I have a few ideas, post game firework shows for night games(last two firework shows 29k and 33k), better/cheaper concessions, oh and beer sales. But let's stick with the same old same old
Beer certainly helped SMU basketball. Can't really judge how it affected football attendance since they're so terrible this year.Concessions aren't as bad as some other places, i.e. Drillers, BOK, etc. And TU tried the beer thing. It didn't help increase attendance OR concessions sales in the 2-3 years they did it.
TU isn't in the greatest area..so I'm ok with the fencing in part.
1995 and 1996 seasons....So 20 years ago. And comparing our concessions to the BOK and the Drillers is laughable, only place in this area that has worst concessions than us is the fairgrounds. One of the worst moves we also made was fencing in our whole entire campus to make it look like a damn country club, no wonder the rest of the community feels like a damn outsider when they come to our games.
Huffy's right on the campus plan. I was a part of many of those meetings regarding security, building more apartments, and how to market them. The number of students living on campus, including local kids who are not required to live on campus for 2 years is a very high percentage compared to similar size and caliber schools.There were tax and liability issues after the 1995 season and during the mid 2000s that are no longer present. Thats all I can give you in this forum. If they wanted to bring beer back, they could. Right now, it is a draw for the high revenue suites. Until the numbers show they will make more at the tap pouring to us wahoos, they won't give up that amenity. Judging by the number of people standing in line for tall boys during halftime just off property in front of the Reynolds Center, that won't be anytime soon. I have no problem with people coming to tailgate and leaving. FSU is rarely full, even when they are number one and playing a ranked opponent. They routinely attract upwards to half a million people for some tailgates. Thats a lot of tax revenue that gives them leverage with the city on other issues. If you want TU to be Tulsa's team, you need to invite the whole city, even if they don't buy a ticket. Their kids will grow up wanting to play for TU and it will pay off in the end. That was Bowden's strategy and it worked pretty well. Boise pretty much the same thing, but they added in a professional marketing wing to specifically target what locals would buy in terms of merchandise.
As for the fence, it is what it is. If you want to compete against Tulane, SMU, Creighton and others for students, you need to match and exceed their amenities. That includes an enclosed campus that has some sort of architectural plan. You can't have it both ways. If you want to be elite, you need to act like it. If you want to sell degrees to people with money who want their kids close to home and don't want them going to Stillwater and Norman because deep down inside they know junior will party and fail out if the leash is too long, then feel free to build your campus around record stores, biker bars, and let the slum lords collect the rent from crappy apartments. Or you can buy the apartments, demolish the surrounding competing market, and keep the money. Your call.
then feel free to build your campus around record stores, biker bars, and let the slum lords collect the rent from crappy apartments.
I'm still sad that we ran off Starship. It was the place to be back in the day. It's just not the same on Lewis.