Maxell
Official BDF member
Director of BDF Marketing
Posts: 12,398
Member is Online
|
Post by Maxell on Nov 20, 2020 15:20:32 GMT -5
That's why I said find the SWEET SPOT in pricing TIERS. It's a math problem. You are embracing the extremes. But you can have a $5 pricing tier ticket with High School ID and increase butts in the seats and not lose a dime because you have expanded a segment of your fan base while filling the stadium. ok, I would like for someone else besides you to respond. I appreciate your perspective. You responded to me and I responded back.
|
|
aggie2039
Official BDF member
Posts: 9,524
Member is Online
|
Post by aggie2039 on Nov 20, 2020 15:26:34 GMT -5
ok, I would like for someone else besides you to respond. I appreciate your perspective. You responded to me and I responded back. True, again thank you sir.
|
|
aggieclt
Official BDF member
Posts: 1,280
|
Post by aggieclt on Nov 20, 2020 18:14:57 GMT -5
Both schools still draw pretty decent crowds at their stadiums just because who they are. If it ain't broke don't fix it. NOTE: We have not been able to sell out the game in Greensboro in many years. We draw just 16-18K. I still say we need to find a sweet spot in the pricing tiers such that we maximize revenue AND fill the stadium. And with no conference standings implications, the game should be closer to the beginning of the season again. [For the record, I cancelled my Durham hotel reservation a few weeks ago. I almost forgot to do it. SMH] The Aggie-Buzzard game sold out in 2017 in Greensboro - our undefeated season. With walk-up traffic, it could have been close to selling out last year if not for the monsoon (box score listed official attendance as 19,8xx {another thread topic}. The top two most-attended games in Durham are against us. So, the Buzzards are good when they host us in their intramural stadium. I don't know the answer to getting more butts in the seats for this game but I agree that the game should sell itself. We need to do a better job of selling it, I guess. As far as when it should be played, I had grown accustomed to it being contested during Labor Day weekend. But it's a rivalry game and, to me, should be played at the end of the season. Hail, we should focus on attendance for the other games we host in Aggie Truist Stadium. #AggiesDo
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2020 18:49:53 GMT -5
College Football games are getting harder to sell tickets for nowadays.
|
|
|
Post by Jesse Jackson's Side eye on Nov 20, 2020 19:51:47 GMT -5
It would be great to turn this game into a true classic weekend with all the pomp, circumstance and ancillary events, but ain't nobody trying to give up the Home Gate
|
|
|
Post by aggierattler on Nov 20, 2020 21:49:30 GMT -5
How do we make Aggie-Eagle game better post MEAC beside NCCU getting better on the field? 1) We got to play for some trophy or belt. 2) The timing of the game. Will it better early or later in the season. Well the conference will dictate that. 3) Good promotions Any other suggestion. I just brought this topic up because we would have play them on Sat except for COVID I brought this up several years ago, and I don't think that it was very well-received...but I'll try it again.
I'm Aggie Born - Aggie Bred and am a former baseball player for "Big Ten" back in the late '70s/early '80s (Class of 1981). But my very first job out of 'Tee was in FAMU Athletics. When I got there, the Florida Classic was only 3 years old and being played in Tampa. But I watched how they grew that game from a mid-season home-and-home contest that didn't have much fanfare to a neutral site season-ending game drawing over 40,000 by the time I left in 1988.
The key to growing our Aggie-Eagle game into a great rivalry game every year is having the two universities work together and be on the same page concerning marketing, ticketing, promotions and sponsorships.
For the Florida Classic, we met in Tampa every two weeks from May until the week leading up to Labor Day. The attendance of both ADs, athletic business managers, SIDs, ticketing directors, marketing directors, booster presidents, faculty reps and someone representing both president's offices was mandatory.
The Florida schools couldn't be more different. One was a smallish (3,773 students now) church school that doesn't have an on-campus football stadium. The other one was a larger (10,031 students now) university in Florida's state university system. Before the advent of the Florida Classic, BCU had lost 85% of the football games played between them. The game was always a mid-season game and never even sold out in FAMU's small 12,500-seat Bragg Stadium. (It was much like the A&T-WSSU football series before Bill Hayes became the Rams' head football coach.)
The only reason that they decided to try and play a neutral site classic game in Tampa was because BCU was having some serious financial problems in the mid-'70s and they needed a quick infusion of cash and publicity. It was originally a two-year agreement for a season-ending game with a 50/50 gate and sponsorship split, and was supposed to go back to home-and-home after that.
But what they did was work together on a monthly basis to grow the game.
When I came down there in June of 1981 (as FAMU Director of Ticket Operations), all elements of football operations for both schools were meeting every two weeks in Tampa to iron-out any problems and to make sure that everyone was on the same page.
