I have some thoughts on the issue of weak attendance at many D3 games. After visiting many schools over the last 3 years along with nightly searches on the boards here.
I think the schools might be overlooking a great revenue source that is right on campus. Marketing and Businees majors are part of every campus put it to them,
get people in the stands there is only win/win in this. Academic school is not a valid excuse when it comes to fans give them a reason to cheer or a least come check it out..
When the students are there, parents start showing up ,community then alumni I have seen it at several schools..
These are not new ideas just one passionate fan who loves the purest form of college football.
The greatest and most doggedly determined sports marketing you will find is done by minor league baseball teams. These teams do everything under the sun to bring people to their stadiums. Many of them even have some pretty nice fields. Our Birmingham Barons have an incredible downtown stadium, Memphis has a great downtown field, and more. But they pretty much never sell out. Even on 25 cent hot dog night, free kids nights, free hat nights and more. Why? Because there just isn't that much of a market for minor league baseball. Especially a game played opposite a major league team on t.v. All DIII games are basically played opposite DI games, and sometimes h.s. games as well. There just aren't that many fans for a DIII game vs sitting on a couch watching your local State U you have supported since birth playing on your big screen t.v. with a fridge and frosty cold ones nearby and video replay whenever you want. That is simply the facts of the situation for the vast majority of DIII.
I've been to Lansing Lugnuts games over the past few years. They have a wonderful stadium downtown, with "skyboxes" even. I echo jknezek with his description of the marketing. Great experience.
I'm going to tack one more addendum on to my attendance comment. I don't know the average DIII liberal arts school size, but I'm guessing it's around 2000 students. Given first and second year classes are bigger than Junior and Senior, I'm guessing you are graduating 400-450 students per year at these schools. If you assume 1 in 50 becomes an alumni football fan, and I'm thinking that might be fairly generous, you are minting 8 to 9 people a year who are going to care enough to come back for games. Translate that to your local Big State U, where the graduating classes are between 5,000 and 15,000 per year. With the same ratio, you are minting 100 to 300 alumni, per year, willing to come back. If you suppose that interest lasts roughly 20 years, until the alumni kids are in h.s. tying up most of your time, that is maybe 200 people for a liberal arts school versus 2000 to 6000 alumni fans.
A lot of the DIII problem is a numbers game. You add to the problem because for a lot of these schools, alumni aren't real local. For Big State U fans, they are almost all local. I live in Birmingham and I can't tell you how many people grow up in the Birmingham metro area, go to Alabama (45 minutes away) and come back and work in Birmingham. For a W&L grad, there were maybe 20 to 30 kids per class from within 45 minutes of Lexington Virginia, and most of them didn't go work in Roanoke or Staunton after graduation. They move away from the rural small schools, making it that much harder to return for a game.
In addition to jknezek's points, I'll add some things:
Sports fans drastically overestimate the number of people who like sports. Why? Because we inherently seek out people who share our interests, and sports is social. So sports fans tend to have social circles that include a lot of sports fans. If you get 20 million people watching the NBA finals, that's still a small fraction of the U.S. population. When you factor in the lower visibility of D-III sports those fractions get even smaller.
The influence of a Division III team isn't just local, it's
hyper local. Colleges, for the most part, strive to not be hyper-local wrt to their student bodies. These two things are at odds with each other when it comes to interest and attendance. If you've got a student body from all over the globe, and even the state, odds are, the local football team isn't on most of their radars.
Quote from: meadowdale on June 12, 2017, 11:47:15 PM
Marketing and Businees majors are part of every campus put it to them,
I mean, colleges have marketing
departments that study this stuff. The reality is, there's a lot to do on and around a college campus at 1 p.m. on a Saturday. A football game, a theatre performance, an event put on by a campus or student organization...the list is long. And from the college's perspective, it's all equally valuable (especially at D-III, where you're not making money off of the games) and it's all stuff they'll promote equally to their students.
Great points. But you have to try and I have seen many a game with no effort at all.
Maryville used to have local youth teams' days where kids got in free if they wear their jersey, usually on days when UT had a late afternoon or night game. The team(s) would sit together and the PA would announce their attendance during a timeout. Free kid tickets means paying adult tickets. Pros: increased attendance, community support. Cons:longer lines at the sno-cone vendor. Pros definitely outweigh the cons.
