What are your attendance predictions for homecoming game?

[Saint3333]

We have no home field advantage any longer. So stale and leaving early. Maybe I'm the only one but I'm extremely disappointed with our fans and their apathy. App football has became a hobby around the rest of the day's events and plans versus the reason for the trip.

Have fun before and after, enjoy the high country, but come to the game, make some noise, and stay. These student athletes train soooo hard for so many hours each week let's get back to respecting that.

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

We have no home field advantage any longer. So stale and leaving early. Maybe I'm the only one but I'm extremely disappointed with our fans and their apathy. App football has became a hobby around the rest of the day's events and plans versus the reason for the trip.

Have fun before and after, enjoy the high country, but come to the game, make some noise, and stay. These student athletes train soooo hard for so many hours each week let's get back to respecting that.

You're 100% correct. It's been going on for the past few years and I can't wrap my mind around why our home field advantage isn't much of an advantage. Are we becoming a Wake Forest type crowd?

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

I have a questions that at least one on here can answer. The gold seat on the west side that are fenced off from the rest of the seats -Do those seats also allow one to hang out inside the Appalachian Athletics Center? At both Miami and Idaho I was in the east stands and had a great view of these seats. That section appeared to be 1/3 full or maybe less than that. Were folks hiding out inside the building?

[appst89]

Homecoming is typically a very stale crowd, but yesterday was the worst I have ever seen.

We definitely have a problem, and it is getting worse instead of better. Regardless of opponent or score, there is a stream of fans leaving the stadium in the 1st quarter. It is disappointing, but I don't know the solution, or even if there is a solution. I do hope there are people in the athletic department who are seeing this and trying to figure something out.

[biggie]

Probably worse due to the weather yesterday. And I am partially to blame as we brought our 1 and 5 yr olds to their first game. I couldn't stand up much with kids on me and we had to leave after the 3rd qtr due to the cold.

[moonshine]

We always see this with the Homecoming crowds. It was probably more prevalent yesterday due to the wind. I saw several folks not properly prepared as I walked into the stadium.

A few solutions from cheapest to expensive:
1) Allow re-entry at halftime
2) Sell re-entry tickets for $10 with proof of original ticket
3) Promotions throughout the game. Shoot t-shirts into the crowd, random drawings based on page 10 in game programs or text entries (ie. free pizza, $100 grocery store card and/or cash drawing at the end of the 3rd quarter--not to be confused with GSU "cash drop")
4) Sell alcohol in stadium: with state laws not allowing sells on campus, set up a "private" beer garden for Yosef donors at the $250 and up level as well as Student Yosef members at an increased level ($100).
5) Improved technology: Increase stadium wifi bandwidth, install monitors in the concourse to show App and other college games and put a decibel meter on the score board to help the fans

[AppinVA]

We always see this with the Homecoming crowds. It was probably more prevalent yesterday due to the wind. I saw several folks not properly prepared as I walked into the stadium.

A few solutions from cheapest to expensive:
1) Allow re-entry at halftime
2) Sell re-entry tickets for $10 with proof of original ticket
3) Promotions throughout the game. Shoot t-shirts into the crowd, random drawings based on page 10 in game programs or text entries (ie. free pizza, $100 grocery store card and/or cash drawing at the end of the 3rd quarter--not to be confused with GSU "cash drop")
4) Sell alcohol in stadium: with state laws not allowing sells on campus, set up a "private" beer garden for Yosef donors at the $250 and up level as well as Student Yosef members at an increased level ($100).
5) Improved technology: Increase stadium wifi bandwidth, install monitors in the concourse to show App and other college games and put a decibel meter on the score board to help the fans

Those look good to me.

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

5-Was there not some monitors on the west side concourse back in 05-07 era or is my memory just that crappy?

[Rekdiver]

The students were bailing early yesterday. L to of parents with kids bailed at halftime. It's the curse of cold weather. 70 degrees and the crowd sticks.

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

Number 5 would greatly help with the halftime concession lines too. The Miami game I decided to hit the concession area early (Which didn't help too much). I had to listen for crowd reactions to determine if anything good happened.

I think more needs to be done to involve the crowd. Create an Instagram hash tag allow people to share then throughout the game show up on the screen. Give aways throughout the game. Other than the App-State chant which usually starts from the students, there isn't much that involves the whole crowd. Watch a VT game or Penn State. Some have been to Tech to see a game, I watched Penn State last night and look forward to 2018. They've created cool traditions that involve the crowd.