They hired an ad agency to do billboards and TV/radio commercials in Central Florida (Tampa/St. Petersburg-to-Orlando-to-Daytona Beach) and North Florida (Jacksonville and Tallahassee). We had tickets on sale in every major Black community in the state...and this was before the computer ticketing industry really took off. The Cincinnati Reds gave us an office near old Tampa Stadium for free. Tampa Sports Authority, who operates the stadiums that the Tampa Bay Bucs have played in opened doors to several major sponsorships at no costs to them.But I'm telling you all of this to say that the Aggie-Eagle Classic could/should be a financial equal to the Florida Classic for both us and NCCU...if we would just organize ourselves and work together.
It wouldn't matter whether or not the game remains a home-and-home series or a neutral site series in Raleigh or Charlotte...we can work together and really grow this series.Now, I could easily draw up a detailed plan for a successful Aggie-Eagle Football series right now, but I won't bore the few of you who continued reading after the first paragraph. Just know that it can be done.
|
|
VA's Finest
Official BDF member
BDF Riders
Posts: 3,001
|
Post by VA's Finest on Nov 21, 2020 14:44:44 GMT -5
Hate to pour salt on the wound, but today we were scheduled to renew our rivalry with the Eagles.
I hate COVID-19.
|
|
|
Post by Aggie Monster on Nov 21, 2020 16:06:23 GMT -5
To chime in on the revenue discussion. We have a stadium problem when it comes to that. We have reserves on both sides, a band section and then a livewire area. The rest of the stadium is 1 price. In order to not price people out that needs to change IMMEDIATELY. Everything accept the student section needs to go to being reserved. Each entry to seats need to be "hall monitored" to direct people to seats. Depending on the game, start them at $10. Far end(scoreboard end) needs to be the cheapest. The closer you get to the 50 the more the ticket cost. The lower you are the more the ticket. Black people hate assigned seating, I know, I know. Then make the tickets section based and not exact seats.
Going this route is the only way we will start being able to do what a lot of people are proposing.
|
|
|
Post by aggieblackie2 on Nov 21, 2020 16:47:28 GMT -5
Maxell you are right, we have not sold out this game in years in our stadium. Note, I said we have had decent crowds not sell outs.
Unless Central suits up a football team like they had several years ago before their coach left, I doubt if we will ever have a sell out game, regardless of what the price is. I also doubt if there will be a sell out then.
Too bad we can't have the old Thanksgiving Classic anymore which generated heavy fan support in the stands.
Besides, Homecoming is the only game that we sell out anyway and that is because it is the GHOE.
|
|
|
Post by aggierattler on Nov 21, 2020 18:24:29 GMT -5
Maxell you are right, we have not sold out this game in years in our stadium. Note, I said we have had decent crowds not sell outs. Unless Central suits up a football team like they had several years ago before their coach left, I doubt if we will ever have a sell out game, regardless of what the price is. I also doubt if there will be a sell out then. Too bad we can't have the old Thanksgiving Classic anymore which generated heavy fan support in the stands. Besides, Homecoming is the only game that we sell out anyway and that is because it is the GHOE. AB2-- Sold out games don't just happen...they are engineered. As the Director of Ticket Operations for the old Charlotte Hornets from inception until they decided to bolt to New Orleans, we engineered a 364-game sellout streak with the largest building (24,042 seats) and the third smallest market in The Association. And it didn't begin from Game #1...and we didn't always have superstar players.
There is no way that Aggie Stadium should not be sold out for a minimum of three (3) games every football season.
You can't just open up the gates and yell, "Y'all come!!" There is a lot of planning and work that goes into it, but I know that it can easily be done.
I don't know what's going to be done for a 2021 spring football season, but someone in Aggie Athletics should be putting the finishing touches on the sales plan and the operations plan for our first season in the Big South Conference (yes...even without a schedule).
|
|
|
Post by aggieblackie2 on Nov 21, 2020 23:29:21 GMT -5
Agree.
|
|
|
Post by The Professor on Nov 22, 2020 10:42:54 GMT -5
Maxell you are right, we have not sold out this game in years in our stadium. Note, I said we have had decent crowds not sell outs. Unless Central suits up a football team like they had several years ago before their coach left, I doubt if we will ever have a sell out game, regardless of what the price is. I also doubt if there will be a sell out then. Too bad we can't have the old Thanksgiving Classic anymore which generated heavy fan support in the stands. Besides, Homecoming is the only game that we sell out anyway and that is because it is the GHOE. AB2-- Sold out games don't just happen...they are engineered. As the Director of Ticket Operations for the old Charlotte Hornets from inception until they decided to bolt to New Orleans, we engineered a 364-game sellout streak with the largest building (24,042 seats) and the third smallest market in The Association. And it didn't begin from Game #1...and we didn't always have superstar players.
There is no way that Aggie Stadium should not be sold out for a minimum of three (3) games every football season.
