Gameday Changes to Improve Fan Experience

[Knucklehank1]

https://www.wdrb.com/news/parking-c...cle_42c5adfe-362e-11ea-87dc-6b4e9ae38421.html

Many of these changes are things that have been talked about on here. The fan area (food trucks, TVs, music, etc) is something I’ve long thought was a good idea after seeing this on some road games I’ve been to. This is something that will get bigger and better each year. Glad that Tyra is looking to improve the fan experience. I have some mixed feelings about the Purple Lot changes because my group and I have three spots together near the front of the lot. However I do like the idea of the row being filled up and then sealed off.

I’ll take a wait and see approach on enhanced Wifi but I’m skeptical.

What are your thoughts?

 

[CardX]

I've seen mixed reaction about the Purple Lot. You're just never going to please everybody. I recall when Cardinal Stadium opened the then Green Lot was first come, first serve. That changed relatively early in the stadium's existence, IIRC. I never really parked there. I started off in the Boy Scout lot then lucked into a Red Lot pass, now Bronze, so I don't have a dog in the fight. I am excited about wifi. If it works like it should, I think you'll see a gradual attendance increase. That's silly to say, but that's the world we live in, people and their phones.

 

[CommodoreCard]

The WiFi upgrade will be nice. Lucas Oil Stadium had an upgrade this season and its great. Maybe I can get my Cards Points this coming season, before it never worked, never got my points.

 

[Knucklehank1]

My idea was that lots A and B utilize “speed parking” and C and D use reserve parking. That way you could accommodate groups and RVs that tailgate as a group.

If nothing else it seems that the back end of the lot could be used for groups to assemble so they could then pull into the front of the lot together. Do that until 2 or 3 hours before game starts.

 

[Ipartiedwithhopgood]

Cool.

 

[zipp]

I don’t have a dog in the fight since I don’t park in that lot. If I was trying to pull off something like this, I’d probably try knuckles’ half-and-half approach to appease everyone...

 

[PHCARD]

The things one can find out about when you are on a golf cart asking questions of folks in all the surrounding lots. Dead space is dead space. Now how can we change that valuable dead space?

 

[CommodoreCard]

I like the idea of the Fan Zone. We don’t tailgate every game so that’s a nice addition.

Just hope the late arriving blue hairs don’t try to honk their way through.

 

[REDFISTFURY3]

Already heard the unhappy never want to try anything new fan today on the radio. Saying how they not going to renew because of the parking change. Mad cause he arrives 30 mins later than his tailgate group. Amazing about people.

 

[Rollem Cards]

Already heard the unhappy never want to try anything new fan today on the radio. Saying how they not going to renew because of the parking change. Mad cause he arrives 30 mins later than his tailgate group. Amazing about people.

My lying eyes tell me we’re losing fans faster than we’re making them.

I can see where this may very well be a better situation for me as I was pretty far out and passed plenty of empty spots heading in.

This better work. We need new fans/money if we’re going to compete.

But if Satt can win big? A rising tide lifts all ships.

 

[zipp]

My lying eyes tell me we’re losing fans faster than we’re making them...

Yeah, I kinda watch all of this with passing amusement. My Bronze Lot parking is almost unaffected so far. But I appreciate the POVs of the Purple Lot folks being displaced, having parked there previously. Doubt I'd be happy about it.

But the guy catching any and all of the grief will be one of my cherished friends...

 

[Knucklehank1]

https://www.si.com/college/2020/01/10/college-football-attendance-decline-ncaa

To be fair, everyone is losing fans.

 

[GOCARDS6]

Get rid of the stupid party deck, put butts in seats or sell a separate ticket for, standing room on the party deck.

 

[zipp]

...To be fair, everyone is losing fans.

Our football attendance was officially UP last year by almost 9%.

The big problem is basketball. Show me another trend that looks like this. I'll accept any other school as evidence...

 

[PHCARD]

Our football attendance was officially UP last year by almost 9%.

The big problem is basketball. Show me another trend that looks like this. I'll accept any other school as evidence...

Zipp, if you want to show a chart on BB attendance? Going back to glory days doesn't answer any questions. I remember because I was in the thick of this....

We win the NCAAC in '13. The next season sitting in the upper bowl, I'm thinking what in the heck happened to our fans? We have another banner hanging in the rafters and folks have disappeared?

Of course I will admit and you should too, because I believe you were in the upper bowl also, we were really seeing a thinning out for a couple years prior to '13.

The cost of goods for folks just didn't make common sense in their wallets. That was a TJ problem. Did a few living in glass houses leave because RP had PR issues? Sure but it really was about money for majority.

TJ still had his high rollers, but he missed the thousands of little guys sitting in the rafters. How many of the little guys, like yourself were paying pennies on the dollar and finding empty seats in the lower bowl?

