Attendance this year for YSU football?

[YSUGO]

Whats going on? is it the weather? Economy? Honestly my fiance's company couldnt give away tickets and tailgate passes for the homecoming game. thoughts?

[ItalianPenguin]

Excellent question Go and one I've thought about myself. Yesterday was the only day the weather wasn't real good this year. We also have people who have tailgaited with us for years that don't go anymore. People got spoiled with the championships in the 90's and our recent playoff drought has them doing other things now. Tressel to O$U made new O$U fans who stayed home when the Blackeyes were on TV. But in reality there shouldn't be any good excuses. It's not like there's anything else to do around here. The worst part of it is that it is very damaging to the University's money situation as the athletic dept. depends on the football revenue to survive. And this is a bandwagon town. Guess we'll have to win another title to bring some of them back. And bigred wants to go to the Big East

[IAA Fan]

Good topic.
Weather for this past weekend.
I also feel level of competition has something to do with it. We had great crowds for ILS and SDSU.

[ELPENGUIN]

Weather mostly kept the crowd down.  Playoff games will get the crowds coming. Fans getting older, cultivating younger fans lacking. Opponents that one does not identify with. Just a few reasons.

[guinpen]

Once again the crowd was embarrassing, several reasons for that, none of them good reasons mind you.

I feel that we have 4000 to 5000 true hardcore fans that will be there no matter the weather, the record or who else is on tv.  Even in the 90's it took years before the really big crowds were there every game. Lots of folks jumped on the bandwagon because it became the thing to do in Ytown. The cool place to be and party.

I don't care is we are playing Notre Dame or Thiel the reason for being in the stands is because YSU is playing.

The only way to get them back is too win and win and win.

[Tigertown Big J]

I think a big problem is that casual fans, even after more than a decade, still don't know/don't care who these Gateway/MVFC teams are.  There are no natural regional rivalries.  Most people hear a school's name once a year when the football team plays them.   I don't know what the answer is, but I think that's a big part of our problem. 
Personally, I don't care for the 1pm start.  I think that hurts attendance a bit as well.   That, on top of being a middle of the pack/down program for a long time has basically maken people apathetic towards it.  If they get a free ticket, it's something to do.  But it is NOT a destination.  Somehow the University needs to make it a destination again. 

The giveaways haven't been all the spectacular lately either.  For the diehard that means nothing....but the stadium replica, the penguin bobblehead, those things will draw some casual fans. 

There is no quick fix.  Winning will obviously help.  But it can't be the only solution.

[Pizza]

No disrespect.....but I'm planning MY weekend (s).....around the LSU vs Alabama game.....and others' like it.

Few 1-AA teams have great attendance unless they are championship teams (or exist in a cow pasture). Because most knowledgeable football fans would rather watch OSU/ND/Alabama/ Florida/Oklahoma/Nebraska....at home on a "Lazy Boy" with a "clicker in their hand......than be at Stambaugh paying $3 for a cold hot dog and bad "unappreciative", non-smiling service crew.

[ItalianPenguin]

ElPenguin has a good point about crowd getting older. When you look around the stands you see the same faces for the last 20 years and none of us are getting younger. Which leads to another problem--little or no student involvement. Student section for homecoming was pathetic, bad weather or not. Save the commuter school rhetoric as well. Still should be more kids there. It was friends, family, and die-hards only on Sat.

[Wick250]

All of these points are valid, especially those about the small number of fanatics and the vast sea of casual fans.  I really started to detect a buzz after the Illinois State game, but the horrible first quarter at Indiana State (televised) and the disgusting home performance against a mediocre South Dakota State team turned off the casual fans almost completely.

I also feel that it is insane to televise football home games FOR FREE even on a tape-delayed basis.  Far too many casual fans, and I personally know a few, just watch the replay at 8:00 and will not come out regardless of the opponent or the weather.  Sell the game live on the internet for $10 and give alumni that live far away a big discount (verified by sending a password through snail mail.)

Our promotions are old, tired, and ineffective.  We could really use an ambitious marketing director who will spend eight hours each day on the road "selling" our programs to businesses, organizations, clubs, and schools.  We should have about 50 different groups in attendance for each game.  Right now we probably get somewhere between 5 and 10.  Some of those "guests" would evolve into paying customers.

[Pita]

I for one do not understand why there has to be any FREEBIES.
When people pay $40-50 to see a rock concert, what FREEBIE
is handed out.  Most FREEBIES handed out at the games you
can readily see in a stadium trash bin.  That in itself is disgusting.

Fan base dwindles for ever so many reasons.  It's a different
world today than it was 10 years ago.

Win or loose, I'll always be there.  Sorry IP, no omelets this year.

GO PENGUINS

[penguinpower]

We need to have evening games.  7:00 PM is perfect.  It's noit too late for a family to bring the kids, and it is a perfect time for people to make an evening of it.  Also most are off of work by this time.  It would give stundents soemthing to do before late night partying ro whatever they do.  A family of 4 ccan bring the kids because it is not too late. 

[pennyguin1]

Oh let me think the reasons for low attendance: Um we have been a contender since 06', fair weather fans(even though it did clear up rather nice Saturday), and why do we have only on night home game on the schedule. We need to bring back night games(last time I checked there are lights at the stadium). And students should be at a every home game, their tickets are FREE. Even if they aren't going they can always let someone borrow it. Heck the years I was at YSU I don't think my husband ever paid for a ticket while we were dating.

