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| bluedog (11/2/2009)
... If Drake continues their winning ways over the course of the next 3 seasons, I think we see a turn around in the number of people attending games.
At one time, Drake had a PFL program averaging 5,000 per game. There was still a huge drop off in November. |
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| LurkingDog (11/2/2009)
[quote]BRFDawg (11/2/2009)
I thought of another factor too, a lot of the schools on our schedule are not natural rivals for us.
Of the schools you named, Indiana State is the school least likely to be mistaken for Drake's "natural rival." C'mon-- 440 miles away, 10,000 students, nothing in common academically...[/quote]
Drake is most associated with the Missouri Valley though and other more local rivals such as Bradley, Wichita State, and Creighton all lack teams. Attendance and academics really don't factor into the student's thinking as far as determining rivals goes, but seeing a fellow MVC opponent would. |
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| I believe had the Jacksonville game had been a night game there would have been a ton more people in attendence.
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| One 800lb gorilla sitting in the corner in this conversation is school size. Even if 100% of the undergrads show up, that's less than 4000 in attendance for a stadium that holds 14000(?).
Fortunately ESPN does show PFL scores at the bottom of the screen during college football on saturday. However, many of the lemmings/students have been brought up to follow 'big time' football being played to the north and/or east. That was never my M.O. however...I spent many a day watching (at the time) DIII football at Drake Stadium supporting my fellow classmates. I had an association with them that I didn't have with other schools. Fighting the apathy on campus was difficult (heck, I had to pull teeth to reinstitute 'Yell like Hell'. I don't even know if they have that anymore?)
I've said this in other threads and I'll say it again: You root for your school first and foremost. No one else matters.
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| [quote]bluedog (11/2/2009)
I'm going to go out on a limb here and many of you will probably shoot me down. But, If Drake continues their winning ways over the course of the next 3 seasons, I think we see a turn around in the number of people attending games. People like winners. It's a 'what have you done for me lately culture'. In fact, I believe that this time next season ( with a comparable record ), attendance will easily double and perhaps triple this seasons attendance figures.
Call it wishful thinking. Many of you doubted this staff at the beginning of the season. PFL had the Bulldogs finishing no better than 6th. This thing is going to turn around and even today's doubters will be jumping on the 'band wagon'.[/quote]
I think PR wise the winning will make a difference down the road, there isn't a huge local following because most students are from out of state. There are some Iowa kids, but many are not near their home towns. Colleges like Central, Simpson, etc... have more local fanbase and are associated with their community to a much greater extent than DSM and Drake football. If the city actually gave a rip about supporting and promoting Drake athletics, that would definately help. I think the students lost interest a couple of years ago but it wil rebound. Some strong community ties say with local stars cirtainly helped in the past. We aren't going back to D1 schollie ball due to expense regardless of title IX. Too be honest, there is also a little disconect between the students and FB players, there have been some incidents and many students don't support some of the players actions. Just what I have heard.
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| | Something else that could be affecting it. During the end of the Ash days, the DM Register was covering the football program much more that it is covering now. Anywhere between 3-5 article would be written per week about Drake Football. Now, besides the game summarys on sundays, may 1-2 articles per month are written. The Registar was free to students back in 2007, if thats the case now, media acknowledgements serve as pretty good legitimacy. Now, that might be the DMR's fault, but I always believed the SID dept. does a piss poor job of promoting football as compared to B-Ball and probably doesn't do much to bring interest to the program. |
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| DUoline (11/3/2009)
Something else that could be affecting it. During the end of the Ash days, the DM Register was covering the football program much more that it is covering now. Anywhere between 3-5 article would be written per week about Drake Football. Now, besides the game summarys on sundays, may 1-2 articles per month are written. The Registar was free to students back in 2007, if thats the case now, media acknowledgements serve as pretty good legitimacy.
I've had many discussions with various DM Register people over the years about lack of Drake coverage (all sports). Their response is always that there isn't enough interest out there to justify more coverage. My response was that if there was more coverage, there'd be more interest. It's kind of a Catch 22.....it's hard to build the interest without the coverage....which can't be justified without the interest.
