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FAU vs UCF and Attendance Challenges

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It comes down to our ridiculous home schedule. No one wants us to host the teams we do. If we were in the AAC, hosting USF and UCF among others, with a home game against a P5 team every once in a while, things would look a lot different. One thing that needs to be understood is that going from 10k in the stands to a full house can happen in an instant if we actually had some interesting teams coming. There doesn't need to be this gradual growth process. The problem is college football is nothing like it 50-75 years ago when we could've worked deals to host a big time what's now known as a P5 team. There's basically no way unless we're in the AAC, and even then there's not going to be name brands. The goal is to get into that conference, host USF and/or UCF every year. And once in a while host a Miami if we can. It shouldn't be upsetting that fans aren't coming to see La Tech. There's the beach and a ton of other things. The goal is to pack the house when a good team actually comes. Or like when USF comes, at least getting close to a sell out.
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jgf2017 said

It comes down to our ridiculous home schedule. No one wants us to host the teams we do. If we were in the AAC, hosting USF and UCF among others, with a home game against a P5 team every once in a while, things would look a lot different. One thing that needs to be understood is that going from 10k in the stands to a full house can happen in an instant if we actually had some interesting teams coming. There doesn't need to be this gradual growth process. The problem is college football is nothing like it 50-75 years ago when we could've worked deals to host a big time what's now known as a P5 team. There's basically no way unless we're in the AAC, and even then there's not going to be name brands. The goal is to get into that conference, host USF and/or UCF every year. And once in a while host a Miami if we can. It shouldn't be upsetting that fans aren't coming to see La Tech. There's the beach and a ton of other things. The goal is to pack the house when a good team actually comes. Or like when USF comes, at least getting close to a sell out.
Posted On: Apr 15th 2020, 7:52 PM #394694

Agreed, but we can not depend on opponents to fill out the stadium.

UCF played Tulsa in that game and the fans came to support.

Conferences do not want to hear how you need them, they just want to know if you can make them more money.
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I agree. The fau owls need to be the in demand product. Not a visiting team. Obviously  UCF and um were big draws due to the proximity of the schools and fans. J don't know the answer to filling the stadium. Been trying to do it for years.
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Consistently winning is the main thing that can put people in the seats.  Not one year but year after year.  We saw some lift with Kiffin’s first year then lost all the momentum with the results of 2018 and I believe season ticket sales and butts in seats showed that even though we had a great year in 2019.

Obviously the visiting team matters as shown by UCF, Miami, Navy and Air Force but that can’t be the only factor since even if we move to the AAC some day we don’t know how that conference line up will shake out.  Playing SMU in the Boca Bowl did nothing.  Will bringing in ECU, Tulane, Temple or Cincinnati really matter?  

Our only hope of filling seats in South Florida as evidenced by the Dolphins, Marlins, Panthers, Heat and Hurricanes is winning consistently and we have never been able to do that.  Hopefully 2019 was year 1 in a string of winning seasons and we can see what happens.

GO OWLS!
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Agree.  You said it better than I.
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Organic growth from the graduating students & locals will happen over time.

I figure we should add 300 season ticket holders from recent graduates & alums annually. Assuming a reasonable retention rate, that should average to adding 200 season ticketholders per year. Over a decade, that's 2000 season ticket holders added. Then we need some visiting fans and casual fans each game.

Still not enough, but that's what I think the baseline is with no growth.

We need the current students to get interested to up these numbers. Head coach involvement in student life (really greek life and big student events) boosts the student attendance.

I still can't believe Charlie sold out the student section multiple times but Lane never did. Has to do with head coach involvement more than the record of the team or who we are playing.


                                         ROLL OWLS
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Here is something to debate. I graduated in 1982. The sports fans of my generation are serious. My son graduated in  2011 and my daughter in 2015. I raised them both. Took them fishing, hunting, to sporting events, etc. We did tons of outdoor things. Now that they are adults, they have almost no interest in FAU  sports.  Why? I don't know. My daughter will go with me if she has absolutely nothing else going on. My son, never. I have seen a generational change . Kids gave different priorities. Very few serious fans. Does any other ON folks see a change in the 20-30 year old group? Ps. I'm not saying ALL kids in this age group . I think this will make growing a fan base a little difficult.  
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I know tons of FAU graduates and there is one die hard besides me but he doesn't go to any games I think. The rest would never even consider going to a game. There's people that aren't graduates that follow from afar but they would go to another college's games due to the lack of quality teams we're hosting. It's not the easiest thing even for me to show up for La Tech and UAB. But I'm not into hosting cookouts or going to the beach, or meeting a bunch a friends on a Saturday, getting drunk. I don't have a family that gets in the way. One woman in your life and there's either season tickets or estrangement. A daughter and going to a game is borderline impossible. I'm pretty laid back so it doesn't get in the way of anything. The big problem in my opinion, and it's upsetting to bring this up, because there's I guess nothing that can be done, is the nightlife district not getting done due to I guess stingy homeowners.
Just look at that UCF Tulsa CUSA Title game video. It's all drunk kids at the game. Personally I detest that sort of lifestyle and the rowdy behavior that comes of it. So I guess we need 10-20 thousand more drunken idiots at the games? If that's the case the nightlife district needs to get done. I detest that lifestyle but it's what the overwhelmingly majority of students do. I've had some drunken party boys and girls sit in front of me at a couple games, they never shut up. But if we're not where we need to be because we don't have young drunken kids that can barely walk in a straight line on the way to the game, then that's beyond my threshold.
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I graduated in '17.

I'm from Central Florida, so the reason I went to FAU is because I didn't get into UF or FSU but I wanted to go to a school with a football team and on campus stadium. I wanted the gameday environment, the whole kit and caboodle. Unfortunately, that is not a common reason why people go to FAU. Thankfully, I found a group of friends that really love FAU sports and we supported them in force and still do.

I'd agree there is a generational thing there. All the people I watch the games with played competitive sports in high school. We all drink responsibly before, during, and after the games. FAU sells beer and liquor in our stadium for goodness sake. At Paradise pricing! To us its a no-brainer!

Continuous winning paired with an athletic minded administration is the best way to get butts in seats. I like the direction we are headed. 
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