Irondawg
08-25-2014, 02:17 PM
Attended my first one yesterday with my 5 year old. Also having a 2-year getting to games from Madison is near impssible so this was a great way to see the stadium and help him understand who who root for on Saturdays. I imagine there were many there in a similar boat as I was. While it wasn't a terrible event, it has potential to be worlds better without a ton more effort.
1. Scheduling
Sundays are fine, but it's a school night. So start it at 3:30 or 4:00 and end it at 6. We left at six and after stopping for a quick dinner still didn't make it back to Madison until around 9.
Have a printed schedule of what is happening when and where. This is easy but instead we had 8x11 printed signed on the walls halfway directing people to where things were. Some other clusters. People were lining up for signatures early but the team didn't get there on the field until almost 5:30 and the line was L-O-N-G. Also they had the locker rooms open but closed them at some point before we tried to go in (about 5:30) could go in. Had we known those were going to close at a certain time we would done that earlier.
This is my favorite: when you get there you get a ticket with a time you can get your autographs from the offense/defense and Mullen tables. you can't ask kids to stand in a line for an hour. Which mean if an adult is flying solo like I was, you're not getting in line, which means you aren't gettin a poster with autographs. So you get a card that assigns you 4:30-4:45 to go through the offense line, 4:45-5:00 for the defense and 5:10-5:30 to get to Mullen. Would make it so much more kid friendly.
2. Merchandising/Food
Just a huge swing and miss here. There was not a toddler jersey or cheer outfit to be found at the Barnes and Noble bookstore nor inside the stadium. Inside the stadium they had two pretty mediocre toddler shirts and maybe 4-5 adult shirts. Nothing for girls. There should be a huge hailstate store tent that has all of that's year official sideline gear for all the ages. The bookstore should have been open past 5 to accomodate other request like cowbells, etc.
Giving away free popcorn and water/gatorade is fine. But don't ask people to form a weird line and pour it themselves. Have the student constantly filling tables with that stuff. Lines got cluttered and they were constantly running out of beverages. You could have made some good money have a stand or two open serving hotdogs and candy too. I would have killed for some ice cream.
3. Things for the kids
The inflatable were nice but they have to be monitored by someone. Having a bunch of 4-8 year olds dive bombing off an inflatable slide in a lawsuit waiting to happen.
The kids club and face painting were in the shade which was nice but they were really cramped up against each other. I'd recommend an expanded kid zone where you have more room and you have the face painting, pics with Bully, rotate an area with pics with cheerleaders and the Kids club all in one space.
Some kind of organized passing or kicking stuff would be cool as well for the older kids. A short cheer clinic with a few of the cheerleaders would be great fun for some of the girls too.
Stadium and Junction area looks great though.
1. Scheduling
Sundays are fine, but it's a school night. So start it at 3:30 or 4:00 and end it at 6. We left at six and after stopping for a quick dinner still didn't make it back to Madison until around 9.
Have a printed schedule of what is happening when and where. This is easy but instead we had 8x11 printed signed on the walls halfway directing people to where things were. Some other clusters. People were lining up for signatures early but the team didn't get there on the field until almost 5:30 and the line was L-O-N-G. Also they had the locker rooms open but closed them at some point before we tried to go in (about 5:30) could go in. Had we known those were going to close at a certain time we would done that earlier.
This is my favorite: when you get there you get a ticket with a time you can get your autographs from the offense/defense and Mullen tables. you can't ask kids to stand in a line for an hour. Which mean if an adult is flying solo like I was, you're not getting in line, which means you aren't gettin a poster with autographs. So you get a card that assigns you 4:30-4:45 to go through the offense line, 4:45-5:00 for the defense and 5:10-5:30 to get to Mullen. Would make it so much more kid friendly.
2. Merchandising/Food
Just a huge swing and miss here. There was not a toddler jersey or cheer outfit to be found at the Barnes and Noble bookstore nor inside the stadium. Inside the stadium they had two pretty mediocre toddler shirts and maybe 4-5 adult shirts. Nothing for girls. There should be a huge hailstate store tent that has all of that's year official sideline gear for all the ages. The bookstore should have been open past 5 to accomodate other request like cowbells, etc.
Giving away free popcorn and water/gatorade is fine. But don't ask people to form a weird line and pour it themselves. Have the student constantly filling tables with that stuff. Lines got cluttered and they were constantly running out of beverages. You could have made some good money have a stand or two open serving hotdogs and candy too. I would have killed for some ice cream.
3. Things for the kids
The inflatable were nice but they have to be monitored by someone. Having a bunch of 4-8 year olds dive bombing off an inflatable slide in a lawsuit waiting to happen.
The kids club and face painting were in the shade which was nice but they were really cramped up against each other. I'd recommend an expanded kid zone where you have more room and you have the face painting, pics with Bully, rotate an area with pics with cheerleaders and the Kids club all in one space.
Some kind of organized passing or kicking stuff would be cool as well for the older kids. A short cheer clinic with a few of the cheerleaders would be great fun for some of the girls too.
Stadium and Junction area looks great though.