Winning is the primary driver of attendance and fan engagement, no duh. A consistently winning team can have a mediocre game day experience & pricey concessions/merch and still keep filling the stadium. And yes, lots of locals (and non-alums across the nation) became "Baylor" fans because of Art Briles' style of football.
Great sports memories often come from special things happening on the field. But that's not the only way that special memories are created and generational fandom is built...otherwise a significant percentage of pro sports franchises would not have generational fans. But they all do. Because game day experiences matter too.
Looking back at '08-'10, there was a lot of hope among the alums and students, and the locals were starting to get engaged more again...but Baylor wasn't yet anything to brag about with 4-8, 4-8, and 7-6 seasons. But
concessions at the Case were cheap back in '08-'13*, and the tailgate scene was opening up...those two combined to get locals more interested before the magic of '11 and the winning that followed.
Cheap food (and yes cheap beer) would go a long way towards making McLane a Fall Saturday destination for locals who are otherwise going to be ambivalent about Baylor football. If the concessions are relatively expensive and there's no real tailgating scene and there's not much active fan engagement especially for kids...then the locals definitely aren't coming.
But Doug clearly gets all this, and is working feverishly to change the whole game day culture. Some of y'all whining about him doing that as though he's doing it instead of working on improving the on-field/on-court products is stupid, frankly. He's definitely doing both.
___
*by the time McLane opened, Baylor was such a hot ticket that higher concessions there weren't a deal breaker.
Great sports memories often come from special things happening on the field. But that's not the only way that special memories are created and generational fandom is built...otherwise a significant percentage of pro sports franchises would not have generational fans. But they all do. Because game day experiences matter too.
Looking back at '08-'10, there was a lot of hope among the alums and students, and the locals were starting to get engaged more again...but Baylor wasn't yet anything to brag about with 4-8, 4-8, and 7-6 seasons. But
concessions at the Case were cheap back in '08-'13*, and the tailgate scene was opening up...those two combined to get locals more interested before the magic of '11 and the winning that followed.
Cheap food (and yes cheap beer) would go a long way towards making McLane a Fall Saturday destination for locals who are otherwise going to be ambivalent about Baylor football. If the concessions are relatively expensive and there's no real tailgating scene and there's not much active fan engagement especially for kids...then the locals definitely aren't coming.
But Doug clearly gets all this, and is working feverishly to change the whole game day culture. Some of y'all whining about him doing that as though he's doing it instead of working on improving the on-field/on-court products is stupid, frankly. He's definitely doing both.
___
*by the time McLane opened, Baylor was such a hot ticket that higher concessions there weren't a deal breaker.
