GDT: Youngstown State Spheniscidae (Hobo Day)

[CappinHard]

Re: GDT: Youngstown State Spheniscidae (Hobo Day)

dont forget your ball before you leave.

[UWMandSDSU]

Re: GDT: Youngstown State Spheniscidae (Hobo Day)

Ok. But it was the opener for the residents for our own state, yes? Which would logically affect our attendance, yes? Cappin even gave first had examples of people who didn’t come for that exact reason, so why is this hard for you to grasp?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am with 98 on this one (I once worked at gun & hunting store) and residents only weekend isn’t a big deal. I would find it hard to believe it made any dent at all in regards to our attendance on Saturday.

[thumper_76]

Re: GDT: Youngstown State Spheniscidae (Hobo Day)

Sure it was. But the effect it had on attendance didn’t amount to chit. Ant weekend you pick will conflict with another state event. Grasp that!

ANY weekend eh? What was the state wide event for the Indiana St game then?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[98Jackfarmer]

Re: GDT: Youngstown State Spheniscidae (Hobo Day)

You are on of them riding my arse because I don’t tow the company line all the time. And you pin it on me when I claim BS now and again?

[98Jackfarmer]

Re: GDT: Youngstown State Spheniscidae (Hobo Day)

ANY weekend eh? What was the state wide event for the Indiana St game then?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do you really want to be that petty and make me look them all up? No matter what weekend you pick there is going to be a conflict which effects people in the state. Does it have to be deemed statewide, doubt it.

[98Jackfarmer]

Re: GDT: Youngstown State Spheniscidae (Hobo Day)

ANY weekend eh? What was the state wide event for the Indiana St game then?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ask SDSU why they didn’t pick the Indiana game then?

[jakejc795]

Re: GDT: Youngstown State Spheniscidae (Hobo Day)

Couple things here. First off, OldHare is 100% correct. If we were to drop our prices down to anything similar to what the old prices were I’m pretty sure even if every game was a sell out we wouldn’t get the revenue that we are getting with the current number that shows up. It sucks but that’s the math that happens when you have to pay for a new stadium.

As to the incentives for the students vs the rest of us, students are the easiest people to grow the fan base with long term where you give aways will have the biggest impact. I am highly dubious that telling people who are on the fence about season tickets that in three to five years they’ll get a free one will have the same impact that giving a give away to a student will. Plus you’re potentially setting up yourself for years with large drop offs in season ticket revenues after three to five years. And while our ticket prices might be higher per game than some conference mates, but I’m pretty sure you’d be hard pressed to be able to buy season tickets anywhere for $125.

I’m not sure what the answer is. I know I’m doing my damndest to get anyone I know to come to games with me. I’m not always real successful, but I’m making some real headway with a half dozen or so. Guess what’s really helped with that? Tailgating. Weird.


Well since most people at our games are from SD, maybe the pheasant opener for SD residents isn’t the best day to try to schedule HOBO DAY. And the conference would care because the higher their attendance conference wide the better the conference looks for being able to bid on playoff games and the like.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

First, I never said ticket prices should be similar to CAS rates. I know that's unreasonable; however, were they to even drop the prices $2/ticket, that saves me $36 during regular season (and nearly $50 with playoffs). Second, a purported student was griping on Twitter that Admin. cheated students during the drawing because they didn't continue to draw names for the Housing and Tuition prizes until a student who was present won, which suggests a possible weakness in your argument. Namely, students couldn't even sit through another half of football when the prize winner stood to save hundreds (and in the case of tuition, thousands) of dollars next semester, but they'll spend hundreds on season tickets after they graduate because Admin. gave a handful of students prizes?

The difference in the scenario I offered is that the person receiving the free ticket will have already demonstrated s/he will buy tickets by doing so for multiple years.

Lastly, Athletics already offers promos that represent revenue losses when they allow persons with football tickets to attend other sporting events for free (e.g., today's VB match and BB games in the prior years).

[jakejc795]

Re: GDT: Youngstown State Spheniscidae (Hobo Day)

Ask SDSU why they didn’t pick the Indiana game then?

Youngstown and UNI have been the most common recent Hobo Day opponents, and Pelini being the coach at Youngstown suggests they'd be a much better "draw" than the Sycamores.

