Attendance & Crowd at the Tub

[Henway]

Basically she was charged with dragging small time Delaware into the 21st century, where you had to pay for the privilege of being a season ticket holder. She never tried to understand the fanbase of the U of D, and remember this was under the lovely leadership of Harker. Many wonderful people who never attended the University but supported the teams were turned off and gave up their tickets. A classic business school lesson on how to not read your audience. A Wharton School of Business mistake.....

[Double G]

Scarlett left UD and moved on to Penn and has been at George Washington in the same capacity for the last dozen years I understand. I know of plenty of friends she sent packing from their season tickets but in reality many of our peers already had the same type of programs in place. How many FBS schools would really allow non major donors or even mini donors to have the best seats in the house? William & Mary has had the same setup she promoted for decades I'm told.

[93BlueHen]

Scarlett left UD and moved on to Penn and has been at George Washington in the same capacity for the last dozen years I understand. I know of plenty of friends she sent packing from their season tickets but in reality many of our peers already had the same type of programs in place. How many FBS schools would really allow non major donors to have the best seats in the house? William & Mary has had the same setup she promoted for decades I'm told.

The problem was, longtime fans were abruptly extorted for additional funds while being provided nothing in return (no move up, no chairbacks or stadium club, no new scoreboard, no nothing). It's OK to ask for more, but you have to offer some consideration for reaching deeper into pockets. The timing was just all wrong. Doing it two years ago with the stadium renovation and WAC would have made more sense. I'm sure we'll be asked for more for FBS, and the University must make their moves carefully, because they already drove away most of their fanbase once. Being too heavy handed again could spell disaster.

[bluehenbillk]

Scarlett left UD and moved on to Penn and has been at George Washington in the same capacity for the last dozen years I understand. I know of plenty of friends she sent packing from their season tickets but in reality many of our peers already had the same type of programs in place. How many FBS schools would really allow non major donors to have the best seats in the house? William & Mary has had the same setup she promoted for decades I'm told.

The problem was, longtime fans were abruptly extorted for additional funds while being provided nothing in return (no move up, no chairbacks or stadium club, no new scoreboard, no nothing). It's OK to ask for more, but you have to offer some consideration for reaching deeper into pockets.

93 hits it on the head. If they would’ve coupled this effort with a move to FBS like there is now the attendance exodus would’ve never happened. Those that still would’ve walked would’ve been replaced by new STH’s or existing accounts adding seats. But they wanted something for nothing.

[Gannonfan]

Scarlett left UD and moved on to Penn and has been at George Washington in the same capacity for the last dozen years I understand. I know of plenty of friends she sent packing from their season tickets but in reality many of our peers already had the same type of programs in place. How many FBS schools would really allow non major donors to have the best seats in the house? William & Mary has had the same setup she promoted for decades I'm told.

The problem was, longtime fans were abruptly extorted for additional funds while being provided nothing in return (no move up, no chairbacks or stadium club, no new scoreboard, no nothing). It's OK to ask for more, but you have to offer some consideration for reaching deeper into pockets.

Yup, there was and is nothing wrong with establishing the donor base - it's a requirement in this environment of college sports anyway. But you have to bring people into it, and preferably give them something for it. Just ramping up prices, calling the season ticket base decades-long freeloaders, and doing zero upgrades just didn't work. Shocking.

[Cluck U]

Scarlett left UD and moved on to Penn and has been at George Washington in the same capacity for the last dozen years I understand. I know of plenty of friends she sent packing from their season tickets but in reality many of our peers already had the same type of programs in place. How many FBS schools would really allow non major donors to have the best seats in the house? William & Mary has had the same setup she promoted for decades I'm told.

The problem was, longtime fans were abruptly extorted for additional funds while being provided nothing in return (no move up, no chairbacks or stadium club, no new scoreboard, no nothing). It's OK to ask for more, but you have to offer some consideration for reaching deeper into pockets.

‘93…thank you for stating the obvious. Sometimes things need to be banged into people’s heads.

A sudden large jump in prices…with the announcement that it will support wealthy girls’ hula-hoops and wealthy boys’ nose picking contests, without any benefit to those blue collar folks being asked to pay, was never a good idea.

Scarlett came to a Huddles meeting and stunned everyone by saying that UD was just doing what the SEC schools did. What a complete buffoon.