Now I haven't been to very many home games the last 6 seasons , but I try to make it to atleast one home game a year. Even when I don't go to the games. I get a game recap, or I stream the game. And yes we have also sat around the same people for the last 12-15years. We have actually become great friends with them.

[GOpenZ]

Overall I hate to complain about our attendance as it is one of the top in 1-AA.  See
http://web1.ncaa.org/mfb/2011/Internet/attendance/FCS_AVGATTENDANCE.pdf

            Accum Percent      Sum Stad   
Rank   Name      Accum Attendance   Capacity   Avg Attendance   Capacity   Games
1   Appalachian St.       137,566    136.54    27,513     100,750    5
2   Montana       128,985    102.36    25,797     126,015    5
3   James Madison       99,914    101.13    24,979     98,800    4
4   Jackson St.       85,919    34.36    21,480     250,048    4
5   Old Dominion       99,090    100.18    19,818     98,910    5
6   South Ala.       78,568    50.51    19,642     155,552    4
7   Florida A&M       58,570    76.56    19,523     76,500    3
8   Ga. Southern       97,085    107.87    19,417     90,000    5
9   Delaware       94,103    85.55    18,821     110,000    5
10   North Dakota St.       91,183    97.52    18,237     93,500    5
11   Montana St.       87,885    98.87    17,577     88,885    5
12   Jacksonville St.       69,283    72.17    17,321     96,000    4
13   South Carolina St.       66,078    75.09    16,520     88,000    4
14   Liberty       81,249    84.63    16,250     96,000    5
15   UNI       48,214    98.45    16,071     48,972    3
16   Georgia St.       63,023    55.96    15,756     112,620    4
17   Tennessee St.       31,443    23.29    15,722     135,000    2
18   Lamar       61,468    96.04    15,367     64,000    4
19   Norfolk St.       75,855    50.57    15,171     150,000    5
20   Yale       44,377    23.02    14,792     192,807    3
21   Alcorn St.       29,500    65.56    14,750     45,000    2
22   Youngstown St.       71,765    69.57    14,353     103,150    5
23   Southern U.       54,716    57    13,679     96,000    4
24   Harvard       52,252    42.28    13,063     123,592    4
25   McNeese St.       51,733    73.9    12,933     70,000    4
26   N.C. A&T       51,174    59.5    12,794     86,000    4
27   Missouri St.       37,939    77.58    12,646     48,900    3
28   Citadel       63,167    60.16    12,633     105,000    5
29   South Dakota St.       48,380    80.63    12,095     60,000    4
30   Alabama A&M       45,978    54.74    11,495     84,000    4
31   Western Ill.       34,405    70.07    11,468     49,104    3
32   Massachusetts       22,903    67.36    11,452     34,000    2
33   Alabama St.       33,813    45.82    11,271     73,800    3
34   Chattanooga       44,017    53.24    11,004     82,672    4
35   Furman       33,007    68.76    11,002     48,000    3
36   Central Ark.       43,953    129.27    10,988     34,000    4
37   Southern Ill.       43,255    72.09    10,814     60,000    4
38   William & Mary       42,809    87.3    10,702     49,036    4
39   Sacramento St.       29,575    46.51    9,858     63,585    3
40   UC Davis       28,775    88.41    9,592     32,547    3
41   Northwestern St.       28,348    59.17    9,449     47,913    3
42   Weber St.       28,316    53.94    9,439     52,500    3
43   Ark.-Pine Bluff       28,225    64.89    9,408     43,500    3
44   Cal Poly       37,290    84.18    9,323     44,300    4
45   Stephen F. Austin       36,894    63.28    9,224     58,300    4


I think the eye's that people are watching the attendance figures with are continuing to be compared to the 1990s rather than any other time period.  The diehards are always going to feel hurt when we see only 6,000 in the stands and continue to think about the good ole days when everyone came.  We also had the belief, "if you build it, they will come" mentality when we added the ice box on the east side.  We know that the attendance can be greater than it is currently, and I agree that a more proactive marketing campaign is in need.  I also think that the building blocks of that campaign have already begun.

As for the student attendance, what can we do to get more students out when they don't have to pay for a ticket.  My grandpaa told me if you don't sell something, raise the price, people might think the price is too cheap and think that something is wrong with it.  Obviously, we aren't going to have tent city with students camping out waiting for tickets, but there should be some student and/or alumni led promotions to increase their attendance.  Speaking of the $50 concert tickets, maybe we should throw one of those in after the game.  Also, what happened to the fireworks nights?

Z

[YsuPride]

A few things that we can do to get attendance up:
Win.
Better opponents.
Better Marketing-more tv ads to hype up the game and more radio and computer ads.
Get the students to come.  Figure out how to get 1,000  more students to come out.
Night games in Sept start at 7pm and Oct. 6pm.  The 1pm and 4pm times suck and some fans I know don't go because of the time conflicts.
Homecoming earlier in the season no later than week 6.

The above are just some thoughts.

[YsuPride]

One more thing.  Stop showing the replay of our home game the same night or weekend of the game.  How many fans stay home and just watch it on TV?  The replay is starting just as most fans are getting home from the game.  That is plain stupid.