Spring Game Attendance in Pullman???
- Thread starter WASH ST A&M FAN
- Start date
I’m pleased that I can spend Friday night Pullman. I would not go if it was at Joe Albi. Yeah, I’ll be there.
Spring games in Pullman drew more like 200 than 2000. I do think if it's promoted they may get some of the RV crowd in and they may see a bump with the newness effect but by year 2, expect the number to drop. It's a scrimmage.
Weather on the day of scrimmage will likely play a big role in actual numbers. Nice weather = locals will show. Lousy weather = not so much. I think holding the Spring Game the day before Easter probably precludes a lot of people from making this an "event weekend" for an excursion to Pullman, so expect attendance to be more reliant on the local population.
Well this is really stupid timing, Mom's weekend is the previous weekend. As is the Baseball homestand against Oregon. Talk about an opportunity to make hay in all directions. Yeah, an RV lot full of fans with a weekend of FB and BB and drunk moms.
Nice job, Chun. You are lighting it up.
I would prefer to think that 79COUG is right, but doubt it if the “bump” is compared to Albi last year when folks wanted to see Cooper throw the ball. Also, half of the attendees were at the beer station...which does not exist (officially) on the WSU campus.
Interesting point... wonder if coolers will be allowed into Martin! Just for Spring Game, of course!
If you have ever met a member of the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Control Board you would know the answer is not positive.
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They've already missed the boat with poor scheduling. This is the week after mom's weekend, so they automatically miss out on a couple thousand potential attendees, and eliminate that many more who aren't going to make the drive two weekends in a row. It's also the Saturday before dead week, which could cut either way - either the kiddies will go home for one last visit before they get down to studying, or they'll stay to party one last weekend before they wrap up and go home for summer.
As has been discussed here almost every offseason since I can remember, IF they would make it the centerpiece of the weekend, create some events around it and actually give people a reason to attend, then they could probably pull a crowd. As it is, I say that if the weather is stellar and there's nothing else to do...1,500.
LOL - where exactly are football fans supposed to stay on Mom's weekend?
The point is that the Mom's weekend attendees and their WSU student kids ARE the football fans. And the RV'ing Football fans could come and stay in their RV's. And the Spokane/E. Washington Moms will be driving down for the festivities.
So all the years prior when it was held in Pullman on Mom's Weekend, they had amazing attendance, right?
(hint: no, they didn't)
Bingo. Even on a beautiful Mom's weekend Saturday, spring game attendance was lousy. I see this as the AD consciously deciding to try something different.
Nobody showed up all those years. They even put it on Tri-Cities one year to stir up interest. So, it seems appropriate to drag Chung for this.
Can't disagree with any of the above. I have seen Mom's weekends just like you all describe. A speckle of fans in the stadium and all kinds of stuff going on elsewhere. However, the fact that we have an entire town full of people, and a home baseball series, on one weekend, but we schedule the Spring game on the next weekend, doesn't seem very logical to me.
I blame a lot of this on lack of promotion or festivity surrounding the game. Or scrimmage, as it has basically been in some years. Weather has often sucked too. But, now that we have the luxury suites/boxes, we have more opportunities. Open that thing up for a pregame (I assume suites can be opened to anyone on the off-season?. Make it an event. Encourage the RV crowd to show up. An 11-2 season with lots coming back, and some QB intrigue to boot, makes for a little more interesting show.
FWIW - I plan to attend specifically because it's not mom's weekend. Because that means I can get a hotel and presumably get into any number of restaurants in town without dealing with the absurd crowds that weekend brings.
Yes it sucks for any moms who value Cougar football, but my guess is the number of them who would overlap with people travelling to the spring game is not very high.
I think the overlap is more than you give credit for - at least I saw a lot of "mom-looking" fans this past year, many wearing mustaches. And it's not just the Moms who come. Lots of of Dads and little bro/sis show up too. They are no fools - they ain't letting Mama Cougar loose on campus in the Springtime with no supervision.
Anyway, let's hope the enthusiasm and some fans show up.
Meh, I disagree. Pullman by nature is always better, but the crowds the game was getting in Spokane don't support the notion that it had run it's course.
You buy into "Spokane Week" at all, either as a concept or how any of it was put in place in connection with the spring game?
I think it was worthwhile for awhile, but had gotten stale. It seemed like it was just the same thing, again and again.
Going to Disneyland and riding the same rides every year loses its luster.