[thumper_76]

GDT: Youngstown State Spheniscidae (Hobo Day)

First, I never said ticket prices should be similar to CAS rates. I know that's unreasonable; however, were they to even drop the prices $2/ticket, that saves me $36 during regular season (and nearly $50 with playoffs). Second, a purported student was griping on Twitter that Admin. cheated students during the drawing because they didn't continue to draw names for the Housing and Tuition prizes until a student who was present won, which suggests a possible weakness in your argument. Namely, students couldn't even sit through a half of football when the prize winner stood to save hundreds (and in the case of tuition, thousands) of dollars next semester, but they'll spend hundreds on season tickets after they graduate because Admin. gave a handful of students prizes?

The difference in the scenario I offered is that the person receiving the free ticket will have already demonstrated s/he will buy tickets by doing so for multiple years.

Lastly, Athletics already offers promos that represent revenue losses when they allow persons with football tickets to attend other sporting events for free (e.g., today's VB match and BB games in the prior years).

If we’re looking to grow attendance instead of saving some of us a couple bucks, I’m guessing that a $2 drop will not grow our average attendance by 1500-2000.

As to growing the fan base, your gambling on getting students there who enjoy the game, atmosphere, etc and decide to keep coming. If you’re focusing on the ones bitching you’re looking at the wrong part of the demographic. Even if you only gained one of the kids who won the free tuition as a lifelong fan throughout their life they probably pay back more in seat fees and such than they got in free tuition. Now if you figure that gains a couple more who come back as season ticket holders who raise their kids to come to games, it can have a much deeper affect. The goal with it is to gain new fans, not give the current ones free stuff unfortunately. In you’re scenario the person has likely demonstrated they’ll buy season tickets anyways without a perk. As you point out Volleyball and other sports doing free admission with a football ticket, let’s not pretend those are close to the same. Volleyball just wants to get anyone at all through the door, while football wants to gain fans who bring revenue with them. In the end though I think it’s really a chicken and egg argument.

Ask SDSU why they didn’t pick the Indiana game then?

Which was the original question that you just had us argue back to because you’re apparently bored.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RowdyRabbit]

Re: GDT: Youngstown State Spheniscidae (Hobo Day)

I don't really care if they do or not. But I would bet that if they allowed beer to be sold it would bump the attendance. Is it good or bad?

So the people who aren't coming now because the ticket price is to high, will suddenly come pay the high ticket price AND pay on top of that for beer?

Edit: thinking about it some more... I suppose you're right.. a lot of those same people probably drop a ton that cash at a sports bar to watch the game anyhow.

[Jacked_Up]

Re: GDT: Youngstown State Spheniscidae (Hobo Day)

This thread certainly has gone off the rails.

[JackJD]

Re: GDT: Youngstown State Spheniscidae (Hobo Day)

Keeping with the theme of this thread having gone off the rails (yeah, not a lot more to say about the YSU win) ...

Looks like we have about two and a third combatants arguing about what’s wrong with attendance and ticket prices. Anyone care to take into account the actual attendance figures before pointing out what's wrong with, well, the attendance figures? Here are some numbers, all of which are verifiable on GoJacks.com and other public sources:

The 08-09 school year was the first season SDSU was a full member of Division 1 after successfully completing a five-year transition. In that year, we played in the old Coughlin Alumni Stadium. Most will recall that we broke ground for the new stadium in 2014. First, the east and south sides were completed. The following year, the old west side was knocked down and replaced. The first season in the fully-completed stadium was 2016.

The Dykhouse Stadium construction cost was about $65 million. Of that amount, a little less than $34 million came from the sale of bonds by the SD Building Authority (in the SDBA financial statements, the bonds are the Series 2014A bonds) and the rest came from private donations. Long-term revenue streams from the stadium including ticket sales, concessions and loge boxes are applied in repayment of the bonds.

If one starts with the first full D-1 season in 2008, here are some attendance figures:

Year/Attendance/Home Games/Average Attendance

2008 59,439 6 9,907
2009 66,327 5 13,265
2010 50,117 5 10,023
2011 60,527 5 12,105
2012 66,685 5 13,337
2013 64,163 6 10,694
2014 65,613 6 10,936
2015 77,394 6 12,899
2016 90,114 6 15,019
2017 82,850 6 13,808

We have had four home games in 2018 and attendance for those games is in the total sum of 53,815 or a per-game average of !3,454.

What about playoffs? In 2012 we had one playoff game at home and 4,367 attended. In 2016 we had a home playoff game and 6,154 attended. In 2017, we hosted two playoff games and a total of 13,101 attended.

The attendance figures show a fairly steady trend up, If you back to pre-2008 numbers, say another 10- years to 1998, and place the attendance numbers on a line graph, one could see where we're going and I'm excited to be a part of that growth.

