No butts in the seats and tailgate lot was just as bad!

[penguinpower]

AND TICKETS AREN'T FREE SOMEBODY HAS TO PAY FOR THE AND IF YOU WANT A GOOD FOOTBALL TEAM THAT YOU CAN BE PROUD OF THEN ANNIE UP THE $$$$$$$$

[guinpen]

Weather was not as bad as I expected it to be.

[penguinpower]

might I also add that we want to sit here and have a top 10 football team every year yet when it comes to butts in seats we have to be near dead last in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. The fans are not living up to their end of the bargain

[seanbryan3]

Had an awesome time tailgating today, yeah it was drizzling at first, but still had a great time. Its a saturday, and it is football season, and getting to see my brother and the guns play live is always fun. Parked right by the Adams RV and had a great time with them just as we have for the past 4 seasons. It's a damn shame nobody comes out. What are you gonna do though. I know they will show up if they make the playoffs. Im a firm believer that fans and compassion can motivate a team and bring up the emotions even more. Let's go guins.. Hoping when I fly up again in 2 weeks for Indiana State there will be a better turn out.

[pioneer9]

First off, the reason high school games are well attended (for the most part) is because they double as junior high and high school social events.  The kids got nothing else to do on a friday night but go out to their school's game, do the whole look-how-many-friends-I'm-sitting-with-cus-I'm-cool thing, and oh btw mommy and daddy come along cus I can't drive yet.  A majority of them don't even watch the game and typically end up wandering from one side of the stadium to the other... AKA there is no real correlation between YSU football and HS football when it come to the quality of the product. It's just the nature of the beast.

As for the reasons the attendance sucks, there's just a general sense of I DO NOT CARE.  The university doesn't care because I've seen marginal D3 schools with better publicizing and marketing.  I've dealt with YSU's marketing department in the past (and I've done a fair share of marketing myself) and I have no idea what those guys do all day outside of sit in a chair, walk across the street to McD's for lunch break and then come back only to sit in that same chair until its time to make the commute home.  OUR... MARKETING... SUCKS. Period. I mean, we can barely fill the student section?! Really?! A school of 15,000 and you can't even fill a section that probably holds 200? I don't care if it's a "commuter school"... I'm sorry but at that point you don't deserve your job.

Why don't they reach out to youth programs, church groups, sports programs, and school teams? The only time I was part of a YSU football event where a youth team was involved was when WE initiated.  Had to call them up and request and they were like, "oh... yeah... that's a good idea. Let's do it."  Heck, I should have asked for commission on that sale. Also, what do they do on campus to promote the team?  From everything I've heard, absolutely nothing. 

Either way, RESULTS are RESULTS. You suck, you get fired. End of story.  So YSU better figure out what the heck's going on or start creating a new position for marketing or something because today was EMBARRASSING.

Finally, while I do think that winning/postseason appearances are certainly big when it comes to attendance, I don't think it's the cause of just how BAD it's gotten here.  Look at teams like Liberty University (AKA 1st Prize for Being Consistently Mediocre) has the 11th highest average attendance in FCS.  Add teams like Tennessee State (another frequent bubble team) who is #10 on that list and I think it's hard to blame all the attendance woes on the lack of postseason success.

I just hope they figure this crap out soon because I hate feeling like a lunatic yelling in an empty stadium every Saturday. 

[pen4life]

Of course you dont care about the Dakotas they are not our team, YSU is our team THAT's who we care about THAT's why we go to the games because its our team playing. And it doesnt matter if they are playing Notre Dame or Notre Dame on Lake Erie ( look it up).  The problem is we dont have real football fans here, they are sheep dazzled by"big time football" but they really dont love football or their local teams . They are motivated by a  need to be part of something bigger and larger (ie the Columbus State buckeyes ) and sadly most never set foot on that campus as a student. Fans , real fans dont need to be sold a "product" the love of a team is either there or it isnt. Todays turnout was pathetic and embarrassing. This team deserves better than this. Ive been following YSU since 1966 and missed about a half dozen home games during that time. There will always be a core of true fans who really do love the game and their team and who will show up win or lose no matter who we are playing.

