by ticket holders over pricing and seating priority. PSU attendance dropped by 20k/game during the sanctions. Winning matters but an 80% full stadium when the team isn't meeting expectations is a lot better than a 50% filled or less stadium. That difference is in the details. It also makes it a lot easier to fill the place back up when the team plays well. It's Fortune 500 thinking vs. mom and pop. We might be a mom and pop right now, but that should mean we can't think like a Fortune 500.

We held on well enough through the early PP years (I think Michigan helped that immensely), BD's first year and the awful slate that year (and last year) killed off all casual interest in the program. It was low that is difficult to climb out of without a transcendent event like running off 6-7 games to start a season, beating some big names, winning championships, or joining the B1G. The hard way is to string together multiple wildly successful seasons. The conference and the schedule that comes with it will drag progress. All the more reason to max out on fan engagement. PA announcer sucks, gone. Scoreboard op asleep at the switch, gone. DJ Joey (really), gone. Band show tired and stagnant, fix it. Husky walk underwhelming, drop the kids off on the runway where the rowdy people are or have the band lead a parade to the stadium at 11:20. (note that the band playing pregame outside the rent is a good idea but they are playing to the choir so to speak).

Move the food trucks outside the stadium, if that draws people from the parking lot. There are literally a thousand things you can do that other schools already do. Find what works for us.

 

[tiger8mush]

Any rumors on getting a sideline reporter? After years of Emily then Erika, the position was vacant last year

 

[SubbaBub]

UConn TubeChop - Chop YouTube Videos

I just noticed that this isn't the full pregame. Find a video beginning when the band enters the stadium, if you can find one as it's so unwatchable, no one even notices it's happening. Compare it to PSU's pregame, it's on youtube for a bunch of games. If I'm the AD, I'm having an intern shop them side by side and showing it to the band director (or the new band director if he doesn't get it). One is the opening to a KISS concert and the other is a webcam watching the cat room at your local animal shelter.

This is also the Michigan game, probably the highpoint of pregame atmosphere's at the rent.

I know the guy who built PSU's band just retired, maybe hire him as a consultant.

 

[Nostical]

300 kids milling about waiting to march a single letter formation 30 yards excites no one.

It seems to work for Tennessee---and I'm sure you understand what makes the difference. TubeChop - Chop YouTube Videos

Band show tired and stagnant, fix it. Husky walk underwhelming, drop the kids off on the runway where the rowdy people are or have the band lead a parade to the stadium at 11:20.

Look, I get it and agree with your major premise, but combining the Husky walk with a band parade to the stadium, while awesome on campus, like at Penn State, Tennessee, etc., is much tougher at The Rent. Impossible? No, but very difficult. If our stadium was configured with an end-zone center ingress/egress portal that could make the bands entrance more dramatic like Penn State I'd be all for it, just as I imagine the Band Director would, but to put the Band through all kinds of pre-game program changes with all that's entailed, only for fans to disrespect their efforts by not caring enough to get there early, is unfair to them. Unlike Virginia, Minnesota and UMass (as examples) our Band has no dedicated practice/teaching/storage facility. As it is they're having to hustle for money to construct a loading dock, storage bin and a viewing stand for the director. It's unbelievable they've been such a step child of the University. Watch this video and notice how, even in a promotional video, our pregame segments show an incredibly embarrassing empty stadium.
Have you donated yet?


I'm all for getting people in their seats--and yes it can be a chicken and egg argument-- but for now let's all embrace the willingness to change and see where it goes. And let's all remember how important it is that the band be an integral part, not an afterthought, to any new game-day planning.

 

[Nostical]

I just noticed that this isn't the full pregame. Find a video beginning when the band enters the stadium, if you can find one as it's so unwatchable, no one even notices it's happening. This is also the Michigan game, probably the highpoint of pregame atmosphere's at the rent.

The band gathers while the players are still practicing. Once they leave the field and wait for the canned music to stop, they use the time allotted to get set up and march. There's no place for a grand "Penn State" type entrance. They tried walking down the stairs from the end zone onto the field but it didn't work. As for showing Michigan, I was trying to be kind. Here's Fordham--full pregame.

 

[SubbaBub]

That's also not the full pregame. We are drifting from the main point of needed to fix the details of the overall fan experience. The band is one part, including support for a major college marching band. The band members are consistently the best fans in the stadium and not just for FB. The complaint here is management. There is a space for an entrance we push an entire visiting FB team through it.

As for timing, that is a detail than can and should be addressed again proving my point.

As for that UT clip, that is not their pregame, that is an out of context snipit of a portion of their pregame. Not a very exciting one if you ask me, but it still has more going on than ours.

I go back to if other state flagships can do this, so can UConn. You may not be able to recruit fickle 5 star players from the south to come to Storrs, but you can surely handle the back room stuff the way they do at other schools. Hopefully the new AD feels the same way. Warde, Susan, and BD deserve credit for seeing this, now it's up to continued improvement and execution.

