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Post by Commissioner on Jul 7, 2022 19:05:18 GMT -5
The Titans' game day experience is really lacking. It pains me to say that one problem is cavernous Calihan Hall. But that's a long-term issue. Sprucing up the Titan Club is good, but a capital project. What are some things that could be done immediately, and probably cheaply?
Here's a few thoughts of mine:
1. Improve concessions. Bob Morris, for example, offers Chic-Fil-A and other offerings. We've got to move beyond the traditional dogs, popcorn, nachos and beer.
2. Concession lines have to move faster. Even with only 1100 people in attendance, you literally cannot go to the concession stand at the beginning of halftime and expect to see the opening minutes of the second half.
3. Concession area has to be cleaner. Most the time it looks like a pigsty.
4. I assume this is a gimme, but for Pete's sake, no Covid restrictions or masks this year.
5. Dump the PC Horizon League videos before the game. Fans don't need or want this kind of mission messaging in any direction. Whatever you do will irritate at least 30-40%, probably more, of your fans. If people want to be irritated about the culture war issue of the day, they'll stay at home at watch MSNBC or listen to talk radio. Play the national anthem and start the game.
6. Ticket takers need to know what they hell they are doing, and should be able to count change. The takers don't know who gets the senior rate, they take forever to make change, they don't seem to know how the system works. Cleveland State, YSU, Robert Morris, WSU (all where I've attended games recently) and I assume most of the other league schools don't have this problem.
7. Get the pep band out for every game. Pay them if necessary. Another suggestion has been to get local high school pep bands to come out.
8. Try to get more students out. Do things like offer free pizza and soft drinks in the student section (but only after halftime).
Other ideas?
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Post by Rogobob77 on Jul 7, 2022 19:23:15 GMT -5
Regarding your item #1, I would “Detroiterize” concession offerings. Where possible, the Detroit-centric element of our brand should relate to the offerings in the concession stands. It would be great if we could include Detroit-style Coney dogs, Better Made potato chips, Vernors Ginger Ale, and Faygo "Titan" Red Pop to create a sense of place for fans looking to catch a bite to eat before or during a game. Consider a partnership with National Coney Island to provide their specialty concessions item throughout the season or at select games.
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Post by happy on Jul 7, 2022 20:12:36 GMT -5
Regarding your item #1, I would “Detroiterize” concession offerings. Where possible, the Detroit-centric element of our brand should relate to the offerings in the concession stands. It would be great if we could include Detroit-style Coney dogs, Better Made potato chips, Vernors Ginger Ale, and Faygo "Titan" Red Pop to create a sense of place for fans looking to catch a bite to eat before or during a game. Consider a partnership with National Coney Island to provide their specialty concessions item throughout the season or at select games. That would be awesome! I love the idea! Home games at Calihan Hall, would have a home feel to the experience, long regarded as one of the great places to watch basketball in all of Michigan. Why wouldn't a college student not want to play there?
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Post by titantarheel on Jul 8, 2022 7:55:20 GMT -5
It’s kinda sad that the Commish ideas are in the realm of truly the bare minimum that the experience should be. It’s just concessions and we flop at it. Ugh.
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Post by nctitan on Jul 8, 2022 9:19:58 GMT -5
Regarding your item #1, I would “Detroiterize” concession offerings. Where possible, the Detroit-centric element of our brand should relate to the offerings in the concession stands. It would be great if we could include Detroit-style Coney dogs, Better Made potato chips, Vernors Ginger Ale, and Faygo "Titan" Red Pop to create a sense of place for fans looking to catch a bite to eat before or during a game. Consider a partnership with National Coney Island to provide their specialty concessions item throughout the season or at select games. That would be awesome! I love the idea! Home games at Calihan Hall, would have a home feel to the experience, long regarded as one of the great places to watch basketball in all of Michigan. Why wouldn't a college student not want to play there? I think the answer to the final question is that Calihan has many shortcomings beyond concessions. Locker rooms, facilities, dining, dorms, etc. After all, 15 homes games a year is about 30 to 40 hours, but being a basketball player is that much every two weeks. Read through this board and there are many references to posters wondering why players aren't already on campus -- and the first home game at Calihan is many months away. "Want[ing] to play there" is much more than gametime. That's what the Road to a Championship is all about.
