Ideas To Get Em' In 30 Minutes B4 Kick-off ?

GoMTBlue · July 7, 2007

Alcohol is probably the biggest deterant from people going into the game...even a good game for the bigger lushes. Selling beer inside would not be a terrible idea...I was under the impression it was against NCAA regulations, but if not lets get us a nice contract with Miller and get them inside selling / giving away beer inside as well as outside pre-game.

To my knowledge there is no NCAA regulation. It's usually a state or local regulation that bans alcohol sales in the stadium. The Cajuns sell beer at their basketball games. The Blue Raiders sold beer at their game against Louisville, but that game was played in Titans stadium. I know Akron has a "Beer Garden". It is seperated from the stadium by a fence. The gate remains open and is only accessable from inside the stadium. You can buy beer and drink it inside the fenced area. You can still see the game just fine from there.

I think a lot of your Big 10 schools sell beer at games.

sunil chowhurdy · July 7, 2007

I would like to see them give away 3 semesters of tuition away but you have to be in the stadium to be eligible.

UNTflyer · July 7, 2007

To my knowledge there is no NCAA regulation.

The NCAA only prohibits alcohol sales at NCAA championship/tournament games.

Quoner · July 7, 2007

I really think regulated beer sales will not be that appealing to the 21 and under crowd. The ones who want alcohol in there will get alcohol in there if there is something worth staying for. I've never heard of anyone give up on a sporting event because they couldn't figure out a way to find alcohol.

The war is not about the few hundred people outside - it's about the hundred of thousands who don't even want to get that close. No team in the metroplex pulls without winning save maybe a high school or two. But if someone really wants to make their counterpoint to me with a high school, I argue that that person should be forced to debate the logo, WAC membership, uniforms, and promotions/marketing/advertising/pr (since most don't seem to know the difference) for 6 months. Oh wait, Shane's right, that's been happening for years...

OK, let's all go back to the usual then.

Does anyone here ever get sick of the same things?

PlummMeanGreen · July 8, 2007

Last season one of the guys in our tailgate area took it upon himself to countdown to kickoff. Starting about 2 hours before the game he would ring his cowbell until everyone in the area was quiet. He would then shout "It's 2 hours until kickoff" and everybody would cheer. He did this counting down every 30 minutes. I'm surprised, but it did work. When he announced 30 minutes until kickoff you could see all the tailgaters start putting their supplies away and getting ready to head to the stadium.
I have never lost time when it comes to kick-off because I look forward to it so much. It just made me wonder if people just sit out there and drink and lose the time. Then after they realize tey missed kick-off they don't get in a hurry because they know they are already late.

Funny how its the simple things that can sometimes work the best, [colo

PlummMeanGreen · July 8, 2007

Last season one of the guys in our tailgate area took it upon himself to countdown to kickoff. Starting about 2 hours before the game he would ring his cowbell until everyone in the area was quiet. He would then shout "It's 2 hours until kickoff" and everybody would cheer. He did this counting down every 30 minutes. I'm surprised, but it did work. When he announced 30 minutes until kickoff you could see all the tailgaters start putting their supplies away and getting ready to head to the stadium.
I have never lost time when it comes to kick-off because I look forward to it so much. It just made me wonder if people just sit out there and drink and lose the time. Then after they realize tey missed kick-off they don't get in a hurry because they know they are already late.

Funny how its the simple ideas that can sometimes be the most effective. GMTB...

GMG!

Edited July 8, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

greenminer · July 8, 2007

I have actually thought of gettting on top one of those coach's tower set-ups with my Peavy sound system 45 minutes before kick-off & just start reading all my posts of the last umpteen years non-stop. Might that get em' in 40 minutes before kick-off?

Read this instead. They'd LOVE you.

PlummMeanGreen · July 8, 2007

Another flood control issue...

Edited July 8, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

PlummMeanGreen · July 8, 2007

Read this instead. They'd LOVE you.

Good God! :blink: I think Armageddon has officially been put on hold, because it seems Sodom and Gommorah have made a definite come-back. :ph34r:

Hey, greenminer, I don't think I want "THAT' kind of love. :lol: :blink: :ph34r:

Harry, Illuvious, JDenver: Please do check out that link to only see if it has stepped over the line. Just my .02 for a www.GoMeanGreen "family-forum" as we should all try to keep in mind as well as remind ourselves that all age groups are reading this stuff.

PS: To a hardy handful: Its a sports theme message board--not "Dr. Ruth" or Playboy Forum. :rolleyes:

Edited July 8, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

SilverEagle · July 8, 2007

This might read as being critical, but it isn't intended that way. So please, let's not anyone get defensive.

Having read all of the comments in this thread, it got me thinking about some of the OCC games that I've attended, most notably OU, UT, & A&M, and it occured to me why I look forward to getting into their stadiums well before kick-off.....other than issue of trying to beat the huge crowds. It's their pageantry, and some of the best pre-game pagentry in College football can be seen on Sept 1st in Norman Okla.

UT has great pagentry, and so does A&M (in it's own military way), but I have to give the Okies the nod for some of the greatest pre-game pagentry in all of the southwest. If you haven't been to a game in Norman, you should avail yourself of the opportunity and go up there this Sept 1st. The OU band and spirit groups gets the OU crowd literally worked up into a frenzy with their pre-game pagentry. I've seen a lot of bands (college and high school) and the OU band makes the best "grand entry" of any band I've ever seen.

We have a pre-game show, but it really doesn't do much for the crowd. There is no grand entrance by the band, no "working the crowd" by the spirits groups. But that's pretty much how it's always been at North Texas. Of course, it's much harder to make a grand entrance at Fouts field since the portals are about 50 yards from the field, as opposed to how the entrance portals are at Norman and Austin. *note* This last statement is NOT intended to get yet another "we need a new stadium" discussion going.

