$10 Homecoming tickets

[cavedweller2]

Take 5000 free tickets for the visitor side to downtown Greenville and give them away. Bar code them to make verification of redemption easy. I would guess only a small % would be redeemed. You have to start somewhere. It would be less costly to the University to give away the tickets and hope to make something on gear and concessions than to drive in folks to buy tickets with advertising. If you can get them to attend a game they may pay to see the next one or show up to buy a ticket to a playoff game. Make it easy for the casual fan with no ties to the school to attend a game.

[JoeyFreshwater]

Y’all must be a blast at partys

[DungeonRealm]

We had 10,105 for Citadel in 2017, no reason we should not be able to pull that in again this year now that we are a top 15 program if we manage things right, hoping for nice weather and a great turnout!

[gofurman]

Y’all must be a blast at partys

Joey, It's a little restrictive here. I understand you named someone but unlike most other boards - despite Stumpy saying IN THE RULES that you can call out a group (LBs, RBs, DL ) as long as you don't name a player some people get mad at that. Odd, ITS IN THE FREAKIN RULES of board decorum. So we should have the right to do that as Stumpy declared in what is basically the UFFP CONSTITUTION! so yeah, it's a little big brother here. people try to squash what has been explicitly allowed by the founding father of the board!!! just like law, if it is in the constitution you have to allow it

Now I get that Joey named a guy and called him out so that's not allowed but I have seen people frown on what IS allowed by the UFFP decorum rules . snowflakes.. LOL

Anyway, I agree w CD2 or whomever, give away FREE tickets to visitor side. just give out 5000 free tickets downtown. I know a kid that is down to us and Mercer - his two points he told me were " Furman has a better strength coach.. Mercer had better atmosphere." I don't influence him in any way. I am wary of anythin like that. I just asked him what schools he was looking at as I know his dad very well. ATMOSPHERE matters. A LOT. The advantage the other school have is their (Mercer) stadium are built to be 10K ... so 7 or 8K fans looks good. Ours was built in the day of high attendance so we have 16K. We really need 10k+ to have a good attendance. I honestly wish our stadium was about 12K total so it looked more full - many 'new' programs like Mercer are building 10K stadiums despite having more students

Please, DC, give away FREE tickets or Greenville County Schools day or something.

[Bootie]

Y’all must be a blast at partys

Joey, It's a little restrictive here. I understand you named someone but unlike most other boards - despite Stumpy saying IN THE RULES that you can call out a group (LBs, RBs, DL ) as long as you don't name a player some people get mad at that. Odd, ITS IN THE FREAKIN RULES of board decorum. So we should have the right to do that as Stumpy declared in what is basically the UFFP CONSTITUTION! so yeah, it's a little big brother here. people try to squash what has been explicitly allowed by the founding father of the board!!! just like law, if it is in the constitution you have to allow it

Now I get that Joey named a guy and called him out so that's not allowed but I have seen people frown on what IS allowed by the UFFP decorum rules . snowflakes.. LOL

Anyway, I agree w CD2 or whomever, give away FREE tickets to visitor side. just give out 5000 free tickets downtown. I know a kid that is down to us and Mercer - his two points he told me were " Furman has a better strength coach.. Mercer had better atmosphere." I don't influence him in any way. I am wary of anythin like that. I just asked him what schools he was looking at as I know his dad very well. ATMOSPHERE matters. A LOT. The advantage the other school have is their (Mercer) stadium are built to be 10K ... so 7 or 8K fans looks good. Ours was built in the day of high attendance so we have 16K. We really need 10k+ to have a good attendance. I honestly wish our stadium was about 12K total so it looked more full - many 'new' programs like Mercer are building 10K stadiums despite having more students

Please, DC, give away FREE tickets or Greenville County Schools day or something.

GF I simply said I didn't like what was said and thought it was a low-blow. Forgive me for trying to be kind and respectful to a friend who was being attacked. Joey deleted the post on his own. Thank you Joey.

