Spring game attendance nationally

[whaler11]

Dooley - I hear you.... and what you are proposing would be awesome... but I really don't see how it improves the crowd when Sept/Oct rolls around.

Maybe a video of a game years ago compels someone to buy a thousand dollars worth of tickets but I'm really not seeing it.

 

[Dooley]

Dooley - I hear you.... and what you are proposing would be awesome... but I really don't see how it improves the crowd when Sept/Oct rolls around.

Maybe a video of a game years ago compels someone to buy a thousand dollars worth of tickets but I'm really not seeing it.

I agree, the video itself isn't the selling feature. The whole day should be an event. WBB autographs is a great way to cross sporting interests. Show some clips of UConn football all throughout the game, like Pitt not being able to run a play without a false start penalty AND UConn beating Notre Dame AND UConn trashing South Carolina AND UConn handing Houston its only loss AND Teggart clinching a BCS berth AND UConn beating Baylor and RG III, etc...

UConn has First Night down pat. We were the first school to come up with the idea of having a MBB/WBB game and its been nothing but good to promote UCONN. We can trot out a championship trophy every year (sometimes two) and the skills competitions are top notch. People get FIRED UP for First Night and rightfully so. Unfortunately, we don't come anywhere near that for football Spring Game. We have lazy PR guy reading a 5 second index card about purchasing season tickets and that's it. No excitement.

Put in a skills competition. 40 yard dash race between the 2 fastest players. QB with the best arm. OL bench pressing cheerleaders. Whatever. Add some video clips of the great stuff UConn football has already accomplished and sprinkle in some acknowledgements of former players in the NFL (aside: we have the most NFL alum of any G5...let's advertise and bring some of them back for acknowledgements and autographs) and it could be a fun afternoon for all. Maybe fun enough for people to strongly consider tickets. Maybe they start with going to the UVA or Cuse game or maybe they go fully monty with a season pact. Who knows.

The strict 20 minute countdown clock has to go. Whoever thought that treating the fans like cattle herds at 20:00 needs to go. Either you have the players meet the fans or you don't. Or maybe you limit that to just season ticket holders - old and newly signed that day - and run a line so all fans get all player autographs/pictures.

Of course I'm just spitballin' here. My main point: I was just saddened to see Andre Dixon signing his own business cards for fans without any sort of acknowledgment that he was there. He was practically begging to give them away. Put that man on screen for a second. Put the whole crew on screen for a few seconds and tell everyone who they are. They were beyond friendly and accommodating with the fans (my niece had her picture taken with Lansanah, Easley and Dixon...all separately). Would've been nice to see them honored and show them some love. Especially the 2009 team - who showed true Husky grit the entire year. Great way to build a UConn family and generational fanbase culture.

 

[TheDoggPound]

In all honesty it looked like more than 5,500 Saturday. I thought about 8,000 maybe a little more but it would be awesome if we ever could get to the point as a program to at least have the lower level filled entirely.

Also before we talk about getting the students inside we should probably worry about the people who show up strictly to tailgate and never plan on going in. That should be first and foremost. I witnessed quite a bit of that.

 

[whaler11]

I agree, the video itself isn't the selling feature. The whole day should be an event. WBB autographs is a great way to cross sporting interests. Show some clips of UConn football all throughout the game, like Pitt not being able to run a play without a false start penalty AND UConn beating Notre Dame AND UConn trashing South Carolina AND UConn handing Houston its only loss AND Teggart clinching a BCS berth AND UConn beating Baylor and RG III, etc...

UConn has First Night down pat. We were the first school to come up with the idea of having a MBB/WBB game and its been nothing but good to promote UCONN. We can trot out a championship trophy every year (sometimes two) and the skills competitions are top notch. People get FIRED UP for First Night and rightfully so. Unfortunately, we don't come anywhere near that for football Spring Game. We have lazy PR guy reading a 5 second index card about purchasing season tickets and that's it. No excitement.

Put in a skills competition. 40 yard dash race between the 2 fastest players. QB with the best arm. OL bench pressing cheerleaders. Whatever. Add some video clips of the great stuff UConn football has already accomplished and sprinkle in some acknowledgements of former players in the NFL (aside: we have the most NFL alum of any G5...let's advertise and bring some of them back for acknowledgements and autographs) and it could be a fun afternoon for all. Maybe fun enough for people to strongly consider tickets. Maybe they start with going to the UVA or Cuse game or maybe they go fully monty with a season pact. Who knows.

The strict 20 minute countdown clock has to go. Whoever thought that treating the fans like cattle herds at 20:00 needs to go. Either you have the players meet the fans or you don't. Or maybe you limit that to just season ticket holders - old and newly signed that day - and run a line so all fans get all player autographs/pictures.

Of course I'm just spitballin' here. My main point: I was just saddened to see Andre Dixon signing his own business cards for fans without any sort of acknowledgment that he was there. He was practically begging to give them away. Put that man on screen for a second. Put the whole crew on screen for a few seconds and tell everyone who they are. They were beyond friendly and accommodating with the fans (my niece had her picture taken with Lansanah, Easley and Dixon...all separately). Would've been nice to see them honored and show them some love. Especially the 2009 team - who showed true Husky grit the entire year. Great way to build a UConn family and generational fanbase culture.

Yeah and the combined First Night ruined the season for Ollie's team. How can you support that?

#chieftoldmeso

 

[whaler11]

I agree, the video itself isn't the selling feature. The whole day should be an event. WBB autographs is a great way to cross sporting interests. Show some clips of UConn football all throughout the game, like Pitt not being able to run a play without a false start penalty AND UConn beating Notre Dame AND UConn trashing South Carolina AND UConn handing Houston its only loss AND Teggart clinching a BCS berth AND UConn beating Baylor and RG III, etc...

UConn has First Night down pat. We were the first school to come up with the idea of having a MBB/WBB game and its been nothing but good to promote UCONN. We can trot out a championship trophy every year (sometimes two) and the skills competitions are top notch. People get FIRED UP for First Night and rightfully so. Unfortunately, we don't come anywhere near that for football Spring Game. We have lazy PR guy reading a 5 second index card about purchasing season tickets and that's it. No excitement.

Put in a skills competition. 40 yard dash race between the 2 fastest players. QB with the best arm. OL bench pressing cheerleaders. Whatever. Add some video clips of the great stuff UConn football has already accomplished and sprinkle in some acknowledgements of former players in the NFL (aside: we have the most NFL alum of any G5...let's advertise and bring some of them back for acknowledgements and autographs) and it could be a fun afternoon for all. Maybe fun enough for people to strongly consider tickets. Maybe they start with going to the UVA or Cuse game or maybe they go fully monty with a season pact. Who knows.

The strict 20 minute countdown clock has to go. Whoever thought that treating the fans like cattle herds at 20:00 needs to go. Either you have the players meet the fans or you don't. Or maybe you limit that to just season ticket holders - old and newly signed that day - and run a line so all fans get all player autographs/pictures.

Of course I'm just spitballin' here. My main point: I was just saddened to see Andre Dixon signing his own business cards for fans without any sort of acknowledgment that he was there. He was practically begging to give them away. Put that man on screen for a second. Put the whole crew on screen for a few seconds and tell everyone who they are. They were beyond friendly and accommodating with the fans (my niece had her picture taken with Lansanah, Easley and Dixon...all separately). Would've been nice to see them honored and show them some love. Especially the 2009 team - who showed true Husky grit the entire year. Great way to build a UConn family and generational fanbase culture.

The twenty minute clock wasn't the issue... it was delaying for twenty minutes and after treating the fans like they had Zika for half the time.

The players fixed the security issue on their own - but whoever decided to turn after the game into a TSA situation needs to be reassigned.

Of course they should honor all the former players who come back for the game. Stars like Dixon... but everyone.

This is a school that employs a PA guy who doesn't know the team and didn't have a roster. Baby steps.

 

[Adios]

The banners inside the stadium are a great way to commemorate signature wins. Those do showcase the history of the program.

 

[HuskyNan]

UConn did try to draw UConn women's team fan by having the team there to sign autographs and handing out posters and such.

As for the students, on Wednesday before the game, the team held a Dog House Party that Diaco said was pretty well attended. It seems like an attempt to fire up the student body.

 

[Waquoit]

Winning football will drive Spring game attendance, not vice-versa. Let's save the hand-wringing for more important things.

 

[Palatine]

Here's an simple example. Instead of having the women's parade last week, you hold it this week and it ends at the stadium. That brings thousands of fans, many who have never been to a football game to the stadium. They see the tailgating, enjoy the game, celebrate the women, get autographs, maybe get a little interested.

Why doesn't anyone at UConn ever think like that?

 

[Waquoit]

Here's an simple example. Instead of having the women's parade last week, you hold it this week and it ends at the stadium. That brings thousands of fans, many who have never been to a football game to the stadium. They see the tailgating, enjoy the game, celebrate the women, get autographs, maybe get a little interested.

Why doesn't anyone at UConn ever think like that?

Thank goodness they don't. A parade in that area doesn't work logistically. And reducing a celebration for one of the greatest college teams in history to just a side event for a meaningless scrimmage would be insulting. The team did their bit by showing up for an autograph session.

 

[CTMike]

Here's an simple example. Instead of having the women's parade last week, you hold it this week and it ends at the stadium. That brings thousands of fans, many who have never been to a football game to the stadium. They see the tailgating, enjoy the game, celebrate the women, get autographs, maybe get a little interested.

Why doesn't anyone at UConn ever think like that?

Just curious the logistics of a 4 mile parade from the Capitol to the Rent? Would the parade goers walk their grills? Or would the parade be in Hartford and you announce a 30 minute break for people to get to their cars to the Rent?

