Beat dead horse here...

[wavedom]

There won't be many students there. They'll be gone after classes on Thursday. Most no longer have classes on Friday's. Fact is there won't be 2,000 there on Thursday. No matter the spin this is just a bad decision. It will hurt attendance not help.

[wavedom]

It would not matter what day of the week or time of the day is picked for a game - there will be complaints. What we need is to win enough so that Tulane fans will fill the stadium. Regardless. Period. We need to have enough fans who ALWAYS make attending a Tulane home game a priority over any NFL game, or other college game, or anything short of an emergency room visit. If the game is on a weekday evening, or kicks off at 11 a.m. or 8:30 p.m., a true fan will plan other things around the game, not vice-versa.

Not true. There many true fans who won't be there because it's a work day and the next day is a school day and their family can't come. This isn't on the fans. It's on Tulane.

[Wavefan]

It would not matter what day of the week or time of the day is picked for a game - there will be complaints. What we need is to win enough so that Tulane fans will fill the stadium. Regardless. Period. We need to have enough fans who ALWAYS make attending a Tulane home game a priority over any NFL game, or other college game, or anything short of an emergency room visit. If the game is on a weekday evening, or kicks off at 11 a.m. or 8:30 p.m., a true fan will plan other things around the game, not vice-versa.

Not true. There many true fans who won't be there because it's a work day and the next day is a school day and their family can't come. This isn't on the fans. It's on Tulane.

I should have picked my words better. I will agree that True Fandom doesn't require you to attend every game. The point I wanted to make (with a swing and a miss, apparently) is that winning more games will put butts in the seats on a Thursday or for a pre-noon kickoff by creating more fans that prioritize being there above other options. I certainly understand that a hypothetical season-ticket holder in Birmingham or Pensacola or Lake Charles who has a job and kids in school may not have the option to attend, and may have to try to resell or otherwise dispose of those Thursday night tickets, but if there is more demand (which comes from winning) then there is more likely to be someone else in a green shirt for whom attendance is a priority and who will want those tickets and use them if he or she can get them, whether or not the Saints are playing at the same time or there are eleven other college games on TV.

[MattK]

There won't be many students there. They'll be gone after classes on Thursday. Most no longer have classes on Friday's. Fact is there won't be 2,000 there on Thursday. No matter the spin this is just a bad decision. It will hurt attendance not help.

There are still other fans who wouldn't be there on Saturday because they leave town for Labor Day weekend.

How many fit in each category is a total guess. So the only spin is deciding how many people are in each category depending on your side of the argument.

[wavedom]

It would not matter what day of the week or time of the day is picked for a game - there will be complaints. What we need is to win enough so that Tulane fans will fill the stadium. Regardless. Period. We need to have enough fans who ALWAYS make attending a Tulane home game a priority over any NFL game, or other college game, or anything short of an emergency room visit. If the game is on a weekday evening, or kicks off at 11 a.m. or 8:30 p.m., a true fan will plan other things around the game, not vice-versa.

Not true. There many true fans who won't be there because it's a work day and the next day is a school day and their family can't come. This isn't on the fans. It's on Tulane.

I should have picked my words better. I will agree that True Fandom doesn't require you to attend every game. The point I wanted to make (with a swing and a miss, apparently) is that winning more games will put butts in the seats on a Thursday or for a pre-noon kickoff by creating more fans that prioritize being there above other options. I certainly understand that a hypothetical season-ticket holder in Birmingham or Pensacola or Lake Charles who has a job and kids in school may not have the option to attend, and may have to try to resell or otherwise dispose of those Thursday night tickets, but if there is more demand (which comes from winning) then there is more likely to be someone else in a green shirt for whom attendance is a priority and who will want those tickets and use them if he or she can get them, whether or not the Saints are playing at the same time or there are eleven other college games on TV.

Everyone gets that winning consistently will help draw more fans. The point is don't create obstacles of your own choice.Tulane made this choice not TV.

[wavedom]

There won't be many students there. They'll be gone after classes on Thursday. Most no longer have classes on Friday's. Fact is there won't be 2,000 there on Thursday. No matter the spin this is just a bad decision. It will hurt attendance not help.

There are still other fans who wouldn't be there on Saturday because they leave town for Labor Day weekend.

How many fit in each category is a total guess. So the only spin is deciding how many people are in each category depending on your side of the argument.

There's over a million people in the metro area. There's plenty of that million that don't leave town. Way more than enough to fill a 23,000 seat stadium. No spin. Just facts.