 

[Rollem Cards]

I’ll not pay premium to sit where I can’t even read numbers on Jersey’s.

But I will, and have, if the price is right. I bought eight In the rafters (easily moved all eight to the front row of the rafters once there) for the FSU game back at Thanksgiving for <$20 apiece. Had a good time minus the outcome.

Bad fan? Maybe.

But I don’t have a TV deal supplementing me. So I will pick and choose who, what, when, and where I spend it.

 

[zipp]

Zipp, if you want to show a chart on BB attendance? Going back to glory days doesn't answer any questions. I remember because I was in the thick of this....

We win the NCAAC in '13. The next season sitting in the upper bowl, I'm thinking what in the heck happened to our fans? We have another banner hanging in the rafters and folks have disappeared?

Of course I will admit and you should too, because I believe you were in the upper bowl also, we were really seeing a thinning out for a couple years prior to '13.

The cost of goods for folks just didn't make common sense in their wallets. That was a TJ problem. Did a few living in glass houses leave because RP had PR issues? Sure but it really was about money for majority.

TJ still had his high rollers, but he missed the thousands of little guys sitting in the rafters. How many of the little guys, like yourself were paying pennies on the dollar and finding empty seats in the lower bowl?

I don't mind talking about Bailout Arena and basketball attendance anytime. You raise a number of points...

The chart goes back to the heyday of U of L basketball in the mid-80s and spans many years prior to Bailout Arena. The cutpoint between arenas is the 2011 data point which was the first at Bailout. Also, the numbers are for REPORTED attendance. When you say you recall sitting in the upper arena post-2013 and asking "where are the fans," that's ACTUAL attendance. Our official attendance declined by 265 (1.2%) between 2013 and 2014.

I would agree that fans not showing up for games--while still paying for tickets--has a been a long and slowly evolving problem. I remember sitting at Freedom Hall in the 2000s and scratching my head about empty seats. Just prior to the move, I remarked that we really only had a couple of true sellouts (closed ticket office) each season. This was the start of the phenomenon seen just about everywhere now. But if you're looking at measured attendance, that effect hadn't hit U of L before the move downtown. Each of the last three seasons at The Hall, we averaged more than 100% of arena capacity.

Now, look at the numbers just for Bailout... Attendance in the first year (2011) was at 98.8% of stated capacity. And it has been below 100% every year and regularly declining. By Pitino's final season, it had declined to 94.4% of capacity. Clearly, there was going to be a problem getting the last couple thousand seats sold in Bailout Arena each year, and I assume Jurich recognized that. What had been some people buying and not showing up changed to those people simply not buying. My take is we can thank the location and/or arena design for that.

The rate of decline in Bailout attendance was 0.8% annually between the years 2011 and 2017 which was Pitino's last. One percent is my rule-of-thumb from what we read about in other programs nationally, and we were experiencing that. The last few years are outsized losses that have nothing to do with national trends, although our "happening everywhere" gang is either oblivious to that fact or tries to dismiss it. And I point that out every time I read it.

In hindsight, the opening of Bailout Arena created an accident waiting to happen. Under the most optimal of circumstances--good economy, high-performing basketball program, competent management, etc.--we could still be averaging 20,000+ attendance. Take a couple of those factors out of the picture, and you have what we see now. And I'm not at all sure that the genie can be put back in the old bottle. I'm almost dead sure that the people we have in charge now can't do it...

 

[cardsp]

I don't mind talking about Bailout Arena and basketball attendance anytime. You raise a number of points...

The chart goes back to the heyday of U of L basketball in the mid-80s and spans many years prior to Bailout Arena. The cutpoint between arenas is the 2011 data point which was the first at Bailout. Also, the numbers are for REPORTED attendance. When you say you recall sitting in the upper arena post-2013 and asking "where are the fans," that's ACTUAL attendance. Our official attendance declined by 265 (1.2%) between 2013 and 2014.

I would agree that fans not showing up for games--while still paying for tickets--has a been a long and slowly evolving problem. I remember sitting at Freedom Hall in the 2000s and scratching my head about empty seats. Just prior to the move, I remarked that we really only had a couple of true sellouts (closed ticket office) each season. This was the start of the phenomenon seen just about everywhere now. But if you're looking at measured attendance, that hadn't hit U of L before the move downtown. Each of the last three seasons at The Hall, we averaged more than 100% of arena capacity.

Now, look at the numbers just for Bailout... Attendance in the first year (2011) was at 98.8% of rated capacity. And it has been below 100% every year and regularly declining. By Pitino's final season, it had declined to 94.4% of capacity. Clearly, there was going to be a problem getting the last couple thousand seats sold in Bailout Arena each year, and I assume Jurich recognized that. What had been some people buying and not showing up changed to those people simply not buying. My take is we can thank the location and/or arena design for that.

