Increase the fan/donor base - What would you do?

[TwolfHerdfan]

As we see numerous threads about the low attendance and then see articles about declining state funding and stagnant enrollment. I pose this question to you - in all seriousness.

If you had control - what would you do to increase the fan base, and gain more donors for the BG?

 

[sluggo72]

Bring Amazon HQs 2 to Huntington

 

[19MU88]

win championships in both major sports and go to ncaa tourney in BB

 

[Dreh_Nagi_HC_IM]

I would start by bringing some youthful excitement into the program by hiring a young coach. YAGs would be an ideal candidate, one who would likely bring in an incredible staff. Imagine YAGs as HC, with the likes of Herd Fever as his DC, and Sistersville as his strength & conditioning coach. SamC of course, would be in charge of conference affiliation, securing TV contracts, and scheduling. Perhaps SamC for new AD.

 

[herdalicious]

1) Get a million dollar bills
2) Have a bank turn them into 100 million pennies
3) Take the pennies to a fountain
4) Throw them in, one at a time
5) Wish
6) Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have no pennies

 

[goherdorgohome2]

Win the games that we are 17 point favorites at home, play for championships, turn Huntington prep into Marshall basketball, lower ticket cost, and fire bill legg....

 

[The Real SamC]

The easy answer is "win". And yes, that is it, but there are some things you can do to be competitive.

Football:

- Get control of the ACF lot and the stuff between it and the stadium and make it into party central tailgate land.
- Have at least one HOME step up game, every year. P5, military academy, or non-conference G5 with a record (Boise, Western Michigan, etc.)
- General cleaning of stadium, move the fence on the IPF side to the edge of the IPF and make beer garden, gift shop, more concession, etc.
- Remove some of the end zone seats and make something like Charleston's baseball park's "party deck".
- Get involved with students and get them coming to the games however you can, Give away x-boxes, trips with the team to an away game, next game in a luxury box, whatever.
- TV. Every game played is on TV or internet today, and we have the most complex package, mixed among random channels most people don't understand how to receive. Next go around, get on platforms people understand.

Basketball:

- Beer.
- Better schedule. Tennessee-Martin, Southern, NC Central, Concord College, Arkon, Tennessee-Chattanooga, Ohio U, Eastern Kentucky. Really? Two HBCUs, a Div II, two teams from the one-bid OVC, and two MACers. Really? At least one home game, even if we have to play 2 for 1 or 3 for 1, with a multi-bid league every year.
- TV. Total we have nine games on TV, a third of those being because we are playing at non-conference teams with better TV deals. Need to have at least 15 games on TV every year. Look at what WKU does in its (much smaller) market, which is about what dshoe was doing 40 years ago. If you can sell Chris Miller a couple of ads and cover the costs, toss up the game on some local channel. Heck, WCHS is using its side-band channels to cover HS games.
- Again work with the students. Easier in basketball because one of the football issues is the suitcase U student who goes (and can, which is an academic issue we need to work on) home every weekend.

Big Green:

- Need to get something for it. With the plethora of tickets available, donation is really not needed to get seating priority like a bigger places. So much of the parking is not MU controlled so that is a non-issue. So you get some random discounts, a sticker, and a front plate for your car. Got to be more.

The school.

- The idea that outside WV and the immediate tri-state, and people with some relationship to the school like their parents went here or lived here and moved away for work, you are going to find a big gaggle of potential students is foolish. Leaving out our special programs (HELP, forensic science, a couple more) there is no real reason to pick MU over a similar state college in your own state. The pool is what it is. What we have to convey to potential students is what Lou Holtz said about picking colleges. "You can make a 4 year mistake or a 40 year mistake". An MU education is the best affordable education available to WV students. I have hired and fired people for 30 years, and it just is true. MU is just a lot better and produces better workers than the state colleges. It just does. No insult intended, it just is what it is. The ultimate answer, of course, is a state government that has the moral courage to shut down most of those state colleges.

 

[beefcake0520]

1.Fans love exciting football, we are a fickle bunch these days, if you don't give them what gets the blood moving, they don't come to watch. Doesn't matter if you win or lose, if you play boring football, you get MAC level support. So given that, a change of offense would be nice, how many Rakeem's is Legg ever going to get to make him look good?

