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Hobbs to Look at Football Game Day Experience

My list above was about in-the-stadium improvements. Now that parking has been assigned I want to add some suggestions for outside the stadium:

  • Improved Knightingale service, with more stops and more trams, so that those with mobility issues can take advantage of the service regardless of which lot they park in.
  • Adequate room in parking lots for tailgating. Earlier this year (https://rutgers.forums.rivals.com/threads/football-parking-update.85746/page-3#post-1840686), I discussed the state code for parking lot spacing. By following the code, and putting the orange lines 60 feet apart, Rutgers ensures that each car has enough room to park and set up a 10-foot canopy behind their car. Since tailgating is a big part of the gameday experience, and we pay lots of money for the ability to tailgate, Rutgers needs to provide adequate room to tailgate.

With regard to the parking spaces, at least do that for the front part of the grass lots that fill-up earlier with the tents.
 
Trough. The bathrooms have more sinks than urinals.

Add wall length troughs and most of the bathroom issues are fixed.
 
So tired of this shtick. Either donate $$ to the band fund or STFU.

In case you'd like to know I donated 250 to the new uniforms fund for the band last year. What have you and your fellow malcontents donated besides repeated pissing and moaning posts on a message board ?

Very sad.

Sorry I didn't see this merd a couple of weeks ago.

Pray tell, how my donation is going to increase the band membership? Are we going to hire more members? The uniforms look great btw.

Why do schools like South Florida and Kansas State (for example) have better bands than we do? Frankly I don't know the answer. Someone does though. We aren't going to have tOSU's band but there is no reason why our massive State University band should look and sounds like a small private school's.
 
Knightmoves, Does Rutgers have someone who visits all the high schools in the state to talk to their marching band members to A) Talk to them about attending Rutgers and B) Speak with them about the Rutgers Band should they be interested in going to RU ?
 
Correct. I've spoken to a few people about it and the answer I've gotten is no answer ???????

I don't know where they import the Knightengale drivers from
but they often have no idea where the lots are.
One we had last year only knew how to get to the white lot.
She had no connection to Rutgers and lived beyond Middlesex county
And this wasn't early in the year.
She didn't know that they also went out Frelinghuysen to the handicapped lot behind the Blue Lot
not to mention the route to the Purple/Black
Wouldn't some Rutgers students want this job?

Which also brings up the waste that the Frelinghuysen handicapped lot was.
Often there were more workers than people parked there and the lot was 90% empty
yet they moved people down several lots and some, like me, out to Siberia...errr...the Tan Lot.
The parking demotion last year (I went from Black to Tan, that is a three level demotion) and the lie I was told by my rep
plus their non-response to another issue
kept me from ordering parking from Rutgers this year.
Sadly, I could have been back in Black this year
 
I don't know where they import the Knightengale drivers from
but they often have no idea where the lots are.
One we had last year only knew how to get to the white lot.
She had no connection to Rutgers and lived beyond Middlesex county
And this wasn't early in the year.
She didn't know that they also went out Frelinghuysen to the handicapped lot behind the Blue Lot
not to mention the route to the Purple/Black
Wouldn't some Rutgers students want this job?

Which also brings up the waste that the Frelinghuysen handicapped lot was.
Often there were more workers than people parked there and the lot was 90% empty
yet they moved people down several lots and some, like me, out to Siberia...errr...the Tan Lot.
The parking demotion last year (I went from Black to Tan, that is a three level demotion) and the lie I was told by my rep
plus their non-response to another issue
kept me from ordering parking from Rutgers this year.
Sadly, I could have been back in Black this year
Apparently, the buck doesn't stop anywhere and they seem to be OK with that theory. I think Hobbs cares enough to make changes so let's see what happens.
 
Knightmoves, Does Rutgers have someone who visits all the high schools in the state to talk to their marching band members to A) Talk to them about attending Rutgers and B) Speak with them about the Rutgers Band should they be interested in going to RU ?

The freshman class numbers have been pretty consistently good, but the attrition has been brutal. I think they announced something like 10 people on senior day last year.
 
I will never go back to Foxborogh for a PATS games. Because of the TV timeouts they need to keep the people occupied/distracted. So they pump in music so loud to keep your mind off the waiting. Throw in 3rd down music (Hey, you need to wake up people in the stands because they falling asleep during those commericials), live games are becoming so not enjoyable. Giant games like this?

The flow of games are now a lost art. All momentum is stopped.