The rate of decline in Bailout attendance was 0.8% annually between the years 2011 and 2017 which was Pitino's last. One percent is my rule-of-thumb from what we read about in other programs nationally, and we were experiencing that. The last few years are outsized losses that have nothing to do with national trends, although our "happening everywhere" gang is either oblivious to that fact or tries to dismiss it. And I point that out every time I read it.

In hindsight, the opening of Bailout Arena created an accident waiting to happen. Under the most optimal of circumstances--good economy, high-performing basketball program, competent management, etc.--we could still be averaging 20,000+ attendance. Take a couple of those factors out of the picture, and you have what we see now. And I'm not at all sure that the genie can be put back in the old bottle. I'm almost dead sure that the people we have in charge now can't do it...

 

[FlavRunit]

My idea was that lots A and B utilize “speed parking” and C and D use reserve parking. That way you could accommodate groups and RVs that tailgate as a group.

If nothing else it seems that the back end of the lot could be used for groups to assemble so they could then pull into the front of the lot together. Do that until 2 or 3 hours before game starts.

Best idea I've seen so far. This would be nice. I'm sure people would be upset being moved back to C and D, but atleast you could stay together if you choose to do so.

 

[zipp]

Best idea I've seen so far. This would be nice. I'm sure people would be upset being moved back to C and D, but atleast you could stay together if you choose to do so.

You could also divide that lot east-west. There would be good close-in spaces for either type of parking...

 

[FlavRunit]

You could also divide that lot east-west. There would be good close-in spaces for either type of parking...

That might be a better idea. I would put the one's who want to tailgate together on the west, speed parking east. Speed parking would be full the first few hours and you could start working the B and C lots, while those coming late could still file in to their spaces in A on the West side. Interesting.

 

[ColonelCard17]

I don't mind talking about Bailout Arena and basketball attendance anytime. You raise a number of points...

The chart goes back to the heyday of U of L basketball in the mid-80s and spans many years prior to Bailout Arena. The cutpoint between arenas is the 2011 data point which was the first at Bailout. Also, the numbers are for REPORTED attendance. When you say you recall sitting in the upper arena post-2013 and asking "where are the fans," that's ACTUAL attendance. Our official attendance declined by 265 (1.2%) between 2013 and 2014.

I would agree that fans not showing up for games--while still paying for tickets--has a been a long and slowly evolving problem. I remember sitting at Freedom Hall in the 2000s and scratching my head about empty seats. Just prior to the move, I remarked that we really only had a couple of true sellouts (closed ticket office) each season. This was the start of the phenomenon seen just about everywhere now. But if you're looking at measured attendance, that effect hadn't hit U of L before the move downtown. Each of the last three seasons at The Hall, we averaged more than 100% of arena capacity.

Now, look at the numbers just for Bailout... Attendance in the first year (2011) was at 98.8% of stated capacity. And it has been below 100% every year and regularly declining. By Pitino's final season, it had declined to 94.4% of capacity. Clearly, there was going to be a problem getting the last couple thousand seats sold in Bailout Arena each year, and I assume Jurich recognized that. What had been some people buying and not showing up changed to those people simply not buying. My take is we can thank the location and/or arena design for that.

The rate of decline in Bailout attendance was 0.8% annually between the years 2011 and 2017 which was Pitino's last. One percent is my rule-of-thumb from what we read about in other programs nationally, and we were experiencing that. The last few years are outsized losses that have nothing to do with national trends, although our "happening everywhere" gang is either oblivious to that fact or tries to dismiss it. And I point that out every time I read it.

In hindsight, the opening of Bailout Arena created an accident waiting to happen. Under the most optimal of circumstances--good economy, high-performing basketball program, competent management, etc.--we could still be averaging 20,000+ attendance. Take a couple of those factors out of the picture, and you have what we see now. And I'm not at all sure that the genie can be put back in the old bottle. I'm almost dead sure that the people we have in charge now can't do it...

It does not account for all of this but remember also, during this time the changes to taxes came around that hit companies who would buy large chunks of tickets and use or give them away, when you could no longer claim this as a donation because you received something in return, I'd say alot of those ticket and donations were lost.

 

[zipp]

It does not account for all of this but remember also, during this time the changes to taxes came around that hit companies who would buy large chunks of tickets and use or give them away, when you could no longer claim this as a donation because you received something in return, I'd say alot of those ticket and donations were lost.

The problem is no one else’s graph shows what ours does in the relevant time frame. Our donor base would have had to have been entirely grounded in tax deductions...

 

[zipp]

And speaking of basketball attendance...

After last nite's game, we need to average about 17,800 per game for the rest of the schedule to equal last year's average home attendance. That would be more than a 10% increase from our average attendance for the season to date.

From an attraction standpoint, the best home games left on the schedule are North Carolina and Virginia, although both teams are way down this year. There are six home games remaining...