Quote from: meadowdale on June 13, 2017, 04:53:59 PM
Great points. But you have to try and I have seen many a game with no effort at all.
Honestly, I doubt you know the kind of effort teams and schools are putting in behind the scenes. The
results may not be what you want, but I doubt it's because of lack of effort.
Quote from: Bombers798891 on June 14, 2017, 11:28:57 AM
Quote from: meadowdale on June 13, 2017, 04:53:59 PM
Great points. But you have to try and I have seen many a game with no effort at all.
Honestly, I doubt you know the kind of effort teams and schools are putting in behind the scenes. The results may not be what you want, but I doubt it's because of lack of effort.
Classic you made great points backed them up with facts as you know.Then took a cheap shot at my knowledge and insight of business and marketing.
Another thing to consider is how seriously do schools count attendance. From the IIAC, some schools just write down the same figure almost every week, which can be a pre-programed thing. Central, often just puts 1,200 down. Last year, Wartburg had a bunch of 2,500 games, with a bigger figure for homecoming thrown in. There are weeks these schools have many more than that in Pella and Waverly. There are weeks with poor weather or what not when there are fewer. Coe and Dubuque are two schools that seem to make an attempt at an accurate crowd count.
I have been watching IIAC games going back to the 80's. Crowds are much higher now than they were 30 years ago. Back then most IIAC schools only had stands on one side of the stadium. Now most have pretty decent away side facilities. Likewise, back in the 80's. Central was the only school I ever noticed that brought a sizable crowd with them to away games in Dubuque. Now, every school has a decent sized travelling fan base.
30 years ago, it was basketball gyms that would be packed to the rafters in the IIAC. These days, football easily out draws basketball in our conference. 2,500 for most games, with crowds over 4,000 for big games seems ok to me for our conference.
Quote from: Scots13 on June 14, 2017, 09:28:28 AM
Maryville used to have local youth teams' days where kids got in free if they wear their jersey, usually on days when UT had a late afternoon or night game. The team(s) would sit together and the PA would announce their attendance during a timeout. Free kid tickets means paying adult tickets. Pros: increased attendance, community support. Cons:longer lines at the sno-cone vendor. Pros definitely outweigh the cons.
Right on, that's what I'm talking about
Quote from: meadowdale on June 14, 2017, 04:53:11 PM
Quote from: Bombers798891 on June 14, 2017, 11:28:57 AM
Quote from: meadowdale on June 13, 2017, 04:53:59 PM
Great points. But you have to try and I have seen many a game with no effort at all.
Honestly, I doubt you know the kind of effort teams and schools are putting in behind the scenes. The results may not be what you want, but I doubt it's because of lack of effort.
Classic you made great points backed them up with facts as you know.Then took a cheap shot at my knowledge and insight of business and marketing.
I didn't read that at all. I think he said (correctly) that you can't really know what efforts these schools are putting in to promotion/marketing/whatever. SOOOOO much of this stuff winds up settling into the jurisdiction of the sports information department- as if those folks don't have enough to do already. The reality for 99% of the division is that there is a super skinny(if any at all) return on investments made for promotion/marketing/whatever.
This was an article I read last year about how the University of Chicago is putting a big effort into making football a focal point for alumni relations. They have quite a bit bigger alumni base (and profile in general) than pretty much all of DIII, so it's not exactly a template, but it does show that some schools are putting in strides towards promoting games on campus.
https://theringer.com/university-chicago-football-culture-91db25cc0542 (https://theringer.com/university-chicago-football-culture-91db25cc0542)
Lots of schools put in effort in different ways. I know W&L spends a lot of time internally promoting to students and especially among student athletes getting them to cross support. But the whole school is around 2000 students, including the law school, so there is a limit how much that matters. W&L does not charge for tickets unless mandated to do so by the NCAA, so all the promotion is a loss just to try and generate a better atmosphere for the players and fans.
Quote from: HansenRatings on June 15, 2017, 10:36:11 AM
This was an article I read last year about how the University of Chicago is putting a big effort into making football a focal point for alumni relations. They have quite a bit bigger alumni base (and profile in general) than pretty much all of DIII, so it's not exactly a template, but it does show that some schools are putting in strides towards promoting games on campus.
https://theringer.com/university-chicago-football-culture-91db25cc0542 (https://theringer.com/university-chicago-football-culture-91db25cc0542)
Somewhat related for using football as a focal point for alumni relations, Dubuque tracked homecoming attendance to alumni giving and noted those who attend homecoming give at a higher level than in years they don't attend the event. Keeping alumni involved with the school, via homecoming, or alumni events throughout the country, or even monthly newsletters goes a long way towards increasing giving levels at the school. When the alumni feel involved, they open up their wallet.
