I received an email asking me to take a survey to "gather feedback on topics related to being a Virginia Tech Football ticket holder and/or game attendee."
The one problem I had with this survey was that it seemed geared towards "real" season ticket holders, yet this email was also sent out to student season ticket holders. Students have different circumstances when it comes to season tickets, i.e. cost, travel to Lane, etc.
Some highlights:
Q: What is the one thing that the Virginia Tech football organization can do to ensure you will remain a happy season ticket holder?
A: Thursday Night Games and Quality of HOME AND HOME OUT OF CONFERENCE GAMES, not neutral site games.Q: To what extent has being a(n) Virginia Tech football season ticket holder this season met your expectations?
A: 1 (on a scale of 1-10)Q: How well does being a(n) Virginia Tech football season ticket holder this season compare with the ideal season ticket holder experience?
A: 3 (on a scale of 1-10)
I find that while these type of surveys are useful, they need to gear one towards the students to try to enhance the student experience. Student attendance and season ticket purchases are down this year compared to past years so I think that the athletic department needs to look at all options to entice students to come to games.
Some suggestions:
1. Have or publicize better pep rallies (maybe at Lane, similar to TAMU's midnight yell practice)
2. Push learning the fight song and victory march.
Comments
Pep rallies are actually pretty enjoyable I think--they usually are in front of the GLC on a Thursday or Friday before a home game, and happen three or so times a year.
The only pep rally you need before a game is going downtown the night before.
*Morning before
*Both
Funny. I'm a "real" season ticket holder and had pretty much the same responses. I was a little more toward the middle (3-4 instead of 1).
My things for improvement: improving the games at experience such as kickoff times (more 3:30 and night games), and for the love of god STOP LETTING THE OTHER TEAM ENTER DURING SANDMAN (that really bugs me...it's our thing!).
Kick-off times are set by the TV networks, not the school. Outside of scheduling big non-conference matchups that will be picked for prime-time slots, they have basically no control over them.
Just a heads up.
Yes. That's true. But when we publish our schedule (before TV) we book our games as 1:00. I say make them all 3:30 and then move them if TV requires. I doubt ESPN360 is making us their marque noon game
Plus Weaver asked the ACC to not give us a Thurdsay night home game.
I don't think that is going to matter. The only game times Weaver can set are the ones that are only on ESPN3. Usually those are at 1:30 and rarities. ESPN controls it all - no matter what times we print on the schedule. Usually they say TBA.
I feel your pain about the no Thursday night though, but Weaver has requested one for next year and moved the tOSU game in '14 and '15 to get a prime time slot. Things are improving.
VT had control over the W. Carolina game. Also could have had a Thur night game this year at home. There are two games at home later than noon that VT does control.
I'm not a season ticket holder, it's pretty impossible for me to get out of the kitchen that many Saturdays, but I try to get to at least 2 home games a year and get first crack at my friend's extra ticket with the exception of UVA games. Switching Duke & Miami completely messed things up this year. For the foreseeable future, you've either got a good home slate with GT, Miami & UVA, or the table scraps the next year.
That thought occurred to me as well, but I imagine the whole thing will get re-sorted once Louisville comes in anyways. The prior rotation was nice though, as I live in Columbia, SC so having either Duke or UNC away games consistently each year made for a nice away game road trip.
The current arrangement of cross division games is really suboptimal. There are some great teams that we will hardly play in our own conference as it stands now. The ACC really needs to move to a 9 game schedule at least.
if we eliminated the cross divisional games and just had 2 rotating cross division opponents we could keep the 8 game structure and still play every team at least once in a 4 year span.
that would be ideal, and it makes too much sense so it will never happen
The ACC has already laid out conference schedules for years ahead. They screwed it up badly. VT, MIAMI, CLEMSON, FSU and Lousiville don't play nearly enough.
I really like the A&M-ish pep rally idea. I know I would have gone to pep rallies in Lane when I was a student, and really getting into traditional/"old-school" school spirit would have been awesome.
I (respectfully) disagree. My Friday afternoons/nights were always busy preparing for the impending tailgate, catching up with graduated friends who were back in town, and boozing. I just can't see many students skipping pregames/happy hour/parties to go to Lane and sway side to side while listening to spirit songs.
Again, not to sound like an asshole, but I wouldn't be interested, I just don't see it happening.
That's fair. It doesn't necessarily have to be like A&M's, but rather just something to get the students a little more pumped up for say, Western Carolina (I know it's hard to get pumped up for western carolina regardless).
VT should get creative and get something going for students. A&M's stuff seems a little corny and boring to me, but I love the fact that their students get into it and feel pride in taking part. That's what's missing from our program.
I think undergrads, who generally live in dorms next to the stadium, would be game. They can't go to bars and are unlikely to have a lot of graduated friends back in town.
as a student, i got one of these emails too so maybe they went out to everybody with an account on hokie tickets or wherever we get season tickets
I got a survey as well, but I'm not a student or a season ticket holder. I did recently purchase tickets to the Duke game through the hokietickets.com website.
