No they wouldn’t, at least not the first time it happens.
After that it’s on the team to keep them coming back.
Rutgers attendance problems and how to fix them
- Thread starter RutgersRecruiting
- Start date
After that it’s on the team to keep them coming back.
Huh? You paid travel mugs in yellow to go hassle people in blue for a free refill of coffee?
I suspect you're correct about that. Not sure the rules have, or will, change enough for that, though.
Some of those blue lot bashes got a little bit too out of control and maybe ruined the tailgating for college students for now and the immediate future. I hope they come back and just keep things a wee bit less animal-house-esque. The students bring a lot of energy.
That's odd. Those of us in yellow paid them to go hassle people in blue.
But not as good as my response to your first misfired attempt!
1) Unless something drastic changed, Rutgers Football tickets are free to students. Their student fees always covered free attendance to all athletic events and you just had to “claim” a ticket before they ran out. They started giving the option to “purchase” season tickets to guarantee a seat when demand > supply (see basketball which is a major event now for students and there’s prob only 1,500 max seats available).
2) As everyone else has said, the major way to improve attendance is to put an entertaining product on the field, win, and win against some big name teams here and there. Attendance lags the product on the field - Chris Ash decimated our fanbase and Schiano will slowly build it back up over time.
3) Other ways to increase attendance:
- Allow students to tailgate in the general lots (and just go after any trouble makers). Students are the next generation of young alumni - if you don’t give them reasons to be in and around the stadium other than opening day when it’s nice super out then why would they purchase tix as young alumni?
- Cut the Mickey Mouse operation The Gameday operations have really turned into a minor league operation (some cringeworthy stuff like the over used train horn, back up truck sound) and it has taken away from the atmosphere IMO.
- Giveaways. What ever happened to free T shirts or Rally towels? Maybe get a company to sponsor a Schiano bobble head. They were giving out BUTTONS this year lol.
- Engage and cultivate Rutgers Newark and Rutgers Camden students. If they’re not paying the same student fees as New Brunswick maybe they don’t get free tickets but how about severely discounted tickets. That’s about 15,000 + additional undergrads each year at your disposal to market and build your fanbase for the future. Forget trying to convince the average NJ resident to support the program - how about starting with one of the easiest groups right beneath your eyes. I know plenty of fans that didn’t graduate New Brunswick (including some who donate and donate well). Stop treating them like they don’t exist.
- Get more local groups, schools, pee wee football teams there with free tickets. No reason to have 10-15K empty seats. That’s additional revenue and potential future -fans.
So you are saying we have fair weather fans and teams like Nebraska do not. I agree this is the case and we need to win to fill the stadium. I think it is a city vs rural thing and also just a culture thing. We have too much to do around here and other areas don’t have that issue. We are pro sports driven and others are not. So I agree we have to win first which is why the RU job is one of the toughest to succeed at but Schiano has done it before so let’s go!
If we are fans of a Mickey Mouse operation some of our fans/posters are Goofy.
Judge: "Let the record show that the defendant, Mickey Mouse, referred to his spouse as crazy."
Defendant: "No I didn't! I said she was f***ing Goofy!"
Other NFL teams. He apparently is on the DC track in the League now.
Doubt he comes back to college now.
the stadium could be a crumbling mess with $25 hot dogs and $50 beers and it would be SOLD OUT EVERY GAME if we were a consistent ranked team.
conversely you could GIVE AWAY free beer and dogs and have cushy heated seats throughout the stadium and it would be utterly empty if we continued on the ASH trajectory.
this conversation is silly.
But there is nothing wrong in discussing ways to tweak and improve the present game day experience while we’re waiting to get better.
“In the meantime..” is a good thread.
That's not what this thread is about, though. Says so right in the title.
^ was gonna be my exact response ^
I absolutely agree that there "nothing wrong in discussing ways to tweak and improve the present game day experience while we’re waiting to get better". THAT is a valid discussion.
but any discussion that such things would have ANY meaningful impact on attendance (outside of WINNING) is just silliness.
100% correct. Some just don't get it (especially the people with the "it's too loud" stuff...that may affect less than 1% of our fan base. Reminds me of when people were claiming "uniforms are one of the biggest reasons kids choose a school"....then John O did a poll of some 100 recruits and that finished dead last lol!).
Well I and few others have pivoted and changed it to the other topic.🙂
Since everyone already knows (or should) winning or a better product ON the field gets the butts in the seats more than a free refill of hot cocoa.
You'd think, but strangely many here labor under the illusion that those nitpicks play a critical role in attendance. As if overpriced chicken wraps are the linchpin holding back a world-class attendance deluge.
I would, however, enthusiastically welcome a separate thread investigating a 2-egg per-attendee rule. No free egg refills, though.
Neither you nor I can speak factually to the percentages of people who will avoid coming to games due to the stadium noise. It's an unknown. It's unknowable.
However, what I can speak to factually is that I've been a season tix holder since the mid-GS 1.0 years and have remained a season tix holder through all the down years. Even if we're losing, I would get season tix and come to games. And I fully expect us to be winning lots more games (perhaps after 2022).
Yet I'm 99.9% certain I won't be renewing my season tix. Entirely because the stadium noise just ruins the entire experience for me. And clearly, based on people's comment on this forum, I'm not alone in that.