Another thing I notice at Dubuque is athletes attending sports events they aren't involved in. I've seen Dubuque football players sitting together at basketball and softball games in fairly large numbers. I've seen basketball and track teams at football games all sitting together as a group. The more involved you are while in school, the more likely you will stay involved with the school after graduation they feel.
Quote from: meadowdale on June 14, 2017, 04:53:11 PM
Quote from: Bombers798891 on June 14, 2017, 11:28:57 AM
Quote from: meadowdale on June 13, 2017, 04:53:59 PM
Great points. But you have to try and I have seen many a game with no effort at all.
Honestly, I doubt you know the kind of effort teams and schools are putting in behind the scenes. The results may not be what you want, but I doubt it's because of lack of effort.
Classic you made great points backed them up with facts as you know.Then took a cheap shot at my knowledge and insight of business and marketing.
That came across more harshly than intended. I'm sorry that I snapped at you. I shouldn't have. But marketing is a lot like an iceberg. The things you see are a small portion of the work that went into it. And there are a lot of things that the average person
can't see.
Let me give you an example: My wife works for a non-profit that provides services to children and adults with disabilities. They've held events for those people where they've been able to attend Cornell athletic events thanks to an involvement with the school's Red Key Athlete Honor Society. (A great thing) But it's not like there's an announcement at the game that this was going on. So if you were just a Cornell fan who lived in town, you'd go to that game and have no idea that there was a group of 20 people scattered in the stands who are there as the result of a months long collaboration between two groups of people.
Or, what about this? Suppose a coach has a friend who runs a local youth group, and the marketing department reached out to the group over the summer to get them to attend the team's home opener, but they couldn't make the logistics work. How would the average fan be aware of those conversations?
Quote from: jknezek on June 13, 2017, 09:36:28 AM
I'm going to tack one more addendum on to my attendance comment. I don't know the average DIII liberal arts school size, but I'm guessing it's around 2000 students. Given first and second year classes are bigger than Junior and Senior, I'm guessing you are graduating 400-450 students per year at these schools. If you assume 1 in 50 becomes an alumni football fan, and I'm thinking that might be fairly generous, you are minting 8 to 9 people a year who are going to care enough to come back for games. Translate that to your local Big State U, where the graduating classes are between 5,000 and 15,000 per year. With the same ratio, you are minting 100 to 300 alumni, per year, willing to come back. If you suppose that interest lasts roughly 20 years, until the alumni kids are in h.s. tying up most of your time, that is maybe 200 people for a liberal arts school versus 2000 to 6000 alumni fans.
A lot of the DIII problem is a numbers game. You add to the problem because for a lot of these schools, alumni aren't real local. For Big State U fans, they are almost all local. I live in Birmingham and I can't tell you how many people grow up in the Birmingham metro area, go to Alabama (45 minutes away) and come back and work in Birmingham. For a W&L grad, there were maybe 20 to 30 kids per class from within 45 minutes of Lexington Virginia, and most of them didn't go work in Roanoke or Staunton after graduation. They move away from the rural small schools, making it that much harder to return for a game.
I think this part is a big portion of the picture. I found something on the NCAA website that gave median undergraduate enrollment and you close for D3 with an enrollment 1,860, D2 had 2,530 and D1 was 9,205. When you compare that to average attendance at D3 1954, D2 3459, FCS 8357 and FBS 43,612, a trend is clear. Obvioiusly FBS is another level and basically an outlier to the equation but more or less we are getting about what everyone else does in proportion to the student body size.
I would be very interested to compare schools by their student body size to their attendance at games and see what schools are clearly above or below.
I am sure some schools could do more and some schools do a lot that may go unnoticed but another factor is how much the school really cares about football attendance. Football can be a big time revenue sport for schools, I don't know about schools outside of Texas but many of them have started football as a way to raise enrollment since these kids are paying them for the right to football via school tuition.
Yes by getting more people to come to your football games you may persuade a few of them to come to your school eventually, but if the school is pleased with their enrollment than spending time and money on getting a few hundred more people in the seats is resources that could be spent elsewhere.