I also filled one of those out. If my input is worth anything to the powers at be, "Stick It In" should be coming back.
upvote times 5 trillion
I hope you concluded your comments with "I have powerful friends..." and included the image you use as your avatar.
As a season ticket holder, I would like to see the students get to the game before the kickoff, like the other fans. Penn State has a flood of students rushing to their seats on a first come, first served basis AN HOUR AND A HALF before kickoff. The student lottery system they implemented is way to "laissez faire" - Go back to waking up at 3am to get in line for a ticket.
Also, bring back 'Stick it In" and the Corps of Cadets playing the Goodbye Song.
How many of you remember when the Corp played it, by the way?
In my response I tried to emphasize the current lack of reward system for being a good fan, and the dwindling mentality of students toward the team that results directly from it.
Agree- I think there are some small steps that the University could take to help with the dwindling mentality of the students. I think it could start with how they award student season tickets.
Someone in a previous thread suggested an idea where students swipe their hokieP at enterance/exits of other sporting events (hockey, Volleyball, WBBall, baseball etc.) and get points towards football lottery tickets/season tickets. I liked this idea.
I do too. I hate to say it, but I believe You-Vee-Ay does something like this, no?
No clue what that school does. I know UMD does this. PSU loads your football tickets to your card (really reduces the paper airplane throwing).
There's no way anyone actually needs a ticket to attend a UVA game at this point.
And also it's not like this is a new concept that we would have to innovate. Several schools do this already.
I want better organized effect games. Give out shirts at the seats, really make the stadium orange or maroon. Don't just hope we do it.
On said effect games - for example - the white out game - they could place white shirts for all, and also design a "VT" using maroon shirts - those things always look cool for TV.
Agreed on this one. I don't know how NBA teams do it (take your shirt size with ticket order?) but I would pay an extra 10 bucks. I know WVU "striped" their football stadium a few years ago and it worked out pretty well.
*I can't believe I just complimented WVU and their fans...
Usually they just give out XL shirts I believe. That's what the touchdown shirts that the cheerleaders throw are. All they need to do is get sponsorships. I'm sure they could fund 66,000 shirts from sponsors if they had 3-5 on the back of the shirt because, let's be honest, nobody will wear it again after that game. Just get an orange/maroon/white shirt and keep it simple.
I would so wear that shirt again.
I agree with this too. I'd get rid of the white out. Team should be wearing all maroon for maroon effect and all orange for orange effect.
Also, while we're on the topic of colored clothing, can we restrict all in-stadium pancho vendors to ONLY maroon or orange panchos?
Team should never ever ever wear all orange. Let the crowd where all orange.
Never. Never again. I also feel like the orange effect has never worked outside of GT last year because they tend to try throwing it late in the year closer to Halloween. If anyone else is like me, I've got a few orange Hokie tshirts but nothing suitable for colder weather and am not going to buy something just to conform to the effect game, therefor a game later in the year will see me in maroon no matter what. Labor Day last year was very orange though.
The effect games rotate every year so the short sleeve is early in the year and the long sleeve is later. This year was Maroon short sleeve and Orange long sleeve, so next year will be Orange short sleeve and Maroon long sleeve.
Personally, I will always wear the effect t shirt to the game, but I don't have any cold weather gear that is orange, so if the Orange effect is the later game in the year like this year, I wear my maroon jacket over my orange shirt. I wear bright orange shoes with maroon laces so I have both colors on game day anyway.
Thanks for clearing that up. I've never picked up the effect shirts, I really can't even remember if they did them before I left in 2004. The most I've ever done is get an orange thermal to wear under my maroon jersey if it's an orange effect game in cold weather.
Yeah, I didn't get to Blacksburg until 2007 and the effect shirts were the first Hokie items I owned I'm pretty sure.
That was the 2007 Maroon effect shirt and it was my favorite effect shirt. All the ones since have been kind of lame, but I still get them because they make for great work shirts and you can never have enough Hokie gear.
They started in 2002. The first official Orange and Maroon Effects were that year, but only the Orange Effect was permanent until 2005, when Maroon Effect was added to the schedule.
I got it and filled it out. One comment I had was get better at getting the fans into the stadium. I was in line outside the stadium long enough on Saturday that I missed the flyover.
Yeah, same here, I was in line for a long time because of hold ups at bag check. I didn't have a bag but still had to wait. Ended up trying to get around to the other side of the stadium to get to my seats during the flyover. I love them planes.
I have season tickets and did not get a chance to do the survey. Guess maybe I don't give 20,000 grand a year that's why my input didn't matter.
I don't think there are a lot of hokie club members that give 20M..
I'm Hokie club season ticket and can't afford anything like that number.
I got the survey.
Or, are you trolling?
Does it concern anyone else that we have only one signature chant (Let's Go...Hokies)? Which while awesome isn't necessarily creative or unique. Our other traditions require band or AV support (e.g., Enter Sandman). When on the road or at a bowl game we can't respond to roll tide, goooo biggggg reddddd, etc. I think we need to put our heads together and create something; something that can be chanted in concourses or subways.
