There is going to be a retention problem....

[Exit 4]

Retention was an issue 4-5 years ago; now, there’s no one left to retain but a twisted few. Season tickets is the equivalent of lighting your money on fire. If you have it to burn, knock yourself out, but the people (including students) who choose NOT to attend are acting rationally. This isn’t hard to grasp - There are 101 better ways to spend your time and money on a Saturday when the product has been this bad for 10+ years. It’s not a marketing issue, there’s no marketing the stink off this. Watching the games is the equivalent of “beatings will continue until morale improves”. Win, make it fun to attend again. That’s the only chance.

Agreed.

I have viewed my season tickets as purely a constructive donation since day one about 8 years ago. Its never been about value, its been about helping the program ....if you can...if you are inclined.

Just need to win again, that's about all there is too it.

 

[gtcam]

I have been a HUGE advocate for getting the football stadium to be built on campus.
Kids who don't have a car on campus don't want to take a damn bus to football game - they want to party in their dorms or at a tailgate party at a frat/sorority house and go to a game.
Playing games at the Rent are fine for season ticketholders as I am but if it was my decision - give me an expanded Memorial Stadium
The Rent was/is a great mistake for UConn
Have to agree with EXIT 4 - I look at it with the same vision right now

 

[Hoophound]

Hopefully, we can bring in a coach that people believe in and he can lure fans back to watch the transformation. An unknown coach will have trouble doing that.

 

[ZooCougar]

If so, that's some serious toilet training resistance.

Don’t be so literal.

 

[pepband99]

Newsflash - even on on-campus stadium isn't helping the "MTSU at 6PM on a Friday" problem. This wasn't a great product on a good day, and gets worse with each passing game.

Maybe the increase in students cuts into the non-students who wouldn't bother to try making it to Storrs, but i doubt it.

 

[Uconnalliance]

Will you please stop with the student section. Even after the crackdown on pregame student partying there were some games (with less than quality product) that had significant student section attendance. If we field a quality product, student attendance will not be an issue.

Question is will we ever put a quality product on the field so fans return? This rebuild is rivaling the Jets rebuild from 69’!

 

[TMB4405]

There is absolutely no other solution now except winning regularly. Stop with the on campus stadium talk…..of course that is preference but it’s not reality. And if you think attendance would have been better on Friday at an on campus facility you are insane. People just want to enjoy themselves when they dedicate 8 hours to an activity. We have eroded into the equivalent of dental work without novacaine. I question my own sanity every time I load the car and I know I support the school far more than most.

 

[Ottomatic]

Fact is that the administration dumped the football program on the side of the road when it moved to the Big East. UConn football is an orphan and can't even find an orphanage to take it in. Without a conference, it is going to be near impossible to recruit quality coaches and/or players needed to win at the FBS level. It really sucks for those of us who have stuck with the program for the last 20 years. But I think we just have to face facts.

 

[TMB4405]

Fact is that the administration dumped the football program on the side of the road when it moved to the Big East. UConn football is an orphan and can't even find an orphanage to take it in. Without a conference, it is going to be near impossible to recruit quality coaches and/or players needed to win at the FBS level. It really sucks for those of us who have stuck with the program for the last 20 years. But I think we just have to face facts.

I do not follow it closely but I think we had one of our best classes in history lined up. So I don’t think this is accurate on the player side.

 

[Milo65]

UConn has always been beholden to Outside Pressures. Undersized Gampel and Ice Rink to satisfy the Hartford Business interest. PP hires because CT coaches valued him. RE 2.0 as a booster request so Diaco could be bought out.

 

[BPT2Storrs]

When I was at UConn we had really good student attendance for basketball games in Hartford and football games in East Hartford. At that time we were winning at both so that had a lot to do with it. However, there were always a lot of students who didn’t go because they didn’t want to or couldn’t find the means to travel. Also absolutely no students wanted to take the bus to the game. We would rather not go then to sit on a bus the whole way there and whole way back. I assume they still holds true today.

winning and playing respectable teams will get students to the games. However if you want serious student buy in then all games need to on campus. Way more fun to pregame at a dorm/house or Ted’s/huskies and walk to a game then to drive 40 minutes. Also the atmosphere with a big win on campus extends beyond the game - spills over to the nightlife. After driving from Hartford or East Hartford the life is sucked out of everyone.

last point - two of the worst teams in D1 playing each other on a Friday night forty minutes from campus is not going to draw a big crowd. Students have a lot better options.

 

[uchusky32]

Marketing has and is terrible. UConn has put a product on the field that they can't market which multiplies the problem. Have to have ease in cost and access and big fun for students. And an exciting product so that the most casual fan can not call the play before the snap.

Do we not have 1 coach who has any different ideas than Edsall?

 

[giddyup]

If so, that's some serious toilet training resistance.

Great observation. This is actually true, which is crazy. But it usefully informs that 3- 5 year fix plans (times 2 or 3) means you risk losing a generation of minds growing up aspiring to go or play at State U. Uncle Bob and Aunt Suzy and cousin Jim don’t watch or care; your friends don’t care; why go there. This dynamic undermines everything. They pulled BB out if a serious nosedive. They have to find live bodies in the flaming wreckage and rebuild football.

