Stadium expansion and 2015 opener?

Charlotte 49er Football 🏈
61

[quote=“Niner National, post:59, topic:28757”][quote=“s9er, post:58, topic:28757”][quote=“Niner National, post:56, topic:28757”][quote=“s9er, post:55, topic:28757”][quote=“NewNiner, post:54, topic:28757”][quote=“s9er, post:53, topic:28757”][quote=“CharSFNiners, post:50, topic:28757”][quote=“s9er, post:48, topic:28757”][quote=“cibik02, post:47, topic:28757”]In what scenario or time frame could we almost fill a 40k stadium? Playing an acc or sec school that travels really well? Being ranked? Maybe in 20 years after students are cycled in and out as students and become alums?

Maybe I’m not seeing the big picture but I think filling 40k stadium to niners game is almost unrealistic. Unless we start having huge bcs success of course. I hope I’m wrong, would be cool to see a 40k+ sold out stadium.[/quote]

With an enrollment of 26K+, and a local alumni base of nearly 100K its not a crazy concept. Winning is the answer.

P.S… I’m glad you weren’t responsible for the football sales pitch to the UNC system board.[/quote]

Yea, but with all that you stated above we can’t even fill a 9,500 seat Halton. I know they’re two different sports, but our AD hasn’t exactly made strong pitches to potential donors and ticket buyers.[/quote]

Our basketball program is a dumpster fire… If we win, there will be asses in seats… Football is a different animal all together as far as butts in seats goes.[/quote]

Not to mention the tailgating/social aspect[/quote]

I went to zero basketball games this year, but made sure to hit every football game… Football is an event, basketball is a game.[/quote]People like to say this, but evidence all across the country proves that if you suck, it doesn’t matter how much of an event it is, people stop going.[/quote]

Not sure how you missed my point… but you did[/quote]Your point was that people go to football games because it is an event.

My counter point was that there is abundant evidence at other schools to prove that is bullshit.

Talk to me when the football team has gone 10 years without a bowl game. We’ll see how many games you’re going to at that point.[/quote]

Read my initial post ya big dummy.

And forfucksake, stuff “talk to me when the football team has gone 10 years with out a bowl game” garbage up your ass please.

Football is more of an event… if you dispute that you are either lying to save your argument or are completely blind.

62

Football programs routinely have more people at their spring football practice “game” than they can even seat in their basketball arena. Just look at our turnout last weekend for a second year program still playing 1AA.

63

The bottom line is always winning. The big thing with football is you don’t have to make bowl games and play in championships to make people want to come to games. You just have to win more than you lose fairly often and then deliver a kickass environment. You can’t go 0-20 and expect the event to carry the day, but attendance at football is far less dependent on winning and post season than basketball is. Like I said we don’t have to be world beaters, just have to win enough to keep spirits high. Even our basketball program attendance shows this - a little bit of success a decade ago is finally wearing off. Make games fun to go to, have donors that want to support the school and attendance is fine. Only prolonged excessive losing becomes a negative draw. In basketball that really means multiple years of no NCAAs (which we are seeing now) and in football it means multiple years of 0-4 wins.

All of this talk is wasted though if we can’t increase the number of our alums that are engaged and supportive of our athletic programs.

64

[quote=“NinerWupAss, post:63, topic:28757”]The bottom line is always winning. The big thing with football is you don’t have to make bowl games and play in championships to make people want to come to games. You just have to win more than you lose fairly often and then deliver a kickass environment. You can’t go 0-20 and expect the event to carry the day, but attendance at football is far less dependent on winning and post season than basketball is. Like I said we don’t have to be world beaters, just have to win enough to keep spirits high. Even our basketball program attendance shows this - a little bit of success a decade ago is finally wearing off. Make games fun to go to, have donors that want to support the school and attendance is fine. Only prolonged excessive losing becomes a negative draw. In basketball that really means multiple years of no NCAAs (which we are seeing now) and in football it means multiple years of 0-4 wins.