I think we'll start to see more hype videos produced for games like many D1s use. But ultimately I think it starts with the students themselves. If they and their friends go and have a good time, they'll come back. There's not much you can do besides get out of their way. In my experience watching D3's best conference in terms of attendance, the MIAC, the students have created their own traditions and culture that can't just be copy-pasted to another school.
Even UMU has a difficult time getting students to come to games consistently. They bribe them with free entry every game, free pizza, free t shirts and giveaways. We need joy had 4 games last year and 1 was JCU, which helps inflate the stats for an average of 4,500. Take out JCU and the average is 3,000. The problem is that it takes a large amount of fans from BOTH teams in D3 to have a high attendance. Mount has started inviting a small high school band to join them each week and they get to play some songs with UMU's band. It's a win win bc those high school students don't usually get to play in front of more than a coupl of hundred people and UMU gets more parents and students to visit the campus. They've also had some free entry games with canned goods for food pantry or focus on a non profit group.
Like another poster mentioned, it's just as hard as getting people to a minor league baseball game. Good games and good talent can bbe on the field, but if there isn't an alumni or local fan base, attendance just won't happen. It's why I look forward to playing JCU and Baldwin Wallace every year....atmosphere. All of those schools and fans support their teams and it makes for a great stadium atmosphere. Shoot, when Mount played in Berea to play BW last season, there was about 7,000 there.
Folks this is what I was aiming for. Of course it's never gonna be the same for all schools but look at all the ideas in 1 day.
This all came about when our son went to visit then game and there were 100 people in the crowd. The idea was to get
all the fans ,alumni, students and parents with some vision and pull to make the game day better. Game days are some of
my fondest memories and the team was awful but it unified us in the stands. There are a few schools that have it and man is it fun to see!!!!
Quote from: hsbsballcoach7 on June 15, 2017, 02:17:41 PM
Even UMU has a difficult time getting students to come to games consistently. They bribe them with free entry every game, free pizza, free t shirts and giveaways. We need joy had 4 games last year and 1 was JCU, which helps inflate the stats for an average of 4,500. Take out JCU and the average is 3,000. The problem is that it takes a large amount of fans from BOTH teams in D3 to have a high attendance. Mount has started inviting a small high school band to join them each week and they get to play some songs with UMU's band. It's a win win bc those high school students don't usually get to play in front of more than a coupl of hundred people and UMU gets more parents and students to visit the campus. They've also had some free entry games with canned goods for food pantry or focus on a non profit group.
Like another poster mentioned, it's just as hard as getting people to a minor league baseball game. Good games and good talent can bbe on the field, but if there isn't an alumni or local fan base, attendance just won't happen. It's why I look forward to playing JCU and Baldwin Wallace every year....atmosphere. All of those schools and fans support their teams and it makes for a great stadium atmosphere. Shoot, when Mount played in Berea to play BW last season, there was about 7,000 there.
UMHB has been experimenting with this, too. Not at every home game, but a couple times a year. They have them sit on the visitor's side, but on the end closest to our own (Cru Spirit Band is technically just above the corner of the end zone). I don't know if it helps with getting any of these kids on campus as students, but it definitely helps to fill some seats and liven up the atmosphere.
They also do a sports youth night, where tons of young football players from Central Texas get to watch the game for free and have their school/team announced on the intercom. I believe there's also a church youth group night, and free (or heavily reduced) entry with canned goods, etc. So yeah, it seems like a lot of schools are doing similar things.
Quote from: HansenRatings on June 15, 2017, 10:36:11 AM
This was an article I read last year about how the University of Chicago is putting a big effort into making football a focal point for alumni relations. They have quite a bit bigger alumni base (and profile in general) than pretty much all of DIII, so it's not exactly a template, but it does show that some schools are putting in strides towards promoting games on campus.
https://theringer.com/university-chicago-football-culture-91db25cc0542 (https://theringer.com/university-chicago-football-culture-91db25cc0542)
great article
Quote from: AO on June 15, 2017, 01:57:34 PM
I think we'll start to see more hype videos produced for games like many D1s use. But ultimately I think it starts with the students themselves. If they and their friends go and have a good time, they'll come back. There's not much you can do besides get out of their way. In my experience watching D3's best conference in terms of attendance, the MIAC, the students have created their own traditions and culture that can't just be copy-pasted to another school.
