WEEK 13: #11 ABILENE CHRISTIAN

4,035 Views | 55 Replies | Last: 11 days ago by SFA Jack Fanatic
Jacks6
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SFASawmillGuy said:

https://herosports.com/fcs-football-2024-attendance-leaders-bzbz/

We need to figure out how to get fans in the stands, and I'm still not convinced with the argument of "winning cures all". We were in the bottom half of the FCS in attendance for the season, and had much a lower attendance than Lamar and McNeese by a lot. According to this graph, we averaged only filling about 30% of Homer Bryce stadium.
This has been an issue for awhile. Fans, & mainly students, will not show up on game day. I really do not know how to change that since most of the school is already anti-athletics. It's also extremely telling about the student body when they keep voting against the Athletic Fee option.... Another obstacle that keeps SFA from blossoming as a athletic program.
AxeEm99
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Jacks6 said:

SFASawmillGuy said:

https://herosports.com/fcs-football-2024-attendance-leaders-bzbz/

We need to figure out how to get fans in the stands, and I'm still not convinced with the argument of "winning cures all". We were in the bottom half of the FCS in attendance for the season, and had much a lower attendance than Lamar and McNeese by a lot. According to this graph, we averaged only filling about 30% of Homer Bryce stadium.
This has been an issue for awhile. Fans, & mainly students, will not show up on game day. I really do not know how to change that since most of the school is already anti-athletics. It's also extremely telling about the student body when they keep voting against the Athletic Fee option.... Another obstacle that keeps SFA from blossoming as a athletic program.


Start consistently winning in Football and all of that will change! I am not talking one year. I am talking 5 to 10 consistently. The entire culture in Nacogdoches will change and enrollment will double without major Financial investment!
Maybe Carthel will bring it next year, but SFA administration is going to have to decide long term if they want to follow IW, ACU, Tarleton and Sam Houstin or continue down the mediocre path.
sfajack05
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Look at ticket prices. GA ticket prices are $10 a piece. Family of four is $40 plus tax. Add in travel, hotel, food, etc that's going to limit the amount of times a family can attend for the product that is on the field.

Did they even have the $5 promo tickets this year? I don't recall seeing those.

Also, move tailgate back to the commuter lot.

Anyway, next year if our year. Or 2026.

Gotta keep building that six year foundation.
BigJack85
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sfajack05 said:

Look at ticket prices. GA ticket prices are $10 a piece. Family of four is $40 plus tax. Add in travel, hotel, food, etc that's going to limit the amount of times a family can attend for the product that is on the field.

Did they even have the $5 promo tickets this year? I don't recall seeing those.

Also, move tailgate back to the commuter lot.

Anyway, next year if our year. Or 2026.

Gotta keep building that six year foundation.


SFA's ticket prices seem reasonable to me. I've been to numerous high school football games in the Houston area that charge as much (or more).

Tailgating… 100% agree that we should go back to the commuter lot with a few modifications. Our commuter lot tailgating was the best in the SLC , by a mile. A mile.

And the complaints about students making it to the game from the commuter lot. Seems to me we had better crowds all around in the 2000-2015. With a few exceptions.
Axe 'Em Jacks - Class of 85'
SFASawmillGuy
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BigJack85 said:

sfajack05 said:

Look at ticket prices. GA ticket prices are $10 a piece. Family of four is $40 plus tax. Add in travel, hotel, food, etc that's going to limit the amount of times a family can attend for the product that is on the field.

Did they even have the $5 promo tickets this year? I don't recall seeing those.

Also, move tailgate back to the commuter lot.

Anyway, next year if our year. Or 2026.

Gotta keep building that six year foundation.


SFA's ticket prices seem reasonable to me. I've been to numerous high school football games in the Houston area that charge as much (or more).

Tailgating… 100% agree that we should go back to the commuter lot with a few modifications. Our commuter lot tailgating was the best in the SLC , by a mile. A mile.

And the complaints about students making it to the game from the commuter lot. Seems to me we had better crowds all around in the 2000-2015. With a few exceptions.


