Football Our fanbase

[bullnupe]

Not sure about the percentages but I can say I get to 2 home games each year 1 being homecoming plus 1 road game no matter what the records are maybe I could squeeze another in the budget if we were 7-0 or 6-1 late in the season. Also seems my entire wardrobe outside of suits for work has USF logos on them. And my wife knows if im up at night surfacing the web its not looking at porn its reading about realignment rumors on the bullspen or how good publix chicken is.

[Skingraft]

Honestly, i'm not worried about other fans.  I can only do everything I can do to positively speak about the team, get my buns in the seat, and the team/school have to do the rest....

[Hem]

^{People will show up for the first game, including plenty of students; they always do.}

 

^{Whether people come back for the next, is up to this team and their will to win.}

[slick1ru2]

 

I think there is a percentage that go to games more because they love football than are USF fans. They live close by and go to games. They might wear USF apparel but in reality they do it more to blend it. We've done that here at GT games, the closest college games to where we live (although there will be an even closer team soon).  My wife is from south NJ, Philadelphia Eagles fan but cheers for the Falcons (something I never do).  I know people in Sarasota like that, that are FSU fans and alumni but go to USF games because they are close and love football and cheer the Bulls simple because they are local. Now do these people go to USF games when the team is losing? I'd think to some that team success doesn't matter as much, its really about watching football live.

 

I can agree with that. Though sometimes some of those casual "just love to watch football" fans get tickets from actual USF fans who have gotten fed up with it, or when the team isn't doing well they teeter off the top of the fence and over to the "I've got more important stuff to do on Saturdays with family/friends" mode, so sometimes it ends up being a wash, but still better than the USF fan not going and no one taking their tickets (which I saw happen a lot last year since nobody wanted to go watch that torture).

 

PS - are you talking about GA Southern? They're making the jump, going to be in SunBelt soon.

 

 

https://web.kennesaw.edu/news/stories/ksu-football-signing-day-excitement

[Rocky Style]

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a bad fan and haven't been coming out as much recently. But, with a 4 year old and a 1 year old, it's a lot of work to get the posse out to the game and back for a product that doesn't keep me entertained.

Slide me from diehard to bandwagon.

I noticed on one Thursday or Friday night against PITT a few years back that there wasn't any energy in the stadium anymore. It's been a bit of a downward spiral. The product gets worse, energy level gets lower, we lose more, the product gets worse, people find other things to do with their weekend. The McNeese debacle really killed it last season. Not too many people are hardcore enough to watch a rebuilding project. I'm one of them because I like the building aspect of football. But let's be honest, those games almost put me into a coma sometimes. I'm not even mad anymore it's just... Sit there and analyze and eat junk food. Wait, that sounds awesome.

Now that I think about it, it was a gradual build of momentum over a few years that brought us to the sold out game against WVU.

I don't see it as a bandwagon at all, but more of a younger tradition that is going to ebb and flow. Being a terrible football team doesn't help bring out the fans, so fix that and hopefully not have a bunch of turd opponents at home and you can build it back up again. Getting a stadium on campus would help build some connection too. I know lots of people that never go back after they graduate. I think they had that community connection building, but nuked it to hell so you have to start all over again.

Random thoughts...

[JTrue]

I'm on campus fairly regularly since my wife works there and I do from time to time, but I get what you're saying. I guess it's just a matter of different priorities these days. A couple years ago, I'd make time to go to the game, now I hit 1-2 and that's fine. It's just getting harder and harder to justify the expense of more than that, both in my time and money. Baseball, soccer, and basketball are all cheaper and easier to attend. Throw in a little excitement with new baseball and basketball hires, an always solid soccer team, and football is going to have to earn me back again.

[Flowers4Heisman]

I think three factors have hurt us:

 

Short history of football; we started a losing slide; and USF was not good at marketing to the USF community.

 

My belief is that if the people who are associated with USF (students, staff, faculty, and their immediate family) don't care enough, no one on the outside is going to care. When you care, you go to games no matter what the scoreboard reads. People on the outside, they are bandwagoners and will show up when the wagon moves fast.

 

We have a new AD and a bunch of new people, including coaches and players. Hopefully, things will change.

 

Football attendance this year will tell the story (if things have changed or not), regardless of the wins and losses.

[MaltLiquorBull]

Our fan base has lost our belief that we can win.  Last year, it was about the tailgate only.  Cheering on the way into the stadium, I always had in the back of my mind:  How will we lose today?  This is the attitude of a loser.  

 

Winning breeds winning.

Losing breeds losing.

 

If we start to win, it will all pick up and start moving again.  Like it has been said on this thread--fans will feed off the energy of the team, and the team will feed off of the energy of the fans.  It takes wins to get more wins.  Like anything else in life.

[CousinRicky]

While at the games last year I think I shook my head saying "pitiful" when looking at all the empty seats way too many times. My biggest fear for the coming year is the style of offense the team will be playing under Taggart.  Ground and pound will put fannies in seats only if you win.  If you have a team this is scoring 35 - 40 points a game, people will get excited.  Winning 10 - 6 is good but not great.  Losing 9 - 6 is, for me, just the worst.  Would much rather lose 42 - 38.  Not that I want to lose, but sitting through the crap we saw last year strains your fandom.  So Coach Tags really needs to make sure we win if he is going to play this style.

 

I put the number around 12 - 13K die-hards if we're taking a poll.  Count me among that number.

[CousinRicky]

I think there is a percentage that go to games more because they love football than are USF fans. They live close by and go to games. They might wear USF apparel but in reality they do it more to blend it. We've done that here at GT games, the closest college games to where we live (although there will be an even closer team soon).  My wife is from south NJ, Philadelphia Eagles fan but cheers for the Falcons (something I never do).  I know people in Sarasota like that, that are FSU fans and alumni but go to USF games because they are close and love football and cheer the Bulls simple because they are local. Now do these people go to USF games when the team is losing? I'd think to some that team success doesn't matter as much, its really about watching football live.

 

What town is she from?