Spring Football 2016

[Dagger]

When UND starts making the playoffs in football,  starts  making the NCAA tournament in men's basketball,  and wins a National title in hockey I don't think a lot of things are going to change until then.   I don't agree with that but I think that is the reality of it  .  Winning will cure a lot of things.     Fund raising will get easier , selling ads and marketing   the programs will be easier, selling tickets to football and basketball games  will be easier,  when we have success.      Just win!!!

[fightingsioux4life]

7 minutes ago, Dagger said:

When UND starts making the playoffs in football,  starts  making the NCAA tournament in men's basketball,  and wins a National title in hockey I don't think a lot of things are going to change until then.   I don't agree with that but I think that is the reality of it  .  Winning will cure a lot of things.     Fund raising will get easier , selling ads and marketing   the programs will be easier, selling tickets to football and basketball games  will be easier,  when we have success.      Just win!!!

Well, when UND was a national title contender in Division II back in the early 2000's (and won a national title in 2001), the marketing efforts were almost as bad as today. So that isn't necessarily true.

[homer]

1 minute ago, fightingsioux4life said:

Well, when UND was a national title contender in Division II back in the early 2000's (and won a national title in 2001), the marketing efforts were almost as bad as today. So that isn't necessarily true.

And the regional competitors you are comparing them too were equally as bad.  

Do I think they could improve, yes.  But you also cannot ignore the fact that the product they have had to market has not been good.  You can't market a broken product to people and expect them to spend money on it.  People who came to games the 3-4 years ago watched a team that didn't play hard and lost....alot.  It wasn't a good product to watch.  You don't turn that around overnight regardless how easy you think that is.

[fightingsioux4life]

16 minutes ago, homer said:

And the regional competitors you are comparing them too were equally as bad.  

Do I think they could improve, yes.  But you also cannot ignore the fact that the product they have had to market has not been good.  You can't market a broken product to people and expect them to spend money on it.  People who came to games the 3-4 years ago watched a team that didn't play hard and lost....alot.  It wasn't a good product to watch.  You don't turn that around overnight regardless how easy you think that is.

I don't believe I said it was easy. And you are right, winning will help a lot. And Bubba is well on his way to doing that.

[gundy1124]

34 minutes ago, geaux_sioux said:

The reason they stopped is they were short on man power to produce it.

Ya, who's going to go the extra mile to produce a show on a sinking ship?  We had 15 fans left at home vrs. Sac. State that year.  I had to leave myself and was embarrassed I brought guests to the game.

Don't we have a good mass. com. program........it's just a bunch of football clips and a voice over.  Simple stuff.

[jdub27]

2 minutes ago, gundy1124 said:

Ya, who's going to go the extra mile to produce a show on a sinking ship?  We had 15 fans left at home vrs. Sac. State that year.  I had to leave myself and was embarrassed I brought guests to the game.

Don't we have a good mass. com. program........it's just a bunch of football clips and a voice over.  Simple stuff.

With UND currently doing more and more production in house (and possibly more in the future?), hopefully they start adding these things back again because I believe the interest will be there.

[UND1983]

5 minutes ago, gundy1124 said:

Ya, who's going to go the extra mile to produce a show on a sinking ship?  We had 15 fans left at home vrs. Sac. State that year.  I had to leave myself and was embarrassed I brought guests to the game.

Don't we have a good mass. com. program........it's just a bunch of football clips and a voice over.  Simple stuff.

How about the Montana State game when McGhee surprisingly started the game?  Was it 42-0 at half?  Cannot remember but I left at half completely embarrassed.  Never felt that way before leaving the Al.

[jdub27]

5 minutes ago, UND1983 said:

How about the Montana State game when McGhee surprisingly started the game?  Was it 42-0 at half?  Cannot remember but I left at half completely embarrassed.  Never felt that way before leaving the Al.

Ugh, that was terrible. Felt somewhat close at 14-7 halfway through the second until MSU scored to make it 21-7. Still wasn't too bad but then MSU scored 3 TD's in the last 3 1/2 minutes of the half to make it 42-7. Added another TD 5 minutes into the 3rd as the cherry on top. Playmakers and the Tavern were filling up well before the game was over.

