Ticket Sales/Attendance

[goodnews]

We all know why Love has this position.  Can you imagine back in 1997 thinking he was the "Best" candidate?  Do you think it was the time at CSU that set him apart from the other candidates?  He is just another OVERCHAIRED employee that roams the halls of Stambaugh....

[petepossy]

I think a lot of the attendance issues goes along with the fact alumni leave the area after graduation.  I know I did.  If there was a large amount of alumni locally I bet it would help attendance.

Alumni moving has nothing to do with it. YSU is a commuter school with very little sense of school pride by students or alumni. All goes back to marketing.

[guinpen]

We all know why Love has this position.

I must be the only one who does not - Why?

[DavedS]

That's not too bad I guess for a non conference game against a lower tier team. I did expect more though for a night game!

Stadium looked more than half-full to me-which is 10.315 so 12k in the seats is believable to me.

[guinpen]

No butts in the seats is not a simple problem.

I have been going to YSU games since 1971, memory is not what it once was but I do not recall that there was ever a time where the crowds were overflowing. had some nice crowds at Fitch in that late 70's run. Even during the run in the 90's I was shocked at how long it took for the really big crowds to show up and that was only because YSU football was the place to be for the beautiful people (casual fans). Once the winning backed off all those frontrunners started finding excuses for not going. Most of these folks were never true YSU fans.

I was never a tailgater but I seem to recall that over the years restrictions have been put in place that some feel have hampered the experience.

This area has lost a lot of population, certainly this is part of the problem.

This is still a depressed area, lots of folks just cannot justify spending the cost of tickets/parking/concessions when the game is free on TV the same night and the next morning.

Being a commuter school ( yes there are some on campus students ) does play into it. We do not have 13,000 bored kids sitting in their dorms wondering what to do on a Saturday night. They drive in to school each day, a lot then go home and drive to their place of work to pay for school. No shock that they do not want to drive back for a game.

We are in a great football league but I do not think that most people in the area relate or care about these schools. Heck I do not get excited about schools from the dakotas, iowa or missouri.

Not sure how much I put into this osu thing, I live in OH but could not care less for that school. But it seems that for whatever reason lots of people think that being an osu fan is the cool or beautiful thing to do.

Youngstown itself has an image problem and that spills over to YSU

No simple solution either.

Win more games

Some home playoff game would help.

Playing some of those Ohio schools would spark some interest, but as we all know there are some rather large issues there, that I doubt will ever be resolved.

I agree that the athletic department does do a very poor job of drumming up interest. Replace these folks with people that know what they are doing or just fire them and outsource the job as someone suggested.

You need the best players you can get but more local players would help.

I think that JT will be a help because I feel that he will be able to change the perception of YSU that many people have. We are not third rate or even second rate, we are a first rate university with a lot of goods things going on.

[ValleyTalk]

Interesting topic and I'm glad this is being discussed. I agree with the comments of many on this thread. There are certainly numerous causes to the problem at hand and right now winning may be the only answer, at least one would think.

Case in point, last year we hosted #1 NDSU when we were ranked in the top 10 in the country. One would think a top 10 contest, at home, honoring Jim Tressel with playoff implications on the line would pack the place... It didn't. We were lucky to get 10,000 butts in the seats that day. I know I was among the many on here upset with the lack of promotion of this game internally. The promotion was giftwrapped on a silver platter and the marketing of the game left a lot to be desired. It is pretty damn sad a metro area of 565,000 people (North Dakota has 720k for reference) can't find 15-20k on a consistent basis to fill the play 5-7 times of the year. I can assure you if you combine the crowds at all the area HS games on Friday nights it would easily exceed a YSU crowd. Howland-WGH and Mooney-Boardman alone one night would have outdrawn the first two YSU games combined. Yes, the population may be declining, but it was declining at a faster rate when we were winning titles.

I also think social media marketing should be revamped. I 'liked' NDSU Athletics on facebook and they run a top notch account. They post videos and have that fan base very excited about their Bison.

I will leave you with this...

NDSU Highlight video from this past weekend: http://youtu.be/BmzLF6r1UTI

YSU Highlight video from this past weekend: http://youtu.be/QYyb51OKzcc

Videos say a lot..

[IAA Fan]

A few things:

1. NDSU and YSU are apples an oranges. I would bet if you had this same thing available in 1997, we would be more excited as well. This is a team coming off of 3 championships & we had better darn well hope they do not get a 4th and tie us. We are a team coming off 3 lack-luster years.

2. I was pleasantly surprised by the crowd yesterday. The tailgate lots were very nicely crowded.

3. Marketing was a topic of conversation all over the lower lost yesterday. It started with how many people are showing up because Tressel spends a good hour there! have been gathering so may ideas on marketing from the fans ...it is just amazing how the university can ignore this. Some of the ideas I am hearing are nothing short of brilliant. Good or bad, these are the school's consumers and the university should listen. I may start a thread and begin posting these.

The one that shocked me was when I put up Penguin Kamikaze flag, just how many people wished the team would run out on to the field with that again. I thought I was the only one that hates the US flag idea and wants the Kamikaze. We discussed that since it has been so long since we had any titles, that we should simply have one flag for each win in the season. So right now, they would run out behind 3.

The other coming up constantly is the lack of flyover.

The one that I sort of started, but it grew, is a "presentation of the flags" at the beginning of each season. Some were saying to do it at the spring game, with others saying to wait for the home-opener. The idea is that we select 4 people of honor to present the national title flags each year & make a big deal out of it. Try to really bring in some names if possible.

