Fire Stony Brook, Save Athletic Program.

[Hammerhead]

There's nowhere to go but down when you've dominated the FCS for years. Even with our "down" year, we are still in the quarterfinals for the 14th year in a row.

[oldmantutters]

The game day experience has been awful for a decade. And that is more on NDSU than it is on the Fargodome. Yes the Fargodome bathroom situation is part of it, and the implementation of the metal detectors increased the time to enter the dome. I would put those on the facility. I'd say the concessions issue is shared between the Fargodome and NDSU as the dome was willing to add beer sales and only needed the go-ahead from NDSU. That decision was pathetically late.

NDSU has done almost nothing to improve the fan experience. They continue to roll the same shit out game after game and year after year. Hell, the halftime show was the same songs for multiple years. The same goofy "which hat is the ball under" scoreboard trivia. The fucking scoreboard being plastered with ads so much that there isn't enough room for pertinent stats to be shown all of the time, they have to scroll. That wouldn't be a huge deal if there was cell reception or wi-fi. They do the same t-shirt cannon, giant bag toss, obstacle every game yet it's still always a giant clusterfuck. It would be one thing to roll the same shit out every week but it be a well-oiled machine, it's another to not try anything new and it still looks like monkeys humping footballs.

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[BigLakeBison]

The game day experience has been awful for a decade. And that is more on NDSU than it is on the Fargodome. Yes the Fargodome bathroom situation is part of it, and the implementation of the metal detectors increased the time to enter the dome. I would put those on the facility. I'd say the concessions issue is shared between the Fargodome and NDSU as the dome was willing to add beer sales and only needed the go-ahead from NDSU. That decision was pathetically late.

NDSU has done almost nothing to improve the fan experience. They continue to roll the same shit out game after game and year after year. Hell, the halftime show was the same songs for multiple years. The same goofy "which hat is the ball under" scoreboard trivia. The fucking scoreboard being plastered with ads so much that there isn't enough room for pertinent stats to be shown all of the time, they have to scroll. That wouldn't be a huge deal if there was cell reception or wi-fi. They do the same t-shirt cannon, giant bag toss, obstacle every game yet it's still always a giant clusterfuck. It would be one thing to roll the same shit out every week but it be a well-oiled machine, it's another to not try anything new and it still looks like monkeys humping footballs.

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This is exactly how I feel as well. The product on the field has been consistently at the top of the FCS since 2011. Yet the game day atmosphere has been declining. NDSU could have and should have been working to constantly engage its fanbase. Instead they just kept raising ticket prices and doing little else. That’s on ML. The point I was trying to make earlier is that it feels like ML and NDSU are banking largely on this passing and aren’t doing much else to improve the game day experience. What other ideas do they have to address the decline in attendance and enthusiasm?


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[CAS4127]

This is exactly how I feel as well. The product on the field has been consistently at the top of the FCS since 2011. Yet the game day atmosphere has been declining. NDSU could have and should have been working to constantly engage its fanbase. Instead they just kept raising ticket prices and doing little else. That’s on ML.


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I told ML a few years ago that the gameday experience needs to match the product on the field. And that was in response to his direct question to me: “How can we keep moving forward and continue to engage our fan base?” This was a face-to-face/in person conversation at an NDSU event.

[BigLakeBison]

I told ML a few years ago that the gameday experience needs to match the product on the field. And that was in response to his direct question to me: “How can we keep moving forward and continue to engage our fan base?” This was a face-to-face/in person conversation at an NDSU event.

I’m glad you shared that sentiment with him. I think a lot of other fans would agree with your take. Do you believe they have done anything to address it?


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[unbison]

I told ML a few years ago that the gameday experience needs to match the product on the field. And that was in response to his direct question to me: “How can we keep moving forward and continue to engage our fan base?” This was a face-to-face/in person conversation at an NDSU event.

