TAILGATING to relevance

[scooter1]

Ok, Ok, so here I am, going out on a limb and being an instigator of partying for the sake of building a program. And why shouldn't I ? I am so sick of watching every other athletic program in the f****ing nation building it's relevancy on the emotional ties of it's alumni, who spent their 4 or 5 years at ABC College building a bond to their university through tailgating and beer pong and generally having a really good time socially with each other and then down the road supporting and contributing to that school's athletic department because they have this really fond memory of their experience at school.

PSU has traditionally been considered a "commuter" institution that relies on adults returning to enhance their education. It's quickly changing from that with more and more students living on campus or staying at home right after high school and attending PSU - sometimes to save money, but still, they're NOT 28 years old !

The tailgating experience right now, as much energy as has been put into it by some of the best supporters we can muster, still seems inadequate. Part of it is that logistically speaking, there is very little space around the immediate vicinity of Jeld Wen Field to generate the kind of energy necessary to take the experience to another level. Another part is that we haven't connected to the students in a way that making going to a football game is an Experience !

So as I see it, we (or somebody) have/has to take the initiative to build and promote a party atmosphere for students prior to the games and get them inside Jeld Wen Field. Perhaps on the fields at Lincoln High School, perhaps in the Park Blocks, perhaps starting in the park blocks as they do now with the march with the team, and end up in a CARNIVAL ! Who knows ? I'm just sayin', I'm in my sixties and I suspect that a lot of the people who post on this forum are older too. If the Vikings are ever going to be relevant long term we need to have the current generation take the reins and have ownership in this program.

So what do you say ? And do you think it is possible to generate a thread here with ideas that doesn't DIE after three or four posts ?

 

[scooter1]

Ok, Ok, so here I am, going out on a limb and being an instigator of partying for the sake of building a program. And why shouldn't I ? I am so sick of watching every other athletic program in the f****ing nation building it's relevancy on the emotional ties of it's alumni, who spent their 4 or 5 years at ABC College building a bond to their university through tailgating and beer pong and generally having a really good time socially with each other and then down the road supporting and contributing to that school's athletic department because they have this really fond memory of their experience at school.

PSU has traditionally been considered a "commuter" institution that relies on adults returning to enhance their education. It's quickly changing from that with more and more students living on campus or staying at home right after high school and attending PSU - sometimes to save money, but still, they're NOT 28 years old !

The tailgating experience right now, as much energy as has been put into it by some of the best supporters we can muster, still seems inadequate. Part of it is that logistically speaking, there is very little space around the immediate vicinity of Jeld Wen Field to generate the kind of energy necessary to take the experience to another level. Another part is that we haven't connected to the students in a way that making going to a football game is an Experience !

So as I see it, we (or somebody) have/has to take the initiative to build and promote a party atmosphere for students prior to the games and get them inside Jeld Wen Field. Perhaps on the fields at Lincoln High School, perhaps in the Park Blocks, perhaps starting in the park blocks as they do now with the march with the team, and end up in a CARNIVAL ! Who knows ? I'm just sayin', I'm in my sixties and I suspect that a lot of the people who post on this forum are older too. If the Vikings are ever going to be relevant long term we need to have the current generation take the reins and have ownership in this program.

So what do you say ? And do you think it is possible to generate a thread here with ideas that doesn't DIE after three or four posts ?

The answer to the first question is "As usual I don't have anything to say." and the answer to the second question is "not without new blood on this forum."

This football forum, while at times is informative, and on occasion insightful, is NOT the most boring forum in the Big Sky. That belongs to SUU. Enough said.

 

[TheTruth1]

I remember the days when Pokey Allen and crew put a highly competitive product on the field, which in turn put butts in the seats at the old Civic Stadium. When PSU was making its annual playoff run, the place sold out. I think coach Burton and staff are moving in the right direction, but it's going to take $$ to do it. While the program is making strides, so are the larger institutions. Look at the coaching hires and the facility upgrades in the PAC-12 for example. PSU needs to make a splash around downtown: billboards, team rallies at Pioneer Square, cheerleaders handing out season schedules, giving handfulls of season schedules to local businesses to place in their reception areas, etc.

I agree that there's an air of apathy surrounding PSU athletics: they're the little brother to OSU and UO even though PSU is larger than both of those schools by enrolment. Even the Oregonian relegates PSU to the bottom of the page. I'm with you on tailgating for the current batch of students, but creating a buzz is critical. Shoot, the Timbers moved in and are packing the place in just a year or two. Aggressive marketing and high-visibility outreach will move the needle.

Wouldn't hurt if PSU joined the Mountain West Conference either.

 

[GreenGiant]

I was watching a PSU game on the tube last fall, there were some students that came to my house, and one of the kids asked if he could turn the Duck game on. I was more than a little surprised by this and of course gently chided him that the school he was attending was on, and they have a pretty good team. This is a cycle that can be broken, but PSU is going to have to have a string of good seasons to get it done. I talk about them every chance I get, I have already invited friends to games this season. We all are going to have to help spread the word.

