How to get more students to attend the games?

[ProudBull]

Every team will have its base of hardcore fan(i.e us), but the nadwagon people make up the rest.  Look at the Bucs and how the attendence shot up after we started getting good.  That bandwagon has carried on to even today when we, lets face it, stink.   It sucks that it is a popularity contest, but  I think that is what it is for the majority of fans.  THe other thing, is that people may be afraid to jump on because we are so young.   I still hear people talking about how all of our success is not going to last long.  The 2004 4-7 season really was not that long ago.  I guess what I am trying to say that it is harder than more advertisment and publicity, it is going to simply take more time.  

[JoeB]

And actually by the numbers, if we get 6000 or so students to the games that is pretty good by percentages.  6000 out of say 36000 in attendance is 1/6.  Not many schools can boast that high of a percentage from just students.  They are doing the job and will continue to grow each and every year.  Its the older alumni that needs to be held accountable.  People in my age group (30 and up) are the reason why its lacking.

[Matt]

our student section gets pretty full and loud for football games.  i dont think students are the problem right now.  its getting everyone else to come out.

but i do agree with Mutt when he said that it has to be the "cool" thing to do.  i know kids who went to UF and were not sports fans at all.  but they went to as many games as they could because it is what was being talked about EVERYWHERE in gainsville....including the local media.  Until we start to get equal media coverage as the Bucs we wont see huge attendence numbers.

[JoeB]

Rezz, good point.  It helps that Gainesville's rock station, 103.7 is owned and operated by UF.  So they talk Gator sports, and mostly Gator Football all the time.  I believe their call letters are WRUF FM.  I grew up in Ocala 30 miles away and this was the only real classic rock station around that area.  So it definitely helps.  USF doesn't have this luxury.  Also, the ABC TV affiliate we got was out of Gainesville, so we watched news coverage many nights with a UF slant.  Most of the anchors, if not all, were UF students and produced by other UF people.

[Joe]

Lets get this straight. We will NEVER consistently get equal media than the Bucs.

The NFL rules most of their markets including Tampa. It would be nice, but take Miami for example, they've had 5 National Titles since the Dolphins won their last Super Bowl. Guess who has gotten the majority of the coverage every year?

NFL is king, college will always be second.

As for student attendance, I understand that most believe 1/6th is good, because of the relative youth of the team. However, at most football powerhouses more than 1/2 the student body can be found at their football games. At 4,500 we drew less students than most schools in the country and until we get that number up, support will struggle.

Remember the FUTURE of the program is on the CURRENT STUDENTS. The past alumni and those who will only jump on teh bandwagon when we are super successful (by that I mean up to the standards that the BIg 3 have set in this state) will never give the money that this program will ultimately need to compete for a national championship annually.

[Mission9]

WIN AND THEY WILL COME

Do not play schools such as Buffalo, South Carolina St, FIU, & Stetson and they may show up

Funny, Auburn played Buffalo last year and their crowd looked large on tv .  Jewbull, when you find out about a big time school willing to do one and one's with USF, please contact the athletic department since I am sure that the AD would be interested in signing them up.

[JoeB]

Our attendance problems aren't student related, its alumni related.  Sure we'd like to get more students at the games.  We will.  Every year we'll get more and more, but our big disadvantage is the alumni portion that aren't involved with anything USF, except for being a graduate.

[Joe]

You gotta understand that most of our alumni were not here when we had football, therefore they filled their saturday void with one of the big 3 or a team like Notre Dame.

Many are committed to their current team of choice. Do every expect a lot of them to just make the switch immediately when USF gets a team? No.

And save the "school pride" talk, because if it existed we'd have a lot more fans. The thing is people are going to be a fan of a team they became committed to over time. Asking someone who was a hardcore FSU fan to switch allegiances because USF started a team is not going to happen in most cases.

The reality is the current students are probably going to be the biggest chunk of the fanbase in 10-20 years and if only 4,500 are showing to games we might have problems.

Like it or not USF is competing with UF and FSU for fans one our OWN campus. Until we start winning at UF and FSU levels consistently (or at least at the levels those schools established in the 80s/90s) we're going to have a tough sell.

School pride or not. It obviously is not a huge factor from that survey.

[Mission9]

Our attendance problems aren't student related, its alumni related.  Sure we'd like to get more students at the games.  We will.  Every year we'll get more and more, but our big disadvantage is the alumni portion that aren't involved with anything USF, except for being a graduate.

Right.  

[Matt]

Lets get this straight. We will NEVER consistently get equal media than the Bucs.

The NFL rules most of their markets including Tampa. It would be nice, but take Miami for example, they've had 5 National Titles since the Dolphins won their last Super Bowl. Guess who has gotten the majority of the coverage every

.

I understand what you're saying but you can't use Miami as a comparison in anything sports related.  that is the most backwards ass sports town there is and UM is not a public university.  very few people in that city have any ties with that program.

Look at a market like Detroit, university of michigan isn't even Detroit but they gets tons of media coverage.  I don't know if its line for line, minute to minute with the Lions (its impossible just because NFL gives media so much more to report then NCAA does, much more practices, press conferences, games, etc)

I would like to see USF get some frontpage headlines in the sports section, major write ups every day during football season in both papers.  on Friday night news have USF be the lead-in story and not just soemthing they mention at the end while they are shuffling their papers.