AGREE ON MIAC
Quote from: crufootball on June 15, 2017, 01:24:52 PM
I would be very interested to compare schools by their student body size to their attendance at games and see what schools are clearly above or below.
http://stats.ncaa.org/reports/attendance?id=15320 (http://stats.ncaa.org/reports/attendance?id=15320)
It doesn't have the enrollment figures but it does include stadium size.
Quote from: FCGrizzliesGrad on June 15, 2017, 10:05:31 PM
Quote from: crufootball on June 15, 2017, 01:24:52 PM
I would be very interested to compare schools by their student body size to their attendance at games and see what schools are clearly above or below.
http://stats.ncaa.org/reports/attendance?id=15320 (http://stats.ncaa.org/reports/attendance?id=15320)
It doesn't have the enrollment figures but it does include stadium size.
Enrollments are corralled neatly here (http://d3football.com/teams/index).
Quote from: wally_wabash on June 16, 2017, 08:10:46 AM
Quote from: FCGrizzliesGrad on June 15, 2017, 10:05:31 PM
Quote from: crufootball on June 15, 2017, 01:24:52 PM
I would be very interested to compare schools by their student body size to their attendance at games and see what schools are clearly above or below.
http://stats.ncaa.org/reports/attendance?id=15320 (http://stats.ncaa.org/reports/attendance?id=15320)
It doesn't have the enrollment figures but it does include stadium size.
Enrollments are corralled neatly here (http://d3football.com/teams/index).
They get those figures from the Department of Education. But those don't always tell the whole story. There are schools like Buena Vista that have off campus centers. BVU gets counted as having 1,800 students by the Department of Education when what they actually have on campus in Storm Lake is around 800. Of course, BVU is probably the outlier there, and those figures D3football has are probably mostly accurate within a couple hundred either way.
Ok, here's your list, sorted according to attendance expressed as a percentage of enrollment (click to embiggen).
(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FLUavKPt.png&hash=7139cbe4469a52333a35a63a32f22c860a646de8)
(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FLBof3q1.png&hash=9e3f03efea95e07f6bab5f9f8db3eac6f5bc35b5)
(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FeT1p42g.png&hash=05da84ab861c8672d5e8663fdffc4494abe053c8)
(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FNrWg4x3.png&hash=b245f1f82bc97d9f9f1d4295f6287f5735095269)
(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FDXDbH9N.png&hash=37300b89d5785fb634ec740f29ca6fba16b54701)
(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FDbAXMl7.png&hash=a79a128f775db1dcfd83c8876e03464d855c616e)
Quote from: hsbsballcoach7 on June 15, 2017, 02:17:41 PM
Even UMU has a difficult time getting students to come to games consistently. They bribe them with free entry every game, free pizza, free t shirts and giveaways.
I think the key is to get away from relying so much generic giveaways (We were all in college. It is not hard to get a free T-shirt or slice of pizza) and tap into the shared social aspect of sports. Like what TCU has done with Tennis: https://www.tcu360.com/story/16998sorority-challenge-increases-fan-attendance-mens-tennis-matches/ (https://www.tcu360.com/story/16998sorority-challenge-increases-fan-attendance-mens-tennis-matches/)
Ithaca has done some of this really well. They had a student who was named one of the top college DJs and is really popular, so they had him DJ at a basketball game. They had a dorm room challenge. They have "Bombers supporting Bombers" where a team will select another team's game, go, and encourage other athletes to attend that game. I think that stuff does a lot more than just offering free pizza. (Although IC does that too).
Quote from: wally_wabash on June 16, 2017, 09:45:41 AM
Ok, here's your list, sorted according to attendance expressed as a percentage of enrollment (click to embiggen).
(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FLUavKPt.png&hash=7139cbe4469a52333a35a63a32f22c860a646de8)
(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FLBof3q1.png&hash=9e3f03efea95e07f6bab5f9f8db3eac6f5bc35b5)
(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FeT1p42g.png&hash=05da84ab861c8672d5e8663fdffc4494abe053c8)
(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FNrWg4x3.png&hash=b245f1f82bc97d9f9f1d4295f6287f5735095269)
(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FDXDbH9N.png&hash=37300b89d5785fb634ec740f29ca6fba16b54701)
(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FDbAXMl7.png&hash=a79a128f775db1dcfd83c8876e03464d855c616e)
Thanks Wally, did you make that or find it somewhere? Since Wabash is #1, do you think they do anything special?