All of this talk is wasted though if we can’t increase the number of our alums that are engaged and supportive of our athletic programs.[/quote]

Yep, We have about 5k FSL owners who are fully invested in the program. We will probably have 5k seats for students. The key is selling season tickets to the other 5k or however many we expand to.

That being said, I have yet to see any marketing of season tickets for the fall.

65

We actually have definitive evidence of this discussion almost in our backyard. South Carolina SUCKED for decades in football (omg how many losing seasons in the SEC East before Spurrier?), but that stadium was full because every game was an event and tailgating is so much fun. The administration and the alumni clubs worked together to make it that way. They make those games very fan friendly events.

66

[quote=“Mr. Bojangles, post:64, topic:28757”][quote=“NinerWupAss, post:63, topic:28757”]The bottom line is always winning. The big thing with football is you don’t have to make bowl games and play in championships to make people want to come to games. You just have to win more than you lose fairly often and then deliver a kickass environment. You can’t go 0-20 and expect the event to carry the day, but attendance at football is far less dependent on winning and post season than basketball is. Like I said we don’t have to be world beaters, just have to win enough to keep spirits high. Even our basketball program attendance shows this - a little bit of success a decade ago is finally wearing off. Make games fun to go to, have donors that want to support the school and attendance is fine. Only prolonged excessive losing becomes a negative draw. In basketball that really means multiple years of no NCAAs (which we are seeing now) and in football it means multiple years of 0-4 wins.

All of this talk is wasted though if we can’t increase the number of our alums that are engaged and supportive of our athletic programs.[/quote]

Yep, We have about 5k FSL owners who are fully invested in the program. We will probably have 5k seats for students. The key is selling season tickets to the other 5k or however many we expand to.

That being said, I have yet to see any marketing of season tickets for the fall.[/quote]

The competence of the Athletic Department and the potential for football need to be seperated for the sake of future arguments… This AD couldn’t market an event where we are selling 100 dollar Visa Gift cards for 10 bucks. Hopefully we get people with a clue sooner rather than later. A strong marketing approach in addition to a program that has a good product on the field… getting asses in seats in’t that far fetched.

67

We actually have definitive evidence of this discussion almost in our backyard. South Carolina SUCKED for decades in football (omg how many losing seasons in the SEC East before Spurrier?), but that stadium was full because every game was an event and tailgating is so much fun. The administration and the alumni clubs worked together to make it that way. They make those games very fan friendly events.[/quote]It could also have helped that big name SEC programs were coming to town.

68

clt says we had over 9k at our spring game, more than appy and Duke.

69

Yes, but they got routinely drilled by those same programs. I was on hand to watch Tennessee embarass them. I wouldn’t go so far as to say they didn’t care, but “FOOTBALL!!”, ya know?

70

We actually have definitive evidence of this discussion almost in our backyard. South Carolina SUCKED for decades in football (omg how many losing seasons in the SEC East before Spurrier?), but that stadium was full because every game was an event and tailgating is so much fun. The administration and the alumni clubs worked together to make it that way. They make those games very fan friendly events.[/quote]It could also have helped that big name SEC programs were coming to town.[/quote]

I don’t think that’s a huge deal really… I’ve been to games when SC was garbage and they played equally garbage Kentucky or Vandy and the crowds were fantastic. Despite the game not meaning squat to either team.

71

[quote=“cltniners, post:68, topic:28757”]clt says we had over 9k at our spring game, more than appy and Duke.[/quote]To be fair, Apps was on a Friday. Not sure who made that decision, but seems like a poor one. Can’t imagine many people are going to take off work to drive up to Boone to watch a practice.

72

Must have had a volleyball game on Saturday.

