Tricky it's good to see you are doing your part as a student. that's exactly what we need, more of you. I had a few questions regarding the students if you don't mind me asking.
- I saw that ticket packages bought by Freshman are double of any other class, is there any particular reason for this that you can come up with?
- Is there any coordination that takes place? Are there meetings of any sort, for example Texas AM shout practice the night before?
- What do you think will get more students to come out?
I understand it's tough being a private University with kids that come from all over, so a lot of them don't have a vested interest in Syracuse sports growing up. Still it should be a fun experience, and almost an event type of atmosphere. You would assume the students watch college football and see some of the crazy student sections around the country. It sure looks like fun on tv, and I know it's something I would want to be part of if I had a chance. Anyways keep up the good work, and keep recruiting more students to be just as involved as you are.
It was my understanding that the ticket package was the same for all students. I could be wrong on that though. Is there a particular place you saw that? All freshmen did get a free ticket to the Wagner game, but that's the only difference I know off right now.
There is an Otto's Army "Boot Camp" which takes place in the beginning of the year where all of the freshmen go into the dome and learn the cheers and chants. It was very fun although it's tough to get all the students to remember all the chants in an hour time span. Otto's Army is considered a club and they hold meetings every week or at least every other week to discuss ways to improve the student section, ideas for new chants, etc. By the way if anyone has ideas for chants or anything let me know and I'll run it by the Otto's Army Executive Board that help run the student section. I know someone mentioned the Texas A&M idea.
As far as getting more students to go to the game it's tough to say. Winning would be the obvious answer, but unfortunately, even a great Syracuse team won't necessarily get students or even the local fans to the games. The game day atmosphere is a big thing. I like what the athletic department is doing with the train whistle and DJ. It's definitely a start. It's too bad that for most students going to games isn't something that they look forward to during the week whereas at other schools such as A&M, Penn St, etc. both the fans and students look forward to game day. Yes these schools are bigger, but it's their mentality that is so much different than students and local fans here.
Start times are a huge factor. Much bigger than I thought they were until I got on campus. I was somewhat surprised to see the amount of students who weren't up until 1 or 2 o'clock at the earliest. Maybe half of them would get up if the game was earlier but not all of them.
Let me rephrase: After speaking to friends and other students while writing this post, start times are HUGE and I mean Billy Fuccillo HUGE. Students with season tickets are not going to the Tulane game because the start time is too early. (Unbelievably Frustrating to say the least) I got some to at least think about it, but these are kids who have a ticket, yet already have in their mind that the game is too early so they're not going. Unfortunately, the University doesn't have too much say with start times because it's all based on television slots so there isn't much they can do about that.
All in all, start times and a fun atmosphere are the keys. I know from experience that theres nothing (and I mean nothing) better or more fun than 40,000-45,000 people in the dome with a loud student section. We need to get the students to buy in, but we also need the casual local fans to buy in too because they are going to be the majority of the crowd.
Sorry for the long response, but hopefully you have a better idea of how the student portion works. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask and again give me any ideas you have. The Athletic Department comes to the Otto's Army executive board and asks them for input and talks to them about a lot of decisions before they are made-even moving the court to the middle was discussed-so there is a decent relationship. Obviously the school wants the students to play a role which is great.
