Low Attendance?

[Rick83]

The bottom line is, and the SSU game last weekend is not a good barometer for a lot of reasons, but if we don't start thinking big we're never going to get there. The AD and his staff are thinking that way with the scheduling, so I support anything that moves our facility in that direction as well. The video board upgrade is a step in that direction, obviously we have resource constraints but we're getting the scheduling in place to support more facility so I'm supportive of that.

[Saint3333]

You can cancel hotel reservations up to 24-48 hours of your stay...

Not talking about canceling, but getting one to start with. I know very well what the policies are for canceling rooms in Boone. BTW, on certain key week ends, they won't allow you to cancel that late.

I do it all the time.

[EastHallApp]

You can cancel hotel reservations up to 24-48 hours of your stay...

Not talking about canceling, but getting one to start with. I know very well what the policies are for canceling rooms in Boone. BTW, on certain key week ends, they won't allow you to cancel that late.

Couldn't you make the hotel reservations as soon as the schedule came out, then cancel them if you were unable to buy satisfactory tickets? That would give you a month's notice before the first game.

Schedule means nothing when games are switched to Wednesdays, Thursdays, or Fridays.

Any such changes would be made well before the single game on-sale date, so that would be irrelevant. You'd still have a month to cancel if you didn't get the seats you like.

[JTApps1]

I wonder if anyone has tried to figure out who sits on the hill, and what their reason for sitting there is?

I'd imagine a good number are students that either don't know where some of the other student sections are, or they just want to have more room to socialize. I also wonder if some people don't realize they can buy single game tickets in reserved sections because the seating map lists them as YC sections? There are certainly people that just prefer to sit there for various reasons such as giving young children room to move around as well. Some may sit there based off of ticket price alone.

Once the track is gone I'd like to see the bank moved closer, but also have some seating built onto it. That would leave the grass area for those that wish to have that "experience," but we would also have an increase in seating as well. Something along the lines of what Clemson has.

[EastHallApp]

I agree that the temporary seating is an affordable and reasonable option for now. That's why there is not a rush. I just don't believe this should be our permanent solution.

I would also like to see more visiting fans, but I think we'll see some of that with CCU coming into the conference. GS travels well, and if GSU ever starts winning a few, there is potential. If we get P5 games (or good G5 teams) from within our geographical area, that will also help. Miami and WF both sold a bunch. ODU brought quite a few. Marshall and ECU will bring plenty. Who knows what Charlotte will do.

YES. When local teams like Marshal, ECU, UNC, WFU, maybe CCU, Etc. come to Boone they will bring way more people than our normal Sun Belt opponents. Also, Georgia Southern has historically brought a lot of people but if their downturn continues it'll probably drop off, we've been playing them on Thursday nights which obviously limits their fan travel. Keep in mind that stadium changes don't happen overnight so you have to plan WAY ahead for needs and we're just in our what, 4th FBS year? We're just getting started people...another thing is that if we develop rivalries with other Sun Belt teams like Troy or Ark State that'll help as well. Rivalries don't happen overnight. Also, imagine when we host a Sun Belt Conference championship game in Boone when that gets started next season (hopefully we won't have a down season with Lamb gone), but I hope that we will in the not-too-distant future, host a SBC Conference championship game.

We'll always jam the joint for quality, name, and area opponents. That's not a problem.

Exactly, so why limit ourselves to 35K max with people standing shoulder to shoulder on a hill that's not even close to the south end zone? If we added 5k to 10K actual seats (and not sure how feasible that is) and we have ECU, Marshall, WFU, Carolina then we'd have 40 to 50K in attendance...easy. Start having 50K in attendance (not as an average but for a game or two each season) and see what that does to recruiting...why would we want to limit ourselves? We have to think big, we can be the next Boise State or Houston...let's think as big as our resources allow us to.

Boise State didn't expand over 30,000 seats until after they won the Fiesta Bowl. Even now, after a decade-plus as a top 20 program and in a much larger metro area than we are, their stadium holds 36,000 - or about 1,500 more than our max attendance.

Houston has more than twice the enrollment we do, is located in the country's fifth-largest metro area, and plays in a brand-new stadium - with 40,000 seats (record crowd of < 43,000).

If we added 10,000 seats we'd fill them for one game every year or two. The rest of the time, based on current demand, the stadium would be half-empty and our homefield atmosphere would be an embarrassment. And there'd be zero incentive to entice new season ticket buyers, since they'd know there'd be plenty of choice seats available to the public for any game they like.

I'm all for thinking big, but we can't create demand out of thin air simply by increasing supply.