Or course AD's need to turn football game into circus. Its not about the game. Its about selling ads for the people watching on TV. Plus selling ads behind home plate, on every inch of wall space, inside the dugout, around football field, off the upper deck - soon to be NBA jerseys.

Anyone else beginning to find sporting events maddening?

In this regard, yes . Except soccer. Soccer is great to watch for this reason. Problem is that sometimes the dead time in a football game is still more interesting than the live action of a soccer game.
 
The gangway experience, as far as I'm concerned, is fantastic already. What more do we néed?

We have the best tailgating infrastructure you'll find anywhere. Cheerleaders arrive walking around talking to people. There is a big Kids zone. The band comes into the parking area and plays. There is a public tailgate party. Scarlet walk. There is a huge video board, dj, cool video highlights and team entrance modes, we have cool traditional chants, a huge 50-50. Game day experience is already amazing.

Now if they want to make changes that will help recruiting, then I can get with that for sure.
 
The gangway experience, as far as I'm concerned, is fantastic already. What more do we néed?

We have the best tailgating infrastructure you'll find anywhere. Cheerleaders arrive walking around talking to people. There is a big Kids zone. The band comes into the parking area and plays. There is a public tailgate party. Scarlet walk. There is a huge video board, dj, cool video highlights and team entrance modes, we have cool traditional chants, a huge 50-50. Game day experience is already amazing.

Now if they want to make changes that will help recruiting, then I can get with that for sure.
The game day outside the stadium is very good. I love the pregame atmosphere.

It's the in stadium experience that needs to improve.

Just off the top of my head the food is terrible. I like how Maryland had those crab fries. We don't have anything like that.

The sound system is bad.

Do we need both the train horn and the cannon when we score? I think one if those should go.

There are plenty of other things.
 
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The freshman class numbers have been pretty consistently good, but the attrition has been brutal. I think they announced something like 10 people on senior day last year.
That's the key right there. There was always attrition in the freshman class, but it rose to new levels in the current band. And that got worse due to the attrition in the upper classes, which is very unusual.
 
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I like the train horn, Joe Nolan's 1st down call, Ray Lucas and Chris Carlin "straight up the Turnpike!", 3rd down music is unique (an Iowa alum / ex-player here is VA even mentioned it to me based on what he heard/saw on TV and said he liked it), roaming band members playing in the stands, black outs.
 
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Something I believe is definitely needed are some type of enclosures from possible rainstorms in the bus lines. I will always remember about 3 seasons ago after the Howard game everyone was waiting in the overcrowded bus lines and everyone got drenched. It was so crowded nobody could move out of the line to just walk and an elderly couple next to me were getting pushed around. The wife actually said I will never go to another game after this. It made for a really bad experience. The buses in general need to majorly fixed.
 
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Good.
http://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/i...ers_ad_pat_hobbs_over.html#incart_river_index

"We're looking at the full (football) game-day experience,'' Hobbs said. "Now there may be a limited time for me to make any significant changes this year. But we have our marketing folks looking at the game-day experience, whether it's the videos we use, the music we use. So we'll look at that. We'll probably tinker this year, and then the following year we'll probably do more.

"But it'll probably take me a year going through all our programs before I figure out if there's something else we can do.''
Keep the knight and horse video.
 
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  • I think the food app idea (or some variation of it) is in place at Citi field if I'm not mistaken and seemed to work out well for the people I saw using it.
  • TV and/or radio announcer feed inside the bathrooms (can't remember if they have speakers in there or not)
  • stadium tours? (pre-arranged or at set times...maybe for a small fee or free) Do they have this already?
  • Talk to parking lot workers about parking situation and leaving a bit more space between cars (multiple times they tried getting us to park where we couldnt even open car door to get out)
  • Allow people to tailgate all day/evening on day of games and dont rush people out an hour or so afterwards. I'm still ok with an overall cutoff time, but let's just say everyone out by 10pm (or whatever time) but that is regardless of whether its a 12pm game or 3:30pm, etc
  • Free promo gift giveaways should be made for a lot more people. For items given out inside stadium that might/might not be aside from first 5000 giveaways, yellow coats should be more dilligent about not letting people grab big handfuls of the item and leaving others without.
  • Increase knightingale service
  • have more order with the busses departing field on other side of River Road postgame. The few times I've had to do it were shitshows.
  • Have the knight and/or cheer team come into crowd more / more interaction with fans (meaning the kids, haha)
Agree with most of this. In terms of the Knightengale, I'm disabled and cannot walk very far, I've had to wait while families with middle school aged kids pile onto the cart and leave us old folks in the dust.
 
