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Post by My2Sense on Apr 26, 2004 22:41:18 GMT -5
Another string discussed how poor attendance is in the men's game, for programs other than UH and BYU.
I'd like to encourage you all who have ideas, and those who have been a part of successful marketing plans for improving fan attendance to post your good ideas on this string. After a while, if there is good participation, I'll do a master recap.
Ideas should be those that cost little or nothing to execute; as well as ideas that might cost something.
I'll start with one:
Motivate existing season ticket holders to convert just one fan per year to become a MEN'S volleyball fan. That one thing alone would double the fan base if it could be sustained.
What else?
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Post by Bookumdanoaloha on Apr 26, 2004 23:44:59 GMT -5
Free entry for Club and High School Teams to all of the games. Make the parents pay. Have the players meet with the kids. Bookumdanoaloha
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Post by Bookumdanoaloha on Apr 26, 2004 23:56:58 GMT -5
Sell Beer at the Games. Hawaii does. Give a reason for the students to stay on campus and watch the games. I was at the BYU/Hawaii game at the Marrott Center (11,000 fans), they had some great half time events which brought alot of student particpation. Bookumdanoaloha
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Post by vb on Apr 27, 2004 0:17:14 GMT -5
Music and light shows at intros. NBA style Cheerleaders Improved food Marketing majors assigned to market the sport. Team field trips to club and HS games. Pregame Locker room invites to HS and Club coaches. Use of facilities for Club tournaments. Between game gimmick displays. (Globetrotter stuff) New uniforms...designed by inhouse fashion students Put the games on webcasts and radio. (inhouse media) Free nachos at every win
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Post by Rainforest on Apr 27, 2004 2:36:33 GMT -5
Marketing majors assigned to market the sport. Seriously, I'd like to either see this at the collegiate/MBA level or a national TV show like "The Apprentice" take a stab at marketing a sport that is almost impossible to sell in the U.S., such as men's volleyball. What I'm most afraid of is that they'll come up with an idea that most dumbasses would dream up in the course of their short attention span: the use of sex (or the promise of sex) to sell volleyball.
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Post by tigfan on Apr 27, 2004 3:12:51 GMT -5
Pyrotechnics... Electrically Charged Nets... Trampolines behind 3 meter lines... Pick line judges out of the crowd... Naked cheerleaders... ...beer... that was a good one randomly placed land mines Quicksand 48 mexican whooping llamas
just a few of my own thoughts... this would bring ESPN out to a few matches...
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Post by doctordubya on Apr 27, 2004 6:58:11 GMT -5
... randomly placed land mines He he, I like this one. You can just imagine it - a close line call goes against UCLA, Al Scates hauls himself off his seat and walks towards the up-ref gesticulating wildly, then *BOOM*
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Post by vballmom on Apr 27, 2004 13:42:42 GMT -5
Pep rallies before big matches over in the student union...
teams from other sports support each other...
talk up the men's team during the women's season...
The band at LBSU has been great this year - advertise them too
I like the idea of drafting the marketing students to help.
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Post by benwhipdrofn on Apr 27, 2004 14:31:14 GMT -5
At our school, any student who attended volleyball camp was given a card to attend all the boys VB games for free. Parents often came and would have to pay, but it helped concessions too. Once they started to come, they got hooked.
Have high schools bring in teams to watch the colleges play. I've taken groups of students, sometimes, just carpooling, sometimes we'd take a bus. WE'd go see Lewis play Loyola or whoever and we'd get in free. I think that if they had recognized the students too, it would have been good.
Do t-shirt night, where every person meeting a certain criteria would get a free men's Vb tshirt from that school.
t-shirts could have a sponsor on them too and have the sponsor help pay for the t-shirts.
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Post by gloryB on Apr 28, 2004 4:31:28 GMT -5
Free entry for Club and High School Teams to all of the games. sorta like that but free entry for college students . make a student section
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Post by cyberVBmidwest on Apr 28, 2004 10:31:54 GMT -5
Pyrotechnics... randomly placed land mines... Sounds like Tigfan plays Outlaw Volleyball on XBox!
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Post by Serendipity on Apr 28, 2004 10:37:06 GMT -5
Aren't most men's volleyball matches free to anyone? And most big colleges I know do enlist marking students to help out. But I do like the landmines idea. Blind-folded servers also might be kind of interesting.
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Post by vbaddict on Apr 28, 2004 11:10:02 GMT -5
I like getting the High School players involved. Maybe have a half time contest. Have high school players in the local area either be nominated by their coach or tryouts to be able to participate. You could have hitting contests using the 2nd or 3rd string setters from the 2 college teams on opposing sides, setting the highschoolers.Or serving contests. Also might let coaches see the local talent.
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Post by banthony2 on Apr 28, 2004 11:32:43 GMT -5
For students at our school we have an All-Sports Pass. For the price of a football season ticket we get admittance to all varsity sports for free. As a result, there is great student support for the team.
We have live bands play almost every night.
Trivia challenges with gifts from a local jewelry store every game.
La Quinta hotels also has a contest during intermissions
Every week there are posters up in the most populated places on campus which tell of the upcoming game that week.
There is a couch in one of the corners on the floor provided by a local pizza parlor who supplies the winner of the seat with a pizza.
Each of the past two seasons there has been a theme for the team. This year it is "Double-O Four" The team refrigerator magnets and all of the posters have the guys dressed in tuxes a la James Bond. There are also team shirts which have "004 BYU Men's Volleyball" on the front. The shirts are only five dollars and our mascot ends up giving out a whole bunch for free at each game.
There is also the "Front Row Fanatics." Burger King sponsors this and there is criteria throughout the week where 10 people can win front row seats. As a result they are supposed to wear the Burger King 004 Front Row Fantatics shirt.
Someone talked about other athletes supporting each other's teams. At almost every volleyball game this year I have seen a basketball player (except when they were out of town) and last year Reno Mahe was always there. Again this goes back to the great student support.
I think it all comes back to the fact that we love our school's teams and have great community support in the form of sponsors. Whether 60,000 fans show up for football, 20,000 show up for a basketball game, or we pull 3000 people for a volleyball game, students always seem to flock. We by no means average 3,000 but we have pulled over 3000 four times. Our two lowest fan totals were on the night of a basketball game and one was on a Thursday when finals started the next day. The volleyball game is what a lot of people do to kick off their night. Before we go to the club, we go to the game first. Before we go to the party, the theater or most other occurrences, people tend to go to at least one of the games in a weekend. The All-Sports Pass helps an awful lot.
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Post by lalalaluuuke on Apr 28, 2004 12:55:26 GMT -5
There were always at least 10-15 football players in the front rows on the north and south ends of the court. They are very vocal and distracting for the opposing servers.
The games are a big social gathering for students too. The players are really friendly and their emotion grabs people and is exciting for fans to watch. They always make time for the fans after the games.
All it took for me back in '96 was going to one game with my cousin, sitting on the floor level. I was stunned at how high they jumped and how hard they hit the ball. I have been an addict ever since. I think if you truly appreciate sport, you have to love men's volleyball. Especially team sports. It is the ultimate team sport. You have to rely on everyone on the floor.
Something else that works is major marketing for the big matchups. When they advertise those all over the valley and on the tv they get bigger crowds.
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