If you're right - and I'm not convinced that you are - then their problem was the same one they always have down here: no marketing.
Frankly, I don’t believe they could have had one here without my knowledge.
Makes sense. I'd like to see the university do more to maintain the connection with Spokane, but it's not clear (to me, at least) what it should be doing. In any case, I'd expect the most effective thing to be maintaining good teams in the revenue sports, especially football. It doesn't matter how many "Wave the Flag" banners you put throughout downtown Spokane if the football team is 3-9.
I'm just speculating here but what if.....
Chun isn't all that hyped about 'name' events like Spokane Week or Seattle Week or Spring Game Lalopolooza.....maybe he'd rather NOT make the focal point of the athletic department be about the spring football game.
Maybe he wants his sales and marketing guys making calls and getting meetings with potential sponsors and donors instead of planning beer gardens and kid's bounce houses.
Maybe pressing the flesh isn't as effective in a massive crowd trying to work the room over a sit-down meeting to make a sale presentation.
You know, just maybe.....
Chun isn't all that hyped about 'name' events like Spokane Week or Seattle Week or Spring Game Lalopolooza.....maybe he'd rather NOT make the focal point of the athletic department be about the spring football game.
Maybe he wants his sales and marketing guys making calls and getting meetings with potential sponsors and donors instead of planning beer gardens and kid's bounce houses.
Maybe pressing the flesh isn't as effective in a massive crowd trying to work the room over a sit-down meeting to make a sale presentation.
You know, just maybe.....
Crazy talk ... you mean, actual active efforts to solicit people with money for donations? Everyone knows you just chide the actual/prospective donors as a group and then wait for the dollars to pour in.
Well that isn't consistent with the announced Spring game fol-de-rol planned. Link below. And when did they start charging to come to the game? Did they charge in Spokane? So if you aren't a CAF or premium ticket holder how much do you have to pay? This announcement is unintelligible. WTF? And we get crap for not honoring TH enough last season, so now we charge admission and dedicate the Spring game to his memory? No offense meant to TH or family, but this is just clumsy and makes no sense. Chun has no idea WTF he is doing. IMHO anyway.
Tickets for the 2019 Crimson and Gray Game will be $5 for general admission and $10 club seats to current CAF members and premium seat season ticket holders with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the ASWSU Coug Health Fund. Current WSU students will receive free admission.
https://wsucougars.com/news/2019/2/...-game-set-for-april-20-at-martin-stadium.aspx
I just revised my attendance prediction in half now that I know they are charging for admission.
I do not mean any slight to this notion. At all. And WSU has and is doing many good things in this regard. As are the HH people.
That said, to go out of their way to resurrect the TH tragedy via the Spring game is a complete turnaround from last year's concerted effort to make it not about one student, but all students and mental health in general. And at the risk of being tacky, charging admission at all is counterproductive, and not to have it go towards Athletics is curious given our financial condition. You could certainly create the opportunity to donate to the mental health fund at the event.
All that aside, read the press release (snip below). Did they get a 2 year old to write this thing?
So, ONLY CAF members and premium season ticket holder can even go to this event? Or do the rest of us get in free and only they have to pay? Oh wait, I finally get it, I think. $5 for the average lowlife fan, and ONLY CAF and premium ticket holders can get tickets up in the luxury structure for $10.
And only current RV pass people can bring their RV's? Do they think ALL of them are going to show up and fill the lot? I can understand a priority, early-bird opportunity......
Tickets for the 2019 Crimson and Gray Game will be $5 for general admission and $10 club seats to current CAF members and premium seat season ticket holders with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the ASWSU Coug Health Fund. Current WSU students will receive free admission.
Parking on game day will be free of charge in campus lots and there will be opportunities to purchase an RV pass for current RV permit holders.
That is, indeed, horrible writing. Also, while I share the goal of improving support for mental health, I think it may have been more appropriate to allow solicitation of donations for the ASWSU Coug Health Fund at the gates, or something along those lines, than to make people pay for tickets to the spring game. I think you'd get better attendance for the game and likely wind up in a similar place financially, with those interested/willing making a donation (in many cases more than $5).
Not to be too cynical, but with the charge to get in, I wouldn't be surprised if there are only something like 500 to 750 in attendance. I'm also surprised they're even opening up the club section for the spring game, unless it's a marketing move to show it off in order to get people to buy club seats (which would make sense, although I thought they pretty much were sold out).