In 2016, we set an attendance record in the inaugural season of the Dykhouse Stadium: 17,730 for the YSU game. In 2017, the record was taken to 18,130 for the NDSU game (that’s the one in which some NDSU fans express outrage at our efforts to make sure SDSU fans bought most of the tickets, an effort that was very successful and, in my opinion, was a strong indication of the near-term growth in SDSU fan support.

Personally, I don't see a big bump from adding beer sales. Based on a few items I've read about over the years, it seems there's no indication it does much for attendance but some places (not all) report a nice bump in revenue. I'm neutral on beer sales in the stadium. I think we'll see hell freeze before the SD Board of Regents and the Legislature will allow universities to sell beer in their football stadiums.

I remain convinced (I've been criticized for this optimism) that our fan base will continue to grow and people will show up even when the weather is crappy. If you put a great product on the field -- and we're doing that right now -- the fans will learn to show up.

[Nidaros]

Re: GDT: Youngstown State Spheniscidae (Hobo Day)

Keeping with the theme of this thread having gone off the rails (yeah, not a lot more to say about the YSU win) ...

Looks like we have about two and a third combatants arguing about what’s wrong with attendance and ticket prices. Anyone care to take into account the actual attendance figures before pointing out what's wrong with, well, the attendance figures? Here are some numbers, all of which are verifiable on GoJacks.com and other public sources:

The 08-09 school year was the first season SDSU was a full member of Division 1 after successfully completing a five-year transition. In that year, we played in the old Coughlin Alumni Stadium. Most will recall that we broke ground for the new stadium in 2014. First, the east and south sides were completed. The following year, the old west side was knocked down and replaced. The first season in the fully-completed stadium was 2016.

The Dykhouse Stadium construction cost was about $65 million. Of that amount, a little less than $34 million came from the sale of bonds by the SD Building Authority (in the SDBA financial statements, the bonds are the Series 2014A bonds) and the rest came from private donations. Long-term revenue streams from the stadium including ticket sales, concessions and loge boxes are applied in repayment of the bonds.

If one starts with the first full D-1 season in 2008, here are some attendance figures:

Year/Attendance/Home Games/Average Attendance

2008 59,439 6 9,907
2009 66,327 5 13,265
2010 50,117 5 10,023
2011 60,527 5 12,105
2012 66,685 5 13,337
2013 64,163 6 10,694
2014 65,613 6 10,936
2015 77,394 6 12,899
2016 90,114 6 15,019
2017 82,850 6 13,808

We have had four home games in 2018 and attendance for those games is in the total sum of 53,815 or a per-game average of !3,454.

What about playoffs? In 2012 we had one playoff game at home and 4,367 attended. In 2016 we had a home playoff game and 6,154 attended. In 2017, we hosted two playoff games and a total of 13,101 attended.

The attendance figures show a fairly steady trend up, If you back to pre-2008 numbers, say another 10- years to 1998, and place the attendance numbers on a line graph, one could see where we're going and I'm excited to be a part of that growth.

In 2016, we set an attendance record in the inaugural season of the Dykhouse Stadium: 17,730 for the YSU game. In 2017, the record was taken to 18,130 for the NDSU game (that’s the one in which some NDSU fans express outrage at our efforts to make sure SDSU fans bought most of the tickets, an effort that was very successful and, in my opinion, was a strong indication of the near-term growth in SDSU fan support.

Personally, I don't see a big bump from adding beer sales. Based on a few items I've read about over the years, it seems there's no indication it does much for attendance but some places (not all) report a nice bump in revenue. I'm neutral on beer sales in the stadium. I think we'll see hell freeze before the SD Board of Regents and the Legislature will allow universities to sell beer in their football stadiums.

I remain convinced (I've been criticized for this optimism) that our fan base will continue to grow and people will show up even when the weather is crappy. If you put a great product on the field -- and we're doing that right now -- the fans will learn to show up.