 

[scooter1]

Ok - so in order for a buzz to be created at the grassroots level, we need more students talking and sharing HERE. Any idea as to how to do that ?

 

[TheTruth1]

Grassroots buzz...hmm...here goes:
1) Design and produce gear (caps, shirts, fleece, etc.) that kids will gravitate to and that are affordable. I've seen sweatshirts in the bookstore that run upwards of $60. Even with a student discount that's pretty steep. I'm thinking of U of O here, where the "O" is so iconic and their gear is cutting-edge. The "O" is everywhere. This is right up Nike's alley. If students and non-students alike see Vikings gear as cool/hip they'll want it. If enough of them are sporting PSU gear around town that alone might generate some interest. This isn't something any of us can do, but if the athletic department gets plugged in it we may see the needle move. I know a guy in the athletic department - I'll encourage him and his cohorts to sign in and check this forum - maybe we can have an impact that way?
2) Tailgating is a tough one due to limited space around Jeld Wen. Maybe Pioneer Square would be a good tie-in. There are plenty of parking garages around the Square where fans could park. Student could walk down from campus. Everyone could pre-game at the Square - it would be very visible and hopefully pull in casual fans and attract folks that aren't necessarily affiliated with PSU. Then everyone could hop on MAX and cruise to the game. This would have to be worked out with Square management.

Better get back to work, but in the meantime I'll email these ideas to my contact at the athletic department and encourage him to sign in to follow this thread.

 

[TheTruth1]

As for students plugging in to this forum, I wonder if they even know about it. The team boards I've viewed for other schools seem to attract a lot of alumni, but I don't see much in the way of student postings. Is this site linked to any official PSU websites? If not, there's an idea right there. To take it further, linking to local sports sites (1080thefan, oregonlive, thegame, etc.) would be worth looking into.

If students are going to visit this site on a regular basis, there has to be a hook; e.g. updated season schedules, tailgating info, "PSU in the news" section, etc. If it's just a bunch of us alumni chatting up the latest letter-of-intent signee, they won't stay for long.

 

[GreenGiant]

Tickets are already free to students, and they can get them easily. They make sure to give Freshmen in the dorms tickets to the first game, hoping they'll all go en mass. The trick is getting those kids to the second and third game......Winning will help, but the students from the state of Oregon are indoctrinated from an early age to either be a Duck or a Beaver there is no mention of "being a Vik". It's easy for kids to love the ducks because they are winning (right now), but back in the 70's and early 80's the only people that really cared about them were the alumni. Fortunately for them, they had one alumnus that really cared.......

I might suggest that the athletic office needs to put on a full court press to Portland Metro schools (this would cover a lot of ground cheaply) to get kids at least considering PSU not only as a great education, but a fun place to go to school too. As an example I would send Victor Viking out on Friday nights to the local high school games as kind of an "honorary mascot" of both teams or maybe at pep assemblies (if they still do that).

The kids would love the Viking hats. Maybe start a photo contest on FB of best shot of someone wearing the horns. There are plenty of ways to get creative exposure that aren't overly expensive.

 

[TheTruth1]

Just was this post on the PSU forum on oregonlive.com:

Next to impossible to get excited about big sky sports when the Pac-12 is in your midst. To be relevant in the Portland area, the big sky can be nothing more than a D-League with its very rare "upset potential." There needs to be more of this upset potential for the conference with which PSU affiliates itself in order to build a serious and sustainable fan base.

And that is why Portland State needs to go to the Mountain West. This is the B-League to the Pac-12 (A-League) with a moderate-to-real upset potential against the Pac-12 (Big Ten, SEC, ACC) depending on who is playing whom. Nevada, for example, upset the Cal Bears, Fresno State put a scare into UCLA, Colorado State beat Oregon years back, Hawaii's prospects are bright now that they've hired Norm Chow. They can recover the June Jones glory days and even go beyond.

So, for there to be serious and sustainable attendance at Jeld-Wen Field, PSU must be in the B-League of greater "upset potential" rather than in the D-League of rare upset potential. That will make them relevant to the Portland Area consumer and pique fan interest sustainably. MWC membership is the best PSU can hope for and even within it can grow into a Pac-12 quality team as a member of this second conference. That will make them relevant and that will bring out the fan base, alums in particular who are presently in anguish over the school's long delay in the D-League without due development until there was Burton.

What PSU can do now to bring out fans is to totally dominate the D-League, show that they've clearly outgrown them by beating the living daylights out of each member team they play. That will bring out the alums and even the savage-revenge crowd.

Producing a winner goes a long way toward creating the "buzz" we've been brainstorming about.