2. Watered down CUSA is having its effect. No one cares or has heard of half of the teams in the conference now. Don't know how you fix that other than defecting to another conference. Otherwise time will have to play itself out.

 

[Herd Fever]

First thing first, dont piss off the fans who dont regularly donate to the Big Green.

 

[dangerousdaneerfan]

I have repeatedly said that Marshall needs to get on the radio NORTH of Parkersburg. The St. Marys/New Martinsville radio spot is wide open. One station carries WVU and another station carries the Steelers. Three stations carry high school games every Friday night. Someone from the Marshall AD's office needs to contact 7 Ranges Radio

 

[All4TheHerd]

Do what Rite Aid does...
If you have their rewards card thingy, you get the option to round your change to the nearest dollar.
For example, buy something for $5.83. You actually pay $6.00 with .17 cents going to the BG.
Imagine MU having something like that for all local businesses...you'd have like $2.00 in spare change per day per person going to MU Big Green.
If consistent in that approach, with 365 days per year, thats roughly $730.00 per year for 1 person. Also could be tax deductable perhaps?
3,000 BG members giving 730 per person is about $2,190,000 just as an example.
Also, have it available for students campus-wide. Each transaction they get that option, some days they do, some days they don't, either way, MU gets a small donation from them.
Also, encourage the students to be BG members for the minimum package, complete with perks and everything...that'd gain many new BG members.
Do what I know Arizona State does at least, I am sure others do too, offer In-State tuition for all active and retired military service members.

Finally, look at a program who doesn't spend much with a small population and resources yet, comes out with profit, like Kansas State, and utilize some of their approaches.

 

[i am herdman]

I would start by bringing some youthful excitement into the program by hiring a young coach. YAGs would be an ideal candidate, one who would likely bring in an incredible staff. Imagine YAGs as HC, with the likes of Herd Fever as his DC, and Sistersville as his strength & conditioning coach. SamC of course, would be in charge of conference affiliation, securing TV contracts, and scheduling. Perhaps SamC for new AD.

Yags could be the football coach and in charge of the cheerleaders. Cheerleader tryouts in coaches office.

 

[All4TheHerd]

Also, well, economically, convince Huntington and the local businesses, that they need MU.
When I got to MU in 2004, it was a very polarized place...locals despised MU but enjoyed the students. MU often had problems expanding past their alotted area.

That has improved alot with Williams working more with MU as well as just trying to improve the aesthetics of the city. This is evident with some of the city plans involving MU things like a baseball field.

The first city in WV to abandon the WV mentality, will prosper and I hope its Huntington.
This whole, 'Aww yeah boy, you needsa be a coal miner! It keeps the laghts on!!!" Is becoming more and more bullshit.
With the subtleness of a fart in the bathtub, the industry of energy is moving past coal and getting more techy.
Huntington and MU should see this as a major opportunity for the region. Look ahead and anticipate the prospects of professional jobs, then beging implementing programs for those jobs. You can even use MU's research groups to figure this stuff out for you.
Encourage displaced coal miners to come to the city, or nearby, and give them programs they train for, and can walk across the street to work on building solar panels.
I believe this was a big part of the HIP plan Williams won the ABC contest with, but we need more.
Marshall can help by saying its a good idea and get programs to train/engineer products and services to help accelerate this area.
I know a major slumlord who is basically so screwed that the bank owns his house...this is great news since abandonded buildings he owns, are likely gonna get auctioned off and repaired/re-built for something better and well maintained.

Overall, the city and school need to work together and implement a vision for the next 50 years, and move in that direction.
Some of the industries are fonna be opposed heavily by the state, but eventually some will pass through. Possibly even denied their success by the state, even when they are successdul, well, just sell those legislative idiots some baby Unicorns set to be born in 2018.
As I said for MU, the city should look to other cities that were able to economically grow, who fell on hard times that we currently are in. It'll be tough to ignore the bkue hairs who try to remind everyone that "this is WV, we don't need no stinkin' big ideas or industry!" But it won't be hard to ignore moving in another direction where certain industries are thriving.

