School Administrators need to make a big effort to bring back the fans

Yappi

Yappi

Go Buckeyes
The nearer we get to the 2021 season, I'm starting to fear that the enthusiasm for the game that we see on here may not translate to the general HS football audience. This season might come up significantly short on attendance compared to the 2019 season.

I'm hoping that the Administrators across the state will make a strong push to attract the average football fan. People have changed their lifestyles and football may or may not be apart of that lifestyle anymore. Of all the years to try and attract fans with marketing, this could be a make or break year.

If anyone has the inside scoop on their school's season ticket sales, post in here how things work.

I'm also hearing some schools are going to go to online sales of tickets which will also drive away longterm fans that aren't so technologically gifted.
 
 
I think I agree with both Yappi and thavoice simultaneously.

I don't think high school football has many fair weather fans any more. You're either going to go to games because that's what you've always done. Or, you just went because of rote behavior and now you're used to not going you're not going to suddenly change behavior without an external push.

And part of that is the aging fan base. Streaming, especially the Friday night live streaming of practically every game, is going to be intriguing to pull that back after fans that wanted or adapted to it got used to it.

Also interested in how many schools out leagues raise ticket prices to try and make back some of that loss from last fall. Hopefully none. But I'm sure if schools were on the brink of going up a buck before covid, they definitely would now.
 
I don't think there is any doubt that the ticket prices will go up. I tend to think that the casual fans who went to a couple games a year will stay away after not being able to go this past year. Culture changes are inevitable. You used to see many people go to games who had no kids who played were in the band or cheerleaders . Even on this sight I have seen people call others 'creepy" for even going to games . Yes it is rare but if you don'[t have a kid involved ? Why would you go watch ? Back in the day many of us were in communties where if you ran into someone during the week you didn't even ask if they were going to 'the game " { Could have been other sports as well especially in the tournament .}

Most just 'Went to the game ", it was what you did " and it was cool when you were a kid who played , to see that type of support. Road attendance is dismal in many cases even in games within say 20-25 minutes from home . It is a fact of life now. Many schools in big football states with bigger stadiums don't fill them most Friday's or come even close to filling them . A few games a year and that's not a given now. Coffman -Jerome will be the only 'Big " crowd I would think this season for a Rocks home game. May be decent attendance in the season opener . I do think the student turnout will be strong after Most couldn't go to the games last year.
 
Harrycrane said:
I don't think there is any doubt that the ticket prices will go up. I tend to think that the casual fans who went to a couple games a year will stay away after not being able to go this past year. Culture changes are inevitable. You used to see many people go to games who had no kids who played were in the band or cheerleaders . Even on this sight I have seen people call others 'creepy" for even going to games . Yes it is rare but if you don'[t have a kid involved ? Why would you go watch ? Back in the day many of us were in communties where if you ran into someone during the week you didn't even ask if they were going to 'the game " { Could have been other sports as well especially in the tournament .}

Most just 'Went to the game ", it was what you did " and it was cool when you were a kid who played , to see that type of support. Road attendance is dismal in many cases even in games within say 20-25 minutes from home . It is a fact of life now. Many schools in big football states with bigger stadiums don't fill them most Friday's or come even close to filling them . A few games a year and that's not a given now. Coffman -Jerome will be the only 'Big " crowd I would think this season for a Rocks home game. May be decent attendance in the season opener . I do think the student turnout will be strong after Most couldn't go to the games last year.
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The MAC has raised their ticket prices a BUCK for next year.... not a surprise
 
I still go (no kids left in high school) because I still know a lot of the parents with kids and the school is close and convenient. But, I am literally a fair weather fan....once it get rainy or really cold, I don't go. I will still go this year because I like high school sports and the ticket price is still Ok for the entertainment (if Green was better I might go to more). If they bump the price up, I'll still go but that's just me. Hopefully people are itching to get out and watch some football in the fall.
 
Yappi said:
The nearer we get to the 2021 season, I'm starting to fear that the enthusiasm for the game that we see on here may not translate to the general HS football audience. This season might come up significantly short on attendance compared to the 2019 season.

I'm hoping that the Administrators across the state will make a strong push to attract the average football fan. People have changed their lifestyles and football may or may not be apart of that lifestyle anymore. Of all the years to try and attract fans with marketing, this could be a make or break year.

If anyone has the inside scoop on their school's season ticket sales, post in here how things work.

