Student Game Attendance – Root Cause Problem Solving

[scotty0330]

There was a student lot pre-covid. Thousands if students came to tailgate, but went back to campus when the game started.

The issue is the students don't care about the football team. We've had a lot of losses the pass 10 years, and none of these students grew up with us winning, so there is no connection or loyalty to the team. People don't like to emotionally invest in the things/people if they think they are going to get hurt. So for years students have decided not to get emotionally invested because they thought we weren't good. It is going to take more than 3 wins to get them excited about UConn football. Add to that shorter attention spans due to cell phones, and most of the students who do show up don't stay past halftime. The transportation is just an excuse for the fact that at this point, they just don't care about the team. We need to keep winning, and eventually they'll hop and the bandwagon.

^^^^this. Dale nails it. If there were good teams coming in, we haven’t been as bad as we’ve been for as long the kids would show up. It’s not that far a ride. But the football team has been a punchline for years and owned spots in bottom 10. It’s gonna take winning and consistency to gain back trust that was lost after a decade of misery.

 

[BPT2Storrs]

Even when UConn was winning back in the old Big East days it was hard to get a lot of students to the game - many went for the tailgate and left. Others went to the game, only to leave shortly after.

Nobody took the bus. Every student hitched a ride with someone.

It does not help that we do not have any true rivalries or conference affiliation. Add that in with the fact that program was abysmal for so long and you get why student attendance has been lacking.

Keep winning, schedule good opponents and the students will follow.

 

[Dove]

We need to form B.U.T.T.

The Boneyard Uber Transportation Team.

 

[huskymedic]

I can’t tell you how good I’m going to feel driving to the Rent today (my wife is joining me for a tailgate with another couple, even though she won’t go to the game) to explain to her that I’m not the only person in the world stupid enough not to have known that you had to clean portable grills every so often.

I just hope the game works out better for me than that conversation will.

Welp… it’s either you or a kindred soul!

 

[Patman]

^^^^this. Dale nails it. If there were good teams coming in, we haven’t been as bad as we’ve been for as long the kids would show up. It’s not that far a ride. But the football team has been a punchline for years and owned spots in bottom 10. It’s gonna take winning and consistency to gain back trust that was lost after a decade of misery.

cultures turn around real fast and covid disrupted a lot of cultures

 

[SubbaBub]

I think you're being myopic. The students make the environment better. Not the paying 50 year olds.

Winning makes the environment better.
Money makes winning easier.
Students, like everyone else, will show for a winner.


However, if they charge Students for the student lot, that's stupid.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

It's time for a $2 beer game at the Rent - for students only. Lol - kinda.

 

[Windham4th]

We drew our best crowds from 2002 to 2010, with a record of 59-40 (.597), including a stretch of 4 seasons with 8+ wins and 4 straight bowl game trips. Even in down years (2005, 2006) attendance was selling out for conference games. I remember students sticking around for these well into the 4Q. The games mattered and the team was good.

Moving the games on campus won’t get anyone to the stadium if we’re a .500 team or below. As others have pointed out in this thread, schools have attendance problems around the country. A lot of them just so happen to have losing teams too.

We cared, we won, and the students cared and stayed.

Also smartphones, social media were nowhere to be found. People back then needed things to do for entertainment, now how many people just sit around typing away on their phones without going anywhere. Please note I am aware of the irony as I type away on my phone whilst also ignoring my family...

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Root Cause Analysis requires all of the stakeholders to be present. In order to really drill down to a Root Cause, we need to actually talk to the students and see what it would take to get them there. Everything else is speculation.

The committee could do Venn Diagrams and put kids on yellow school buses.

 

[businesslawyer]

The vast majority of students who got themselves to the game left at halftime of a game with UConn up two. Maybe — just maybe — it’s time to quit blaming others for the fact that the student body just doesn’t give a damn.

 

[UConnDan97]

The vast majority of students who got themselves to the game left at halftime of a game with UConn up two. Maybe — just maybe — it’s time to quit blaming others for the fact that the student body just doesn’t give a damn.

THIS.

I couldn't believe my eyes. About 3/4 of the student section was full, and then after we came back from halftime, there were maybe 10% of the students remaining. I can't wrap my head around it. They made the effort to come and see half the game, but not the outcome???

I must be out of touch, but screw them because they missed an ending that they would have cherished for a long while...

 

[AzHusky]

In 2006 or so they took my seats to enlarge the student section. I think it is time to give those seats back to the paying public if the students are not going to use them.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Against Merrimack and and FAU the student section was packed at kickoff and emptied out at halftime. Against Buffalo it looked barely halfway full early on and also emptied out at halftime. Yesterday it was 70%-75% early and emptied out significantly by halftime but more remained in the second half than the other three games combined (still not a lot).

The additional students remaining (far too few) was obviously due to the game being close but I believe a large part of this is due to the lack of success for far too long. The students who kept the student section packed in 2010 until the end of the Pitt game and through overtime against WVU only knew bowl teams through their college career. We will need to give it a few years to get the students fully back.