The great thing to me about Furman is that it's very much like family. A lot of us know each other and have relationships with the players, coaches, staff, parents, etc..., so it hurts to see someone come here and talk bad about my family, Internet or not. I tire of the widespread attitude in our digital world that just because it's a messageboard where people can hide in anonymity that it's okay to be an ass. It's a free country here on this board, come and go as you please. Just try not to be too big of a dick to people. Good rules to live by in any forum, on or off the Internets.

[gofurman]

Y’all must be a blast at partys

Joey, It's a little restrictive here. I understand you named someone but unlike most other boards - despite Stumpy saying IN THE RULES that you can call out a group (LBs, RBs, DL ) as long as you don't name a player some people get mad at that. Odd, ITS IN THE FREAKIN RULES of board decorum. So we should have the right to do that as Stumpy declared in what is basically the UFFP CONSTITUTION! so yeah, it's a little big brother here. people try to squash what has been explicitly allowed by the founding father of the board!!! just like law, if it is in the constitution you have to allow it

Now I get that Joey named a guy and called him out so that's not allowed but I have seen people frown on what IS allowed by the UFFP decorum rules . snowflakes.. LOL

Anyway, I agree w CD2 or whomever, give away FREE tickets to visitor side. just give out 5000 free tickets downtown. I know a kid that is down to us and Mercer - his two points he told me were " Furman has a better strength coach.. Mercer had better atmosphere." I don't influence him in any way. I am wary of anythin like that. I just asked him what schools he was looking at as I know his dad very well. ATMOSPHERE matters. A LOT. The advantage the other school have is their (Mercer) stadium are built to be 10K ... so 7 or 8K fans looks good. Ours was built in the day of high attendance so we have 16K. We really need 10k+ to have a good attendance. I honestly wish our stadium was about 12K total so it looked more full - many 'new' programs like Mercer are building 10K stadiums despite having more students

Please, DC, give away FREE tickets or Greenville County Schools day or something.

GF I simply said I didn't like what was said and thought it was a low-blow. Forgive me for trying to be kind and respectful to a friend who was being attacked. Joey deleted the post on his own. Thank you Joey.

The great thing to me about Furman is that it's very much like family. A lot of us know each other and have relationships with the players, coaches, staff, parents, etc..., so it hurts to see someone come here and talk bad about my family, Internet or not. I tire of the widespread attitude in our digital world that just because it's a messageboard where people can hide in anonymity that it's okay to be an ass. It's a free country here on this board, come and go as you please. Just try not to be too big of a dick to people. Good rules to live by in any forum, on or off the Internets.

Bootie, I agree - and I meant no harm . I simply had a flashback to when I said something about DL or so years ago and was called out by a moderator and had to point said moderator to THE RULES as given by Stumpy of what we could and could not do. The rules backed what I did (I had checked them beforehand) and the moderator had to back off even though he didn't like it. I have no issue with what you did Bootie.

On another note I have never hidden behind my name - I was probably really dumb in the other regard !!! I used to use my actual name as my internet name here on UFFP and was told a while back (10 years or so) to not do that as they (the moderator who wisely and kindly advised me of this) worried some nut job would do something dumb. So I switched to gofurman.. but most here know who I am .. I am that crazy passionate fan ..

It was Good to see you a few weeks ago !!!