 

[Palatine]

Just curious the logistics of a 4 mile parade from the Capitol to the Rent? Would the parade goers walk their grills? Or would the parade be in Hartford and you announce a 30 minute break for people to get to their cars to the Rent?

Not a difficult thing to do. You circle Hartford and have an event at the Rent a little later. Say an hour before kick off.

The NY Giants did this exact thing after the last Super Bowl victory. They had a parade down the canyon of heroes in NYC and ended with an event at Giants Stadium. Both were packed.

 

[huskymedic]

For those who get a woody or agita over these things...

A mid-April look at spring game attendance – No 2-Minute Warning

 

[mes5107]

UCF Spring Game. Their stadium capacity is 44,206. It sure doesn't look like 23,147.

http://www.wftv.com/sports/record-crowd-at-ucf-spring-game/222442100

"Record Attendance
-Official 2016 #UCFastival Spring Game attendance: 23,147
-Although official numbers have not been kept, UCF previously averaged about 4-5,000 fans for spring games. Entering the day, approximately 15,000 free tickets had been scooped up online."

I guess they counted the number of sold, free tickets.

 

[uconnphil2016]

That stadium is so ugly. Looks like a giant tin can.

 

[Dooley]

UCF Spring Game. Their stadium capacity is 44,206. It sure doesn't look like 23,147.

Record crowd at UCF spring game

"Record Attendance
-Official 2016 #UCFastival Spring Game attendance: 23,147
-Although official numbers have not been kept, UCF previously averaged about 4-5,000 fans for spring games. Entering the day, approximately 15,000 free tickets had been scooped up online."

I guess they counted the number of sold, free tickets.

If UCF got 23K for their Spring Game and this is indeed a photo from said game, then UConn got 100K. That is an absurd falsified attendance report.

 

[BugsyCT]

Those numbers might be legit. Found another pic of their game with a larger crowd (during daylight - must have been an evening scrimmage).

(and only 3400 for Houston?)

 

[tiger paw]

have not missed a home game the last 13 years. never been to a spring same, and have no intention of ever going. sorry, but it just can't get into it.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Those numbers might be legit. Found another pic of their game with a larger crowd (during daylight - must have been an evening scrimmage).

(and only 3400 for Houston?)

Even that picture is 15k in attendance max.

 

[JMick]

have not missed a home game the last 13 years. never been to a spring same, and have no intention of ever going. sorry, but it just can't get into it.

If I lived in Hartford or the surrounding area I'd make every effort to go, but I'm not going to head up from FFC to watch the spring game unless I have literally nothing else going on. Do wish it was televised though, because I would watch.

 

[Jax Husky]

Spring game attendance is clearly NOT a priority for UConn. The game is barely publicized and there are many easy things to do to increase the size of the crowd --if they were interested. It remains a event for the hard core.

And even in most of the hardcover places, spring football isn't a big deal. I mean, LSU and Texas A&M didnt fill a quarter of their stadiums either.

Only lunatics like Alabama and Ohio State care that much about a scrimmage.

 

[sdhusky]

Why doesn't anyone at UConn ever think like that?

 

[sdhusky]

Arizona State Pac-12 2,100

To be fair, there are other things to do at ASU so we can give their fans a pass:

 

[sdhusky]

 

[JMick]

Arizona State Pac-12 2,100

To be fair, there are other things to do at ASU so we can give their fans a pass:

I knew some very innocent girls in high school who went to ASU. Let's just say they weren't so innocent after they came back for thanksgiving break their freshman year. If it wasn't a trash school I'd have considered going there when I was a teenager. The girls are unreal.

 

[sdhusky]

I knew some very innocent girls in high school who went to ASU. Let's just say they weren't so innocent after they came back for thanksgiving break their freshman year. If it wasn't a trash school I'd have considered going there when I was a teenager. The girls are unreal.

The business school doesn't suck.

At Least that's what my son tells me.

 

[JMick]

The business school doesn't suck.

At Least that's what my son tells me.

The business school is actually pretty good, and their online curriculum is good as well. Honestly, if I was going back to school today I'd consider ASU just because of all the online classes and how well they're conducted. You can take a lot of your major courses online and actually learn things. When I took online classes at UConn they were mostly essays and instruction manuals. I am more surprised UConn hasn't pushed the online format harder. I have always learned better on my own with the ability to repeat instruction than in a classroom environment.

 

[Waquoit]

I remember Playboy saying that if Disney had College Land it would be ASU.

 

[thatguyed]

There are a few surprises re high numbers for UCF and Kentucky but a lot of supposedly stronger programs make our numbers look pretty good IMHO.

 

[IMind]

There are a few surprises re high numbers for UCF and Kentucky but a lot of supposedly stronger programs make our numbers look pretty good IMHO.

If that UCF number is right, then 17 people (me and my dog) watched the Red Sox from my living room yesterday.