73

We actually have definitive evidence of this discussion almost in our backyard. South Carolina SUCKED for decades in football (omg how many losing seasons in the SEC East before Spurrier?), but that stadium was full because every game was an event and tailgating is so much fun. The administration and the alumni clubs worked together to make it that way. They make those games very fan friendly events.[/quote]It could also have helped that big name SEC programs were coming to town.[/quote]

They didn’t join the SEC until 1992. Williams Brice has had over 50,000 seats since the early 70s, the school only has 2 conference championships - the last being the ACC in 1969 and didn’t win a bowl game until 1994. Between 1988 and 2001 they went to 1 bowl game. As NA mentioned they were also garbage for many years… none of that mattered to the USC faithful - who like ECU came out and support their team game after game, year after year. If we expect to expand our stadium and put people in it we have to work on our fanbase which means the marketing and tools we use to capture our students and young alumni must change.

74

He referenced the SEC East.

75

I was just demonstrating his point that USC has been able to have amazing football support without really having the amazing success you would imagine it would required to have that support. Just happened to quote you as part of the discussion.

76

But but but they are a football school.

77

we are in a metro area of a million people. We have 100-120k alumni, many of them in the area.

We are approaching 30k students with an on-campus facility.

It doesn’t take much of a pulse to get 25k to a game here if done right.

Yes winning matters. I’ll agree it is #1, but the list of items after that are much closer in line than other sports.

78

I think 25-30k is about where we should be in about ten years. It’s a reasonable goal considering the level of competition and opponents we’re likely to be playing at home.

I hope we’re not destined for a UAB-type football future. That would be dreadful. I know, different situation.

79

We actually have definitive evidence of this discussion almost in our backyard. South Carolina SUCKED for decades in football (omg how many losing seasons in the SEC East before Spurrier?), but that stadium was full because every game was an event and tailgating is so much fun. The administration and the alumni clubs worked together to make it that way. They make those games very fan friendly events.[/quote]It could also have helped that big name SEC programs were coming to town.[/quote]

They didn’t join the SEC until 1992. Williams Brice has had over 50,000 seats since the early 70s, the school only has 2 conference championships - the last being the ACC in 1969 and didn’t win a bowl game until 1994. Between 1988 and 2001 they went to 1 bowl game. As NA mentioned they were also garbage for many years… none of that mattered to the USC faithful - who like ECU came out and support their team game after game, year after year. If we expect to expand our stadium and put people in it we have to work on our fanbase which means the marketing and tools we use to capture our students and young alumni must change.[/quote]

^^^^ This is what I was alluding too. We can win, we can lose, we can sit in the middle, but this is what’s going to be the biggest prognosticator of our success. We had a pretty damn good atmosphere last year, but if we go 3-9 and 2-10 in back to back years, the marketing needs to step it up, and the environment needs to pick up where the team may not. I don’t have faith that our AD can pull that off.

Hell, if it wasn’t our first season ever last year, but say our 15th, would the atmosphere have been acceptable to some on here? I’m sure there’d be some unhappy with that.

80

[quote=“ninerID, post:77, topic:28757”]we are in a metro area of a million people. We have 100-120k alumni, many of them in the area.

We are approaching 30k students with an on-campus facility.

It doesn’t take much of a pulse to get 25k to a game here if done right.

Yes winning matters. I’ll agree it is #1, but the list of items after that are much closer in line than other sports.[/quote]

Metro area of 1 million? If I’m not mistaken, the city of Charlotte alone is not far from 1 million. I’m pretty sure Charlotte Metro is now between 2 and 2.5 million (I think new census figures for the metro area were just announced a week or 2 ago).

This makes some of NinerID’s statements “doubly true”. Considering the size of the city/metro area/school/alumni base, if we cannot get 25,000 in a stadium on a Saturday afternoon for a FBS football game, we have problems. Personally, I think a game against ECU (which now won’t happen for a while) or App has potential to easily draw 30-40k, even if the game was to be played next year before we have established our football fan base (yes, I know they are not on next year’s schedule).

Most of us have been around this area long enough to know a big event in Charlotte is a HUGE EVENT, and a not-so-big event in Charlotte has potential to be a TINY EVENT. That will be the key, along with winning some games.