James Franklin disappointed in Vandy's season ticket sales

[norman dale]

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130818/SPORTS0602/308180092/Vanderbilt-football-season-ticket-sales-down-despite-success

Why I think this is interesting and pertinent to this message board is his quotes echo a lot of the reasons people have brought up before as to why the Gophers season ticket fanbase isn't selling out.


I really appreciate Franklin's candor and wish a particular athletic administration had adopted the same vision since a moving into a new stadium.

I love the following quote in the article from Franklin:

I think people like to leave the game with a win and have a great experience. So whether that’s a year where we maybe have some games where people don’t look at as big-time games, I’m not really concerned about that.

To me, football is about the whole experience. It’s about tailgating, it’s about hanging out with your friends and family, it’s about going into the stadium and watch your hometown team compete, and leaving feeling good about it. We can sit there and make excuses. We’ve been making them for 80 years. It’s time to get it done.

Now today I read the following article http://coachingsearch.com/article?a=James-Franklin-expresses-further-disappointment-over-ticket-sales in which he says:

It’s a process like everything else. We didn’t get to this position overnight and we’re not going to necessarily solve it overnight. I understand that, but I do think there comes a point that it’s not okay to talk about all the excuses: the fact that we compete with the Titans, the fact that we’re in a city that has a lot of things for people to do, a lot of other things going on. We can list out a number of reasons, but to me, there’s nothing that brings people together like a football game.

“I know I’m biased, but I think it has an ability to bring a community together better than anything else. You can look at the game, but it’s not really just the game. It’s the tailgating, it’s having fun and laughing with your friends and rallying around something, it’s the whole experience. It’s the band. Our band is made up of Vanderbilt students, Lipscomb students, Belmont students, so what a great example of something that brings the whole community together.”

From what I've read about Franklin he seems like a great coach to play for but man, I'd really love to tailgate with that guy!