David Primus

Pretty sure the song is Tool - 46&2

FYI - the ticket office is still making calls. Takes a significant amount of time to both get & keep this organized and make sure we reach each person going down the list. Probably don't have to tell this group, but please do call back ASAP if you miss the call from the ticket office.

For what it's worth - we have a couple hundred student tailgate passes for every game. First come, first serve at the student ticket office in Memorial Union until they're gone. And free. Students who don't plan ahead can buy one on gameday - Alerus Center will sell it to them, plus they can setup in the same lot as other students who got one ahead of time.

I don't think I'm getting a good understanding of where you see the problem lies. I'm fairly certain a good portion of the $50/spot people do show up most weeks and would be upset if they were "forced" to show up early to get the spot they have been guaranteed in the past (what if we did the same with season tickets inside?). Feel free to reach out to me (email: david.primus@athletics.UND.edu). You obviously know the history of that area pretty well, and I'd be interested in hearing more on that as well as better understanding your concerns. Thanks and GO UND!

FBAlum, great questions and I understand where you are coming from. For a number of years now (at least since before I was here), the Alerus Center has marketed reserved season tailgate spots. In recent years, UND Athletics has become more involved with the marketing/selling of those spots and demand has continued to increase. That demand has gone from about half of that "private tailgate alley" area to nearly the full thing. With the amount of requests we get to move or add spots each year (and very rarely seeing spots dropped), we're under the impression there would be backlash against going "first come/first serve" for those spots. We're actually down to a very small amount in that entire area that are not sold as season spots anymore. In fact, overflow of tailgating spots purchased on a single-game basis now is in the student lot - so on high demand games for single-game tailgating, you'll have "regular" fans tailgating in the student lot. In addition, students are located right next to many of those season spots now, and many aim to be near the grass and closer to the action. This year is also the first year that Champions Club members are officially allowed to tailgate in their designated spots. Lots are split between donor levels, but parking/tailgating is first come/first serve. Not a whole lot taking advantage of that benefit now, but that will grow, especially once tailgate alley is sold-out on a season basis. I would suggest that we are planning and thinking big - hoping to see the crowds, and tailgaters, continue to grow. We don't see tailgating confined to just "tailgate alley" long-term, and more spread across the entire parking lot. As for those who drive in late, I certainly hope no one is spending $50/year/spot just to park. For $5/game, they can get a whole lot closer to the main entrance. I'd venture a guess that most of those people just decided to take a weekend off from tailgating - or are out of town and gave their passes to a friend for the day. Hope that explains some of our logic.

Care to enlighten me? I can't imagine students are upset with the free tailgating passes, the free shuttle ride over, the free food provided by different organizations each week, or the other events that NoDak Nation has going on out there (corn hole tournament, music, etc.). Not to mention the hospitality that a lot of our awesome "private" tailgaters provide, often inviting in students for food & conversation. I'd argue we're (UND Athletics) pretty open to concerns/comments from fans, plus NoDak Nation is out there every week and is the "voice" of the student section. If "a lot" of students are upset about something, "a lot" of students are also not sharing those concerns with anyone who can try to make a change.

Just presenting facts here.... We released a bunch of new fan initiatives for students & general public throughout Monday 9.22 via REA, UND and NoDak Nation social media outlets. Judging by the RT's and favorites on this tweet, students were well aware before the lottery of the change: https://twitter.com/NoDak_Nation/status/514074132061757440 The release on 9.23 was a wrap-up release of everything that was announced on Monday 9.22 - the time stamp on that release currently shows "updated" meaning there was an error/omission/change after the initial release. Student hockey "lottery" was 9.23 and 9.24 at 9pm/10pm

Next Sunday the 21st, 3-5pm More info here: http://www.undsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=13500&ATCLID=209613483&SPID=6405&SPSID=58684

For what it's worth, we did the same promotion last year ($1 tickets, though no puck giveaway, and we fell short of the attendance record by 7). The previous record was 3,200 - set at the first ever UND Women's Hockey game. I really hope that UND fans and the Grand Forks community are incredibly proud of the support they showed last night - not too far from doubling the previous record! With all the fans & families that made it, likely many for the first time, I hope many will decide to return and support in the future (starting with 7pm tonight). This team deserves it!