Now, am I saying that the band and spirit groups are mainly responsible for people not being in their seats 30mins before kick-off? No I'm not. But I am suggesting that more pagentry, and the opportunity for more crowd participation in this pre-game pagentry, might be a better incentive for people being in their seats 30 mins before kick-off, than the sale of beer inside the stadium, or some sort of drawing.

Edited July 8, 2007 by SilverEagle

DeepGreen · July 8, 2007

So, the Green Brigade making their entrance into Fouts from the North End Zone, onto the track while playing "fly like an eagle" 25 times just doesn't do much for you in the way of pagentry?

greenminer · July 8, 2007

So, the Green Brigade making their entrance into Fouts from the North End Zone, onto the track while playing "fly like an eagle" 25 times just doesn't do much for you in the way of pagentry?

My first thoughts, too. I can recall my time in the Green Brigade. Seems like there were a number of things we did to get the crowd going; we'd just parade up to our seats and I'd be scratching my head thinking, "Why can't they get into this?"

And that was before Nick Williams, who has done an amazing job bettering their repertoire/pr.

It's not just that it's pageantry. It's awesome because every one is so INTO it. And you can't just come up with fresh ideas/new stuff and expect/force people to enjoy things. It's like covering up a horrible cake with tons and tons of icing.

...okay, okay, bad analogy. My point: you need to put a great product out there first.

Edited July 8, 2007 by greenminer

chomp · July 8, 2007

I think that Silver Eagle hit the nail on the head about pagentry being key to getting people to attend games. To my mind, the game has to not just be a game but an event.

To be honest, it is probably fans like me that UNT needs to encourage to come to more games. I see the posters on this board and you are a passionate group. Not only do you support your team and your university, but you even brainstorm fundraising schemes, public relations efforts, and promotional events for the program. All of you will go to the games, regardless. I am a big college football fan and follow my undergraduate team (Florida) religiously, never missing a game either in person or on tv. In my nearly 5 years at UNT, I have gone to a few UNT games but have never gotten into the program very much. At least in the games that I have attended, much of the crowd has seemed pretty quiet and uninvolved for most of the game, there did not seem to be an awful lot of pagentry that made the game seem like an event, and the opponents were not teams that I particularly cared about. Thus, when it comes to decide whether to attend a game or to stay home and watch an SEC, Big 10, or Big 12 game on tv there is not a huge draw to get my butt of the coach and go the UNT game instead of a watching a game on tv that is likely to be at least as exciting to me.

I think that the key to change some of this will be to better connect students to the university. These students will become alumni that are more closely tied to the university. Ones that will not only attend UNT games, but live and die with each win and loss. Right now, when I hear many students in my classes talk about UNT they talk about it a lot like a store where they pick up some sort of needed commodity. Once they have that commodity, their education, they move on and don't look back. I don't know how you do it, but convincing students that they are part of something bigger than that seems to me to be the thing that will help every aspect of the university, including athletics. When more of these types of fans start turning out to games, the games will be more interesting to casual fans that have less of a connection to the university. The irony is that once this begins to happen, there will be less of a need to attract those casual fans in the first place.

UNTflyer · July 8, 2007

Chomp, most of our home games start at 6:00. Come out to the tailgating and I'll have the Gators on satellite, which is usually an early game.

0footballfan0 · July 9, 2007

I'll admit I didn't read all the posts, so forgive me if this has already been suggested.

Card the tailgaters during the game, and anyone caught drinking underaged (this never happens..right?) gets 2 choices. Go to the game or to the station.

Then lets add public intox to the the list. You can go to the game and sober up, or go the the station. From what I see that gets about 90% of the people outside into the gate.

Edited July 9, 2007 by 0footballfan0

Daddy Dumpsalot · July 9, 2007

I think that Silver Eagle hit the nail on the head about pagentry being key to getting people to attend games. To my mind, the game has to not just be a game but an event.
To be honest, it is probably fans like me that UNT needs to encourage to come to more games. I see the posters on this board and you are a passionate group. Not only do you support your team and your university, but you even brainstorm fundraising schemes, public relations efforts, and promotional events for the program. All of you will go to the games, regardless. I am a big college football fan and follow my undergraduate team (Florida) religiously, never missing a game either in person or on tv. In my nearly 5 years at UNT, I have gone to a few UNT games but have never gotten into the program very much. At least in the games that I have attended, much of the crowd has seemed pretty quiet and uninvolved for most of the game, there did not seem to be an awful lot of pagentry that made the game seem like an event, and the opponents were not teams that I particularly cared about. Thus, when it comes to decide whether to attend a game or to stay home and watch an SEC, Big 10, or Big 12 game on tv there is not a huge draw to get my butt of the coach and go the UNT game instead of a watching a game on tv that is likely to be at least as exciting to me.
I think that the key to change some of this will be to better connect students to the university. These students will become alumni that are more closely tied to the university. Ones that will not only attend UNT games, but live and die with each win and loss. Right now, when I hear many students in my classes talk about UNT they talk about it a lot like a store where they pick up some sort of needed commodity. Once they have that commodity, their education, they move on and don't look back. I don't know how you do it, but convincing students that they are part of something bigger than that seems to me to be the thing that will help every aspect of the university, including athletics. When more of these types of fans start turning out to games, the games will be more interesting to casual fans that have less of a connection to the university. The irony is that once this begins to happen, there will be less of a need to attract those casual fans in the first place.

You cant say this stuff on here, you'll get stoned. We live in happy land, don't destroy that with reality.