[8993]

Until we sell the stadium out for every single game, including FCS games, I don't see a need to expand. I saw way too much aluminum on Saturday to think we need to expand right now. Yeah, we might sell out for Wake and Miami, but every team is not Wake and Miami. Our fanbase needs to treat every game like Wake or Miami before we expand.

[havefunkc]

We used to draw 25k no matter the opponent. Home opener with next home game two weeks away, perfect weather. I'm not buying a hurricane 1,000 miles away as an excuse. The mentality of our fanbase (and most of CFB) has changed due to tv/internet access.

While I agree that tv/internet are starting to change the face of sports, the hurricane did played a bigger role than one might think... I know of several families that usually drive up from SC and GA that elected to stay home. At the time of decision making for a trip to Boone, just about every weather forecast had Irma tearing up the east coast. Hard decisions were made. Just look at the SSU fan base at game as example (lot less than last game in Boone for the Tigers).

[yosef13]

Why should we measure our demand based on attendance against an FCS opponent? That would be the same as the Panthers measuring demand based on a pre season game. We average over capacity every year, and we were doing so before Miami and Wake. We have temporary endzone seats that hold 3k and a waiting list a mile long for club level. That is all the proof that I need.

Also, take into consideration that there were less than ten SSU fans in attendance on Saturday. If we move to a geographical conference model in the future, which we will, we will likely see fan bases traveling. Look at the CCU game coming up. Sold out! What happening if we are in a conference with Charlotte, ODU, CCU, GS, etc. Those fans will bring a few thousand, right? Be proactive.

[Rick83]

I agree yosef13, as stated before, as we add more regional games we're going to see more coming from the visitors. I'd also like to see those temporary bleachers converted to perm seats, and it's coming, just takes time. These things take time to develop, I'm not saying we need the expansion right now. I'm saying we need to plan for a larger program playing major regional games at home. I don't like being capped at 35K max occupancy (and that's with a 3rd of the crowd standing--think about that 1 out of 3 without a seat) when the ECU, WFU, UNC, Marshall type games would draw 40 to 50K. I know others on the board disagree but that's where I stand.

[EastHallApp]

Why should we measure our demand based on attendance against an FCS opponent? That would be the same as the Panthers measuring demand based on a pre season game. We average over capacity every year, and we were doing so before Miami and Wake. We have temporary endzone seats that hold 3k and a waiting list a mile long for club level. That is all the proof that I need.

Also, take into consideration that there were less than ten SSU fans in attendance on Saturday. If we move to a geographical conference model in the future, which we will, we will likely see fan bases traveling. Look at the CCU game coming up. Sold out! What happening if we are in a conference with Charlotte, ODU, CCU, GS, etc. Those fans will bring a few thousand, right? Be proactive.

It's not just based on Savannah State. It's based on the past four years, minus Wake, Miami and maybe a couple Family Day games.

Again, "over capacity" relies on the sale of GA seats that aren't included in the official "capacity." We aren't selling out reserved seats, plain and simple. Not even close. Don't take my word for it, go look at our ticket site.

I do agree that realigning to a more regional conference would be a boon for attendance, and not just from more visiting fans. And I absolutely agree on the need for more club seats.

I just have a different view than you on supply and demand, I guess. I don't believe in building thousands of new reserved seats in the hope that the demand might be there for them one day, when we aren't selling the ones we have now for most games.

I'd rather build them too late than too early. If you wait until you actually have the demand for them, then you get sellouts every week. You get increased season ticket sales and YC donations as fans see they need to pay for priority rather than waiting for public on-sale and getting left out altogether. You sell your tickets for full price instead of deep-discount sales and giveaways. You let fans feel the scarcity and then see if they're willing to donate to a facilities fund. It's not exactly a bad outcome. It's what a thriving program looks like.

[EastHallApp]

For the record, my hope is that we can eventually bowl in the north endzone and leave the hill intact (other than bringing it closer to the field). That way you leave lawn seating as an option for those who do enjoy it, plus you add additional true capacity rather than just replacing lawn seats with reserved seats.

[yosef13]

For the record, my hope is that we can eventually bowl in the north endzone and leave the hill intact (other than bringing it closer to the field). That way you leave lawn seating as an option for those who do enjoy it, plus you add additional true capacity rather than just replacing lawn seats with reserved seats.

That would be perfect. Replace the temporary 3k in the north with permanent 4k, 1k +/- club, and bring the hill right up on the back of the end zone. If you do that we are really only adding 2k to KBS currently with the temp seating. This would enhance the game experience by a ton. That would put us at approx 26k with the potential to still pack 10k on the hill. This is not that big of a jump. If we ever need to expand more you can add as many permanent seat to the hill that you want. The sky's the limit in the south end zone.

