College Football ~ Will next generation of fans show up?

[DoctorWho85]

This is what I'm talking about. Say a salesman purchases courtside seats for the express purpose of wining and dining potential clients. He's in a suit and $300 wingtips. He goes and invites a coworker or client to every game. He's able to write off the donation, and his smartphone is never 4 1/2 inches away from his ear. Is he a better fan than DrWho85? Me thinks not.

Thanks for this. I don't think he is. I worked my tail off to get the season tickets and enjoyed every last second of the game. Me not attending games do to circumstances I cannot control does not make me any less of a fan than someone that is in the stadium. Not to mention a lot of the "true fans" as they're being called, tend to show up halfway through the second quarter and leave at the end of the third. They're more interested in getting blasted in the parking lot then supporting the team the supposedly love. I will defend this team until I turn blue in the face. Even with the 3-9 season, I still watched every game religiously. Even sat through the blow outs as hard as it was. To say I'm any less of a fan for not being able to afford/find time to go to games is down right ignorant. And I'm glad Husky25 agrees with me

 

[Nostical]

Let's face it. We need every type of fan. We need more corporate types on cell phones, we need face-painted yahoos, sloppy late arriving tailgaters, early in their seat supporters, rabid away game caravaners, even stay at homers expressing their support by tuning in. And we also need the hard core of folks like all of us on this board who measure their lives by when the Huskies are playing and when they are not. In short, characterizing fans isn't what's important--its building and growing the fan base. We need to capture the attention of many more people, That comes from a coombination of star power and winning, exciting football. It's all about creating a deafening buzz that has people wanting to head to the Rent to see what all the excitment is about. We had some of that with Edsall, none of it with P and GDL and now, with BD, we may finally be ready to knock down the door. Promotion is important to this growth. I've seen more of that in the last 5 weeks than in the last 5 years. Our star is ascending and getting brighter by the day. Can't you feel the difference?!

 

[Waquoit]

This is what I'm talking about. Say a salesman purchases courtside seats for the express purpose of wining and dining potential clients. He's in a suit and $300 wingtips. He goes and invites a coworker or client to every game. He's able to write off the donation, and his smartphone is never 4 1/2 inches away from his ear. Is he a better fan than DrWho85? Me thinks not.

Are you two at the game? Putting money into the program? Filling a seat?

 

[SubbaBub]

You went to UCLA?

No. Surprisingly enough, the Chinese gov't sponsored tuition makes it's way to.the east coast. They were a noticeable subculture at any tech school. The thing remember most is the flip flops with socks. I was amazed people wore them in public back when it was laughable under all circumstances.

 

[SubbaBub]

Ideally, you want 40k people attending each game and another 10k wishing they could. It doesn't have to be the same people every week. In fact, it never is..
anywhere.

 

[Husky25]

Are you two at the game? Putting money into the program? Filling a seat?

Since you asked: Football? Yes. Basketball? Selected games, but I watch every one of them. Memorabilia? Yes.

I also paid OOS tuition for 4 years. So there...

 

[Duncan Idaho]

UConn, starting with Lew Perkins (and UConn is not alone of course), has done a pretty good job of alienating the non-corporate networking fan (NCNF) over the years. The problem comes after the shiny toy loses a bit of luster. I know plenty of people that used go all the time, that are still big UConn fans that will never go to another game because of the way they were treated as they got moved from good seats to nose bleed.

You can see where these hardcore NCNF's fans sit. At Gampel, they are in the 200's level, bench seat side. No matter the opponent, those seats are always pretty full while the chairback side is may be sparsely settled. At The Rent, they sit in the preferred sections around the 13 yardline like section 118. That might be the best section in the place. At any given time, the section has the highest ratio of filled seats.

The worst part after the shiny toy lost some of its luster was seeing those good seats you once held go unused for anything but a marquee game.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Seconded.

You buy season tickets and fly half way around the world to catch one/couple of home game(s) or some far off away game. They should put you in the President's seats.

 

[whaler11]

Hey, I've been there. I still remember listening to JC's Northeastern team carve up UConn on the radio while I was stuck at my night job. I was a still a true fan.

But that's not the point. You can be a true fan and not go to games. But no matter the reason, fans that go to games are better fans than those that don't, by definition. Especially given the metrics used to judge D-1 programs these days. That's all, no big deal. My pet peeve is the "true fans" that don't go to games putting the badmouth to those that do. We more fannies in the seats and less "true fans" like that on the couch.

Ding ding ding ding ding.

When one of the metrics driving conference realignment is your attendance and who you travel with - the people that show up are more valuable than people who don't.

 

[Husky25]

Ding ding ding ding ding.

When one of the metrics driving conference realignment is your attendance and who you travel with - the people that show up are more valuable than people who don't.

Those are two different arguments separate from the one I made yesterday.

1) If the first part determined level of fandom, then the University needs to do a better job of tracking who travels with the team and control the narrative. I can assure you that there was probably at least 4 times as many UConn fans at the 2011 Fiesta Bowl than the number of purchased tickets packages through the school, or reported by the corrupt Fiesta Bowl Committee.

