How do we get people to Wallace Wade on Saturday?

[budwom]

I encourage anyone that feels this way to give Ozzie a shout and inquire about our tailgate and our game day experience. Even for a night game, TNTDevil and I often set up our grill on Blue Devil Alley by 9am. We can't change what happens in the stadium, but we do our best to make it an amazing experience outside in the Card Lot, proudly serving up a different menu every game, with an amazing group of people joining us. Our numbers very each day from the twenties to over 50, depending on our opponent, kick off time, and the weather.
It's an unbeatable atmosphere, and one that we truly enjoy being a part of every year. (And it's a great way to meet other DBR members, and get a beerducation from DevilDeac and company.)

being 1/2 or even 1/4 in the bag at game time is not a bad temporary remedy...eases some of the pain...

[CameronBornAndBred]

being 1/2 or even 1/4 in the bag at game time is not a bad temporary remedy...eases some of the pain...

Always!

Tailgate.jpg

Tailgate2.jpg

[richardjackson199]

I encourage anyone that feels this way to give Ozzie a shout and inquire about our tailgate and our game day experience. Even for a night game, TNTDevil and I often set up our grill on Blue Devil Alley by 9am. We can't change what happens in the stadium, but we do our best to make it an amazing experience outside in the Card Lot, proudly serving up a different menu every game, with an amazing group of people joining us. Our numbers very each day from the twenties to over 50, depending on our opponent, kick off time, and the weather.
It's an unbeatable atmosphere, and one that we truly enjoy being a part of every year. (And it's a great way to meet other DBR members, and get a beerducation from DevilDeac and company.)

It's the best tailgate experience period. Elite. Duke worthy. Thank you for all you do.

But winning at home would help. Maybe we just need to feed the team some Costco's to fire them up pregame. And let Devildeac's world-class beer selections tempt our opponents pregame hydration. Everybody wins.

[Acymetric]

It's the best tailgate experience period. Elite. Duke worthy. Thank you for all you do.

But winning at home would help. Maybe we just need to feed the team some Costco's to fire them up pregame. And let Devildeac's world-class beer selections tempt our opponents pregame hydration. Everybody wins.

Yeah, home attendance is a real chicken/egg conundrum. Is there a good source to get home attendance figures over the last 7-10 years or so?

Better attendance/atmosphere would probably improve our home performance. Better home performance would probably improve home attendance/atmosphere (of course there are other issues with the game day experience at Duke beyond what happens with the field as has been discussed extensively in this thread).

[TruBlu]

Larger and louder attendance at WW would help , but I believe there might be more to our dismal home performances. Cut said everything was going to be examined. Is it possible that something is wrong with our preparation for home games: Too much family/friends/girlfriend visitation? Curfew violations? The Blue Devil walk? Pregame meal being cooked by a cheater fan?

[Acymetric]

Larger and louder attendance at WW would help , but I believe there might be more to our dismal home performances. Cut said everything was going to be examined. Is it possible that something is wrong with our preparation for home games: Too much family/friends/girlfriend visitation? Curfew violations? The Blue Devil walk? Pregame meal being cooked by a cheater fan?

Yeah, just to be clear I don't think attendance explains all or even most of our bad home performances (consistently, over the last 10 years, regardless of attendance). Something is definitely not right about our home preparation.

[budwom]

Yeah, just to be clear I don't think attendance explains all or even most of our bad home performances (consistently, over the last 10 years, regardless of attendance). Something is definitely not right about our home preparation.

agreed. Speaking of which, might Kevin White actually be punking us? Got his email today titled " Another Solid Week in Competition for the Blue Devils." ( I know, other sports were featured besides football, but still)

[AustinDevil]

agreed. Speaking of which, might Kevin White actually be punking us? Got his email today titled " Another Solid Week in Competition for the Blue Devils." ( I know, other sports were featured besides football, but still)

I noted that too. Whistling past the graveyard.

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Yeah, just to be clear I don't think attendance explains all or even most of our bad home performances (consistently, over the last 10 years, regardless of attendance). Something is definitely not right about our home preparation.

Just using a few things I know about human nature - and admitting I have no inside info on Cut's program - I think our home crowds hurt us the most when there is a reason to expect a decent crowd (big opponent, senior day, etc) and the guys run out of the tunnel into a deserted stadium. Last year, think about it, our guys played Clemson's Senior Night...and the atmosphere, for senior day, at night, in the Frank....was big time. One week later, they run out to see the clean up crew cowering under cover and no fans in the stadium for their senior day. Say what you want, human nature is a huge factor, and sometimes a terrible crowd runs right into that.

[Acymetric]

Just using a few things I know about human nature - and admitting I have no inside info on Cut's program - I think our home crowds hurt us the most when there is a reason to expect a decent crowd (big opponent, senior day, etc) and the guys run out of the tunnel into a deserted stadium. Last year, think about it, our guys played Clemson's Senior Night...and the atmosphere, for senior day, at night, in the Frank...was big time. One week later, they run out to see the clean up crew cowering under cover and no fans in the stadium for their senior day. Say what you want, human nature is a huge factor, and sometimes a terrible crowd runs right into that.

