[NU Sports] Attendence ideas

[Jeff Beamsley]

One place to look for guidance is UoM.  They sell out virtually every 
game in the largest stadium in the country.  There has been some 
speculation already with regard to how they do it - large school, less 
professional sports competition, less mobile alumni, winning football 
teams, etc.

The reality though, is that there was a time not too long ago when they 
were (at least in a relative sense) in the same position that we find 
ourselves now.  That was the last sixties.  The football team had come 
off a mediocre decade and the stadium was rarely sold out.

The new AD Don Canham re-invented the whole stadium experience and in 
the process gave birth to the whole field of sports marketing.  Some of 
his innovations include tail gating, branded  items, logo marketing, and 
"personality" broadcasters.  One of the major reasons why the stadium 
fills every home game today is that his legacy of event marketing.  
During the dark days, he used to have a band day when he would invite HS 
bands from across the state to come and play before, during, and after 
the games.  He knew that for every kid in the band, there were two 
parents in the stands.  He would invite enough HS bands to be assured of 
a sellout for at least that game even if that meant twenty or more.

His stated philosophy was to turn Michigan tickets into a scarse 
comodity.  He figured that the harder it was to get a ticket, the more 
desirable they became.  He didn't care if he gave away half of the 
tickets, as long as the other half were sold. 

He was smart enough to also hire a series of successful coaches 
(starting with Bo) and shepherd the rebirth of Michigan as a national 
football power.  But there are plenty of teams that win a lot of 
football games that don't sell out their stadiums like Michigan does.

If we want to fill the seats at Dyche (Ryan), we're going to need our 
own version of Don Canham.

It's sort of like the airline model because those empty seats are a 
perishable commodity.  We don't get to sell them once the game starts.  
So if we are reasonably certain that they aren't going to get sold, why 
not give them away to people we are sure are going to want to come 
(apparently not undergrads)?  We could bus HS kids in from the burbs and 
the city.  We could make them available to pee-wee football leagues.  We 
could copy the band idea.  We could partner with Chicago tourism to put 
together cheap tour package deals.  This isn't my job, so I'm not going 
to be nearly so good at is as a Don Canham disciple, but I don't see 
evidence of this sort of single-minded passion to fill up the stadium. 

I guess the bottom line message is that it didn't happen by accident or 
organically at UoM and it probably won't happen by accident or 
organically in Evanston either.

Jeff