 

[Dreh_Nagi_HC_IM]

Do what Rite Aid does...
If you have their rewards card thingy, you get the option to round your change to the nearest dollar.
For example, buy something for $5.83. You actually pay $6.00 with .17 cents going to the BG.
Imagine MU having something like that for all local businesses...you'd have like $2.00 in spare change per day per person going to MU Big Green.
If consistent in that approach, with 365 days per year, thats roughly $730.00 per year for 1 person. Also could be tax deductable perhaps?
3,000 BG members giving 730 per person is about $2,190,000 just as an example.
Also, have it available for students campus-wide. Each transaction they get that option, some days they do, some days they don't, either way, MU gets a small donation from them.
Also, encourage the students to be BG members for the minimum package, complete with perks and everything...that'd gain many new BG members.
Do what I know Arizona State does at least, I am sure others do too, offer In-State tuition for all active and retired military service members.

Finally, look at a program who doesn't spend much with a small population and resources yet, comes out with profit, like Kansas State, and utilize some of their approaches.

Yeah, and Rite Aid is being bought out by Walgreens. Who will buy out the Herd?

 

[GreenDuke]

Also, well, economically, convince Huntington and the local businesses, that they need MU.
When I got to MU in 2004, it was a very polarized place...locals despised MU but enjoyed the students. MU often had problems expanding past their alotted area.

That has improved alot with Williams working more with MU as well as just trying to improve the aesthetics of the city. This is evident with some of the city plans involving MU things like a baseball field.

The first city in WV to abandon the WV mentality, will prosper and I hope its Huntington.
This whole, 'Aww yeah boy, you needsa be a coal miner! It keeps the laghts on!!!" Is becoming more and more bullshit.
With the subtleness of a fart in the bathtub, the industry of energy is moving past coal and getting more techy.
Huntington and MU should see this as a major opportunity for the region. Look ahead and anticipate the prospects of professional jobs, then beging implementing programs for those jobs. You can even use MU's research groups to figure this stuff out for you.
Encourage displaced coal miners to come to the city, or nearby, and give them programs they train for, and can walk across the street to work on building solar panels.
I believe this was a big part of the HIP plan Williams won the ABC contest with, but we need more.
Marshall can help by saying its a good idea and get programs to train/engineer products and services to help accelerate this area.
I know a major slumlord who is basically so screwed that the bank owns his house...this is great news since abandonded buildings he owns, are likely gonna get auctioned off and repaired/re-built for something better and well maintained.

Overall, the city and school need to work together and implement a vision for the next 50 years, and move in that direction.
Some of the industries are fonna be opposed heavily by the state, but eventually some will pass through. Possibly even denied their success by the state, even when they are successdul, well, just sell those legislative idiots some baby Unicorns set to be born in 2018.
As I said for MU, the city should look to other cities that were able to economically grow, who fell on hard times that we currently are in. It'll be tough to ignore the bkue hairs who try to remind everyone that "this is WV, we don't need no stinkin' big ideas or industry!" But it won't be hard to ignore moving in another direction where certain industries are thriving.

There was no need to post 2004 as your arrival date at MU, your post says it perfectly.

 

[ohio herd]

1.Fans love exciting football, we are a fickle bunch these days, if you don't give them what gets the blood moving, they don't come to watch. Doesn't matter if you win or lose, if you play boring football, you get MAC level support. So given that, a change of offense would be nice, how many Rakeem's is Legg ever going to get to make him look good?

2. Watered down CUSA is having its effect. No one cares or has heard of half of the teams in the conference now. Don't know how you fix that other than defecting to another conference. Otherwise time will have to play itself out.

I am curious what conference we have ever been in that had any bigger name schools? I posted the numbers recently for the past 13 years and our home yr att is fairly stable. It goes up some the yrs we bring WVU or Purdue to town. Finally, what conference can we move to? The MAC doesn't want us back and who could blame them. The American has no need to take us.

 

[All4TheHerd]

Yeah, and Rite Aid is being bought out by Walgreens. Who will buy out the Herd?

The highest bidder!!! Lol.

 

[All4TheHerd]

There was no need to post 2004 as your arrival date at MU, your post says it perfectly.

Not sure if this was meant to be a jab at me or not. If its because of the spelling errors then I am sorry, I was in a hurry and didn't have the time to check.

 

[ThunderCat98]

Not sure if this was meant to be a jab at me or not. If its because of the spelling errors then I am sorry, I was in a hurry and didn't have the time to check.