One man had a what I thought was great idea. That we ring a chime like a clock. Similar to mass on Sunday, each Saturday He says at least once ever 10-30 minutes ...all day. Then the last chime is really extreme and the team takes the field during it. I think it is just a great idea. Kind of an modern version of the old victory bell.

I still say that we play Manfred Mann's 1960's version of "The Mighty Quinn" constantly and it becomes our anthem .."you ain't seen nothing like the Mighty Guins"!!

Everyone seems to like the band playing over the Ghetto music ...I really ike what the band is doing this year ...keep it up.

[Wick250]

IAA Fan,

By all means, start that separate thread that features fans' suggestions for marketing and promotion.  We all know that the athletic department monitors this site.  It is a shame that fans must do their job, but so be it.

As far as the depressed area excuse, I am not buying it.  Recently, our unemployment figures were lower than the state average.  Our population is smaller, but we have done a fine job of reinventing ourselves after the living hell of the loss of the steel mills.  Like most large and medium-sized cities, our biggest problem is an underclass that is unemployable....addicted to drugs and welfare.  Those people were never YSU fans, then or now.

[NatChamps93949597]

Long time lurker, first time poster here. I am a part time faculty member at YSU in the school of business. Here's my two cents.

If you all want marketing to change, I recommend you contacting this person. http://ysusports.com/information/directory/bios/brown-john

I contacted him last year regarding some basketball marketing ideas I had. Long story short, marketing for bball games got better. He and I do lunch every few months and I share with him suggestions that my section and I come up with to make the games more exciting.

[seanbryan3]

Really would be great to see a nice size crowd for the Western Illinois game at home under the lights. If the Guins take care of business in Missouri, should see a nice turn up in the stands against Western Ill.

[penguinpower]

Really would be great to see a nice size crowd for the Western Illinois game at home under the lights. If the Guins take care of business in Missouri, should see a nice turn up in the stands against Western Ill.

I'm coming up from Georgia to go to this game.

[ValleyTalk]

Long time lurker, first time poster here. I am a part time faculty member at YSU in the school of business. Here's my two cents.

If you all want marketing to change, I recommend you contacting this person. http://ysusports.com/information/directory/bios/brown-john

I contacted him last year regarding some basketball marketing ideas I had. Long story short, marketing for bball games got better. He and I do lunch every few months and I share with him suggestions that my section and I come up with to make the games more exciting.

I agree with what you said of Mr. Brown. He would be more than willing to entertain any and all ideas thrown out there on this message board. He wants to make the overall experience better.

Happy to see him join the team.

[penguinpower]

Where the hell is YSUGO?  He has some great ideas

[Observer]

Too much nostalgia here.  The 70's, 80's and 90's existed in a time when you could watch 3 games on Tv throughout the day, two on Sundays, one on Monday.  Now EVERY game can be seen, all day Saturday and Sunday.  This allows is for people to get their football fix without leaving the comfort of their home, not pay money to be in the elements watching 2nd tier football.   Now I realize that's a sore subject as some think the MVC is the "SEC of FCS football".  To many that's like winning the Superlotto and getting a check for 5 bucks. I'm not saying that an FCS championship is worth 5 bucks, but the majority of causal fans out there think just that.

What sells a football game?  Name recognition?  There is some, but football isn't the first thing that comes to peoples minds when the city of Youngstown is spoken about.  Opposition recognition? very little, 90's Championships? nobody really cares anymore.  Your not gonna put butts in the seats by marching out 20 year old flags.  A flyover wont rattle anybody's windows enough to bring them out from watching Fla. vs Alabama on a 55 inch screen in HD drinking cheaply.  NDSU might win FCS championships hand over fist but ask the majority of fans of college football who they are the majority won't know.  Case in point, how many people know about Mount Union's dominance in division 3?  Not alot.  Alot of regional people don't know about them.

The remedy isn't marketing or nostalgic marches, and it isn't Tressel.  The answer is winning.  You win, you spend more money and you win some more.  Then when the time is right like it was in the 90's, you move up!  Then you spend more money then you win some more, then you move up to a bigger conference.  One that competes for bowl games and national championships. Now you have name recognition, now you have Opposition Recognition, you have nationally recognizable players, you have something to advertise besides 20 year old flags.  The remedy is not being satisfied with the 5 dollar check.  If this is not something an institution is not prepared to do.  Then that team will be hovering in mediocrity.

[penguinpower]

Long time lurker, first time poster here. I am a part time faculty member at YSU in the school of business. Here's my two cents.

If you all want marketing to change, I recommend you contacting this person. http://ysusports.com/information/directory/bios/brown-john

I contacted him last year regarding some basketball marketing ideas I had. Long story short, marketing for bball games got better. He and I do lunch every few months and I share with him suggestions that my section and I come up with to make the games more exciting.

If you have his ear show him this:

1.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjMR8QJJ8-k
2.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnOb4Fu-HHk
3.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSEyXq9XVLI
4.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmzLF6r1UTI

If you don't show him those at least show him this one:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xjqKMrAYbw

We are waaaaaay behind the time in terms of how we project ourselves in the current age of media.  We recruit nationally and we can be seen nationally every week but all of the media is cheap local and substandard.  Recruits can only see what we have available and you never know who it is going to reach.  We need to advertise our facilities on video clips.  We need to show everything in high definition.  Compare anyone of those to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IPtIfnWMhI


There is no comparison.  We need to make videos of our success and share them via social media.  It really gets out there.  It will be shared everywhere. 

Also I would like to point out the subliminal messages in NDSU's season ticket commercial.  They talk about how important the fans are.  We don't mention it in our video.  Fire stretch internet it is substandard.  Somebody needs to take control of this over there.  The local agencies are horrible at advertising.  I could do better with a hand held video camera.  We don't even broadcast in HD.