You can't just open up the gates and yell, "Y'all come!!" There is a lot of planning and work that goes into it, but I know that it can easily be done.
I don't know what's going to be done for a 2021 spring football season, but someone in Aggie Athletics should be putting the finishing touches on the sales plan and the operations plan for our first season in the Big South Conference (yes...even without a schedule). I agree. That baffles me sometimes.
|
|
|
Post by The Professor on Nov 22, 2020 10:44:57 GMT -5
My opinion is
- better marketing strategy . Should be advertised all over state
- lower ticket price usually 40, make 30
- trophy of some kind
|
|
|
Post by marchingband1969 on Nov 22, 2020 11:21:03 GMT -5
'69 the game will not always be played in Greensboro. Each city, Durham and Greensboro could possibly implement some of your ideas to get a decent crowd. I liked it when we played Central on a neutral site although that created financial problems for both schools. Both schools still draw pretty decent crowds at their stadiums just because who they are. If it ain't broke don't fix it. I agree that the game may not always be in Greensboro or Durham but the point I was making was creating an event to draws folks to the venue. If the game is played at neutral site, we could partner with NCCU to sponsor the event. Let's face it, the attendance totally depends on how competitive NCCU is at that time. But if we could get together and sponsor events that would draw other fans to the game area, that would be a win win.
|
|
|
Post by marchingband1969 on Nov 22, 2020 11:32:41 GMT -5
How do we make Aggie-Eagle game better post MEAC beside NCCU getting better on the field? 1) We got to play for some trophy or belt. 2) The timing of the game. Will it better early or later in the season. Well the conference will dictate that. 3) Good promotions Any other suggestion. I just brought this topic up because we would have play them on Sat except for COVID I brought this up several years ago, and I don't think that it was very well-received...but I'll try it again.
I'm Aggie Born - Aggie Bred and am a former baseball player for "Big Ten" back in the late '70s/early '80s (Class of 1981). But my very first job out of 'Tee was in FAMU Athletics. When I got there, the Florida Classic was only 3 years old and being played in Tampa. But I watched how they grew that game from a mid-season home-and-home contest that didn't have much fanfare to a neutral site season-ending game drawing over 40,000 by the time I left in 1988.
The key to growing our Aggie-Eagle game into a great rivalry game every year is having the two universities work together and be on the same page concerning marketing, ticketing, promotions and sponsorships.
For the Florida Classic, we met in Tampa every two weeks from May until the week leading up to Labor Day. The attendance of both ADs, athletic business managers, SIDs, ticketing directors, marketing directors, booster presidents, faculty reps and someone representing both president's offices was mandatory.
The Florida schools couldn't be more different. One was a smallish (3,773 students now) church school that doesn't have an on-campus football stadium. The other one was a larger (10,031 students now) university in Florida's state university system. Before the advent of the Florida Classic, BCU had lost 85% of the football games played between them. The game was always a mid-season game and never even sold out in FAMU's small 12,500-seat Bragg Stadium. (It was much like the A&T-WSSU football series before Bill Hayes became the Rams' head football coach.)
The only reason that they decided to try and play a neutral site classic game in Tampa was because BCU was having some serious financial problems in the mid-'70s and they needed a quick infusion of cash and publicity. It was originally a two-year agreement for a season-ending game with a 50/50 gate and sponsorship split, and was supposed to go back to home-and-home after that.
But what they did was work together on a monthly basis to grow the game.
When I came down there in June of 1981 (as FAMU Director of Ticket Operations), all elements of football operations for both schools were meeting every two weeks in Tampa to iron-out any problems and to make sure that everyone was on the same page.
They hired an ad agency to do billboards and TV/radio commercials in Central Florida (Tampa/St. Petersburg-to-Orlando-to-Daytona Beach) and North Florida (Jacksonville and Tallahassee). We had tickets on sale in every major Black community in the state...and this was before the computer ticketing industry really took off. The Cincinnati Reds gave us an office near old Tampa Stadium for free. Tampa Sports Authority, who operates the stadiums that the Tampa Bay Bucs have played in opened doors to several major sponsorships at no costs to them.But I'm telling you all of this to say that the Aggie-Eagle Classic could/should be a financial equal to the Florida Classic for both us and NCCU...if we would just organize ourselves and work together.
It wouldn't matter whether or not the game remains a home-and-home series or a neutral site series in Raleigh or Charlotte...we can work together and really grow this series.Now, I could easily draw up a detailed plan for a successful Aggie-Eagle Football series right now, but I won't bore the few of you who continued reading after the first paragraph. Just know that it can be done. Thank you for this look into the Florida Classic. As I read it a "voice" in the back of my head kept saying... this will never happen with the Aggie eagle classic. I just think too much animosity and mistrust exist between the two school that would block any effort like this to work. That's sad to admit but I think it's true.
|
|