Great posts on this thread. Lot of good ideas here.

To the original teambeer post: I felt like you did about how even we don't know everything that's going on, can you imagine what it's like for fairweather fans. I think we dropped the ball here and there (thought Athletics got rid of Bury The Burrow in Red and didn't see any posts about it until near gameday when a fan pointed out they had some posts on Instagram... it should be EVERYWHERE) but overall we're light years ahead now of where we were just 5 years ago. FAU as a whole has really embraced social media - finally - and although they don't always respond to questions, they at least market us well there. That said, once you market the event and draw people out, you have to give them a good experience, and that part needs help. I had a similar experience with Watch Parties and haven't attended them (or the Radio Show) again in years. I don't think we should spend our limited marketing budget on Watch Parties.

oc40 had a pretty positive post, kudos for that. He made a good point about how more alums he knows are getting season tickets and that's how we progress - every graduating class adds more people who will be interested in continuing their relationship with FAU football. And there are a lot of people out there who would say, "Yeah I've thought about going to an FAU game at the stadium but just haven't, I don't know why" (it's because we have a reputation for not being a good team and we don't play games of significance (like vs Miami at home) often enough. They're not going to buy season tickets without experiencing at least one game though; you can't lead out of the game with that. I do think billboards are a good idea though. I believe Coke cans are wrapped into the package deal we have with Coke to exclusively provide their drinks on-campus, so that's essentially free advertising even if it doesn't reach that many people.

To Matt C's point: yeah, 6 pm starts are great - less time in the sun but people may leave before the end of the game because "they don't want to be out until 10, 10:30pm." That's the only downside there. 4 pm would be great as well; more time in the sun but done by 8-8:30 and can still have a good night out on Saturday if you want after the game.

walty12's post is on point. I especially love the idea of the breweries out front of the game. That's an amazing idea. Not sure if that conflicts with some sort of stupid exclusivity agreement we might have with alcohol sales in the stadium though. Steel drums are a necessity; wondered why I didn't see them vs SIU (admittedly I showed up a little late to the game). We may have to think about sprucing up the Acura Deck more to reinforce that "football in paradise" feeling the original renderings suggested. Thought about whether we now have to compete with UCF's "Acura Deck" concept since now they're doing it too.

Regarding fauowl's red shirt story... that sucks. I completely believe that happens. We're going to get the shaft fow awhile.

I agree…here's the thing that is frustrating me about FAU right now, we aren't trying to hit all people through every avenue. OC40 makes a good point about our social marketing campaigns and how they have vastly improved, yes, he's right, but in turn, we have stopped a ton of other stuff. Targeted FB ads are great for people that use social media, but what about the majority of the alumni from FAU that may not be on there religiously? People need to be beat over the head with it from every angle in order to "get it."

The slow build of a fan base organically will pay dividends 20 years from now, but I feel we should be doing far more to try to engage the people locally that are connected to FAU, by graduation. 40 years of alumni that "didn't have a traditional college experience" should be given one now.

Similar to some of the ideas that have been stated so far, like having bands play pregame/postgame for the students…why haven't we done something like have Jimmy Buffet (maybe he's too big, the Beach Boys?) play after a home game on the field and use an event like that to invite every alumni from 1961-2001 to buy tickets to the game/concert.

Youth Day is this Saturday (I know that because immediately after I made my original post I saw it on FB…divine intervention?) so hopefully we have some pregame events set up…but what about a full fireworks show after the game? All I've seen about this is the ad on Facebook that it's Youth Day, but it doesn't say anything else about it.

actually i found out when promoting my book through Facebook through a ad campaign, you are allowed only so many words for your ad, otherwise, Facebook wouldn't approve them.

Went to the Burrow last night to listen to Coach Partridge.  I suggest other folks on this forum drop by.  Coach does a great job working the room, answering questions on and off the air. No softballs either.  Ken Lavicka asks the questions we all have.    If you want to know how good of a job Coach is doing, listen to his players.  I talked a bit with Kalib Woods.  Like the other players on the team, he is a fine young man and his future is bright, regardless if it involves football.  

Let's be real, 99% of college football athletes play their last game in college.  Nice to see that our guys are prepared for life after college, after all, that is the most important thing.  You can't build a successful program without character.  We have it, from AD Pat Chun, Coach P. and his entire staff.  That funnels down to our players.  

Come out to the Burrow next Wednesday and give a listen.  You will feel a lot better about our program and future success.

By the way, the food is actually pretty good.  Love the wings.

Matt C said

Went to the Burrow last night to listen to Coach Partridge.  I suggest other folks on this forum drop by.  Coach does a great job working the room, answering questions on and off the air. No softballs either.  Ken Lavicka asks the questions we all have.    If you want to know how good of a job Coach is doing, listen to his players.  I talked a bit with Kalib Woods.  Like the other players on the team, he is a fine young man and his future is bright, regardless if it involves football.