I think he was implying this has always been the case, not just from 2004 on.

 

[oldeherd]

How about razing the entire area between 3rd and 5th Avenues East of the campus from about the old ACF parking lot all the way up to the Hoops Soccer Complex? Mostly sub par housing and slums. Do the same west of 6th Street Bridge for about 3-5 blocks north and south, around Adams, Washington Avenues, etc., mostly dilapidated housing, abandoned empty businesses, old warehouses, etc.. Then plant industrial hemp in both areas on the razed ground. Turn Huntington into the largest source east of the Mississippi River. Then as medical marijuana becomes more accepted and legalized in more and more states and jurisdictions, Huntington will be able to corner much of the market in this part of the country. City designates a small surcharge on every pound sold and shipped from the city and designates those funds for MU!!!!''

Problem Solved!!

 

[ohio herd]

To increase the attendance we need to increase the fan base. To do this we need to find ways to bring in the next generation. Band days are great ways to expose 100's of youth and parents. Why not a HS football day. Let all of the schools in the end zone for a small charge and wear their jersey. Advertise in a 100 mile radius of Huntington. Billboards, tv, and especially Face Book.

 

[raleighherdfan]

you mean to tell me you guys don't think the 2-3 Marshall billboards between Kanawha City and Huntington are working??????????

 

[beefcake0520]

I am curious what conference we have ever been in that had any bigger name schools? I posted the numbers recently for the past 13 years and our home yr att is fairly stable. It goes up some the yrs we bring WVU or Purdue to town. Finally, what conference can we move to? The MAC doesn't want us back and who could blame them. The American has no need to take us.

Not trying to argue anything here, but ECU, Memphis, Houston etc all were bigger names than 70% of our current membership, so I am saying that CUSA 2.0 was much better on name recognition than 3.1. If you take a very good look at the conference, try to look at it from an outsiders perspective, we look more like the belt than we do CUSA 2.0. If you take out the years we hosted a P5, like last year, the WVU years, 2015 Purdue, we have made a steady decline in attendance since the last wave of realignment. If you don't believe that, see what even Cincy coming to town does, I bet it will be 33k or so. We haven't had a P5 this year, biggest name was Miami Oh, averaging around 22 or 23K........

 

[Dreh_Nagi_HC_IM]

Not trying to argue anything here, but ECU, Memphis, Houston etc all were bigger names than 70% of our current membership.

Because I'm curious, which current CUSA schools are bigger names than the three you listed? You indicated 30% of them, which would be 3 or 4.

 

[beefcake0520]

Because I'm curious, which current CUSA schools are bigger names than the three you listed? You indicated 30% of them, which would be 3 or 4.

I didn't say anyone current had bigger names, I was referring to the incoming replacements. Marshall, USM, and UTEP could be argued, or really any of the 5 that got left behind. The only replacement that can be argued is LT. So that makes anywhere between 5-6 schooled that can be argued, out of 14....

 

[HerdBuckeye]

I didn't say anyone current had bigger names, I was referring to the incoming replacements. Marshall, USM, and UTEP could be argued, or really any of the 5 that got left behind. The only replacement that can be argued is LT. So that makes anywhere between 5-6 schooled that can be argued, out of 14....

No way Utep Marshall or southern miss are bigger names than any of those.

 

[ohio herd]

Not trying to argue anything here, but ECU, Memphis, Houston etc all were bigger names than 70% of our current membership, so I am saying that CUSA 2.0 was much better on name recognition than 3.1. If you take a very good look at the conference, try to look at it from an outsiders perspective, we look more like the belt than we do CUSA 2.0. If you take out the years we hosted a P5, like last year, the WVU years, 2015 Purdue, we have made a steady decline in attendance since the last wave of realignment. If you don't believe that, see what even Cincy coming to town does, I bet it will be 33k or so. We haven't had a P5 this year, biggest name was Miami Oh, averaging around 22 or 23K........