[guinpen]

Of course you dont care about the Dakotas they are not our team, YSU is our team THAT's who we care about THAT's why we go to the games because its our team playing. And it doesnt matter if they are playing Notre Dame or Notre Dame on Lake Erie ( look it up).  The problem is we dont have real football fans here, they are sheep dazzled by"big time football" but they really dont love football or their local teams . They are motivated by a  need to be part of something bigger and larger (ie the Columbus State buckeyes ) and sadly most never set foot on that campus as a student. Fans , real fans dont need to be sold a "product" the love of a team is either there or it isnt. Todays turnout was pathetic and embarrassing. This team deserves better than this. Ive been following YSU since 1966 and missed about a half dozen home games during that time. There will always be a core of true fans who really do love the game and their team and who will show up win or lose no matter who we are playing.

well said

[ysufan0505]

First off, the reason high school games are well attended (for the most part) is because they double as junior high and high school social events.  The kids got nothing else to do on a friday night but go out to their school's game, do the whole look-how-many-friends-I'm-sitting-with-cus-I'm-cool thing, and oh btw mommy and daddy come along cus I can't drive yet.  A majority of them don't even watch the game and typically end up wandering from one side of the stadium to the other... AKA there is no real correlation between YSU football and HS football when it come to the quality of the product. It's just the nature of the beast.

As for the reasons the attendance sucks, there's just a general sense of I DO NOT CARE.  The university doesn't care because I've seen marginal D3 schools with better publicizing and marketing.  I've dealt with YSU's marketing department in the past (and I've done a fair share of marketing myself) and I have no idea what those guys do all day outside of sit in a chair, walk across the street to McD's for lunch break and then come back only to sit in that same chair until its time to make the commute home.  OUR... MARKETING... SUCKS. Period. I mean, we can barely fill the student section?! Really?! A school of 15,000 and you can't even fill a section that probably holds 200? I don't care if it's a "commuter school"... I'm sorry but at that point you don't deserve your job.

Why don't they reach out to youth programs, church groups, sports programs, and school teams? The only time I was part of a YSU football event where a youth team was involved was when WE initiated.  Had to call them up and request and they were like, "oh... yeah... that's a good idea. Let's do it."  Heck, I should have asked for commission on that sale. Also, what do they do on campus to promote the team?  From everything I've heard, absolutely nothing. 

Either way, RESULTS are RESULTS. You suck, you get fired. End of story.  So YSU better figure out what the heck's going on or start creating a new position for marketing or something because today was EMBARRASSING.

Finally, while I do think that winning/postseason appearances are certainly big when it comes to attendance, I don't think it's the cause of just how BAD it's gotten here.  Look at teams like Liberty University (AKA 1st Prize for Being Consistently Mediocre) has the 11th highest average attendance in FCS.  Add teams like Tennessee State (another frequent bubble team) who is #10 on that list and I think it's hard to blame all the attendance woes on the lack of postseason success.

I just hope they figure this crap out soon because I hate feeling like a lunatic yelling in an empty stadium every Saturday.

Great point

[ysufan0505]

Speaking of students. I wish the student section wasn't on the east side. It's stupid. Give them a small section on the west side, preferably by the tunnel where the team comes out. Marketing department sucks and we all know it. They all need fired. I can find a man off the street that does the same job as they do! It's embarrassing...... The team deserves better than this. Unreal, 7-2 and on the verge of the playoffs and we draw 1,000 people.

[ysufan0505]

Announced attendance today...... 8,274 LOL

[pioneer9]

HAHAHAHA they announced 8,000?! I wonder if they just pick these numbers from a hat. I also wonder if YSU knows how bad their marketing department is and, if so, do they just not give a crap or do they just not have the money to do anything about it... Either way, bad rep for the university

[penguinpower]

Why does a supposedly knowledgeable football town/fanbase (or what people like to claim) have to be herded like cattle to a game? I don't think people in the valley really understand football if they haven't figured it out what we have right now.  the win last week was not a fluke and it was against a very good football team. The team is demonstrated this year that they can overcome severe adversity. And they've been undefeated since they started their new quarterback.  The best part is that the quarterback struggled today and everybody picked up the slack for him because he is young. Very promising

[ValleyTalk]

Shaming people into going to the games just isn't going to work.  Neither will being belligerent and angry.

