Holt Arena

[BengalSapper]

http://www.stadiumjourney.com/stadiums/holt-arena-s1413

Found this we need to fix the issues noted. This reflects on the lack of advertising planning and game day coordination. This is embarrassing and needs to be corrected. The problem with the game day experience is that a ISU game is not exciting. The ambiance sucks there is a lack of energy and no traditions. I am curious who is the game day coordinator? Who is in charge? Why is a ISU football game not the premier entertainment event of the week in Pocatello? Why is the Saturday game day experience at ISU not rehearsed, refined, planned and coordinated to be as professional as possible? Collage football at ISU should have the atmosphere of a rock concert. With the outside food and activity of the fair. Win or loose there is a lot of things that can be done with little to no cost.


Things that would help.
1. Turn up the volume. Make it loud!!! If music is played make it so you can’t hear yourself think. This will also keep people from just visiting and not being evolved in the game day experience.
2. Plan the event. ISU games do not appear to be planed most of the time it looks like the band does not know if they are playing or if there is music to be played over the sound system. ISU game day is a unprofessional mess that has the resemblance of a junior high dance.
3. NEW SOUND SYSTEM.... I have a friend at Ideal Audio maybe he can help.
4. Start a tradition. What songs the Band plays put the words on the video board. We have a band that is awesome use it be proud of them let people know that.
5. Rehearse... It is embarrassing when you are told to look at the video board and nothing happens.
6. Someone please come up with a entrance. Enter sandman is the song Va Tec uses. And if you are going to use it turn it up and have the team enter before it is over.
7. Get the kids off the stairs and under control. It really makes me mad when I am trying to watch the game and I have kids running up and down the stairs and all over the chairs.
8. Students !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GET THEM
9. Advertise. Flyers leaflets use the ISU website, must students don’t even know there is a game cheap stuff that can happen with planning.
10. All you that want to talk about money and planning cost that’s crap. Most of the things that need to happen can be done with planning and leadership. If people say it cant be done that’s BS. I will show you how to do it. I have planned multiple Army operations that involve over 100+ people and $40 million worth of equipment. I bet I could get a lot of Bengal fans to help.

 

[notabengalalum]

Sapper, you have once again hit the nail on the head. The same nail we've been hitting for a while now to where we've put a permanent dent in the wood!
The marketing issue (or lack thereof) of ISU athletics has been one that I have harped on for a while now. It seems like a lot of simple things could be done easily and with some creatiivity, relatively cheaply. Copycatting some of the things that other similarly sized college programs do would be a really good place to start. Look at what others in the Big Sky, Southern Conference, etc. are doing, make some comparisons, and give them a shot. At least give something a shot. From promoting the games to vastly improving the concessions, to pregame activities, there are a lot of areas where small improvements could make a world of difference. This is not limited to football.
When we've been losing like we have, extra effort needs to be made to give fans a reason to be there.
For all of Paul Bubb's issues, at least when he was here, there were promotions and half-time drawings for scholarships for students that attended the football games. It may not have been a major enticement for the kids to come out but it sure didn't hurt compared to the awful lack of student participation we see today.
You bring up some great points.
And, oh yeah, HOOAH! :clap:
Go Bengals!

 

[otis campbell]

You have described the problem well. ISU games are not exciting, they are boring. The difference between ISU games and the high school games played at Holt is the screaming high school girls. I liked the 'junior high dance' metaphor. I would bet that going to any high school game anywhere would be more exciting than a ISU game in Holt. Still have those damn kids running all over the place. Turning up the volume will just make it loud. Students, ISU students, need to show up and get into the game time atmosphere, but then again ISU is heavy with non-traditional students, yes older, mature types that will not fit this mold. The ones that do come bring their kids, the same ones running amok up and down the isles and seats. Concessions: I don't recall any place that served soft ice cream and cotton candy, or whatever it is that ISU sells. This is not a circus or carnival, its college football. ISU caters to grade school kids, and it shows in the type of crowd it attracts. If it ever hopes to grow, it needs to get rid of the kids.
I don't have answers, just observations. I am one of the 'older' types, raised on obnoxious college football game atmosphere of the late 60s and early 70s. You came to the game with your buddies, half tuned up and more stashed on your bod to continue the 'party.' Yeah, it got rowdy. I don't remember seeing elementary age kids at the games, probably because they weren't there, a parental control predating the electronic stuff of today. It was loud and R-rated, at best. Any kids in attendance definitely got a lesson in advanced language skills. Back then, ISU was a team that was a contender and was respected. Most universities I have seen have a sizeable Greek population of like minded individuals, who can be counted on to show up at events like football or basketball games. Not ISU.
Today, ISU football seems to be caught in limbo, a couple steps away from extinction. ISU finally hired a good coach who can resurrect football in Pocatello. I think that the improved product will attract more people. The rest of the details definitely need to be thought through and planned. The old saying goes 'to make an omelet, you first have to break a few eggs.'

 

[tipsy]

Those are all some GREAT ideas! The kids thing is a future thing. My parents never went to games or ever took me to games as a child.. but I really wished they would have! The kids thing I think can be a big deal simply because of this area being a big mormon area (and hey thats what they do is have lots of kids). So bringing kids it can ultimately build for the future of our little Bengal cubs. The kids do need to be under control though.