 

[scooter1]

Just was this post on the PSU forum on oregonlive.com:

Next to impossible to get excited about big sky sports when the Pac-12 is in your midst. To be relevant in the Portland area, the big sky can be nothing more than a D-League with its very rare "upset potential." There needs to be more of this upset potential for the conference with which PSU affiliates itself in order to build a serious and sustainable fan base.

And that is why Portland State needs to go to the Mountain West. This is the B-League to the Pac-12 (A-League) with a moderate-to-real upset potential against the Pac-12 (Big Ten, SEC, ACC) depending on who is playing whom. Nevada, for example, upset the Cal Bears, Fresno State put a scare into UCLA, Colorado State beat Oregon years back, Hawaii's prospects are bright now that they've hired Norm Chow. They can recover the June Jones glory days and even go beyond.

So, for there to be serious and sustainable attendance at Jeld-Wen Field, PSU must be in the B-League of greater "upset potential" rather than in the D-League of rare upset potential. That will make them relevant to the Portland Area consumer and pique fan interest sustainably. MWC membership is the best PSU can hope for and even within it can grow into a Pac-12 quality team as a member of this second conference. That will make them relevant and that will bring out the fan base, alums in particular who are presently in anguish over the school's long delay in the D-League without due development until there was Burton.

What PSU can do now to bring out fans is to totally dominate the D-League, show that they've clearly outgrown them by beating the living daylights out of each member team they play. That will bring out the alums and even the savage-revenge crowd.

Producing a winner goes a long way toward creating the "buzz" we've been brainstorming about.

This post on Oregonlive was submitted by shizzlevik , who I suspect has kind of lost his/her marbles a little bit in his/her passion for the University. The response to this by pcspounder is telling and very practical.

"You're trying to skip over a very key component of moving up... the Mountain West has to want PSU.

PSU has to prove it has the fan base and the facilities to do that. That means learning to appreciate where it is now BEFORE moving up. PSU fans have to go to Big Sky games, very likely averaging sellout numbers. Point: Texas-San Antonio draws 31,000 or so per game in their first year of football and Conference USA swoops them up. It's about the fans and the money that generates, and four-digit crowds don't inspire squat.

BTW, it probably also means building a new stadium. I can't imagine the MWC accepting PSU in a 20,000-seat stadium when almost everyone (Utah State is the exception, and not by much) has at least 30,000 capacity. They already told Idaho to make other plans. While I can imagine a second deck at JWF, I don't think it's in the plans for the near future, and PSU isn't pushing close to that anyway."

Alright then, TheTruth & GreenGiant are both on to something, let's keep these ideas moving and alive! I agree about the cost and design of the gear - love the idea of utilizing Pioneer Square / Max - I also like the idea of several hundred students walking towards the stadium with the team and then gathering at the athletic fields of Lincoln H.S. for some kind of gettin' weird party with music, etc.

Thank you folks for contributing - you CAN make a difference !

 

[TheTruth1]

We can definately make a difference - the ideas put forth in this forum are seen by PSU administration. Who knows? Maybe we'll see tailgating for PSU games at the Square in a season or two. Let's keep the ideas flowing!

 

[martymoose]

Here's my take on tailgating...

I think it was a really bad idea last year to secure the 18th and Salmon public lot for VIP parking (no tailgating) and then have a paid tailgate at the 20th and Morrison lot. Wow, I can park there and then walk all the way around the stadium and pay to tailgate? 18th and Morrison had been a pretty sweet tailgate spot for years, with other spots in the public lots east of the stadium. Last year would have been the first year that we could have just walked across the street for stadium entry, as since the PSU home side had moved to the east side. But the VIP tailgate was moved to the other side of the stadium, so last year we pretty much said screw this, and tailgated in public lots on the east side. Shorter walk, and we don't have to pay the extra 50 bucks per game, which if I recall, wasn't guaranteed a spot.

So I see that this year, the paid tailgate is now at 18th and Salmon, where the VIP was last year, with the block party on 18th and Taylor, and VIP parking on the west side lot. Also, the lot at 18th and Salmon is too small to do the one spot park, one spot tailgate. When it was just a paid city parking, you'd have to get there early for two spots, then break down prior to the game so that folks that were parking there just for the game could roll in and park. Seemed to work well. :-\

 

[scooter1]

I love your perspective Marty ! You're one of the reasons I'm so damned passionate about elevating this program to statewide relevance ! Go VIKS !

 

[scooter1]

Saw an article today in the daily rag about the Rose City Vaudeville troupe that plays around town and on last Thursdays on Alberta St. They perform a wide array of carnival acts including fire dancing, magic acts, etc. How cool would it be for PSU to adopt their acts as the centerpiece for a huge tailgater ! Check out their site - wouldn't 18-24 year old students love to be a part of this kind of pre-game party ?

http://rosecityvaudeville.com/home