The bigger crowds from 2000-2015 is definitely true. But I'm not so sure it really matters where tailgate is. Every game it seems like there's a couple thousand students and alums who never leave tailgate after kickoff and never enter the stadium. Even when we did Jacks Charge, almost all of them would leave after they ran onto the field and went back to tailgate.

There needs to be a way to incentivize getting students in the stadium and staying in the stadium.

Also SFA does really need to push to become THE college football team of East Texas. I love to think of Nacogdoches as a college town, but they really need to push that to be 100% true. We need the entire community to get in on it. Get on board. We need to extend the reach to the rest of East Texas.

Putting a consistently quality product on the field will help, but we need to convince there Lufkin and Tyler and Longview crowd that if you want to watch D1 football, you don't need to travel to the DFW area or Austin or College Station.
TallTexan
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SFASawmillGuy said:

BigJack85 said:

sfajack05 said:

Look at ticket prices. GA ticket prices are $10 a piece. Family of four is $40 plus tax. Add in travel, hotel, food, etc that's going to limit the amount of times a family can attend for the product that is on the field.

Did they even have the $5 promo tickets this year? I don't recall seeing those.

Also, move tailgate back to the commuter lot.

Anyway, next year if our year. Or 2026.

Gotta keep building that six year foundation.


SFA's ticket prices seem reasonable to me. I've been to numerous high school football games in the Houston area that charge as much (or more).

Tailgating… 100% agree that we should go back to the commuter lot with a few modifications. Our commuter lot tailgating was the best in the SLC , by a mile. A mile.

And the complaints about students making it to the game from the commuter lot. Seems to me we had better crowds all around in the 2000-2015. With a few exceptions.


The bigger crowds from 2000-2015 is definitely true. But I'm not so sure it really matters where tailgate is. Every game it seems like there's a couple thousand students and alums who never leave tailgate after kickoff and never enter the stadium. Even when we did Jacks Charge, almost all of them would leave after they ran onto the field and went back to tailgate.

There needs to be a way to incentivize getting students in the stadium and staying in the stadium.

Also SFA does really need to push to become THE college football team of East Texas. I love to think of Nacogdoches as a college town, but they really need to push that to be 100% true. We need the entire community to get in on it. Get on board. We need to extend the reach to the rest of East Texas.

Putting a consistently quality product on the field will help, but we need to convince there Lufkin and Tyler and Longview crowd that if you want to watch D1 football, you don't need to travel to the DFW area or Austin or College Station.


Tbh, figure out a way to make the tailgating section part of the stadium so you atleast get the attendance.

If someone is hanging out in a luxury suite talking and occasionally watching, we count them in attendance. Why not the freshman on the other side of the fence?

Also, ticket prices are terrible. 1/3rd of Nac lives in poverty. The median household income in the county is 50k. You're eliminating a ton of potential fans right off the bat if you want them to pay north of 40 bucks regularly to come to the game with their family.

If you weren't an SFA alum, what are you gonna choose with your limited dollars? An SFA game and sitting in the elements for 4 hours or going to see that new movie everyone is talking about?

It seems like SFA ticket prices keep going up, and attendance goes down and then we act like it's some unsolvable mystery instead of basic economics.
BigJack85
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TallTexan said:

SFASawmillGuy said:

BigJack85 said:

sfajack05 said:

Look at ticket prices. GA ticket prices are $10 a piece. Family of four is $40 plus tax. Add in travel, hotel, food, etc that's going to limit the amount of times a family can attend for the product that is on the field.

Did they even have the $5 promo tickets this year? I don't recall seeing those.

Also, move tailgate back to the commuter lot.

Anyway, next year if our year. Or 2026.

Gotta keep building that six year foundation.


SFA's ticket prices seem reasonable to me. I've been to numerous high school football games in the Houston area that charge as much (or more).

Tailgating… 100% agree that we should go back to the commuter lot with a few modifications. Our commuter lot tailgating was the best in the SLC , by a mile. A mile.

And the complaints about students making it to the game from the commuter lot. Seems to me we had better crowds all around in the 2000-2015. With a few exceptions.


