Importance of Attendance at Dome Moving Forward

[upperdeck]

I don't think its an SU thing. Its a change in what people like to do. Look at how many don't go to movies any more. Sports is the same. Unless demand is really high forcing people to stay engaged is hard.

Im not sure even if we had stayed pretty good we would still have the fan base from 30 yrs ago,

 

[upperdeck]

We had 5 of 7 games last year under 40k, with one barely breaking 40k. If we use the 42,750 as the official capacity (Holy Cross was almost 750 above that) then 91.5% is only 39125. With only a 6 game weight the Colgate game IMO puts us under last year's average. We would need to sell out Duke (very likely) and get 40k in all the other games just to break even.

I hope I am wrong but I just don't see us getting to 40k per game this year.


Edit

Also if you are at 25k STHs and keep 90% then add 3k you are at 25,500 STHs this year. That isn’t significant.

I guess the question is the 90% tickets renewed or STHs renewed?

 

[Consigliere]

I guess the question is the 90% tickets renewed or STHs renewed?

I believe renewal rates are based on accounts renewing.

 

[AngryOtto]

We had 5 of 7 games last year under 40k, with one barely breaking 40k. If we use the 42,750 as the official capacity (Holy Cross was almost 750 above that) then 91.5% is only 39125. With only a 6 game weight the Colgate game IMO puts us under last year's average. We would need to sell out Duke (very likely) and get 40k in all the other games just to break even.

I hope I am wrong but I just don't see us getting to 40k per game this year.


Edit

Also if you are at 25k STHs and keep 90% then add 3k you are at 25,500 STHs this year. That isn’t significant.

Does not take into account student ticket sales. Not sure the amount but they have really shown up the last couple of years. My daughter is starting this fall and I know will be at every game. I taught her well.

 

[upperdeck]

We have 5-7K of accounts. So thats like 1000-2000 or so tickets. All depends on what avg per account is.

3000 new might bump up the totals or break even.

 

[Consigliere]

We had 5 of 7 games last year under 40k, with one barely breaking 40k. If we use the 42,750 as the official capacity (Holy Cross was almost 750 above that) then 91.5% is only 39125. With only a 6 game weight the Colgate game IMO puts us under last year's average. We would need to sell out Duke (very likely) and get 40k in all the other games just to break even.

I hope I am wrong but I just don't see us getting to 40k per game this year.


Edit

Also if you are at 25k STHs and keep 90% then add 3k you are at 25,500 STHs this year. That isn’t significant.

Believe the number was 39.130 so you are right on there. The renewal rate does not include student tickets and the 90% figure was told to me in late May. Your numbers overall are likely in the ballpark and the difference between 39k and 41k will likely be determined by walk up and single game sales once the season gets underway and the excitement level is established.

Big boost last year for the Holy Cross game. Never would have hit that number if it weren;t parents weekend. And the allure of Miami certainly helped offset the downside to a Thanksgiving week game.

On the plus side the schedule has some balance this year. Having four striaght home games to open the season never helps. Then being on the road all of October took some of the steam out of the local buzz. Being balanced monthly this year should help in both ticket sales and redemption rates.

 

[orangecuse]

Agreed - because this goes deeper than winning and losing. Coach P was still the coach when Shaw told fans that wanted a new coach to get a life and Jake reminded everyone that Syracuse is a one horse town. That let everyone locally know the attitude on the hill - you will get what you get, and if it’s a crap sandwich you’ll eat it and like it. That’s probably survivable if the team returned to 9 win seasons - instead it was GRob. A fan base that was already feeling alienated by the Syracuse administration was given every reason to just walk away.

People that were in their 20s and 30s stopped following Syracuse football - so there’s a generation that has no attachment to Syracuse football now that the school needs to win over. The one positive is that enough time has passed and the people the school needs to win over weren’t around in the 90s - so they are just apathetic not antagonistic towards Syracuse football.

I suspect that Syracuse basketball didn’t lose fans because they kept winning - but Shaw and Jake successfully transformed the relationship with fans from a communal bond to an economic transactions. As long as the team wins, the fans would continue the arrangement (and I think JB helped maintain whatever shreds of community bond were left). But the window for a JB-less team to turn things around and become a consistent top 25 program before the fan bases collapses is probably very short. It might be just this year.

I don’t think the school has ever really come to terms with how badly they screwed up in PR towards the end of Coach Ps tenure. I don’t think the emotional attachment fans have to the school and teams is anywhere close to how fans felt in the 80s/90s.

