WANTED... Some "Welcome" Ideas!!
 

I know in past threads several of us have mentioned how it would be great to have a better atmosphere at Welcome Stadium for the Flyer home games similar to how it was this past family weekend. This included thinking of ways to get more student involvement to improve the overall football/tailgate experience.

This past New Years Eve while watching college football I decided to try to reach out to the new UD President , Dr Spina. I mananaged to find an email address and sent him a message saying how great UD is and the amazing people involved in the football program. I went on to say what a great turnout the Flyers had on Family weekend and that it would be great if that type of atmosphere could be replicated during the season. This was done with the hope of enhancing the overall experience for fans, players and students.

The following morning , New Years Day I had a reply in my inbox from President Spina saying how happy he was to be at UD and that he agrees that a boost in attendance would make for a great atmosphere and that in turn would benefit UD as a whole. He was aware of some ideas that were tried in the past and he said he was open to new ideas to bolster the Welcome Experience. Dr Spina informed me that he would have senior administrators reach out to me and kick around some ideas. I was just happy and shocked that he responded so quickly and had a wait and see attitude.

Well yesterday the rubber met the road, I received another email from senior members of the administration saying that President Spina forwarded my contact info so that we could discuss ways to improve the football experience. It looks like that call will take place next Friday , unless the hoop team advances to the Sweet Sixteen then it will be done the following week. What I am asking anyone who is interested is to come up with some ideas that can be presented so that we can work on improving the atmosphere at Welcome Stadium.

A couple of my suggestions were making students that attended games eligible for Path Points which are used towards getting preferred housing.
Also maybe letting students that are Marketing majors come up with a plan in conjunction with their professors and use this "project" as a real time business experience. Anything else you guys can think of please post!! Thanks again , here's to the Flyer's beating the Shockers tonight! Welcome to Spring Ball and a Happy St Patrick's day to all.
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I have been a season ticket holder since 1981. I love Dayton Football more than just about anything in this world (outside of family). I drive from Columbus for the games at home and to many of the closer away games. This means something to me and I would always be willing to share my story about what Flyer Football means to me. Why not have people who love the program as much as we do share our story on video that a link is placed to on the football web page?

The problem has always been marketing the product. It needs to be promoted on TV and in the paper. People need to know when Dayton plays someone like Duquesne and San Diego. Let people know we are an FCS program and not just the Non-Scholarship part of it and that we play for a chance at winning a national championship.

We used to have contests that involved students. Things like kicking a field goal from distances for prizes, passing yards, spinning in circles and then getting dressed into uniforms, etc. This could be done in conjunction with Path Points too.

There was a time where a fan could be guest coach and call a play. Why can't this be done again? Let the person and their guest get to experience the game from the sideline once. This could be done at every home game and not just once per year.

How about on Parent/Family Day have parent/child competitions outside the stadium before and after the game?

What about having two recliners that sit at the end zone opposite the scoreboard that two students win the opportunity to sit in during the game. They can draw from a lottery type of process?

Have videos on the scoreboard of football players or students in general tell the fans why they came to UD instead of going somewhere else. Let them tell their story.

How about pee-wee football players getting to wear their uniforms and run onto the field with their Dayton counterparts. Let them see what a game day is like and be a part of walking out with the captains for the coin toss. Let them watch from the stands, but run a few plays during halftime after the band has played. This gets parents the opportunity to see what Dayton football is like and maybe bring their kids back on another day.

I hope this is what you were looking for and if not sorry to waste any time. Good luck and thank you for doing this for the betterment of the Flyer Football Faithful!

Go Flyers!

Now we're talking!! Thank you very much for the great input Cards!!
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You're the man NY now bring it home

Children under 18 admitted free with one
paying ($10) adult

N and S exterior walls
of Welcome bow out.
Walls 8' tall. Game day
UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON
FLYERS banners there
as wide as the field.
Same on front of press
box.

How to make it The Place to Be?
 

WOW! Where to start New Yorker? First, along with a couple others about 2007, we complained & suggested on this Forum about atmosphere. Think that's the season a long painted banner with names of the conference members was made & hung on the railing of the visitors stands. Very nice; except that the thing should be hung on the home side for visitors to see their name!