Green & White Account: undsports.com/students

Sunday, Sept. 22nd 3-5pm

Jumping in here. NoDak Nation (official student group) is "running" the yell leaders this year. As referenced earlier in the thread, our first goal within UND Athletics is to get the students there. Last year was a good start (student attendance up 26.6% to be exact), but it's just that, a start. In regards to cheers/traditions - it is my view that tradition cannot be forced, only encouraged. We are trying to set things up in a way that allows new traditions, or the bringing back of old traditions to be organic and from the students/team. For students who are in this thread/on this site (108498, SWSioux MN, etc.) and others who may be reading, I encourage you to get ahold of me via email (David.Primus@athletics.UND.edu) and I can put you in touch with the yell leaders for next year. I know they would love help from the "inside" of the student section to get cheers/yells/etc. going (they certainly won’t be able to do it by themselves) and no doubt they're open to ideas. David Primus UND Athletics Director of Marketing P.S. Football season ticket commercial started running today, will be posted to YouTube today/tomorrow as well. I encourage everyone to like/follow the teams on Facebook/Instagram and Twitter and help us pack the Alerus Center this Fall! Going to be a fun year!

Students can pick up free tailgating passes the week of the game at the student ticket office in Memorial Union. There's about 300/game in total and they usually go pretty quick. Once they're gone and day of game, there is no free parking/tailgating for students. However, there is a free shuttle that runs from outside of Wilkerson to the Alerus Center starting 3 hours before the game until after game ends. For doors open - NoDak Nation members get in 10 minutes before all other students, in case you're aiming for a front row seat.

Hey everyone, appreciate your excitement, but NoDak Nation is really a student fan group (the old Sioux Crew), with social media accounts run by students. They're hyped up for this weekend (of course - after all, single-game Men's Hockey student tickets sold out earlier than any other series this year), and are especially excited because of some things they have planned for Friday/Saturday for students. They're just trying to communicate their excitement/hype/interest about this weekend via social media. Sorry to be a debbie downer on all this talk, but just be aware of where the tweet originated. Going to be a fun weekend! GO UND!

While I can't answer scheduling questions (not my area) - just want to point out that the future schedules are all available on the UNDSports.com website. Here's a link to next seasons' awesome schedule: http://www.undsports.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPSID=58644&SPID=6399&DB_OEM_ID=13500&Q_SEASON=2013 Check the drop down box above the countdown to look at schedules for other seasons (obviously a work in process)

For what it's worth, we designed the priority line to reward students who support more than just the Men's Hockey team. If it encourages a few students to check out Football that's great and I hope they have a good time and come back next season. Would much rather have the students inside cheering on our Football team (or volleyball, women's hockey, WBB or MBB) instead of standing outside waiting in the Men's Hockey student line. And I certainly don't want our "hard core" students deciding to skip the Football game because they're concerned they won't get into lower bowl. I don't think there's any de-valuing of football going on with this - hard to get "cheaper" than free.

Trying to get in a few responses before I hit the hay tonight...apologize for the formatting For geaux_sioux: - loudness at Alerus: my understanding it's a speaker issue, but that doesn't stop me from pushing it to be turned up. It won't be loud enough for me until I get complaints from fans that it's too loud. - Great ideas on intro video - agreed that we took a step forward, but still more work to be done - Love the UND side to side idea - reminds me of something done at Wyoming football when I was a kid - something we will certainly try - tough part with things like "Jump Around" is that it almost has to be spontaneous to catch on - and can come across forced and not authentic or unique to UND. If the students came up with something (en masse) they wanted to do, we'd be all over it. - leave and re-entry at halftime: If I'm not mistaken that is an Alerus Center/Alerus Commission policy - Agreed on Opening Drive (hard knocks). Major kudos to Matt Schill on that. Hoping that the addition of more interns might give us a chance to expand series like that in the future. - We did have a pep rally of sorts for the first time this year, but it was specifically for the Freshmen during Welcome Weekend. Went off well and we'll likely continue it - great chance to teach them the tradition of UND Athletics and get them involved - "big time" perception - that's what we're going for. An opportunity to make the playoffs/Big Dance is a big part of that - something we'll continue to try and impress upon students. Happy with the bump in students at Football - now need to transition that to basketball. For bincitysioux, - "better in-game at REA": REA has their own video production staff, Alerus has 0 staff for that - we hire the gameday video staff for Football. Agreed that the intro is too long - and we'll shorten and improve for next season. Glad we've finally figured out the PA clarity issue! - I only recently became aware of the fireworks and will look into that - touchdown/scoring "horn": with fear of replicating/"knocking-off" hockey, what should that sound like? I like the idea (Wyoming has an old military cannon fire after touchdowns). Happy to field ideas that would add entertainment, but still differentiate football from hockey - Coaches show: a detail I missed - and will be correcting - Band caps/national anthem - I think this is pretty common among bands at college football. It's not something I've paid attention to before, but I don't believe any band remove their hats for the national anthem. Good question - not something I've thought of before. Couple other things: - I do have a staff of student interns who help to get schedule cards/posters around town to businesses (among other things). I've heard we've done a better job of that this year than previous years...hope that's actually the case. - those who claim students don't care about Football because of Hockey, the numbers don't show it. First 4 games, the avg attendance was more than the number of student seats at REA (which they never fully fill). - darrell1976 - working on plans similar to what you described about dressing up the town. Hoping to get good buy in from community entities. I was part of a project with similar goals at Wyoming. Big weekend ahead, hope everyone comes out to support the Women's Hockey team against the top-ranked Gophers. Olympic quality Hockey, a great rivalry and certainly no lack of intensity between teams. Not to mention $1 tickets Saturday. Keep the ideas coming - always welcome to send them to me via email as well (just give me some time to respond - this is our busiest time of year with all 6 ticketed sports running at once).