 

[SU68]

SU football has been dead to casual fans for a generation. It may take that long to revive it again.

 

[RedtheGOB]

Believe the number was 39.130 so you are right on there. The renewal rate does not include student tickets and the 90% figure was told to me in late May. Your numbers overall are likely in the ballpark and the difference between 39k and 41k will likely be determined by walk up and single game sales once the season gets underway and the excitement level is established.

Big boost last year for the Holy Cross game. Never would have hit that number if it weren;t parents weekend. And the allure of Miami certainly helped offset the downside to a Thanksgiving week game.

On the plus side the schedule has some balance this year. Having four striaght home games to open the season never helps. Then being on the road all of October took some of the steam out of the local buzz. Being balanced monthly this year should help in both ticket sales and redemption rates.

Yea gotta get those students butts in seats.

You know what really is gonna screw the ticket sales. IKEA coming to town!

 

[upperdeck]

IKEA means the family can come for the day while the FB side goes to a game.

 

[HeaterCuse22]

Just add a $2 NIl tax to all beer sales

44 Cents

 

[HeaterCuse22]

I disagree with that. This stuff is contagious. A lot of people don’t realize what they’re missing, or don’t want to figure out the parking situation or whatever. We know how fun it is and how to bring friends and family and it can percolate out from there.

Heck, even my 72 y/o mother who is still learning all the rules loves going after I brought her. Straight out the gates she loved the band and fanfare and the chicken, and the sport is growing on her. Last hear she tugged my sleeve and said “look, Marlowe’s back!”

The team must be winning and sustainably for the team to garner attention from locals. See the recent decline in basketball attendance for a reference point.

Syracuse basketball’s on-court struggles have dropped attendance numbers; the fans of 311 Heaven keep showing up

Longtime Syracuse fans continue to show support through basketball’s doldrums.

www.nunesmagician.com

 

[OttosShoes]

The team must be winning and sustainably for the team to garner attention from locals. See the recent decline in basketball attendance for a reference point.

Syracuse basketball’s on-court struggles have dropped attendance numbers; the fans of 311 Heaven keep showing up

Longtime Syracuse fans continue to show support through basketball’s doldrums.

www.nunesmagician.com

Yeah, I mean I'm not discounting the effect of winning and losing. But that was basically the worst season of my life in basketball and there were still tons of people there having fun.

Meanwhile, we had a new hyped-up coach and a syracuse-qb-mount-rushmore QB and went 10-3 in football and needed an epic Miami game to really fill the dome. The record will be what it will be; the more friends and family we bring to games the more attendance there will be for the record.

 

[Consigliere]

One of the aspects of the game day experience that cas certainly be improved and has been very effective in recruiting and retaining new season ticket holders is a better focus on the tailgate culture. Casual fans can become much more invested if the entire experience from leaving home to returning after the game is an enjoyable event. Certainly understand the challenges with a "land locked" facility and parking challenges but there is so much more that can be done.

I don't think it is an exageration to estimate that the Fine Mess (formerly SyraCRUZ) tailgate can be directly credited with over 100 new season ticket holders over the last ten years.

 

[JRHEETER]

One of the aspects of the game day experience that cas certainly be improved and has been very effective in recruiting and retaining new season ticket holders is a better focus on the tailgate culture. Casual fans can become much more invested if the entire experience from leaving home to returning after the game is an enjoyable event. Certainly understand the challenges with a "land locked" facility and parking challenges but there is so much more that can be done.

I don't think it is an exageration to estimate that the Fine Mess (formerly SyraCRUZ) tailgate can be directly credited with over 100 new season ticket holders over the last ten years.

Personally I think 100 is WAY low.

I know, myself personally, have added 14 new season ticket holders who still bought tickets after lower seasons with Dino because of the tailgate culture and have kept them and are now bringing people of their own.

Certainly something that seems to be overlooked time and time again at the University.

 

[Consigliere]

I was being conservative. At one point I had 42 season tickets on accounts I referred and many were sold on the experience at our tailgate. And these were casual fans at best who were making a three hour round trip.

As you know I have been championing several concepts since pre-Covid but every time it seems like we’re getting close there is a personnel change and we end up back at ground zero.

I actually presented one concept to SideArm and there was substantial interest in rolling it out. I was accompanied by an SU representative who is now an Athletic Director at a different FBS school and he was negotiating a licensing arrangement under which Syracuse would receive a royalty payment for other programs that chose to implement the function on their SideArm apps.

Maybe someday…..