The bigger crowds from 2000-2015 is definitely true. But I'm not so sure it really matters where tailgate is. Every game it seems like there's a couple thousand students and alums who never leave tailgate after kickoff and never enter the stadium. Even when we did Jacks Charge, almost all of them would leave after they ran onto the field and went back to tailgate.

There needs to be a way to incentivize getting students in the stadium and staying in the stadium.

Also SFA does really need to push to become THE college football team of East Texas. I love to think of Nacogdoches as a college town, but they really need to push that to be 100% true. We need the entire community to get in on it. Get on board. We need to extend the reach to the rest of East Texas.

Putting a consistently quality product on the field will help, but we need to convince there Lufkin and Tyler and Longview crowd that if you want to watch D1 football, you don't need to travel to the DFW area or Austin or College Station.


Tbh, figure out a way to make the tailgating section part of the stadium so you atleast get the attendance.

If someone is hanging out in a luxury suite talking and occasionally watching, we count them in attendance. Why not the freshman on the other side of the fence?

Also, ticket prices are terrible. 1/3rd of Nac lives in poverty. The median household income in the county is 50k. You're eliminating a ton of potential fans right off the bat if you want them to pay north of 40 bucks regularly to come to the game with their family.

If you weren't an SFA alum, what are you gonna choose with your limited dollars? An SFA game and sitting in the elements for 4 hours or going to see that new movie everyone is talking about?

It seems like SFA ticket prices keep going up, and attendance goes down and then we act like it's some unsolvable mystery instead of basic economics.



I say the first thing we do is try to monetize the upper level of the visitors (east) side with some sort of "quasi" luxury boxes. This would also funnel some of the upper level attendance towards the flanks of the lower level. That would look better
on TV. Along with building a better home atmosphere.
Axe 'Em Jacks - Class of 85'
Ljacks&Longnecks
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""Tbh, figure out a way to make the tailgating section part of the stadium so you atleast get the attendance.

If someone is hanging out in a luxury suite talking and occasionally watching, we count them in attendance. Why not the freshman on the other side of the fence?

Also, ticket prices are terrible. 1/3rd of Nac lives in poverty. The median household income in the county is 50k. You're eliminating a ton of potential fans right off the bat if you want them to pay north of 40 bucks regularly to come to the game with their family.

If you weren't an SFA alum, what are you gonna choose with your limited dollars? An SFA game and sitting in the elements for 4 hours or going to see that new movie everyone is talking about?

It seems like SFA ticket prices keep going up, and attendance goes down and then we act like it's some unsolvable mystery instead of basic economics."""

I have mentioned the poor economics of Nac and parts of East Texas a few times on here. If you want the community at large to support SFA athletics then you must give them an affordable way to come to games. Family packs--Local Nac or east Texas days. KIds for just a couple of dollars each. If you price then out, they are not going to support SFA in any way. It is indeed basic economics.
Then we have those that say SFA needs all the money they can get to be competitive in the modern college athletics world. While that is true to a point, what happens when the "haves" stop coming or giving and the "have nots" don't and won't be adding to the revenue stream due to "feeling" excluded as they can't afford to go and feel that SFA doesn't care about them.
Don't really expect anything to happen though, money always wins out and doesn't care about the rest.
SFASawmillGuy
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Ljacks&Longnecks said:

""Tbh, figure out a way to make the tailgating section part of the stadium so you atleast get the attendance.

If someone is hanging out in a luxury suite talking and occasionally watching, we count them in attendance. Why not the freshman on the other side of the fence?

Also, ticket prices are terrible. 1/3rd of Nac lives in poverty. The median household income in the county is 50k. You're eliminating a ton of potential fans right off the bat if you want them to pay north of 40 bucks regularly to come to the game with their family.

If you weren't an SFA alum, what are you gonna choose with your limited dollars? An SFA game and sitting in the elements for 4 hours or going to see that new movie everyone is talking about?

It seems like SFA ticket prices keep going up, and attendance goes down and then we act like it's some unsolvable mystery instead of basic economics."""

