I've read with interest the posts on renovation and have seen the pictures of the new scoreboard being erected. :kisswink: Question: besides the Student base, "how" is the marketing in the Greater Spokane area to get people in the stands? Does the general population view EWU as 'inferior' compared to a short-ish drive to WSU? Do they pack up over the mountain and drive west? If the Gateway project drags on too long, momentum can be lost...unless the boys (which I believe they will) keep cracking heads and winning! :thumb: The ticket price is competitive and the football is played at a high level. "The product" has to get out of the box.
-
Hi Guest,
We've updated the site to combine all the forums that were part of the Big Sky Fans Network into one location. This will make it easier to navigate and participate in all the discussions for each school without having to have multiple accounts, etc. We are still working out some tweaks but please let us know if you notice anything.
With the migration, in some circumstances, your username could have been merged with one of your other usernames from the other forums. If this is the case, you can request to change your username in your account details page of your profile. -
Hi Guest, want to participate in the discussions, keep track of read/unread posts and more? Create your free account and increase the benefits of your eGriz.com experience today!
-
Guest, do want an ad free experience on BigSkyFans.com among other benefits? Upgrade your account today!
Simply click your profile name > account upgrades > BigSky Club > choose between the year long subscription (two free months) or month to month
Thanks for the continued support. Cheers!
Fan Base
- Thread starter sunday
- Start date
Since the Championship, the "noise" around Spokane about ewu has been at a fairly high level. Graphics on buses, several billboards, more newspaper coverage, and more people simply talking about it. I agree that the university must act swiftly. As long as Baldwin is the coach, there will be a quality product on the field worth watching. The recent atrocity that is Cougar football has also helped elevate ewu's standing in the region, as well as the nail biter two weeks ago. Barring any major meltdown on any front, ewu is moving in leaps and bounds in the right direction.
Coming from a SoCal perspective (my son is RFR this year) grabbing the area through frequent appearances to hospitals, school assembly's, autograph signings of 'star players' at the local malls, etc. bolsters the image for imediate increase. When people feel good, they get behind what's going on. There's absolutely no reason every game shouldn't draw the crowds you guys are talking about, like in Montana.
It has not always been that way at Montana either. I lived in Msla back in the days they were playing in Dornblazer field and the stands were plenty empty in those days. As the winning tradition became part of the culture there the fan base developed. I think the Eagles will continue to build fan base as they continue the winning tradition. Many teams "hope" to win, but a winning culture is when the team "expects" to win. As the Gateway project develops the fan base will grow exponentially.
correction- sunday, it may seem like a short drive to Pullman to someone from socal, but to me it is a pain it the a** to go to a game there. 90 miles of 2 lane road, speed traps galore, difficult parking and the team "hopes" to win, no thanks!
Currently we have the right guys calling shots that will make the athletics programs and thus the University successful.
Your son made a good choice
correction- sunday, it may seem like a short drive to Pullman to someone from socal, but to me it is a pain it the a** to go to a game there. 90 miles of 2 lane road, speed traps galore, difficult parking and the team "hopes" to win, no thanks!
Currently we have the right guys calling shots that will make the athletics programs and thus the University successful.
Your son made a good choice
What Montana doesn't have:
Two FBS programs just down the road
Gonzaga Basketball
Chiefs Hockey (WHL franchise)
Shock Football (Arena)
A perception that Cheney is a long drive
But yes, as mentioned, it's getting much better and the Gateway Project would elevate things to the next level.
Two FBS programs just down the road
Gonzaga Basketball
Chiefs Hockey (WHL franchise)
Shock Football (Arena)
A perception that Cheney is a long drive
But yes, as mentioned, it's getting much better and the Gateway Project would elevate things to the next level.
marceagfan5
Active member
sunday said:
Kalm did a good job pointing out why it is difficult for Eastern's fan base to grow. A lot of D1 sports in our area during the fall. Cougs will always be the main football attraction and once the Zags season starts a lot of fans are lost to basketball. Add the Chiefs and the other colleges around and we have always had trouble drawing fans.
The national championship really helped bring some fans out to Cheney. We sold out 3 of the 4 games last year and had great crowds. The addition of the scoreboard is a step in the right direction. I think the Gateway project will really move forward if we have a good year in both attendance as well as success as a football team this year. I wish we would have tried to capitalize more on the national championship last year by not playing our first 3 games on the road, but I have beat that point down enough.
