2017 regular season attendance

[slosho]

Re: 2017 regular season attendance

Insufficient telecommunications infrastructure seems to be a much bigger issue, campus-wide, than SDSU and perhaps the Regents care to admit. That can and should be fixed immediately. Also, Filbert makes a great point about the need for a video scoreboard on the north end of the stadium. Nearly everyone, except the students in the student sections, can see the scoreboard on the south end. Students make up an extremely important segment of the Jacks' current and future fan base, if not the most important one of all. They should treated accordingly.

It's too bad they didn't retro-fit the old one there? Does dak have trailer mounted "Demos" short enough you could park them to the north of the cannon an not block any view's? that could be a temporary fix that might not cost much.
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[jacksfan2011]

Re: 2017 regular season attendance

I usually don't comment on stuff, but figured I'd add my two cents on this one. There have been many good points and ideas raised in this thread.

First and foremost I would like to address the tailgating/student tailgating portion

The idea of allowing students to drink underage is not going to happen just because of how the law is at this time.

As far as uniformed officers going through spots and carding everyone; I think this is a case that could go with the notion that they should be encouraged to enforce laws, but only intervene if things get out of control (has been mentioned before).

As far as allowing people to go out at halftime, having worked in sports and entertainment venues for a few years now this issue comes down to a security concern. The concern for re entry is not so much people going to tailgate, more so people going out and returning with a weapon of some sort. (Best I can tell) that being said, the University of Sioux Falls, does allow people to come in and out a leisure (granted they barely check your tickets when you come in) so this could work of patrons are required to pass through a security check point on the way back in.

Also I like the idea of having love music and kind of a "hype" area of tailgating to improve experience (I like the big heated tent idea alot)

Allowing for unlimited consumption of alcohol (for free anyway) to students is a bad plan both economically and from a liability perspective. However, if the BOR approves expanded alcohol sales, a designated "beer garden" where you could purchase beer would be a good addition.

As far as game day experience, particularly for students:

1. As mentioned there should be another video board that students could see

2. Incentivize students to stay past halftime (perhaps distribute promos after the game)

3. Roof would be nice, again not possible now, but one can dream

That's what I got, feel free to add

[BrerRabbit]

Re: 2017 regular season attendance

Certainly some of that has to do with improving the tailgating/game day experience leading up to the game. Getting the UPD to stop acting like total D*$#s is probably a good start. Heck, even letting people go out at halftime or continue to tailgate during the game. It's not like people who wouldn't otherwise go to the game are going to decide to go in because they are kicked out of the tailgate area. Does anywhere else actually close the tailgate area before the game?

I agree with you two. If we had a dome, people would come just to see it. I'm not advocating that we should have one, I am great with what we have. But people would come to see it.

I have frequently pointed out elsewhere and here, that tailgating has become typical SDSU: "OMG people are having fun! We must put a stop to that right now!" I've said it many times and usually humorously attribute that characteristic to holdovers from HM Briggs and the other members of FarmHouse. But seriously I do wonder what the powers that be are thinking. Do they think that the product they put on the field is so fantastic that hunting, harvesting and having fun are no competition for people's Saturday afternoons? For my wife and daughters, the tailgating IS the event. The game is why we tailgate. There's no changing that. None. Why try?

Advertisements for the games seem to be nonexistent. I can't think when I've seen or heard one. For a person not already in the system, so to speak, it is a challenge to simply figure out when the games are. Are there tickets given away by radio stations? I have no idea. Never heard such an ad or promotion. Yet other people with similar events competing for people's weekend attention seem to try a lot harder to sell seats. Why would Jacks football be any different? Its not.

Ultimately I don't care if someone else goes to the game or not. That's up to them and I'm not going to tell someone else how to have a good time. We have UPD for that. But to me it seems like low hanging fruit all around on this topic for those of you who do care.

