I don’t know if it makes a huge difference, but Boone is a very popular weekend getaway, with the mountains, parkways, hiking, and such. Throw in football games, and I’d make it a regular trip if I had any reason to support App St. its only 3 hours from Raleigh. Plenty of cabins to rent in the area and several old roadside inns are refurbished and quite nice now.
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Miami lacks energy in the task of engaging with alumni. Several efforts in the past haven been quickly dropped for lack of interest. This has been a multi-decade problem. Lack of funding is usually cited as the problem.
The OSU’s of the world typically have the funding to keep their brand in front of their fans.
It’s a challenge for resource-constrained schools.
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It goes all the way back to when we had just two season ticket promotion billboards - outbound on 73 and outbound on 27 South. For a year or two back in the 70s or 80s we had one on I-75 N between I-275 and Springboro but it didn’t last long.
Boone is nice but so is Oxford - with Brookville Lake and Hueston Woods closeby - and it’s not a three hour drive for an enough folks to fill Yager.
And there is absolutely no reason to visit the remote cotton fields of Greeneville, NC yet there seem to be a lot of people dressed in purple and gold there on fall weekends.
We all know attendance isn’t great, and hasn’t been for awhile. What are your ideas to drive season ticket growth @NESCACDAD? Besides railing against alumni and fans in SW Ohio…
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This has always amazed me. How the hell do they get tickets since I assume one needs some affiliation to the university to buy them directly. I understand they’re getting them on the secondary market, but I can’t fathom paying 3 to 5 times face value to watch a game at a school you never attended.
@Phil04 Frankly, I don’t know. I’ve been continuously disappointed in the lack of in the seats support by SW Ohio alumni for decades now. They have created a culture of apathy. It’s basically up to them to solve the problem and change the culture.
As for me, I made it to six games - home and away - from Seattle in 1990. I made it to at least one game in Oxford almost every one of the 30 years I lived out there. Since moving to NC in 2008, ive been to several games in Oxford and to Michigan, WKU, Notre Dame, OSU, Army, Minnesota and the bowl game in Mobile. Last year I made Miami, UMass, Ohio, the MACC and the Cure Bowl.
I have a hotel reservation in Oxford for the Ohio game this fall. I’m almost 75 years old.
I don’t have a lot of sympathy for those in SW Ohio who think it’s too hard to get to Oxford and think others hold the answers to the attendance problem. They need to solve that problem themselves.
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I disagree with this:
I’d say NC just cares more about FB than OH.
Now if you said G5 football, then I would agree. But football in general, no way, at any level, high school, college, or pros.
If you asked me what the best win in the history of North Carolina college football is, it would be App State over Michigan, not any of the other Power 5 schools.
We shouldn’t have this problem economically.
This has to be a marketing and engagement of the alums by MU that is lacking like you state.
Hmmm…… Where is OSU?
This assumption would be wrong, as some single game tickets have always been held back for the general public. In fact, after some recent reforms to the season ticketing structure, you don’t even need to donate to the athletic fund to get season tickets any more.
Is it easier to get tickets if you’re an alum or donor? Certainly. But OSU has long made sure that sidewalk fans have a shot at getting in the door.
Miami needs to figure out how to make going to the game an event. Specifically, miami needs to figure out how to install other things to do down at Yager. All these professional sports teams are creating mixed use (retail, housing, etc.) in close proximity. I think Miami needs to find a way to adapt that trend for Millett, Yager. Maybe that hotel is the first step…
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I’ve found game day atmosphere, scheduling (time and opponents), and pre-game enticements/facilities to be greatly lacking for a long time for FB and MBB. There have been efforts through the years, I guess, but nothing that makes you think serious D-1 athletics imo. And if the teams aren’t very good? Forget about it—you’re not attracting any casuals.
Miami needs to invest in marketing and game days (along with facilities eventually) across both sports to have a chance to make any strides with attendance. Or just win every game and make people come 
Odd they don’t have mini packages that exclude the weeknight games.
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Indeed, where is OSU?
Ohio State. 600,000 living alumni
Miami 220,000 living alumni
Miami’s numbers look even better when considering the number of graduates from each school.
Here are the living alumni for the other public schools in the top 20 ultra-wealthy alumni report referenced above,
Texas 570,000
UCLA 476,000
Michigan. 640,000
UVA. 250,000
As a percentage of alumni, Miami slightly edges out UVA for the top spot for ultra wealthy alums in public schools on that list.
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3:30pm kick offs suck. This crap of “Well, we have to wait for the noon games to end so people can watch Miami” needs to end. Kick it at 1pm and get things going.
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We play at 3:30 because that’s when ESPN will televise us.
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Personally I love 3:30 KO coming from CST and preferring to stay in Oxford the night after the game rather than Friday (5+hr drive). Provides reasonable travel and tailgate time plus dinner after uptown to catch late games.
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I’m gonna disagree. Ohio and other MAC schools had their ESPN+ games broadcast from their respective home stadiums at kickoff times other than 12:00pm or 3:30pm on Saturdays
Streaming should be able to start when the school wants to start. To say ESPN is telling Miami “you wait” doesn’t help get people to/from the game.
And as a fan who went to 2 home games last year, both at 3:30pm Saturday start, the number of fans leaving at halftime (roughly 5pm) for dinner is really big. If Miami wants to keep fans in the stands, then don’t have a halftime that coincides with dinner plans Uptown or elsewhere. I know, there’s food at the games and beer as well. But if folks want to have a sit down dinner at a restaurant and not at a football game, it’s their choice.
Of course, if ESPN has it in their #MACtion contract that they own Miami’s kickoff times, and nobody else’s, on streaming, then that’s that.
He who has the money (ESPN, in the MAC’s case) tells the schools when they will play…and, frankly, they pretty much set the conference payoff. Negotiation of these items is really comical.
If we’re being real the students aren’t leaving for food. They’re leaving to nap, get ready, and pregame before heading out
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