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| One of the reasons for the reported lack of student and community interest in Drake football may be due at least in part to the quality of the competition. In today's USA Today the Sagarin college football ratings rank all 245 Div 1 teams -This includes teams that were formerly classified as Div 1 AA--- Florida is ranked number 1--- Drake 200 - other samples from the ratings-Dartmouth 203- Lehigh 214 -Jacksonville 224 -Marist 228 - Butler 229 -San Diego 230 - Davidson- 240
Campbell- 243 - Morehead State 244 and last in the rankings at 245 Valparaiso
This is the 40th anniversary of Drake's 1969 Pecan Bowl Team
GO BULLDOGS !!! |
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| Big Dipper (11/3/2009)
This is the 40th anniversary of Drake's 1969 Pecan Bowl Team
The anniversary of the bowl itself is coming up December 13th. Hopefully, Drake will also be able to celebrate a Gridiron Classic win in December.  |
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| | Being a former player and student. Most students leave on the weekends (visit friends at bigger schools UI, ISU, UNI or go back home out of state). Also most students do not care about Drake Football, we have no die hard fans that have been fans since they were a little kid, like the bigger schools. I have friends that have been die hard Hawkeye fans there whole life, I don't think you can say that about any Drake Fans (maybe basketball). As a player we knew that we could not compete with the bigger schools for attendance. My suggestion would be to have home games on Thursday Nights. I know it would be hard for parents out of state to attend, but you would attract a lot more people around the des moines area, also most students are still on campus. This would also take away competing with Iowa, ISU & UNI for attendance. |
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| DUBulldog (11/3/2009)
[quote]DUoline (11/3/2009)
Something else that could be affecting it. During the end of the Ash days, the DM Register was covering the football program much more that it is covering now. Anywhere between 3-5 article would be written per week about Drake Football. Now, besides the game summarys on sundays, may 1-2 articles per month are written. The Registar was free to students back in 2007, if thats the case now, media acknowledgements serve as pretty good legitimacy.
I've had many discussions with various DM Register people over the years about lack of Drake coverage (all sports). Their response is always that there isn't enough interest out there to justify more coverage. My response was that if there was more coverage, there'd be more interest. It's kind of a Catch 22.....it's hard to build the interest without the coverage....which can't be justified without the interest.[/quote]
I would suspect the lack of interest comes from the reporters. None of them want to get stuck on the Drake beat when they can be in Iowa City or Ames.
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| Bulldog For Life (11/3/2009)
Most students leave on the weekends... Really? So Drake is a commuter school now?
Do they also leave during basketball season? |
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| | I'll echo a lot of what bulldog for life said. We basically said the same thing, most kids grew up Hawks or Clones fans and also most kids have friends that weren't smart enough to come to Drake so they might go to visit those kids at the state schools on the weekend and those visits might correspond with who they supported as a kid. As far as the notion of Drake being a commuter school, it's not that extreme, but we'd all be fooling ourselves if we thought anything but a small majority of the kids came from anywhere more than 6 hours away from the campus. |
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| bluedog (11/2/2009)
I'm going to go out on a limb here and many of you will probably shoot me down. But, If Drake continues their winning ways over the course of the next 3 seasons, I think we see a turn around in the number of people attending games.
Bluedog - hate to burst your optimism but under the last years of Ash - Drake was a winning team - even won the PFL and got a win at Illinois State under Loney. It was basically friends and family at the game. Sandy came in and tried to make it more of an event - still no one came.
Personally I think BRF is right... It's a shame that the students feel that way but it is what it is.
BRF - Don't know if you saw this thread before talking about scholarships, but if Drake would give football scholarships, they would have to match it with an equal number for women (Title IX). This would increase the athletic budget by over $4 million. Since it sounds like you are in the business school - do the cost benefit analysis and ROI on that... It's what made Drake go to Non-scholarship football in the first place.
Also - it would seem that the students would have as much in common with the players and see them in class every day. How is that not happening?
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| DUPops (11/3/2009)
[quote]bluedog (11/2/2009)
I'm going to go out on a limb here and many of you will probably shoot me down. But, If Drake continues their winning ways over the course of the next 3 seasons, I think we see a turn around in the number of people attending games.
Bluedog - hate to burst your optimism but under the last years of Ash - Drake was a winning team - even won the PFL and got a win at Illinois State under Loney. It was basically friends and family at the game. Sandy came in and tried to make it more of an event - still no one came.
