George McDonald's challenge

[mountaincuse]

Your personal opinion regarding my attitude is irrelevant to the discussion. I am a casual fan with numerous entertainment options after a long work week. If you want me and many others to come to a meaningless spring football game you have to offer more than a meaningless spring football game. It is not something to argue about or put others down it is the reality of the marketplace. This is not a rabid football town. The University has to work, work, and work as if it was a professional football team to fill that stadium. Simply stating that the staff and players are working hard so lets all go and support them or watiting for a winning season is not going to get it done.

Attitudes like this are why we have the situation you are pissing and moaning about.

It's not always about you or what someone else can do for you.

 

[cuseinchina]

First off, I like McDonald's challenge, it sits well with the rest of the fan friendly behavior we've seen from the new staff. I also like the fact that he's 'working with' syracuse.com to get the message out. Maybe he'll get a thousand more than would have otherwise come. This new openness with fans and the community WILL pay off. It is also about 3 months old and it will take time (and some more winning) for people to fully buy in to it. But it's the right attitude and right direction.

Having said that, the athletic department needs to do a much better job if they hope to make this a real event and in general NEED TO STEP UP THE MARKETING to even close to what other schools are doing. A small investment could have real returns in terms of season ticket sales and in single game ticket purchases and support this fall. What it does for recruiting is tough to say, but more people definitely can't hurt. Whether you think it should be necessary or not, whether you think it's cheesy and stupid or not, clearly our competition is doing this stuff and doing it for a reason...

step 1 - You can look to some of the other ACC schools to see what they do, some ideas from the middle to lower tier of the ACC include:
UNC - Food trucks and food vendors (free, good for local businesses makes it more like a weekend festival feel instead of just a die hard football event), a decent band playing on stage, pictures for kids in team uniform cutouts, photo session for 'boys' of all ages with the cheerleaders, autograph session with signed autograph cards for first 3000 fans
Georgia Tech - live band, inflatables/games for kids, beer/food outside the stadium, fireworks after the game
NC State - not at the spring game but huge concert/festival in august called Packapalooza - google it

step 2 - Beyond the stuff above (some of which would be easy to do (vendors, maybe a band, stuff for kids to make it like a street festival), you could potentially have these randomly thought up offerings or something like them : first 500 kids through the door participate in practice drills with the team - could have stations for throwing, receiving, kicking field goals etc; autograph session with the FINAL 4 BASKETBALL SQUAD (i know i know but you have to play the cards you got); sneak preview mock up tent with a large model of the IPF; prizes given to random ticket holders - dinner with the team captains or head coach, autographed jersey, season tickets etc; NY state craft beer tasting tent etc.

step 3 - promote it via traditional outlets and let people know how different it is now than it has been in the past. McDonald is doing the right thing getting it out via the post standard...and with some new bells and whistles that outlet would be enough to get a big increase in the number of people coming..i mean people love city street festival, add a football game to it and all of a sudden the dad is happy too not just the wife and kids. You could do some TV spots too but I think you do better getting in the local paper and maybe getting on the local news.

step 4 - direct promotion. How easy would it bee to print up 100k 'tickets' to this event? Make them look cool, include some promotional material on the 'stuff' that will be available and then give them to the following groups: season tickets holders for any sport (obviously), every student should get two in their mailbox as should every professor (yes even the women's studies department), then give out a couple to every single one of the 19000 kids in public schools in the city of syracuse. Make this about family, community, and coming together to support something positive in the city.

The point is to make syracuse football part of the cultural fabric of the community and make the spring game attractive enough for casual fans with families to take up half a saturday to attend. Die hards will be there anyway, adding this 'stuff' does nothing to take away from what they experience. Gotta broaden the reach. Doing a fraction of what I outlined in step 1/2 (many of which are free), and spending the money to do step 4 - would work wonders and generate a great deal of goodwill. If it annoys the die-hards who want it to be all about football, so be it.

 

[hoopsupstate]

How about an opportunity to buy new ACC gear? They need to promote the ACC because it's a new start for SU football and a new start for fans.

 

[Doctor44]

I called into a few of the local radio stations today asking them to encourage people to head up and support the team.

 

[snowycuse]

Does this mean I am a total a-hole because I like the football aspect of it and could care less about the rah-rah BS?

Not at all...there are 3K to 7K that will go for that precise reason. This discussion is about getting 20K to the Dome for a Spring Football game. Football alone is not going to attract the other 13K McDonald wants. My attitude is reflective of the casual fan in general. I am not saying you have to like it but it does exist. How do we bridge that gap? Some do not like when an individual such as myself wants to make this "about me and what can Syracuse do for me?" but that is exactly what we are talking about is it not? This is a question of my time and how I want to entertain myself. It is business 101. I am the customer it is the job of Syracuse football to entertain me. Until they figure that out there will be a constant struggle to pack the dome. We do not have 50K die hard football fans in Syracuse so you have to expand and figure out a way to bridge the gap.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

I pushed hard for the spring game with the school I coach at and our kids. We received permission and transportation for the JV and Varsity teams. Because its not a mandatory event we are struggling to get them to give up their Saturdays.

When I was a teenager we absolutely begged coaches/parents to bring us up there. I still remember seeing Chad Elliot, the JUCO, and wondering how he'd do. If I remember correctly he had a cannon for an arm, but, never amounted to much and was gone within a year.

