Why does student attendance lack on a Saturday?

[Pounce Needs Pals]

This is a question that was brought up in one of my conversation I had last week with a staff member last week.

Saw many of the student attendance numbers, while homecoming was bigger with student attendance with a crowd of 2010, the senior day game that had the biggest crowd of the year by far (3334) only had 200 students. Green Bay on a Monday had a very good student crowd, but Oakland later that week on a Saturday had a poor student crowd that week with Green Bay on a Monday and Detroit on a Thursday having bigger student crowds than that Saturday. Last the HL game versus Wright State was sold out at 2900. That game only sold out because of 1200 students showing up. This is not a thrend that most in the country have. Saturday's are your big crowds. No work, no school. This is not new for the Milwaukee Panthers.

With all of the said, many on here post about folks getting season tickets on social media. Yet. we also need help getting students out on a Saturday night. So, many here are current students or former students. What do you think the issue is on lack of student attendance on Saturday's? What can be done to improve student attendance?

Let it rip!! Need idea's.

[Petes]

It is pretty simple and comes down to this…What else is there to do on a Monday or Tuesday night in college? On a Saturday night most kids would rather drink instead of spending 2 hours at a basketball game.

[thetruth]

It comes down to winning and making the games an experience students don't want to miss.

[Pantherholic]

I think the over-arching issue with student attendance is the students need to be given a reason to attend vs something else going on. This is not a new issue by any stretch of the imagination, it’s just changed from previous coaching staffs. This program doesn’t have a history of winning to fall back on and were complete ass for the last six years. It’s naive to think they’ll automatically show up because they’re good RIGHT NOW. They’ve always been the most fickle portion of the fanbase. Have a great promotion/giveaway? They show up in droves. I remember when Jeter won in Madison. The next game was at home against South Dakota and the students turned out. The Panthers lost that game and the students didn’t come back for the rest of the season.

Obviously, none of this is the current staff’s fault but they’re paying for the actions of previous staff’s failures. For a quick fix solution, they will probably have to offer more/better giveaways for them to attend or have the games played in the afternoon.

[Pounce Needs Pals]

May 23, 2023 7:45:35 GMT -6 Petes said:

It is pretty simple and comes down to this…What else is there to do on a Monday or Tuesday night in college? On a Saturday night most kids would rather drink instead of spending 2 hours at a basketball game.

As I said before, other schools don't have this issue. Not saying you are wrong, that kids want to drink and party, yet students attendance is strong at other schools on a Saturday. I'm sure they drink and party as well.

[tyrunner0097]

May 23, 2023 8:33:23 GMT -6 Pantherholic said:

I remember when Jeter won in Madison. The next game was at home against South Dakota and the students turned out. The Panthers lost that game and the students didn’t come back for the rest of the season.

Obviously, none of this is the current staff’s fault but they’re paying for the actions of previous staff’s failures.

OMG, how many times have we had teams on a roll, highly promoted game, with large attendance... And then the team lays a huge egg of a game, and all those fans are gone. 😑

I like to hope this team, with a great season this year, will buck that trend.

[tyrunner0097]

Bart and the team were able to do a good job later last year of going around campus and promoting the team. If they can help build some preseason hype on campus, that'll help a lot.

[kman24]

I think they should try some afternoon games on the weekend. If I recall correctly, the Robert Morris game in 2021 had a pretty good student turnout and that was 11am. It helps that was an ESPNU game, but why not experiment with different start times.

[Pounce Needs Pals]

May 23, 2023 9:28:41 GMT -6 kman24 said:

I think they should try some afternoon games on the weekend. If I recall correctly, the Robert Morris game in 2021 had a pretty good student turnout and that was 11am. It helps that was an ESPNU game, but why not experiment with different start times.

I guess it depends on time, as the adults say the night Saturday games are better.

I wonder if they should try 3pm games on a Saturday?

[FTA1982]

I prefer weekend afternoon games. I assume the issue is Marquette usually plays most of their games during the day and we probably prefer not to go head to head with them.

1 or 3 pm starts would be ideal for me.

[Pounce Needs Pals]

May 23, 2023 10:03:45 GMT -6 FTA1982 said:

I prefer weekend afternoon games. I assume the issue is Marquette usually plays most of their games during the day and we probably prefer not to go head to head with them.

1 or 3 pm starts would be ideal for me.

The head to head happens much more with Bucks vs Panthers. The only head to head game was Feb. 26 with MU. The Panthers do try to avoid basketball by the Bucks & MU on Saturday's.


