Gameday Atmosphere

[Goldendawg]

Put a winning product on the field and more than diehards will be there. Many of those in the sellout crowds at bama and temporarily OM probably never attended and they don't care or know if they have LED lights or the best sound system.

[Pinto]

Who were the ADs during the times when DWS was rocking?
Biggest thing I remember and miss about Byrne was he brought us all together and pulling in the same direction. Plus we?d get those video updates and you felt like you knew and were part of the program.
Right now, I feel like why should I care? Give the people a reason to care and they will show up.

[RockyDog]

But what happens when we lose that Florida game? And then lose to Texas and UGA? I think we have the same or worse crowd against A&M. I mean maybe we have a fan issue. I really do not know. Just seems strange a team like USCe can continually have at or near sell out crowds but we have not sniffed one in 7 years.

It just baffles me that OM can sell out an 11 AM game against Kentucky and we could not sell out a 7 PM primetime game against Georgia two years ago. I mean we could not even sell out the first game this year, and I think we sold out Croom?s first game

Ole Miss has had 5 good years under Kiffin and their sheep are lapping the “Sip” crap up.

We are going thru their Coach O and Matt Luke bottoming out eras.

The problem is I don?t think we get it back because even if Lebby starts winning we will still have a segment on fans that will blame anything that goes wrong on the AD, the president, the waterboy, etc.

[Rawdawg]

The university as a whole hasn?t done anything to make it Mississippi State cool and attractive to new students. There?s no new blood coming in. There?s no party atmosphere and I don?t care what you think about it that matters. We do nothing edgy. We don?t troll on social media. We don?t engage online. Instead we muted Mike Leach, which I thought was one of Cohen?s biggest mistakes. Leach?s sound bites make the school noticed. We don?t do anything to stand out. With traffic and road closures we?ve made tailgating damn near impossible if you don?t use the black tents. We don?t promote the Greek life. We?ve increased ticket prices and concessions. Should I keep on?

[Goldendawg]

But that is what I am talking about. You are not the fan I am asking about because you are a diehard. You were going to be in that stadium come hell or high water. To you, and me because I am in the same boat, it is about wins and losses. I am trying to figure out how we lost all those fans that we had under Mullen and how do you get those people back?

How did we lose fans? Dan's job hunting at the end, JoMo, untimely Leach death, Arnett debacle with a buddy rookie "DC" hire, Lebby's buddy rookie "DC" hire (Again), poor recruiting on "D" for years, terrible evaluation of the portal last cycle, which all leads to where we are now. Very few people in today's world with all its available choices for your time and hard earned $ will sit to the end (or even halftime), to watch this nightmare! "Just Win, Baby!", the late , great Al Davis. A positive I didn't want this or any year: No traffic issues in a quick exit from Lot 28 if you stay to the end of our "games".*****

[Goldendawg]

The university as a whole hasn?t done anything to make it Mississippi State cool and attractive to new students. There?s no new blood coming in. There?s no party atmosphere and I don?t care what you think about it that matters. We do nothing edgy. We don?t troll on social media. We don?t engage online. Instead we muted Mike Leach, which I thought was one of Cohen?s biggest mistakes. Leach?s sound bites make the school noticed. We don?t do anything to stand out. With traffic and road closures we?ve made tailgating damn near impossible if you don?t use the black tents. We don?t promote the Greek life. We?ve increased ticket prices and concessions. Should I keep on?

And only "die hards" will have much interest to continue to attend under these conditions.

[StarkVegasSteve]

The university as a whole hasn?t done anything to make it Mississippi State cool and attractive to new students. There?s no new blood coming in. There?s no party atmosphere and I don?t care what you think about it that matters. We do nothing edgy. We don?t troll on social media. We don?t engage online. Instead we muted Mike Leach, which I thought was one of Cohen?s biggest mistakes. Leach?s sound bites make the school noticed. We don?t do anything to stand out. With traffic and road closures we?ve made tailgating damn near impossible if you don?t use the black tents. We don?t promote the Greek life. We?ve increased ticket prices and concessions. Should I keep on?

All of that is correct. It is why I have harped on embracing out of state like Ole Miss. There is a reason why everyone outside of Mississippi thinks Starkville is a sleepy dump of a college town. It is because over half our student population is from Mississippi. Ole Miss’ message gets spread far and wide because their graduates do not all move back to Jackson or whatever town they are from. They have some that do that, but they also have alums in Dallas, Nashville, Charlotte, Tampa, Birmingham, Atlanta, etc. We do nothing to increase the reach of our brand.

