It's also somewhat related because Populous, the firm that designed
TCF Bank Stadium is also doing the design for
Kyle Field. Out of their portfolio, I would expect Kyle to most closely resemble some of the design and features of TCF.
What you guys have with wide, open concourses would make most Aggies jealous. Walking under Kyle right now is pretty dark and cramped. The club levels and museum, while much larger at Kyle, look to share some similar design elements. Your stadium, in part, echoes back some features of Memorial Stadium, and the names around the stadium will be the same. We are also lowering our field and adding additional seating to the front rows to bring fans closer to the action like at TCF.
I would argue that your students don't really have bad seats because the bleachers are so close to the action. The upper level is a bit chilly when the wind is blowing through the open endzone, however. I think at least a small part of the student attendance problem is that the seats are too inexpensive and too good. Our students would kill to be able to pay $84 a season and walk right into the good seat of their choosing. Instead, we pay $225 and have to wait in line one morning the week of the game to get assigned tickets, which for freshmen could be three decks up at the goal line.
In my opinion, you are less likely to miss a game if you paid more for it and had to spend a day waiting in line than if it didn't cost that much.
One thing that might help is having different student organizations (greek, student government, etc.) lobby for assigned blocks of seating at the beginning of each year. If a section is empty, that fraternity or whomever can be razzed by the others, and next year their assigned block moves to a worse location. You would have the officers of each organization rallying their members to show up so that the organization as a whole gets good seats (which they can use for recruiting and as a matter of pride). Or, forget the seating blocks and develop a system where a student ID card swipe to get into the stadium counts as a point for their primary organization. The top X organizations for overall attendance win $Y of student activity funding for the spring semester or use of some designated special tailgate area.
At the end of the day, if anyone is going to convince a student to show up to a football game, it's not the administrators or former students, it's their peers and student leaders. If your sorority president tells you to go, you're much more likely to go.
Of course, this gets people in, but they may leave early. There could be something compelling at the start of the fourth quarter for students to participate in, i.e. Enter Sandman, Jump Around, or Aggie War Hymn type of thing. I know there is popular music played at that time at TCF, but make it epic for students and even add a sponsored prize. Best costume, craziest dance, etc. wins dinner for four, brought to you courtesy of Sample Local Business. Just some thoughts.
Students, ours included, don't know how good they have it. They get cheap tickets and don't really have anything else pressing to do on weekends like adults might. Yet many want to throw away a great opportunity and take going to games for granted.
Our student body stands in our seats for the duration of the entire game, including timeouts and even halftime (except when the other band marches). No one leaves the stands for the restroom or concessions unless they really have to, and they come right back. There's no culture of hanging out in the concourse or anything. However, I wonder how this might change when we have a more bright and open concourse with better concession and restroom facilities. I'm interested in learning how you maintain a culture of staying for the game when you have a great facility like TCF to hang out in.
