Just sent a separate email to Athletic Ticket department and Warde because 1,500 characters couldn't cut it!
Here are my suggestions to improving the gameday/season ticket holder experience:
1. Give season ticket holders a chance to renew early at a discount (ex - 50% off if renew by April 1). This way, season ticket holders do not feel as slighted by the plethora of ticket promotions that slash prices in half. I WANT UCONN to sell as many tickets as possible because it helps our chances at getting into a Power conference. However, giving “casual” fans the opportunity to go to games at $20 (or FAR less) while charging season ticket holders $350/yr that includes donations seems counter-intuitive. Offering an early renewal discount incentive to entice season ticket holders would not only keep fans in the stands (and money in UCONN’s bank account), it would soften the blow of watching “casual” fans (who gather around the scoreboard and leave games at halftime) get into the stadium for $20 or less;
2. Extend tailgating hours by 2 hours before kickoff and 1 hour after kickoff. This would allow fans to travel from further away (ex - alumni around New York City) and make plans to come to games. I think that UCONN should market itself as a “northeastern” team and market to fans and alumni from New Jersey all the way up to Maine. If the shortened tailgating hours are set for fear of too much alcohol consumption by fans (and then driving home), then you can stop serving beer inside the stadium or change the alcohol sales policies;
3. Open a RV tailgating lot up to 24-48 hours before kickoff. This again speaks to marketing UCONN as the “northeast’s” team and would allow fans and alumni from far away places to drive to games. Charge a premium for RV tailgating;
4. STUDENT ATTENDANCE MUST BE ADDRESSED. I have grown tired and embarrassed of watching opposing coaches elect to go INTO our student section at the start of Overtime in the past few seasons. Students show up late and most of them leave games at halftime, regardless of the score. If we played our football games on-campus, student participation would probably be different (as it is at Gampel basketball games). But we do not play on-campus so we must begin to cater to that. First, student busses should drop the kids off at a special student tailgating area where they can be served food and drinks. I believe that the current policy is to just drop the kids off at the gate where they are on their own to find food/drinks. If we want our students to feel part of the atmosphere, we should expose them to part of the atmosphere: pre-game tailgating. A school sponsored tent that offers our students hamburgers/hot dogs, soda, chips, water, etc would be a good start towards connecting the students with the off-campus football program. Second, the schedule of busses that depart Rentschler Field has got to change. I believe that busses begin taking students back to campus, regardless of reason, at halftime. PLEASE STOP BUSSING STUDENTS BACK TO STORRS AT HALFTIME. The lifeblood of any college athletic venue is the student sections. When ours goes missing at halftime, regardless of score, it drains a lot of energy out of the stadium. Even if you began running busses back to Storrs with 5 minutes left to go in the game, it’s a start (although I’d prefer to run busses AFTER the conclusion of the game and set up an “emergency” shuttle for those students who offer a valid, emergency reason to get back to campus). Also, it is my understanding that students have to purchase bus passes separately. All student season ticket packages should come with bus passes for all games. You can identify season ticket holders by scanning their student ID. Please consider anything and everything that would improve student attendance (and involvement) at football games. UCONN Football desperately needs support from its students at home games and anything to simplify the process would help;
5. Please consider allowing season ticket holders to purchase/rent season long chair backs (if they sit in a bleacher seat) and leave them at their seat locations throughout the season (aka - after games are over). Almost every other school allows season ticket holders this option and I think it would go a long way towards improving the gameday experience for the fans who are there all season;
6. Boost wi-fi inside and around the stadium. Last year (2013), I missed an emergency at home because I can not receive text messages from my wife during games while I am inside the stadium. I have not noticed any improvement to connection speeds this season. Please note: I am not on my phone all game long…I keep it on vibrate in my pocket in case my wife needs to contact me in the event of an emergency.
7. Increase the number of instant replays on the scoreboard. Part of the reason why attendance is declining across the country, especially for football, is because football is the perfect made-for-TV sport. Why spend money and leave your couch when you can get a better experience at home, including several replays of key plays and moments? I know that I am not alone when I say that fans inside the stadium feel like we’re being held hostage by the replay booths during booth reviews. We very seldom ever see an instant replay and it is frustrating to know that people watching at home are seeing multiple replay angles while we get none.
8. Introduce a Dairy Bar vendor at home games. One of the more iconic memories that alumni have from our days on campus is The Dairy Bar. Having a Dairy Bar tent located somewhere inside the stadium would be a GREAT way to connect UCONN students, past and present, with the football stadium/program and school. Granted, ice cream sales would drop in November games but maybe the tent can sell hot cocoa?
9. More UCMB, less muzak. We have an OUTSTANDING marching band. One of my favorite aspects of watching college football over the years is hearing each school’s band play their school’s fight songs over and over again. Ours should be allowed to do the same. We have tried everything inside the stadium for music: a DJ, Coach’s Playlist, dance cams, kiss cams, various other contests…NOTHING sets a college football environment quite like a good band. Please consider allowing our UCMB more play time. We have a great (“Stick It In”) tradition built between our band and students (and fans) when we enter the red zone. Allowing them to also play during TV timeouts, after every first down, and to pump the crowd up when we are on defense would be great.
10. FINALLY constructing a “#6” Jasper Howard Memorial is a good start, but we should also spruce up the hallways and concourse areas with pictures of past team accomplishments. For example, let’s put up a team photo of the 2010 team that went to the Fiesta Bowl, team photos of all teams who won bowl games, and individual players who had outstanding Husky careers and found success in the NFL (Donald Brown, Darius Butler, Kendall Reyes, etc). We should print and hang pictures of key moments in UCONN football history (ex - Teggart’s kick at USF to send the team to the Fiesta Bowl, DJ Hernandez hurling a game winning double-OT football into the parking lot, Dwayne Gratz pick-6 against Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl, Greg Lloyd Jr knocking Armando Allen’s helmet off at Notre Dame Stadium, etc). Also, we should have photos from our earlier years playing football, like our Yankee Conference years, as a reminder to visiting fans that UCONN just didn’t “pick up football” in 2003. We’ve been playing it for a long time…just like Rutgers.
11. I thought Bob Diaco was a GREAT hire and I still think so, despite this year’s record. But I (and I know MANY others) have grown tired of hearing the “this program was a mess” excuses. I think Coach Diaco and his staff should get a 2014 mulligan, a full year to institute a “winning” environment and installing their program’s system. Diehard season ticket holders KNOW that this program was a mess already…many of us called for the coaching change last season to begin with! We do not need to be reminded of it after each loss to a weak opponent (like we heard after the inexplicable loss to Army). At some point, this message of just how much of a “mess” this program was in is going to sound mixed and players and fans will begin to tune it out. As soon as this season is over, the “mess” excuse needs to stop. What we fans want to hear is how we are going to improve and ultimately win games and get into a better conference. As soon as 2015 begins, we will want to see, on the field, a solid program full of players who love the university every bit as much as we do. No messes. No excuses.
12. Discounts on away game / bowl game packages to season ticket holders. Our two best games on the 2015 schedule are both away (Missouri and BYU). When you consider that UCF and Cincinnati will also likely be away opponents, that makes 4 road games that UCONN fans would be interested in going to see. Offering a travel package discount on away games would be a great way to attract season ticket holders to keep their tickets next year and also give the team much needed vocal support (in numbers!) in away venues. Our stadium has become home to many visiting fans and by the time the game ends, the only fans left in their seats are me, the player families, UCMB and every single visiting fan rejoicing in their win. I would love to see that kind of support for our team at away games. Not to mention, it would help our profile to find a better conference.