fightintxaggie10 said:

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I keep reading these posts and it blows my mind. I was a student from 06-11 and every conference game was sold out with the exception of a couple

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You have a terrible memory then. Midweek attendance has always been an issue no matter how good we are unless the opponent is also really good.

Only way to really get students their consistently is to offer the possibility for free food. Taking a page out of the Spurs book, win a free Fuego taco if the team score 80 points....

The have a Pluckers five free wings deal if the opponent misses two free throws in a row.

In the spirit of promotions to get people to the arena...I actually think the AD did a good job last night.

Free T-Shirts for the first 3,000
Educator Appreciation ticket deal
Baseball team signing autographs

Sub-10k will always be a little disappointing, but 8 pm on a Tuesday is quite literally the worst possible time a game could be scheduled at A&M for all the reasons others have already mentioned. Those that did show up were loud and engaged in the second half. Best environment we've had since the Bama game.

TulaneAg said:

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We had season tickets in section 124 for many years and we finally got tired of that being the visitors section...we moved this year and have been much happier.

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Our usual seats are in Section 117 Row B; beautiful seats. Our friends got 4 tickets for a bday gift so we sat with them. Sitting in Section 124 takes a special kind of grace.

When I was a student, early in the first year of BCG they gave out free pizza to the student section. Dude walked up the into the stands and was handing out boxes himself.

Obviously now we are past the point of needing bribes.

I'm still a proponent of the points system for student tickets. Want the best seats for football? Show up to everything else. Earn points with every sporting event you attend. Moving to a digital ticket pull for football should make that very easy to accomplish.

I remember Tony Barone bringing us hot dogs.

2nd Generation Ag said:

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Look you wouldnt sell out a football game at 8pm on a Tuesday night. You all but eliminate anyone that wants to come from out of town because of the late start.

And the town is not big enough to support it on its own. If your team was in Houston or Dallas it would be different.

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The area has plenty of people to support basketball it isn't a priority for them and the marketing isn't generating huge demand. To a certain extent is what it is, but Blair's retail marketing built the women's program from almost nothing so we know marketing is essential to fan growth.

We now have the trifecta: Breakaway, exams and marketing

When the concession stand outside of section 106 was closed at the 15:50 mark of the second half, I commented to my wife "there must be a big Physics test or something tomorrow".

I was kinda joking BUT good to know my spidey senses were somewhat tuned in...

I think the main thing is how to get more students in the crowd for midweek games. What clever solutions could the athletic department come up with to get students interested in attending (freebies, better seat allocations, some kind of rewards system based on games attended, etc) as well as options to fill empty seats effectively when the people who bought them don't show up - that may be virtually impossible from a logistics standpoint. There are always more things to do or try.

Midweek is tough on people with jobs, people with kids, people out of town. Especially 8 PM midweek. But we were all students once, maybe some better than I was, but I feel there is almost zero excuse to not be able to squeeze in 2 or 4 hours a week to attend - if you are interested. The question is how to get them interested, CAN we even get them interested. Its a top 10 team with multi year players, someone who is kind of a star player, typically an easy type of team to like and follow. Is it the seat location? Is it difficulty in getting to and from Reed? Is it difficulty in securing a ticket? Is it game atmosphere? Is school too hard now to allow any free time? Given most have no job, no kids, and that attending classes only takes, in a literal sense, about 15 hours a week how do we not make Aggie team support a free time priority for them?

frenchtoast said:

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I remember Tony Barone bringing us hot dogs.

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It was like Blue Bell- Tony ate what he could and gave away the rest.

You'll have a more passionate crowd per capita without the breakaway people, but smaller in number. As a student, nobody really knew we were playing. Brought 6 and were loud but I don't remember late starts on weekdays a couple years ago being that sparse

Pretty weird to me that we have slightly lackluster turnout two games in a row that were both 8 pm games on Tuesdays and now the world is caving in. We've had a few games this season where students were turned down at the door because student capacity was full. For the Bama game it was a full 30 minutes before tip. Every other team in the country struggles to get a good turnout on late midweek games, and ours specifically were fighting against Breakaway, awful weather, and test week. We'll be fine and I anticipate a much better crowd this weekend.

I thought it had a great atmosphere regardless and the outcome clearly was not dependent on us having a sellout. I would love more people as well, but when we've had great turnouts 3/5 conference games that we've hosted I don't think it's something to worry too much about. But I guess when things are going well there has to be something to complain about right?

Buzz to Indiana