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Post by Commissioner on Jul 9, 2022 14:50:15 GMT -5
That would be awesome! I love the idea! Home games at Calihan Hall, would have a home feel to the experience, long regarded as one of the great places to watch basketball in all of Michigan. Why wouldn't a college student not want to play there? I think the answer to the final question is that Calihan has many shortcomings beyond concessions. Locker rooms, facilities, dining, dorms, etc. After all, 15 homes games a year is about 30 to 40 hours, but being a basketball player is that much every two weeks. Read through this board and there are many references to posters wondering why players aren't already on campus -- and the first home game at Calihan is many months away. "Want[ing] to play there" is much more than gametime. That's what the Road to a Championship is all about. But I'm specifically not discussing things that are the result of the physical problems of Calihan. You don't need capital improvements to not alienate your fans with politically controversial videos (even if they are put out by the league), to run the ticket office and concessions competently, to improve the quality of food for sale, and to do a few things (like assure the pep band is there) to improve the atmosphere in the arena. These are things any competent program does.
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Post by fan on Jul 9, 2022 16:12:17 GMT -5
Calihan is old, so what so is Henkle, Commissioner is right the whole concession experience is equal to an average HS, Rogobob really has a good idea using Detroit brands. In the gogo years when the U of D teams were good, there were few college basketball places that were better or more fun. The time to start is now and hope and build better teams, people will come to watch a winner.
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Post by terrytylerfan on Jul 9, 2022 16:14:21 GMT -5
Important topic. We might get some new fans this year if there’s any kind of Antoine marketing, and it would be nice to give them reasons to come back (instead of reasons not to). The Detroit-centric food idea sounds good to me. We had high school bands a few times in the last 5 years or so, and I thought it was a nice addition to the atmosphere each time except for one night with an unusually small crowd, even for us (weather?) and it just seemed to reinforce the emptiness.
Student enthusiasm seems to be a chronic tough problem, so the free food and drinks idea is a good one, especially the after halftime part. There was a fairly recent academic awards night for all sports, with lots of students and parents along with one of the better crowds of that year. The students were into it, chanting and cheering, and I remember thinking it could be a great sign for the future - there’s a lot of them, they’re having fun, they’ll be back, - but that feeling didn’t last very long. After the halftime awards ceremony, they all went home. Makes me wonder how much on-campus student marketing is done.
Bring back the Fly Dogs! They became sort of a joke (is that the best we can do?), but at least it was ... something.
Commissioner, there was a mild benefit to the Covid restrictions ... no concessions!
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Post by nctitan on Jul 10, 2022 9:30:19 GMT -5
I think the answer to the final question is that Calihan has many shortcomings beyond concessions. Locker rooms, facilities, dining, dorms, etc. After all, 15 homes games a year is about 30 to 40 hours, but being a basketball player is that much every two weeks. Read through this board and there are many references to posters wondering why players aren't already on campus -- and the first home game at Calihan is many months away. "Want[ing] to play there" is much more than gametime. That's what the Road to a Championship is all about. But I'm specifically not discussing things that are the result of the physical problems of Calihan. You don't need capital improvements to not alienate your fans with politically controversial videos (even if they are put out by the league), to run the ticket office and concessions competently, to improve the quality of food for sale, and to do a few things (like assure the pep band is there) to improve the atmosphere in the arena. These are things any competent program does. I was responding specifically to the comment's final question: "Why wouldn't a college student not want to play there?" Concessions and a pep band will not attract better players. It's hard to find silver bullets these days. No single answer to complex questions, otherwise it would have already been done.
