Increasing JAR Attendance/Engaging the Fans

[Zips1991]

53 minutes ago, Reslife4Life said:

I am honestly very surprised this thread has not been brought up this whole basketball season

I think people have honestly just gotten tired of beating a dead horse. Should we have better attendance? Yes. Are there things can be done about it? To an extent, yes. Is it going to be solved overnight? No.

[kreed5120]

3 hours ago, Zips1991 said:

I think people have honestly just gotten tired of beating a dead horse. Should we have better attendance? Yes. Are there things can be done about it? To an extent, yes. Is it going to be solved overnight? No.

 

Yep, I also think the program is a bit a victim of its own success. If the Zips had been terrible for a long time and then they were now 18-4 there would probably be more buzz surrounding the team. Locals seem to instead take the team for granted as 20+ win seasons for the Zips is the norm.

 

Edit: Even nationally this team this season would probably get some Cinderella dark horse chatter if Miami wasn't hogging all the national attention.

Edited 18 hours ago by kreed5120

[HoopsFan03]

The UMass promo is dumb. 23% off tickets for Big Dog but only upper deck. 

[MDZip]

1 hour ago, kreed5120 said:

Edit: Even nationally this team this season would probably get some Cinderella dark horse chatter if Miami wasn't hogging all the national attention.

Zips were listed as a longshot in the ESPN Bubble Watch.

[WeRise225]

They need to put some money into the JAR. Make it a place people actually want to go. 

[Zippy87]

They're trying, and that's all I can ask for. Gameday experience is so much better, in-game entertainment is solid, they've had some nice promos - I appreciate the clear effort that has been there. I'd love to see the sideline bleachers replaced by seats one day, and concessions leave a lot to be desired, but they're doing a pretty good job with what they have to work with. 

[ZipsFan31]

From an enjoyment perspective I say this every season. They need better concession options. And get new seats for the lower bowl. The chairs are old and falling apart. 
 

from a promo perspective they have done decent. The mascot day was a huge hit and this is 2nd straight year giving away a jersey! 
 

I would love to see a top tier talent for halftime. Such as Red panda. And then one more major promo that draws families. Like a bounce houses on the end zones. 

[kreed5120]

Any meaningful renovation is probably going to cost 10s of millions of dollars. All to sell maybe a few hundred more tickets to games. Mathematically it just doesn't make sense. Especially when you consider the new car smell will quickly wear off. It lasted at Infocision for all of 1 game.

 

~15 home games for $100 is still an incredible value for entry level price. That's a comparable price of attending a high school game, maybe even cheaper, and you get to watch a team that is consistently in or around the top 100 teams nationally at the collegiate level. Heck you can even turn those 15 tickets into 3 games of 5 tickets to have 3 cheap family fun nights. It's challenging to take a family of 5 out and not spend close to $100 for 1 night. It's really hard to ask for anything extensive, especially given the financial constraints the University is under. 

 

I think since Wentz has gotten more involved we have seen some good improvements. Good student promotions/improved seating, jersey giveaways, $2 Buds before tipoff to get more people to the game early. There is plenty that still could be done. As someone else mentioned the concessions. I think I've only ever gotten stuff there 2-3x as frankly its underwhelming.

[clarkwgriswold]

I'd be content with a solution that involved upgrading the seating and getting rid of the track.

[Zippy87]

10 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

Any meaningful renovation is probably going to cost 10s of millions of dollars. All to sell maybe a few hundred more tickets to games. Mathematically it just doesn't make sense. Especially when you consider the new car smell will quickly wear off. It lasted at Infocision for all of 1 game.

 

~15 home games for $100 is still an incredible value for entry level price. That's a comparable price of attending a high school game, maybe even cheaper, and you get to watch a team that is consistently in or around the top 100 teams nationally at the collegiate level. Heck you can even turn those 15 tickets into 3 games of 5 tickets to have 3 cheap family fun nights. It's challenging to take a family of 5 out and not spend close to $100 for 1 night. It's really hard to ask for anything extensive, especially given the financial constraints the University is under. 

 

I think since Wentz has gotten more involved we have seen some good improvements. Good student promotions/improved seating, jersey giveaways, $2 Buds before tipoff to get more people to the game early. There is plenty that still could be done. As someone else mentioned the concessions. I think I've only ever gotten stuff there 2-3x as frankly its underwhelming.

 

To be fair, it didn't last at InfoCision because some of the worst football in program history took place. Renovations would be an investment in the long-term - a few hundred more tickets in one season isn't worth it, but a few hundred each season for the next ten may be. 

[ZipsFan31]

I think the reality is if they upgrade the seats the ticket prices go up. I am willing to pay maybe $100 more per season ticket for a 2026 level stadium seat lol 

I know I’m not everyone though 

[HoopsFan03]

Youth basketball night. Kids wear their jersey and get in free. Kids buy concessions and parents have to buy tickets. 

[kreed5120]

35 minutes ago, Zippy87 said:

 

To be fair, it didn't last at InfoCision because some of the worst football in program history took place. Renovations would be an investment in the long-term - a few hundred more tickets in one season isn't worth it, but a few hundred each season for the next ten may be. 

 

500 more per games X $15/ticket X 15 games/year. That's $112,500 per year. That means after 10 years it would have generated $1.1 million. 

 

It really only starts to make sense if its accompanied by ticket price increases as @ZipsFan31 mentioned. How steep kind of depends on how extensive the renovations are. That however brings new problems as then you start to price out Joe Akron.

[kreed5120]

If it' something simple like just replacing seats without reconfiguration then that cost YSU ~$2 million. That might be achievable by raising single game and season tickets up ~$5/game. If you want to get into extending the concourse to add more concessions, a real team, new bathrooms, etc. then you will probably have to double or perhaps triple ticket prices.

[LZIp]

I would start by replacing the bleachers with chairbacks on the top sideline. Keep the bleachers behind the basket as GA seating. Everything else is assigned (thus higher pricing). 
 

I missed out on buying tickets in time to get chair seating for the Kent game and the bleachers were not pleasant for this mid-30s guy. The seating is not spaced out enough for the average size of an American in this day and age. 

[clarkwgriswold]

37 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

If it' something simple like just replacing seats without reconfiguration then that cost YSU ~$2 million. That might be achievable by raising single game and season tickets up ~$5/game. If you want to get into extending the concourse to add more concessions, a real team, new bathrooms, etc. then you will probably have to double or perhaps triple ticket prices.

I like YSU's arena and would be content with that type of upgrade.  Seat backs on the sides, bring the top seats forward, bleachers on the ends, ditch the glass rail, give Clarkie front row seats for his input...