Long story short, a piece of this equation, the youth, would rather have their Saturday to play PS3 or do whatever than take in a game with their friends/teammates. Man, it was awesome to me when I was younger that you could get so close to the players. And we knew who the players were, and what the competitions were.

its not a game, its a scrimmage and about 20 percent of the people who might play next year aren't even at the scrimmage. Also given the mentality of football coaches nothing exciting ever happens with these scrimmages. They are afraid some one will find out that they have a reverse in the playbook. Oh no that would be a disaster

Sent from my SCH-I200 using Tapatalk 2

 

[FAL]

First off, I like McDonald's challenge, it sits well with the rest of the fan friendly behavior we've seen from the new staff. I also like the fact that he's 'working with' syracuse.com to get the message out. Maybe he'll get a thousand more than would have otherwise come. This new openness with fans and the community WILL pay off. It is also about 3 months old and it will take time (and some more winning) for people to fully buy in to it. But it's the right attitude and right direction.

Having said that, the athletic department needs to do a much better job if they hope to make this a real event and in general NEED TO STEP UP THE MARKETING to even close to what other schools are doing. A small investment could have real returns in terms of season ticket sales and in single game ticket purchases and support this fall. What it does for recruiting is tough to say, but more people definitely can't hurt. Whether you think it should be necessary or not, whether you think it's cheesy and stupid or not, clearly our competition is doing this stuff and doing it for a reason...

step 1 - You can look to some of the other ACC schools to see what they do, some ideas from the middle to lower tier of the ACC include:
UNC - Food trucks and food vendors (free, good for local businesses makes it more like a weekend festival feel instead of just a die hard football event), a decent band playing on stage, pictures for kids in team uniform cutouts, photo session for 'boys' of all ages with the cheerleaders, autograph session with signed autograph cards for first 3000 fans
Georgia Tech - live band, inflatables/games for kids, beer/food outside the stadium, fireworks after the game
NC State - not at the spring game but huge concert/festival in august called Packapalooza - google it

step 2 - Beyond the stuff above (some of which would be easy to do (vendors, maybe a band, stuff for kids to make it like a street festival), you could potentially have these randomly thought up offerings or something like them : first 500 kids through the door participate in practice drills with the team - could have stations for throwing, receiving, kicking field goals etc; autograph session with the FINAL 4 BASKETBALL SQUAD (i know i know but you have to play the cards you got); sneak preview mock up tent with a large model of the IPF; prizes given to random ticket holders - dinner with the team captains or head coach, autographed jersey, season tickets etc; NY state craft beer tasting tent etc.

step 3 - promote it via traditional outlets and let people know how different it is now than it has been in the past. McDonald is doing the right thing getting it out via the post standard...and with some new bells and whistles that outlet would be enough to get a big increase in the number of people coming..i mean people love city street festival, add a football game to it and all of a sudden the dad is happy too not just the wife and kids. You could do some TV spots too but I think you do better getting in the local paper and maybe getting on the local news.

step 4 - direct promotion. How easy would it bee to print up 100k 'tickets' to this event? Make them look cool, include some promotional material on the 'stuff' that will be available and then give them to the following groups: season tickets holders for any sport (obviously), every student should get two in their mailbox as should every professor (yes even the women's studies department), then give out a couple to every single one of the 19000 kids in public schools in the city of syracuse. Make this about family, community, and coming together to support something positive in the city.

The point is to make syracuse football part of the cultural fabric of the community and make the spring game attractive enough for casual fans with families to take up half a saturday to attend. Die hards will be there anyway, adding this 'stuff' does nothing to take away from what they experience. Gotta broaden the reach. Doing a fraction of what I outlined in step 1/2 (many of which are free), and spending the money to do step 4 - would work wonders and generate a great deal of goodwill. If it annoys the die-hards who want it to be all about football, so be it.

Keep posting, chinacuse. Good insight.

 

[OrangeAl]

Though the spring game has never been really big for Syracuse, there was a period in the Mac and P years when good crowds came out for football / lacrosse doubleheaders. Remember when we got our first look at RF Marvin Graves slinging the deep ball? We were one pumped up fan base that summer!

 

[Cuseman78]

I'm coming up from NJ for the game with my 10 year old son. If you live local, don't have plans, and consider yourself a fan, why wouldn't you be there?

Coming up from Jersey too. 20k was a pipe dream but I wish there would be more local support for this. Is 10k too much to ask? Shouldn't be.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

Coming up from Jersey too. 20k was a pipe dream but I wish there would be more local support for this. Is 10k too much to ask? Shouldn't be.

Based on previous spring games and from what I'm told, the lack of publicity, 1ok is probably a stretch as well.

 

[FAL]

Coming up from Jersey too. 20k was a pipe dream but I wish there would be more local support for this. Is 10k too much to ask? Shouldn't be.

Sadly, way too much to ask.

 

[anomander]

Coming up from Jersey too. 20k was a pipe dream but I wish there would be more local support for this. Is 10k too much to ask? Shouldn't be.

my thing is you probably could draw 10k with little investment. 20k wasn't happening, and I know 10k would be tough, but if it was marketed better it could be realistic. We are starting fresh with a new staff, a new conference, how about a new approach on doing business? How about trying to reconnect with the younger fan base. I know it's free admission, but look at what Kentucky (another basketball school) did by giving away 11k ticket to grade school kids. Why not hand out tickets to school kids in an attempt to reintroduce them to Syracuse football. Try to get the younger generation back involved. Offer meet the players or something like that. But at the very least there should have been advertising the past couple weeks or so. At least make the community aware that there is a game, and then make a decision to go, or not to go.

It does seem to have a little more buzz then the last 10 years or so, and really hope we can get at least 5-6k.

 

[omg_cuse_rules]

There's a gun show this sat/sun @ the fairgrounds. don't think there wasn't competition lined up.