I have mentioned the poor economics of Nac and parts of East Texas a few times on here. If you want the community at large to support SFA athletics then you must give them an affordable way to come to games. Family packs--Local Nac or east Texas days. KIds for just a couple of dollars each. If you price then out, they are not going to support SFA in any way. It is indeed basic economics.
Then we have those that say SFA needs all the money they can get to be competitive in the modern college athletics world. While that is true to a point, what happens when the "haves" stop coming or giving and the "have nots" don't and won't be adding to the revenue stream due to "feeling" excluded as they can't afford to go and feel that SFA doesn't care about them.
Don't really expect anything to happen though, money always wins out and doesn't care about the rest.


I do understand this argument but SFA tickets are still cheaper than most sporting events around. $40 for a family of 4 to attend a D1 college football game is incredibly cheap, even at the FCS level. Hell high school tickets are more expensive sometimes. Certainly making them cheaper could help attendance, but I don't know how much cheaper we can hope they'd make them.

Maybe having free tickets to NISD students and staff could help too. When I was at the McNeese game we ran into a few teachers who said they all get in free so they go to all the games.
BigJack85
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SFASawmillGuy said:

Ljacks&Longnecks said:

""Tbh, figure out a way to make the tailgating section part of the stadium so you atleast get the attendance.

If someone is hanging out in a luxury suite talking and occasionally watching, we count them in attendance. Why not the freshman on the other side of the fence?

Also, ticket prices are terrible. 1/3rd of Nac lives in poverty. The median household income in the county is 50k. You're eliminating a ton of potential fans right off the bat if you want them to pay north of 40 bucks regularly to come to the game with their family.

If you weren't an SFA alum, what are you gonna choose with your limited dollars? An SFA game and sitting in the elements for 4 hours or going to see that new movie everyone is talking about?

It seems like SFA ticket prices keep going up, and attendance goes down and then we act like it's some unsolvable mystery instead of basic economics."""

I have mentioned the poor economics of Nac and parts of East Texas a few times on here. If you want the community at large to support SFA athletics then you must give them an affordable way to come to games. Family packs--Local Nac or east Texas days. KIds for just a couple of dollars each. If you price then out, they are not going to support SFA in any way. It is indeed basic economics.
Then we have those that say SFA needs all the money they can get to be competitive in the modern college athletics world. While that is true to a point, what happens when the "haves" stop coming or giving and the "have nots" don't and won't be adding to the revenue stream due to "feeling" excluded as they can't afford to go and feel that SFA doesn't care about them.
Don't really expect anything to happen though, money always wins out and doesn't care about the rest.


I do understand this argument but SFA tickets are still cheaper than most sporting events around. $40 for a family of 4 to attend a D1 college football game is incredibly cheap, even at the FCS level. Hell high school tickets are more expensive sometimes. Certainly making them cheaper could help attendance, but I don't know how much cheaper we can hope they'd make them.

Maybe having free tickets to NISD students and staff could help too. When I was at the McNeese game we ran into a few teachers who said they all get in free so they go to all the games.


I'm with you SawmillGuy. In my opinion our football/basketball tickets are already economically priced.

Maybe we do a few more "flash" sales , but until the on court product improves promotions are all for naught. Football needs to reel off 3 of the first 4 and the fans will return. Build a pavilion or otherwise on the visitor side and monetize that completely unused space. I think we get a solid rebound of fans if we do some things right this fall. Winning 8-9 games would be a good start.
Axe 'Em Jacks - Class of 85'
Ljacks&Longnecks
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Agree that consistent winning would improve attendance. Also about promotions when teams are down. Heck at this point they might end up needed promotions to get the regulars to keep coming to MBB.

I like Sawmill's thought about NISD students and faculty getting free tix to games. A little touch of community outreach that at least a few folks would appreciate.

Honestly I don't lose any sleep over SFA attendance and who can and can't go, that's all discretionary dependent upon one's financial obligations/problems. Nor do I lose any sleep over wishing SFA's athletic budget could find 20 or 30 million more dollars. Every once in awhile though, I think it's a good reminder to a group like this that not everyone can plan trips around their favorite teams sports or go see a local game at your local D1 school as we do. That is a reality for many.