[BTownJack]

Re: 2017 regular season attendance

Just don't wristband. Have a UPD presence but don't search out for problems. Example: the AGR spot is near mine. It appears that both actives and alumni use that spot (at least they have in the past). They were there for 1 game this year. They were playing music, sitting/standing around and talking, with some playing beer darts. Nothing crazy. It looked like most students had wrist bands but UPD still went through their spot and asked people for IDs. There is no need for that. After that, the group didn't come back.

I'd encourage anyone that thinks students aren't drinking on Saturdays to drive through the neighborhood between 8th and 6th St. south of campus. STUDENTS ARE STILL DRINKING. Except, in a much riskier manner; no supervision, hard alcohol, bongs, keg stands, etc.. Then instead of going to the game and sobering up, they are just staying at their house party and continuing to drink. This sure seems worse to me then having them in the backyard or in another somewhat supervised area around the stadium or in the backyard.

Ruining student tailgating is not stopping underage drinking on Saturdays.

Policing student tailgating (a.k.a. "ruining") was not intended to stop drinking on Saturdays in Brookings. We have this discussion every year and allowing underage drinking at tailgating is absolutely not going to happen. As Filbert said "considering the social and legal environment [of] today". It can't happen and allowing it in any way, shape or form it is not even an option. I agree that it would increase student attendance and involvement but is also brings with it the potential of students hurling beer bottles and cans in a tailgate area full of families and kids again. Nobody wants that and SDSU as an institution and an athletic department can't afford things like that to go on under their watch.

[SoDakJack]

Re: 2017 regular season attendance

Policing student tailgating (a.k.a. "ruining") was not intended to stop drinking on Saturdays in Brookings. We have this discussion every year and allowing underage drinking at tailgating is absolutely not going to happen. As Filbert said "considering the social and legal environment [of] today". It can't happen and allowing it in any way, shape or form it is not even an option. I agree that it would increase student attendance and involvement but is also brings with it the potential of students hurling beer bottles and cans in a tailgate area full of families and kids again. Nobody wants that and SDSU as an institution and an athletic department can't afford things like that to go on under their watch.

Who is advocating allowing underage drinking? I have seen it referenced on here a couple times but I don't recall reading it. I don't think anyone with a shred of common sense would suggest we allow minors to drink. I also haven't seen a reference to giving students unlimited alcohol. Are these just ideas that were a "slippery slope" argument?

[jacksfan2011]

Re: 2017 regular season attendance

Who is advocating allowing underage drinking? I have seen it referenced on here a couple times but I don't recall reading it. I don't think anyone with a shred of common sense would suggest we allow minors to drink. I also haven't seen a reference to giving students unlimited alcohol. Are these just ideas that were a "slippery slope" argument?

I guess with my addition I was going off a couple previous posts that had brought up "providing alcohol" for students, I was mostly pointing out that was a bad idea. I may have misread, but felt it was a good point to make

[OldHare]

Re: 2017 regular season attendance

I guess with my addition I was going off a couple previous posts that had brought up "providing alcohol" for students, I was mostly pointing out that was a bad idea. I may have misread, but felt it was a good point to make

It might also be found that the enforcement of alcohol rules for minors was a bad idea. See post #37 and #44. There could be more references. It is a tie in for the thread title of attendance. It is just a hard sell and liability issue to condone or allow under age drinking. It is like the old adage of being lots of fun until somebody gets an eye poked out and watch the court dockets grow with that situation. If the students are drinking on some other street, that is not SDSU's problem.

[jakejc795]

Re: 2017 regular season attendance

Why even charge the fans? I realize that they want to monetize as much as they can, but at some point you just have to do something for the pure entertainment of the fans. Have meet and greets with the other sports in the SJAC, maybe some food choices for those fans that come to the game but do not have a spot to tailgate, perhaps some type of live pregame (radio or TV) that would give it that ESPN Gameday vibe (on a very, very small scale). My many years in the business tells me that a live broadcast of any type is a big production, so that may be just a pipe dream. I just feel the pre-game experience has stalled just a little bit.

