Author Topic: Fans suck  (Read 28726 times)

Offline Penguin Nation

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Re: Fans suck
« Reply #15 on: October 21, 2012, 10:55:39 PM »
2/3s of YSUs losses were on the road and 3/4s of the wins were st home. The two biggest recent YSU wins (NDSU last year and Pitt) were both road games.  If we had a packed stadium full of rowdy fans, we'd still be 4-3.  This is a non-issue. YSU is a commuter school, and Youngstown has an older population than most towns. That's the demographic we're in. No point getting POed about it. Like was said already, focus on the team. If these unenthusiastic fans stay home, and the stadium is empty, how's that help anyone?
"These two cats that we played against from Youngstown State were as good of pass rushers as I've seen"

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Offline IAA Fan

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Re: Fans suck
« Reply #16 on: October 22, 2012, 10:39:18 AM »
This thread is about as frustrating as our team is right now.  Im not going to check attendance records while we were under the tressel regime but please stop with this nonsense.  I will try to accept your arguments about the fans if you try to accept mine.  Here goes...and IMHO...i think i can categorize penguin football, as far as fan support, as about fourth on the importance meter at best. The following is ranking in order of importance:

1.  High school football
2.  Ohio state football
3.  Browns or steelers football
4.  YSU football

The way i see it is the top three get most if the attention and only when the guins dont lose 3 in a row do we get a good crowd. My goodness...i read that ndsu had a record crowd of 19k at their game against us.  Didnt we have something similar against uni.  And that was after a huge storm.  The reality is that our area cheers for YSU when they win.  Like it or not YSU football is overshadowed by the previously mentioned top 3/4.  I think we actually have respectable attendance records in relation to many of our counterparts.  I thought i heard something like 7k fans last week at ISU.  I would be willing to bet that we would have doubled that number, at least, had YSU played ISU At home last week.

Welcome on-board ...nice post. I would add Notre dame, Michigan, Penn State, and Pitt to that list.

Offline peteonastick

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Re: Fans suck
« Reply #17 on: October 22, 2012, 05:09:20 PM »
You don't think the way the team plays doesn't have some relation to the electricity in the stands?  You don't think it bothers them that 30 SIU fans are louder than than what was let in the stands in the 4th quarter?  You don't think they see the seats empty out at half when your only down 24-21?  And as far as I know, we have been winning...I'd say a 4-2 record coming into this last Saturday was a winning record so that argument is BS!!!  The tailgate lot sucked when the team came through the lot...you don't think they see that!!  YSU fans are geriatric! must I post the picture of the woman crocheting again!!!  Still waiting for the mills to open!!!  I started cheering for SIU at one point to see what people would do?  Nothing!!  Nothing to do with the amount of fans, its the quality, not the quantity!!!  Negative, miserable, terrible!!
THE DRIVE FOR 5

Offline ysuguins4

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Re: Fans suck
« Reply #18 on: October 22, 2012, 09:46:55 PM »
Stick,

You're preaching to the choir on here.  The folks that come to this board are the ones that go to the games and make what racket they can.  You need to get your message to the casual fans.  Maybe calling Ron Verb or writing an editorial to the Vindicator and Tribune.

Offline Penguin Nation

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Re: Fans suck
« Reply #19 on: October 23, 2012, 12:09:26 AM »
Of course it's a better environment to have a sold out stadium with cheering fans. So what do you propose as a solution?  Punish fans who don't cheer?  Stop giving away free tickets?  That'll make the stadium louder and and crowds bigger?  The team, to some degree, gets the crowd they deserve.  The fans reflect the team more than the converse.  They need to win... A lot. If YSU were in a different city with a different fan base, they may draw a bigger crowd with a team that finished at 6-5 and made the playoffs once in the last 10 years.   But their reality is Ytown, and they gotta give folks a reason to pick the Castle over the Buckeyes, and know their efforts at cheering aren't wasted on a team destined to be mediocre in the post-Tressel era.
"These two cats that we played against from Youngstown State were as good of pass rushers as I've seen"

--WVU Head Coach Dana Holgorsen

Offline Petey

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Re: Fans suck
« Reply #20 on: October 23, 2012, 08:29:12 AM »
"I started cheering for SIU at one point to see what fans would do"  You don't think our team hears that, esp from our home side?.......terrible, miserable,negative ;) Understand frustration with team and SOME fans, but that was silly!

