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Post by Bornthrilla on Sept 12, 2023 17:57:03 GMT -5
We're about to find out what our base attendance number is at the next home game against Villanova.
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Post by blessedaggie84 on Sept 12, 2023 21:12:00 GMT -5
Aggieswag, Can you explain now the gamezone has stifled growth and attendance? What data can you share so that we (I) can understand? Also what is SC State beating us in and what is the difference between their gamezone and ours? I agree we need to work on more of the culture for A&T, the game is still a major social place and not at the moment a rabid fanbase from students to alums that are 100% committed to the actual game. The gamezone has stifled grown and it was by design. As you hear the other board members state specifically the goal. Which is to keep the community out as much as possible. Based off of a fear that has never ever happened at an A&T football game, and the gamezone doesn’t stop that threat from happening. So if the goal is to keep the community out it baffles me when we see exactly that happen people are surprised. The university decided it could just as much money currently by squeezing us to death and hopefully the students will show. It’s as basic as looking at things in a quantity economics vs quality economics. Both can achieve the same goal maybe financially. My question is for how long. I disagree with this practice of the game zone because if you are trying to fill stadiums w the masses that philosophy does not make sense. You can’t build what we want to build walking around being in fear and exclusive. We will have to market to the masses. The easiest way to do that is to extend the game day experience that allows those of us in the cage to invite and bring people to that experience. But instead cousins that used to come to the game don’t come to the game. Those cousins and kids turn into ticket holders. Those friends become ticket holders .. that’s how you build culture. That sustainability in a world that you have to increase all the time. Right now it’s barely working but we have an old base, and that base and the new base don’t have the same flexibility to solidify as they did. Not unless you want to spend an additional $200 to invite a family of four to the game. Our policy is a way - it’s not the only way, and there is no data in the world that suggests it’s beneficial. Thanks for the response but I am still not understanding. Are you saying that if we went back to the old ways and just took tickets at the stadium entrance as before we would have more people at the game? There would be more people because they were able to tailgate with friends and family again in the area like they use to? The community is not kept out, the community just like alums and students that could not get a ticket will need to pay as they are going to the game. IF people just want to tailgate there are spaces right on Lindsey street. The spots outside of GHOE are around 50 bucks. You can have as many people as you want. We want culture and there are still other alternative options to still be apart of the action if you dont want to go to the game. You speak of the cousins, why dont they come anymore? Did they ever go to the games? I assume they had to have a ticket to the game even before the gamezone was there. IF they paid then, what is wrong with paying now? We all know the gamezone is not going anywhere right now but for those that want to just tailgate and hang with friends and family not going to the game there are options for them. The days of hanging out and not contributing in someway to the bottom line are gone. We just have to teach our cousins, community, alums and others that purchasing season tickets, flex packages and tailgate spots on Lindsey street are the way to go. |
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Post by aggieswag on Sept 13, 2023 13:43:01 GMT -5
Me and my cousins can tell you that when we were young we could care less about the game.. we just wanted to hang out w each other, throw the football etc. We grew up in the culture. All of us 15-20 years later are season ticket holders. Most didn’t graduate from A&T - just fans. We have several couples that had the same experience. Came to the tailgate to eat -and fellowship - they brought their kids- then they said I want to see the band on the field. Bought a ticket - someone may even gave them a ticket. Now they are season ticket holders.
Only the people in the cage are passionate enough to propel the Aggie Pride story. This is how you build culture. It’s just simple math. If you take away the ability to add then you don’t add. Which is where we are at now. We maintain but no one can claim that we have added a thing since we stated this policy. Nothing. And it’s directly because of this policy. The cousins don’t come to the game anymore because no one is paying 50.00 for them to get in the game when they don’t care about the game. We have probably lost thousands of potential new customers and that happens every year we don’t allow ourselves to promote the culture.
It’s not like we don’t do this. We just do it backwards. We have a fanzone 2 blocks from the stadium .. they see no glimpse of gameday, the tailgate love or the family. They just see vendors and food. And we invest that $ and they are not buying a single ticket. So I don’t get the argument that we should not do it because they are not buying tickets . We emphatically invest $ to people who don’t buy tickets and less likely to buy them w that experience ..
I’ve watched it w my own eyes. And I can say without a doubt if we had not implemented the game zone the trajectory we was headed - we would probably have 4-5k added to the average attendance. Once we implemented the game zone the tailgate area looked like a ghost town and so did the attendance. It was literally night and day.
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DECKS
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Post by DECKS on Sept 13, 2023 14:04:38 GMT -5
It's like this for me. I don't care whether we play in front of 50k or 5k as long as we are driving revenue and competing for championships. If attendance is our focus then perhaps we should join the SWAC.
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Maxell
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Post by Maxell on Sept 13, 2023 15:21:13 GMT -5
We've had this discussion before. Our marketing folks should develop a comprehensive complimentary ticket program that distributes 2-3 thousand free tickets to community organizations for three games a year.
