Topic: Watch at the 21:20 mark to about the 23:00 mark

[herd1990]

Hopefully Huff doesn?t come on this board and express this opinion.  He will get nothing but smites, backlash from moderators and grief from the masses.  But he?s right.

https://youtu.be/Z14RpvJGQ40

[whf]

?????  don't understand your logic, why do you say that?

[HaveUherd]

I think many people have been the way he is talking about. But everyone eventually has a breaking point and they get tired of going through the motions.

[herdinphilly]

I think many people have been the way he is talking about. But everyone eventually has a breaking point and they get tired of going through the motions.

Really? Marshall is one of the winningest programs of the past 25 years. When I was a kid in the 70s, now that was losing!

[HaveUherd]

Really? Marshall is one of the winningest programs of the past 25 years. When I was a kid in the 70s, now that was losing!

I would to see the year by year attendance in the 70?s to see if it gradually went down until we started winning again but I can?t find anywhere online that has that.

[Herdman77]

Nm

[MUther]

It will get better.  It won't be overnight.  We waited too long to make changes.  Decisions have consequences.  And COVID has lasting impression on certain activities for some people.  It got easy to come up with excuses and it will take time for that culture to change and for Herd football to be a top priority again, especially for the casual fan.  And if it doesn't get better it won't be exclusive to us.  It'll be a national trend of lower attendance for all but the biggest programs.  Like I said before, it's easy to fill the stands when you have a million fans for 80k seats.  It's a lot harder when you have 20,000 fans for 35,000 seats.  We depend on the guys looking for something to do on a Saturday afternoon.  They found other things to do over the years.  It will take time to get them back.

He's not at Alabama or Penn St anymore.  But he's been to Charlotte and Middle and FAU.  He knows what attendance is like in this league and we are also not that.

[herd1990]

?????  don't understand your logic, why do you say that?

Is there something confusing about my post or Huff?s remarks????  Have you ever seen a post questioning why fans don?t come to the games without backlash, 100?s of excuses and people saying ?fan shaming isn?t called for??  Huff nails it with his Orioles analogy.

[svherd]

Fan shaming is a Marshall board favorite pastime. I am sure he is disappointed, he comes from programs that have 100K every game. We aren?t ever gonna average 30K a game in Huntington. That?s just a fact. Unless we can get WVU, OSU and UK on the home schedule in the same year. Or let people in for free.  That said, I love Huff addressing it head on. I really him as our HC.

[herd2win]

Huff is the modern day Jim Donnan.  Let?s just hope he can win as much.  Most schools are struggling with attendance and there are multiple reasons.  Covid plays into some with fans, students no longer have a 3 hour attention span to sit through a game, the enhanced TVs of today also are a factor as many people like watching games better at home than at the games.

Complaining about it is not a solution.  MU has good attendance compared to schools that are similar.

I truly believe that reducing capacity will increase attendance.  It will create a much better game day atmosphere.  Tarp the end zone or tear out the addition until a nice end zone club type seating and party deck can be built. 

If Huff would have beaten ECU, App St, MTSU and UAB we would have 30000 this weekend.

[herd1990]

Huff is the modern day Jim Donnan.  Let?s just hope he can win as much.  Most schools are struggling with attendance and there are multiple reasons.  Covid plays into some with fans, students no longer have a 3 hour attention span to sit through a game, the enhanced TVs of today also are a factor as many people like watching games better at home than at the games.

Complaining about it is not a solution.  MU has good attendance compared to schools that are similar.

I truly believe that reducing capacity will increase attendance.  It will create a much better game day atmosphere.  Tarp the end zone or tear out the addition until a nice end zone club type seating and party deck can be built. 

If Huff would have beaten ECU, App St, MTSU and UAB we would have 30000 this weekend.

I think that is Huff?s point when you say if we ? would have beaten ECU, App St, MTSU and UAB we would have 30000 this weekend?.  Fans are fans through thick and thin.  Good and bad.  If you have/had children, do you only go to their games/events when they play well?   I went to school from 86-90 and grad school 92-93.  Maybe the alcohol clowded my memory bank but we always had fantastic crowds and we stayed the whole game.  We are trying to get Huff to land some top recruits and we put  maybe 12,000 butts in actual seats.   Don?t get me started on announced attendance.  I?m not asking for weekly sellouts.  I know that?s a pipe dream.  But we only get 6-7 chances all year to see the Herd at home.  You?d think we could regularly get 20,000 folks 6 times a year.  Our fan base talks a lot about supporting but when it?s time to show up, we have more excuses than your average group.

