GDT: Delaware (12/03/22) ***FCS Championship, 2nd Round***

[6-4-3 Jackrabbit]

Take aways from yesterday. Team responded great. The crowds for these payoff games are so disappointing. The University has done everything possible to fill the Dana in December. A great stadium. The best team in the country. Cheap tickets. For some reason it doesn't matter. Our fans just don't show for these games. I talked with many people at Cubby's before the game. You heading to the game? Yes. Are you? No, too cold. I'll be in Frisco. It was cold in Montana yesterday. Their fans showed up. Hopefully some momentum builds these next couple of weeks and the attendance numbers grow. It wasn't that cold yesterday. If the wind is down, it's really not that bad.

My guess is the Rabbits will be 18–20-point favorites next weekend. If they take care of the ball all should be well. Get our and support the team people!

Go Rabbits!

[tbcruiser]

Agree , it's disappointing, like the absent fans (those who normally show up Sep and Oct) don't understand (or care)that their presence makes a difference. Some times it take a little "sacrifice" to get the prize .I'm sure everyone who isn't showing will gladly celebrate in the championship. Anyway, glad to be a part of the 6k that were there and hope that # grows substantially this weekend.

[jakejc795]

Take aways from yesterday. Team responded great. The crowds for these payoff games are so disappointing. The University has done everything possible to fill the Dana in December. A great stadium. The best team in the country. Cheap tickets. For some reason it doesn't matter. Our fans just don't show for these games. I talked with many people at Cubby's before the game. You heading to the game? Yes. Are you? No, too cold. I'll be in Frisco. It was cold in Montana yesterday. Their fans showed up. Hopefully some momentum builds these next couple of weeks and the attendance numbers grow. It wasn't that cold yesterday. If the wind is down, it's really not that bad.

My guess is the Rabbits will be 18–20-point favorites next weekend. If they take care of the ball all should be well. Get our and support the team people!

Go Rabbits!

Anecdotal evidence here, but we sit in an area with a multi-generational family occupying the two rows immediately in front of us. The "patriarch" and "matriarch" of one half of the group are apparently in AZ, and they attended all but one regular-season game.

Conversely, I had a crew sitting to my left, and the gent sitting next to me said he hadn't been to a football game in nearly 15 years.

I'd be curious about how many "season ticket snowbirds" we have that bolster the regular season attendance but opt out of playoffs (and SD residence for southern climes).

I believe it was the latest "NLA" episode where Zimmer relayed a story about former AD saying Jacks were going to win "battle for Sioux Falls," and both Zimmer and Gaskins were rightfully skeptical of that. There are intervening variables in the form of travel time (albeit relatively brief, but I'm biased because I make that drive every game), price, food, parking, etc. -- some of those were discussed during the podcast, but I'd be very curoius about how effectively Jacks are "winning" Brookings and towns like Volga, Arlington, Lake Preston, and De Smet. Obviously that area "backs the Jacks" with signage, stickers, and shirts, but to what degree are "butts" backing the Jacks in the stands?

[Mr_Tibbs]

I’m not going to beat a dead horse in playoff attendance since I agree with the posters that have said it is what it is at this point. But when we have 19,000+ here for games in October for Hobo Day or USD (albeit with great weather) and we can’t crack 10k for a playoff game, the problem is more than just the weather. Yeah, that explains part of it for sure. But I think it is first and foremost a culture thing. I could be wrong, but I’m willing to bet that if you did a poll of all those 19,000 people at the Hobo Day game, over half either don’t know that we’re in the playoffs, don’t know we’re the #1 seed (and what that means) and that this is our best chance at making Frisco in a fall season we’ve ever had. Then I think if you look at the other half of those 19,000 that do have some idea of those things, maybe half of them just decided it’s too cold.

For better or worse, we have about 5-6000 die hard fans that will be here almost no matter what and another 10-15000 that just enjoy going to some games in September/October for a fun weekend. Until we get a larger chunk of those fans into the diehard category, we will struggle.

Im guessing if we had a forecast calling for 60 degree weather next Saturday, we might only see a bump of 2-3000. Because Jackrabbit football in December just isn’t something our regular season crowds know/care about as much as they rest of us do. Yet. Like I mentioned earlier, our admin has done a great job this fall with getting better crowds. Maybe there’s a way that playoffs can be increased in years going forward too.