Keep everyhing else the way it is.
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KidHeartless
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Post by KidHeartless on Sept 13, 2023 15:39:12 GMT -5
Me and my cousins can tell you that when we were young we could care less about the game.. we just wanted to hang out w each other, throw the football etc. We grew up in the culture. All of us 15-20 years later are season ticket holders. Most didn’t graduate from A&T - just fans. We have several couples that had the same experience. Came to the tailgate to eat -and fellowship - they brought their kids- then they said I want to see the band on the field. Bought a ticket - someone may even gave them a ticket. Now they are season ticket holders. Only the people in the cage are passionate enough to propel the Aggie Pride story. This is how you build culture. It’s just simple math. If you take away the ability to add then you don’t add. Which is where we are at now. We maintain but no one can claim that we have added a thing since we stated this policy. Nothing. And it’s directly because of this policy. The cousins don’t come to the game anymore because no one is paying 50.00 for them to get in the game when they don’t care about the game. We have probably lost thousands of potential new customers and that happens every year we don’t allow ourselves to promote the culture. It’s not like we don’t do this. We just do it backwards. We have a fanzone 2 blocks from the stadium .. they see no glimpse of gameday, the tailgate love or the family. They just see vendors and food. And we invest that $ and they are not buying a single ticket. So I don’t get the argument that we should not do it because they are not buying tickets . We emphatically invest $ to people who don’t buy tickets and less likely to buy them w that experience .. I’ve watched it w my own eyes. And I can say without a doubt if we had not implemented the game zone the trajectory we was headed - we would probably have 4-5k added to the average attendance. Once we implemented the game zone the tailgate area looked like a ghost town and so did the attendance. It was literally night and day. Are you saying our actual avg attendance dropped or that we missed out on a "potential" higher avg attendance? Because i'll take paying attendance anyday. And besides if its that deep, you can tailgate & fellowship outside the game zone area. |
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Post by aggieswag on Sept 13, 2023 17:03:26 GMT -5
Look I’m a policy guy thing are very clear cut for me. You implement a policy you see if desired outcomes are met. We are looking for 3 outcomes. Attendance, revenue and safety
Attendance - fail
Revenue - fail
Safety - neutral because we have nothing to compare it to. For the 40 years prior we never had an incident and we didn’t have one after implementing..
But by any metric this is a failed policy. We did not grow at the rate we were growing prior to that .. even tho we had more success than any other HBCU and we have the largest target audience. W the largest student base and a metro area that is over 400k and 40-50% is black. And we are worse in revenue than we are in attendance.
This is my yearly rant on the subject. It always mesmerizes me to see people in one breath say we need to improve attendance and in the next breath say no we don’t want people here because I’m terrified of getting killed.
Which leads me to my next remark: people that are visiting the board from other schools - do not be afraid to come to A&T. The fear you hear is not rooted in data or reality .. we have never had one scuffle, fight, or a bullet shot at Aggie Stadium in the 50 years of existence. You have more of a chance of getting hit by lighting twice than to get harmed at our school. You and your family are safe. I promise.
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Post by DECKS on Sept 13, 2023 17:15:12 GMT -5
Look I’m a policy guy thing are very clear cut for me. You implement a policy you see if desired outcomes are met. We are looking for 3 outcomes. Attendance, revenue and safety Attendance - fail Revenue - fail Safety - neutral because we have nothing to compare it to. For the 40 years prior we never had an incident and we didn’t have one after implementing.. But by any metric this is a failed policy. We did not grow at the rate we were growing prior to that .. even tho we had more success than any other HBCU and we have the largest target audience. W the largest student base and a metro area that is over 400k and 40-50% is black. And we are worse in revenue than we are in attendance. This is my yearly rant on the subject. It always mesmerizes me to see people in one breath say we need to improve attendance and in the next breath say no we don’t want people here because I’m terrified of getting killed. Which leads me to my next remark: people that are visiting the board from other schools - do not be afraid to come to A&T. The fear you hear is not rooted in data or reality .. we have never had one scuffle, fight, or a bullet shot at Aggie Stadium in the 50 years of existence. You have more of a chance of getting hit by lighting twice than to get harmed at our school. You and your family are safe. I promise. Why do you have revenue as a fail? Where are you getting that from? |
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Post by westcoastaggie on Sept 13, 2023 17:19:02 GMT -5
