Increase Student Attendance

[n.ogdencat]

What are some ideas to increase student attendance??

 

[WSUfan1]

The obvious responses would be winning and known name teams on the home OOC... But as for behind the scene stuff... E-mails to all wsu students a few days before the game. Free purple t-shirts to all students who come to the games. Entertainment... Advrtisments on campus ie; union building(hang a banner professionaly well done, with dates and times telling students it's free!!) putting flyers on the parked cars.... Maybe partial scholarship give aways... Doing a 3vs 3 tournamnet for 8-10 minutes at half time between games. You could have 4 teams a game play, at the end, a championship game. Free food! Anything like that would help. Something needs to be done by the students that's makes thn want to come back and cheer... It kills me to use usu, but wild bill gives attendence boost, the gay chants at te begging and end of each game... Overall, I think student awareness is key. They won't go if Rey don't know....

 

[oldrunner]

It really doesn't matter how you get them there. Just get them there. They are the future of WSU. When I was a student it was the thing to do. I wouldn't miss a game unless I had to work and it was a good, cheap date that often had some sort of social event planned afterward. Our current season ticket holders and donors are made up of many of my classmates. Many things happened, over the years, to discourage student attendance. Some of the things have been corrected and yet the students are slow to come back. If we have a largely nontraditional studentbody, we may need to do a lot of nontraditional things to get them involved in campus activities and athletics once again.

Beg, bribe, kidnap, or what ever it takes, but get them out. Hell, tend thier kids if you have to. If you have 10 students coming to games, and 10% will become donors or season ticket holders in the future, how does that compare to getting 5000 students to the games. With thier student card, let them walk through the gate with 10 friends and family members. What would it hurt????

Students at Weber need to develop a sence of community and ownership. It is not just beneficial to athletics. It will enhance all aspects of the Universities future.

 

[flylikeasparrow]

As a student and former chair of the Purple Pak, getting students to games is easier said than done. Last year, we had a DJ booth going and had the team with Coach Rahe come down to help spread the word for the Utah State game. As Coach Rahe was speaking, students were just walking by, not giving a rats ass about the Coach Rahe and the team had to say. We even got yelled at for putting fliers on cars. I guess it is against university policy to put school sponsored fliers on cars. SO AS I SAID, GETTING STUDENTS TO FILL THE SEATS IS EASIER SAID THAN DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Waldo2]

I love the Purple Pak and think you guys do an awesome job - you are the building blocks for a great crowd and atmosphere at football and basketball games. The Weber State studentbody is about 25% traditional, meaning they are young (18-22 years old), not married or parents, and not working a lot. I would guess that most of the students regularly attending games in involved with the PP are these non-traditional students. They have much more free time and fewer obligations to work and family. So, they can more easily attend the games.

Getting the rest of the studentbody is more challenging. These 75% of students who work, are married, and/or parents have a much busier life. They can't always get off of work or take their family out to a game, etc... It's not that they don't want to, it is that they literally have other important obligations. So, I think the PP and the athletic dept. needs to think about some family friendly ways of getting the non-trad students to attend. How about some family nights? Activities for young children in the concourse? Drawings for non-trad students, etc...

 

[n.ogdencat]

As a student and former chair of the Purple Pak, getting students to games is easier said than done. Last year, we had a DJ booth going and had the team with Coach Rahe come down to help spread the word for the Utah State game. As Coach Rahe was speaking, students were just walking by, not giving a rats farty-poop-poop about the Coach Rahe and the team had to say. We even got yelled at for putting fliers on cars. I guess it is against university policy to put school sponsored fliers on cars. SO AS I SAID, GETTING STUDENTS TO FILL THE SEATS IS EASIER SAID THAN DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cuz...yeah that was pretty dang disrespectful of the students to walk by as Coach was trying to get them involved. However, from what I can recollect of last year, the two games, football and basketball, where there was a good student crowd was Homecoming and the UTAH STATE basketball game (I still think the students were as loud as the Ag's). Which is proof that your efforts weren't in vain. Unfortunately after the USU game a lot of the students didn't come back. DJing by the Union, Pep Rallies, food, Promotional Events, Signage on campus, Professional signage in the Union, Davis, and other buildings, along with good student leadership would go a long way. Also, I told you last year and I'll repeat it this year, you should flier cars anyway. Who cares what the Butt Fs say. It happens anyway.