The in-game experience has vastly improved. But, as always, there is room for improvement. For me, college football saturday is about more that W-L. If you can make the entire game day an event, you might just win over a few hundred that normally would stay home and watch Nebraska get blown out (I just had to work some type of Husker dig in).

I have mixed feelings about the monetization you mention. First, I think charging a small fee can help decrease the possible "exploitation" of student athletes. I don't want to lose sight of the fact that the Millers, Daums, Goederts, and Wienekes on Jacks' teams should not become cogs in the SDSU Athletics machine -- not saying they are, but it's something to be cognizant of. Thus, a portion of the funds raised could possibly be allocated to fund further outreach, FCOA, etc., and I think such initiatives to broaden that fiscal base can serve to benefit program sustainability. However, I also do not want to price out families, recent graduates with student loan debt, etc. who are prospective season ticket holders.

[Nidaros]

Re: 2017 regular season attendance

Monetization, that’s a term I am not familiar with, though I did a google and it is self-explanatory. Drinking on Saturday by students? It’s been going on long before any administrator even dreamed of moving to D1. Back in the last century, at one of Augie-SDSU basketball games I sat by a very senior gentleman, who told me he was an SDSU alum who played football and lettered sometime in 1930’s. He also told me he ran a bootleging business which helped him pay his way through college. So now we still have the same problem manifested in a different form. How do we deal with this problem? I don’t have an answer, but with society glorifying social drinking it’s bigger than a game day experience. It is a huge problem but laws have to be enforced.

[SoDakJack]

Re: 2017 regular season attendance

I have mixed feelings about the monetization you mention. First, I think charging a small fee can help decrease the possible "exploitation" of student athletes. I don't want to lose sight of the fact that the Millers, Daums, Goederts, and Wienekes on Jacks' teams should not become cogs in the SDSU Athletics machine -- not saying they are, but it's something to be cognizant of. Thus, a portion of the funds raised could possibly be allocated to fund further outreach, FCOA, etc., and I think such initiatives to broaden that fiscal base can serve to benefit program sustainability. However, I also do not want to price out families, recent graduates with student loan debt, etc. who are prospective season ticket holders.

I agree that there is a line to be walked. To me it isn't even really about being priced out. It has more to do with the perception of getting nickel and dimed for everything. I have said that season ticket holders should receive GoJacks premium, for their season, at no charge so they can follow the teams they already support. Why aren't there more "giveaways" during the pre-game or game? It is amazing how someone that shells out a couple hundred dollars for tickets gets super excited about a 10 dollar shirt.

I don’t have an answer, but with society glorifying social drinking it’s bigger than a game day experience. It is a huge problem but laws have to be enforced.

I don't think anyone is advocating underage drinking. Obviously laws are laws. I think that what has many people in a tizzy is the way that the UPD enforces those rules. It has been my experience that many times the law enforcement at the games tries to justify their being at the game. I liken a tailgate police force to a sports offical...they should enforce the rules but not be noticed.

[Mr_Tibbs]

Re: 2017 regular season attendance

It might also be found that the enforcement of alcohol rules for minors was a bad idea. See post #37 and #44. There could be more references. It is a tie in for the thread title of attendance. It is just a hard sell and liability issue to condone or allow under age drinking. It is like the old adage of being lots of fun until somebody gets an eye poked out and watch the court dockets grow with that situation. If the students are drinking on some other street, that is not SDSU's problem.

I understand the legality issue everyone is bringing up and the potential liability.

But I'd like to point out a few things.

1) Most institutions our size that have football are tailgaing. Those places have students tailgating, and I'm sure many are underage. They may not condone or encourage it, but they are not going through a vetting process or checking everyone's IDs. Those institutions are just as liable as SDSU, but they've figured out a way to make it work.

2) I refuse to beleive that our students are somehow uniquely drunker than others elsewhere. Many of these issues that have arisen in the past with students stem from where those issues occured, as opposed to the fact that the students were drunk and rowdy. If people chucking beer can during Hobo Day 2014 had been doing so away from families and vehicles, would anyone on here have noticed?

