Even if you were, that’s only a portion of your fanbase. Those people don’t fill stadiums or show up in the rain or buy popcorn and beer.
This we can agree on. But if you’re paying $100 for a family of four just to walk in the gate, you’ll be extra turned off win the experience sucks. At least at a Festival, you can walk out with nothing lost and try again another time. The cost compounds the bad experience.
2 Likes
Why not? Have them play as an opener, earlier in the day.
The fan base is dying out, if nothing is done to add new bodies, it’ll be a circle jerk of the same 5k people.
What destroyed the fan base was the video of FK Trump during Hud’s tenure. You want to repeat that with the Walmart model, go ahead and see what happens to the premium experience.
Stop. We’ve been ranked, hosted championships and played primetime football on many occasions since that happened. Ancient history.
Changing the business model to squeeze existing customers rather than grow the fanbase is what killed the fanbase.
2 Likes
Only one man can fix our attendance issues, that man is Jeff Landry.
2 Likes
Problem is you need a marketing team that knows its ass from a hole in the ground. Also during big event don’t completely shit the bed(Tulane) . SBC championship in 2021 was one of the best run games ever at Cajun field and that was a 3rd party doing it.
1 Like
Ten Commandments displayed at each entrance to OLOL?
3 Likes
Absolutely, and for every home game you attend he’ll knock 5% off your insurance premium.
That was almost a decade ago, and we have had crowds of over 20k since then but not consistently due to the nickel and diming of fans. We have also changed the RCAF model 100 times since 2015. The fact is people don’t know what they are paying for, and then they have had bad experiences at the games.
Take the TSAB experience. Notice how it empties out in the early second half of the games in Tiger Stadium no matter who they are playing. Why? Because people go to tailgate, clap along to “Calling Baton Rouge,” watch the band at pregame, watch the team run out of the tunnel, and THEN they watch a little football. Notice how I just listed four other things besides just the game that the fans don’t even stay the whole time for.
We need to find a way to create the festival atmosphere inside of the stadium rather than just taking people’s money at the gate to where it’s an average experience and they don’t come back again. People don’t just go to Festival Acadien every year because it’s free nor does it stay open for decades if they’re not making money. It might be time to implement that model at Cajun Field.
3 Likes
Agree with 99% here. I’d argue the festival atmosphere needs to be inside and outside the stadium. Tailgate needs to be a mini Festival Acadien. RV lot needs to look like a dealership with cookoff themes each week.
It needs to be consistent, not just tried one time. After a while, people will put it on their schedules as festival weekends. This shit is not difficult. It just takes people willing to invest in the vision and experienced people that know what they’re doing running the initiative.
1 Like
Agree with you–it is not about the ticket price. Ticket price is not keeping people out of Cajun Field. Lowering the price of our tickets will not solve the issue.
You’re not competing for their dollars, you’re competing for their time.
As others have said, people will throw $100 at any number of goofy events around town, as long as they think they can have a good time.
The Target/Walmart thing makes no sense to me. Festival International or Acadiens are the Dollar Tree of experiences in this town – paying $10-20 to park, standing around in the sun, buying $6 beers and $14 hamburgers, all to listen to some band from Equitorial Guinea play a drum circle.. Yet they get ENORMOUS crowds because people are desperate to go somewhere and socialize with other people. Are these really hardcore international music fans? No, but it’s fun seeing people you know, letting your kids play in the dirt with their friends, etc.
If you turned the area under and around the scoreboard into standing-only tables, benches, etc., then a couple hours before the game open the NE and NW gates to allow people into a “standing tailgate area” with drinks, food, and live music.. My family would be posted up there for an hour, spending money, and already IN THE STADIUM, when kickoff starts.
Let’s call it what it is. We, the diehards, are passionate about these tailgating/game ideas because we understand the impact of OUR CULTURE. We understand that CAJUN CULTURE IS A MONEY MAKER. We, the diehards, understand that doing the “same ole same” like we’ve done for over a decade is DESTROYING game day atmosphere.
The problem is that the people making the game day decisions ARE NOT DIEHARD CAJUNS LIKE US!!! True passion drives effort… when you truly love something, you refuse to let it fail.
Yeah they tried moving baseball tailgating to Bertrand back in 2018 to capitalize on parking passes in the parking lots to make a little extra money. We saw how that worked out.
Section A was still under that oak tree with ice chests full of beer, I promise ya.
We have a fundamental disagreement brother. I base mine on past experience during the SWLA years. No money and slogans like the best deal in town were about accepting losing football, instead of accepting investing, funding and growing. You can begin get two the last point without understanding you need the first to points.
T, I was being a smartass. I agree with you on this topic.
STL Cardinals do an all inclusive ticket for about $100. Its hotdogs and nachos and other ball park staples with draft beer, wine and a select cocktail. Just have a select section for that and it will sell out.
You guys are under the Oak next to Bertrand? Part of our Culture is one that never wanted to invest, plan and grow. From the 1980’s until now the seeds of “what’s” in it for me is live and cultivating. I understand you need to draw in casual fans, but those causal fans are not going to show up and never have in the last two decades. unless you roll out free parking and cheap tickets. They will only return if they get continue to make these offers. In the meantime, you devalue your brand and screw many of your supporters over parking and ticket prices. The reality in a Parish that has had 17K LSU ticket holders and still today has a large number after increases in tickets, tailgating and parking, is the average Joe doesn’t care about Cajun or SBC football. The game day experiences is another discussion, but once again money is required for promotions.
1 Like