PDA

View Full Version : College Football Marketing



Jim3k
11-26-2010, 09:08 PM
All is not well on The Farm. As this Contra Costa Times/San Jose Mercury-News article (http://www.contracostatimes.com/sports/ci_16712492) points out, even a highly ranked and excellent football team has trouble selling out its own house.

The Stanford Stadium was remodeled about three years ago, reducing it to a manageable size. Even so, it is only selling about 80% of its seats and filling only little more than half. Northwestern is having the same problem.

This issue translates for Duke as well. We certainly are not having the kind of season that Stanford (11-1) or that Northwestern is having (7-4), but even if we were, would we be facing the same issues they are?

And what does Duke need to do to address this problem? Stanford seems to have made a marketing mistake. Dunno about Northwestern. Obviously, the first thing Duke needs to do is keep improving its team. People will come see a winner. But the Devils need to be marketed far outside the Triangle. After all, Stanford is not marketing outside the Peninsula and there are a heckuva lot more people there than in the Triangle -- where three teams compete for fans.

Is pricing an issue? The CCTimes artlicled does not discuss pricing. But it does discuss unplannable start times. I suspect that has been a problem for Duke, too. If TV controls the start time and pushes the game into the evening, it becomes less appealing to families with teen and pre-teen children. The family affair doesn't happen. I think some study is appropriate to see what impact that unpredictability has had on attendance.

But maybe these schools are in some kind of marketing warp they can't get out of. All three have relatively small alumni bases near their respective campuses. If that's the issue, then community outreach needs to be more effective. I know Coach Cutcliffe does some of that already, and perhaps with a better W-L record we could be more successful.

Anyway, I find Stanford's problem to be more far-reaching than it would appear. I think the CCTimes/Mercury-News has opened a new area of concern.

Let's hope Duke is on top of it.

77devil
11-29-2010, 08:16 AM
A very interesting article that gives pause about making a large investment in Wallace Wade. There are lots of differences between the Triangle and the Bay Area, both pro and con, in relation to filling up WW in my view. I guess we'll see how objectively Duke officials perform and evaluate due diligence.