GOOOOOOO GUINS!!

Offline IAA Fan

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Re: Fans suck
« Reply #21 on: October 23, 2012, 10:33:33 AM »
Well, I am still too angry to post about Saturday, and this is part of my post. Let me preface my statement by saying that my family has had the same four seats (in Stambaugh) since a year before the stadium opened. There used to be a faculty/staff section, and they were offered a chance to select the "choice seats". My father was faculty, and did just that.

I have to say that some of you people are dreaming:

1. If I pay for a ticket ...I can do what ever the heck I want. Furthermore; who are any of you to tell me differently? My seat, my team, my choice. Sometimes I wonder. I think it is completely awesome that a woman is so indoctrinated into the football life that she knits while watching a game! She probably has kids (maybe grandchildren) that play(ed) ...and no matter how bored she might be, she is there supporting her team (or family). Or maybe she is so nervous ...she is knitting as stress-relief. This is EXACTLY what makes makes YSU football so great ...it is "literally" a part of the fabric of our (and her) daily lives. Don't you guys see this?

I remember my only visit to McComb ...there was no-one at the game. I could not believe it. Then we found out that it was between quarters/semesters so the students were not on campus. So how would you like it if the guins made the post-season and fans did not show-up because of the Thanksgiving holiday? WIU was a truly great football team in those days. Tops in the Gateway.

2. Cheering etiquette: When my team takes the field on offense ...I expect to hear opposing fans. Ideally every Penguin fan would (in the words of my father) "keep their traps shut". Please whisper when Hess is "barking" out plays. When the opposing offense takes the field ...then I expect noise.

3. The players are not children. If they truly need to have cheers in order to play at 100% ...then tell you what ...I will bring a box of pacifiers next week, as they clearly have not grown-up. Hess and Cook have been racking up records, despite the poor teams they have been on. All fans will cheer when given something to cheer about. We have not had that  for a few years now. (FYI: I am horse after every game). This year is even worse than normal, as it started out with such promise. Only to turn into, quite possibly, the worst team we have ever fielded ...and that is saying a lot, considering some of those "dogs" that Narduzzi and Heacock had.

4. Fan numbers: I estimate that YSU football has about 5k to 6k of core fans. Which truly is down from "the glory years" where we had 8k to 10k. This is to be expected, as the teams have not been performing at that same level. Now most people do not go to events by themselves; so I look for every Penguin fan to bring one additional person with them to enjoy the game (this is the purpose of buy one, get  one).
This means an average of 10k to 12k in attendance on any given Saturday, of guaranteed "butts in the seats". So anybody that we expect get above this number has to be attracted here by other means.

Now these people are not necessarily going to be Penguins fans ...or even sports fans. So it takes a creative marketer to bring them to the games.
* Tailgating is the most common way to attract more fans. It makes the games more of an event, more festive. Which, in-turn, makes it feel more like a holiday ...as opposed to a game (which they may or may not care about).

* Student section is another, and better now that I can remember it ever being. The students are there for the comradery ...much more than the actual game.

* raffles.

*Band and Cheerleaders. Just think how many parents go see their son & daughter play at halftime ...many more that you might think. Local HS band parents load the stands to see their kids play at a big stadium.

*Visitors: Well I would be willing to bet my last dollar that we have the lowest fan attendance in the conference (our location), but in a normal situation, there would be opposing fans.

*There are many other things but it would just be more boring of a post.


Look back when Stambaugh held only 16k seating + about 1.5k standing. We had that 8k to 10k base (x 2) = 16k to 20k of people wanting to see a game, and upset fans at "Will-Call" was a common occurrence. SO what was the difference between then and now? A BETTER PRODUCT TO COME AND SEE.

When this team starts winning (and consistently), we are going to have upset people at will-call once again. Then you can complain when they don't cheer, or they "boo" the coaches, etc.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2012, 11:42:51 AM by IAA Fan »

Offline HLecter

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Re: Fans suck
« Reply #22 on: October 24, 2012, 07:17:24 AM »
"Give them something to cheer about"---

That is about as simplistic a statement I have ever heard.   