I feel like the Wake game is a bad example of that. There was never​ going to be a large crowd at that game between the holiday and the weather.

[HereBeforeCoachK]

I feel like the Wake game is a bad example of that. There was never​ going to be a large crowd at that game between the holiday and the weather.

Well there were those other factors you mentioned and they were big factors. Still, it's not what the players dream about for home finale - even if there are factors like this that make it obvious. It doesn't explain 59-7 for sure...but I certainly feel like it was a factor.

[uh_no]

Well there were those other factors you mentioned and they were big factors. Still, it's not what the players dream about for home finale - even if there are factors like this that make it obvious. It doesn't explain 59-7 for sure...but I certainly feel like it was a factor.

to be fair, most fans don't dream about their team losing 59-7 on senior night either...

[HereBeforeCoachK]

to be fair, most fans don't dream about their team losing 59-7 on senior night either...

True, and I did not intend to absolve anyone from anything...I'm more trying to get to the bottom of what's wrong with Dukes FB program - and I think home attendance is one of the problems. the stadium is a problem, among other handicaps. With a lot of teams, attendance is more a barometer than a cause. With Duke, it's a lot of both IMO, and I've been suffering with Duke FB for a LOOOOOONG time.

[Acymetric]

I want to do some analysis on our home games in terms of attendance and results. Does anyone know a reliable source for per-game attendance? I started pulling from the ESPN page for the games, but then saw that it listed last year's Wake game as having 20,782 in attendance so obviously those numbers are all worthless.

[CameronBornAndBred]

I want to do some analysis on our home games in terms of attendance and results. Does anyone know a reliable source for per-game attendance? I started pulling from the ESPN page for the games, but then saw that it listed last year's Wake game as having 20,782 in attendance so obviously those numbers are all worthless.

Since Duke scans every ticket that comes through the gates, they must have an accurate count stored somewhere. (Subtract maybe a couple hundred for the fans that have two tix to make it out and back in.) No idea where they keep that info or if they share it, though.

[arnie]

agreed. Speaking of which, might Kevin White actually be punking us? Got his email today titled " Another Solid Week in Competition for the Blue Devils." ( I know, other sports were featured besides football, but still)

Similar to China controlled media😡

[Bluedog]

^ This is the part of it that confounds me. These guys don't tolerate Mickey Mouse. And yet Duke sports gameday is an avalanche of halfarse. I guess you're right--we overestimate the amount of influence these guys have, apparently.

i don't think members of the program really care much about gameday experience. If coach K came out very publicly against the security measures in place, i'm sure something would get done.

Cut obviously has more to lose from such measures, and I think would be more willing to entertain the complaints, but also less ability to do anything about it.

I know that Coach K (and Mickie more specifically) changed the student section layout in Cameron when they were annoyed that the "big wig" donors sat behind the opponent's basket in the second half of games. They wanted students/people that would be distracting there for FTs, so everything got re-arranged (with grad students now being in both end zones) and undergrads filling in the corners on the "TV" side where grad students used to be. In addition, during the walk-up line debacle at the UNC game where the fire chief shut down admission and said no one can go in, there were empty seats in the student section when it was like 10 minutes to tipoff, Mickie was the one who actually got them to let more people in so the section would be full.

So, they certainly have influence. But it's more if it impacts the actual on court/on field stuff that they'd notice it.

[Acymetric]

Some off the cuff numbers related to home performance since 2012 (the season where it is reasonable to say we turned the corner). This is for P5 schools (+Notre Dame). Numbers are slightly worse looking only at ACC games, and slightly better if we include all D1 games (Tulane, Troy, etc.) but there isn't much of a difference between the three data sets really. The "cumulative" wins/losses columns are wins/losses from that year to now.

		Cumulative		Season			Points Scored
Year	Games	Wins	Losses	W	L	Margin	Games under 7	Games under 14	Games under 20
2019	4	1	3	1	3	-59	1	2	2
2018	4	2	6	1	3	-76	0	1	3
2017	6	5	9	3	3	22	1	2	3
2016	4	6	12	1	3	-26	0	0	1
2015	5	8	15	2	3	-14	0	3	3
2014	5	11	17	3	2	39	0	0	1
2013	4	13	19	2	2	9	0	0	1
2012	4	15	21	2	2	-15	0	0	0

[Acymetric]

FWIW, we've had positive scoring margins in ACC home games twice (2014: +1, 2013: +9)

[budwom]

Since Duke scans every ticket that comes through the gates, they must have an accurate count stored somewhere. (Subtract maybe a couple hundred for the fans that have two tix to make it out and back in.) No idea where they keep that info or if they share it, though.

I bet they do but they aren't about to share that data, since VERY often the number of actual attendees is WAY below the ticket sale number...par example as the French would say, "attendance" at the Syracuse game was 16,286, but butts in seats was a small fraction of that.