tdawg
Freshman
Posts: 170
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Post by tdawg on Oct 4, 2013 6:46:29 GMT -5
I have been attending baseball games for the past couple of years and have been somewhat disappointed in the attendance at games. When we play Clemson at home the place is packed out for a nonconference game. When we play Elon, Citadel, etc. conference games THAT COUNT the attendance in my opinion leaves room for great improvement. You would have expected a great crowd there when we clinched the regular season SoCon Championship but alas that was not so. You see the same people at all the games, I call them the Faithful. They were there last year at the first of the season when we were not playing well as well as at the end. It is a shame that we have a successful conference championship team that has players drafted by MLB each year with such poor fan support. It seems to me that there should be something that can be done to increase the student attendance at games. I have been told that in the past we had one of the best student followings in the conference. That on game day they literally rocked the Whee. We need this again. Any ideas on how to once again pack the stands at as the true Faithful of Catamount Baseball “The Left Field Lunatics” call it Fortress Cullowhee.
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Post by guest on Oct 4, 2013 9:23:11 GMT -5
I think the school, students, alumni, faculty and staff all need to feel ashamed for this "Lack of Support". I agree tdawg. Most of the people that we see at the game are actually FAMILY members of the team that travel as much as 4 hours to get to the game on Friday and stay the weekend. During the week, it is difficult for them to travel so far for one game.
It seems the "Community of Cullowhee" and surrounding area has forgotten that there is a TOP NOTCH college baseball program within 30 minutes drive for them to come and watch.
So, my only suggestion is to get the players and coaches out on the streets and advertise the program to draw back the locals. As far as the school side...students, faculty, and staff, got to motivate them other means...
Students, just get the word out to them. Encourage other Athletic teams to support each other...meaning, where are the football players and cheerleaders during the spring. I know Basketball has overlap (hopefully they are in March madness) but come April and May??? Faculty and Staff, where are you. I only see the Athletic Director showing up to the games and every now and then a few other coaches from various sports.
The stadium is not that big so it should not be that hard to get at least 2 to 3 hundred people at each game with a campus student population over 9,000 (not sure of exact number). but if only 4% of the TOTAL students, faculty, and staff showed up to each game that would equal approximately 350 to 400 people. If they all went to different games (30 game home schedule), that would equal approximately 10,500 to 12,000. Which means, they would only attend one game each year.
Bottom line, you got to start at home and get the SCHOOL more involved and CELEBRATE a FANTASTIC BASEBALL PROGRAM.
Hopefully the crowds will be there this year, because this team should be NCAA bound and another SOCON Championship with the talent it has...
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Post by catamountalum94 on Oct 4, 2013 18:07:12 GMT -5
I would see citadel, furman, samford as much as Clemson. Throw in App St in there too, only because its so sweet to see them get beat, lol.
Its the admin and all the staff at the campus that will also get the current students out there. So many of the staff that work for the student groups want participation for their own group but they have zero support for all WCU catamount activities.
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Post by wcu32 on Oct 6, 2013 19:16:58 GMT -5
I may be mistaken but when drinking was banned in the outfield parking lot the attendance went back to crap. So make sure no one is drinking and driving and let the beer flow again.
When team wins and kids can have fun they will come watch
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Post by catamountsfan98 on Oct 9, 2013 20:42:52 GMT -5
Maybe 'ole Greg Holland will donate a nice chunk of cash to the WCU baseball program. He's due for a huge salary increase. It would be a nice tax write-off for him!
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tdawg
Freshman
Posts: 170
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Post by tdawg on Oct 10, 2013 6:39:33 GMT -5
The grass area behind the right fence would be a great area for students or anyone else if there was a way to see over the fence. They have a great area in the outfield at ECU called the Jungle that is legendary among students, alumni, fans and opposing players. A tradition that has endured for years.
Why can't we have something like that beyond our right field fence? It sounds like at one time we did; sadly it seems that traditions started here meet an early demise. Hopefully some of them can be resurrected to make life in the Whee more interesting and fun. Seems like it could only help recruiting and student enrollment.
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Post by wcu32 on Oct 10, 2013 23:24:09 GMT -5
The grass area behind the right fence would be a great area for students or anyone else if there was a way to see over the fence. They have a great area in the outfield at ECU called the Jungle that is legendary among students, alumni, fans and opposing players. A tradition that has endured for years. Why can't we have something like that beyond our right field fence? It sounds like at one time we did; sadly it seems that traditions started here meet an early demise. Hopefully some of them can be resurrected to make life in the Whee more interesting and fun. Seems like it could only help recruiting and student enrollment. They had plans for doing just that but if im not mistaken they could not do it partly because of why they had to stop people from tailgating during game in the outfield parking lot. Thought they were going to try to do it again when a certain enemy of the state left. Let people go out there with grills to have fun.
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Local Yokel
Boomer
Ain't no Local like this here Yokel
Posts: 11
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Post by Local Yokel on Dec 13, 2013 14:42:02 GMT -5
Sorry for the lack of responses yall. Been busy trying to get a few things going and its awesome we all feel the same way.
I agree with each and everyone in that we need more people, need to let the beer flow again and need more awareness of our only successful program (not really counting the track team) at WCU.
As part of the LFL group (www.leftfieldlunatics.com) we are working on shutting down the road for the App State Friday game (May 5th) as we would like to bring back some of the traditions that existed roughly 8 - 12 years ago. We are striving to get there, but will always need support. So from time to time i will stop in and see if you all can lend support.
And for those who cannot be up on the hill or behind the fence this season, we are also working with a student to bring a live video stream of not the game (NCAA and WCU own those rights), but the tailgating scene, which will hopefully raise awareness that you dont really need to be a hardcore baseball fan to attend an entire game.
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