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Post by Pounce Needs Pals on May 23, 2023 13:47:38 GMT -6
I think the goal is also to improve the party deck in the student section.
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Post by reginaldkdwight on May 23, 2023 18:42:43 GMT -6
As usual Jimmy hits on alot of the right points here, if you build it they will come. Building it in this case is hanging banners. The expectation this year from the players, the staff, and the fans and students is going to be the NCAA tournament. If the team is on that trajectory we will see more students.
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Post by Pounce Needs Pals on May 23, 2023 18:48:30 GMT -6
Ok. Trying to stay more on point is, why does Saturday games lag behind those during the week, which isn't the case for most in America.
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2023 19:18:49 GMT -6
Great topic. Keep getting students talking.
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Post by mattg on May 23, 2023 20:52:48 GMT -6
Ok. Trying to stay more on point is, why does Saturday games lag behind those during the week, which isn't the case for most in America. I have no data to back this up but I feel like a lot of the students who live on campus either grew up in the outer suburbs in the counties surrounding Milwaukee (so like Lake Country, Waukesha, Port Washington, or whatever as examples) or from further around the state and/or Northern Illinois and a lot of those students go home to their parents on the weekends.
But I mean realistically with this topic, all that matters is winning. If you win, you create a brand for the program, and people will come to see quality winning basketball. It will take a few seasons because of the piss poor recent history of the program and to establish that it's not just a flash in the pan, but that's just the reality of rebuilding a program in disarray.
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Post by Pounce Needs Pals on May 24, 2023 6:32:43 GMT -6
Ok. Trying to stay more on point is, why does Saturday games lag behind those during the week, which isn't the case for most in America. I have no data to back this up but I feel like a lot of the students who live on campus either grew up in the outer suburbs in the counties surrounding Milwaukee (so like Lake Country, Waukesha, Port Washington, or whatever as examples) or from further around the state and/or Northern Illinois and a lot of those students go home to their parents on the weekends.
Good point! I do know a couple of students who go home many times on the weekend.
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Post by TBone on May 24, 2023 7:49:02 GMT -6
1) It's a commuter school I was a commuter. 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." 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. I was a commuter as well, though my family moved to Milwaukee when I started college, so I didn't have the local roots. But you and I, and most, if not all the people on this board, are basketball junkies too. We'll find ourselves at the games regardless because we love the sport. Getting students to consistently attend the games has more to do with getting the casual basketball fan, or even the non-basketball fan to come to the games. And these people are going to have other options - particularly the commuters. 3/4 of my friends while in college were commuters from all over the city and seemed to have plans on many weekends with friends from high school or the neighborhood. The casual or non-hoops fans came to games when we were winning though. Sustainable winning is one of the most difficult things to do in college sports as a mid-major. It's why schools should look for every opportunity to move up the conference ladder when the iron is hot, and should Coach Lundy and the Panthers perform as we expect in the coming year(s), we should be looking to do just that as well. I've only spoken in terms of student attendance because that's what the OP was about. But don't discount the "experience" of the game environment which can have a huge impact on fans - alumni or students. Us old-timers (from a generation or more ago) have fond memories of games at the arena where the experience was incredible. Many of those "experience" games were rivalry games: Green Bay, Butler, UIC, Wisconsin, tournament games, etc. We have one rival that we play regularly at this point, and they're not very good at the moment. If we can get some new rivalries and the arena popping again to provide those "experience" games to the new generation of fans, that will go a long way to increasing an alumni fan base, and generating future Panther fans. This takes momentum, and building on the momentum until that experience has been again achieved. And it was Ty that mentioned that many of the big, hyped games in the last number of years has been a huge disappointment, so there must be a buildup of the trust of the fans as well.
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Post by FTA1982 on May 24, 2023 8:40:25 GMT -6
Incoming freshman are the key to student attendance in my opinion. I'd say fairly impressionable and "technically" cant go bar hopping.
