How do we get people to Wallace Wade on Saturday?

[throatybeard]

If one of the major complaints about the Duke football experience is that it gets so hot in the stadium, and Duke runs out of ice and water--then maybe it is a good idea not to emboozen the guests, further dehydrating them.

[martydoesntfoul]

Perhaps true, but as the old saying goes, I’d rather be emboozened than embalmed, emasculated or emulsified.

[chrishoke]

If one of the major complaints about the Duke football experience is that it gets so hot in the stadium, and Duke runs out of ice and water--then maybe it is a good idea not to emboozen the guests, further dehydrating them.

Maybe we should have breathalyzer tests at the ticket gate.

[moonpie23]

won't be too long till everyone can get high at the games....

[subzero02]

I am biased, but Saints crowds remain much more good-natured than what I've seen in other places. The ref crew would not have gotten out of Philly or New England alive if this year's conference-championship fiasco had happened in one of those places.

I hadn't thought about that but I completely agree. I also think that the refs would have made the correct call in the locations you mentioned because of safety/career/harassment concerns.

[uh_no]

If one of the major complaints about the Duke football experience is that it gets so hot in the stadium, and Duke runs out of ice and water--then maybe it is a good idea not to emboozen the guests, further dehydrating them.

That's a bit of a cop-out. the braves hold games outdoors all summer with no issues. The panthers have outdoor games in the heat. There may be arguments for or against beer, but it being too hot is probably not one of them.

[budwom]

apropos to I don't know what, it can be noted that beer is A-OK served to The Swells up in The Tower...but evidently not for the common folk. Let 'em eat cake (or drink water, if we have any left.)

As far as boozing up the crowd, by and large the Duke crowds I've seen are hardly boozing crowds, with the exception of some of the Tailgate years, and some of those people were so drunk they never got near the stadium.
The expense and hassle of buying beer pretty much precludes many people getting tanked up...if they want to over consume, they generally do it in the parking lot pre game.

[killerleft]

Perhaps true, but as the old saying goes, I’d rather be emboozened than embalmed, emasculated or emulsified.

LOL. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that one...!

[throatybeard]

That's a bit of a cop-out. the braves hold games outdoors all summer with no issues. The panthers have outdoor games in the heat. There may be arguments for or against beer, but it being too hot is probably not one of them.

How do they do on actually providing the crowd with cold water? Better than Duke, I bet.

[throatybeard]

Maybe we should have breathalyzer tests at the ticket gate.

No one's saying no one should drink. I just don't see how it's the University's job, or a good idea, to sell more booze over top of what people drank in the parking lot, when the University can't seem to provide you a 42° Aquafina in a 112° reflective horseshoe.

[Bob Green]

How do they do on actually providing the crowd with cold water? Better than Duke, I bet.

I have never went to the concession stand to buy water and been told there is none available to buy. Other people's experience may differ.

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Maybe we should have breathalyzer tests at the ticket gate.

Did you forget the /sarc tag?

[chrishoke]

Did you forget the /sarc tag?

I thought it was obvious.

[BLPOG]

I thought it was obvious.

I dunno. Based on this thread I'm pretty sure there are a few members of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union on the board.

[HereBeforeCoachK]

I thought it was obvious.

...I thought one of mine was obvious a week ago or so...but it was missed by some....

[tux]

No one's saying no one should drink. I just don't see how it's the University's job, or a good idea, to sell more booze over top of what people drank in the parking lot, when the University can't seem to provide you a 42° Aquafina in a 112° reflective horseshoe.

I love beer, but I think selling beer in the stadium would probably not move the needle on attendance. Maybe it helps on the margins, but as you note, there's a downside to serving alcohol too.

There are bigger factors that impact attendance in my opinion. #1 is TV, and that's true for every college team. The only reason to leave your couch (and the A/C) to go to a game is the communal experience of being at the game: tailgating and the carnival atmosphere of being there. Good food helps. Beer could help some. Obviously, having a highly ranked team would move the needle. (And Duke under Cutcliffe have done a great job of providing a compelling team on the field. Light years ahead of where Duke was 12 years ago.)

For Duke, a big #2 is just a lack of local alumni that have a more personal connection to Duke. Other folks have a lot of options on how to spend Saturday afternoon with their families; and when its 95 degrees and the game starts at noon, you'd have to literally pay most people to go.

I hate to dredge up something that can't be changed, but I really felt like Duke missed an opportunity when they renovated Wallace Wade. It would have been expensive, maybe too expensive, but they should have thought more outside the box. Make WW as unique as Cameron. Make the bowl more vertical, with less seats not more. Try and figure out how to provide more shade. A smaller bowl would have expanded the concourse --- make that more of a green space where folks can hang out. Maybe move some of the tailgating to that area. It would have been the only college football stadium with tailgating options that overlook the game. Instead, they basically just executed a plan to bring WW up to par with other stadiums. It's nice what they did --- don't get me wrong --- but it's not enough to make much of a dent in attendance. To weirdly bring in a baseball analogy: I wanted them to swing for the fences; instead, they laid down a well executed bunt.

[budwom]

^ I've always thought it would be an engineering challenge to have some students at Pratt design some kind of affordable, movable shade provider on the East side...

I agree, beer would help only on the margins.

What really helps is winning...again, we had a very nice crowd vs VT last year when the team was 4-0 and ranked #22, pleasant weather night game...and they dropped the old turd egg...horrible performance which not only hurt subsequent attendance, but it also locked us into the fan unfriendly noon slot two weeks (?) later vs UVA...where yet another egg was deposited.

We're never going to have automatically big crowds given our fan/alumni base, but it has been demonstrated on quite a few occasions that when we win, people do attend. So win already...

[devilirium]

Re: the noon start times. How many of those have been in September in the last 10 years? There's some exaggeration there. Certainly the Wake and the Baylor games come to mind as early starts, but I would bet that most of the 1 pm or noon start times were in October and fans probably went the other way--it's too cold. Or they've conflated excessive heat with the start time--eg the West Point opener last year started at 6 pm, but reading message boards one would think that we were watching from Death Valley, CA. Certainly the lack of a local fanbase and extensive TV coverage have impacted Wade attendance, but I think these last few generations of Duke fans are a bit SOFT --with memories and heat tolerance, and ultimately the culture just hasn't changed as much as we would've liked. Cut has done a great job with changing the culture inside the program, but I think he probably gave up thinking that fan apathy would reverse itself after the A&M game. To me, that could've been the tipping point to increase attendance, but alas it really hasn't.

[Bob Green]

We're never going to have automatically big crowds given our fan/alumni base, but it has been demonstrated on quite a few occasions that when we win, people do attend. So win already...

Yep, we can analyze attendance until the cows come home but the answer is not going to change. Win!

[chrishoke]

Not selling beer to the public is just one more glaring example that Duke doesn't care much about the game day experience of the common fan. It's a symptom of a disease.