Tradition is something we extremely lack in. Ive always liked the idea of having the Welcome To The Jungle song and having that corner area where they come out all decorated like a jungle.. maybe even get us a real Bengal tiger that is locked up in that cage. Im sure the Zoo could help us out with something like that for 5 days a year. You could also have an area outside for it during the tailgate and activities time. that would be a great attraction.
We do have some cool attractions though with the balloon thing, Benny the Bengal cruising around on the Scooter, the New Day product shirts and I also liked a couple years ago when they put the paw prints on the streets leading to the Holt... Im sure their are some others that im forgetting right now. Overall we do need some help for a bigger game day experience. Unfortunately we are lacking in the main thing that would do that... WINNING! It will come!

 

[spazdog1]

As many of you know, I live in Boise but have a Pocatello office that I visit several times each month. And I'm sure a number of you have heard my rant before...

Over the past several years, I've gone down to Holt and asked for football and basketball posters to display in our windows in our office on Yellowstone. I get them when I show up to pick them up. Oh, yes, I show up before the season starts... no posters available. Into the third or fourth week, after sending employees down to pick them up (still not ready) and being promised that someone from the school will drop them off at our business, I finally pick them up. I've yet to have any of them delivered to me.

This is unbelievable to me. Why invest in posters when they aren't available before the season starts? Why not distribute them around to local businesses? Show up at a local business, maybe the school can garner some sponsorships, donations, SEASON tickets! I just don't get it.

 

[Bandit]

Spazdog is right on the advertising thing. There shouldn't be a business in town that isn't displaying a ISU schedule , be it basketball, football, baseball or what. Put it right on the door where people have to see it as they enter. Get out early in the year with them and ask the owner or manager and I'll bet not many if any will turn you down. Even when out of town and I go into a business which displays one of these posters, I always stop to see who is playing who. I might not be able to make it that time but one of these days I might..
I know kids running all over the place drives some people crazy, I for one. But, when do you allow them and when do you say to a young couple that want's to support ISU athletics,"Sorry, no childern allowed." That sounds a little harsh to me, and I'll bet they won't ever be back for a long time if ever. Here's what I do. If a youngster comes from their parents down towards me, I tell them that they must go out the other way by their parents. If the parents didn't walk in front of me to get their seats, then it must be closer to thwe isle by them, right? I would quote something religious but this paticular board doesn't seem to be the place.
On another thought, to heck with it, I don't own anyone on here anything. Almost in the same context when older folks didn't want little childern to bother them that were trying to listen to a sermon, Christ said, "Suffer the little childern, that they may come unto me."

However, I do not see it as inappropriate to post a large sign that says,"Childern must sit by and managed by parents."

 

[Skippy]

Spazdog is right on the advertising thing. There shouldn't be a business in town that isn't displaying a ISU schedule , be it basketball, football, baseball or what. Put it right on the door where people have to see it as they enter. Get out early in the year with them and ask the owner or manager and I'll bet not many if any will turn you down. Even when out of town and I go into a business which displays one of these posters, I always stop to see who is playing who. I might not be able to make it that time but one of these days I might..
I know kids running all over the place drives some people crazy, I for one. But, when do you allow them and when do you say to a young couple that want's to support ISU athletics,"Sorry, no childern allowed." That sounds a little harsh to me, and I'll bet they won't ever be back for a long time if ever. Here's what I do. If a youngster comes from their parents down towards me, I tell them that they must go out the other way by their parents. If the parents didn't walk in front of me to get their seats, then it must be closer to thwe isle by them, right? I would quote something religious but this paticular board doesn't seem to be the place.
On another thought, to heck with it, I don't own anyone on here anything. Almost in the same context when older folks didn't want little childern to bother them that were trying to listen to a sermon, Christ said, "Suffer the little childern, that they may come unto me."

However, I do not see it as inappropriate to post a large sign that says,"Childern must sit by and managed by parents."

When my kids were young, I let them run around the track and behind the bleachers during basketball games. It kept them entertained. If the ushers don't want them back there, they can re-direct them to their seats. Pocatello is a family town, and ISU has a lot of non-traditional students with young families. If you start limiting what the kids can do during games, you're going to greatly reduce the crowds. Of course, you have to have some REASONABLE limits on what the kids do and where they go, and I have no problem with enforcing those.

 

[BengalSapper]

I don’t think that the crowds will be reduced by any major size. If I am going to pay several hundred dollars for Division 1 basketball and football tickets I expect it to be a Division 1 atmosphere not a babysitting event. ISU is becoming a more traditional university so I think the non-traditional argument is losing substance.

 

[otis campbell]

My idea of REASONABLE and someone elses idea are probably not the same. Reasonable, to borrow from 'Hamlet,' "ay, there's the rub."

When your kids were young, I doubt you let them run around the fruits a vegetable section and inside the electronics department while shopping at Walmart, to keep them entertained. They'd end up out in the parking lot, or your name would be heard overhead to come to the customer service desk to pick up your child. You want to entertain them, stay home, go to the zoo, take a bike ride or walk. Bet you didn't send them to the neightbors yard and house to play. :doh:

 

[Skippy]

My idea of REASONABLE and someone elses idea are probably not the same. Reasonable, to borrow from 'Hamlet,' "ay, there's the rub."

When your kids were young, I doubt you let them run around the fruits a vegetable section and inside the electronics department while shopping at Walmart, to keep them entertained. They'd end up out in the parking lot, or your name would be heard overhead to come to the customer service desk to pick up your child. You want to entertain them, stay home, go to the zoo, take a bike ride or walk. Bet you didn't send them to the neightbors yard and house to play. :doh:

True, everybody's definition of "reasonable" varies. I was glad they could go off and play behind the stands without causing other people any harm. If the Holt gendarmes want to enforce different rules, then so be it.

 

[FormerISUSID]

I've always thought that's why the area Heinz the stands should have a kids play area...jumpers and stuff.

FormerISUSID