I'm also hearing some schools are going to go to online sales of tickets which will also drive away longterm fans that aren't so technologically gifted.
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Our district moved to digital ticket sales this school year. Yee of little faith in the older generation. Having stood at many a ticket stand this school year I can tell you first hand we had far more younger fans who asked about just handing over cash for a paper ticket than we did older folks. People caught on pretty quickly to the whole buy your ticket online, present your smartphone at the ticket gate, ticket taker scans smartphone and you're in.

I don't have numbers in front of me but as far as the eye test is concerned I did not notice much change this spring from spring 2019. Fall and Winter sports were much different because we had capacity limits placed upon us. Spring sports, which were without restrictions, I noticed no difference in fan attendance. I won't know for sure how we finished out until after June 30th (end of fiscal year) but I would wager we finished where we normally finish.
 
Harrycrane said:
I don't think there is any doubt that the ticket prices will go up. I tend to think that the casual fans who went to a couple games a year will stay away after not being able to go this past year. Culture changes are inevitable. You used to see many people go to games who had no kids who played were in the band or cheerleaders . Even on this sight I have seen people call others 'creepy" for even going to games . Yes it is rare but if you don'[t have a kid involved ? Why would you go watch ? Back in the day many of us were in communties where if you ran into someone during the week you didn't even ask if they were going to 'the game " { Could have been other sports as well especially in the tournament .}

Most just 'Went to the game ", it was what you did " and it was cool when you were a kid who played , to see that type of support. Road attendance is dismal in many cases even in games within say 20-25 minutes from home . It is a fact of life now. Many schools in big football states with bigger stadiums don't fill them most Friday's or come even close to filling them . A few games a year and that's not a given now. Coffman -Jerome will be the only 'Big " crowd I would think this season for a Rocks home game. May be decent attendance in the season opener . I do think the student turnout will be strong after Most couldn't go to the games last year.
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We are still the same price wise here in Tigertown. I just renewed my season tickets yesterday.
 
thavoice said:
I want to see student tickets be like 2-3 dollars. Get as many kids to show up across the board. I'd almost be ok with ten dollar adult Tix and 2 dollar kids.
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My Alma Mater in PA, since the mid 90s is still $2 for students and senior citizens, $4 adults and $5 for reserved seats. And I'm curious if they're ever gonna raise tickets.

But growing up with that I've always been in favor of student tickets being cheap. Guaranteed a big student crowd when admission isn't much.
 
My opinions are thus...

MOST people will trip all over themselves to attend games once again once they are able to do so.

There will be a small minority that won't ever come back because once they are allowed to do so,, they will have gone long enough without being able attend games that they have lost interest.

And then there will be yet another group that will take a little extra longer to come back just because it will take that much longer to get used to the fact that they can come to games again.

It is what it is.
 
thavoice said:
I want to see student tickets be like 2-3 dollars. Get as many kids to show up across the board. I'd almost be ok with ten dollar adult Tix and 2 dollar kids.
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I don't think that would have much effect on student attendance. A few years ago, our athletic boosters subsidized admission for those kids who were participating in athletics and it really had very little influence on attendance.
 
scbuckeye99 said:
Our district moved to digital ticket sales this school year. Yee of little faith in the older generation. Having stood at many a ticket stand this school year I can tell you first hand we had far more younger fans who asked about just handing over cash for a paper ticket than we did older folks. People caught on pretty quickly to the whole buy your ticket online, present your smartphone at the ticket gate, ticket taker scans smartphone and you're in.

I don't have numbers in front of me but as far as the eye test is concerned I did not notice much change this spring from spring 2019. Fall and Winter sports were much different because we had capacity limits placed upon us. Spring sports, which were without restrictions, I noticed no difference in fan attendance. I won't know for sure how we finished out until after June 30th (end of fiscal year) but I would wager we finished where we normally finish.
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The reason why I would prefer to just pay in cash is to not get juiced on the “convenience fees” that the online ticket provider breaks my arm into paying. I was at a baseball game (NOT OHSAA postseason) last night where it was a $7 admission charge, online tickets only and cha-ching there’s the $1 service fee!
 
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The Dock said:
The reason why I would prefer to just pay in cash is to not get juiced on the “convenience fees” that the online ticket provider breaks my arm into paying. I was at a baseball game (NOT OHSAA postseason) last night where it was a $7 admission charge, online tickets only and cha-ching there’s the $1 service fee!
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Especially considering the old physical ticket included the cost of buying, distributing, and accounting for those rolls of tickets. And then handling the money. So why do online tickets charge a surcharge for something previously covered by the ticket cost?

And we've been told that the online systems are cheaper than the physical system used before.

To be fair, I've been to several states this season that used online systems where there was no fee. I believe the one was gofan.
 