[jakejc795]

Definitely Bill & Mary for me. Have to wonder though if the players wouldn't mind getting another shot at Montana State in Brookings.

Would be interesting to have a new opponent, but I can support "Revenge at DJD."

Regardless, I'm stoked for Saturday.

[OldHare]

I can guarantee that there are people that do not go to games when it is cold. There are many older season ticket fans who I did not see yesterday that normally sit in my area. You can roll your eyes when they say it is too cold, but I can verify that the cold is more intense physically as I get older. I checked the normal attendance for Delaware and I discovered that they normally pull 15K-19K for home games. The playoff game only brought less than 5K fans on Thanksgiving weekend. The 6K+ made a fair amount of noise at the game yesterday to provide support for the Jackrabbits. It is also great that many fans make 1-5 hour trips on a regular basis for the home games. It was also fantastic for the Pride to play during the game from the stands. It is not difficult to understand why it is too cold for many to attend when the beer sales at Cubby's do not stop at the end of the 3rd quarter and the temperature is 70 degrees and the interest in the game is high.

[filbert]

You people are delusional. Watch the damn play.

How about this one?
https://twitter.com/Snowfan218/statu...34376385978368

That wasn't from the Delaware-SDSU game.

That tells us pretty much all we need to know about your observational skills--i.e. you don't have any.

[SoDakPirate]

Don’t know how this relates but indoors at NDSU yesterday they drew slightly less than 13,000 which I am sure
disappointed them too

[ringthebells]

We have lots of kids around us during the regular season games. There weren't very many kids yesterday. I think the cold weather discourages a lot of the young families with little kids that attend when the weather is nicer. Maybe attendance will climb as the we get closer to Frisco and people realize we are the best team in the nation.

[jakejc795]

We have lots of kids around us during the regular season games. There weren't very many kids yesterday. I think the cold weather discourages a lot of the young families with little kids that attend when the weather is nicer. Maybe attendance will climb as the we get closer to Frisco and people realize we are the best team in the nation.

Hope you're right.

The further the Jacks advance, the closer we get to the additional budgetary strains of Christmas & New Year's.

Plus, a Friday night game would involve folks potentially going to HS BB games instead.

[OldHare]

This attachment is from a Delaware writer.
https://www.delawareonline.com/story...e/69685056007/

[filbert]

This attachment is from a Delaware writer.
https://www.delawareonline.com/story...e/69685056007/

From the article (a special service for any poster who seems to have observational difficulty):

Football felt a little bit too close to life and death before that, as the largest collection of personnel I’ve ever seen surround an injured player tended to O’Connor, the red-shirt freshman from Easton, Maryland.

He’d been struck hard in the chest and neck area as he slid to complete a 10-yard run on third-and-1. His head also snapped back and hit the turf hard. A personal foul was called but not targeting.

[jackdaniel]

We are in tough times for many fans who just don't have the funds most here do. Many factors relate to attendance , some mentioned and i'll add food and gas, add them all together and what we see is what we get, hope things improve to give more people the chance to see a great football program from the stands instead of just watching from other means.

[73alum]

We are in tough times for many fans who just don't have the funds most here do. Many factors relate to attendance , some mentioned and i'll add food and gas, add them all together and what we see is what we get, hope things improve to give more people the chance to see a great football program from the stands instead of just watching from other means.

My brothers and I have attended football and basketball games over the years but two of us are from CA and one Guam. But growing up in SD we are familiar with the climate. We usually visit friends and relatives mainly in SD and NE to make for a great trip. But, that’s not going to be very many people in those situations.

But here’s the thing…it’s easy to say, well it’s too expensive. We had parents living in SD years ago so that was a good reason also for going back. But hey, we still go back about the same amount whether parents are there or not there! You can make excuses for everything and then someday people say…you know we should have done….and I’ll be the first to say I’ve said that too many times!!!

[JRFanatic]

I think that we’ll see a 1-2k bump this weekend and then should we win and play again another drop as students will be gone. It just is what it is. It is slowly improving but to the casual fan with no ties to sdsu that may happen to live in Sioux Falls, there isn’t name recognition of many opportunities for football.


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