I have been pretty depressed about our low attendance yesterday. Full disclosure my tickets were unused as i only make a few home games being 4 hours away.
But yesterday BG and Ohio had plus 20k- Toledo 18k. Umass 15k and Ball state 12k. We had 7k. This isnt just a student attendance problem
There are a lot of things working against us - problems we have always had like location- problems that are new like the portal and UC joining the Big 12 - but I wanted to get some thoughts
Here are some things that I think
Ticket prices need more stratification and the cheapest tickets are too high. $33 for EMU. UCs cheapest ticket is $45 and they are playing a big 12 schedule. When the bball gives free tickets people come. We need a cheap option
Game day operations is lame. We have a nice scoreboard but it does almost nothing. We need an in game host. Save the introductions of the field hockey team or parent of the year for halftime. Tell the band to play more and louder.
add big incentives to Coach Martins contract for power 4 wins. Why would anyone casual fan who watched our Wisconsin game want to see us play. It was boring and unimaginative- he doesnt care about the power 4 games I know- but we drew 3k less for EMU than Lindenwood. Our fans dont value most MAC opponents
I know we have only been talking about this for 50’years but it seems worse than ever to me
I particularly liked the band blasting away in the second half when Miami had the ball and was driving. Nothing like making it difficult for your own team to hear the play call. I wasn’t the only one in the stands who noticed this and a couple fans turned and said something to the band. Play in the stands but do it when the opponent has the ball!
I like your point about incentives for beating P4 teams. And, as we’ve seen as the season has played out, Wisconsin is not a good team by any stretch of the imagination.
Miami has some really unique challenges and had totally failed at trying to tackle them.
Most other MAC schools have a strong community connection. OU is very important to many in SE Ohio. Toledo and BG have community support. OSU still reigns supreme over all but they have local pride and draw.
Miami is in this weird no man’s land where no locals in SW Ohio really care about them. The Cincy burbs care more about OSU, UC and X while the Dayton burbs are OSU and UD country. I don’t think Oxford or Hamilton locals care much at all. Certainly gets zero buzz just over the border in Richmond.
Instead of throwing their hands up. The administration should hire a firm to fix their branding. It’s one reason Miami is an after thought.
Fix the in game experience to make local alumni want to make the trip. Professional in game DJ, and an MC to keep students/fans interested. Use more fireworks and let motorcycles lead the team out on the field. Hell, give out free beers to 21+ students! Just brain storming…
Also, schedule better OOC and consider trying to jump to a better conference. Bringing in MAC opponents is part of the problem. Most people in Ohio/Indiana can drive the same distance and watch P4 teams with a more fun in game experience…
Another thing I would bring up related to marketing is the radio/tv side. The radio situation is ok with 980 and 1450 - it could and has been better in the past. I would call it mac level. But having a coaches show on facebook live is totally high school ish. I love the show but generally I am one of 10 viewers and the sound quality is iffy and the highlight show on the website is hit or miss (i know Bake had an accident). Akron has their coaches show on fanduel up here - i am not sure it is the best use of coach martins valuable time - you certainly arent reaching one new fan with a facebook live show. I am just surprised we are having these problems this year after getting $200m worth of marketing value from the Snoop bowl
I don’t think losing to UNLV was the only reason, but we had a significant student crowd for that game for a number of reasons, and once we lost that game, students lost whatever minimal interest they had. And let’s face it, who the hell gets excited to see Lindenwood play. We need to do a better job of securing home games that at least peak some interest, as small as that may be.
Local residents and alumni is one problem and honestly, you will get them to show up by winning. Sure there are gameday things to improve, but honestly, winning programs (including not starting every year 1-3 in OOC) is the only real solution.