[gundy1124]

20 minutes ago, UND1983 said:

How about the Montana State game when McGhee surprisingly started the game?  Was it 42-0 at half?  Cannot remember but I left at half completely embarrassed.  Never felt that way before leaving the Al.

 

7 minutes ago, jdub27 said:

Ugh, that was terrible. Felt somewhat close at 14-7 halfway through the second until MSU scored to make it 21-7. Still wasn't too bad but then MSU scored 3 TD's in the last 3 1/2 minutes of the half to make it 42-7. Added another TD 5 minutes into the 3rd as the cherry on top. Playmakers and the Tavern were filling up well before the game was over.

Thankfully, we've come a long ways since those days!!!

[northernraider]

1 hour ago, Dagger said:

When UND starts making the playoffs in football,  starts  making the NCAA tournament in men's basketball,  and wins a National title in hockey I don't think a lot of things are going to change until then.   I don't agree with that but I think that is the reality of it  .  Winning will cure a lot of things.     Fund raising will get easier , selling ads and marketing   the programs will be easier, selling tickets to football and basketball games  will be easier,  when we have success.      Just win!!!

I thought one of the major aspects of marketing was to promote a product, no matter how good or bad it may seem.  Seems marketing should have really increased during the lean years.  

[ClassB]

Yikes.

I think it is very important that we market ourselves to the region. I don't think d*ck-measuring with other schools in the region, glorifying them (effectively), needs to be the goal. We don't have to have conversations about all the other schools, much less one in specific. Internally (at UND), it should probably be a conversation topic. We should be the best marketed school in the Midwest, though -- that should be the goal of UND's marketing people. By consistently whining about how we 'aren't as good' as another school, we look pathetic.

I asked Hajdu not too long ago about why we don't have a football equivalent of TTD, and he said it was ironic because the marketing people had literally discussed the proposition the day before. They are trying.

As with anything else, feedback is good. We should not discourage feedback, because that IS our job as fans.

Lastly, football is given many privileges and liberties with the HPC - to say that it is not an administration-wide goal to promote football is absurd. To say that it is not an administration-wide goal for the teams to promote one-another is even more absurd. Check UND hockey players tailgating at early home games for the football team, UND football players carrying the student section for the Weber basketball game, see womens BB team and the track team in the front rows at football games. Check various coaches' twitter pages on other teams gamedays -- nothing but support.

It feels like a lot of ledge-talk here. Step away from your respective ledges, people. Its going to be okay.

 

[ClassB]

About the spring game -- I agree the Alerus would probably be a more convenient and alluring prospect, but maybe they are trying to create some different traditions? I'm not sure, just excited to talk UND football.

[gundy1124]

1 hour ago, northernraider said:

I thought one of the major aspects of marketing was to promote a product, no matter how good or bad it may seem.  Seems marketing should have really increased during the lean years.  

If you have a crappy product the solution isn't to market it more, that's silly.

The solution is to get a better product and everything else will gravitate towards that.  We have a good product now heading into 2016 but a little unknown to the average Joe.  It takes time and we still need the effort and ideas, but it gets easier with a good product.

[Cratter]

Only market when you're a good team?

That makes zero sense.

[Longtime fan]

3 hours ago, fightingsioux4life said:

That is B.S. NDSU is in the same university system as UND and has to deal with the same budget issues, but nothing seems to stop their marketing effort, which is much better than ours (and always has been). Cripes, I see billboards for NDSU from Brainerd, MN to the Twin Cities and all points in between. UND's presence is lacking in the region and I don't want to hear that we can't do anything about it because of "budget cuts". How many state appropriated dollars go to athletics anyway? I know our athletic scholarships are privately funded for the most part.

If the marketing people at UND don't have what they need, then it is high time they start getting it. And that starts with a President who understands the importance of athletics as a marketing tool for the entire campus. I really hope whomever gets the job understands that.

And please, spare the cute little comments about how "If I am willing to write a check, they'll gladly do it". I already give in the form of season tickets and Champions Club membership, as do a lot of people on this forum. It all starts with leadership and for the past 10 years or so, NDSU has been much better than UND in that area.

End Rant.

I'm in agreeance with you, but I cannot stand having the FU school mentioned in any manner on this board.  

