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How Would You Market Richmond Spiders Football Tickets?

Going to repost from an August 11 thought I had regarding getting more fannies in the stands.


FCS is not understood by many, perhaps most, FBS fans, let alone the general public. Tend to think of it as Pee Wee football. Hard to reel them in as attendees to a FCS game without dispelling this notion.

Somehow Spiders need to weave into an ad campaign how many FCS players have excelled in the NFL - Jerry Rice, Michael Strahan, Charles Haley, Kurt Warner, Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, etc., etc. Sell the FCS generally and Spider football specifically. Weave in how many Spiders over the years have found a place in the NFL.

"Hey, come to most any FCS game and you will see players that you will see on Sundays in the future. Great entertain, reasonably priced, football fan and child friendly atmosphere, you don't have to hike to the stadium, stand in endless lines for restrooms or food, and face endless traffic snarls getting home. Give it a try. You won't be disappointed"
 
I agree that the marketing strategy must improve to promote the quality of the product. UR had the State of VA Player of the Year last year with Reece Udinski and now the Offensive Lineman of the Year with Ryan Coll which speaks volumes of the talent level at FCS in comparison to the FBS programs in our state. Two years in a row playing for a conference championship and winning a piece of one this year. Two consecutive playoff second round advancements and just named one of the top FCS Programs in the nation at #13 with numerous programs listed ahead of us moving on to FBS already. Beautiful stadium with minimal access issues and no big crowds to fight. Recruiting focus and lots of local talent on the roster. It’s not an easy sell on a Saturday afternoon but the product is sound at this point.
 
Every high school in Richmond should have discounted tickets for the kids.
Never happen , they’d say to each other - Yoo, that’s that school that has one
of those white liberal leaders that thinks taking names off of buildings will change history
because we don’t know better. We’re not able to deal with history, “
 
Putting all that aside, the timing seems poor for this push unless they are going to tie it to "give Spiders tickets for the holidays." Not a good time to be asking people to spend even more money.
 
Not tickets per se, but marketing related. A friend of mine was at the bookstore on campus today and mentioned to me later that there was a bunch of new football-oriented merchandise (tshirts, sweatshirts, etc).
 
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Everybody loves a winner. Hopefully we can take the next step with our program and not only win conference championship but get a national seed and advance further in playoffs each year. I loved how the players talked about this year setting a standard and leaving the program better than they found it. This year could have turned into a disaster after week 5 but this group kept us moving forward which is so important in the big picture regarding establishing a winning culture and mindset.
 
Most booster clubs sell very inexpensive ads for their programs. We could support local HS football and hit a targeted audience at the same time by placing such ads.
 
Fan, UR could do that all day long but it would not translate into ticket sales as they do not encourage “outsiders” to come on campus to see a game. And based on how they treated my 83 year old at the time father in law they discourage folks from attending. Versus he being 86 last year and attending the HU game in Hampton. Some folks saw us slowly walking to the stadium (the place was jam packed and my wife let us off near the stadium) and a golf cart appeared and drove us into the stadium near the seats.
 
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