Let's be real, 99% of college football athletes play their last game in college.  Nice to see that our guys are prepared for life after college, after all, that is the most important thing.  You can't build a successful program without character.  We have it, from AD Pat Chun, Coach P. and his entire staff.  That funnels down to our players.

Come out to the Burrow next Wednesday and give a listen.  You will feel a lot better about our program and future success.

By the way, the food is actually pretty good.  Love the wings.

Posted On: Sep 15th 2016, 10:19 AM #359160

''Feel better about the program'' Charlie knows how to make people feel good about an 28 point loss were we gave up over 250 yards on the ground and our QB was sacked 8 times.
Its all he's really done here is make people feel good Sunday through Friday.
The only thing I felt about Charlie so far is pain on Saturdays.    

owlcountry40 said

Matt C said

Went to the Burrow last night to listen to Coach Partridge.  I suggest other folks on this forum drop by.  Coach does a great job working the room, answering questions on and off the air. No softballs either.  Ken Lavicka asks the questions we all have.    If you want to know how good of a job Coach is doing, listen to his players.  I talked a bit with Kalib Woods.  Like the other players on the team, he is a fine young man and his future is bright, regardless if it involves football.

Let's be real, 99% of college football athletes play their last game in college.  Nice to see that our guys are prepared for life after college, after all, that is the most important thing.  You can't build a successful program without character.  We have it, from AD Pat Chun, Coach P. and his entire staff.  That funnels down to our players.

Come out to the Burrow next Wednesday and give a listen.  You will feel a lot better about our program and future success.

By the way, the food is actually pretty good.  Love the wings.

Posted On: Sep 15th 2016, 10:19 AM #359160

''Feel better about the program'' Charlie knows how to make people feel good about an 28 point loss were we gave up over 250 yards on the ground and our QB was sacked 8 times.
Its all he's really done here is make people feel good Sunday through Friday.
The only thing I felt about Charlie so far is pain on Saturdays.    

Posted On: Sep 15th 2016, 12:27 PM #359164

Wow OC40 - don't hold back.

Tell us how you really feel!  

Say what you want about OC40. He speaks his mind. I am not as critical of the program as OC, but I might if we don't turn the corner real soon. I will have a feel for the program in 3-4 more games. Right now, it is anyone's guess.

Hey everyone - it's been awhile since I've posted … I mainly peruse without much comment.

OC40 makes a point when one takes a look at the final scoreboard over the years.

But FAU is more of a football experiment (still in the works) than a powerhouse.

We played an established powerhouse in #25 (and still ranked) Miami with 90 years under their belt, 36 bowl games (18 won) and 5 national titles. We played them close per usual.

That game, I expected a similar outcome and I mainly prayed for no injuries.
After seeing our play thus far, being honest, I'll expect a similar outing against KState - always pulling for the W but being a realist I want a good game with no injuries.

If there is a game that causes concern - well, Miami's preventing much running was very concerning regardless of the competition 47 yards total rushing is ridiculous (1.4 avg)!

But, the game that was concerning (jitters or not) was the first game against FCS Southern Illinois…
They put up 530 yards offense (we hung 457 on them) and our D was supposed to be our strong point.

My hope against hope is they truly are holding back plays and playmakers - haven't seen much of Warren, Singletary nor Parr… who are they again?

Their numbers need to start getting called and soon.

Or those whose opinions truly count may begin seeing OC40's point regarding the Almighty Partridge coaching.  Some questionable play calls don't help either.

Let's hope these upcoming games (likely after Kansas State) prove fruitful for these owls - we all know they've worked their tails off - now let's see some   WWWWWWWWWWWWW's!!!!!!!  

I don't think the Miami game is THAT concerning. Where I would be really concerned is the SIU game. I think we all expected to lose and to give up big yardage. But the way SIU put up points on us is very alarming.

And the 8 sacks alllowed against Miami? That's forgivable only because the O-line has been wrecked by injuries. Otherwise that's a huge concern.

I still don't see us winning 6 games, and even our wins are cause for concern (so far).

I'm not sure if Warren has another injury or if he's being secretly punished for some off-the-field issues but it does seem strange that they're holding him back… and I don't buy that it's because they're trying to have Buddy as the feature back or they didn't have packages that include him. In any case, I have a feeling we'll see more of Warren soon.

Regarding things that are alarming: we'll always have a concern on one side of the ball. We're not Top 10 material where both sides are completely solid. Of the two, I'd rather have a high-scoring Oregon-style offense than a weak offense with decent defense. We were pretty productive with Rusty under center and look where that took us.

But getting back to the main point of this thread, FAU has inproved their social media presence, no denying that. The question will always remain if we've hit enough people or THE right people or the right way to maximize attendance… that will be a continued conversation over the next few decades. But we certainly can talk about getting more alumni involved and the gameday experience (even without the Miami fans our gameday experience last year was awesome… can we do that again? If not, why?). We want to match the rate of growth of our peers - like USG and UCF - so each decade hopefully brings in another 10k people on the regular. We've played for 15 years, our attendance is ~10k… hopefully by 2025 it can be ~20k… Too ambitious?