Students is the huge problem. If you don’t build a connection during those 4 years, you miss out on the next 60 years for the vast majority. And Miami has totally failed for the last 20 years on building those connections. Without being dark or crude, the reason our attendance is dropping is because most of those who built those connections in the 60s and 70s are aging. As someone who is turning 40, I can tell you that the entire 30-40 year old fanbase mostly fits in our airbnbs on road trips. I know most of them by name. I don’t want to inflate the ego he already has, but the outreach Alex does to bring people to those games is honestly more effective than our entire alumni and sports marketing networks. See the tailgate he and Joe put together at Rutgers for example. That’s not a base to sustain any program. Its just going to get worse for the next decade as that lost generation becomes more apparent.
Miami needs to do something VERY innovative to try to reverse this course, and understand they won’t see it payoff for 10-20 years. I’m not joking when I propose bringing in the local bars to help create Club Yager and Club Millet. Some other schools have done similar programs, with I believe Akron even including a free beer or two with students admission to the games.
We have all that room on the floor at Millet. Bring in TVs, turn it into a sports bar. Have students able to get a beer or two with student ID swipes (you can even limit over serving this way).
Do the same with the student side concourse at Yager. Have students swipe to get in. Include free beer per half and let them purchase a limited additional number (total of 4 beers?). I know Miami is nervous about embracing the Oxford drinking culture, but you can do it in a responsible way, and you need to do something different.
MAC athletics is no enough to draw the student crowd these days. They have a million entertainment options. You need to try something beyond dated sports promotions. I’m not sure they are doing anything different truly than they did when I was a student 20 years ago.
They need to build the new arena with robot fans. I’m not talking about that Boston dynamics thing that looks freaky as hell. Realistic looking fans. They cheer. Clap. And never leave. And when it rains, they glitch and spark. That’s when the real show happens.
1 billion bucks. Robot fans. Students can’t ever attend again which builds resentment then maybe demand to remove the robots. But it never happens because the robots win. Because we spent a billion. Problem solved.
Edit: watch the ones in the first half. The all plastic ones at the end are not compelling.
The point about locals having no connection is a good one. Miami has always had the preppy/country club stereotype and that doesn’t resonate with residents of Middletown, Hamilton, or Colerain.
I graduated in 1997 and having seen the highs and lows of Miami Athletics over the past 30 years, I can say the one thing that has been a constant has been an athletic department with people who aren’t very good at their jobs. I’m not trying to be mean because I think it is a function of our budget and our inability hire the right people. I’m not talking about coaches or AD level, but below that. It seems like we have people who have never attended a sporting event outside of the Oxford, McGonigle, College Corner metroplex. Take the ticket office, it is a complete joke, and it has been for 30 years. I think tailgating has improved, but that is thanks to the fans. In fact, Miami has tried to screw that up with their goofy parking lot kids trying to direct you into a certain spot. Marketing has always been either non existent or cringe worthy. I think it was 1994 when they rolled out the idea to use your student ID to get a free hot dog and a Pepsi at the pregame TAILGREAT!
I get they changed this because students don’t get physical IDs anymore but the system of having to go online and “buy” your ticket for free is dumb. I can’t tell you the amount of times at basketball games I saw students standing at the entrance on their phones trying to buy their tickets, I can only imagine some students who might live close by might’ve just gone home. Students tap their virtual id to get into their dorms and to get lunch so I don’t see why they can’t do that for games, makes it a lot easier to get into a game and doesn’t require you to plan ahead
It should just be show your damn ID that every student has on their phone. I’m Sure they can figure out a way to keep track of numbers of students without this burdensome system they now use
Yep, scanning student ID is the answer. Maybe they want to “sell” tickets to make counting attendance easier or maybe to limit student attendance to available seats (I know, sounds silly, but it’s happened in the past) for fire code requirements? Back in the day everyone went thru a turnstile to count attendance (anyone remember the spin-to-win days, during low attendance games you would spin the turnstile as you passed thru to bump attendance numbers?).
I’m pretty sure the ticket database has no connection to the student ID scan, so they’d have to build one, but this issue can’t be isolated to Miami…solutions already exist.
