Originally posted by IUPbigINDIANS
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Originally posted by IUPbigINDIANS View Post
Joe leads the basketball attendance every year and it's not even close. In fact, even in the 'funeral season' which is the horrendously long 7-8 week XMAS break, IUP still draws better during this time than the other schools average with students on campus.
Like I said above, the two 'events' are very different. The KCAC is lively. It's a state of the art arena. It sells (vastly) overpriced beer and wine inside. IUP has won the past (3) PSAC men's titles. And, Joe's never playing games at 12 p.m.
Now, keep in mind, basketball draws a much, much younger crowd than football does at IUP. While there is a lot of overlap, basketball has its own extremely loyal following.
The atmosphere is better. The music is better. The in-game entertainment is better (dance teams, etc.). The food inside the KCAC is vastly better than Miller Stadium. The arena seating is extremely close to the floor.
I take a lot of first-timers to IUP games. They are amazed after their first basketball experience. Football not so much. Obviously both teams are good. One feels like an event/experience. One does not.
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Two items from a prior post -
"This idea you have to market the game to students seems odd to me."
Forget the students - how about marketing to areas within a 30- 40 minute radius of IUP? I know too many alumnI that live with 80 minutes of campus and have never been back to campus or to a game..
"The atmosphere is better. The music is better. The in-game entertainment is better (dance teams, etc.). The food inside the KCAC is vastly better than Miller Stadium. The arena seating is extremely close to the floor."
All true but there is no reason much of that can't be done at Miller also. Think event and many things come to mind that are inexpensive to do, but they have to be promoted aggressively, which given the lethargy at IUP probably is totally wishful thinking.
The disaster we call a press box is an embarrassment. Fix it, do some serious panting around the stadium, get rid of the rusty fence near the fieldhouse and generally spruce up the surroundings would make for an environment that at least is not akin to what the old stadium of the Baltimore Colts use to be called, - the pig lot.
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Originally posted by Matt Burglund View Post
I've lost count of how many people over the years, who when I ask them if they're coming to the football game on Saturday, say something like, "I'll see what the weatherman says."
Perhaps you could argue The Lou Tepper era saw some fall off the wagon. Curt, while successful, wasn't exactly Mr. Personality toward the fan base.
The basketball program has shown you can get a rowdy and electric atmosphere at IUP. Why that doesn't translate to football is just strange.
My yearly wish list for football (to improve the atmosphere): would be:
* Relocate the band (what's left of it) immediately. It is too far removed down behind the end zone. Move it back to where it used to be. Combine the fact that they are in Siberia along with the awful music they've played the past several years ... and the band is absolutely a non-factor.
* $45 per tailgate spot is essentially a criminal act ... that should be $10 max.
* The mass halftime departure has to get fixed. Having 70 percent of the home side leave at halftime -- and, not come back -- is not only an embarrassment but also a slap in the face to the players. Not that any of those who leave come back, but make re-entry prohibited. If possible, sell over-priced beer inside the stadium just like the KCAC does. Just like basketball games, the people who buy the beer can afford it.
* I've been a proponent for years of making the first 8-10 rows of the home side -- the whole width of it -- general admission. Get the few students who attend behind the bench -- not down inside the 10-yard line. The middle section on the home side, per capita, is very old -- and, they don't cheer at all. The team feeds off the crowd, which could explain the play inside Miller the past several years. IUP has won a lot of ugly, boring games in there.
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The punt gets all the talk from the Cal debacle, but if Irv catches that wide-open TD and IUP goes up 21 points ... TKO. Heck, one first down at the end there and it was over.
I remember vividly after the eventual punt block heard round Indiana ... knew it was over. I started walking out and by the time I got down to the bend Cal had scored right in front of me down there in the corner.
As a fan that was probably the most painful loss I can remember in that stadium. I never thought they'd actually lose to Edinboro a week later but I fully went in to that game expecting a lackluster performance. Irv missed that game and the offense couldn't move for long stretches.
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Originally posted by Fightingscot82 View Post
Probably because they haven't had a streak of winning years to sustain. Just when they have momentum the program turns over. The only mid-atlantic or northeast FBS school that draws well for both football and basketball is Maryland - VA and VT are culturally more southern than UM.
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Originally posted by Ship69 View Post
Maryland over the years hasn't drawn that well for football. Moving to the B1G has helped their attendance some, largely because many B1G teams travel well.
I really like games there. It's a neat stadium. Night games are great there.
The glory days of MD basketball ... Cole Field House was incredible.
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Originally posted by Ship69 View Post
Maryland over the years hasn't drawn that well for football. Moving to the B1G has helped their attendance some, largely because many B1G teams travel well.
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Originally posted by Fightingscot82 View Post
They still averaged about 50k per game. To me that still puts them well above a lot of the G5 schools.
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Originally posted by Ship69 View Post
Maryland average home attendance in 2021 was a little over 33,000, which ranked 13th out of 14 in the Big Ten. They finished ahead of only Northwestern, which is a private school that has about as many undergraduates as IUP and had a lousy season last year.
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Originally posted by Fightingscot82 View Post
Undergraduate enrollment doesn't really determine attendance since students are such a small portion of the tickets. Usually they're no more than 20%. Notre Dame has fewer students than IUP and look at their attendance year after year.
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