YSU football is a product that, like any product, needs to be deemed worthy by the consumer of their valuable time and hard earned money. 

It is not the fans fault that the product (YSU FB) deteriorated after JT left.  It is not the fans fault that we play teams in the Dakotas rather than Akron or Kent or Ohio U.

IMO, if a business is doing poorly and not closing the deal with consumers.....it is never the consumer's fault.

Mooney and Ursuline brands suck and idiots flock to it all the time.  Why would you ever want to watch a team run the ball every play and beat up on inferior talent?  There is probably 1 kid on the entire Mooney and Ursuline teams combined that could warm the bench for YSU. The quality of HS football is bad and it draws.  Sickening

WE draw because we have 12 state titles between us and play the likes of Steubenville, Massillon, and St. Edward's on a yearly basis. Being that Mooney has two FBS recruits, a kicker coming to YSU, and a QB that may go Ivy, and Ursuline has a LB that will go either FBS/FCS and a handful of linemen Wolford is onto, I think you may want to retract that statement.

[penguinpower]

Shaming people into going to the games just isn't going to work.  Neither will being belligerent and angry.

YSU football is a product that, like any product, needs to be deemed worthy by the consumer of their valuable time and hard earned money. 

It is not the fans fault that the product (YSU FB) deteriorated after JT left.  It is not the fans fault that we play teams in the Dakotas rather than Akron or Kent or Ohio U.

IMO, if a business is doing poorly and not closing the deal with consumers.....it is never the consumer's fault.

Mooney and Ursuline brands suck and idiots flock to it all the time.  Why would you ever want to watch a team run the ball every play and beat up on inferior talent?  There is probably 1 kid on the entire Mooney and Ursuline teams combined that could warm the bench for YSU. The quality of HS football is bad and it draws.  Sickening

WE draw because we have 12 state titles between us and play the likes of Steubenville, Massillon, and St. Edward's on a yearly basis. Being that Mooney has two FBS recruits, a kicker coming to YSU, and a QB that may go Ivy, and Ursuline has a LB that will go either FBS/FCS and a handful of linemen Wolford is onto, I think you may want to retract that statement.

Regardless if its Boardman, Canfield, Fitch, Struthers, South Range etc.  High school football is not nearly as good as college football. This isn't necessarily attack on the local high schools as much as it is an attack on the jackasses that attend those games but fail to attend the college football game by the college that represents the place they live in, on a national level, with national publicity, on a national stage.  Yet those same jackasses could tell you everything there is to know about Cardinal Mooney or Fitch or Boardman or Canfield or Poland or any of those teams.  The high school game should always come second to the priority of the college football game yet these people don't know anything about Youngstown State football.  And there is a lot of these people.  Maybe it's just the overall lack of education we have in the valley because we're blue collar and there such a high number of people without college degrees.  I don't understand why they all worship their stupid high school.   Perhaps that's why we are where we are.  I would never want to attend any high school football game including the high school I went to. I could give a crap less. Yes there were some good kids on the teams and there were some bad kids on the team but most of the kids nwill ever play college football.  That statement is true all of the high schools in Ohio and in the US.  I played HS football too.

[BarstoolCleveland]

Speaking of students. I wish the student section wasn't on the east side. It's stupid. Give them a small section on the west side, preferably by the tunnel where the team comes out. Marketing department sucks and we all know it. They all need fired. I can find a man off the street that does the same job as they do! It's embarrassing...... The team deserves better than this. Unreal, 7-2 and on the verge of the playoffs and we draw 1,000 people.

So you want the football coach fired, men's basketball coach fired, and marketing staff gone? Take a deep breath and think before you type. Words have meaning.