At the time my ideas had to do with color, signage & of course the Video coverage was HORRIBLE! I realized that whatever got put up had to be taken down because of Saturday night hs football games. And Welcome is the property of a very proud inner-city school board. So my idea was floats that could be wheeled in-out quickly. Made & later admired in the Ghetto area! Hint: frat made!

My time in college was a small but athletic place called B-W. There always seemed to be a fraternity function going on that got the guys out of "the House" & into the stadium. Of course Homecoming weekend we had girlfriends helping all night to finish the "front yard creation" made from paper flowers & in competition. Too sad that UD drunks with their non-student friends from the past has ruined such a tradition here.

But as far as student attending, "it must be the place to be" or they'll just sit around or grill on the front lawn waiting for Saturday night and whatever "place to be". In the 50's and with fraternity competition & Homecomings my class wanted to be at the game.

Legalize and promote tailgating...with cheap beer prices.

Schedule games to start 1-hour after an OSU game ENDS or end 1-hour before an OSU game begins.

Need a shuttle bus from campus.

Hit up the pre wee programs with free tickets.

Did I mention beer?

CJ, hear you loud and clear on that one!!
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Wait, what? beer for tots? Well I guess that will draw in a few :)

The problem with youth leagues is the schedule. Last season, my son's first pee wee game was prior to UD's first game; we ended w/ the super bowl on the same saturday that UD played its last home game (Nov 5th). Game's are typically at 1:00, the 1st & 2nd graders typically start at noon, the older kids go later in the evening, which means that you are going to miss out on all of the older kids ability to make a game at any point on Saturday (though you may be able to get a handful of younger kids and their family) for an evening or late afternoon game. The other large league that I know of in the area that would be a big part of your market audience runs a similar schedule, I think they start a week later than us w/ games, and end their season with their superbowl at Welcome (or at least it used to be) the 2nd weekend of November.

I know there are a few other leagues; don't know the game schedules for the Alter, CJ, Carrol, Dayton Christian, etc.... pee wee teams, perhaps those are more conducive. If they are going to get a decent sized chunk of area pee wee players into a game, they are going to have to work with individual leagues to convince them to have a "weekend off" to coincide w/ a UD home game. Perhaps that is easy, perhaps its not, there are a ton of politics involved in these youth leagues

I think the idea sounds good on paper, I just don't think it works well. Now if you want to reach out to families that have kids, but don't play football, perhaps its becomes easier, the free admittance for youths with a paid adult. I'd love to take my kid down, my father played in the late 60s and gets down to as many games as he can, but I know he missed a bunch last year so that he could check out football and soccer games saturday mornings for his grand children. Heck, I think he spent one saturday watching the 1st half of my nephew's JV game on a saturday morning, shot over and caught the 2nd half of our game, then up to UD and watched the 2nd half of their game, that is the kind of logisitcs that you are facing in trying to get people w/ kids involved in football out to a game on a saturday at 1:00. Push it back to 5:00 and perhaps you can get the 1st thru 3rd graders out in a sizable chunk, but then you are running smack dab into either the end or start of most OSU and other major D1 games.

Getting students down to the games is the key to better attendance.

Play a game or two on Sunday!

The Bengals and Browns are going to stink, so why not?

Yes, I'm being xeyrius...errrr, I mean serious.

We do play some games on Sunday, maybe 1 or 2 a season, but most of the league plays on saturdays with some of the games being scheduled on Sundays to handle the number of teams.

As a coach, I can tell you that I HATE Sunday games. Typically we don't practice on Friday's due to HS football, which means the kids will have all of friday evening, and all day Saturday off.... they tend to play sluggish. The other large league in the area play some of their games on Sunday as well, but you'll never get either league to be able to fit all of their games in on either Saturday or Sunday, so you are going to alienate a handful of teams either way. I don't think anyone wants to play on Sunday any ways: I told you there was going to be politics involved.

Again, it sounds good on paper, but I have my doubts they'll get it to work in reality unless they can convince a couple of the leagues to take a weekend off mid-season and dedicate some sort of activities for that league during the UD game. If they could do that, great, but its going to take some effort for somebody to spearhead it and convince them (ie sponderships most likely) that it is worthwhile.

1st and 2nd graders are sluggish if they don't play until Sunday?!?!?
You are kidding?