Personally I think BRF is right... It's a shame that the students feel that way but it is what it is.
BRF - Don't know if you saw this thread before talking about scholarships, but if Drake would give football scholarships, they would have to match it with an equal number for women (Title IX). This would increase the athletic budget by over $4 million. Since it sounds like you are in the business school - do the cost benefit analysis and ROI on that... It's what made Drake go to Non-scholarship football in the first place.
Also - it would seem that the students would have as much in common with the players and see them in class every day. How is that not happening?[/quote]
I'm not foolish, I understand scholarship football is highly unlikely, but as I mentioned there isn't even baseball (it's Field of Dreams Iowa for Heck's Sake) or wrestling (Iowa and Iowa State are legendary programs, Iowa is a big wrestling state, so why not Drake?). The lack of offerings are a joke, though I get the 60-40 female breakdown. |
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| BRFDawg (11/3/2009)
[I'm not foolish, I understand scholarship football is highly unlikely, but as I mentioned there isn't even baseball (it's Field of Dreams Iowa for Heck's Sake) or wrestling (Iowa and Iowa State are legendary programs, Iowa is a big wrestling state, so why not Drake?).
Drake had baseball until the mid-70's.....not sure why it was dropped. DU also had wrestling into the late 80s, and it was a casualty of Title IX. In addition, toward the end, a Drake wrestler, Tim Ascherl, suffered a traumatic injury (broken neck), and that was one of the contributing reasons that wrestling was the sport axed to meet Title IX requirements.
The lack of offerings are a joke, though I get the 60-40 female breakdown.
I've looked at the athletic websites for a lot of schools over the years, and there a lot of schools larger than Drake that have no more sports offered than Drake does. Can you give me examples of schools Drake's size that offer a significantly better variety of athletic options?
A lot of larger schools have also dropped wrestling and many other sports over the years.
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| LurkingDog (11/3/2009)
[quote]Bulldog For Life (11/3/2009)
Most students leave on the weekends... Really? So Drake is a commuter school now?
Do they also leave during basketball season?[/quote]
I am not saying Drake is commuter school, a lot of kids live on campus. A commuter school is when most of the students live off campus and have to drive, take a bus into school. This being said a lot of students travel during this period since the weather is more suitable for traveling, unlike the winter time during basketball season.
Basketball is a whole different subject. We play in a bigger conference with more recognizable competition and they can actually make the NCAA tournament unlike the football team. When I was a student back in 2004 there were hardly any students at the basketball games, since the team was not that good. Now that the team is good the student attendance is up, like it should be.
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| DUBulldog (11/3/2009)
[quote]BRFDawg (11/3/2009)
[I'm not foolish, I understand scholarship football is highly unlikely, but as I mentioned there isn't even baseball (it's Field of Dreams Iowa for Heck's Sake) or wrestling (Iowa and Iowa State are legendary programs, Iowa is a big wrestling state, so why not Drake?).
Drake had baseball until the mid-70's.....not sure why it was dropped. DU also had wrestling into the late 80s, and it was a casualty of Title IX. In addition, toward the end, a Drake wrestler, Tim Ascherl, suffered a traumatic injury (broken neck), and that was one of the contributing reasons that wrestling was the sport axed to meet Title IX requirements.
The lack of offerings are a joke, though I get the 60-40 female breakdown.
I've looked at the athletic websites for a lot of schools over the years, and there a lot of schools larger than Drake that have no more sports offered than Drake does. Can you give me examples of schools Drake's size that offer a significantly better variety of athletic options?
A lot of larger schools have also dropped wrestling and many other sports over the years.
[/quote]
What exactly are the scholarship offerings for men though? Track/Cross Country that everyone has. Basketball that everyone has. Golf that pretty much everyone has. Tennis is about the same, just about everyone has it. About the only exception is Soccer as an offering that not all the schools have. If you are saying that we had to sacrifice other scholarship offerings for soccer, that's disappointing. I don't believe the athletic department is THAT hard up. Even Grand View has two more sports offerings than Drake and it's 3 if you don't count football since it is non-scholarship. I'm just saying it doesn't add up is all. |
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| BRF - the money difference is because of Drake's tuition. Grand view I would guess is cheaper..
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| Here's a (very brief) article from the Times-Delphic about the poor student attendance at games....
link
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