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Belt Spring Game attendance

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so I read in Hutton's blog that "FAU did keep attendance, and reported a crowd of 1,091 for the spring game."
thats a pretty decent amount for an FAU spring game and I was enthused after reading that…UNTIL I READ THIS

"Pretty lively crowd at the Blue & Gold Spring Game on Friday night and from the reactions of the more than 3,000 spring game-record crowd your Golden Panthers didn't disappoint." From Miami Herald's Pete Pelegrin blog

Is it true that FIU could out draw FAU, even if its just to a spring game, at this point? Does anyone know how many people other belt spring games attracted?

I realize that its just a spring game and doesn't really count for much, but in this day and age it's starting to and that all boils down to one word… Recruiting. Recruits who come to spring games get excited to see the crowds and that excitement transfers into the fall recruiting process. Now while I wouldn't bank on a recruit basing their full decisions on just spring game attendance but it has to factor in somewhere.

Ooohs and Aaahs | FIU Panthers Prowl
this link tell the whole tale of FIU's spring game and it sounds like they turned it into a whole event as opposed to just a game.  Shouldn't FAU's marketing on the spring game have a similar effect?
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Re: Belt Spring Game attendance

Well we played on a makeshift field that's the first part. Secondly there's was Friday NIGHT ours was Saturday during the day where weather plays a factor. It was in the 70's Friday night but in the 90's Saturday during the day.

Not to bring religion into this but we live in a heavily populated Jewish area and Saturday was the first day of passover. I know of a number of people who wanted to go but couldn't attend because they were doing stuff for the passover holiday.

Also there was no advertising ANYWHERE on campus I bet a lot of people didn't even know about it. I don't know who's in control of that board out front but how about putting something on there to say FAU spring game today at the track, Free for all ? Even if you put signs in the ground like they do for basketball. Spring game today and have arrows that point the direction.

TGFKA Rowdies/Sexies were there at 10am tailgating we had about 5-6 cars stop and ask us where the soccer fields were. Obviously more poor planning by FAU, why do you have a soccer game or tournament the same time as your spring game?

If I didn't know about this board or FAUSports.com which a lot of people don't know about then I'd have no idea when the spring game was. There was nothing on FAU.edu about the game.

I'm sure FIU advertised for their game they got the word out to people and if their field is ready that may be a determining factor as well.

I emailed Dexter to let him know that TGFKA would be willing to help him with whatever he needed. I told him I think people recognize who we are and if we can help him by spreading the word about athletic events or even handing out flyers since people recognize us as the crazy people from the basketball games it may help. He hasn't written back but I'm sure he's plenty busy with the bonfire coming up tomorrow.

My two favorite teams are FAU, and who ever is beating FIU!
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Re: Belt Spring Game attendance

Jab979 said

Also there was no advertising ANYWHERE on campus I bet a lot of people didn't even know about it. I don't know who's in control of that board out front but how about putting something on there to say FAU spring game today at the track.

Student Government owns and operates that board (the Marquee). It goes through downtime occasionally and that was reportedly a downtime. Even if it wasn't, I don't believe the Marquee would have helped attendance because most messages on there are difficult to read and you really only have enough time to read it if you're one of the first couple of cars stopped at that light. So the Marquee is fundamentally flawed but we can use it for pictures and captions with a few words (like "Bonfire Thursday Night!" with accompanying picture)

We can claim Jewish holiday, etc and there are certainly individuals in that position. I even had a friend who went to all home games and all Duffy's Watch Parties last year yet didn't feel like coming to the Spring Game.

The bigger problem that we've all recognized is the fact that students by and large have not felt connected to the university or the team until very recently. It's just a product of decades of "commuter school" mentality with no strong brand, no football team, lost traditions upon officer turnover, disjointed Greek system, small alumni office, disappointing marketing budget, etc.

We're eliminating those hurdles but we're still "getting there". FAU *did* make the Spring Game into an event… they had sales on shirts, food vendors, inflatables… that's about what FAU can afford to do for this kind of an event. If they had more money they could have gotten carnival rides and live bands and a petting zoo, etc. But they can't afford that. They wouldn't need to either if we had been playing football for 100 years like UF and tens of thousands of people all tailgating at the same time made it into "the place to be" at no expense to the university. We've only been playing seven years, so we march out Owlsley/the band/the DT, then throw up some inflatables and hope for the best.
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Re: Belt Spring Game attendance

owlcountry said


Student Government owns and operates that board (the Marquee).

Athletics owns 25% of the airtime on that board…

i closed the deal on it…and athletics put 25k towards the intial purchase of the board as well…

if no one takes advantage of it, thats an administrative fall-out…

but what else is new…lol
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Re: Belt Spring Game attendance

Was the FIU game played at the new stadium?  If so people may have been going to check it out, I'm sure we could draw alot more if it was in a stadium, a new stadium that is, on campus.

Florida Atlantic University Owls
2007 Sun Belt Football Champions 2007 New Orleans Bowl Champions 2008 Motor City Bowl Champions 2011 Sun Belt Basketball Champions No Bowls without Owls
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Re: Belt Spring Game attendance

Florida_Owl said

owlcountry said


Student Government owns and operates that board (the Marquee).

Athletics owns 25% of the airtime on that board…

i closed the deal on it…and athletics put 25k towards the intial purchase of the board as well…

if no one takes advantage of it, thats an administrative fall-out…

but what else is new…lol

Thanks for the correction.

So if you had a hand in buying it… why did they choose a Canadian company and who chose that spot for the Marquee? Did it have to be a minimum distance away from Glades?
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Re: Belt Spring Game attendance

Belt Spring Game attendance

There should be two, one on the east and one on the west and they should go over Glades just like the ones on I95

Florida Atlantic University Owls
2007 Sun Belt Football Champions 2007 New Orleans Bowl Champions 2008 Motor City Bowl Champions 2011 Sun Belt Basketball Champions No Bowls without Owls
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Re: Belt Spring Game attendance

I didn't go because i had the flu, but wasn't interested in going anyway for a handful of reasons:

1. You have no idea what's going on.
2. You can't see unless you squeak in near the front row of people.
3. At least in years past, they don't provide you with any rosters.

It's just hard to get excited about it… and I think that's everyone's biggest issue.  It feels more like FAU Spring practice, not FAU Spring Game

Like things, love people.
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Re: Belt Spring Game attendance

Jab979 said


Also there was no advertising ANYWHERE on campus I bet a lot of people didn't even know about it. I don't know who's in control of that board out front but how about putting something on there to say FAU spring game today at the track, Free for all ? Even if you put signs in the ground like they do for basketball. Spring game today and have arrows that point the direction.


actually they promoted the spring game like crazy on MyFAU, there were notices posted on the main page for a couple of weeks prior and at least 4 emails sent out
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Re: Belt Spring Game attendance

I didn't go.  I've gone in the past but I just don't get the appeal.  I have no clue how teams draw 60,000-80,000 for these things.

If in fact they actually had over 1,000 people there, I consider it a big improvement, because I think this thing usually drew a couple hundred people in the past…mostly family of the players.
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