Home attendance fo 2003

[jackmd]

SDSU 25th in the nation at DII level for home football attendance, 5500 per game.  NDSU #1 at 11,000 per, UND #7.

SDSU numbers are down about 500 from last year.  Would have ranked about #80 in DI-AA according to NCAA release.

http://www.ncaa.org/stats/football/a...attendance.pdf

We were #16 in 2002 and #14 in 2001 (6,500/game). It would be nice to see numbers closer to 10,000 over the next several years. I think this is easily achievable but dependent upon improved facilities, parking, and aggresive statewide marketing (as well as the weather).

[jackmd]

Re: Home attendance fo 2003

Here is a link with attendance over the last 5 years, all divisions. Just click on the statistics tab (upper right corner), then football, then attendance. If anyone knows how to post a more direct link, please do so and tell me how!

http://www.ncaa.org/sportsfrontF.html

[89rabbit]

Re: Home attendance fo 2003

Not great, but then again it could have been worse.  Considering the weird schedule we had last year.  Open the season at home (close to 10,000 if I remember correctly) and then 4 straight weeks on the road.  It never good to back load your schedule with an outdoor stadium in South Dakota.  

We will need to step it up as we move up to I-AA.  Hopefully some great new opponents and some old friends will help push that number higher in 2004.  I do agree with JackMD that we need to improve Coughlin and do a better job of Marketing the only D-I team in South Dakota!   ;D

Go State!

[Texas_Jacks_Fan]

Re: Home attendance fo 2003

We can and will do a lot better next year. Our home schedule should be much better (time wise). Those late season home games kill our attendance. I would love to see an avg. closer to 10,000 next year. I'm convinced that once the D1AA teams come to Brookings our attendance will be very good.

[JACKGUY]

Re: Home attendance fo 2003

5500 is not good. We need to do a better job of marketing the football team. A good start would be to get more people interested in the Spring intrasquad football game. We have talked about the vast improvements Coughlin needs to bring it up to standards and that needs to happen. I think when people walk into the stadium for a DIAA game the facility and enviroment needs to have that look and feel.

[jackmd]

Re: Home attendance fo 2003

Agreed, there has been talk about improving Coughlin for sometime but no real stimulus i.e. home playoff games, overflowing crowds, big corporate interest, etc..

Now, with the move up to DI there are more than enough good reasons to spend some money and improve the stadium. Another overwhelming positive about the move forward to DI.

[JACKGUY]

Re: Home attendance fo 2003

I could really get behind a great Football Program at SDSU and I think there are a lot people that are just looking for some positives things to happen there. The good thing is there is so much untapped potential with our football program. I love the outdoor enviroment at Coughlin compared to the Dome stadiums in the NCC.

[CatchEmAll_Guy]

Re: Home attendance fo 2003

5500 is not good. We need to do a better job of marketing the football team. A good start would be to get more people interested in the Spring intrasquad football game. We have talked about the vast improvements Coughlin needs to bring it up to standards and that needs to happen. I think when people walk into the stadium for a DIAA game the facility and enviroment needs to have that look and feel.

I agree that the attendance should be better. Marketing needs to really be stepped up (any idea who's in charge of Marketing for athletics?). Ideally it would be nice to have a Josh Ranek every year to focus marketing efforts on, but that's not going to be the case for a while. I think that Stig really needs to be involved in selling his program more publicly and the athletic department needs to put a face to Jackrabbit football. Would it hurt to try to get Ranek, Vinny, Timmerman or Heiden to do a few radio spots or TV commercial? Expensive, yes, useful, definately.

Getting people interested in the Spring Scrimmage is nearly impossible. With weather problems and number of players the game is usually pretty boring and doesn't showcase anything. An effort to tie in tailgating in the spring might help though.

I do agree that Coughlin is a great place to watch football. Tailgating has added to the atmosphere. Improvements are probably a number of years away, but that doesn't mean people can't start coming out now to watch the evolution of the Jacks program.

[SDSUFAN]

Re: Home attendance fo 2003

I know that I went to more football games now that the area behind the stadium was opened up to tailgating. With tailgating there is of course the opportunity to enjoy delicious canned and bottled elixirs.

However, has SDSU ever really been a huge football school? It was more so perhaps five years ago, it seems, that in the present.

Has SDSU ever really been a huge football school? A good question for an old f**t like me. I recall the 1950's the Jacks were winning the NCC everyother year and in between were in the hunt. Its hard to compare with the NDSU tradition that started in 1963 because so many things changed. SDSU' Ralph Ginn was a great coach. In fact his assistant Bob Danielson was hired away by NDSU in mid 1950's, but was axed when the Bison went 0-10 in 1962. The NDSU program was miserably underfunded, and the new President up there made a committment to winning and the beginning of the Teamakers. Meanwhile SDSU never tried to match NDSU in fund raising and the program went south. Ralph got old and retired. The suceeding head coaches just weren't Ralph Ginn in coaching ability and NDSU, UND AND UNI were dominating the NCC. Prior to 1963 it was a three way race in the NCC, UND, UNI and SDSU. Augie, USD and NDSU often battled for stating out of the NCC cellar and believe it or not Morningside was the mid level team and even won the NCC a couple of times.

Football has changed and how its watch etc since the 1950's that its hard to compare with the current programs. My feeling is that if SDSU were to have back to back 8 win seasons, things would pickup some.