It always amazes me what some upper crust clown bureaucrat will justify in order to spend other people’s money. Why don’t you poors understand that this is the way it is done…we use your money to pay for our fun!

Out of touch leadership. They destroyed a great football fan base.

[Caribbean Hen]

Basically she was charged with dragging small time Delaware into the 21st century, where you had to pay for the privilege of being a season ticket holder. She never tried to understand the fanbase of the U of D, and remember this was under the lovely leadership of Harker. Many wonderful people who never attended the University but supported the teams were turned off and gave up their tickets. A classic business school lesson on how to not read your audience. A Wharton School of Business mistake.....

Thank you for the refresher Henway, it sounds like you’re response was very appropriate

Frankly my dear Scarlett

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[udsb97]

The wonderful people, and many I know very well, were also super financially tight and super set in their ways. Unfortunately this board is not a microcosm of the local community. The news of the anticipated USA move and new construction will not move a great deal of locals away from the high school scene or even in place or addition to the up the road Eagles money grab on Sundays. I hour driving alumni might show up for an extra game if the new opponent sounds more exciting then Hampton or Campbell . I just don't see the public storming back into the Tub.

Personally I'm excited because of the upgrade but our base is not a JMU base and never will be unfortunately.

[93BlueHen]

The wonderful people, and many I know very well, were also super financially tight and super set in their ways. Unfortunately this board is not a microcosm of the local community. The news of the anticipated USA move and new construction will not move a great deal of locals away from the high school scene or even in place or addition to the up the road Eagles money grab on Sundays. I hour driving alumni might show up for an extra game if the new opponent sounds more exciting then Hampton or Campbell . I just don't see the public storming back into the Tub.

Personally I'm excited because of the upgrade but our base is not a JMU base and never will be unfortunately.

Winning cures all.

[Gannonfan]

The wonderful people, and many I know very well, were also super financially tight and super set in their ways. Unfortunately this board is not a microcosm of the local community. The news of the anticipated USA move and new construction will not move a great deal of locals away from the high school scene or even in place or addition to the up the road Eagles money grab on Sundays. I hour driving alumni might show up for an extra game if the new opponent sounds more exciting then Hampton or Campbell . I just don't see the public storming back into the Tub.

Personally I'm excited because of the upgrade but our base is not a JMU base and never will be unfortunately.

We've had years for quite a while where we averaged over 20k fans. We had 17k people just this year for the nova game, a big game with a somewhat name opponent when the team was doing well. All that with the same "high school scene" and the Eagles existing. The problem is staying put would never, ever grow the fanbase. Going FBS isn't going to automatically bring in fans, but continued success, and bringing in decent opposition and yes, that can and likely will increase fan turnout. How much? We'll see, but it will be better than sitting on our hands and doing nothing while Bryant, NC A&T, Campbell, and others come to town.

[bluehenbillk]

Personally I'm excited because of the upgrade but our base is not a JMU base and never will be unfortunately.

Interesting comparison. Having been a lifelong UD fan that spent a bunch of time in Harrisonburg this fall I believe that UD’s fanbase was bigger than what JMU is now. I think JMU does way better in student attendance (even though 60% leave at half and 75% by the end of the 3q) than UD. And the average JMU fan seems more likely to donate than the average UD fan.

[Hens79]

Scarlett left UD and moved on to Penn and has been at George Washington in the same capacity for the last dozen years I understand. I know of plenty of friends she sent packing from their season tickets but in reality many of our peers already had the same type of programs in place. How many FBS schools would really allow non major donors to have the best seats in the house? William & Mary has had the same setup she promoted for decades I'm told.

The problem was, longtime fans were abruptly extorted for additional funds while being provided nothing in return (no move up, no chairbacks or stadium club, no new scoreboard, no nothing). It's OK to ask for more, but you have to offer some consideration for reaching deeper into pockets.

93 hits it on the head. If they would’ve coupled this effort with a move to FBS like there is now the attendance exodus would’ve never happened. Those that still would’ve walked would’ve been replaced by new STH’s or existing accounts adding seats. But they wanted something for nothing.

All of the above. And on top of wanting something for nothing, they lied to us, or at least were more than disingenuous about stadium upgrades. A cluster if ever there was one.

Where would the Hens be now if they had used Flacco-mania and the 2007 season to propel UD into the future?

Oh well …. Better late than never. Thrilled it is happening in my lifetime.