3) I've tailgated at 10 different universities, and talked about this type of issue to people at several more. Bottom line is, absolutely no one does what SDSU does when it comes to wrist banding, targeting students, etc. If there's a problem at tailgating, I'm sure those places take care of it. And again, they live under the same legal climate we do. I once asked someone in the athletic department if they had researched any other universities that were using this wristband/ID station system. He said they hadn't really researched who else did it (which is troubling in its own right), and they were not aware of any other regional D1 or D2 schools doing the same.

No one is advocating that we blatantly encourage underage drinking or stop cracking down on bad behavior. Some in this thread, myself included, are advocating that SDSU look at what their peers are doing and find a way to make that work.

[Evolution Prime]

Re: 2017 regular season attendance

Some in this thread, myself included, are advocating that SDSU look at what their peers are doing and find a way to make that work.

This is what I was about to post. We need to go around to different peer universities and look at their tailgating policies and how they run things and set things up. Go look how NDSU, Montana, etc. do things. Attend some of their tailgating events to get a first hand look. Most importantly, listen to you own fans. There are some things they are just not going or can allow, but see what the fans want/like.

[Nidaros]

Re: 2017 regular season attendance

I don't think anyone is advocating underage drinking. Obviously laws are laws. I think that what has many people in a tizzy is the way that the UPD enforces those rules. It has been my experience that many times the law enforcement at the games tries to justify their being at the game. I liken a tailgate police force to a sports offical...they should enforce the rules but not be noticed.

My comment about social drinking applies to all age groups.

[JacKsBack]

Re: 2017 regular season attendance

Hello... um, is this thing on?
Firstly, I want to state that I enjoy reading these boards and have done so for a long time. I've never felt the need to jump into a conversation as you all do an excellent job of arguing multiple points on both sides of the topics. However, this thread has piqued my interest.

On the subject of student attendance since changes in tailgating, isn't student attendance up since the hay days of tailgating mobs in the backyard? I think I remember UPD and Athletics twittering about student attendance increasing 20% a year or so ago? (someone more tech savvy could probably find it)

On the subject of the tailgating experience, most of the complaints have seemed to come from folks "up north." In the games I've been to, it's seemed that more and more tailgaters are pushing to the east, west, and south which would put less people overall in the north making it less "hopping." The atmosphere has still been a blast with plenty of folks willing to share drinks, food, and stories as well as yard games. Heck, I even ran into the Wieneke family (who are every bit as gracious and fun loving as Jake seems to be). The major differences seem to be that we have smaller rigs/setups than our cohorts up north and they're still pushed into one area for tailgating. As we continue to grow, it seems we, as fans, are evolving with it.

On the subject of student tailgating, there's always been a spot marked on the map for students to tailgate in. Wasn't it a couple of years ago that they had a spot next the the backyard? When they started the band march through tailgating? I remember there being bands and food but few students once the food ran out. Can't say I blame them. It was always fun meeting the older generations while socializing before games.

On the subject of wristbands, USeD was using them during their D-Days game - not sure if they've used them for other games. Hopefully some of you can update us on this this weekend! Might it be a Regents issue? Or is SDSU once again leading the way for our peer institutions in today's overly-sensitive law riddled environment?

I usually don't have a penny so I just hang around but on this issue I had a nickel so I threw my money down. I hope some of you older posters get the reference

[UWMandSDSU]

Re: 2017 regular season attendance

This is what I was about to post. We need to go around to different peer universities and look at their tailgating policies and how they run things and set things up. Go look how NDSU, Montana, etc. do things. Attend some of their tailgating events to get a first hand look. Most importantly, listen to you own fans. There are some things they are just not going or can allow, but see what the fans want/like.

The times I have been on road trips w/ individuals from Admin they do check out the facilities and game day operations, which includes tailgating, of the other schools.