Lets all be honest, the biggest problem is the student leadership and their advisor (not BEV). WSUSA glories in ineptitude. Yes, I believe the PPAK could do A LOT more, which I'm sure will illict a response. Its mostly about planning, being organized, and actually DOING something. Why were there students at the USU game?? Because students were made aware of the GAME in a number of ways and there was some excitment on campus for it. Marketing isn't a hard thing...it just takes a lot of effort and involvement for it to be successful. In my opinion there is a lot of wasted money on campus starting, at the top, students receiving scholarships that do practically nothing...ALL OF WSUSA (another year of ineptitude as the leaders and senate do nothing), Ambassadors, the Young Leaders or whatever they are called (biggest waste on campus), SAC, and why can't the student Athletes do more?? There should be plenty of people available. I guess its a planning issue. From what I remember, we (student leaders and Greeks) would come up with an idea the night before and do it at the Bell Tower the next day. CatCAt and I sold 8 boxes of shirts one morning on campus, with DJ Stryd spinning, and Kyle Poll pushing promotions, its not hard it just takes time, planning, and not being LAZY.

Actually Traditional Student population 18-25 (Utah Standard) is closer to 75% whereas the Non-trad is 25%.

 

[Waldo2]

I did not define non-trad just by age - it was defined by work and family status which is a more accurate predictor of free time. According to university official statistics, 23% of the WSU studentbody does not work and the remaining work full time (27%) and the rest work part-time (http://www.weber.edu/IR/stdchar.html)

As for age, 47% of the studentbody is over the age of 25 and 36% of students are married (http://www.weber.edu/nontrad/facultyresources.html).

So, if you combine that all together (working, married, parents) you get about 25% who are young, single, and more or less carefree. If your marketing plan does not appreciate and recognize that most of your target population is busy (involved with family and work), you will only be reaching a minority of your population.

 

[n.ogdencat]

I did not define non-trad just by age - it was defined by work and family status which is a more accurate predictor of free time. According to university official statistics, 23% of the WSU studentbody does not work and the remaining work full time (27%) and the rest work part-time (http://www.weber.edu/IR/stdchar.html)

As for age, 47% of the studentbody is over the age of 25 and 36% of students are married (http://www.weber.edu/nontrad/facultyresources.html).

So, if you combine that all together (working, married, parents) you get about 25% who are young, single, and more or less carefree. If your marketing plan does not appreciate and recognize that most of your target population is busy (involved with family and work), you will only be reaching a minority of your population.

Okay so my numbers were a bit off, nice work finding the data Waldo. Regardless, even according to the university just over 13K students are single, young, and relatively carefree, thats 50% (I've added Part-time employeed in, lets be serious, most university students are employeed in someway or another). University statistics state that 36% are married and 50% work full-time (this number seems inflated, but thats what the university says). Well, its easy...For marrieds, its a cheap date ($5 for a student tkt; there use to be a spouse card, but the university got rid of that), and for young families its a good place to go for a family night or something. But out of 24K its embarrassing that the Dee can't get 1K to a game. Think if the Dee could get 2K or 3K students to a game?

 

[oldrunner]

Start making offers to the students and don't quit making new and additional offers until we are regularly getting 5,000+ students to every game. Provide services to the students attending that you don't now offer. Provide incentives that hit home to students, like bookstore discounts, parking incentives, recreation incentives, family incentives, tuition incentives, or what ever. but don't stop until you have atchieved your goal. Be creative, be inovative, just don't stop. When you get them there, treat them right.

What ever you do, don't stop until you reach your goal. Don't have a goal??? Beter get one, and fast.