This obviously is not breaking news to anyone reading this post, however there seems to be "fans" of the Orange that consider themselves smart or educated consumers, choosing to not participate in the game day experience, and suggesting that the rest of us would be wise to also not support our Orange from the friendly confines of the Carrier Dome.
I'm glad that my post in another thread was completely misunderstood.
I'm not really suggesting that people should stay away from the Dome. However, it is completely reasonable to point out our fans have had very few positive experiences when going to the Dome. That's not recent history either. Even a lot of the games we have won have been a struggle.
This is a huge oversimplification, but consumers buy things for different reasons and sacrifice other opportunities as part of the cost of their purchase. So, for some consumers (fans) the idea of spending time in the Dome with friends and family watching their favorite team play is a satisfactory experience. Those are your diehards, and they're called diehard for a reason. For some consumers (fans) the experience needs to be different from what the diehard will enjoy in order for it to be worth the financial cost and the opportunity cost. If they eat those costs and they're not satisfied with the experience, well... they probably don't feel good about that deal.
When consumers (fans) evaluate the potential experience against the costs, feel it won't be worth it, and then the game results suggest they were right they were a smart consumer. Having smart consumers is a good thing, because their behavior means that you can identify some of the reasons why people aren't choosing your product (the team).
I'm not saying that you ignore your diehards, but I am saying that your product has enough intrinsic value to keep them. We don't have enough people like that to sell out the Dome though. So, you've got to fill those seats, and that means you've got to appeal more broadly to your community of potential buyers. Telling those people that they aren't real fans doesn't help that cause - crowds don't willingly show up someplace where they're going to feel alienated. Telling them they have some sort of obligation to come because they're from the area and it's their duty to cheer for the home team doesn't help; people want to feel like they're making a choice, not like they're being told what they have to do. Winning matters a lot, but it's not like you can just flip a switch and win. Making the experience more fun (soooooooo much involved in that, but I prefer to focus on what the novelty of having a high flying offense would do for our fanbase) helps, and is probably one of the things you can most directly control.
Look everyone, sports are supposed to be fun and inclusive for a community. They're an escape. If they're not fun and inclusive people aren't going to participate. Our football has not been consistently fun for a really long time. We absolutely can turn that around, but it requires some choices. Here's OttoinGrotto's easy three step plan to making football more fun and bringing in more of those discerning consumers:
1. Acknowledge that fans are sophisticated consumers making real choices that should be respected.
2. Assess the unique advantages your program has that you maybe aren't capitalizing on the way you could be.
3. Put a high flying offense in the unique advantage you're pissing away and watch people come in and have fun.
It really isn't that crazy. It isn't even difficult. We just have to change our thinking, and let the changes in our thinking guide our actions.