FWIW, PSU's team pulls up to the locker room door in buses. They don't need to do anything else, but it still draws a big crowd. Especially, when there is a question to who will be the starting QB. According to the misses, he sits in the first seat by the door on the first bus. The band marches from their building to the stadium, but that is a necessity. The misses demands that I include that the band didn't have a building when she attended, they only had two trailers. Apparently the band building is less than a decade old. I was referring to the chanting choreographed entrance and the lack of dead air in their performance once they walk in.

 

[ZOOCONN]

I know Diaco chose the entrance music for the team the last few years but I would like to see something that will get the team/ stands rockinggggg prior to kickoff. I also think the pre entrance video leading into the song always worked really well. personally im a fan of this song, its New Noise by Refused, its cut up a bit different from the actual song but is a bit more up tempo through the song.

 

[Waquoit]

The pageantry and tradition of game day is what brings people to the college game. Especially in this age of high quality TV at home. People go to games at Michigan, OSU, ND, PSU because of the spectacle.

I've been to UM and ND. To what spectacle do you refer? My main memory of Michigan is waiting in a 30-minute line just to get to my seat. That was awesome!

 

[Nostical]

We are drifting from the main point of need to fix the details of the overall fan experience. The band is one part, including support for a major college marching band. The complaint here is management.

Our new AD emailed me that he knows we have a "lot of work to do with respect to our game day experience, but looking forward to working with people to figure out how we can make improvements."
This will be an incremental process. Don't forget, what makes those spectacles so cool at Penn St and Michigan that you like so much (as do I) is that there's already a long tradition of fan anticipation and reaction--and a stadium chocked full of folks creating tremendous buzz and excitement around the band entrance and all that kinetic movement. But those same pre-games in an empty stadium like ours would fall fall kind of flat and look somewhat silly. Chicken and egg for sure but we don't want to put the band through major revamps all at once. Lets create a solid looking ideal plan and build momentum with each tweak.

 

[FAIRTIDES]

Exactly, it is CYA, and it's the type of BS work that drives me crazy.

After scanning through the entire document, I think we're looking at a first-meeting "glossy;" the type of thing a sales person representing
a high-end product hands out the first time meeting with a prospective client or customer. Simply? A Sales Brochure.

As has been pointed out, the five bullet points in the "Executive Summary" are high-level items D & T is identifying as needing definition. D & T wants to work with (and charge) the prospect to develop meaningful detail related to expansion and use of data related to each of the points.

If a consultant like D & T provided the above shown brochure as it's conclusion, the resulting homicide would be justified.

 

[CTMike]

Our new AD emailed me that he knows we have a "lot of work to do with respect to our game day experience, but looking forward to working with people to figure out how we can make improvements."
This will be an incremental process. Don't forget, what makes those spectacles so cool at Penn St and Michigan that you like so much (as do I) is that there's already a long tradition of fan anticipation and reaction--and a stadium chocked full of folks creating tremendous buzz and excitement around the band entrance and all that kinetic movement. But those same pre-games in an empty stadium like ours would fall fall kind of flat and look somewhat silly. Chicken and egg for sure but we don't want to put the band through major revamps all at once. Lets create a solid looking ideal plan and build momentum with each tweak.

I know you mean well, but you have a long standing stance of being anti anything that involves standing on the concourse and I'm not sure how I feel about that. Reason I say that is making the scoreboard area a full on sports bar atmosphere a la the XL renovation I think would be a huge hit and you'd likely pooh-pooh it before really considering it since it doesn't fit your vision. Hope I'm not being too presumptuous there. It's nice that the AD is soliciting input.

 

[Nostical]

You're right Mike about my natural aversion to folks not being in their seats but as part of an overall improvement in fan participation and a series of "incentives" to have them arrive earlier into the stadium, I'm open to anything. (BTW, I also have an aversion to wedding invitees slipping into the bar to watch "the game" ).

 

[FDNY99]

You're right Mike about my natural aversion to folks not being in their seats but as part of an overall improvement in fan participation and a series of "incentives" to have them arrive earlier into the stadium, I'm open to anything. (BTW, I also have an aversion to wedding invitees slipping into the bar to watch "the game" ).

hey Nos..what is your take on Benedict after exchanging emails with him?

 

[CTMike]

You're right Mike about my natural aversion to folks not being in their seats but as part of an overall improvement in fan participation and a series of "incentives" to have them arrive earlier into the stadium, I'm open to anything. (BTW, I also have an aversion to wedding invitees slipping into the bar to watch "the game" ).

I'm all for straight up bribery - offer 5 random fans in their seats before kickoff $100, something along those lines... Fan loyalty cards that you can swipe before kickoff and towards the end of the 4th quarter that make you eligible for perks ... Anything that gets the job done.

 

[Waquoit]

I'm all for straight up bribery - offer 5 random fans in their seats before kickoff $100, something along those lines... Fan loyalty cards that you can swipe before kickoff and towards the end of the 4th quarter that make you eligible for perks ... Anything that gets the job done.

I still say fill the building first before you around confronting those fans that paid their cash and are supporting the program just because they aren't conforming to your norms. This is not a big deal.