 

[ASweet3781]

Fact is that the administration dumped the football program on the side of the road when it moved to the Big East. UConn football is an orphan and can't even find an orphanage to take it in. Without a conference, it is going to be near impossible to recruit quality coaches and/or players needed to win at the FBS level. It really sucks for those of us who have stuck with the program for the last 20 years. But I think we just have to face facts.

So we should have stayed in the league that just invited Florida Atlantic, UTSA, and Rice??

That was the answer?!

Nice. We still wouldn't recruit quality coaches or players. Our football team would still suck. And our men's basketball team would join them.

Awesome solution.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

It requires unbelievable mental gymnastics to arrive at the take of it's great that the stadium is 25 miles from campus but I can't figure out why there's not that many students going to games.

 

[Ottomatic]

So we should have stayed in the league that just invited Florida Atlantic, UTSA, and Rice??

That was the answer?!

Nice. We still wouldn't recruit quality coaches or players. Our football team would still suck. And our men's basketball team would join them.

Awesome solution.

That's not what I am saying. Moving to the Big East was the best option we had. But it was clearly done at the expense of the football program. The administration knew that. I just don't see the football program making it as an FBS independent. I hope I am proven wrong. Or better yet, I hope the football program finds its way to a respectable conference. I'm just not seeing any indications that is going to happen anytime soon.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Need to build a 25k seat stadium in Storrs.

 

[Jimdish255]

I don’t blame the students for not wanting to waste their Friday night driving 45 minutes to watch us lose by 30 to MTSU

Putting it mildly but succinctly. Our fans and recruits are simply collateral damage of a series of poor hires and bad decisions. When that turns around the excitement and the fans return.

 

[Deleted]

I was at the tailgate yesterday and part of the game. What was missing.....besides a good football team? Students
I don't know what the University does to encourage students to attend games- but it isn't working. Lack of student support means lack of program support. Friday Football night should be a great way for students to start the weekend. Weather was perfect.
Student support is almost as critical as a new coach

On… Campus… Stadium. We need that for students to attend games. As an alum who was there while we were more than respectable, it was difficult even back then to pack students in for games. And most students who went would be out the door headed back to campus before the game was over. We need an on campus stadium with a great game day experience to take ourselves seriously.

 

[coachcap]

On… Campus… Stadium. We need that for students to attend games. As an alum who was there while we were more than respectable, it was difficult even back then to pack students in for games. And most students who went would be out the door headed back to campus before the game was over. We need an on campus stadium with a great game day experience to take ourselves seriously.

While I agree about students leaving in the second half back in the hayday, difficulty of packing in students was never an issue then. The student section was the most heavily filled area of the stadium in that era. My 3 kids were all students in the RENT's first decade. Maybe it was the novelty of 1-A football, but saying that getting students into the stadium to fill that section was an issue is a red herring.
It's only in the last decade that student lack of attendance became a problem. When the Huskies were competitive in the Big East, we rarely heard the following complaints:
-Students have a problem waking up early in time to catch the bus
-The falsehood that it's a 45 minute ride from campus: Living in Southington, I've driven to & from Storrs for decades. Unless there's heavy traffic in the immediate Hartford area, the ride from Storrs to the RENT is a 20-25 minute ride no matter if you take Route 44 through Coventry or go up Route 195 to I-84. (I can get from Storrs to SOUTHINGTON in 45-50 minutes)
The RENT is fine for most patrons. It has easy highway access, which will never be true of Storrs without major expensive infrastructure changes. UConn has to market the RENT as an all day experience. There should be parking lot student events both pre & post-game to entice students to stay through the entire game.
From the season ticketholder standpoint, we've seen some changes for the better over the last few years. Access to pregame parking has been increased from 4 to 5 hours. Blue lot pass holders are allowed to park wherever they wish if they arrive up to 3 hours prior to kickoff before the LAZ Nazis take over parking directions. The State Police no longer issue the strict 1 hour post-game leave the premises mandate.
A better game day student experience along with a winning team will bring back the students. The University needs to figure out how to make that happen.

 

[ZooCougar]

Better coaches

better recruiting

better talent

better results

 

[McLovin]

Student want to "party" on Fri/Sat. Insert your own memories of what that meant in your day. UConn cracked down on student tailgating and the prospect of missing the campus scene is too large a deterrent.

Students don't want PG entertainment.

And the ones who want PG entertainment probably don't like sports.

 

[ZooCougar]

How about we worry about winning more than one game a season and then worry about attendance.

If we magically had a 25k seat stadium tomorrow the attendance wouldn’t be any different.

 

[BlueDogs]

Been buying season tickets every year since they announced. I guess a buy them just to support the team because the product is absolute garbage and has been a constant festering pile since the day PP took over. I thought he was the worst until Diaco sucked the life out, and then RE2 took the corpse and took a dump on it. All along the way, the warning signs were monitored year over year, followed by bad decisions after bad decisions. But let's see if we finally recommit to investing to win.

 

[Waquoit]

But it was clearly done at the expense of the football program.

I'm not sure that's true. Would joining the AAC as a FB-only be a positive today? After this latest migration, I think no.