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Attendance, and Marketing

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JakeElman said

LawOwl said

Kiffin knows how to get his guys back on track but I don’t think this team is as good as we thought it was after the MTSU game. Still, Owls find a way but as Jake said, it won’t be as pretty as we’d like. 36-18 Owls



I think I mentioned this in the Marshall thread but I think 2017 spoiled our - I’ll include myself in here as both someone who graduated from FAU and covers the team - expectations about how FAU is supposed to play. C-USA is very weird and competitive and FAU has had to play at least one elite P5 team a year for nearly a decade. 

The 2017 team played unprecedented football and overcame a lot of holes. People forget how close the WKU game was and how bad Driskel was that day. 9-3 was closer to 7-5 than we remember. 

This year’s team, and even last year’s team for the most part, have played much more like a G5 team with some holes. The problems last year have so far stayed away. Vladi’s made most of his kicks, Robison’s turned the ball over far less. I think this team is pretty good C-USA wise. Just not at the level of dominance the 2017 team was and that’s ok. 


It is. For now. And I say for now because to get to where we all know we can be, especially with Lane here, we need to be blowing these C-USA teams out on a weekly basis to be considered a top 25 program. We are close and damn near pulled it off two years ago but it doesn’t appear to be the case this year. I said 8-4 and the Bahamas Bowl at the beginning of the season. I’ll now say 7-5 and the Bahamas Bowl halfway through. You have to think ODU and UTSA are wins and we find a way to win a home game against either FIU or USM. 
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Topic is kind of shifting to seasonal expectations, but if FAU is considered even just a solid G5 team we need to soundly beat teams like ODU.  The schedule so far has setup to be favorable given we don't play what right now seem to be the very best in C-USA (La Tech and UAB).  Even as ugly as some of last week went, FAU was still winning the game until they folded up on Marshall's last drive.  That loss very well could be the deciding factor in trying to get to a conference championship game, but we need to win all the games like this where we are heavily favored.  Win those and we are bowling and based on the program history regularly winning more than 6 games and making it to bowls should be the baby steps to bigger things.
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I honestly believe there are a bunch of closeted FAU fans just waiting for us to hit the big time. As others have alluded to there’s really 1 way and that’s a big upset. I think if we had a couple good years and somehow in the future host a team with name recognition and the stadium would be the packed. I never saw people on campus with FAU shirts. After 2017 it’s a ton of kids and also I’ve seen FAU license plates, more than you’d think. 
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jgf2017 said

I honestly believe there are a bunch of closeted FAU fans just waiting for us to hit the big time. As others have alluded to there’s really 1 way and that’s a big upset. I think if we had a couple good years and somehow in the future host a team with name recognition and the stadium would be the packed. I never saw people on campus with FAU shirts. After 2017 it’s a ton of kids and also I’ve seen FAU license plates, more than you’d think. 
Posted On: Oct 25th 2019, 11:47 AM #390143
 
I agree but it could also be a South FL thing where nobody shows up unless you’re a real winner
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I still think the only way to bring more people to games will be by winning playing exiting football and having better known teams come to play us. Non hard core fans will only come for those games.
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While winning and better known teams are the best way to draw, there are probably some promos that would draw.  One that I've seen work elsewhere is a big fireworks display after the game.  There's a cost to that of course.  A really good band would bring some people in too, and the band is so much of a college game day atmosphere.  I remember thinking that BCU's band was worth the price I paid for admission. But that's another cost we apparently can't afford.
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It doesn’t help FAU is running a skeleton crew in athletics and marketing. Two of the top three people in marketing during the 2017 season when they had the shirts and the pins and the Lane Train aren’t at the school anymore. Ryan Moran, who did video and a lot of the social media, now works with the alumni association. So you’ve lost a lot of bodies who can help market. 

There’s smaller stuff too. A couple people pointed out to me that it’s almost always college kids during the in-game events like the dance off. Have the little kids do that stuff so they ask their parents to come back. It works like a charm with FAU baseball. 

Twitter: @JakeElman97
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JakeElman said

It doesn’t help FAU is running a skeleton crew in athletics and marketing. Two of the top three people in marketing during the 2017 season when they had the shirts and the pins and the Lane Train aren’t at the school anymore. Ryan Moran, who did video and a lot of the social media, now works with the alumni association. So you’ve lost a lot of bodies who can help market. 

There’s smaller stuff too. A couple people pointed out to me that it’s almost always college kids during the in-game events like the dance off. Have the little kids do that stuff so they ask their parents to come back. It works like a charm with FAU baseball. 
Posted On: Oct 25th 2019, 2:44 PM #390148

Not sure having a few kids do the competitions will drive attendance - but I guess it can't hurt.

What does help is the free shirts & bobbleheads: even if they don't necessarily get people to the game where these items are given away, it is very cheap advertising. People love bobbleheads and I still see the grey "cometothefau" shirt literally everywhere around town. These work similar to the old FAU parking sticker (which I am still salty the school moved away from this because it was THE BEST ADVERTISING).


                                         ROLL OWLS
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You’re right about the #cometothefaU shirts. I still see them driving into practice or even sometimes shopping in Boca/Delray. Even posters. A shirt or poster of the HOF inductees would’ve been cool for MTSU or Marshall. Just something different. But only so much you can do with a lack of manpower. 

Back to the game Saturday, ODU actually modeled the new stadium after FAU’s. I’m sure the broadcast crew will bring it up but cool fact. FAU is setting trends!

Twitter: @JakeElman97
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NJOWL said

36-19 good guys. 

It’s funny we complain about our attendance issues: Houston is hosting ranked SMU on ESPN and the stadium is WAY less than half full. 40k seater!

Not saying our attendance is not atrocious - but we certainly are not the only ones! 


Again it’s a major issue in college football.
Houston this year decided to play for next and RS a a couple star Players.
You out a game on 6:30 on a week night for a losing team you can’t be shocked when it isn’t filled.
In 2019 your game better be a big “event” or casuals will not go.
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