Lots of buzz yesterday by Northwestern FB Coach Pat Fitzgerald when he summed up the problem with college football attendance is as simple as a smartphone. Fitzgerald said it’s “pathetic” that people just film stuff on their phones so they can post it to their “social media” instead of enjoying the moment. They have their reality and then their social media presence. Just live your life! Here's the quick link to his comments....
https://twitter.com/i/status/1152431344816984065
Every word of his comments are 100% true. We like to blame the product on the field, the poor quality of opponents, the declining stadium features, etc.... All have some influence, but nothing like the negative influence of technology. Its the root cause, period. We are far from alone since college football attendance has decreased every single year since 2013. Look at Colorado St as a similar example to USM. They built a new stadium, 41K capacity, that opened in 2017. They played a P5 opponent, Oregon St. for their stadium opener. Didn't even sell out their first game in a new stadium. Only had 37K in the stands. Well, what if they hosted a school from the SEC? They did that last season and only had 31K. If Savannah St and Jackson St can be within 7K of a home game with MS State we can erase the false notion that its a CUSA issue at Southern Miss. Did you know that the CUSA attendance average is only 9K lower than the mighty AAC even with a hot UCF program and Navy hosting the annual Army Navy game(69K).
You need a fresh 2020 business blueprint to start correcting attendance. Bama is spending $93 million on stadium renovations currently. What is a big aspect of their new construction? Social Spaces. State Farm arena in Atlanta just spent $200 million on renovations. What was their biggest change? Social Spaces.......New venues are building social areas and rooms with massive tv's and powerful wifi......they have rooms with Top Golf simulators and barber shops.......
I remember when I went to my freshman orientation meeting at Southern Miss I was given 1 credit towards graduation for doing absolutely nothing but showing up.....almost equal to getting 600 points for writing my name correctly on the SAT. You want to look outside of the box and start fixing attendance, create a social course where you have to attend social "gatherings" at MM Roberts, RGC and PTP. Have social areas in each venue and a monitor to make sure they attend and stay the entire event. If USM still has a walking class make this course credit the same value.
We average well south of 2000 students per home football game. Build some great social areas with awesome wifi and televisions and get the students to start showing up........
"There was a great deal of character on that field today. They are for real, no doubt about it. This was no fluke." - Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant