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Post by ptctitan on Jul 10, 2022 11:46:44 GMT -5
I think the answer to the final question is that Calihan has many shortcomings beyond concessions. Locker rooms, facilities, dining, dorms, etc. After all, 15 homes games a year is about 30 to 40 hours, but being a basketball player is that much every two weeks. Read through this board and there are many references to posters wondering why players aren't already on campus -- and the first home game at Calihan is many months away. "Want[ing] to play there" is much more than gametime. That's what the Road to a Championship is all about. But I'm specifically not discussing things that are the result of the physical problems of Calihan. You don't need capital improvements to not alienate your fans with politically controversial videos (even if they are put out by the league), to run the ticket office and concessions competently, to improve the quality of food for sale, and to do a few things (like assure the pep band is there) to improve the atmosphere in the arena. These are things any competent program does. Even when capital and operating budgets may be constrained, good facilities management is all about doing the little things well. Providing unworkable microphones for the dais on 3-4 consecutive annual Media Days is unacceptable. Having unworkable microphones for Media Day interviews is unacceptable. Having dingy and inefficient concession stands is unacceptable. Not updating the plaques and wall displays for years is unacceptable. There has to be greater effort put forth for game promotions and marketing. Covid was an excuse to do nothing. Even before that, it appeared that the default strategy was to repeat the prior year's ideas. In Spiritus, Dr. Taylor talked about urging people to think "more entrepreneurially." That needs to be a mantra in the Athletic Department. Unfortunately, marketing and promotions appear to be an afterthought. There is no associate AD with a strong background in marketing and promotions. The three main associate AD's are a business manager, a compliance guy, and a sports medicine expert. Ticket sales are supervised by the business manager; thus, it appears to be merely an extension of a bookkeeping operation. Marketing and promotions is one person who has other roles. Yes, becoming a more attractive destination for student-athletes requires more capital investment in a lot of things the fans don't see. However, making basketball games an event that many more people will like to attend requires doing the little things right. Commissioner's list of suggestions is a good starting point. So are the other things suggested by other posters. It takes a coordinated effort on both fronts to make things better by attracting more spectators and making us a more desirable destination for players in high school, the transfer portal and JUCO.
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Post by Rogobob77 on Jul 10, 2022 12:23:08 GMT -5
It is my understanding that there will be an enhanced emphasis on marketing & promotions for the coming season. A lot of that is currently in the planning stages but will come together in the next couple months as the game schedule comes into focus.
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Post by happy on Jul 10, 2022 13:54:01 GMT -5
It is my understanding that there will be an enhanced emphasis on marketing & promotions for the coming season. A lot of that is currently in the planning stages but will come together in the next couple months as the game schedule comes into focus. That's great. It would be great if the planners think about bring back the media guide publication for the basketball season. Last one I think was 2004 and before that 1999.
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Post by Rogobob77 on Jul 10, 2022 14:20:35 GMT -5
It is my understanding that there will be an enhanced emphasis on marketing & promotions for the coming season. A lot of that is currently in the planning stages but will come together in the next couple months as the game schedule comes into focus. That's great. It would be great if the planners think about bring back the media guide publication for the basketball season. Last one I think was 2004 and before that 1999. I miss the printed media guides (and game programs too), but they are probably a relic of the past. The printing costs are extremely high, and you would really need a significant volume of sales to break even. Not just at UDM, but all over you see online virtual or downloadable media guides for sports teams. A little off subject, but relatable, the Detroit News is currently running a special where you get six months of the eEdition of the paper for 99 cents. If you buy a single copy of the (increasingly thin) daily paper off the newsstand, it now costs a whopping $3.49.
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Post by upbasketballfan on Jul 10, 2022 14:51:22 GMT -5
That's great. It would be great if the planners think about bring back the media guide publication for the basketball season. Last one I think was 2004 and before that 1999. I miss the printed media guides (and game programs too), but they are probably a relic of the past. The printing costs are extremely high, and you would really need a significant volume of sales to break even. Not just at UDM, but all over you see online virtual or downloadable media guides for sports teams. A little off subject, but relatable, the Detroit News is currently running a special where you get six months of the eEdition of the paper for 99 cents. If you buy a single copy of the (increasingly thin) daily paper off the newsstand, it now costs a whopping $3.49. I wouldn’t give the Detroit Newspaper Corp. a penny of my money so they are still 99 cents high!
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Post by ptctitan on Jul 11, 2022 6:35:17 GMT -5
One obvious marketing strategy would be to align game day marketing with the new restaurants and brewery that have opened within the Liv6 area. Don't go in with the idea of hitting up the new businesses for donations. Offer them joint promotions and then go and patronize their establishments if the product is reasonably good. Athletic Department personnel should be conducting as many business lunches in these places as they do elsewhere in Detroit. The Titan Club should consider gathering at some of these places pre-game. Offer them an opportunity to showcase their food at a game as part of the concession offerings for a percentage of the take. They want to get their names out there. We should want to re-engage with the neighborhood community like we used to do from the 1940s-1970s. If you want development on Livernois and McNichols adjacent to the university, then the university should be reaching out to those businesses who are the first movers in trying to jumpstart the area. They are taking a huge investment risk. If there are pre-game gatherings, have them at Liv6 businesses. If there is a coach's show, have it at a Liv6 restaurant. It is in the mutual interest of these businesses and the university to make redevelopment in Liv6 successful. We can no longer continue to hide behind our fence using Covid as an excuse. Show the community businesses that we appreciate them and we might just be surprised at their reaction.
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