Two things. I recently posted the yearly attendance numbers for us since 2003. They are listed on the NCAA site. We avg 26,000 over a 14 year period of time. We go up some when we play a school like WVU, Purdue or K-State. The years you mention are only slightly higher and doesn't really affect the avg. Second, bringing a good team to town isn't that easy to do.I think Hammy is doing a solid job of bringing P5 to Huntington. Even if we can do one a year we may or may not have increased the fanbase. People that show up for the one game a year aren't necessarily going to start wearing kelly Green. I would agree that playing Purdue is much better than playing Lil Miami.

 

[beefcake0520]

No way Utep Marshall or southern miss are bigger names than any of those.

I didn't say they were bigger than those, geez, I said bigger names in general when compared to the programs that replaced them, how the hell did this all get pointed that direction
Go back and read the original post before Michigan herd screwed it up.

 

[Dreh_Nagi_HC_IM]

Not trying to argue anything here, but ECU, Memphis, Houston etc all were bigger names than 70% of our current membership.

I didn't say they were bigger than those, geez, I said bigger names in general when compared to the programs that replaced them, how the hell did this all get pointed that direction
Go back and read the original post before Michigan herd screwed it up.

Well, as long as you didn't say it...

 

[beefcake0520]

Because I'm curious, which current CUSA schools are bigger names than the three you listed? You indicated 30% of them, which would be 3 or 4.

I actually misread this post. I didn't say any were bigger than those 3. I said those 3, and others, which is what "etc." means, have bigger names than 70 % of our conference, meaning that I can argue that USM, Marshall, Utep, LT, Rice, UAB have as big of a name, particularly Marshall and USM. We all did share a conference with them after all.

" Not trying to argue anything here, but ECU, Memphis, Houston etc all were bigger names than 70% of our current membership, so I am saying that CUSA 2.0 was much better on name recognition than 3.1". Now where in that quote did I say that any current school in CUSA was "bigger" in name than the 3 I hand picked, to also include other current AAC schools that used to be in CUSA? You can't and won't find it in that quote on the original post.

 

[beefcake0520]

Well, as long as you didn't say it...

It wasn't said, that was something you conjured up to start an argument, good try.

 

[All4TheHerd]

Not trying to argue anything here, but ECU, Memphis, Houston etc all were bigger names than 70% of our current membership, so I am saying that CUSA 2.0 was much better on name recognition than 3.1. If you take a very good look at the conference, try to look at it from an outsiders perspective, we look more like the belt than we do CUSA 2.0. If you take out the years we hosted a P5, like last year, the WVU years, 2015 Purdue, we have made a steady decline in attendance since the last wave of realignment. If you don't believe that, see what even Cincy coming to town does, I bet it will be 33k or so. We haven't had a P5 this year, biggest name was Miami Oh, averaging around 22 or 23K........

Houston I'll give you, because they had Case Keenum for 100 years and he broke several NCAA records. They also had that miraculous run to almost a BCS Bowl, so ESPN did follow them.
ECU, more of a flash in the pan than anything...yes, they had some good seasons and 2 weeks where they were ranked in the top 25.
Memphis, never was someone recognizable.
These schools who now left and are basically in an old conference that USED to be a BCS one, now have upped their funds and efforts to make themselves relevant and "feel" like one.
Because of this, they've drawn more attention to themselves and thus, are making efforts to remain in the spotlight.

As for Marshall? I think too many fans believe its as simple as picking up the phone and calling a P5's AD and scheduling. Its not. Hamrick has made it clear he wants 1:1 games.
Now, however, with TV being so low and funds being scarce as they are, he took a 1 and done with South Carolina for basically the yearly payout of a MAC school TV contract ( I think), which is fine, cause bills gotta be paid.

I think the teams he has coming will have a key factor in that they travel well. Purdue brought a good crowd, KSU did too, Louisville always does, and I imagine future teams will too.

I think one thing that may begin to get casual fans to wear Kelly Green more often and attend games, possibly, would be inviting P5's to Huntington AND BEATING THEM, because if the casual fan is gonna remember anything from the season, it'll be when we beat _________ from the P5.

 

[beefcake0520]

Houston I'll give you, because they had Case Keenum for 100 years and he broke several NCAA records. They also had that miraculous run to almost a BCS Bowl, so ESPN did follow them.
ECU, more of a flash in the pan than anything...yes, they had some good seasons and 2 weeks where they were ranked in the top 25.
Memphis, never was someone recognizable.
These schools who now left and are basically in an old conference that USED to be a BCS one, now have upped their funds and efforts to make themselves relevant and "feel" like one.
Because of this, they've drawn more attention to themselves and thus, are making efforts to remain in the spotlight.