I've said this a few times, Bruce and Nancy Zimpher basically held an athletics pep rally on night 1 of freshman orientation. I was a basketball fan coming in but it got me interested in the program that day and here I am 22 years later. Tbf, it also helped that we were on the incline as a program.
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Post by PantherNation on May 24, 2023 8:42:25 GMT -6
As it’s been stated, the best way to get fans (especially students) at the games is to win. YSU is a perfect example. Without looking it up, I would have to guess they had a record attendance last year. They weren’t drawing crowds like that when they sucked for 20 years prior.
I also think we need to work on the atmosphere a little bit at the games. We’ve been doing the same in-game stuff for the past 10 years (that includes the same songs played by the band). Time to change it up a little bit and make it a fun place to be outside of the game itself.
Giveaways are also a nice incentive. College kids love free stuff. Maybe we give away a bunch of good stuff at the end of the season in a raffle. And every game you attend, you fill out a ticket with your name on it to increase your chances of winning?? Something along those lines to incentivize people to not just go to one game, but to go to as many as possible. I’m sure we can get people to donate AirPods, iPads, a MacBook, etc.
C‘mon sports marketing people. Start throwing your ideas out there. Now is the time to start getting these plans in place.
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Post by FTA1982 on May 24, 2023 10:19:56 GMT -6
A 12 pack of Starry just doesnt hit the same as it used to 😂😂😂
We also need to find an engaging in-game host. That dude from 2 years ago was awesome. I know he is at UNC for grad school but there has to be some broadcasting/JAMS major that could do what that guy did.
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Post by ghostofdylan on May 24, 2023 10:28:49 GMT -6
Keep brainstorming, guys. Failing to plan is planning to fail. For my part, if we moved Saturday games to the afternoon, I would miss one-third of the home slate. I LOVE the Saturday night games!
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Post by Pounce Needs Pals on May 24, 2023 10:33:49 GMT -6
I'm told in game host is coming back this year!
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Post by Pounce Needs Pals on May 24, 2023 10:35:52 GMT -6
Keep brainstorming guys. Failing to plan is planning to fail. For my part, if we moved Saturday games to the afternoon, I would miss one-third of the home slate. I LOVE the Saturday night games! In the PBJ season, mostly all the games were at 2pm on a Saturday to avoid the Bucks. Attendance did not improve. I do think in many cases UWM needs to avoid Bucks/MU home games on Saturday's. The Panthers (IMO) are better served for 6pm Saturday games.
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Post by PantherU on May 25, 2023 16:50:41 GMT -6
I'm going to get an email out to those who were interested in joining the Black and Gold Club and helping form the future of the booster club. I meant to get a meeting together earlier this month, but the only other guy who does my job quit so my workload has been that of about 4-5 people for the past several weeks. Now I've got another guy and I've passed most of the work mountain, so I'll have some more time for it. I'm thinking an evening or possibly a Saturday afternoon in early to mid June, if that works for people. Couple hours at most for us, just an establishment meeting so we can discuss how we want things to form.
We need BK to re-up the 501(c)3 but besides that we're ready to go. The bank account is a little thin at the moment but it's still gaining interest, hopefully we can find some more cash as well as zero in on what we can spend it on.
I don't want to make a lot of unilateral decisions; I want the group to decide the direction, and I want you guys to be a part of it. Direct message me on here or email jimmylemke @ gmail dot com if you'd like to be added to the list. For out-of-towners I'm happy to do some kind of Zoom/Facetime/Skype to bring you in as well.
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Post by Cactus Panther on Jun 9, 2023 18:27:15 GMT -6
This company specializes in generating student interest in a program, regardless the day of the week. It was founded by the then-students who started the highly successful GCU Havocs a decade ago. The website contains some good information that sheds lights on what a program needs to do if serious about positively changing the student fan experience. www.biggestfanxp.com/Could a reinvigorated B&G Club be instrumental in getting a consultant like this involved in the Panther program? Assuming Bart Lundy returns, there has not been a better time.
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