[Baywave1]

There won't be many students there. They'll be gone after classes on Thursday. Most no longer have classes on Friday's. Fact is there won't be 2,000 there on Thursday. No matter the spin this is just a bad decision. It will hurt attendance not help.

We agree that Tulane will be challenged to have 10,000 butts in the seats (actual attendance) for this game. I doubt FIU will bring 250 fans. However Tulane will have 2000+ more students at this game than if it were on Saturday. No, Tulane is not the only college that tweaks dates or kickoff times of its home schedule to improve actual attendance by 20%.

If Tulane has a "relatively" successful record (no better than 8-4), FIU will be the best student attended game of the season and generate comparable student tailgate attendance to Homecoming. If Tulane hits the unlikely longshot winning season then later season games could draw similar crowds of students because of the bandwagon effect as occurred in say 1979 and 1998.

[PeteRasche]

1. The driver of this decision isn't students or weather or overall attendance numbers, it's TV visibility. So the argument is whether Tulane owes more to the demographic most heavily represented here on this forum (working people with families who find it harder to get to weeknight games) or whether they should pay more attention to TV visibility. It's obvious what the answer is, and should be. You are up against way fewer other games that night. In fact, we're sorta working on being known as a team that always opens on TV that first Thursday, aren't we? Sure it hurts when your school makes a decision based on the almighty TV dollar and not your wants... But that's the world in which we now live.

2. Wavefan is right, if we win enough, the stadium will be full (insert Capt. Obvious). Our stadium is small enough that casual fans could fill it. Whether it's a diehard season ticket holder or a scalper who bought the unused ticket of a business person in Biloxi who angrily had to sell those tickets because he can't make it on a Thursday night... If the program is a hot ticket, butts will be in seats. That said, it is becoming harder and harder to be a hot ticket. As was pointed out above, even the top teams in the nation are struggling to bring in younger fans (students). Gen Z kids (those coming behind the millennials) just aren't about sports.

[wavedom]

There won't be many students there. They'll be gone after classes on Thursday. Most no longer have classes on Friday's. Fact is there won't be 2,000 there on Thursday. No matter the spin this is just a bad decision. It will hurt attendance not help.

We agree that Tulane will be challenged to have 10,000 butts in the seats (actual attendance) for this game. I doubt FIU will bring 250 fans. However Tulane will have 2000+ more students at this game than if it were on Saturday. No, Tulane is not the only college that tweaks dates or kickoff times of its home schedule to improve actual attendance by 20%.

If Tulane has a "relatively" successful record (no better than 8-4), FIU will be the best student attended game of the season and generate comparable student tailgate attendance to Homecoming. If Tulane hits the unlikely longshot winning season then later season games could draw similar crowds of students because of the bandwagon effect as occurred in say 1979 and 1998.

Sorry but that 2,000 number is pure fantasy. We haven't had that other than the opening of the stadium game. By your way of thinking there would be zero students if it was on Saturday. Again just fantasy.

[wavedom]

1. The driver of this decision isn't students or weather or overall attendance numbers, it's TV visibility. So the argument is whether Tulane owes more to the demographic most heavily represented here on this forum (working people with families who find it harder to get to weeknight games) or whether they should pay more attention to TV visibility. It's obvious what the answer is, and should be. You are up against way fewer other games that night. In fact, we're sorta working on being known as a team that always opens on TV that first Thursday, aren't we? Sure it hurts when your school makes a decision based on the almighty TV dollar and not your wants... But that's the world in which we now live.

2. Wavefan is right, if we win enough, the stadium will be full (insert Capt. Obvious). Our stadium is small enough that casual fans could fill it. Whether it's a diehard season ticket holder or a scalper who bought the unused ticket of a business person in Biloxi who angrily had to sell those tickets because he can't make it on a Thursday night... If the program is a hot ticket, butts will be in seats. That said, it is becoming harder and harder to be a hot ticket. As was pointed out above, even the top teams in the nation are struggling to bring in younger fans (students). Gen Z kids (those coming behind the millennials) just aren't about sports.

The game is on ESPN3. That's not TV and not worth moving the game.

[MattK]

There won't be many students there. They'll be gone after classes on Thursday. Most no longer have classes on Friday's. Fact is there won't be 2,000 there on Thursday. No matter the spin this is just a bad decision. It will hurt attendance not help.

There are still other fans who wouldn't be there on Saturday because they leave town for Labor Day weekend.

How many fit in each category is a total guess. So the only spin is deciding how many people are in each category depending on your side of the argument.