Likely reason this hit me today is I'm working on my late dad's stuff. Family has taken some, now I am intending to get the rest to real families that could use house stuff. I'm far from a Do-gooder in my natural state but would like to see these house contents get to people that can use them. Real folks with a need , not the fakes or those looking to profit from a death or scamming folks. Anyway...carry on board.
SFAXE93
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Football total attendance

1) McNeese - 51,343
2) Lamar - 40,234
3) NWST - 35,224
4) Nicholls - 29,546
5) SFA - 26,996
6) East Texas A&M - 25,588
7) SLU - 24,591
8) UIW - 15,278
9) HCU - 11,257
"History has no rubbish heap." Louis Blake Duff
SFA Jack Fanatic
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In a city of 2.5 million and a Greater Houston area of over 4 million, HCU was able to attract less than 2,000 per game for their six home games. And we think we have trouble drawing crowds in Deep East Texas...
SFASawmillGuy
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SFA Jack Fanatic said:

In a city of 2.5 million and a Greater Houston area of over 4 million, HCU was able to attract less than 2,000 per game for their six home games. And we think we have trouble drawing crowds in Deep East Texas...


An FCS team with horrible facilities and no tradition or history in football in a city with 2 FBS teams, one being a P5 school, and an NFL franchise, and at least 2 other local FCS will naturally have a lot of trouble to be fair.
Jacks6
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SFA Jack Fanatic said:

In a city of 2.5 million and a Greater Houston area of over 4 million, HCU was able to attract less than 2,000 per game for their six home games. And we think we have trouble drawing crowds in Deep East Texas...
Yeah until you see that Lamar pulled 40,000... Plus how the heck did NWST pull nearly 10,000 more in attendance with that program? Seeing these numbers made me mad 93, lol.
BigJack85
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Jacks6 said:

SFA Jack Fanatic said:

In a city of 2.5 million and a Greater Houston area of over 4 million, HCU was able to attract less than 2,000 per game for their six home games. And we think we have trouble drawing crowds in Deep East Texas...
Yeah until you see that Lamar pulled 40,000... Plus how the heck did NWST pull nearly 10,000 more in attendance with that program? Seeing these numbers made me mad 93, lol.


I questioned a similar post that included all sports. I wasn't clear if this measurement is completely "apples to apples" meaning that we are counting the exact same number of games/sport. We perform better across the portfolio of sports
Axe 'Em Jacks - Class of 85'
SFAXE93
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ACU QB Maverick McIvor and DL Jerry Lawson in the portal.
"History has no rubbish heap." Louis Blake Duff
SFA Jack Fanatic
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SFAXE93 said:

ACU QB Maverick McIvor and DL Jerry Lawson in the portal.


McIvor was already a grad student. He missed two games at the end of the year and he gets another year of eligibility? How could that be???

EDIT: Read on SanAngeloLive.com that he was injured in a pre-season scrimmage while at Texas Tech. So he does have one year of eligibility.
SFAXE93
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Also ACU DL David Oke in the portal.
"History has no rubbish heap." Louis Blake Duff
TallTexan
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Jacks6 said:

SFA Jack Fanatic said:

In a city of 2.5 million and a Greater Houston area of over 4 million, HCU was able to attract less than 2,000 per game for their six home games. And we think we have trouble drawing crowds in Deep East Texas...
Yeah until you see that Lamar pulled 40,000... Plus how the heck did NWST pull nearly 10,000 more in attendance with that program? Seeing these numbers made me mad 93, lol.
I didn't check this season, but last season I know for certain that Lamar had a standing 4 for $20 ticket package. Now I highly doubt that explains the entire disparity, but it does show that they're committed to making the games accessible for most of their community.

Flash sales are fine, but then you're relying heavily on your marketing capabilities to let folks know that you have a special this week. And if we were that good at marketing short term deals, we could fund the athletic department by renting our marketing team out to Fortune 500 companies.
SFA Jack Fanatic
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That's a great idea for income, Texan! Heck, we could even rent our crack video production team out to the NBA and NFL! After one peek at any one of their recent broadcasts I'm sure those networks would be climbing all over each other to sign them up.

When I attended a recent Jacks MBB game one of the camera operators was able to operate the camera with one hand while apparently sending a text on her cell phone with the other. (Not kidding.) What talent!
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