Sykotyk said:
Especially considering the old physical ticket included the cost of buying, distributing, and accounting for those rolls of tickets. And then handling the money. So why do online tickets charge a surcharge for something previously covered by the ticket cost?

And we've been told that the online systems are cheaper than the physical system used before.

To be fair, I've been to several states this season that used online systems where there was no fee. I believe the one was gofan.
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GoFan was the provider for the game I went to that hit me with the fee, FWIW. And I don’t mind paying the fee if I’m electing to go digital over paper, but when I’m not afforded the choice between the two? Come on! Obviously the fee becomes cumbersome when you sum it up across 5-10 games and any partners you’re bringing. For that kind of dough, I might get better value and a night to boot at the AMC.
 
It really isn’t incumbent on school administrators to get people to the games. Making the general public like high school football, enough to where they attend even more than one game over a couple years, isn’t a job description and even the best efforts of the most dedicated employees aren’t going to move the meter enough to get a >5% attendance boost.

Building a better HS football, let alone high school athletics, fandom begins with a simple message by multiple actors working toward the same goal. It’s a sport played in the purest form where spectators accept the “high’s and the low’s” as being part of the territory played by amateurs that learn in your classrooms, do good deeds in the community and put the pads on to kick butts in the name of pride. The entire arena of high school ball is divorced from money unlike the pro’s (duh), where millions of Ohioans have conditioned themselves into unflinching loyalty to bad franchises to the extent they’ll pay more in average fandom (in both time & money) to them for one season than they would at least 2-3 years of HS football.

If high school sports had remotely the same, consistent following statewide that the pro’s & Ohio State athletics did, the energy and enthusiasm would spread like wildfire with the end-result being considerably higher attendance & consideration for the game. It’s an uphill battle, but it just takes enough people in various sectors of involvement (parents/boosters, community leaders, program folks, coaches and even ‘actual’ marketing by regional/statewide conferences & organizations) to espouse the point in order to convince people that giving a [blank] isn’t a total time-sink.
 
The Dock said:
GoFan was the provider for the game I went to that hit me with the fee, FWIW. And I don’t mind paying the fee if I’m electing to go digital over paper, but when I’m not afforded the choice between the two? Come on! Obviously the fee becomes cumbersome when you sum it up across 5-10 games and any partners you’re bringing. For that kind of dough, I might get better value and a night to boot at the AMC.
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It might be the school had the option of passing the fee onto the fan or covering it as part of the expense of running the event.

My experience is limited to mostly asking how they handled it and a few times where everyone was issued a ticket, even if comped, because of contact tracing purposes
 
Was listening to the radio this morning ..FM music station. Heard a OSHAA sponsored commercial about attending high school events. Said "buy a ticket, don't miss a memory". They must anticipate a downturn.
 
Yappi said:
The nearer we get to the 2021 season, I'm starting to fear that the enthusiasm for the game that we see on here may not translate to the general HS football audience. This season might come up significantly short on attendance compared to the 2019 season.

I'm hoping that the Administrators across the state will make a strong push to attract the average football fan. People have changed their lifestyles and football may or may not be apart of that lifestyle anymore. Of all the years to try and attract fans with marketing, this could be a make or break year.

If anyone has the inside scoop on their school's season ticket sales, post in here how things work.

I'm also hearing some schools are going to go to online sales of tickets which will also drive away longterm fans that aren't so technologically gifted.
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I think it will drop based on the comparative of the 2008 economic meltdown,at that time Dover basketball was a full house affair but ticket sales tanked because of layoffs and uncertainty and a large portion of those fans never came back.
 
Gbulldog said:
Was listening to the radio this morning ..FM music station. Heard a OSHAA sponsored commercial about attending high school events. Said "buy a ticket, don't miss a memory". They must anticipate a downturn.
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There will be more fans in attendance next season than last.
 
Gbulldog said:
Was listening to the radio this morning ..FM music station. Heard a OSHAA sponsored commercial about attending high school events. Said "buy a ticket, don't miss a memory". They must anticipate a downturn.
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I knew some of the leaders of the OHSAA read this site. Good to see how quickly they can respond to a post on here. Very impressed that I posted this thread Friday at 9:31 PM and they had the commercial on radio by early Sunday morning!!

Money Thumbs Up GIF
 
fbrox said:
Go or don’t go, your choice but one way or another the kids will be playing and that is all that matters. It’s about them, not the fans.
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Fans, student sections, bands and cheerleaders can make a great atmosphere for a HS football game. Not saying this is about the fans but having fans in the stands is important to the health and future of the sport that we enjoy watching.
 
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