(03-08-2017 10:06 AM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote:  

(03-08-2017 09:31 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(03-07-2017 02:35 PM)ericsaid Wrote:  

(03-07-2017 01:38 PM)CoastalAlum2011 Wrote:  

(03-06-2017 10:52 PM)SENOREIDA Wrote:  38,000 Seats, 100 Teeth, and 5 Last Names. Football Saturdays in Huntington, WV

POI: We are expanding the stadium to over 21,000

Yea. I love when people mention our "9k seat stadium" and conveniently leave out the fact that next week we have a ground breaking ceremony to expand it to over 21k.

I guess people just spew whatever fits their narrative.

I don't think the question with Coastal is whether they can get their stadium to capacity, the question is can it be filled. With Clemson and USC entrenched pretty much across the state, can Coastal get an additional 11,000 fans to come six Saturday's a year? Based on the way Myrtle Beach looks in the off-season, it's hard to tell if the population there will do it.

Personally, I would like to see Myrtle Beach/Horry County invest in attracting permanent businesses there rather than almost exclusively be an area reliant on tourism.

Clemson is a four hour drive, South Carolina is a two hour drive.
The average Joe fan with no direct tie to one of the schools is the market.

Within 40 miles of Conway, SC there are 408,000 people and they are all closer to Coastal than the Gamecocks and Tigers. That same radius of Jonesboro the population is 245,000 people.

Coastal can build a local driven program. Will they? That's the great unknown but they have ample population in an area where local TV can't dash over to the local P5 and get interviews and practice video on a regular basis. Work the local media and Coastal will be fine.

Coastal is dealing with a lot of the same issues that GS has had to deal with: competing with state ACC and SEC schools for fans. As any GS fan can tell you, proximity and population have nothing to do with it. We as G5 schools have to carve out a niche audience of alums and locals which takes a long time to do. That's why GS and App don't have attendance problems compared to Ga State and USA. As far as growing their fanbase and getting them excited, Coastal winning a baseball championship was a homerun (no pun intended) and now they need to channel that momentum into football in order to be successful. It all comes down to the product you put on the field and the atmosphere you create at games. That's what drives ticket sales and fills stadiums. Never in the history of college football has an SEC fan said "hmm I'm closer to this school so I'm going to cheer for them instead now." It doesn't work like that.

Walmart fans will go see a show. Convince them there is a nice reasonably priced day of tailgating and visiting and a decent game to watch, they can be brought in.

AState attendance began growing and the season ticket base started growing before we were fielding good teams.

We spent years marketing tailgating, socializing and reasonably priced entertainment. That started paying off.