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Attendance
- Thread starter gopokes1399
- Start date
jaxcowboy93
Well-known member
I agree that Cheyenne, Casper, and Ft. Collins should be blacked out. There is no doubt those three cities alone have enough fans who are currently not making the drive on a consistent basis. However, I don't think you can add Denver into the mix.
We are without a doubt the best team on the front range this year, and will prove it this weekend. Nevertheless, we cannot give up the TV exposure in Denver if we hope to use our success to our advantage and attract the top talent out of the biggest market in our area.
We are without a doubt the best team on the front range this year, and will prove it this weekend. Nevertheless, we cannot give up the TV exposure in Denver if we hope to use our success to our advantage and attract the top talent out of the biggest market in our area.
OrediggerPoke
Well-known member
Everyone keeps throwing out that we should "black out" games. I dont believe that the MWC TV deal permits a team to dictate that any individual game be blacked out. We are stuck with that deal for awhile. The ROOT games (which were not picked up by CBS or ESPN) are under separate contract and perhaps the ROOT contract permits us to black out games should we so choose.
I think blacking out the channels locally is the wrong way to go. If I'm home sick, I'd be stuck listening to it on the radio instead of tv.
Instead, I would propose making the game day experience better. Create some designated drinking areas in War Memorial stadium and set it up like a sports bar, so you can watch the replays and all that stuff, while watching the game live. They could be mini-sports bars outside of the stands (where they would put them, I don't know, endzones????)
Put up some more TV boards in the stadium - keep the stats of each team updated on some of the smaller boards. Its always nice to see how many rushing/passing yards, and additional statistics as the game goes on.
Run some free shuttles across town to get to different events. Free shuttles from parking lots on the outskirts of town so folks don't have to fight traffic. Create some bus lanes into the stadium and out of the stadium to get people to the parking lots quickly.
I like wyovanian's idea of an interactive smart-phone app. Give me some stats - interactive things that can be done on the phone during the game. Setup an in game wireless network to save users some bandwidth. The cool part about that is you could even build some social communities with that app to get cheers going on around the stadium. It could be very creative.
Create some office style raffles - eg, have your company purchase a $10 ticket to have x amount of employees win reasonable expenses paid to travel to a game. For example, a feedlot in worland could submit to the raffle, and 10 employees could ride a bus to Laramie and enjoy the game - using nothing but their time.
I think there are a ton of ways they could boost attendance. Truth be known, I think we are more concerned with it on this board than the athletics department is.
Instead, I would propose making the game day experience better. Create some designated drinking areas in War Memorial stadium and set it up like a sports bar, so you can watch the replays and all that stuff, while watching the game live. They could be mini-sports bars outside of the stands (where they would put them, I don't know, endzones????)
Put up some more TV boards in the stadium - keep the stats of each team updated on some of the smaller boards. Its always nice to see how many rushing/passing yards, and additional statistics as the game goes on.
Run some free shuttles across town to get to different events. Free shuttles from parking lots on the outskirts of town so folks don't have to fight traffic. Create some bus lanes into the stadium and out of the stadium to get people to the parking lots quickly.
I like wyovanian's idea of an interactive smart-phone app. Give me some stats - interactive things that can be done on the phone during the game. Setup an in game wireless network to save users some bandwidth. The cool part about that is you could even build some social communities with that app to get cheers going on around the stadium. It could be very creative.
Create some office style raffles - eg, have your company purchase a $10 ticket to have x amount of employees win reasonable expenses paid to travel to a game. For example, a feedlot in worland could submit to the raffle, and 10 employees could ride a bus to Laramie and enjoy the game - using nothing but their time.
I think there are a ton of ways they could boost attendance. Truth be known, I think we are more concerned with it on this board than the athletics department is.
spindoctor02
Moderator
BeaverPoke said:
It might come as a surprise to you, but the vast majority of students on campus are there to get an education, and not to support the football team. :ugeek:
If you were able to get 25% of undergraduate students to a game on a weekly basis, I'd call that a success. For a school like Wyoming, that'd come out to about 3k students. I know when I was there (the dark ages of 2001-2005), I think we had at least that many students on a game-by-game basis. I haven't been to a game since I moved away from Laramie, so you guys would have a better idea of the student turnout at present. I know in Arizona, we have on average about 8-10k students at each home game (upwards of 12k for the ASU game), but we also have an undergrad population closing in on 40k, which puts it in that 20-25% range. I'm sure if you look at other comparable schools in the nation, you'd find similar percentages as far as student attendance is concerned.