[2xBison]

Huff needs to dig out the season ticket list of east side ?fans? from the 90s and early 2000s and call them one by one.  Ask them WTF they at?  Or find out if they are all SV folks on that Morgantown teat.


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[svherd]

The stadium didn't have the end zone bleachers back in the day so the place looked fuller. In reality will likely never should have put the end zone bleachers up and left it with the concrete lower section. I'd still like to see the end zone bleachers torn down and a kids area or dining area placed there.

[Mako]

Attendance is down in all sports at all levels for a whole variety of reasons.  In no particular order:

1.  Game day is expensive.  Taking a family of four to a game involves an expense of about $200.  Multiply that by however many games are on the schedule and that's money that can't be spent on other things.
2.  Every game is televised.  Sure, you can bitch about Stadium sports but I can still stream the game and broadcast it onto my 70 inch television with immersive stereo if I want.  (OK.  I don't have a 70 inch television with immersive stereo but I just about could for the same price as taking my family to every game for a season).
3.  3:30 kickoffs are hard.  I was at the last game but my children and my wife were not as my kids had Appalachian Children's Chorus rehearsal.  That has conflicted with two games this season.  A good friend of mine missed it because her kid had a soccer game. 
4.  We lost key games this year.  The reality is that Marshall has a hard core fan base of 20,000 or so.  To have consistently more than that in the stands, we need to win.
5.  People have more entertainment options.  The struggle for attendance isn't just a Marshall problem.  It is down in just about every sport at just about every level.  For the NFL, the NBA, or MLB, it's less of a problem because the money generated from the average fan doesn't matter as much.  Far more of their revenue is generated from tv rights and luxury suites as a percentage of total revenue than for us.  Beyond that, a significant portion of pro tickets are bought by companies and used to entertain clients.  Regardless, attendance is down for them as well.  It's down because people have a many more options for their entertainment dollars than they had 25-30 years ago.  That's not going to change.  Ever. 

[svherd]

Attendance is down in all sports at all levels for a whole variety of reasons.  In no particular order:

1.  Game day is expensive.  Taking a family of four to a game involves an expense of about $200.  Multiply that by however many games are on the schedule and that's money that can't be spent on other things.
2.  Every game is televised.  Sure, you can bitch about Stadium sports but I can still stream the game and broadcast it onto my 70 inch television with immersive stereo if I want.  (OK.  I don't have a 70 inch television with immersive stereo but I just about could for the same price as taking my family to every game for a season).
3.  3:30 kickoffs are hard.  I was at the last game but my children and my wife were not as my kids had Appalachian Children's Chorus rehearsal.  That has conflicted with two games this season.  A good friend of mine missed it because her kid had a soccer game. 
4.  We lost key games this year.  The reality is that Marshall has a hard core fan base of 20,000 or so.  To have consistently more than that in the stands, we need to win.
5.  People have more entertainment options.  The struggle for attendance isn't just a Marshall problem.  It is down in just about every sport at just about every level.  For the NFL, the NBA, or MLB, it's less of a problem because the money generated from the average fan doesn't matter as much.  Far more of their revenue is generated from tv rights and luxury suites as a percentage of total revenue than for us.  Beyond that, a significant portion of pro tickets are bought by companies and used to entertain clients.  Regardless, attendance is down for them as well.  It's down because people have a many more options for their entertainment dollars than they had 25-30 years ago.  That's not going to change.  Ever.

Darn you, don't you know these are just made up, lame excuses. lol!

[mckayt]

Huff is going to be very disappointed in the attendance this weekend.  Historically, attendance is extremely poor for a home game on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

I think COVID is still a big issue for Herd attendance as well.  My group of 8-20 (depending on who all shows up at the same time) hasn't been to a game since 2019.  That's just my group.  I'm sure we aren't the only group of fans who haven't been to a game the last two seasons.

[MUonium]

the more i see Huff's pressers, the more i understand what he means, the more comfortable i am that he speaks his truth with nothing less that positive intent.

i still want to know and understand the Davis encounter, though.  OK, maybe that's just tabloid curiosity, lol.