Quote from: crufootball on June 16, 2017, 10:00:03 AM
Thanks Wally, did you make that or find it somewhere? Since Wabash is #1, do you think they do anything special?
No, I just made that. All of the data was already tabulated, so I just went ahead and took a few minutes to do the math and post it.
RE: Wabash and this list...Wabash has been among the top of the D3 attendance list for a long time now (it's been a pretty sweet ride for about 15 straight years now). Wabash's community and alumni are really engaged and enthusiastic, particularly on football Saturdays. I don't know that there is anything "special" that the College does,
per se. Without beating the Wabash drum too hard here, it really comes down to history, tradition, and pride- 4,000 people go to Wabash games every week because they genuinely care. There's not free tshirts or free pizza or whatever else- you go because you sincerely want to. It kind of echos what was said about some of the MIAC schools earlier regarding local traditions and pride and things that you can't necessarily transplant at other schools. The year-over-year high attendance can't really be manufactured with gameday promotions IYAM...that stuff will fizzle. It has to happen organically and be part of the culture.
That's the deep dive. Some simpler, mathematical things to consider also are that Wabash has a tiny enrollment (small denominators are helpful for this exercise) and it was Wabash's turn to host the Monon Bell game which provides a big attendance boost every other year.
"The year-over-year high attendance can't really be manufactured with gameday promotions IYAM...that stuff will fizzle. It has to happen organically and be part of the culture."
Well put
Quote from: doolittledog on June 16, 2017, 08:37:08 AM
Quote from: wally_wabash on June 16, 2017, 08:10:46 AM
Quote from: FCGrizzliesGrad on June 15, 2017, 10:05:31 PM
Quote from: crufootball on June 15, 2017, 01:24:52 PM
I would be very interested to compare schools by their student body size to their attendance at games and see what schools are clearly above or below.
http://stats.ncaa.org/reports/attendance?id=15320 (http://stats.ncaa.org/reports/attendance?id=15320)
It doesn't have the enrollment figures but it does include stadium size.
Enrollments are corralled neatly here (http://d3football.com/teams/index).
They get those figures from the Department of Education. But those don't always tell the whole story. There are schools like Buena Vista that have off campus centers. BVU gets counted as having 1,800 students by the Department of Education when what they actually have on campus in Storm Lake is around 800. Of course, BVU is probably the outlier there, and those figures D3football has are probably mostly accurate within a couple hundred either way.
There are not many of these in Division III at all, in fact.
I guess I should've also included an asterisk with my Mount Union comment because many students do support the team, but leave after the 1st or 2nd quarter bc it's not entertaining. Most other athletic teams are working concession stands or other game details to earn money for their program. I have also attended basketball games and many UMU students attend, most which are football players.
When I attended UMU, we were told that we had the highest percentage of intramural participation in all Ohio schools and that's bc most of Mount Unions enrollment does come to UMU to play a sport initially.
I say that to say this. Your college community needs to have a culture of supporting athletics, like mentioned before or there won't be attendance.
When I played at Hendrix we had a huge showing for our inaugural game. Alumni from all over the country showed up. When we miraculously won, a few even cried. Football for recent start-ups in the South like Hendrix and Berry can really reinvigorate the alumni base. Football games became a huge draw since Hendrix really only does class reunions (there is no homecoming).
I was on the SAAC (a committee of student athletes at every NCAA school that works to improve athletics, advocate for athletes, and votes on NCAA rules) and we made plans to have student athletes support each other at the very least. Sometimes this included creating a master calendar of sorts to figure out which sport viewed which match as the biggest upcoming one for them and we would go and cheer - from swimming all the way down to field hockey.
For liberal arts colleges, you have to get non-athletic allies though. Student Senate lets different groups and student organizations sign up to host tailgates, charities hold events near the baseball fields, and for rivalry games others sold shirts.
Hampden Sydney regularly ranks in top 5 in attendance. No promotions. No halftime contests. No band. No cheerleaders. Up until 2 seasons ago no souvenir sales. Heck the even book store was closed by game time.
What they do have is rediculous tailgating before, during and after games. They are also centrally located in the ODAC and that helps with visiting fans. It's an awesome atmosphere.