When you look into the world of sports, football would seem to be the number sport in attention getting closely followed by basketball.  Baseball and soccer would seem to be second tier.  Hockey and golf and maybe a few others gather some followings but are a distant.  People outside the nortern Midwest and northen east coast have no clue what a ice rink and puck are, more less care about it.   UND might be one of only a handful of schools as to where hockey is #1.   They (und) really need to step up on everything that's not hockey.  Keep doing what they're doing with hockey and pretend there are other sports being played at und. Grab the national attention in every sport!!!    Bubba has changed the outlook and future of this program, now it's Unds turn.  Step it up !!  I've even noticed the our local station(wdaz), the football teams highlights come after high school girls volleyball.  Not all the time but has happened.   Bandwagoners have gone south and we need to market more then ever.  Time is now!   

[homer]

18 minutes ago, Cratter said:

Only market when you're a good team?

That makes zero sense.

Its easier to spread the message when you have a successful team that people enjoy watching.  I don't think you could have payed people to show up a few years ago.  They could have put billboards on every parking ramp and corner in Grand Forks and had a commercial every TV break and it wouldn't have mattered.  

[Cratter]

My new restaurant hasn't won any awards and very few people show up. I'm going to wait til I get it gets busy and then start marketing.

[UND-FB-FAN]

24 minutes ago, Longtime fan said:

I'm in agreeance with you, but I cannot stand having the FU school mentioned in any manner on this board.  

When you look into the world of sports, football would seem to be the number sport in attention getting closely followed by basketball.  Baseball and soccer would seem to be second tier.  Hockey and golf and maybe a few others gather some followings but are a distant.  People outside the nortern Midwest and northen east coast have no clue what a ice rink and puck are, more less care about it.   UND might be one of only a handful of schools as to where hockey is #1.   They (und) really need to step up on everything that's not hockey.  Keep doing what they're doing with hockey and pretend there are other sports being played at und. Grab the national attention in every sport!!!    Bubba has changed the outlook and future of this program, now it's Unds turn.  Step it up !!  I've even noticed the our local station(wdaz), the football teams highlights come after high school girls volleyball.  Not all the time but has happened.   Bandwagoners have gone south and we need to market more then ever.  Time is now!   

Agree 100%

und athletics and marketing needs to step up

[homer]

7 minutes ago, Cratter said:

My new restaurant hasn't won any awards and very few people show up. I'm going to wait til I get it gets busy and then start marketing.

Not a bad idea.  You won't want to continue that marketing if people start getting e coli and walking out halfway through their meals.  Word of mouth spreads pretty quickly when people aren't satisfied with your service.  If you hit that point you can spend all the money you want and those customers aren't coming back overnight.  

[homer]

I will ad that marketing needs to get creative going forward but I do not fault lack of marketing for poor attendance in the past.  The product on the field was poorly prepared and played with little effort.  Not very fun to watch.

[geaux_sioux]

13 minutes ago, Cratter said:

My new restaurant hasn't won any awards and very few people show up. I'm going to wait til I get it gets busy and then start marketing.

Bad example. Horrible actually. If the food sucks it doesn't matter how much you promote it.

Also the best restaurants don't advertise, at all.

[gundy1124]

45 minutes ago, Cratter said:

Only market when you're a good team?

That makes zero sense.

Really.....that's what you took from that.  I think others understood my point.

[Cratter]

No. The food has always been average. Some years new menu items will be added and liked. Some years not so much. But my goal is to let people know we are an option for them that evening. And hopefully a few will pick a menu item they like and eventually become regulars. And those regulars will spread the word, thus increasing sales and the need for less marketing.

Ya all graduated from college?

[Cratter]

16 minutes ago, geaux_sioux said:

 

Also the best restaurants don't advertise, at all.

You're catching on.

[homer]

2 minutes ago, Cratter said:

No. The food has always been average. Some years new menu items will be added and liked. Some years not so much. But my goal is to let people know we are an option for them that evening. And hopefully a few will pick a menu item they like and eventually become regulars. And those regulars will spread the word, this increasing sales and less need for marketing.

Ya all graduated from college?

I think I showed up for class the day they talked about how one bad apple can ruin an entire barrel.