Look I’m a policy guy thing are very clear cut for me. You implement a policy you see if desired outcomes are met. We are looking for 3 outcomes. Attendance, revenue and safety Attendance - fail Revenue - fail Safety - neutral because we have nothing to compare it to. For the 40 years prior we never had an incident and we didn’t have one after implementing.. But by any metric this is a failed policy. We did not grow at the rate we were growing prior to that .. even tho we had more success than any other HBCU and we have the largest target audience. W the largest student base and a metro area that is over 400k and 40-50% is black. And we are worse in revenue than we are in attendance. This is my yearly rant on the subject. It always mesmerizes me to see people in one breath say we need to improve attendance and in the next breath say no we don’t want people here because I’m terrified of getting killed. Which leads me to my next remark: people that are visiting the board from other schools - do not be afraid to come to A&T. The fear you hear is not rooted in data or reality .. we have never had one scuffle, fight, or a bullet shot at Aggie Stadium in the 50 years of existence. You have more of a chance of getting hit by lighting twice than to get harmed at our school. You and your family are safe. I promise. Why do you have revenue as a fail? Where are you getting that from? He had to pull that out of his butt! |
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Post by blessedaggie84 on Sept 13, 2023 17:29:43 GMT -5
Look I’m a policy guy thing are very clear cut for me. You implement a policy you see if desired outcomes are met. We are looking for 3 outcomes. Attendance, revenue and safety Attendance - fail Revenue - fail Safety - neutral because we have nothing to compare it to. For the 40 years prior we never had an incident and we didn’t have one after implementing.. But by any metric this is a failed policy. We did not grow at the rate we were growing prior to that .. even tho we had more success than any other HBCU and we have the largest target audience. W the largest student base and a metro area that is over 400k and 40-50% is black. And we are worse in revenue than we are in attendance. This is my yearly rant on the subject. It always mesmerizes me to see people in one breath say we need to improve attendance and in the next breath say no we don’t want people here because I’m terrified of getting killed. Which leads me to my next remark: people that are visiting the board from other schools - do not be afraid to come to A&T. The fear you hear is not rooted in data or reality .. we have never had one scuffle, fight, or a bullet shot at Aggie Stadium in the 50 years of existence. You have more of a chance of getting hit by lighting twice than to get harmed at our school. You and your family are safe. I promise. Can you provide data for this you are saying. What revenue are we looking at and there are other factors for attendance then a gamezone? Anything else is more so speculations and personal opinion then facts. Its good to hear you are a season ticket holder and support. All we can do now is save our funds and help out those that want to come into the gate and tailgate. A culture can be created and would be great to have on Lindsay St outside of a GHOE game. |
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Post by aggieswag on Sept 13, 2023 17:42:33 GMT -5
We are 14th in attendance and 42nd in revenue .. folks that is a complete fail. No matter how you look at it. That means 41 people do not have a game zone and make more $.
Again if it was a great policy other schools would be like oh look at A&T they implemented a policy and they are now in the top 10 in revenue and attendance. But that is not the case. Because the policy does not make sense. Not even a little bit.
I’m not just looking at today I’m looking at the future. And if we grow at the same rate we have been this boat will sink
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DECKS
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Post by DECKS on Sept 13, 2023 20:44:57 GMT -5
We are 14th in attendance and 42nd in revenue .. folks that is a complete fail. No matter how you look at it. That means 41 people do not have a game zone and make more $. Again if it was a great policy other schools would be like oh look at A&T they implemented a policy and they are now in the top 10 in revenue and attendance. But that is not the case. Because the policy does not make sense. Not even a little bit. I’m not just looking at today I’m looking at the future. And if we grow at the same rate we have been this boat will sink We were #14 out of 130 FCS schools in attendance....and you call that failure? #42 out of 130 schools in revenue and that's a failure? Also allow me to throw in #13 in ticket sales. |
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Post by aggieswag on Sept 13, 2023 22:41:47 GMT -5
Yes -
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Post by aggiechamp on Sept 14, 2023 0:24:28 GMT -5
I’ve got too much time on my hands. The game zone was begun in 2011. Attendance at home games in 2010-2011 was 13,388 on average. In 2012 average attendance was 11,787.
2013—13,574
2014—14,524
2015—14,988
2016—14,472
2017—15,697
2018—15,494
2019—16,927
Post Covid
2021—12,437
2022—12,701
With the exception of 2012 and the post Covid years, it looks like the game zone and winning football has actually grown attendance since it was introduced.
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Post by aggieswag on Sept 14, 2023 7:06:01 GMT -5
Please let me clarify fails. We have always been at the top or near the top, that is not my issue. The concern is the policy .. and if the policy was meant to drive up revenue, increase attendance.. all I’m saying that did not happen in either instance. That would make that policy a failed policy.
I harp on it every year I will always harp on it because I firmly believe it’s pound for Penny stupid if you are forecasting and projecting growth. By the numbers that was just produced it actually had negative growth during its tenure. Our numbers slid in revenue also.
So two ways to look at it. Is being 14 and 42 on its face fail- I guess not.. but you can also look at the way I do. Are those numbers great when we have the capacity to be 5 and 15.. and by that measure, the lack of growth - the game zone is a failed policy it needs to be revisited..
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