As for Marshall? I think too many fans believe its as simple as picking up the phone and calling a P5's AD and scheduling. Its not. Hamrick has made it clear he wants 1:1 games.
Now, however, with TV being so low and funds being scarce as they are, he took a 1 and done with South Carolina for basically the yearly payout of a MAC school TV contract ( I think), which is fine, cause bills gotta be paid.

I think the teams he has coming will have a key factor in that they travel well. Purdue brought a good crowd, KSU did too, Louisville always does, and I imagine future teams will too.

I think one thing that may begin to get casual fans to wear Kelly Green more often and attend games, possibly, would be inviting P5's to Huntington AND BEATING THEM, because if the casual fan is gonna remember anything from the season, it'll be when we beat _________ from the P5.

I don't disagree with any of that. My point was, whether they sucked or not, they had name recognition that a fair weather fan recognized. We are now loaded with teams that the fair weather fan had no clue of even playing D1 ball. That does affect interest to a point. We had awful teams during Snyder, yet people came to the games, I have no way of proving that the opponent had something to do with it, but I do believe that it did. Imagine how much better the attendance could have been had our results not been so bad during that time era..........

 

[Dreh_Nagi_HC_IM]

I actually misread this post. I didn't say any were bigger than those 3. I said those 3, and others, which is what "etc." means, have bigger names than 70 % of our conference, meaning that I can argue that USM, Marshall, Utep, LT, Rice, UAB have as big of a name, particularly Marshall and USM. We all did share a conference with them after all.

I never said you said they were bigger. You said they were bigger names than 70% of the current CUSA, and based on that, you insinuated 30% of the current CUSA were bigger names than ECU, Houston, and Memphis, so I wanted to know which CUSA teams (30% of them) were bigger names than those three. You finally said USM, Marshall, UTEP, LT, Rice,UAB. I respectfully disagree.

 

[beefcake0520]

Insinuated, is that the same as you assuming? Nothing in that insinuated anything about any CUSA member being bigger names than those former CUSA teams I mentioned. I said USM, Marshall, UTEP, LT, Rice UAB, are arguably "as big", and I would argue that............for now. The words of what I said are plainly written for those who have reading comprehension lol but I guess not black and white enough for some. The longer we hang out with in the current conference, the likelihood of becoming less known is possible unless the conference improves and makes a name for itself, losing individual brand and value, and the improbable aspect is that any of those CUSA schools rise up, dominate and bring up the conference several years in a row, probably not going to happen.

 

[bbneutralfan]

Clean house - start over - new blood in both athletic department and Big Green. Time to quit recycling old no longer working ideas turn to departments on campus for fresh, current ideas. Way past time for Big Green to find some other gift. I don’t need anymore plates for the front of my car. I think an infusion of new blood would help - can’t hurt. JMO

 

[dangerousdaneerfan]

Part of the problem currently can be laid square at the feet of Marcum for pulling the plug on home games with Tennessee, Miami, and Clemson.

 

[MU1st]

Recruit as much local talent as we can like the GW QB is one strategy.

 

[All4TheHerd]

Clean house - start over - new blood in both athletic department and Big Green. Time to quit recycling old no longer working ideas turn to departments on campus for fresh, current ideas. Way past time for Big Green to find some other gift. I don’t need anymore plates for the front of my car. I think an infusion of new blood would help - can’t hurt. JMO

That would require an increase in prices and BG donations.
Are you willing to do that? Because people complained about the high ticket prices as they are...I can't imagine your reaction if they were increased further since what you're proposing is astronomical in terms of cost.

See, thats the difference between MU and forward thinking programs...the AD's of others KNOW their fans and donors will pool money to can them if they screw up.
We talk about canning someone but when it comes down to the root of it, which is pooling money to do it, everyone's quiet.

 

[beefcake0520]

Recruit as much local talent as we can like the GW QB is one strategy.

There is a reason we go else where for recruits, especially skill positions, I will leave it at that. If we recruited half our team locally, we'd be lucky to win more than 1 or 2 games a year....