So we're having five home games broadcast live to the Tidewater area. I like the idea of increased exposure, and I hate to be a nay-sayer, but how does this help improve attendance at Kaplan?

Why would anyone in the Norfolk/Portsmouth/Va Beach/Chesapeake area that's NOT connected to the school or team decide to fight traffic, weather, etc., when they can enjoy the game on 4K HDTV in the comfort of their own home, not to mention the mediocre (at best) game day experience?

What am I missing?

https://tribeathletics.com/news/2018/11/...n-cox.aspx

(11-26-2018 11:48 AM)ScottyB757 Wrote:  So we're having five home games broadcast live to the Tidewater area. I like the idea of increased exposure, and I hate to be a nay-sayer, but how does this help improve attendance at Kaplan?

Why would anyone in the Norfolk/Portsmouth/Va Beach/Chesapeake area that's NOT connected to the school or team decide to fight traffic, weather, etc., when they can enjoy the game on 4K HDTV in the comfort of their own home, not to mention the mediocre (at best) game day experience?

What am I missing?

https://tribeathletics.com/news/2018/11/...n-cox.aspx

Methinks that you have found the dark side of a bright cloud.

Seems like every year, we cannot seem to get game stats put up on the board until a few games into the season... and this season is no different. Since getting Verizon service inside the Hall is nearly impossible, there is literally no way to know any stats on the game until you walk out of the Hall and tune in the postgame show.

For the High Point and Radford games, we at least got player photos during the game. Nothing but advertisements visible on the scoreboard during the St. Joe's game.

(11-26-2018 11:59 AM)LeadBolt Wrote:  

(11-26-2018 11:48 AM)ScottyB757 Wrote:  So we're having five home games broadcast live to the Tidewater area. I like the idea of increased exposure, and I hate to be a nay-sayer, but how does this help improve attendance at Kaplan?

Why would anyone in the Norfolk/Portsmouth/Va Beach/Chesapeake area that's NOT connected to the school or team decide to fight traffic, weather, etc., when they can enjoy the game on 4K HDTV in the comfort of their own home, not to mention the mediocre (at best) game day experience?

What am I missing?

https://tribeathletics.com/news/2018/11/...n-cox.aspx

Methinks that you have found the dark side of a bright cloud.

Well, it IS a back-to-work Monday after a five-day holiday break.

We have tons of alums who live from Richmond to VA Beach and even more who came home there for the holidays. Forget students, forget local HSers, whatever. This game should have been marketed hard to alumni. A kind of "Home for the Holidays" game. Nice afternoon start time, big name opponent, Saturday after a major holiday. I just remarked to my wife that family holidays are always better when there are scheduled events to do as a group outside of just the meals. This game could and should have been that scheduled event. It all starts with better marketing to increase awareness with our own alumni group.

I bought extra tickets for out of town family who had planned to go to the game, but they had to back out at the last minute. I was actually glad they didn't come when I got to Kaplan and saw the small crowd and lack of energy which would have been disappointing, though it was a great game regarding outcome.

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(11-26-2018 01:47 PM)Tribeheart Wrote:  I bought extra tickets for out of town family who had planned to go to the game, but they had to back out at the last minute. I was actually glad they didn't come when I got to Kaplan and saw the small crowd and lack of energy which would have been disappointing, though it was a great game regarding outcome.

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Yawn

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(11-26-2018 09:08 AM)mrjoolius Wrote:  Not sure if this is standard with schools at our level, but I found this link for Towson. It wouldn't surprise me if vcu/gmu have similar arrangements.
https://www.towsonbands.com/newsite/marc...olarships/

Didn't look like it breaks the bank and has attendance incintives. I like that payment builds with years of participation. Over the years, it could build to where there are so many participants that they would have to pick and choose games they can play.
IMO, A regular full marching band and pep band at every football and basketball game would go along way to establishing gameday atmosphere.

I think this is a great idea. The only problem would be that the Pep Band has a culture where people definitely love being able to not care about attendance too much. That also makes the reformation of a marching band a secondary goal (with some members opposed). However, the performance at every football halftime this year, with the exception of the last game to allow for Jimmye's send off, and the creation of a color guard may point in that direction. A marching band would pretty much require some academic credit though, and having students rather than faculty run the band is very important. With a very busy/academic/stressed student body, it was really nice to be able to skip a game the day before a big test without having to worry. On that note, I'd say a per-game payment would be ideal.

Cutting your break five days short is a big ask. Cutting your break five days short to get $100 on the other hand...

And paying per game is getting to be standard among any school that wants a serious pep band at their basketball games.