Can we build on Gobble Gobble? Hokie Hokie Hokie Hi? Fighting Gobblers?
Alabama has one chant, Roll Tide. We have Let's Go Hokies. I don't know of many teams that have more than one. PSU is We Are Penn State.
I think we should revive Stick it In.
The band doesn't have to get involved if we change the cadence a bit.
Really doesn't bother me...
And, when on the road, you are limited by the number of tix. If everyone is in the same sections, the chant of "Go Hokies" should be concise and on point. There's no way 5k Hokies are going to compete with 85k Bammers.
If you do travel around, you will occasionally hear "Let's Go!" Followed by a "Hokies!" Happens frequently at DC on the Metro and other places, and not just on gamedays. We just don't put out a PSA to inform our fans of how to act in public. I'm looking at you $EC!
One of the few positive memories from Chic-fil-a '06 was waiting to board the MARTA with "let's go...Hokies" rocking, then it started to die out & a MARTA employee tried to yell some instructions above the crowd. There was a piss drunk guy standing next to her with a pained look on his face as he tried to comprehend what she was saying. After she finished, he continued to stare at her looking very confused for a second before, inches away from her ear, he yells at the top of his lungs "LET'S GO" and the place erupted again. He gave her a contemptuous look as if to say these are the only 3 words that should be said tonight.
A lot of pro teams have gone to loading the tickets onto a card. It would be a lot more efficient if the tickets were loaded on the Hokie Passports. Non students would still have the regular tickets.
They did the whole tickets on a card thing in '08 and there was a huge backlash. No one liked it because if you lost your card, you had to go through a lot of crap to get into the games. Paper tickets are nice since you can do whatever you want with them. Can't go to the game? Sell it or give it to a friend. If they were loaded on to the Hokie Passport you would have a harder time doing that. Not to mention the empty seats.
I know if they did that I would have been pissed. I was given or bought tickets for friends and family a lot and if they were on the cards it would have been a lot more expensive(re:not feasible) for us.
They should just let students swipe in with their hokie passport, and then let them into the student sections only, and make those seats first come first serve. That would get people in the stadium early, and eliminate the paper ticket debate. As for people who lost their card, maybe there could also be a piece of paper that you could print alternatively, in place of a card. But essentially, this wouldn't have anyone saying "I don't have a ticket" or "I have a ticket, so I'll show up halfway through the first quarter"....you'd just have people being like "I need to get in the stadium, and I need to get there quick to get good seats." The device students swiped into could keep count of how many students have entered. This would allow for you to control how many people are in which section (eliminating the empty south end zone problem), and you could just send people to the sections. All the people at the gates would know "Ok, X number of students have entered, all subsequent students should go to SEZ" or whatever, until it was full.
Unless you had to scan to get into each section, that would never work. No way students hear "north end zone & east student sections are full so you'll be at the top of the south end zone" and just hoof it up there.
All of the stadium sections at PSU have separate entrances and are divided within the stadium. You can only go in the gate for your section, and can't get from one section of stands to the others within the stadium, I don't think. I waited in the wrong line the first time I went to a game up here and it ended up taking a long time to get to my seat.
You could close it off though. So basically, students could try to go get in NEZ, but the yellow shirt people would be like "it's full". Or you could hand people a different colored paper wristband for their section. This way each person has something to prove which section they're supposed to be in, and they can't make easy replicas of it prior to the game (especially if you changed the wristband colors each week). It wouldn't have to take very long. You'd just hand it to the person after they swipe their card.
VCU does something similar to this for basketball games for students. They also give away t shirts and other items for every game they attend. So the student ID card is swiped to keep track of how many you go to.
You know what? We're an engineering school, so this problem needs an engineering solution. We need to find a way to distribute tickets without distributing physical tickets, we need to track attendance for preferred ticketing, and exer some level of control over where people sit while giving them the freedom to float within their section. Get the IEs!
Kinda like how I think this site needs an Analytics section where we post things like our wr catch efficiency article. Bring on the math!
I suggest they survey the alumni season ticket holders about some things the students can do better. They're just not as into the games anymore, we've definitely lost some of the Lane Stadium fear factor as a result.
Another general observation - no matter how full (or half full) Lane is the cheering volume that's produced is remarkably consistent. My own theory - the people who get loud never leave a game and the people who are apt to leave aren't really loud if they're there. If we could get all 66k doing something consistently that'd be really impressive.
The cheerleaders need to take a more active role in getting and keeping the crowd fired up. It seems like more and more of the fans don't really know what to do anymore. There should be a deafening "Let's go!" "Hokies!" call and answer cheer anytime the opposing team takes a time out for starters.
Also you need to write in "Stick it in x 3" on that survey.
They are only useful if something is done with the data generated. If everyone says 'kickoffs need to be later' the VTAD can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing they can blame ESPN for nooners.