I was talking about UD playing games on Sundays.

Nope. 1st and 2nd graders tend to be space cadets to begin with; give them a few days off, and they can get really out there mentally. We practice 3 times a week, typically tuesday, wednesday and thursday. Tuesday's practices typically suck as the kids attentions spans are just not there, we waste a TON of time just trying to get them to do the most basic of things, like lining up for warmups. Wednesday's and thursdays the kids are typically awesome. I say that as someone who helps coach a generally great group of kids who work their tail ends off, rarely complain and are pretty smart collectively; its the nature of the beast working with young kids.

Look, I'd love to see attendance at UD games increase, this isn't a new issue. My father used to ask me all the time when I was at UD why students didn't show up to more games. I grew up going to UD games with him on a regular basis in the falls, and hitting Kramer's afterwords for some pretzels and pops (I guess our version of pops were a little different), I'm just trying to make NYFlyerfan aware of what he's up against, or at least what the administration is up against. I think its the first thing people thing of, and like I've said a couple of times, it makes a ton of sense on paper, I just think reality is going to be a different and perhaps not what anyone unfamilar w/ pee wee football is going to expect. The last thing you want somebody to do is embark on a mission while not knowing what the obstacles are likely to be. If you can approach it with a well thought out solution to any obstacle you are more likely to be successful.

I'd most likely take my kid(s) to a game or two if UD played on Sunday afternoon; I'm guessing that might be a show stopper for the school, or at least its not typical. Are there any mid-season games that fall on a 3 day weekend? Columbus Day perhaps, schedule a Sunday night game when the kids won't have school the next day.

You can probably take my pee wee football experience and apply it to most other fall sports/activities as well, cross country, band, soccer, fall baseball, etc... all take up a bunch of kids (and their parents) times on Saturdays in the neighborhood of 1:00.

My family and my son love everything about Dayton, the football program, the people, the parents, the campus….except for Welcome Stadium. I believe, though, the biggest issue with getting more people interested in football games is Welcome Stadium itself. An antiquated high school football stadium with little or no character surrounded by a sea of asphalt.

When my son was being recruited in high school to have the opportunity to play football at Dayton, it was mentioned by some within the football program that by his junior year (he will be a senior next season) the Flyers would be playing their games on campus. I believe others being recruited heard the same.

Here is my game day dream…..

Arrive on campus and find a parking spot (a spot I’m not allowed to park in, of course) near my son’s house in the Ghetto. Head inside the house greeted by his bleary eyed non-football playing roommates. Watch son head off to Frerick’s Center to get ready for the big game against Butler. Pre-game a little bit with housemates. After a little socializing, make our way toward Baujan Field (recently converted to a multi-sport facility) and meet up with many of the parents tailgating outside of Baujan. We love tailgating… grilling food, meeting and greeting new parents and students, the Flyer Club with their hospitality tent, having a few ‘pops’ (‘sodas’ for you non-Midwesterners). Half hour before the game the band heads through the Ghetto (firing up, or waking up, the Ghetto) and through the tailgaters (I love that the band changed to playing through the tailgaters this past year). The activity level rises as more and more of the Ghetto awakens. Have a few more ‘pops’. Game time approaches. Tailgaters break down their set-ups. Take a short walk to the field. We find our seat and I take a moment to look at all the activity in and out of the stadium. Stands filling up with Flyer faithful, students finding their places on a viewing hill just outside the stadium (why make the students pay) and notice beyond the tailgating area the activity in the Ghetto. Game time has arrived!

Go Flyers!!!

NEO, I would sign up for that in a minute! You definitely described a perfect Saturday for me. When my son was a HS senior in 2016 the Baujuan idea was mentioned, and in the same sentence we were told not to hold our breath because we would never see it. So just have to make lemonade out of lemons I guess.
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NEO, I would sign up for that in a minute! You definitely described a perfect Saturday for me. When my son was a HS senior in 2016 the Baujuan idea was mentioned, and in the same sentence we were told not to hold our breath because we would never see it. So just have to make lemonade out of lemons I guess.
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NYFlyer.. I was curious if you had your Friday call?

NEO, I think it went pretty well and they genuinely seemed receptive to the suggestions I made, based on what everyone has contributed on this thread. I ll post the details etc during the week. Have just been crazy busy.
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Glad to hear it went well. I, like others, are anxious to see it move in a positive direction.