Well he is following your advice

[CAS4127]

I’m glad you shared that sentiment with him. I think a lot of other fans would agree with your take. Do you believe they have done anything to address it?


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I think tailgating experience has improved some.

[BigLakeBison]

I think tailgating experience has improved some.

I’m glad you feel that way. My tailgating experience is GA and stopping by other tailgate spots of friends so I don’t know all the inner workings of administrative items and such. I think overall tailgating is fun but there seems to be some decline in excitement there as well. That’s a tough thing to address but I think the fact that there are so many organizations with season tickets/tailgate spots that go unused, it leaves a lot of open spaces in the lot and spreads everyone out. Seems like that is married somewhat to getting attendance back up and strong.


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[AlumniGreen]

The game day experience has been awful for a decade. And that is more on NDSU than it is on the Fargodome. Yes the Fargodome bathroom situation is part of it, and the implementation of the metal detectors increased the time to enter the dome. I would put those on the facility. I'd say the concessions issue is shared between the Fargodome and NDSU as the dome was willing to add beer sales and only needed the go-ahead from NDSU. That decision was pathetically late.

NDSU has done almost nothing to improve the fan experience. They continue to roll the same shit out game after game and year after year. Hell, the halftime show was the same songs for multiple years. The same goofy "which hat is the ball under" scoreboard trivia. The fucking scoreboard being plastered with ads so much that there isn't enough room for pertinent stats to be shown all of the time, they have to scroll. That wouldn't be a huge deal if there was cell reception or wi-fi. They do the same t-shirt cannon, giant bag toss, obstacle every game yet it's still always a giant clusterfuck. It would be one thing to roll the same shit out every week but it be a well-oiled machine, it's another to not try anything new and it still looks like monkeys humping footballs.

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I agree with all your comments and my focus may be different than yours but since the FARGODOME is much more than NDSU football, we are looking at a facility that serves the entire region for events other than football.

I think the GAMEDAY environment is stale and human beings wanting novelty to keep their attention, the NDSU fan engagement people (including tailgating rules and regulations) need to simply Google "creative gameday and tailgating experiences" and/or find out from other universities what they are doing to elevate games and tailgating. And then implement new ideas at NDSU. It may not cost any money at all. Maybe quit the T-shirt cannon and direct any expenses on that to something else. Like you and everyone else around here, we want NDSU to succeed.

[HerdBot]

Fundraising is important, but the overall path of where NDSU athletics is heading doesn’t make sense to me. And I’m not alone. Matt has done a very poor job of selling his vision and the attendance and fan apathy are a result of that. If this vote fails, what is Matt and the NDSU ath. Dept. going to do to breath life back into Bison sports? A bigger tshirt cannon? Based on past history, I don’t have much confidence that anything significant will change. They’ll double down on what they’ve been doing and criticize fans for not liking it.

So you are saying that if this measure passes it will breath life back in to the program??? I say putting a better product on the field and winning is the answer. Not more toilets.

The answer is somewhere in the middle. It's almost a trickle down effect IMO. Attendance and atmosphere right now is sort of mediocre. Recruits see the atmosphere and empty seats and it's not like it was 5 or 10 years ago. The expansion could help boost atrendance, which helps atmosphere, which helps teammakers, which creates revenue. The perception of having a new stadium can only be a positive thing. Most new construction get people excited and talking. Seeing an extra 115K SF excitres people. Approaching a grand 3 story west side addition with pillars and 3 stories of glass windows looks big time. Seeing corner seating and club seating that stretches from endzone to endzone is visually impressive

But like you said, it means nothing if the product sucks

I was listening to Swany on the radio and he talked about being a small town kid and being blown away seeing a huge scoreboard at Dacotah Field for the first time. I felt the same way seeing the Metrodome for the 1st time as a kid. Never seen a place with 2 decks, a jumbo tron or revolving doors with super air pressure. Seeing US Bank stadium blew me away as a grown man seeing those massive doors and roof with natural light