[yosef13]

Why should we measure our demand based on attendance against an FCS opponent? That would be the same as the Panthers measuring demand based on a pre season game. We average over capacity every year, and we were doing so before Miami and Wake. We have temporary endzone seats that hold 3k and a waiting list a mile long for club level. That is all the proof that I need.

Also, take into consideration that there were less than ten SSU fans in attendance on Saturday. If we move to a geographical conference model in the future, which we will, we will likely see fan bases traveling. Look at the CCU game coming up. Sold out! What happening if we are in a conference with Charlotte, ODU, CCU, GS, etc. Those fans will bring a few thousand, right? Be proactive.

It's not just based on Savannah State. It's based on the past four years, minus Wake, Miami and maybe a couple Family Day games.

Again, "over capacity" relies on the sale of GA seats that aren't included in the official "capacity." We aren't selling out reserved seats, plain and simple. Not even close. Don't take my word for it, go look at our ticket site.

I do agree that realigning to a more regional conference would be a boon for attendance, and not just from more visiting fans. And I absolutely agree on the need for more club seats.

I just have a different view than you on supply and demand, I guess. I don't believe in building thousands of new reserved seats in the hope that the demand might be there for them one day, when we aren't selling the ones we have now for most games.

I'd rather build them too late than too early. If you wait until you actually have the demand for them, then you get sellouts every week. You get increased season ticket sales and YC donations as fans see they need to pay for priority rather than waiting for public on-sale and getting left out altogether. You sell your tickets for full price instead of deep-discount sales and giveaways. You let fans feel the scarcity and then see if they're willing to donate to a facilities fund. It's not exactly a bad outcome. It's what a thriving program looks like.

Minus all the marquee games? I'm sorry but why should these not be included when judging demand?

[EastHallApp]

Minus all the marquee games? I'm sorry but why should these not be included when judging demand?

They should be included. It's just that those are 3-4 sellouts out of 24 games.

[yosef13]

Minus all the marquee games? I'm sorry but why should these not be included when judging demand?

They should be included. It's just that those are 3-4 sellouts out of 24 games.

Our stadium has approx 22k permanent seats. I think we can all agree on that. The temp seats last year were around 2500 last year. That would give us a seating capacity of approx 24,500 last year.

We exceed that 3 times in 2016. Are these not sellouts? Are these not cases where we have more fans than seats? We already have two cases of this in 2017 with Wake and CCU, yet we are focusing on the attendance against possibly the worst program in college football.

[JMappfan5]

Our stadium has approx 22k permanent seats. I think we can all agree on that. The temp seats last year were around 2500 last year. That would give us a seating capacity of approx 24,500 last year.

We exceed that 3 times in 2016. Are these not sellouts? Are these not cases where we have more fans than seats? We already have two cases of this in 2017 with Wake and CCU, yet we are focusing on the attendance against possibly the worst program in college football.
[/quote]

We haven't played ECU or Charlotte yet...LOL!!!

[Yosef10]

Just curious why people sitting on the hill dont move to the empty east side stands after the game starts.
It is tough sitting on that slope.

It's mostly students on the hill for all the games I went to while at App. I stood there probably every game because the student section was full by the time we got in there.

Actually, the one time (Liberty, yikes) our group sat on the East side we were told to sit down and not be so loud by the old folks (apologies to the cool old folks) behind us. App games can be a strange football environment sometimes...

[APPdiesel]

Preference question...

If the proposed north endzone facility gets built, do you want to see similarly structured temporary seating go up in the south endzone or bring the hill in?

[yosef13]

Just curious why people sitting on the hill dont move to the empty east side stands after the game starts.
It is tough sitting on that slope.

It's mostly students on the hill for all the games I went to while at App. I stood there probably every game because the student section was full by the time we got in there.

Actually, the one time (Liberty, yikes) our group sat on the East side we were told to sit down and not be so loud by the old folks (apologies to the cool old folks) behind us. App games can be a strange football environment sometimes...

And we wonder why our students leave early. The student section looks like a can of sardines. We need to work on this. I'm not sure how much more proof is needed.

[jm18668]

One figure that I've never seen posted is how may of our total seating is allocated to students vs how many students actual attend the game. To me the student section is always appears over capacity and this skews the data to make it look like we are always selling out except for GA tickets. I have great seats on the 45 and there are some games that I can't give them away. Last week was one of those games

I was also solicited with the opportunity to buy club seats for last weekend. So those aren't sold out or people are returning them to be resold.

Our stadium will eventually need another 5-6000 seat, but for that to happen Yosef Club participation must grow and season ticket sales need to come very close to selling out before we should commit to that kind of capital outlay. In the mean time temporary bleachers seem to be doing the trick.