There's over a million people in the metro area. There's plenty of that million that don't leave town. Way more than enough to fill a 23,000 seat stadium. No spin. Just facts.

Clearly no one is changing your opinion on this. But....um....your argument works just as well for the Thursday kick off as it does for Saturday.

There's over a million people in the metro area. only 70,000 fit in the dome and it won't be full. which leaves plenty enough to fill a 23,000 seat stadium. No spin. Just facts.

[Fan Since '54]

There won't be many students there. They'll be gone after classes on Thursday. Most no longer have classes on Friday's. Fact is there won't be 2,000 there on Thursday. No matter the spin this is just a bad decision. It will hurt attendance not help.

Well with a sizeable amount of students not attending the FIU game because of a school break, how many of those few will still be in their seats for the start of the 3rd period?

Fan since '54

[wavedom]

There won't be many students there. They'll be gone after classes on Thursday. Most no longer have classes on Friday's. Fact is there won't be 2,000 there on Thursday. No matter the spin this is just a bad decision. It will hurt attendance not help.

There are still other fans who wouldn't be there on Saturday because they leave town for Labor Day weekend.

How many fit in each category is a total guess. So the only spin is deciding how many people are in each category depending on your side of the argument.

There's over a million people in the metro area. There's plenty of that million that don't leave town. Way more than enough to fill a 23,000 seat stadium. No spin. Just facts.

Clearly no one is changing your opinion on this. But....um....your argument works just as well for the Thursday kick off as it does for Saturday.

There's over a million people in the metro area. only 70,000 fit in the dome and it won't be full. which leaves plenty enough to fill a 23,000 seat stadium. No spin. Just facts.

Yet die hards like myself won't be able to go due to conflicts with work. A conflict Tulane created for no good reason. There are others who won't be going because of the fact that the family can't go due to having school the next day. Again a conflict Tulane chose to create. It's just stupid. That's the point.

[TUPF]

There won't be many students there. They'll be gone after classes on Thursday. Most no longer have classes on Friday's. Fact is there won't be 2,000 there on Thursday. No matter the spin this is just a bad decision. It will hurt attendance not help.

I wonder if there is confusing of Tulane students with SEC students regarding abandoning campus on weekends. As many usually point out, a majority of Tulane students aren’t from within driving distance. Unlike the SEC crowd going home to get momma to wash their clothes and hang around the Dairy Queen with other 13th graders, Tulanians are from farther away. My family lived in northern Virginia during my Tulane days and most folks like me didn’t leave New Orleans on Labor Day.

As far as not having classes on Friday, it usually takes a semester under your belt before you figure that one out in the 2nd semester. I know I wasn’t savvy enough in August of my first year. Later years, absolutely. But again, I wasn’t abandoning the city on weekends even if Friday classes were light.

Having said that, we know that the student body will never drive attendance because there will never be enough of them. Whether is 2,000 or 200 it won’t move the needle.

[GreenieBacker]

as a personal anecdote, neither I, or any of my friends ever went home for Labor Day. And most of us stuck around for Thanksgiving as well.

[Poseidon]

as a personal anecdote, neither I, or any of my friends ever went home for Labor Day. And most of us stuck around for Thanksgiving as well.

This has been said plenty before by others. Not seen around campus doesn't necessarily mean flew back home. I doubt many of the freshmen go home. That said I don't think the day of the game has anything to do with students. The fact that some think is does really says more about prioritizing football or lack there of by the university and is ammo for that crowd. As for now it seems the university prioritizes homecoming and that's it. A Saturday game and tailgate could easily be sold as "the years first big event on campus." This program is at its best place in 20 years. The first game should be a pretty big deal. I think there will be a decent student crowd Thursday. Tailgating...

[PeteRasche]

A conflict Tulane created for no good reason. ... That's the point.

Actually the point is there are multiple reasons they did it and whether "none of them are good" is your opinion vs. someone else's. Though you've made it abundantly clear from pretty much the time you arrived on this board that there's only one opinion in the world which is right, and no matter how well laid out someone else's opinion is, you won't listen to it, so...

[wavedom]

There won't be many students there. They'll be gone after classes on Thursday. Most no longer have classes on Friday's. Fact is there won't be 2,000 there on Thursday. No matter the spin this is just a bad decision. It will hurt attendance not help.

I wonder if there is confusing of Tulane students with SEC students regarding abandoning campus on weekends. As many usually point out, a majority of Tulane students aren’t from within driving distance. Unlike the SEC crowd going home to get momma to wash their clothes and hang around the Dairy Queen with other 13th graders, Tulanians are from farther away. My family lived in northern Virginia during my Tulane days and most folks like me didn’t leave New Orleans on Labor Day.