So yeah, perhaps it's only a small percentage of folks who'll do that. And if we start winning 9 games a season, new people will come back anyway, noise or not.
But here's the thing, it's an incredibly easy thing to correct and nobody is going to cancel season tickets because the noise level is lowered to tolerable levels for everyone in the stadium. It's pretty stupid to lose fans over something so easy to fix where the fix won't bother anybody.
1. Attendance would be higher if we were a perennial bowl team that was competitive with the top teams in the conference
2. Attendance this year with the same exact on-field results would have been higher if covid never happened
Beyond that, not a whole lot that's going to move the needle very much.
2. Attendance this year with the same exact on-field results would have been higher if covid never happened
Beyond that, not a whole lot that's going to move the needle very much.
I'd guess that 99.99% of the people bitching about the "noise level" to the point that they are CANCELLING season tickets are on these boards. No joke. These boards are a bastion of bitching (no offense, lol...). My group use to have 25 season tickets. We now have 11. Do you know why 12 of the 14 tickets disappeared? Because of Flood and Ash. The other 2 moved to Utah and he WILL get Club Level seats once Greg has us playing well again. THAT IS ALL. No other reason whatsoever (especially "it's too loud for my kids" that some are claiming).
"If he builds it, they will come."
Pretty simple.
Truth. If they ever actually leave in the first place, all the "my poor ear" folks will come rushing back at the speed of sound if we start winning in a convincing way.
This is a good thread but the harsh reality is, not just winning.....we really don't have a bunch of "bad guys" to root against over an extended period of time.
We don't like Cuse, but they're a nuisance in hoops, not football.....BC....?? No one cares......Pitt.....eh???....UConn, USF, Cincinnati....??
We had West Virginia and used to play Penn State 30 years ago at the Meadowlands.....that series stopped for awhile and we aren't Penn State.
We have Maryland, but they're new to the B1G as well.
Without a real enemy to hate against, it becomes harder to care as much....I think the standard in our region is Penn State and until we try and score against them, instead of run, run, short pass, punt, it won't matter.
West Virginia was the one program who consistently brought fans to RU stadium....like it or not, those games were fun.....we just need someone like them to get the outside RU community to recognize that we are competing against and the fans will show up.
Even a Mets fan, who may know the Yankees are better, that Mets fan will buy tickets at Yankees stadium.....Yankees fans who may go to 5 or 6 games a year, love the opportunity to buy a Mets ticket and take over Queens.
It is up to Schiano to cultivate that with Penn State or Michigan State or someone else in the B1G.....OR we should have an annual type game with Cuse or someone else that we can hate against.....
We don't like Cuse, but they're a nuisance in hoops, not football.....BC....?? No one cares......Pitt.....eh???....UConn, USF, Cincinnati....??
We had West Virginia and used to play Penn State 30 years ago at the Meadowlands.....that series stopped for awhile and we aren't Penn State.
We have Maryland, but they're new to the B1G as well.
Without a real enemy to hate against, it becomes harder to care as much....I think the standard in our region is Penn State and until we try and score against them, instead of run, run, short pass, punt, it won't matter.
West Virginia was the one program who consistently brought fans to RU stadium....like it or not, those games were fun.....we just need someone like them to get the outside RU community to recognize that we are competing against and the fans will show up.
Even a Mets fan, who may know the Yankees are better, that Mets fan will buy tickets at Yankees stadium.....Yankees fans who may go to 5 or 6 games a year, love the opportunity to buy a Mets ticket and take over Queens.
It is up to Schiano to cultivate that with Penn State or Michigan State or someone else in the B1G.....OR we should have an annual type game with Cuse or someone else that we can hate against.....
Our B1G entry provided enemies in the form of some of the biggest brands in the game. Problem is, we need to beat them once in a while and play competitive games more often than not.
The 2014 UM win was a nice start, down year or not, but that's all we got. Beating Maryland and Indiana, while nothing to scoff at, just doesn't have that buzz-worthy draw.
its a legit point . we dont have any real rivals at this point.
however....
#1) not to beat a dead horse re "WINNING" but we can certainly start to move towards developing some rivalries after we beat our Big10 mates with some regularity. I understand that we are decades behind and the likes of UM and OSU will likely never consider us rivals but if beat them a few times....at least then they'll consider us a threat. and yes I know PSU doesnt consider us a rival yet but there is potential there if we beat them a few times. it could happen - e.g., ruin their championship dreams some year with an upset... the condescension will change to hate real quick.
#2) not sure if we need to be "rivals" to fill the place if the games are ACTUALLY IMPORTANT. for example, we werent "rivals" with Louisville in 2006 (zero history there) or when we beat #2 USF. there was no "UConflict" :) with USF. but imagine a #5 UM coming in and we are #15 and we have a legit chance to win...and the stakes are high??! the place WILL be rockin! it wont matter if the d'head UM fans dont consider us a "rival" or not. in that scenario...
RU would be good + the game would matter + against a Big10 blueblood + we have a legit chance to win (again in a game that really matters) = CRAZY FILLED RU STADIUM
again...WIN and all of that will develop
that or free hot cocoa
Maybe I’m misunderstanding this post but are you saying you want MORE of the opponents fans at our place?
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