Actually you cheer and act-up to ENCOURAGE the team to do well and to jack-up the other team.

The "geriatric" fan base is the closest to the truth I have read.
I HATE MIAMI.  WATERBOARDING IS NOT TORTURE.  ABORTION IS.

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Offline DiscMan

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Re: Fans suck
« Reply #23 on: October 24, 2012, 05:31:39 PM »
Lector, Occam's Razor.   Its simplistic because its true.  Is YSU OSU, PSU, Pitt, U of M? NO. Does YSU have a century of successful football that has cultivated a rabid fan base over generations?  NO.  Did YSU have a rabid fan base that was overly proud to be a penguin fan at ANY OTHER TIME besides the tressel era when he began winning national championships?  Not that i'm aware of.  Most schools have extenuating circumstances when it comes to their fan base, rabid or not.  YSU's circumstances are a historically mediocre team in Division II now Division IAA football,  Just how many YSU fans do you think there are??  IF it took other teams decades, sometimes a whole century of what summed up to be successful football to gain rowdy fans, what makes YSU so special that people should be aching to go to games??  The "geriatric" fan base is better described at the "non-existant" fan base.   You want to sell something, advertise...If you want to make alot of money, Sell something GOOD, and advertise.

Offline Pengwinz1

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Re: Fans suck
« Reply #24 on: October 24, 2012, 06:24:08 PM »
We couldn't even generate a respectable amount of noise at the end of the NIU game.  The team needed us, and the crowd was lethargic.  Maybe more local players would attract fans rather than partiers.  This town doesn't deserve the team it has, let alone the team it wants or expects.  There were plenty of times dating back to the Tressel era that they were not a force at the games.  Sad.

Offline ysufan0505

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Re: Fans suck
« Reply #25 on: October 24, 2012, 06:38:38 PM »
We couldn't even generate a respectable amount of noise at the end of the NIU game.  The team needed us, and the crowd was lethargic.  Maybe more local players would attract fans rather than partiers.  This town doesn't deserve the team it has, let alone the team it wants or expects.  There were plenty of times dating back to the Tressel era that they were not a force at the games.  Sad.

Actually it was pretty darn loud at the end of that game when UNI game. Loudest I've heard it in awhile. If it wasn't raining and cold, it woulda been a sell out and even louder

Offline GOpenZ

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Re: Fans suck
« Reply #26 on: October 25, 2012, 02:12:55 PM »
I woke up on Sunday and I am confident that I did not miss a tackle
I did not miss a blocking assignment, I did not fumble, I did not
throw an interception.....
I just had to sit there and watch that
Do not blame the fans!
It is not their fault what happened

The negative tone around me at the game the past week reminded me too much of being at a YSU basketball game.

I would tend to think that if you post this site that you would be classified as a "fan", short for fanatic.  I relate the word passion with fanatic.  As much as we may have different opinions as to who, what, why, is good or bad, right or wrong with every play, series, game, season, coach or team...I would think that the 3 hours in the stands would be full of positive attitude pushing our team forward. 

I do not have a problem when my mother has brought in her knitting /crocheting.  She is not a major fan of football.  She came to my events in high school to support me, my friends, and the community.  Enjoying gameday can be done in many ways...however negative tones by self-proclaimed fans is terrible, and detrimental to the program.

Z

Offline YSU1

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Re: Fans suck
« Reply #27 on: October 26, 2012, 08:50:24 PM »
without the older fans you have no fans

Offline Wick250

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Re: Fans suck
« Reply #28 on: October 27, 2012, 11:37:47 PM »
The fans are responsible for today's debacle in South Dakota.  They did not stand up in front of their televisions nor did they scream with appropriate passion. 8)

Offline YsuPride

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Re: Fans suck
« Reply #29 on: October 27, 2012, 11:46:41 PM »
Don't worry we won't have the fans to blame next weekend because nobody will show up.  Thanks Wolford and Strollo for the biggest meltdown this year in college football.