The student section at Wyoming is usually more populated than a lot of places, especially the quality of the team in some recent seasons. Wyoming also gives students some pretty prime seating and a very large section. At Montana, which a fairly comparable student population to Wyoming, they get 3000+ for about every game. Spin makes a good point, getting 20-25% is pretty good. For me, though, I like college football way more now than I did in college.
J-Rod
Well-known member
The fact that Laramie itself isn't much bigger than your typical small-town in the west leads one to wonder if UW is already maximizing what it can. I've lived in a town with only 35K, and I can't imagine thousands of people flooding in on Saturday's for games. When you think about it that way, its remarkable what Wyoming has already achieved attendance wise. Sure, hope springs eternal for sell-outs, but Wyoming is never going to be a Nebraska-type place where the entire state congregates to on gameday.
spindoctor02
Moderator
J-Rod said:
All stats from Wikipedia.
Nebraska population: 1.8 million
Lincoln NE population: 260,000
Greater Lincoln area (Lincoln + Omaha + Grand Island metropolitan areas): 310k + 885k + 83k = 1.28 million
Capacity of Memorial Stadium: 87k
Undergraduate Population: 19k
Percent of "local" population required to fill Memorial Stadium: 6.6% (87k / 1300k population)
Wyoming population: 580k
Laramie WY population: 31k
Greater Laramie area (Carbon, Albany, Platte, Goshen, and Laramie counties): 16k + 37k + 9k + 14k + 95k = 171k
Capacity of War Memorial 32k
Undergraduate Population: 14k
Percent of "local" population required to fill War Memorial Stadium: 17.3% (32k / 185k population)
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Actually, looking at the numbers above, the state of Wyoming does a better job of congregating for games on a statewide area by at least twice as much as fans in Nebraska do (figuring a roughly 2/3 capacity stadium). The incredibly low population in the "local" vicinity of Laramie really is a factor in the low attendance numbers, when compared directly to our "better followed" neighbors to the east.
BeaverPoke
Well-known member
spindoctor02 said:
Good points Spin. So do you think, if Cheyenne, Casper, and especially Laramie (and UW) were to all grow significantly in the next 10 years, do you think Wyo could go from 18K-23Kper game and 26-29K for big games to 21k-26K and sell outs for big games?
spindoctor02
Moderator
BeaverPoke said:
If you are just comparing to Nebraska, the whole area would have to triple in population, to get to a similar percentage. To support a 30k stadium, it looks like you'd need 300-450k population in the near vicinity.
Yet, oddly, with a much smaller population and enrollment, we had better attendance in the 80's and 90's with a larger-capacity stadium...spindoctor02 said:
There's a flaw in the Nebraska analysis- you fail to factor for demand v. capacity. Fact is, Memorial Stadium is sold out every game. How many more would buy if the inventory was available, if the demand could be met? It's like the store that runs out of the latest Jordan shoe and there's still over a hundred people in line outside waiting to get in vs. the store that sold all of their (much smaller) stock and no one getting rain checks. The "decided buyer" difference is pretty big.
Unfortunately, we lack the decades of winning tradition and "football culture" that has largely contributed to Nebraska attendance. It's not a mere matter of increasing population (not to mention the in-actionable nature and generations of waiting required) or generating more wins- the live game and stadium experience as a whole needs to be re-thought as well as considering the possibility of locally blacking out games below a certain ticket sales level.
kansasCowboy
Well-known member
You have to remember, population growth is one thing. And out of that growth you can't just pull a WYO fan out of your ass. Everyone that moves here will be moving from an area where they may already be a fan of that area team. Or they may not care about football at all.
Example: I was born and raised in RS, I live in Kansas. I'm a WYO fan. I hardly watch KU or KSU football. I'm not a fan. In my five years in Kansas I've been to one game for each team and I have no desire to go again.
So a sig population change may not be as effective as you think. I know when RS had the oil boom a few years back our pop jumped. WYO fans? No. We just had a bunch of Texas and OU fans around.
Example: I was born and raised in RS, I live in Kansas. I'm a WYO fan. I hardly watch KU or KSU football. I'm not a fan. In my five years in Kansas I've been to one game for each team and I have no desire to go again.
So a sig population change may not be as effective as you think. I know when RS had the oil boom a few years back our pop jumped. WYO fans? No. We just had a bunch of Texas and OU fans around.
ItSucksToBeACSURam
Well-known member
This is a fact. I talk to a bunch of students in my classes and ask if theyre stoked for the games. They say things like, "the cowboys are home this weekend?" or "Dont we suck really bad?" and "I didnt know the university had a football team...". Shit like this makes me wanna puke. When I was a student back in 06 the student fanbase was rabid....these vapid turds now could give two shits about the team. I don't get it. I bleed brown and gold an will until I die. It takes a huge event to keep me from home games!!!BeaverPoke said:
