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Attendance going way down

J

josephpoint

Active member
6,595 for Weber State
5,754 for Menlo
6,473 for Montana State

Sac State has held on for the 3rd place in home football attendance for many years in the Big Sky but that appears to be lost big time now.

The 5 year plan for athletics that came out a year or more ago called for Sac State to rise to 15,000 per game if memory serves me right.

Hope the marketing department for athletics begins doing something to turn this poor state of affairs around. And the Green Army has 10,000 members? Really?

The largest student body in the Big Sky along with Portland State and such poor attendance . And we've been 3,000 or more ahead of PSU per game for years but now right down with them.

Understand that winning plays a role but we have not done any better in terms of wins than other years when attendance averaged around the 9,000 mark for many of the past 5 or more years.

Hopefully the Cal Poly homecoming game will draw our largest crowd so far and that is not hard to do with these poor figures so far. And guessing Cal Poly will bring a good crowd, band and cheer team to Hornet Stadium to join the many Cal Poly alum in Sac.
 
I feel Marketing does a really bad job, I do know Sears has really reached out to football alumni which has been great. BBQ and flag football game has been great and I hear of some old faces showing up around the building. Coach Clemons gave a pre-game speech to the hornets one game I hear. At least he is making an effort. Just never see anything around town. Not very good, I know the new AD for Marketing just got here not to long ago after the other guy got fired after a couple months.
 
Love Coach Clemons. He is a big time Hornet!! Love that he and other Hornet alum are getting involved. Well over 200,000 alum at our school. And most still live in Sac. Understand that getting folks out to Hornet football games and all sports at Sac State is a challenge with little interest in the opponents. But that is the challenge the folks in charge need to tackle and think outside the box to get people out to the games until we start winning at the Big Sky level.
 
and attendance is going down in all fall sports as the volleyball team is in last place , the women's soccer team is in last place and it goes on. These other fall sports teams are averaging about 200 fans per game/match.
The athletic 5 year plan is not working right now. Hope it turns around and hope a hero is hired to make this 5 year plan work.
 
or how bout the

Sac Pac(k).

Such an easy simple name that is all about Sac State.

Green Army could be at any school with green as a school color. Or the Green Army would be perfect for a military school.

Heard the students in the business dept. had a class project and came up with the Green Army as the name for the Sac State student spirit organization. Puzzling ???????? Think it was the Green Thunder or something like that before. Also puzzling. Who comes up with these generic names?

Where is the marketing dept. in this....
 
I think it’s a combination of a bunch of things:
  • • Facilities. Hornet Stadium is a dump and the stupid track keeps spectators far away from the action. Hopefully Sac gets an MLS expansion team and the Hornets can play in the new stadium that will be built to accommodate the MLS franchise.

    • Same old story year after year. Middle of the road status is nothing to get excited about. Sears squandered one of, if not the best QB-WR tandem in Hornet history by failing to put together a half decent defense. This season had potential to be special, now it will be no different than years past.

    • Unrecognizable opponents. With the expanded BSC this means the few draws that there are come infrequently to Sac. Looking at this seasons schedule there are only 2 draws: MSU (which usually does better than the paltry 6400 that showed up), and CP which coupled with Homecoming should be the highest attended game of the season (my guess is 8000). UM was the best draw second only to Causeway and the Griz will only come around every 3 to 4 years.

    • The increased coverage of Bay Area pro franchises as media avenues/outlets have increased means what little air time the Hornets received is now even smaller, if not gone altogether.

    • No significant movement by athletics admin. No gaudy push for new facilities, no innovation or capital improvement funding drive to give people reason to care. If Macriss can’t get things going, or worse yet drops the ball on the pending HC hire then the last hope is for the new President come in and clean house and hopefully (wishfully?) emphasize athletics and turn a new leaf.

    • Marketing…meh. Hasn’t ever been great but I saw billboards all around the area from mid August to mid September. Hard to blame marketing when the bullets above need to be addressed first. I do like the new Associate AD Jennings, he brought in some fresh ideas and is a positive and approachable guy. A lot of other hard workers are in the athletics department too. I wouldn’t put any blame on any of those folks because they care and put forth a valiant effort to keep things going. They have the shitty job of trying to polish a turd and convince people its gold.

    • Game atmosphere…meh. Tailgating is a blast, but once you get inside things drop off. I think the facility issue plays a lot into this. Winning also helps out here…well that and shots of Makers.

The bottom line is that athletics/football need to provide a reason for people/casual fans/alums to care. Winning fixes this as does a commitment to better facilities. Everything else will fall in to place it those 2 critical things happen, and until those things happen there really isn’t a reason to expect anything different.
 
With Sears and defense you have to wonder, Parker didn't really have them going, Sears about the same. Maybe the players just are not good?
 
And prior to Parker, the defense also sucked under Biaz. The program desperately needs to bring in someone who knows what they are doing on that side of the ball.
 
Sac State attendance averages over the years have been better than either Poly or the dungpile.

I think that it could be marketed better and we could/ should see a better turnout with the market we have.

FCS Football is a small show playing on a big stage in California too many other attractions, caparisons etc. to generate widespread interest. In remote places like Montana, North Dakota it's all they have except for fly fishing sheep herding etc.

To expect us to generate attendance like the Montana's, NDSU etc. as a California FCS is unrealistic.


And for the statement that our attendance is similar to what we had in D2, not even close. Before the stadium was expanded in 1991 the capacity was about 6,000, it was only full for the Causeway. Most games were about 2,000-3,000, I've been there for some games that drew about 1,500.
 
Super Hornet said:
Baiz has a killer defense now....
Click to expand...
Good for him. D-1 level DC duties were way outside his capabilities, but good to know his on the job training while at Sac State is being put to use.
 
Green Laser said:
To expect us to generate attendance like the Montana's, NDSU etc. as a California FCS is unrealistic.
Click to expand...
I agree, but we shouldn't have a problem cracking an average of 10k year in and year out.
 
SDHornet said:
And prior to Parker, the defense also sucked under Biaz. The program desperately needs to bring in someone who knows what they are doing on that side of the ball.
Click to expand...

THIS! And if I am looking at defensive minded football, I would go to the MVC in FCS level. Hoping next DC does not have the defensive backfield playing 10 yards off the line.
 
Oh and pressing the WR is going to help with the non physical Corners we have. The fade ball is killing them.i say we get the local guys in there with Marcus Green of Franklin and Jenkins of Burbank. See if this local recruiting pays off
 
7,047 at the Causeway today in Davis.

That has to be the smallest crowd for the Causeway Classic in decades.

Remember in 1980 when Sac State drew 7,500 as the host at an experiment at Hughes Stadium when it was the 3rd game of the year in 100 degree heat. And that was a huge crowd in the Div II years.

The two sections of Hornet fans in Davis today were very loud and had 4 quarters of exciting Hornet football to cheer for. With the full marching band and cheer teams the Hornets were well supported at Aggie Stadium. Felt like and sounded like a home game.

Here is hoping that attendance goes back up big time next year at both schools and that Hornet Stadium is full for the 2015 Causeway.
 
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