the solution to our attendance woes: sell less tickets

[seniorsooner]

Right now the arena is filled with empty seats that have in actuality been sold to Joe Corporate types that just never attend the games. As a result of that the university has little reason to take dramatic steps to increase actual butts in the seats. By dramatic steps I'm talking about reducing ticket prices, reducing donation fees, offering discounted season tickets to alumni, etc, etc.

People love to crow about how the attendance at women's games is better but as has been documented the ticket prices for women's games are much lower and in many instances people get in for free by way of various promotions. I'm guessing that there aren't a bunch of corporate season ticket holders for the women, at least much less than there are for the men.

Back to my original point, what we need is for the corporate types to pull out en masse and stop buying season tickets. I guarantee you that would light a fire under the AD's @$$ and we would see some major changes in ticket pricing, donation fees, etc.

This is slightly off topic but I will also throw in that they need to reduce the damn concession prices. It is ridiculous that it costs $3.50 for a bottle of water. Heck it's $5 for a soggy chicken sandwich. I realize that there is going to be a markup on concession prices at sporting events, but the markup on a bottled water doesn't need to be 1500%.

 

[OUhoops11]

Don't you have to consider blacking out TV to Norman/OKC area?

 

[seniorsooner]

I think blacking out is too extreme and would actually be counter-productive for the program. If an OKC high school kid can't watch one of our games because it is blacked out then that's not very good for recruiting.

 

[OUhoops11]

I think blacking out is too extreme and would actually be counter-productive for the program. If an OKC high school kid can't watch one of our games because it is blacked out then that's not very good for recruiting.

Good point. I rarely consider blacking out games a good idea, especially with the senior citizens and recruits who can't necessarily attend every game but still want to watch.


I mainly just threw it out there as a talking point for consideration.

 

[campbest]

Selling less tickets is not the answer, it's all about the athletic department accomodating season ticket holder's tendencies. If people are not showing up to the games, make it easier for them to distribute those seats to other people.

Lowering prices may help a little, but given the product on the floor it probably won't matter too much.

 

[seniorsooner]

Selling less tickets is not the answer, it's all about the athletic department accomodating season ticket holder's tendencies. If people are not showing up to the games, make it easier for them to distribute those seats to other people.

Lowering prices may help a little, but given the product on the floor it probably won't matter too much.

Honestly it's pretty easy as it is now.

 

[OUhoops11]

I posted about this earlier in the year, but 1) you have to improve the product, but at the same time, you have to 2) improve the experience.


You go to a Thunder game, it's so professional as far as timeout entertainment, giveaways, etc. At OU games, we have "Crazy T-shirt guy", the OU Dunk team, and the OU Drum line. No offense to those guys (they are free for our athletic department), but they don't exactly get people to games.

 

[Bk2X]

People would come if it were cheaper. Texas game proved that. We have a crappy product this year and people still came to the point of having to stand to watch the first half.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

bring back bowl girl

 

[colston15]

I haven't done the studies, (As i'm sure the OU marketing department has) but short of highly, highly ranked teams I have no idea what gets your typical OU fan out to games.

It seems to me that every promotion and gimmick known to man has been tried to lure fans to venues not named Memorial Stadium. Nothing works consistently.

I can only speak inteliigently about attendance to men's hoops and baseball, both of which have been very successful recently. Neither draws well. Top 10 baseball team, 700 fans for a game. Blake Griffin on the team, 6,000 fans for a game.

It's because of this I have come to the conclusion our fans suck, at least in general.

If it ain't football, it ain't 'portant.

 

[aaron7]

I haven't done the studies, (As i'm sure the OU marketing department has) but short of highly, highly ranked teams I have no idea what gets your typical OU fan out to games.

It seems to me that every promotion and gimmick known to man has been tried to lure fans to venues not named Memorial Stadium. Nothing works consistently.

I can only speak inteliigently about attendance to men's hoops and baseball, both of which have been very successful recently. Neither draws well. Top 10 baseball team, 700 fans for a game. Blake Griffin on the team, 6,000 fans for a game.

It's because of this I have come to the conclusion our fans suck, at least in general.

If it ain't football, it ain't 'portant.

This is a lot more right than anyone will want to admit. I know some people that haven't missed a single home football game in years that hadn't watched Blake Griffin play a single game (live or on TV) until the Syracuse game in the tournament. I know to anyone on this board that seems outrageous, but that is the way it is for some.

 

[Sam]

I posted about this earlier in the year, but 1) you have to improve the product, but at the same time, you have to 2) improve the experience.


You go to a Thunder game, it's so professional as far as timeout entertainment, giveaways, etc. At OU games, we have "Crazy T-shirt guy", the OU Dunk team, and the OU Drum line. No offense to those guys (they are free for our athletic department), but they don't exactly get people to games.

Exactly, the Thunder have kicked OU's tail when it comes to marketing and gameday experience. Makes it much more likely that an average family of 4 would rather take their children to a Thunder game as they will be entertained unlike at OU games where they have to hope Boomer or Sooner will come say to the kids.