[Flagman]

Y’all must be a blast at partys

Joey, It's a little restrictive here. I understand you named someone but unlike most other boards - despite Stumpy saying IN THE RULES that you can call out a group (LBs, RBs, DL ) as long as you don't name a player some people get mad at that. Odd, ITS IN THE FREAKIN RULES of board decorum. So we should have the right to do that as Stumpy declared in what is basically the UFFP CONSTITUTION! so yeah, it's a little big brother here. people try to squash what has been explicitly allowed by the founding father of the board!!! just like law, if it is in the constitution you have to allow it

Now I get that Joey named a guy and called him out so that's not allowed but I have seen people frown on what IS allowed by the UFFP decorum rules . snowflakes.. LOL

Anyway, I agree w CD2 or whomever, give away FREE tickets to visitor side. just give out 5000 free tickets downtown. I know a kid that is down to us and Mercer - his two points he told me were " Furman has a better strength coach.. Mercer had better atmosphere." I don't influence him in any way. I am wary of anythin like that. I just asked him what schools he was looking at as I know his dad very well. ATMOSPHERE matters. A LOT. The advantage the other school have is their (Mercer) stadium are built to be 10K ... so 7 or 8K fans looks good. Ours was built in the day of high attendance so we have 16K. We really need 10k+ to have a good attendance. I honestly wish our stadium was about 12K total so it looked more full - many 'new' programs like Mercer are building 10K stadiums despite having more students

Please, DC, give away FREE tickets or Greenville County Schools day or something.

Why do some think Dwight has free reign to distribute free tickets? His title is director of athletic ticket “sales”. Someone else decides promotions that might include free or reduced cost tickets.

[gofurman]

Y’all must be a blast at partys

Joey, It's a little restrictive here. I understand you named someone but unlike most other boards - despite Stumpy saying IN THE RULES that you can call out a group (LBs, RBs, DL ) as long as you don't name a player some people get mad at that. Odd, ITS IN THE FREAKIN RULES of board decorum. So we should have the right to do that as Stumpy declared in what is basically the UFFP CONSTITUTION! so yeah, it's a little big brother here. people try to squash what has been explicitly allowed by the founding father of the board!!! just like law, if it is in the constitution you have to allow it

Now I get that Joey named a guy and called him out so that's not allowed but I have seen people frown on what IS allowed by the UFFP decorum rules . snowflakes.. LOL

Anyway, I agree w CD2 or whomever, give away FREE tickets to visitor side. just give out 5000 free tickets downtown. I know a kid that is down to us and Mercer - his two points he told me were " Furman has a better strength coach.. Mercer had better atmosphere." I don't influence him in any way. I am wary of anythin like that. I just asked him what schools he was looking at as I know his dad very well. ATMOSPHERE matters. A LOT. The advantage the other school have is their (Mercer) stadium are built to be 10K ... so 7 or 8K fans looks good. Ours was built in the day of high attendance so we have 16K. We really need 10k+ to have a good attendance. I honestly wish our stadium was about 12K total so it looked more full - many 'new' programs like Mercer are building 10K stadiums despite having more students

Please, DC, give away FREE tickets or Greenville County Schools day or something.

Why do some think Dwight has free reign to distribute free tickets? His title is director of athletic ticket “sales”. Someone else decides promotions that might include free or reduced cost tickets.

good point. maybe it's not him.. I just agree w CD2 that we ought to be giving tickets away or having Greenville County schools in for free or something. Just to add 500-1000 fans would make a HUUGE difference. And 500-1000 is doable. If you offered free GA tickets to all Greenville County HS students or HS and middle school (or whatever) I bet a few hundred would come? I don't see what we lose by doing that? If they are on the GA stands it doesn't take any of the season ticket holders seats.

[FUBeAR]

Just try not to be too big of a dick to people. Good rules to live by

Dnag, I’m out.

[gofurman]

I agree there’s a ton to be done that may not be happening now. I think the heavily discounted ticket is a good idea to fill the other stands, streamline parking is a great idea, and I think everyone would agree consistency on the field is the most important thing we can do. I’d say the biggest thing to do is work partnerships with opposing teams and the city of Greenville. If it was me, I’d be contacting opposing teams marketing folks to offer deals to get those fans to Furman. Greenville sells itself as a destination, and could be leveraged to get people engaged for a whole wkd. Offer packages for a game, a hotel, and a discounted event. Obviously that takes a partnership with the city and local businesses but seems like a no brainer. There are plenty of events in Greenville throughout the season that could be used to get local fans to the games. “Buy 4 tix for away stands get half off a ______ at _________.” Fill in that blank with whatever you want: fall for Greenville food, artistsphere tickets, hockey game drinks, etc. It’s just too easy for the casual fan to watch these games on the couch or follow the score on the phone. Find a way to partner with the things that do get them out of the house, and build on that.

