FSU Game Time - 7:30 ACCN

[Deacfreak07]

$20 at the Joel is sorta highway robbery. it's not like it's some new deck they have to pay for, just charge $5 and call it a day.

It is real estate that wake did purchase and pays overhead on. It’s certainly worth making the argument if that was the right decision or not, but let’s not pretend it’s not costing Wake money now.

I’m not sure I’ve ever been to a game where it wasn’t $20 to park literally right across the street from the stadium.

I’m all for growing the fanbase. I really am. I don’t know that being the “budget ACC team” is the way to do that. We already have a pretty great bargain for families with the Hill packages. I’m not sure what the best strategy is for growing the fanbase. We give tickets away, we put peoples kids on the field at halftime, we do the things people suggest. I really think it comes down to winning over a sustained period of time. It seems to be just that simple.

In a landscape that’s very much an arms race, I’m not sure cutting the program off from revenue is the right strategy. Maybe the math works out and you make up the difference with 5-10K more fans a game, but if it rains, you lose all that revenue.

I haven’t been to the Joel on a gameday in years. Is it just sitting empty?

 

[knowell]

I agree with all this. If you would like to attract locals to become Wake sports fans, it will not happen if you expect a family of 4 to pay $250.00.

Make it an inexpensive experience for a family and you will likely be able to build a local fan base.

There are not enough alumni that can reasonably drive to football games. Community outreach should be a priority for Currie.

They should also raise the prices for basketball games so that potential fans are not exposed to that product until it gets better. No need to ruin potential fans.

 

[ConnorEl]

Ok, so just less expensive.

Because except for fair time, parking is convenient/available. With or without a pass.

 

[Biff Tannen]

So everyone in the Triad is broke ? Good to know.

 

[DeacAssured]

Make tailgating areas the best in the NCAA is a start to building the fan base. Need lots of green space.

 

[Colonel Angus]

Cutting ticket prices to drive attendance is shortsighted and not sustainable.

In addition, this dilutes your season ticket holders and actually provides an incentive NOT to purchase season tickets.

And as others have pointed out, our season ticket packages are already a steal compared to other schools.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

small school, no bandwagon, low number of living alumna...It's tough to overcome that.

We need to enhance the tailgating area, create "Deacon Village", continue winnings games, and continue to improve gameday atmosphere.

 

[Deacfreak07]

small school, no bandwagon, low number of living alumna...It's tough to overcome that.

We need to enhance the tailgating area, create "Deacon Village", continue winnings games, and continue to improve gameday atmosphere.

I’m all for that. Parking will be more expensive to pay for it and as demand increase with the loss of spaces. Important that folks know that.

 

[LilburnDeac]

I attended the Hornets-Sixers pre-season game at the Joel. Parking for that was only $10.

 

[Buttermaker]

Parking at the coliseum was $8-10 in past years. It was $20 on Saturday. That is where people will park if they come for a single game. It’s a pretty big lot too.

I don’t understand your opposition to any initiatives to grow the gameday crowd while we are building a winning program. Chalking it up to just winning is simplistic and pretty obvious. But we should be able to grow the crowd now, instead of waiting years and years for the winning to attract more fans.

Wake's location and prices for reserved parking have to be among the best in P5 football. $20 for the Joel lot does seem steep considering the people likely to consider parking there - i.e., non-die hard fans. Does Wake control prices for that lot?

 

[2&2 Slider To Leyritz]

Ok, so just less expensive.

Because except for fair time, parking is convenient/available. With or without a pass.

It may be available, but it is not convenient. The lot at the Joel is the worst designed sports/arena parking lot I've ever seen. We're lucky if we have 20k people at a game, yet it takes forever to get both in and out of that lot. I'm not bringing my kids to a game to then have to sit in that lot for an hour after the game to get out. They need to take the $20/car they are getting and redesign the flow of that lot and the surrounding traffic pattern. And accidentally run over Ron Wellman with a bulldozer while doing it.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

I’m all for that. Parking will be more expensive to pay for it and as demand increase with the loss of spaces. Important that folks know that.

I think Deacon Village could be a huge hit...You have 50-100 in-ground grills, charcoal or propane option. Fans can rent these per game or buy rights to them for the whole season. Gauge interest and add accordingly each year - leave space for it. You have a large covered area with space heaters for cold games and industrial fans for hot game. Within that space you have 4 or 5 huge TVs with all of the other games currently playing and 1 of the TVs play nothing but classic WF Football games. Ample seating areas, etc,. You have a few food trucks every Saturday a good, better and best option so it fits everyone's budget.

They have the space to do this on Deacon Blvd. You combine the I'm A Fan Zone with Deacon Village and have semi-notable band every week and not some low budget $100 group of guys who no one cares to listen to.

The possibilities are unlimited for us to create an ultimate pregame experience. There's a paved road to trolly fans back and forth to the stadium to further build convenience.

 

[wakelaw13]

Let's take a step back. The problem is that we can't fill up the smallest stadium in P5 football even when: we are ranked, for a night game, against an ACC opponent. I think we can all agree that's a problem. (Those specific factors apply to UL. I'm not as concerned about FSU given the weather.)

There are multiple reasons for this problem. Our alumni base is much smaller than anyone else in the conference. We're a national school, not a regional school where 50% of graduates stay in the state or surrounding area. Not a state school where 80% of graduates are from NC and thus more likely to stay in NC after graduation. Forget money, how many people are going to attend more than 1 home game a year from Boston, NYC, DC, Atlanta?

I've been to every FBS stadium in NC on multiple occasions except for ECU. State has the best game-day atmosphere and consistently packs Carter Finley. I attribute that in large part to the above factors being the exact opposite as Wake: huge school, 80% or more from NC, large portion of the fan base lives in NC. State can get away with 10% of their students and a small fraction of their alumni in the area attending the game. And, they get considerable support from non-alumni in the Raleigh area. That's a huge portion of the UNC crowd as well.

My conclusion: for Wake to have a satisfactory turnout for big games, we need more support from the triad community. How do we get more non-affiliated "fans" from the triad and further out to come and support Wake? The easiest answer is to keep winning. The next answer is basketball needs to improve. Wins against State/Duke/UNC are incredibly valuable, but most fans pick one school to support and don't want to sit basketball season out. Manning/Buzz/Wellman have indirectly hurt the football program by being so bad at basketball.

That said, supply and demand works here too. Selling tickets for $45 while the stadium sits empty against FSU is maddening. Charging $20 to park is stupid. It's nothing for me to drop $200 to see us play (and beat) State next weekend. But for the casual fan or non-fan, it's a big ask. Why not go to the high schools in Forsyth county and offer $5 tickets to the football teams and their families? These factors feed off of each other. You make less now to have a full stadium that appeals to recruits, fans, and gives a positive impression of WFU. The demand rises. And then you can charge more, and might even have a better product on the field.

 

[YankeeInAtlanta]

Wake needs an on campus football stadium and tailgating on the quad.

 

[Deacfreak07]

Can anyone answer if we are filling up the Joel lot on game days? If it’s empty, then that’s a problem. My hunch is that it’s full more often than not.

I don’t think we have very good fans in general. I think we have some really passionate fans, but for the reasons outlined above (small school, not local alumni base, etc.) we don’t have enough to overcome that a majority of Wake alums just don’t really care about sports. We bitch about the student section every year. Who do you think makes up the alumni base? The same students that we complain about.

I would add that the biggest barrier to the local community being wake fans isn’t the cost of tickets which are at worst comparable to our peers. It’s the cost of tuition and the elitism perceived about Wake. It’s an expensive private school with a student body from all over the country literally gated off of Winston-Salem. The students get the hell out of town almost immediately. How many alums on this board alone live within an hour of campus?

It’s pretty easy to point the finger at Wellman, [Redacted], or Manning for why we have a bad fanbase, but my hunch is that those problems existed before all those folks. Have we ever consistently filled BB&T Field?

 

[liveanddiedeac]

Can anyone answer if we are filling up the Joel lot on game days? If it’s empty, then that’s a problem. My hunch is that it’s full more often than not.

I don’t think we have very good fans in general. I think we have some really passionate fans, but for the reasons outlined above (small school, not local alumni base, etc.) we don’t have enough to overcome that a majority of Wake alums just don’t really care about sports. We bitch about the student section every year. Who do you think makes up the alumni base? The same students that we complain about.

I would add that the biggest barrier to the local community being wake fans isn’t the cost of tickets which are at worst comparable to our peers. It’s the cost of tuition and the elitism perceived about Wake. It’s an expensive private school with a student body from all over the country literally gated off of Winston-Salem. The students get the hell out of town almost immediately. How many alums on this board alone live within an hour of campus?

It’s pretty easy to point the finger at Wellman, [Redacted], or Manning for why we have a bad fanbase, but my hunch is that those problems existed before all those folks. Have we ever consistently filled BB&T Field?

So many people leave the game early, which when the stadium isn't full to begin with really hurts. Saturday night a lot of people didn't show because of the forecast, but a lot of the ones that did bolted as soon as the rain started. I mean come people, you made the effort to come, you probably planned for rain since you came, stick it out. I can understand leaving if we're up big or down big, but a game like Saturday night I just can't understand so many people leaving early.

 

[Deacfreak07]

So many people leave the game early, which when the stadium isn't full to begin with really hurts. Saturday night a lot of people didn't show because of the forecast, but a lot of the ones that did bolted as soon as the rain started. I mean come people, you made the effort to come, you probably planned for rain since you came, stick it out. I can understand leaving if we're up big or down big, but a game like Saturday night I just can't understand so many people leaving early.

That’s something I can’t understand. Why do people leave games early? Especially if it’s just a financial commitment to come in the first place.

 

[liveanddiedeac]

That’s something I can’t understand. Why do people leave games early? Especially if it’s just a financial commitment to come in the first place.

I know, it's like buying tickets to the movies and leaving before it's over.

 

[Rafi]

That’s something I can’t understand. Why do people leave games early? Especially if it’s just a financial commitment to come in the first place.

I don't leave early, and I stayed until the end on Saturday, but I understand why people left the FSU game at halftime. It was cold, raining and predicted to continue to rain (which it did), and it was 9 pm. Anyone with young kids (and there are a lot), is going to leave in that situation.

 

[Rafi]

Wake has two problems regarding football attendance. 1. We are the smallest P5 school, by a lot. 2. We have the lowest P5 winning percentage all time, by a lot.

With that said, we are doing way better than Duke and BC in regards to actual football attendance. And, the game against State will be sold out (with not as many State fans as usual).

I do wish our tailgating fans would get into the game prior to kickoff. We are bush league compared to most good fan bases in that regard, especially now that beer (with a great selection) is sold in the stadium.