Point of Observation

EagleTalk.net · September 20, 2005

For years Southern Miss struggled to maintain good attendence when someone name Collier or Favre were not playing. As resently as 1997, Southern Miss averaged less than 24k a game. During that season USM was 9-3 with a win over Illinios. The only three losses that year were to Florida, Alabama and Tennessee. The previous year they were 8-3 with a win over Georgia. Winning was not the issue, but attendence still lagged far below what it should have been.

What all started changing in about 1999, is that the University Stopped promoting the game, and started promoting Game Day. They finally had some people in sports marketing that saw that there is a hell of a lot more to a college football experiece than just the 3 hours of gametime. When USM realized this, that's when attendece starting to trend upwards and it's still trending upwards.

Consider on Saturday they were hosting I-AA McNeese, three weeks after the worst hurricane in history took a direct hit on Mississippi. The campus in Hattiesburg was damaged 65miles inland. The University took $100M in damages from the storm, but the game was played and more than 28k showed up, despite the fact that a large portion of USM's supports live on the MS Gulf Coast, and many are now homeless.

Grow gameday, win a few games here and there, that is how you will be successful.

meangreanmick · September 20, 2005

For years Southern Miss struggled to maintain good attendence when someone name Collier or Favre were not playing. As resently as 1997, Southern Miss averaged less than 24k a game. During that season USM was 9-3 with a win over Illinios. The only three losses that year were to Florida, Alabama and Tennessee. The previous year they were 8-3 with a win over Georgia. Winning was not the issue, but attendence still lagged far below what it should have been.
What all started changing in about 1999, is that the University Stopped promoting the game, and started promoting Game Day. They finally had some people in sports marketing that saw that there is a hell of a lot more to a college football experiece than just the 3 hours of gametime. When USM realized this, that's when attendece starting to trend upwards and it's still trending upwards.
Consider on Saturday they were hosting I-AA McNeese, three weeks after the worst hurricane in history took a direct hit on Mississippi. The campus in Hattiesburg was damaged 65miles inland. The University took $100M in damages from the storm, but the game was played and more than 28k showed up, despite the fact that a large portion of USM's supports live on the MS Gulf Coast, and many are now homeless.
Grow gameday, win a few games here and there, that is how you will be successful.
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That and support your athletic program. I agree 100%.

ADLER · September 20, 2005

For years Southern Miss struggled to maintain good attendence when someone name Collier or Favre were not playing. As resently as 1997, Southern Miss averaged less than 24k a game. During that season USM was 9-3 with a win over Illinios. The only three losses that year were to Florida, Alabama and Tennessee. The previous year they were 8-3 with a win over Georgia. Winning was not the issue, but attendence still lagged far below what it should have been.
What all started changing in about 1999, is that the University Stopped promoting the game, and started promoting Game Day. They finally had some people in sports marketing that saw that there is a hell of a lot more to a college football experiece than just the 3 hours of gametime. When USM realized this, that's when attendece starting to trend upwards and it's still trending upwards.
Consider on Saturday they were hosting I-AA McNeese, three weeks after the worst hurricane in history took a direct hit on Mississippi. The campus in Hattiesburg was damaged 65miles inland. The University took $100M in damages from the storm, but the game was played and more than 28k showed up, despite the fact that a large portion of USM's supports live on the MS Gulf Coast, and many are now homeless.
Grow gameday, win a few games here and there, that is how you will be successful.
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Thank you for your insight. I agree 100%

FirefightnRick · September 20, 2005

Good post.

Rick

Arkstfan · September 20, 2005

I agree totally.

The current administration at Arkansas State promotes "Tailgate City" and the "Kids Zone" far more than who the opponent is and I think it is starting to pay off.

EagleTalk.net · September 25, 2005

Building fan support thur involvement is the way to build your program. An example USM looked at when they finally woke up were Army and South Carolina. Both schools have not been very successful in the past few years in football. When USM was doing their study, SC had went 0-11 in a previous year and averaged more than 78k for an 0-11 team. Army seldom has very good teams, but consistantly average over 30k.

The people going to those games are not going to see the team win, they are going for something else. That's what will prevent big fall-offs after tough losses.

PerryG2480 · September 25, 2005

Exactly...promote the hell out of this Troy game coming up!

FirefightnRick · September 25, 2005

I agree with you on some points and at NT we have done as much as can ever be expected with the promotions. But then looking back at your record it's easy for you to say some of that, considering it's been 13 seasons since your last losing season, and moreso, it's been 10 years since your last blowout loss. And one 42-0 loss to Tennessee in the middle 90's isn't going to hurt today's attendance at Southern Miss.

Apples and Oranges.