Excellent post Jack JD. I have sat in the club section going on my third season. Part of our admission of $750 is access to beer and wine. And being on the end seat, I got a pretty good idea how much it helps attendance. It reallly does very little to help in my opinion. There are many empty seats at each game. The traffic to get up and go get some more beer has started to slow down which means I get to watch the game and spill hot cocoa on the jacket of the lady in front of me. This happened last Saturday, I gave my name and address and plan on paying a cleaning bill. No big deal, neither of us are beer or wine drinkers. S*hit happens! My point is the novelty of having access to beer and wine is wearing off, and our attendance is what it is and the trend is improving. When I moved to Columbus Nebraska in 1986 and I was in driving distance of every home game, our attendance was no where near the numbers of this season. Wayne Haensel, Head coach was often lucky to have a winning season. November games meant attendance of less than 3000, sometimes less 1500. If we can get 8000 or more for a playoff game we are doing very good. Our win over YSU was very impressive, it will be interesting to read all the FCS comments on Facebook. Rep points given to JackJD

[MontanaRabbit]

Re: GDT: Youngstown State Spheniscidae (Hobo Day)

Keeping with the theme of this thread having gone off the rails (yeah, not a lot more to say about the YSU win) ...

Looks like we have about two and a third combatants arguing about what’s wrong with attendance and ticket prices. Anyone care to take into account the actual attendance figures before pointing out what's wrong with, well, the attendance figures? Here are some numbers, all of which are verifiable on GoJacks.com and other public sources:

The 08-09 school year was the first season SDSU was a full member of Division 1 after successfully completing a five-year transition. In that year, we played in the old Coughlin Alumni Stadium. Most will recall that we broke ground for the new stadium in 2014. First, the east and south sides were completed. The following year, the old west side was knocked down and replaced. The first season in the fully-completed stadium was 2016.

The Dykhouse Stadium construction cost was about $65 million. Of that amount, a little less than $34 million came from the sale of bonds by the SD Building Authority (in the SDBA financial statements, the bonds are the Series 2014A bonds) and the rest came from private donations. Long-term revenue streams from the stadium including ticket sales, concessions and loge boxes are applied in repayment of the bonds.

If one starts with the first full D-1 season in 2008, here are some attendance figures:

Year/Attendance/Home Games/Average Attendance

2008 59,439 6 9,907
2009 66,327 5 13,265
2010 50,117 5 10,023
2011 60,527 5 12,105
2012 66,685 5 13,337
2013 64,163 6 10,694
2014 65,613 6 10,936
2015 77,394 6 12,899
2016 90,114 6 15,019
2017 82,850 6 13,808

We have had four home games in 2018 and attendance for those games is in the total sum of 53,815 or a per-game average of !3,454.

What about playoffs? In 2012 we had one playoff game at home and 4,367 attended. In 2016 we had a home playoff game and 6,154 attended. In 2017, we hosted two playoff games and a total of 13,101 attended.

The attendance figures show a fairly steady trend up, If you back to pre-2008 numbers, say another 10- years to 1998, and place the attendance numbers on a line graph, one could see where we're going and I'm excited to be a part of that growth.

In 2016, we set an attendance record in the inaugural season of the Dykhouse Stadium: 17,730 for the YSU game. In 2017, the record was taken to 18,130 for the NDSU game (that’s the one in which some NDSU fans express outrage at our efforts to make sure SDSU fans bought most of the tickets, an effort that was very successful and, in my opinion, was a strong indication of the near-term growth in SDSU fan support.

Personally, I don't see a big bump from adding beer sales. Based on a few items I've read about over the years, it seems there's no indication it does much for attendance but some places (not all) report a nice bump in revenue. I'm neutral on beer sales in the stadium. I think we'll see hell freeze before the SD Board of Regents and the Legislature will allow universities to sell beer in their football stadiums.

I remain convinced (I've been criticized for this optimism) that our fan base will continue to grow and people will show up even when the weather is crappy. If you put a great product on the field -- and we're doing that right now -- the fans will learn to show up.

I think the phrase Rome wasn't built in a day applies here. Considering how far we've come it's hard to be disappointed about fan support. I'll bet the athletic department is looking at the numbers the way it's presented above and is happy. However, I'm certain they are doing everything they can to continue this trend.

As far as the whole pheasant season thing is concerned, the resident season doesn't amount to much. Sure, a few people do it, but the effect it would have had on attendance this weekend is minimal at best. I hunted that early opener a couple times in high school and there was very little pressure on the public land in Hand County (Cappin, we've got much better pheasant hunting than Brookings County).

What likely had a bigger effect is harvest. I'm willing to bet farmers are going balls to the wall harvesting in some parts of the state. So do we try to schedule Hobo Day around harvest since a large portion of our fan base is from the ag community?

[Cowbell]

Re: GDT: Youngstown State Spheniscidae (Hobo Day)

People will always discuss the impacts of harvesting and hunting on football attendance figures. Promotions notwithstanding, the most puzzling thing about last Saturday's game was the weak student attendance for the university's biggest event. That is a head scratcher. It's always a treat to see big student crowds.