I think a good year this year will really propel the program and stadium expansion in the right direction. We have a great team this year with a ton of potential and winning programs always bring in money and fans...
marceagfan5 said:
I think we'll always see our home season get off to a late start until we show that fans will turn out when school isn't in session. It's easy for WSU which has a class schedule that starts in August or UW that has our schedule but the deep fan base that attends games even when there's no classes to have early home games. UM also has an early class schedule and rabid fan base. I fear our attendance would suffer if we had early home games.
Historically, September has been the best drawing month regardless of whether school is in session. I think weather plays a much bigger role than the academic calender... some years, it's good football weather in November, and other years it's wretched. But it's pretty much always nice in September in Cheney.
marceagfan5
Active member
HannahO said:
Hanna, I totally agree about the students not being on campus in early september and I think that is why I think we schedule the way we do. Plus we play a lot of FBS teams and those games are almost always going to be played in the first 2 weeks. My only gripe is playing all the road games early is really difficult on the team early on and down the road when we are competing for the playoffs every year.
The positives for EWU trying to schedule a home game in early september are the fact that the weather is great and we are not yet competing with the zags or chiefs.
Hopefully we can find a happy medium...we play Western Oregon in early september next year and Sam Houston the following year. I guess we will see what kind of turnout there will be. If we have a successful year this year, I bet we are close to a sellout to open the season next year against a D2 with no students.
The "no students in September" bit isn't really true. Eastern is primarily a regional university, meaning most of the students live in a reasonably close proximity to Cheney. I remember stats from a while back that only 10% of EWU students were from West of the Cascades... that may have changed a good bit, but certainly the overwhelming majority of Eastern students are from the area. Getting those kids onto campus for a weekend game isn't all that difficult.
Furthermore, I don't think Eastern has had a September game draw less than 6,000 this millenium. Obviously, 6,000 isn't much of an attendance... but it's not bad considering EWU drew a PATHETIC sub-4,000 to a must-win November game against conference foe Weber State in 2008 with the playoffs on the line. Again, you can go back through whatever time period you want, the September game ALWAYS average more than the late season games.
That's part of why I harp on our abyssmal scheduling so much. We are the only Big sky team that hasn't played a home game yet... and we're still more than a week out on playing one. There is no reason for this kind of scheduling. Eastern can be profitable with events on campus in September, it's been proven many times. Where we really struggle is making money on non-conference games is late in the year.
Furthermore, I don't think Eastern has had a September game draw less than 6,000 this millenium. Obviously, 6,000 isn't much of an attendance... but it's not bad considering EWU drew a PATHETIC sub-4,000 to a must-win November game against conference foe Weber State in 2008 with the playoffs on the line. Again, you can go back through whatever time period you want, the September game ALWAYS average more than the late season games.
That's part of why I harp on our abyssmal scheduling so much. We are the only Big sky team that hasn't played a home game yet... and we're still more than a week out on playing one. There is no reason for this kind of scheduling. Eastern can be profitable with events on campus in September, it's been proven many times. Where we really struggle is making money on non-conference games is late in the year.
As of the late 90s, the numbers were like 80% East or Central (incl. Spokane, Yakima, Tri-City, Wenatchee, etc.), 10% West side, and 10% out of state or exchange. Admittedly, that may have changed a lot since then, but I'd find it difficult to believe over half of the students are now coming from the West Side..33.
Screamin_Eagle174
Active member
By my rough calculations, it's about 25% from the West side.
http://www.ewu.edu/Documents/Marcom/Facts/stufacts11-12.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.ewu.edu/Documents/Marcom/Facts/stufacts11-12.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
FormerEag
Active member
Screamin_Eagle174 said:
Fair enough. But I will say that we deal with a bit of a commuter campus problem. I remember thinking decent amount of students were adults who may not have been too interested in the on campus experience.
Yet, I agree. We need to schedule more games at home and get more asses in seats at Roos Field.
ewueagle2010
Active member
Anybody have any idea how many tickets have been sold for the Montana game?
All true and all fair observations but it would seem that if 80% of the student base were so close to Moscow and Pullman, we would have seen a greater student aged turn out. I realize they had to pay and that might have been a consideration for some but the crowd was decidedly canted to the older demographic.
I guess all we can do is hope for the program to continue winning, the facilities upgraded, and see the outcome of those games that are scheduled for early September. Cautiously optimistic!
I guess all we can do is hope for the program to continue winning, the facilities upgraded, and see the outcome of those games that are scheduled for early September. Cautiously optimistic!