[Rawdawg]

All of that is correct. It is why I have harped on embracing out of state like Ole Miss. There is a reason why everyone outside of Mississippi thinks Starkville is a sleepy dump of a college town. It is because over half our student population is from Mississippi. Ole Miss’ message gets spread far and wide because their graduates do not all move back to Jackson or whatever town they are from. They have some that do that, but they also have alums in Dallas, Nashville, Charlotte, Tampa, Birmingham, Atlanta, etc. We do nothing to increase the reach of our brand.

100% correct and with out of state students comes out of state money. Kids they recruit from all over are going to Oxford for the Greek system. And to be able to afford out of state tuition and sorority dues you come from money. My niece is a prime example of this. She?s graduating from a metro Dallas high school this spring and has applied to almost every school in the conference except MSU and both her parents went to school here. She?s been to several games here and wants nothing to do with MSU because we?re not cool. That?s the perception right now. We aren?t cool. We don?t promote the Greek system like the other schools.

[StarkVegasSteve]

100% correct and with out of state students comes out of state money. Kids they recruit from all over are going to Oxford for the Greek system. And to be able to afford out of state tuition and sorority dues you come from money. My niece is a prime example of this. She?s graduating from a metro Dallas high school this spring and has applied to almost every school in the conference except MSU and both her parents went to school here. She?s been to several games here and wants nothing to do with MSU because we?re not cool. That?s the perception right now. We aren?t cool. We don?t promote the Greek system like the other schools.

Oh it is extremely sad. I live out here in DFW and we barely have a presence. We do not have an Alumni Club out here. It all starts with the dumbasses we have running Greek life and Admissions. We need to get them all out. Unfortunately it will never happen because once you get a job at MSU you basically have to commit murder to be fired.

I went off on the alumni relations person at the first game. I also mentioned out of state recruitment to someone in the Greek life office and they told me that this was the largest out of state class ever in terms of sorority recruitment. I looked her dead in the eye and said Ole Miss will have more girls sign with the top 5 houses than Mississippi State will have go through recruitment, much less out of State.

[Rawdawg]

Oh it is extremely sad. I live out here in DFW and we barely have a presence. We do not have an Alumni Club out here. It all starts with the dumbasses we have running Greek life and Admissions. We need to get them all out. Unfortunately it will never happen because once you get a job at MSU you basically have to commit murder to be fired.

I went off on the alumni relations person at the first game. I also mentioned out of state recruitment to someone in the Greek life office and they told me that this was the largest out of state class ever in terms of sorority recruitment. I looked her dead in the eye and said Ole Miss will have more girls sign with the top 5 houses than Mississippi State will have go through recruitment, much less out of State.

So what I?m getting at is the failure of the school to recruit out of state because we have the perception as lame and not cool, to the lack of social media content, TikTok, to embracing a party atmosphere with LEDs and music that generation wants to hear is all connected and has led to where we are. And what a lot of our fans don?t understand is that when you make it fun for the student body it?ll bleed into fun for everyone and all the fans will want to be apart of it.

[Rawdawg]

And say what you want but we fully embraced and promoted the party at Dudy Noble and it?s the best atmosphere in the sport. Surely it?s just coincidence?

[StateDawg44]

We blew LSU?s doors off in 17 and should have beaten Bama. Speaking of that 17 Bama game, that is the last time DWS has been at its full strength.

Also, I mean I get we have not played many marquee teams at home but we cannot control that. OM sells out vs Kentucky and Arkansas. We can only sell out vs UGA because their fans buy up all the tickets. And we 6-3 at the time of that game.

Ha my mistake on the LSU game. The same season they went 9-4.

We've played plenty of Marquee teams at home. We play in the SEC. We typiclally shit the bed is the point. Get over the hump and do it consistenly and people pay attention.

[StateDawg44]

When was the last time Vandy sold their stadium out before this year?

If that doesn't prove the point that if you win, the fans will come I don't know what will.

[Rawdawg]

When was the last time Vandy sold their stadium out before this year?

If that doesn't prove the point that if you win, the fans will come I don't know what will.