I’d be happy if we could get 8K ppl to HC and 10K ppl to a home playoff game this year. That’s a far cry from attendance in the early to mid 2000s, but you have to set that bar somewhere. We aren’t going to get those folks back overnight. Stay ranked, promote an affordable and family friendly environment on game day, market rival games, and engage the alumni base that is growing in Greenville. Then we can get excited about crowds over 12k again.

actually we almost NEVER had 10K people at a playoff game - well, the Thanksgiving one.. no FCS team ever does. The entire division probably averages 3K for those "all the kids and people are at Thanksgiving" games

I looked and as far as Citadel we had 10 K in 2017 and 12K (!) in 2015 - go figure on that one... I wouldn't have guessed 12k in 2015 for any team.. LOL So I think, as we have a better team this year, it's reasonable to hope for 10K in a weeks time for Citadel. This goes to show a lot of the attendance figure is due to the other team ! Citadel increases our crowd more than any other.. coincidence? I think not. We stunk in '92/93 or so and I had to sit on the visitors side because App brought so many people

[gman]

We should charge for parking.

[Yadkin]

And yet we continue to disincentivize folks from coming to campus by televising our games for next to nothing (ESPN+) or free (Channel 62), the latter of which is the height of utter stupidity IMO and just so our league can say it has a TV package. ETSU maybe put 150 fans in seats. Let’s see, I can stay home and watch the game for free or shell out $75 (plus parking, plus concessions) for my family of three. Uhm? Next time your favorite act comes to the Peace Center or BSW, screw the $75-100 ticket price and just sit home at watch the free live broadcast that’s not an option. Also, stadium capacity was built for another era and well before TV was there every game. Need to get it down to 10-11K max. There’s a reason every new or redone facility (name the sport) cuts capacity, including Yankee Stadium, home to one of the richest franchises in the world in a city of 12 million folks. Richmond’s still relatively new stadium is 10K; Elon with 2x the student body as FU, seats about 10K; Citadel at one time had 22K, now about 15K. I could go on and on. Bottom line is there are many factors that are driving down attendance across the board, not just at FU. Free TV is one of them. Schools have sold their souls to that medium, which I’m not denying has its benefits in terms of exposure, but it is doing a good job helping crush attendance.

[gman84]

Another factor that can’t be controlled is the weather. Finally we have 6 home games. Finally we are not on the road for 3-4 weeks in a row to start a season. Mother Nature decides to give us 3 Saturdays with 95 degree weather. Unless your a staunch fan, no one with half a brain is going to sit in a concrete stadium for three plus hours.
For the record, DC is constantly brain storming ways to improve our attendance. He can’t draw blood from a stone.
Someone else mentioned earlier that our two biggest games with large traveling fans bases are no longer on our schedule. I remember a game with App in the early 80s, FU had to set up temp bleachers. 19,000 plus, and that was before the visitor side expansion. Two years ago we go to Wofford for a second round playoff game and it looks like a Furman home game. Our attendance isn’t strictly on us.

[MNORM]

I recall a game in 2006 against West Georgia (DII) that was Tobacco Free night for students. There were at least 1,000+ kids on the visitors side enjoying a Furman game. I realize the weather could be a little dicey in November, but it would be great to see some sort of promotion to get the younger generation of local kids out to see the game vs Point. I doubt Point will be bringing a caravan of fans up here for that game.

[gman]

My first Furman game was RA day back in the early 60's. Got me hooked. We need those Southern Baptists back in the stands!