Some of that comes with the territory as they're a NBA team with more leeway in what they can do and their budget for advertising. You watch the Thunder commercials and they're darn good, you watch what OU put out there and unless you're a preexisting fan they seem very meh. You just have Capel talking into the camera with his low voice about OU's tradition and former players. While that works for the average member of this board, as we know who those guys are and appreciate them, but for the average Oklahoman it doesn't get them excited.

I'm not marketing/ad guy so I don't know what to do to fix it but I do know something needs to change.

 

[campbest]

You can't compare the two marketing schemes...they're on different levels. Financially, it just isn't feasible to compete with a NBA club. On top of that, it's not like we have the Kings in OKC, one of the top young teams in the league is in your backyard. The honeymoon period still hasn't ended.

OU has to put a quality product on the floor...we saw it Blake's second season, the crowds were great.

 

[NickZepp]

It's not just a problem at OU. In the game in Stillwater last weekend they had a lot of sections that were empty. I remember watching late in the game and an entire upper deck sections seemed pretty empty on TV. OU and OSU are having attendance issues because of both teams not having a good product to watch. I don't really blame OU fans for not showing up to see this product. I'm an OU fan so I will watch every game, but when Blake was here or most of the Sampson era, my friends would talk to me about OU basketball and would watch even if they weren't OU fans because it was good basketball. I would talk to them about OSU basketball too because they usually had decent or really good teams. Now all we do is talk about the Thunder or the NBA because the state schools stink.

 

[StoopsBros]

Just make every home game "Blake Griffin Night/Day at the LNC" and give away autographed stuff, Griffin keychains, posters (there's enough material), bobbleheads, etc, etc. Pick the worst game on the schedule and tell fans 20 people will be put in a drawing to play on the court with Blake. Of course, Blake would have to agree (for a small payout).

Dumb. I know.

 

[Sam]

We should have Star Wars and Star Trek days next year.

 

[OUhoops11]

You can't compare the two marketing schemes...they're on different levels. Financially, it just isn't feasible to compete with a NBA club. On top of that, it's not like we have the Kings in OKC, one of the top young teams in the league is in your backyard. The honeymoon period still hasn't ended.

OU has to put a quality product on the floor...we saw it Blake's second season, the crowds were great.

I agree and disagree.


First, I agree with you that it's not feasible for OU to compete with an NBA club in terms of advertising and marketing. However, I definitely think you can compare the two schemes. Making gameday a fun all around experience doesn't cost all that much. For instance, all the free stuff is sponsored by some business

Both OU and the Thunder have professional marketers. Granted, those working for the Thunder are probably going to be better because that's where the money is. However, that doesn't mean OU's can't be good.

What happened to the OU students' shooting competitions during timeouts? Now there is only a halfcourt shot during halftime. The Thunder does the same thing, but they spice it up big time. They have the mascot on the drums, they have music playing, they make it exciting. We just trot someone out there, let him shoot, then trot him off.

One thing that has always bothered me at OU games is the people who are on the mic during timeouts yelling stuff like "STAND UP FANS AND MAKE SOME NOISE, or WHO WANTS SOME FREE T-SHIIIIIIIIIRTS?". The Thunder does the same thing, except their people are really good at it. Ours seems very forced and comes off as annoying.

The Thunder does a lot of video clips. One thing they do well is action clips of previous great plays in the organization's history. OU Basketball has SO many great moments, great players, etc. We feature a couple in the highlight video and nothing else. Why not have some memorable Blake dunk clips during timeouts instead of the OU Drum line? Why not have a clip of Hollis highlights? Wayman highlights, etc?

In fact, why can we not do the above before the game while the teams are warming up? The LNC is so boring pre-game. It's the band playing the same old music and that's it. Then, all of a sudden, it's "BRING 'EM OUT BRING 'EM OUT". Is that the best we can come up with?

The Thunder also do a great job with funny movie clips.


Now, OU basketball is enough to get me excited and ready for the game. I don't need all this other stuff going on to be entertained. But people teetering on whether to become fans or not, or whether to attend games or not, do need it. It's what makes a complete experience.

 

[OUhoops11]

Lastly, I just want to mention that OU does a terrible job of including students into the experience. Students go where the fun is, even if the team isn't great. When I was at OU in the early 2000's, students were included at almost every timeout with some kind of competition or giveaway. Now, there's basically nothing.

 

[NickZepp]

Both OU and the Thunder have professional marketers. Granted, those working for the Thunder are probably going to be better because that's where the money is. However, that doesn't mean OU's can't be good.

Just look at OU football and Thunder Basketball game day experiences. Both are really unique. OU football is pretty much and all day experience where you have games and stuff like that everywhere. Thunder basketball is similar but not as long. I think you can do this in college basketball if you have a good enough program. And I think OU basketball is a good enough program to do this. But I guess our athletic department doesn't believe this. But it hurts when we are as bad as we have been.

 

[JBaker]

We just don't have as loyal a fanbase in general as we'd like to think.
Even our football fans, while they fill the stadium, kinda suck as fans.