(11-26-2018 01:37 PM)zablenoise Wrote:  We have tons of alums who live from Richmond to VA Beach and even more who came home there for the holidays. Forget students, forget local HSers, whatever. This game should have been marketed hard to alumni. A kind of "Home for the Holidays" game. Nice afternoon start time, big name opponent, Saturday after a major holiday. I just remarked to my wife that family holidays are always better when there are scheduled events to do as a group outside of just the meals. This game could and should have been that scheduled event. It all starts with better marketing to increase awareness with our own alumni group.

+ 1

(11-26-2018 08:49 AM)Tribeheart Wrote:  Maybe some of the Pep Band folks know what VCU does for their Peppa members to get the commitment they get. It makes a big difference in game atmosphere. The Pep Band members are important.

the answer, as has been hinted at with Towson, is that many schools pay their Pep Band members. Many also have a director (see: VCU's director was getting paid $35,000), but a director is not required. If you dumped that director salary into the W&M Pep Band in terms of attendance incentives, you would see a whole different band.

2017WithPep Wrote:I think this is a great idea. The only problem would be that the Pep Band has a culture where people definitely love being able to not care about attendance too much. That also makes the reformation of a marching band a secondary goal (with some members opposed). However, the performance at every football halftime this year, with the exception of the last game to allow for Jimmye's send off, and the creation of a color guard may point in that direction. A marching band would pretty much require some academic credit though, and having students rather than faculty run the band is very important. With a very busy/academic/stressed student body, it was really nice to be able to skip a game the day before a big test without having to worry. On that note, I'd say a per-game payment would be ideal.

The per game payment would keep some of the student flexibility, but also reward attendance. It could also change the culture some in that if you are getting paid, there are some expectations (perhaps you commit to X games or whatever). It would also increase the student demand to be part of the Pep Band, which would be a positive (and you could incentivize differently for different instruments, if desired). I sat through a bunch of men's and women's basketball games that were awful experiences because the teams won 4 games all year, and I don't blame other Pep Band members for passing on those riveting opportunities.

Did they really get 4 halftimes this year? that is awesome.

nj alum Wrote:5) Three cheerleaders attended the game. How can they do it, but members of the pep band can't?

Three cheerleaders can accomplish their goal (somewhat). Three Pep Band members are useless. They can play "boom boom crash" after made FTs, and that's it.

Maybe the answer is that the three cheerleaders are needed for the 10 second dribble promotion at one of the breaks.

Three pep band members with a microphone can do wonders!

The three cheerleaders, I would put forth, either live in the Tidewater area or didn't go home for
Thanksgiving.

All interesting theories on what was a great game and great win. Clearly doing anything they can to try and get people interested in the team and willing to come to more home games is a good idea. Right now, bottom line is that people choose to do other things that weekend. If you travel away from Williamsburg or do not travel toward Williamsburg you are unavailable for that game. While the team also started 1-4, it is not always about the winning product that weekend either. The football team had a Thanksgiving weekend playoff game in 2009(that year there was not yet the expanded field) and 2015. Attendance at both games was massively lower than during the season. If the students or band members happen to be in school(i.e not able to go home for Thanksgiving , then great). But asking them to stay when they have a chance to spend that weekend with their families before the beginning of the big exam crunch is going to be met with a "no thanks". Market the game, get a good opponent, do what you can, but the attendance is not going to be 5,000 to 6,000. The attendance for the ODU game was higher last year because ODU fans showed up too. BTW, the attendance for the UVA games in the Battle for Atlantis was not high either. Holiday tournaments and games are a nice option for the teams and the fans that can go, but are not always huge attendance makers. I know of a lot of us from my area that are going to the UVA game 12/22, but I will not be surprised to see UVA attendance much lower for that game as well. There are a few times of the year where fans choose something other than basketball or football. Christmas and Thanksgiving are the 2 primary times where that occurs. For those who attended the last 2 Thanksgiving Saturdays, they got a special holiday treat. But angst over the attendance during this period is a 20-30 year problem without a good immediate solution. Finally, there are some fans who do not begin to pay attention to basketball until after football is over.

(11-27-2018 09:39 PM)nj alum Wrote:  Three pep band members with a microphone can do wonders!

It's not just a volume issue - it's also an instrumentation issue.

The band is supposed to have flutes, clarinets, trumpets, sousaphones, euphoniums, snare drums, tenor drums, bass drums, a conductor, and preferably more. Now imagine you get to pick any three. And god forbid two of those people play the same instrument! As much as I'd love to listen to two mic-ed up flutes and a snare drum, that might be an issue...

On top of that, not every instrument is always playing, so if there is a ten second part with only clarinets and trumpets, and you don't have either of those, you have ten seconds of dead silence in the middle of your song. One of the three would need to conduct, of course.

We'd probably need 15 members there to be confident that everything is covered. This conversation should probably end up in a different thread, but I endorse the idea of payment per game attended.

So the four person wedding dance band, with a microphone, won't cut it?

This discussion has not so slowly ground to a senseless halt.