2) The people who show up after the under 16:00 TV time out, in the second quarter (football), and/or leave early do a disservice to the atmosphere. But hey, they're there, therefore a better fan? I don't buy that. The University values the courtside hand sitters more only because they pay the freight for the more expensive seats and donations. It doesn't mean that the sense of value is reciprocated. I know more than a few people personally, who buy tickets primarily for the tax write off.

Besides, that was not my irritant. I'm not going to continually repeat myself at this point (read my past posts), lest I act the same as that which already irritates me, just from a different perspective.

 

[DoctorWho85]

Those are two different arguments separate from the one I made yesterday.

1) If the first part determined level of fandom, then the University needs to do a better job of tracking who travels with the team and control the narrative. I can assure you that there was probably at least 4 times as many UConn fans at the 2011 Fiesta Bowl than the number of purchased tickets packages through the school, or reported by the corrupt Fiesta Bowl Committee.

2) The people who show up after the under 16:00 TV time out, in the second quarter (football), and/or leave early do a disservice to the atmosphere. But hey, they're there, therefore a better fan? I don't buy that. The University values the courtside hand sitters more only because they pay the freight for the more expensive seats and donations. It doesn't mean that the sense of value is reciprocated. I know more than a few people personally, who buy tickets primarily for the tax write off.

Besides, that was not my irritant. I'm not going to continually repeat myself at this point (read my past posts), lest I act the same as that which already irritates me, just from a different perspective.

I just don't think they can comprehend that true fandom of any team doesn't solely rely on attending games.

 

[BlueMAB]

You can measure the value of a fan to the program by the amount of money he/she spends supporting the programs.

You cannot, however, measure the value of a program to the fan by the amount of money he/she spends supporting the programs.

Fandom is like faith in that only the person him/herself can say whether or not they are a "true believer". Burton, who threatened to take his money to Saracuse, is not a bigger fan than any just because he has a bigger bank account. He is, however, exponentially more valuable to UConn than most of us. Just because he has a bigger bank account.

 

[ZooCougar]

You buy season tickets and fly half way around the world to catch one/couple of home game(s) or some far off away game. They should put you in the President's seats.

Thanks for paying attention. I made one game this season, had plans to make more but life intervened. But I made sure my three tickets had three people in attendance for every game.

I guess I get the point on "value" in terms of attendance versus non attendance. But I think we should give people here a pass. A lot of people here are here to stay connected because they don't live local to UConn.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Thanks for paying attention. I made one game this season, had plans to make more but life intervened. But I made sure my three tickets had three people in attendance for every game.

I guess I get the point on "value" in terms of attendance versus non attendance. But I think we should give people here a pass. A lot of people here are here to stay connected because they don't live local to UConn.

I liked what Diaco said when he first got here. "We are going to grow together." I believe we will become a more mature 1A football program under his watch.
Edit; I initially had another word in place of "seats" but it did not read very good.

 

[ZooCougar]

I liked what Diaco said when he first got here. "We are going to grow together." I believe we will become a more mature 1A football program under his watch.
Edit; I initially had another word in place of "seats" but it did not read very good.

I like him too. But I am trying to keep in mind that this is his first HC gig. There will be hiccups along the way.

 

[BlueDogs]

younger people don't care about the traditional spectator sports the way Gen X and older people do. Just a fact.

Long term, football has some very serious challenges. I know lots of parents that won't let their kids play football because of concussions, and that reduced participation, which is happening across the country, will have an impact down the road.

Just part of the ongoing pussification of our culture. Just look what's going on in the NFL.

 

[Husky25]

Just part of the ongoing pussification of our culture. Just look what's going on in the NFL.

Parents may not let their kids play organized football, but kids will be kids. My town did not have a Pop-Warner team. Kids, who met the weight requirement, played for the next town over. The rest played pick-up game. Isn't it better to learn how to tackle correctly, than to get a concussion at the park?

Teach coaches to teach kids how to hit correctly. Slowly but surely it will make it's way up the levels.

 

[whaler11]

Parents may not let their kids play organized football, but kids will be kids. My town did not have a Pop-Warner team. Kids, who met the weight requirement, played for the next town over. The rest played pick-up game. Isn't it better to learn how to tackle correctly, than to get a concussion at the park?

Teach coaches to teach kids how to hit correctly. Slowly but surely it will make it's way up the levels.

The dirty little secret is that there is no way to avoid concussions in football.

Some like our poster above will call it pussyfication... just like the who don't smoke or the who wear seat belts.

 

[dsturdy5]

A distant relative of mine was an NFL d-lineman for a few years in the NFL. In that time, he assumes he had around 5 concussions. None from head to head contact, rather from tackling a back and then having another couple of 300 lb guys land on top of him. Nothing you can do about that. I applaud football at all levels for trying to legislate concussions but there is a point where they are inevitable.