More Game of Thrones feel to stadium play opening sound track ....with tag line " football is coming". New south end zone needs banners blowing next scoreboard. Would love to see Knight on horse with jousting Lance with opponent mascot image impaled.
Good.
http://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/i...ers_ad_pat_hobbs_over.html#incart_river_index

"We're looking at the full (football) game-day experience,'' Hobbs said. "Now there may be a limited time for me to make any significant changes this year. But we have our marketing folks looking at the game-day experience, whether it's the videos we use, the music we use. So we'll look at that. We'll probably tinker this year, and then the following year we'll probably do more.

"But it'll probably take me a year going through all our programs before I figure out if there's something else we can do.''
Better food would help, get a better Italian Sausage vender, worst sandwiches ever!
 
Better food would help, get a better Italian Sausage vender, worst sandwiches ever!
The same way Maryland has signature food in crab fries, RU should offer some local fare. Would be great for Stuff Yer Face to have a stand to sell bolis, which is great food for football games. Or how about a Johnny's Pork Roll? Or a grease truck INSIDE the stadium. Or a REAL PIZZA Vendor (not Papa Johns). When is Sodexo contract up?
 
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Something I believe is definitely needed are some type of enclosures from possible rainstorms in the bus lines. I will always remember about 3 seasons ago after the Howard game everyone was waiting in the overcrowded bus lines and everyone got drenched. It was so crowded nobody could move out of the line to just walk and an elderly couple next to me were getting pushed around. The wife actually said I will never go to another game after this. It made for a really bad experience. The buses in general need to majorly fixed.

The bus lines after the games are out of control, especially if everyone leaves the stadium at once and especially after night games. The wait can be long but the problem is the drunk students pushing and stampeding in the corrals. I saw a woman get shoved into the wooden corral fencing, fell through it, and got a few scrapes after the Mich State game last year. Two drunk girls started pushing me and when I said "stop that," one replied, "I've been drinking and I'll throw up on you," and resumed pushing in a failing effort to move the pack of 70 people between her and the nearly-full bus forward.

It's the worst representation of the Rutgers student body I've seen, and I am embarrassed that sober people, older alumni, visiting fans witness and have to put up with that. You can have the best atmosphere inside the stadium but if guests fear for their safety in the bus corrals after the game, they will not return. We have stopped taking the bus back (unless there's no line) and just walk back to the train station.
 
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Trough. The bathrooms have more sinks than urinals.

Add wall length troughs and most of the bathroom issues are fixed.

Most on this Board questioned the complete foolishness of the design of the Bathrooms when they opened up with the Expansion in the South Endzone. Clearly built by someone who has never been to a CFB game. 15 Sinks and 4 urinals ? Must have been the Architect firm of Art Vandalay.
 
Most on this Board questioned the complete foolishness of the design of the Bathrooms when they opened up with the Expansion in the South Endzone. Clearly built by someone who has never been to a CFB game. 15 Sinks and 4 urinals ? Must have been the Architect firm of Art Vandalay.
But you have to admit, we have some of the freshest looking fans with clean hands in all of college football! I sit in 107, and I make a beeline for the stack of urinals outside my section--which says a lot on how they must realize how stupid the design of the bathrooms was.
 
Agree with most of this. In terms of the Knightengale, I'm disabled and cannot walk very far, I've had to wait while families with middle school aged kids pile onto the cart and leave us old folks in the dust.
I don't have this problem in the scarlet lot the last 2 years quick in and out. Are you people with all the suggestions for Mr Hobbs ready to fork over extra money for these upgrades because expanding bathrooms and hiring competent glorified golf cart drivers comes with a price. Expect the same and be happy we have what we have. To get the things you awesome dudes want costs money. I doubt many of you will want prices to go up since most of you cry about the prices as is. Hobbs needs to take care of the program's so we don't suck anymore that's job 1. Hobbs is not stepping up for you when so little have stepped up for what's needed. Why is it ok to drink like a fish while you tailgate but have an issue with the school trying to make a buck selling 8 dollar beers inside? $$$ is the answer. Happy Independence Day especially for those who signed up and did your time to keep us free.
 