GO FLYERS!!!

First off I just wanted to ask everybody to keep the Yinger family in their thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. Everything else is really insignificant compared to the tragedy they are dealing with. I will try to be brief with what took place on phone call.

The administration agrees that a better game day experience would benefit UD as a whole and stated they are committed to helping us follow through on some ideas if possible. They did mention that they are currently renegotiating the "Use" agreement with regard to Welcome Stadium and hope to get some things resolved. One of the things they would like to do is hang banners inside the stadium as well as large banner schedules outside the stadium and inside as well. In the current use agreement Welcome Stadium does not allow any of that so hopefully something can get done.

In terms of Youth Days the admin told me that UD has been tied to a local youth football group called the Dayton Jets. This past year the Jets numbers were down and they decided not to field any teams for safety reasons and hope to have the numbers to field teams this coming season. They also said that they are not against bringing other area Youth leagues on board if possible.

I brought up the idea of giving students Path Points to attend games. The director told me that those Path points are a Marianist tradition and in the past have to meet a certain criteria in order to be eligible. He did say that last year they were a bit lenient and worked out a few things so that students received points for attending women's basketball events. They are willing to do the same for football games once details are worked out. I thought this was a very positive sign.

Tailgates...The Athletic Dept Admin gave me a history of past Homecoming games and stated that as a result of them getting out of control with students hanging out and drinking in the parking lot and never stepping foot into the stadium that they were scrapped. I like semi out of control lol! As a result of that Homecoming was replaced with Family weekend. The admin also said that they did some things with Bud lite trucks and they are willing to do that again as long as they are not condoning over indulgence of alcohol. I brought up maybe having a separate tailgate section for students with free hot dogs and maybe having several groups participate in pre game contests such as corn hole , pong (never mentioned beer) can jam and then at half having a punt pass kick and 40 yd dash relays. The winners receive a $250 gift cart to that Dairy store so the winners can purchase whatever it is they would like to have on a Saturday night. Winners announced after the 3rd qtr.

I also threw out the idea of getting marketing students involved. The school said that there is an athletic council that meets to talk about marketing each program and they would discuss that. So the next day I emailed the chairman of the Business school marketing department and lo and behold he reached out the very next day. His response was enthusiastic and thought it would be a worthwhile project. The only concern was that many students already have their fall internships set up. He said he would contact the head of both the Sports Management department who is a well versed scholar in this field as well as sport Science and see if they could come up with some ideas to help out this season and beyond.

Lastly the athletic department asked if I could collect names of anyone interested in being part of a parent/alumni/flyerfan/focus group. The objective would be to have a couple of conference calls within the next 4-6 weeks to kick around feasible ideas with the athletic department , marketing council , and some of the marketing people on the academic side to reach our goals. Everyone seems willing to want to make this happen so lets do our best to MAKE IT HAPPEN. I know right now they are busy trying to find a replacement for Archie so I anticipate being in contact again in two weeks. So my contact info is gillen1@frontiernet.net if anyone is interested in being part of focus group please let me know. Thank you all and once again please keep the Yinger family in your prayers.
Go Flyers!

Pioneer school banners...
 

I was a grad student at Northwestern many years ago. Evanston is a college town dominated by NU. On game days the streetlight poles featured the banners of Big 10 schools...the way flags are used on Memorial Day and July 4. It was quite festive and signaled in a very colorful way that that Saturday was a home game day for the Cats.

I can envision something similar along Stewert from Brown to Paterson...or along Paterson....or both....when the Flyers are playing at home. The effort involved on the part of the City is no more than putting out flags for the patriotic holidays.

WE want Welcome and environs to look like a college stadium. It's very hard to believe, given UD's important role and clout in the Community, that the current "use" agreement could not be modified to allow this sort of thing.

Also, as I understand it, the City benefits by having UD as a "use" partner for Welcome. Seems as if UD is in a position to dictate terms of the agreement, using as leverage a "threat" to build an on-campus facility.

UD is absolutely vital to the economic well being of Dayton. That being the case, I don't see why we are not in a position to tell the City what we want and need..and get it.

Another great idea. I'm with you 100% UAC, hope UD takes that position as well.
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