Rick

Edited September 25, 2005 by FirefightnRick

ccs178 · September 25, 2005

I agree with you on some points and at NT we have done as much as can ever be expected with the promotions. But then looking back at your record it's easy for you to say some of that, considering it's been 13 seasons since your last losing season, and moreso, it's been 10 years since your last blowout loss. And one 42-0 loss to Tennessee in the middle 90's isn't going to hurt today's attendance at Southern Miss.
Apples and Oranges.
Rick
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Our last blowout loss, according to the Southern Miss psyche, was to TCU and/or Cincinatti and/or Memphis in 2004. Those hit harder than any egg we dropped in the 1990's. Another blowout loss was in the 2003 Liberty Bowl. That egg hurt too much. Most Southern Miss fans remember every loss and are way too fickle when it comes to attending games. When they started promoting the game day, as well as the game, it reminded alot of our fans that it can be fun anyway. You are right though, 13 consecutive winning seasons does help matters, but keep in mind that we still struggle with our OOC games. Are our situations perfectly parallel? Certainly not, but they ain't apples to oranges either.

EagleTalk.net · September 25, 2005

I agree with you on some points and at NT we have done as much as can ever be expected with the promotions. But then looking back at your record it's easy for you to say some of that, considering it's been 13 seasons since your last losing season, and moreso, it's been 10 years since your last blowout loss. And one 42-0 loss to Tennessee in the middle 90's isn't going to hurt today's attendance at Southern Miss.
Apples and Oranges.
Rick
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Rick

In a round about way, you are sort of helping me make my point. Despite the success that Southern Miss has had, they still average less than 30k for games. It's better than it used to be sure, but at the same time, when you consider the modest success USM has had over the years, they should have a much better attendence than they do.....

My point is it's tough all over....

ADLER · September 25, 2005

Unfortunately, this may become an ugly situation for North Texas.

What's going right?: Gameday, tailgating, and everything else off the field.

What's going wrong?: Looks may be deceiving, but the football team looks to be having a very disappointing start to this season.

Best solution: Promote the hell out of gameday activities. Promote tailgating and the social aspects surrounding the games. Make it so nobody wants to miss "the party" at Fouts every Saturday. Not only will a considerable amount of those fans still attend the game, but they will form a habit which will keep them coming back to games in future seasons.

Most likely solution: Attendance will lag after these blowout losses. The university will then turn their attention towards harrassing the tailgaters to FORCE them to be inside Fouts by kickoff. (idiots will bombard us with exagerated tales of litter, drinking, and dubious criminal activities). The gameday atmosphere will soon be killed, and we will again suffer from that same "I'm not really much of a North Texas football fan, why go to games?" syndrome that haunted us for previous decades.

Advice from Adler: Don't 'F' with the things that are going right.

FirefightnRick · September 25, 2005

Our last blowout loss, according to the Southern Miss psyche, was to TCU and/or Cincinatti and/or Memphis in 2004. Those hit harder than any egg we dropped in the 1990's. Another blowout loss was in the 2003 Liberty Bowl. That egg hurt too much.

I hear what your saying, but you loss those three games by an average of 19 points, including a 4 point loss to one of them. Then you rebounded by winning the N.O. Bowl over us. I'd take that any day over a 54-2 trouncing to Tulsa. Any day. And I wouldn't call a 17-0 loss to Utah in the Liberty Bowl a blow out, but I'm glad there are schools out there that consider that as such.

Regardless, your program has lived up to it's Motto of: Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime? Did I get that right?, by going out and playing to win all 4 quarters. Most of y'all would have hung someone by now had you been told you were going to go out and play to try and keep it close, and hope for the best in the 4th, only to see real blowouts like yesterday, every year around this time.

Rick

ccs178 · September 26, 2005

I hear what your saying, but you loss those three games by an average of 19 points, including a 4 point loss to one of them. Then you rebounded by winning the N.O. Bowl over us. I'd take that any day over a 54-2 trouncing to Tulsa. Any day. And I wouldn't call a 17-0 loss to Utah in the Liberty Bowl a blow out, but I'm glad there are schools out there that consider that as such.

I hear ya, Rick and I agree, but my point was to the nature of the Southern Miss fan psyche. The fickleness. The 2003 Liberty Bowl sticks out in my mind, mostly because I was there. No, it wasn't some catastrophic loss, but dang if it didn't feel that way at the time.

Regardless, your program has lived up to it's Motto of: Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime? Did I get that right?, by going out and playing to win all 4 quarters. Most of y'all would have hung someone by now had you been told you were going to go out and play to try and keep it close, and hope for the best in the 4th, only to see real blowouts like yesterday, every year around this time.
Rick

I'll tell you, and I'm just speaking for myself, I've never really liked that motto. I've never really liked it because, for the most part, we haven't really lived by it. There is a cadre of Southern Miss fans and supporters that throw nasty fits if we even consider scheduling any "mid-major" teams for OOC games. There are lots of non-BCS teams that have approached us for a series or two. From what I understand, Troy approached us for a 2-1 deal that we turned down. The deal was to be twice in Hattiesburg and once in Mobile, AL. Mobile is less than 100 miles from Hattiesburg. For all intents and purposes, it would've been like a extra home game for USM. From what I understand, we turned it down. I'd be willing to bet that North Texas has approached us for a series. I've heard San Jose State's name thrown around too. I'm sure the list goes on and on. Personally, I see it to be a wee bit hypocritical for us to complain that SEC or ACC teams won't schedule us when we are refusing to schedule Troy or North Texas. Anyway, again I'm only speaking for myself and I'm not trying to speak for the whole Southern Miss community.