I don't have this problem in the scarlet lot the last 2 years quick in and out. Are you people with all the suggestions for Mr Hobbs ready to fork over extra money for these upgrades because expanding bathrooms and hiring competent glorified golf cart drivers comes with a price. Expect the same and be happy we have what we have. To get the things you awesome dudes want costs money. I doubt many of you will want prices to go up since most of you cry about the prices as is. Hobbs needs to take care of the program's so we don't suck anymore that's job 1. Hobbs is not stepping up for you when so little have stepped up for what's needed. Why is it ok to drink like a fish while you tailgate but have an issue with the school trying to make a buck selling 8 dollar beers inside? $$$ is the answer. Happy Independence Day especially for those who signed up and did your time to keep us free.
I don't have this problem in the scarlet lot the last 2 years quick in and out. Are you people with all the suggestions for Mr Hobbs ready to fork over extra money for these upgrades because expanding bathrooms and hiring competent glorified golf cart drivers comes with a price. Expect the same and be happy we have what we have. To get the things you awesome dudes want costs money. I doubt many of you will want prices to go up since most of you cry about the prices as is. Hobbs needs to take care of the program's so we don't suck anymore that's job 1. Hobbs is not stepping up for you when so little have stepped up for what's needed. Why is it ok to drink like a fish while you tailgate but have an issue with the school trying to make a buck selling 8 dollar beers inside? $$$ is the answer. Happy Independence Day especially for those who signed up and did your time to keep us free.
I don't have this problem in the scarlet lot the last 2 years quick in and out. Are you people with all the suggestions for Mr Hobbs ready to fork over extra money for these upgrades because expanding bathrooms and hiring competent glorified golf cart drivers comes with a price. Expect the same and be happy we have what we have. To get the things you awesome dudes want costs money. I doubt many of you will want prices to go up since most of you cry about the prices as is. Hobbs needs to take care of the program's so we don't suck anymore that's job 1. Hobbs is not stepping up for you when so little have stepped up for what's needed. Why is it ok to drink like a fish while you tailgate but have an issue with the school trying to make a buck selling 8 dollar beers inside? $$$ is the answer. Happy Independence Day especially for those who signed up and did your time to keep us free.
 
I don't have this problem in the scarlet lot the last 2 years quick in and out. Are you people with all the suggestions for Mr Hobbs ready to fork over extra money for these upgrades because expanding bathrooms and hiring competent glorified golf cart drivers comes with a price. Expect the same and be happy we have what we have. To get the things you awesome dudes want costs money. I doubt many of you will want prices to go up since most of you cry about the prices as is. Hobbs needs to take care of the program's so we don't suck anymore that's job 1. Hobbs is not stepping up for you when so little have stepped up for what's needed. Why is it ok to drink like a fish while you tailgate but have an issue with the school trying to make a buck selling 8 dollar beers inside? $$$ is the answer. Happy Independence Day especially for those who signed up and did your time to keep us free.

What a jerk

Guy is disabled and can barely walk and he is complaining about how the knightingale service is run, and you tell him to pony up more cash.

Shut up about the $ for once, dude.

And by the way, Hobbs is looking for ideas on how to improve game day services, etc.
This isn't just a bitchfest
 
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Agree. This is a thread where people are just throwing out suggested improvement. We are not all so naive to think everyone will be acted upon. As to Knightengake service, certainly appears this should be addressed. 20 years ago I would probably have said what's the big deal. Now needing knee replacement and having some heart issues, I see the need first hand. I don't need to use it as I park fairly close to the stadium. If hiring more glorified golf cart drivers solved the problem, just do it as it is not a big ticket item.
 
1. Good call on organizing the bus lines and adding shelter from the rain.

2. Less piped in music, more band!!

3. See #2
 
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The same way Maryland has signature food in crab fries, RU should offer some local fare. Would be great for Stuff Yer Face to have a stand to sell bolis, which is great food for football games. Or how about a Johnny's Pork Roll? Or a grease truck INSIDE the stadium. Or a REAL PIZZA Vendor (not Papa Johns). When is Sodexo contract up?
I suggested this years ago after the cannon moved from the concourse to the field. There is room for one where it used to be. They should auction the spot off to the highest bidder like the taxi medallions in NYC.

The bus lines after the games are out of control, especially if everyone leaves the stadium at once and especially after night games. The wait can be long but the problem is the drunk students pushing and stampeding in the corrals. I saw a woman get shoved into the wooden corral fencing, fell through it, and got a few scrapes after the Mich State game last year. Two drunk girls started pushing me and when I said "stop that," one replied, "I've been drinking and I'll throw up on you," and resumed pushing in a failing effort to move the pack of 70 people between her and the nearly-full bus forward.