And this is where our fans just don?t get it. There were 5,000-8,000 Texas fans there Saturday. The broadcasters said that Vandy fans were in the minority.

Of course winning draws a crowd but the fact is we won?t be winning for several years so you have to make sure everything else is perfect. So the ?just win and it?s all fine? argument doesn?t apply here. We have to retain the people going to the games now. And make them feel important.

[Maroonthirteen]

Man, yall nailed it on Greek life. I recall orientation a few years ago, Greek life was almost a secret. They couldn't talk about. It was weird.

Then my daughter went through rush and I learned some things. I don't get why MSU caps the numbers for each chapter. Although my wife has minor involvement with Greek life and she says it is absolutely ridiculous OM allows pledge classes of 150-200.

Or maybe yall can answer this, but why has MSU not helped AXO build a house? They have a lot. Maybe by law MSU can't??? When my daughter went through most didn't want a bid from them because they don't have a house. I know AXO is trying hard to grow that chapter in order to raise funds for a house.

[StateDawg44]

And this is where our fans just don?t get it. There were 5,000-8,000 Texas fans there Saturday. The broadcasters said that Vandy fans were in the minority.

Of course winning draws a crowd but the fact is we won?t be winning for several years so you have to make sure everything else is perfect. So the ?just win and it?s all fine? argument doesn?t apply here. We have to retain the people going to the games now. And make them feel important.

I think it does. Regardless if it was full of Texas fans there is more excitement around Vandy right now that I've seen in my lifetime.

Are you telling me that more Vandy fans aren't more excited to attend a game this season than the previous 25+ years? More buy into the program this season than 25+ years? Get real.

Winning isn't THE golden ticket but it's about 99% of it

[Maroonthirteen]

Regarding OM, they benefit from being in close proximity to Memphis metro. Memphis and desoto county are an easy drive, they get many residual people attend from Memphis. Also there isn't a need for hotels for those fans. I can tell you. We have a few people attend from the Memphis area. But not near the numbers they do.

Conversely, for many within an hour drive of Starkville, people have the choice of going to Tuscaloosa or Starkville. Alabama steals many people and resources from east Mississippi that would otherwise go to MSU and Starkville. However we do have far too many alumni that are disengaged.


Those two factors are likely the reasons OM does better than us in Gameday attendance.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Man, yall nailed it on Greek life. I recall orientation a few years ago, Greek life was almost a secret they couldn't talk about. It was weird. Then my daughter went through rush. I don't get why MSU caps the numbers for each chapter.

Or maybe yall can answer this, but why has MSU not helped AXO build a house? They have a lot. Maybe by law MSU can't??? When my daughter went through most didn't want a bid from them because they don't have a house. I know AXO is trying hard to grow that chapter in order to raise funds for a house.

Some of it could be land. State is running out of land to build. They are out on Fraternity row and are pretty close to out on Sorority row. It is also that the university does not want to promote Greek life. I was in a fraternity at State and it was a constant fight with the university about everything. And hell, one of our alums was running damn Greek life. Now I will be the first to admit we did our fair share of dumb shit but it is like Mississippi State actively tries their damnedest to make sure no one goes Greek or enjoys it while they are there. Hell they made us do away with pledges wearing coats and ties because they said it was hazing. Yet the University of Texas in Austin, which is probably a top 10 liberal city in America can have all their pledges wearing orange button downs to every game. It is really funny when you realize the damn University president was a Sigma Chi and his son is one as well. It is also funny because generally speaking those are your more active supporters as students. The Greek hate starts with Regina Hyatt though. If it was up to her, State would abolish Greek life.

[parabrave]

And only "die hards" will have much interest to continue to attend under these conditions.

Not anymore/ My Bro in law whose family has had season tickets for at least 60 years is about to say F it.

[PGHBulldogBG]

The issue is that Mullen was the only coach we have hired where I think 100 percent of the fan base was on board. We also were supposed to be last in the SEC in 2009 and we were double digit underdogs @Vandy and we won 5 games and the Egg Bowl. That is why we had so much fan support because it was the first time since Jackie’s 2000 team that we actually had a real football team that gave our fans hope for the future. While Leach was a good hire, there were still many fans not on board with him because of the style of play. I do think if Leach hadn’t passed away though and coming off an egg bowl and outback bowl win it would have drawn major support in 2023.