[Yosef84]

I agree with the above comments about Homecoming crowds in general. Homecoming brings in fans who are not the "die hard" variety. Mix in some cold weather (first cold weather game this year) and people really bail. I was disappointed yesterday because it really did start earlier than usual and the first half temperatures were pretty nice....at least on the East side. The West side was in the shade, so might have felt chilly to them.

I also think the need for gloves makes a huge impact on the noise because clapping doesn't make any real sound. I'm not sure what the answer is. Thunder sticks are annoying but at least they are something, but surely there is a better answer.

My general feel was that the team played pretty well but the game lacked intensity. I'm not sure if that is actually from the game on the field or the lack of crowd involvement. It was definitely about as dead as I remember ever hearing it though.

[bcoach]

We are winning so it is hard to complain. With that said it was not a very exciting game for a crowd to get into. It is the play on the field that gets a crowd going and we are kind of vanilla. Again we are winning so it is hard to complain but not great for charging up the crowd.

[proasu89]

I have a questions that at least one on here can answer. The gold seat on the west side that are fenced off from the rest of the seats -Do those seats also allow one to hang out inside the Appalachian Athletics Center? At both Miami and Idaho I was in the east stands and had a great view of these seats. That section appeared to be 1/3 full or maybe less than that. Were folks hiding out inside the building?

Don't think so, and they certainly don't have access to 5th floor club level.

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

I have a questions that at least one on here can answer. The gold seat on the west side that are fenced off from the rest of the seats -Do those seats also allow one to hang out inside the Appalachian Athletics Center? At both Miami and Idaho I was in the east stands and had a great view of these seats. That section appeared to be 1/3 full or maybe less than that. Were folks hiding out inside the building?

Don't think so, and they certainly don't have access to 5th floor club level.

Shame they are not being used.

[Yosef84]

We are winning so it is hard to complain. With that said it was not a very exciting game for a crowd to get into. It is the play on the field that gets a crowd going and we are kind of vanilla. Again we are winning so it is hard to complain but not great for charging up the crowd.

I don't know if I agree about yesterday's game being "vanilla." There were some exciting plays including some beautiful pass plays but they mostly happened in the middle of the field and were followed by penalties or sacks which caused the drives to stall in the red zone. That something that hasn't been a problem previously but for some reason happened repeatedly yesterday. I think it does deflate the enthusiasm of the when that happens.

[huskie3]

I have a questions that at least one on here can answer. The gold seat on the west side that are fenced off from the rest of the seats -Do those seats also allow one to hang out inside the Appalachian Athletics Center? At both Miami and Idaho I was in the east stands and had a great view of these seats. That section appeared to be 1/3 full or maybe less than that. Were folks hiding out inside the building?

Don't think so, and they certainly don't have access to 5th floor club level.

Shame they are not being used.

I think they are sold, maybe not used all the time. I know one who still gets gold seats (4), but also buys 2 in sky boxes on east side.

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

I have a questions that at least one on here can answer. The gold seat on the west side that are fenced off from the rest of the seats -Do those seats also allow one to hang out inside the Appalachian Athletics Center? At both Miami and Idaho I was in the east stands and had a great view of these seats. That section appeared to be 1/3 full or maybe less than that. Were folks hiding out inside the building?

Don't think so, and they certainly don't have access to 5th floor club level.

Shame they are not being used.

I think they are sold, maybe not used all the time. I know one who still gets gold seats (4), but also buys 2 in sky boxes on east side.

I just hope someone that would really like to use those seats are not locked out of using the seats. Hard to complain if someone is buying them (and more), but it just doesn't sit well with me to have such great seats not being used.

[MDaniels84]

I hate to break up all of the pissing and moaning posts about attendance but I just missed it by 80 on my guess .

[Goapps15]

We are leading the conference in attendance at this point by over 3k on average per game. We are at roughly 27,500. Texas State is second at 24K and that number will only continue to plummet.

Other G5 teams of interest:
Marshall is at 28,544.
MTSU is at 20,828.
Wku is at 19,500.
Southern Miss is at 28,580.

We are doing better at getting people to the games this year but haven't done a good job of getting the fans into the game due to several reasons. That's one thing I hope the fan survey takes into account this year.