It's the worst representation of the Rutgers student body I've seen, and I am embarrassed that sober people, older alumni, visiting fans witness and have to put up with that. You can have the best atmosphere inside the stadium but if guests fear for their safety in the bus corrals after the game, they will not return. We have stopped taking the bus back (unless there's no line) and just walk back to the train station.
I have a suggestion for this one too but this also seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
 
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Dunk Tanks at the North entrance give 10% to the "dunkees" ... we should start with Kyle Flood, Mike Rice and Eric Murdoch. At $5 a throw they get rich and we put athletics funding permanently in the black!
 
Maybe instead of the golf carts they should consider something a little larger or that can be hitched together like they use on theme park tours, etc.
Might be a safety issue, but worth considering. Less individual trips too, especially when the game is over and the lines become longer.
Can't believe money would be the problem.
 
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They really need to replace the sound system and get a true professional installation there. Having everything blasting from the scoreboard area is a bad design, period. Particularly since, depending upon which way the wind is blowing, you either can't hear anything or get your eardrums blown out.
Distributed sound systems are fine for voice but absolutely terrible for music or anything with range. What most stadium use are directional speaker arrays from a single point. Why do you think concerts don't put speaker clusters through out the venue?

http://www.danleysoundlabs.com/danl...rth-at-penn-state-universitys-beaver-stadium/
 
Sorry I didn't see this merd a couple of weeks ago.

Pray tell, how my donation is going to increase the band membership? Are we going to hire more members? The uniforms look great btw.

.
For starters it would allow them to provide instruments for the band. Currently members have to provide their own instrument or rent it from the university. The band also charges a fee for uniforms and students must buy their own shoes. Imagine if football required players to provide their own helmet and shoes? In addition it allows them to recruit more musicians from high school bands. They eventually would also be able to provide partial scholarships for members. It also allows them to travel which attrack members.
 
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Distributed sound systems are fine for voice but absolutely terrible for music or anything with range. What most stadium use are directional speaker arrays from a single point. Why do you think concerts don't put speaker clusters through out the venue?

http://www.danleysoundlabs.com/danl...rth-at-penn-state-universitys-beaver-stadium/
Actually at stadium concerts they have delay towers around the venue as you get further from the stage. The reason concerts use directional arrays is because you want the sound to emanate from the direction of the stage. In a sports setting, there is no point of emphasis for the sound, thus a distributed system makes perfect sense. In our case until there is a video board placed at the north end the best setup would be a mix of both. Videos coming from the board pushed more from the scoreboard arrays as that is where you would be looking, announcements and general music from a distributed system. A quick fix would be adding some temporary speakers along the sidelines, similar to the ones pointed at the field during warm ups. Doing this would allow for the scoreboard system to not be run as loud to compensate for the wind when it's blowing out of the north.
 
Maybe instead of the golf carts they should consider something a little larger or that can be hitched together like they use on theme park tours, etc.
Might be a safety issue, but worth considering. Less individual trips too, especially when the game is over and the lines become longer.
Can't believe money would be the problem.
"Watch the tram car, please."
 
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For starters it would allow them to provide instruments for the band. Currently members have to provide their own instrument or rent it from the university. The band also charges a fee for uniforms and students must buy their own shoes. Imagine if football required players to provide their own helmet and shoes? In addition it allows them to recruit more musicians from high school bands. They eventually would also be able to provide partial scholarships for members. It also allows them to travel which attacks members.
It sounded like you were making a good case for donating to the band up until you mentioned the part at the end about donations resulting in them getting attacked. I don't want my money to put them in harm's way.
 
Chris Fowler suggesting that a college football team adopt the Iceland soccer chant.
Definitely cool, but I am having trouble envisioning the whole stadium getting together for this one.
 
The food really is terrible. Something needs to be done about that. What ever they saved on contracts they have lost in sales. I would eat an old foot before one those soggy cold hotdogs.
 
The food really is terrible. Something needs to be done about that. What ever they saved on contracts they have lost in sales. I would eat an old foot before one those soggy cold hotdogs.
It's amazing how bad the food is, which is a shame because a lot of "NJ food" lends itself to mass production. Just think boardwalk & grease trucks and go from there.
 
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