Annual Thread: how to increase attendance for Gator Baseball?

[gatorbogey]

my annual thread....since we're down to single digits in the countdown of days before the season opener, thought i'd parade this topic out again

any thoughts on getting more students out to the ball park?

bleacher creature involvement from what i've seen isn't too bad. seems like those that attend do enjoy themselves. got the students tracking K's...signalling for homers to be hit to them, heckling the opposing LF, etc.

last year was attractive too in that we were preseason #1 and there were bonafide stars on the team (e.g. Zunino, Fontana, Randall, Tucker, et. al.) we trade that for alot of new faces and lots of unknowns. which may attract the fan of gator baseball but may not attract those that haven't been to a game before.

i think you continue to cultivate student groups and residence halls to come out. noticed that at a women's hoops game where different residence halls were pitted against each other for attendance where the winner in the end would get some swag and a pizza night or something like that. could easily do that w/ the frats and sororities.

for the 'regular' gator fan:
for me, thinking back, i got "re-introduced" to gator baseball via the internet message boards. met duva's mom basically online at gatorsports.com talking about lopez and some of the behind the scenes stuff. so maybe keep pushing the advertisement that way - emails and such.

i really think the UAA could promote the sport via the gator clubs around the state and up thru atlanta to promote weekend gator sports 'packages'. block seating for events. transportation. motel for the weekend. some parties. meet the players after the games, etc.

[LittleBlueLW]

Shade.

Speed up the game.

Free Beer.

Dazzlers.

[gatorbogey]

sully has gator pitchers pitching at a good clip. they do have the pitch clock now too. games have been moving along quite fast, relatively speaking.

beer: city needs to annex that dizney plaza! serve beer there. may not be free however.

dazzlers! they'd make good ball and bat girls!

shade. i too would like something! even if it's just a half cover. those could become some premium seats too = more revenue.

[DoubleDown11]

And I'll give you my annual soapbox-y answer. Marketing promotions are fine, but the real problem continues to be that your average college student in 2013 simply doesn't like baseball.

Think about what a 20 year old's relationship to baseball has been growing up in this era. Playoff games that start at 9:00 PM and last 4 hours. The Yankees and Red Sox dominating all coverage and buying their way into the playoffs every year. Several major stars being implicated in PED scandals. A general lack of likeable, marketable players. MLB's refusal to embrace the internet as a means of showcasing its product. The all-star game tie. A system so competitively unbalanced that there are players who make higher salaries than entire teams. Still playing a 162 game season when attention spans are getting shorter and alternative entertainment options are increasing by the minute. Plus generally doing absolutely nothing to combat the mindset that it's a boring sport that is way behind the times.

Combine that with the NFL and college football basically taking over the world, the NBA's marketing of individual players, and the explosion of sports like golf, soccer, and NASCAR, and there just isn't as much room for baseball anymore.

THAT'S what needs to change. A roof and silly gimmicks have very little to do with it.

[gatorbogey]

from the silly category:

could dress up selected frat /sorority competitors - like the senators do w/ former president heads and have them race around for prizes and general laughs. what could we dress them as? past gator coaches? [how would want the zook head?!]

yeah, i agree about the perceptions about baseball. i used to be that way too. so i can't exactly cast a stone at the students. i think i went to all of about 3 total games in my 4+ years at UF.

some of the elements that got me re-hooked: section E hecklers. just being a 'gator fan' and rooting for the gators, no matter what. knowing the players (took some time) - that's easy now, once established. re-learning the game - some of the nuances. each pitch being important and somewhat dramatic especially in tight games.

[gatorcal]

I know you asked specifically about students, but I think DD is right. The students are what they are. Unless you figure out a way to incorporate beer or half-naked women, the attendance will remain the same. I think they need to get more local involvement. Get more Gainesville residents coming out to the games. Have Little League nights where kids in unis get in free and stuff like that. Build a solid fan base from the local population that won't be turning over every 4 years.

[supagator]

Sell beer!

[TWGator]

I'd love to see a few games played at neutral sites around the state. I think we played FSU in Jax last year, right? Here in Viera we have a nice stadium (Spring Training for the Nationals; we have a class A club that plays there, too) - I would LOVE to see a Gator game there. Plus we have a pretty large Gator club here on the Space Coast; bet we could get a nice crowd out.

[gatorbogey]

you should organize a weekend trip for your gator club. charter a bus, get a block of seating for the 3 weekend games and a block of motel rooms and head up to g'ville for a weekend of fun and baseball (and other gator sports/events for the weekend).

or, at least spread the word around the club to assess interest.

[GatorChoice]

Originally Posted by gatorbogey

sully has gator pitchers pitching at a good clip. they do have the pitch clock now too. games have been moving along quite fast, relatively speaking.