Yet, would 3pm on Saturday drive up students to come out more than 6pm?

[TBone]

First of all, your examples are a small sample size. Secondly, two of the well-attended games you mentioned were Green Bay, a noted rival which will typically see higher attendance numbers in general.

1) It's a commuter school
2) Inconsistencies in a decent product

Commuter schools, in general, do not have the type of "school spirit" that a non-commuter school would have. People drive from all over the Milwaukee area, go to class, hang out for a bit, go to another class, then go to work or home. Commuters still hang out with their friends from high school and childhood, rather than relying on new friends from college that live on or near campus. You'd likely see the possibility of more on-campus (or near campus) students attending games if the arena was on campus and resembled a real D-I campus, but that would do nothing for increasing the commuter attendees.

As has been said time and time again...the biggest factor in attendance is to win. Win, and people will show up regardless of the day/night the game is played. On-campus and commuter students as well as non-students will all show up for a successful program. We've seen it before. Coach has us on the right track.

I'm willing to guess that if this team starts out well next year, you're going to see a substantial increase in attendance numbers - including on Saturdays.

[Pounce Needs Pals]

This has been a trend for years for the school. The numbers I list were from last year.

[davedome]

Some suggestions which may or may not, already be in place:

- Promotion/giveaways for every weekend game for students.
- Tailgate in front of Sandburg Halls before boarding the buses (the band, cheerleaders and Pounce should attend every tailgate).
- Find more "Jimmys". Get some student ambassadors to attend each game, hype up the students and reward them with swag, perks, etc.
- Make every Saturday game a theme, almost like homecoming week in high school.
- Create more student fan contests for attending.
- Give some schools, clubs, fraternities, sororities, or departments access to the MKE Party Deck if it's not reserved by Wednesday, of that week.
- Win. Everyone loves a winning product.

Just my opinion but I'm sure they have a great staff in place already setting this up.

[PantherU]

May 23, 2023 10:35:57 GMT -6 TBone said:

1) It's a commuter school

I was a commuter.

May 23, 2023 10:35:57 GMT -6 TBone said:

Commuter schools, in general, do not have the type of "school spirit" that a non-commuter school would have. People drive from all over the Milwaukee area, go to class, hang out for a bit, go to another class, then go to work or home. Commuters still hang out with their friends from high school and childhood, rather than relying on new friends from college that live on or near campus. You'd likely see the possibility of more on-campus (or near campus) students attending games if the arena was on campus and resembled a real D-I campus, but that would do nothing for increasing the commuter attendees.

We have more students living on campus than Marquette has students in total. Now, I'm counting the East Side down to Brady Street as "campus," but that's just it...the whole East Side is our campus. That's part of the reason why I keep pushing for expansion around North Avenue. Yes, the heaviest concentration will always be between Edgewood and Kenwood, but the more students are living around North and Kenilworth and Locust, the more we're going to see the university grow and have the entire East Side be considered as "campus."

Think of Madison. What people consider UW-Madison's "campus" includes areas like State Street that aren't technically campus but may as well be. This is partially because UW is all over the area. The more we build around North Ave and south, the more people will consider the whole East Side to be our "campus."

May 23, 2023 10:35:57 GMT -6 TBone said:

As has been said time and time again...the biggest factor in attendance is to win. Win, and people will show up regardless of the day/night the game is played. On-campus and commuter students as well as non-students will all show up for a successful program. We've seen it before. Coach has us on the right track.

I'm willing to guess that if this team starts out well next year, you're going to see a substantial increase in attendance numbers - including on Saturdays.

Win. You're absolutely right. The more the team wins, the more things work out. Coach Lundy has done an excellent job getting out there in the media selling the program, and I think further pushing could get buy-in from the local media. That's more about general attendance, but you know what I mean.

And to me that's the real thing. We need to win, and we need to win sustainably. It's the downside of being in a pro sports town; if you suck, people can ignore you because there's another team to spend money and time on.

The real work - taking true ownership of our own alumni base, converting them to identify as Panthers first and foremost and raising their kids to be Panthers as well - that's going to take a generation.

But look at the results. Alec Weise is a big fan of the program because he was raised to be. Dan Zielinski raised all of his kids to be fans and look now, a couple of them have season tickets. We have to play the long game as well as the short game. That means we should also be doing kid-friendly promotions - no joke, it will also help boost enrollment (albeit slightly) in the long term.