OT- How Texas Revamped Its Gameday Experience

[Drew]

How Texas built a home field advantage from scratch

Aloe Blacc’s presence on what Texas officials call Bevo Blvd. didn’t help the Longhorns score a single point in their 31–16 win against the Horned Frogs on Saturday, but, along with several other changes Del Conte and Martin have made for this season, it did help create an atmosphere that has given Texas something it hasn’t had in years—an honest-to-goodness home field advantage.


Del Conte and Martin have reconfigured the seating to give Texas students a contiguous bloc of seats with the Texas band blasting from the middle. They have made that student seating first-come, first-serve to get those students in the stadium and yelling. They have cut down on ads on the video boards and forbidden on-field, thanks-for-writing-that-big-check presentations if those presentations bring down the energy level in the stadium. The newcomers are trying to remind Texas fans that football games are supposed to be fun. And it just so happens that for the past two Saturdays, the team has given fans a reason to keep partying in the stands.

Pretty good article on Texas overhauling their gameday experience. Thought it was interesting to read- Del Conte clearly "gets it"

 

[Dooley]

Texas also began selling beer at home games a few years ago and have a happy hour purchase window like UConn implemented this year. I think the honest-to-goodness home field advantage has more to do with beer sales (and competitive football games) than anything else. But yeah, those on-field presentations are energy drainers. There are alot of energy draining things at UConn home games and amongst them, whenever the stadium PA guy has to stir up another round of applause for whoever is on the field. "One more time for..." needs to go ASAP.

 

[uconnphil2016]

The on field and video board ads are a huge part of our experience problem, apart from the obvious on field product. Traditional programs just don’t do that. You won’t see any of that at Notre Dame because they know it’s garbage. I get we need the money, but maybe we can find another place to get it from

 

[huskymedic]

The on field and video board ads are a huge part of our experience problem, apart from the obvious on field product. Traditional programs just don’t do that. You won’t see any of that at Notre Dame because they know it’s garbage. I get we need the money, but maybe we can find another place to get it from

There are plenty of traditional “big time” football programs who receive revenue from video board ads (Notre Dame excepted - hell they just got a video board). It’s a necessary evil for a lot of programs — generating revenue/exposure is not a problem @ ND.

Notre Dame Video Board Brings Advertising to Attention

I could care less if the on-field contests disappear...

 

[Dooley]

Yeah, I haven't been to too many sporting venues that didn't advertise at me every chance they could. I expect it. What I am not a fan of is the punt/pass/kick events, how many footballs some drunk kid can catch from the jugs machine, etc. That kind of stuff just has a minor league vibe to it. But whatever. With new and improved wifi in the stadium this year, I'm able to tune that garbage out and check out of town scores, the 'Yard, whatever.

 

[SubbaBub]

The on field and video board ads are a huge part of our experience problem, apart from the obvious on field product. Traditional programs just don’t do that. You won’t see any of that at Notre Dame because they know it’s garbage. I get we need the money, but maybe we can find another place to get it from

100%. Yet I have to acknowledge the rather noticable reduction in the last couple years.

 

[Chief00]

There are plenty of traditional “big time” football programs who receive revenue from video board ads (Notre Dame excepted - hell they just got a video board). It’s a necessary evil for a lot of programs — generating revenue/exposure is not a problem @ ND.

Notre Dame Video Board Brings Advertising to Attention

I could care less if the on-field contests disappear...

Above all else, I think the video board is poorly operated and managed.

The standard should be no worse than watching at home. The plays that won’t replay for fear of exciting the crowd against the refs is just so out of touch with reality. Now that we have reviews on many calls it becomes more absurd not to replay the non reviewable plays too. Also, include plays where the other team does well so we can understand what happened.