I still vividly remember the first few years at the Rent (and criticism from many on an older version of this board on how I felt the school should have proceeded at that time) and still believe that we have the potential to double the attendance we had back in 2003-2005 at similar consistency.
As a new (to this level of competition) we needed to cultivate a fan base. There has been a minimal effort at this point but it is still far ahead of what was attempted through at least 2010. The attitude basically was "We're selling out the Rent. Our job is done!" which was absolutely ridiculous. There were easily another 15k-18k potential dedicated fans residing in Fairfield County, an equal number scattered throughout the remainder of the state and another 8k-10k potential dedicated fans residing out of state but within reasonable (for a college football game day) driving distance. One of the ideas I proposed (to the disagreement of some on the older version of this board) was giving tickets to local Boys and Girls clubs, Police Athletic league groups, Pop Warner, middle and high school athletic teams, etc., bringing in fans at that point (who today would be well into their college careers or young alumni age) who ten, fifteen plus years down the road would become paying customers. Many here back in the day made fun of Schiano's coloring book (given to all New Jersey newborns) but the truth is that was the right idea. We threw away a decade but we need to reach out to kids who down the road can be part of our fan base.
While it may be an added cost (which short term would be an issue but I believe long term will be quite beneficial), we need to give tailgaters a larger window to enjoy themselves. Open the gates earlier, allow the post game tailgates to run longer. I'll wager heavily that this will eliminate the bulk of the late (to their seats) arrivals and reduce the early departures by a decent number. We need to educate the bulk of our fan base on how to be gameday, bigtime college football fans but the the availability of sufficient tailgate time is something that is currently outside of the fan base's control. The gameday experience is (at most venues) an all day event. We've had fans from schools that have always treated it this way provide very positive comments about the parking/tailgating space and proximity to the stadium. We aren't lacking by much (and in all candor I doubt we'll ever need a lot for RV's) but tailgating time is far too cramped.
We need to stake a claim in territory beyond the state's borders and market that. I remember a decade ago stating that I felt the school needed to do something similar to Howard Schnellenberger's State of Miami (which led to debates from too many on the older Boneyard). We need to publicly proclaim everything east of the Hudson River as being part of the State of UConn and reach out, continually to these spots, making them feel as if they are part of this. I worked in Westchester for the entirety of the first decade of this millenium and (due to basketball success alone) we easily could have claimed it (especially among school aged males) as ours. I'm pretty confident that it is no more than an 1 3/4 hour drive to the Rent from anywhere in any county that borders Connecticut. I know of fans of many schools who drive double that time to and from games on gameday. We need to work at this (and threw away at least a decade of opportunity) but we could in time claim all of this and unquestionably profess to the world that we are the team in NYC and Boston. If this isn't our goal we should just pack up the entire athletic department.