Figured it was time I jumped on here and post a response – just a little delayed from waiting for the mod approval to post. My name is David Primus and I am the Director of Marketing for UND Athletics. I’ve been here in GF just over a year now, coming from Indiana, but I’m truly “from” Wyoming. Part of the reason why I was excited to take a job here is the passionate fan base that UND has. It’s great to have such a dedicated fan base and I hope this post can bring some information and help to the topic at hand. Last year I came in mid-season so this was our first real chance to focus on students. Student attendance at this point is up approx. 30% from last year (2012 avg: 1987- although only 1100 at Montana….2011 avg: 1387….2010 avg: 1467). Certainly the Big Sky and stronger opponents has helped, but I must also credit the Residence Halls (ARH and their affiliated staff), UND Student Ambassadors as well as the Greek community for buying in and helping to make tailgating and games a bigger deal to students this year. Each has played a significant role in getting more involved on gamedays. I was told the Homecoming tailgate was the biggest in years (from a student perspective) and we’ve had some good success in “reserving” student tailgating spots for groups from the residence halls and Greek community who commit to coming to every game. Their willingness to see the big picture and what's possible long-term has certainly helped. In addition to working direct with groups, I feel we do a lot to get students to the game. Between on-campus promotion, free tickets, free tailgating (first 250ish to pick up a pass), free shuttle (moved from Chester Fritz to front of Wilkerson), free food at 3 games (Thanks Texas Roadhouse!), rally towel & shirt giveaways, and more – we’ve definitely taken a step forward this year. No doubt there’s more work to do though. For what it’s worth, I feel like some of the suggestions floating around we have already implemented, but it may take some time to take root and grow. There were also many ideas we had this year that we didn’t have a chance to implement and hope to in the future (and we sure wish the Helmet car had been operable prior to last week). Even better, it's great to see some feedback from students on this thread. For the person who posted about the friend who didn’t get a pass from the union beforehand for tailgating and ended up paying $15 – please realize that we control the student tailgating lot passes, the Alerus Center controls the rest. I don’t think it’s that much to ask to pick up the pass early in the week (we do provide them free after all). The simple/general rule this year – pick up before gameday and ticket/tailgating are free – pick up on gameday and you may end up paying for a ticket and/or tailgating. We’ve also made some strides in-game, but have a LONG way to go. We have a vision of what we want UND Football to be in-game, and while this year has been a significant step forward, there is much work to be done. No doubt the audio/visual side of things is the most apparent (*ahem* louder). And while some people cherish the idea of outdoor games, there are many advantages to being inside besides climate control – we need to exploit these advantages. Yell leaders are new for us and it was a decent start – we’ve learned a lot and now will have 9 months to plan and improve. No doubt the Montana game was frustrating. We felt we put a good amount into telling the students how important this game was – in addition to the promo side of things with the Blackout – but it certainly didn’t work as well as we wanted. Obviously there are still some issues including students leaving at halftime (though this is better than last year), a lack of student “unity” (cheering, etc.) and a slow decline of student attendance through the season. We’ll keep after it, but we also know it doesn’t all change in one year. One thing if I could ask: As some of you have identified, Football seems to get put down by some of our so-called “Hockey only” fans. Please help us to continue to carry the message of the quality of the games, student athletes and event that is UND Football. Football/Tailgating (Gameday) is a completely different experience than Hockey. I don’t expect every UND fan to be a fan of both, but certainly appreciate it when our more passionate fans help to change the conversation. Help us to educate our fan base about the quality of conference we’re in and what teams like Montana, Montana State and E. Washington have done (coincidentally, all 3 on the home schedule next year plus SDSU). The performances put up last week against Montana (a good team no matter their tough season) are a great starting point. Keep the ideas coming, I watch this forum time to time and Jayson alerts me when ideas come up. For those of you who sent him ideas (from his twitter post), please know that he passed those along to me as well. I’ll try to jump in and provide info when I find time – and respond to any questions in this thread. Thanks for reading, I look forward the exciting Hockey and Basketball season ahead and the continued growth of UND Football in particular. Let’s show the seniors off with a great crowd next Saturday! PS - Help us break the all-time Women's Hockey attendance record Saturday against the top-ranked Gophers - 2pm puck drop, $1 tickets for all (students free)!