And for the record, there were quite a few mon students (adults of all ages) who left at halftime or some later point well before the game was decided so I can't blast the students without including those adults.

 

[AzHusky]

I used to ask people who were leaving early if their babysitter was going to be getting overtime pay if they stayed till the end of the game. Loved the looks I would get.

 

[businesslawyer]

Welp… it’s either you or a kindred soul!

View attachment 103992

Glad it wasn’t me. Not at the one game a year that my wife tailgates with me!!

 

[spsct]

Venue cant provide alcohol. But I can, and their friends.

The dance we do around alcohol in this country is ridiculous. Maybe you have to be 21 to buy and go to a bar, but 19 to be in possession. Who knows.

I dont know answer. Sociologically, we encourage binge drinking with our laws.

Over here the drinking age for beer and wine is 16, and hard liquor is 18. And the age for getting a drivers license is generally 18 (with some exceptions). I think that is the better way because drinking isn't romanticized or mysterious and they get the respect for drinking before they get the drivers license.

 

[willie99]

Tailgate area for students: burgers, kegs, very loose id-checking policy. Problem solved.

I went to a Yale vs Harvard game with a Yale family several years ago.

And Yale did all of those things. Big tents, free burgers and dogs, free beer, soda, water...

Interesting take

 

[HCCForever]

THIS.

I couldn't believe my eyes. About 3/4 of the student section was full, and then after we came back from halftime, there were maybe 10% of the students remaining. I can't wrap my head around it. They made the effort to come and see half the game, but not the outcome???

I must be out of touch, but screw them because they missed an ending that they would have cherished for a long while...

And the players certainly notice. Jordan Wright mentioned the student section during his interview with Ava (I think that's her name). The game was a four-hour slog but I would hope most students could remain till the end of the game.

 

[goalline]

Offer tickets to the bowl game and travel expenses at the end of game for student section..Call out their name...Must be their to win....If not there no prize. "old guy" says do something to keep their interest in staying till the end.....

 

[Blades]

My 2 cents since, as a die hard who sometimes brings a +5 to FB games. Besides the students who I watch from up in the club seats rush like lemmings once a group starts out. I notice the numbers of fans in general who can't stay to the end of exciting game, like last week, being an overall issue.( Hell I'd bet way less than half where there at the end) I'd say going back for a free halftime tailgate (food, booze, etc.) despite the no-rentry is a factor for alot of these people and experienced it personally. ( hanging out since halftime in the lots)

I don't get it because I'm just there for the games but noticed it with casual fans, being more about the party and the cheaper option isn't inside the Rent. ( Something we never see with other Uconn sports, without tailgates)

 

[JohnFSilver]

I was at game, it was long.

We have to determine:

1. Why students don’t stay (beautiful day, wasn’t cold, if it was transportation that’s a problem)

2. Maybe they don’t care. No one leaves hoops games early.

I will say, unlike basketball you go to a football game it is literally an all day affair. We left house at noon, got back at 9 pm.

And I live in Farmington. You can’t have after plans

 

[Chin Diesel]

I was at game, it was long.

We have to determine:

1. Why students don’t stay (beautiful day, wasn’t cold, if it was transportation that’s a problem)

2. Maybe they don’t care. No one leaves hoops games early.

I will say, unlike basketball you go to a football game it is literally an all day affair. We left house at noon, got back at 9 pm.

And I live in Farmington. You can’t have after plans

This really is a big hurdle culturally. Unless you grew up around college football and this was the norm in your childhood, it is difficult to flip this from theory to practice.

Where I'm at in the panhandle of Florida we have friends who are fans of every southern school you'd expect. It's not uncommon to go to a friend's house from 11am until 9-10 pm and end up watching 3 or 4 games. Lots of times, someone hosts and friends pop in for one or two of the games. It's a rolling timeframe.

When we go to a Saturday game, it is definitely go up on a Friday, football all Saturday and head home on Sunday. An entire weekend focused around a football game. And no one bats an eye at the thought of it.

 

[businesslawyer]

And the players certainly notice. Jordan Wright mentioned the student section during his interview with Ava (I think that's her name). The game was a four-hour slog but I would hope most students could remain till the end of the game.

The four hour game certainly forced some folks to leave early, but that had nothing to do with the students leaving. 90% of the student section bailed out at halftime.

 

[Deepster]

I was at game, it was long.

We have to determine:

1. Why students don’t stay (beautiful day, wasn’t cold, if it was transportation that’s a problem)

2. Maybe they don’t care. No one leaves hoops games early.

I will say, unlike basketball you go to a football game it is literally an all day affair. We left house at noon, got back at 9 pm.

And I live in Farmington. You can’t have after plans

For 1 and 2, isn't the problem the "experience" isn't worth it for them? Other than the actual game itself (which up until this year was a negative), the tailgate and food and communal event just isn't there for them? And it's just not attractive enough to draw groups of students 4 or 8 at a clip for their own individual party?

 

[blue93]

Saturday’s game may help keep people in their seats next time. There had to be some major regrets for those that left and missed being there for that ending.