As far as not having classes on Friday, it usually takes a semester under your belt before you figure that one out in the 2nd semester. I know I wasn’t savvy enough in August of my first year. Later years, absolutely. But again, I wasn’t abandoning the city on weekends even if Friday classes were light.

Having said that, we know that the student body will never drive attendance because there will never be enough of them. Whether is 2,000 or 200 it won’t move the needle.

No confusion with the SEC. Times have changed and most students don't have classes on Friday's. So those going to the coast or other vacation spots for Labor Day will be likely gone after classes on Thursday.

[wavedom]

A conflict Tulane created for no good reason. ... That's the point.

Actually the point is there are multiple reasons they did it and whether "none of them are good" is your opinion vs. someone else's. Though you've made it abundantly clear from pretty much the time you arrived on this board that there's only one opinion in the world which is right, and no matter how well laid out someone else's opinion is, you won't listen to it, so...

Which makes me no different than anyone else here.

Still smarting over Temple I see.

[ml wave]

In this case, it's all about the students. Holding this game on the pre-Labor Day Thursday evening will guarantee by far the largest student turnout at both the game and tailgate. Dannen is just trying to develop frosh fans early. Reportedly band is doing well also but I have no direct info on that. We'll see.

If we're making decisions about when to schedule our games with developing freshman students as fans as the priority as opposed to asking the head coach for his preference, we'd be the only school in the country doing so.

It's a factor. Certainly not the deciding one but it still matters. As you regularly advise others, just do a simple google search and you will find reams of articles about SEC teams on down to lowly Tulane trying to figure out how to improve student attendance.

If this game were on Saturday of Labor Day weekend, it would draw 2000+ fewer students. That's not an exaggeration. When Tulane stuggles to put 10,000+ butts in the seats for many games in Yulman, those are numbers that matter (even if the students only stay for the first half.)


I'm sure Fritz wants the extra two days to prepare for Auburn. He also wants every edge from a home crowd against a good CUSA team that could easily upset Tulane. He may not get a great overall actual turnout on Thursday. He would definitely get a much worse one Saturday considering we'll have 5000+ season ticket holders miss the game for all the reasons noted above regardless of the date it's held.

Do I do that regularly? I feel like I mostly just google things my own self.

How much seating do we have for students anyway? 2-3 sections in the endzone? Is that even 2,000 seats?

[Fan Since '54]

When I as in college (S'Eastern) we didn't leave school on labor day weekend. But that was for two reasons: school hadn't started yet and in those days there were only 10 games in the season, so the schedule usually didn't start until the 2nd weekend of September.

And a little quirky fact about the two local high schools in the area. The Ponchatoula High Green Wave and the Hammond High Tornadoes were arch rivals do to their proximity to one another. Ponchatoula's main color was, obviously, green. Hammond's main color was purple. And at that time in history the last time Ponchatoula had beaten Hammond was '48. So the schools in green, with the same nickname (TU & Ponchatoula), were on the same exact drought vs the teams in purple (LSU & Hammond). Now I know when the drought ended for Tulane, but am not sure when the drought ended for Ponchatoula. In any case, a strange situation.

Fan since '54

[WaveProf]

I remain glad that we are playing this game on Thursday

[TUPF]

I remain glad that we are playing this game on Thursday

Welcome back. You missed a sandwich discussion.

ON EDIT: no you didn’t.

[Sophandros]

There won't be many students there. They'll be gone after classes on Thursday. Most no longer have classes on Friday's. Fact is there won't be 2,000 there on Thursday. No matter the spin this is just a bad decision. It will hurt attendance not help.

The "decision" to have our opener on Thursday night was made by ESPN. Because of our conference's contract with ESPN, the AAC has the largest G5 television deal.

Sorry (not sorry), but getting paid in today's college football landscape is not a bad decision.

[wavedom]

There won't be many students there. They'll be gone after classes on Thursday. Most no longer have classes on Friday's. Fact is there won't be 2,000 there on Thursday. No matter the spin this is just a bad decision. It will hurt attendance not help.

The "decision" to have our opener on Thursday night was made by ESPN. Because of our conference's contract with ESPN, the AAC has the largest G5 television deal.

Sorry (not sorry), but getting paid in today's college football landscape is not a bad decision.

Wrong. It is a non conference home game. The TV contract had no bearing. We did this and still ended up on ESPN3.