Two years ago, the stars aligned as I passed through the area on my way back to Tampa. Timing was perfect, so I stopped to catch the baseball game vs Boston College which started at 5. The game ran exactly one hour and one minute, ending in a 4-0 shutout for the good guys.

Just so happened that the basketball team was tipping off vs uga at 7 on espn, so I hotfooted it to the ODome and serendipitously found a level one midcourt ticket for face value. The Gators overcame a halftime deficit to make me a happy fan driving home afterward

[gatorbogey]

that's a pretty good night of gator sports. i really wish they would space out some of the start times to catch multiple events on a weekend

[gtj31]

Originally Posted by DoubleDown11

And I'll give you my annual soapbox-y answer. Marketing promotions are fine, but the real problem continues to be that your average college student in 2013 simply doesn't like baseball.

Think about what a 20 year old's relationship to baseball has been growing up in this era. Playoff games that start at 9:00 PM and last 4 hours. The Yankees and Red Sox dominating all coverage and buying their way into the playoffs every year. Several major stars being implicated in PED scandals. A general lack of likeable, marketable players. MLB's refusal to embrace the internet as a means of showcasing its product. The all-star game tie. A system so competitively unbalanced that there are players who make higher salaries than entire teams. Still playing a 162 game season when attention spans are getting shorter and alternative entertainment options are increasing by the minute. Plus generally doing absolutely nothing to combat the mindset that it's a boring sport that is way behind the times.

I completely agree about professional baseball. I disagree about college baseball. Go to MSU or Ole Miss. The atmosphere isn't even about the game. Ole Miss has tremendous crowds and they don't give a crap about baseball. It isn't about baseball in my opinion. The reason college baseball is actually quite popular in the South is because of the weather. For the first 3 months of the season, the weather is amazing. Suntanning, beer, bbq, etc. Miami is too hot from April on and Arkansas is too cold until March but people go to the games because they like to hang out with their friends, eat food, drink beer, and yell at the other teams players. The game itself is the 4th or 5th best entertainment option.

I still maintain get rid of the outfield bleachers and make it a two tiered wooden deck with rentable areas for BBQ. It would have bathrooms below or port-a-pottys off to the side. That would allow you to bring your own food and beverages of your choice. Kid birthday parties. The cost is extremely cheap (it is freakin' wood for crying out loud, $100k tops?). You could do it in RF as well as LF. Encourage tailgating rather than handing out tickets for alcohol consumption in the parking garage like GDP has done in the past. Make it about the atmosphere and the interaction. LSU is a pregame party. Just like football. People in the South like to BBQ, they like to hang out outdoors, and they like to talk to each other. It is a social part of the country. UF has made baseball anti-social. So, DD's points are spot on. The game isn't as popular anymore so people stop going. Make it about the social aspect and people will go.

[neisgator]

How do you make baseball not suck?
Answer that and you will have your answer...

[gatorbogey]

Originally Posted by neisgator

How do you make baseball not suck?
Answer that and you will have your answer...

i think you'd make a good heckler! you should come out to a game or two and give it a try. sit in Section E, become a heckler. think up some creative barbs to critique the job the umps are doing or how the opposing fielders/catcher/pitchers are doing and let 'em fly.

[gatorbogey]

would be interesting to convert that whole 'service alley/lot' between the MAC and the o'dome into some tailgatoring area that is tied to decking and view platforms. i'd like to see the dizney plaza used better too.

maybe make the plaza into a tailgatoring area too - you can bring your coolers/tents/chairs there, have some bbq grills installed too.

i will say, in the regionals, or when gators are playing a rival like miami or fsu, or a big sec game like vs lsu or usc, the focus is on the game, imo.

[gatorbogey]

rowdies have the 'big head boards' for games. wonder if the 'creatures' can do something similar for baseball? maybe have their best 'heckles' on boards too. like 'Left/Right', glasses for the umps, '1 for dirt, 2 for backstop', stuff like that?

of course, i think, half the reason for some of the boards is to get on tv. so, for televised games, do allow the use of boards - even encourage this sort of participation. then it might carry over to other / regular games too. just some fun/antics in the stands for the students.

related to this....have a camera out and about in the stands for all the games. a special 'gatorvision' camera. does get the crowd going. that may be a good idea for all the 'other' gator sports. then show the best of the best crowd clips from games on the gatorzone.com site or have some screen/tv running them in the reitz union and/or at select eating areas around campus. that might get the students more involved in some of the 'other' gator sports.

[dadx4]

$1 food and drinks will fill it up.

[Ezgator]

Originally Posted by dadx4

$1 food and drinks will fill it up.

Fridays have 4 tix/4 dogs/4 sodas for $20 with no real increase in attendance

[gatorbogey]

trying to make it cost effective for local families / gator fans. that's a good deal.

[gator1986]

Permit drinking on stadium grounds!