[chimera]

The sad truth about Stanford WBB is that the average age of its fans is very high and the fan base is shrinking as we oldsters pass on.  The showbiz and hoopla are probably intended to appeal to a younger crowd, although it fails miserably on me.  But I do think that Stanford fans are very different in general (for all sports) than classic fans at big name sports schools, and so many of the overall trends in college sports go down poorly with us.

But it is a good question, what SHOULD Stanford be doing to increase its WBB fan base?  They can't keep relying on the once-young crowd who jumped on the bandwagon in 1990 and 1992.  Will we get a surge of younger fans now that we have won another national championship?  Why can't we draw as well as Arizona, as Oregon State, as Oregon, or even as well as Washington during the Plum years?  We used to lead the Pac 12 in attendance, and we have sagged far behind several other schools.  I never see students at the WBB games outside of the band and the Dollies.  I rarely see anyone under 60 unless they were brought by someone over 60--except for the hoards of school kids who get bused in to a few games.

I am proud of our fans, but we as fans may need to help spread the word and do some recruiting of our own--not of players but of fans.  Loud videos and fumigation tunnels are not apt to do the job we could do.

We definitely all need to recruit fans -- we have four season tix for two of us, always try to bring two others with us to fill the extra seats. Our approach has been reaching to a variety of people. Some have become fans, but so far, none have bought their own tix.

Interesting bit of data -- if you look at the tix available from Stanford on the seating chart, all the best seat sections are marked as sold out, and above them, low availability -- yet those seats are often empty. I have to assume that the issue is people with season tix not using their seats. If that's right, what can we do about that?

One thing that has changed since the early 1990s, and I think it's important -- in those early years of success, Tara really invested in connecting with the fans on a personal basis. The Fast Break Club was a real thing, and there was a lot of excitement about it, a feeling for the fans of being part of the team, being close to it. We even had FBC tee shirts. I don't have nearly as strong as sense of that now. I'm not saying Tara should do more, and also ask the players to be more available as they were in the 1990s after each game, but I do think that there is a need to reinvigorate the fan/team connection.

I think you hit on two key problems.  The fan base in the prime seats have generally had those seats a long time and some do not come to all the games or even many games.  So newer fans can't get the prime seats.  Probably many of the fans who don't go to many games feel they are helping the program by buying season tickets. And maybe those seats would not sell if they gave them up.  Ticket office should have some idea of demand vs the number of season ticket holders who barely attend.  We are also expensive compared to many programs.  Maybe first time season ticket holders or just first time ticket buyers should get discounted rates to lure them in?  I guess we shall see if winning it all causes a big boost in attendance.  Pandemic still being a thing might be an issue for a while still.

I agree the program has dropped the ball somewhat on fan engagement in recent years.  FBC used to be vital, now it is basically just a website (a useful, very good website, but still not something that will get new fans into the building).  They need to amp up the fan outreach efforts for current fans and to draw in new ones who may have interest but need a nudge to get to a game.  Now is the perfect time to really work on getting new fans and energizing the old ones.

[chimera]

The sad truth about Stanford WBB is that the average age of its fans is very high and the fan base is shrinking as we oldsters pass on.  The showbiz and hoopla are probably intended to appeal to a younger crowd, although it fails miserably on me.  But I do think that Stanford fans are very different in general (for all sports) than classic fans at big name sports schools, and so many of the overall trends in college sports go down poorly with us.

But it is a good question, what SHOULD Stanford be doing to increase its WBB fan base?  They can't keep relying on the once-young crowd who jumped on the bandwagon in 1990 and 1992.  Will we get a surge of younger fans now that we have won another national championship?  Why can't we draw as well as Arizona, as Oregon State, as Oregon, or even as well as Washington during the Plum years?  We used to lead the Pac 12 in attendance, and we have sagged far behind several other schools.  I never see students at the WBB games outside of the band and the Dollies.  I rarely see anyone under 60 unless they were brought by someone over 60--except for the hoards of school kids who get bused in to a few games.

I am proud of our fans, but we as fans may need to help spread the word and do some recruiting of our own--not of players but of fans.  Loud videos and fumigation tunnels are not apt to do the job we could do.

We definitely all need to recruit fans -- we have four season tix for two of us, always try to bring two others with us to fill the extra seats. Our approach has been reaching to a variety of people. Some have become fans, but so far, none have bought their own tix.

Interesting bit of data -- if you look at the tix available from Stanford on the seating chart, all the best seat sections are marked as sold out, and above them, low availability -- yet those seats are often empty. I have to assume that the issue is people with season tix not using their seats. If that's right, what can we do about that?

One thing that has changed since the early 1990s, and I think it's important -- in those early years of success, Tara really invested in connecting with the fans on a personal basis. The Fast Break Club was a real thing, and there was a lot of excitement about it, a feeling for the fans of being part of the team, being close to it. We even had FBC tee shirts. I don't have nearly as strong as sense of that now. I'm not saying Tara should do more, and also ask the players to be more available as they were in the 1990s after each game, but I do think that there is a need to reinvigorate the fan/team connection.

I think you hit on two key problems.  The fan base in the prime seats have generally had those seats a long time and some do not come to all the games or even many games.  So newer fans can't get the prime seats.  Probably many of the fans who don't go to many games feel they are helping the program by buying season tickets. And maybe those seats would not sell if they gave them up.  Ticket office should have some idea of demand vs the number of season ticket holders who barely attend.  We are also expensive compared to many programs.  Maybe first time season ticket holders or just first time ticket buyers should get discounted rates to lure them in?  I guess we shall see if winning it all causes a big boost in attendance.  Pandemic still being a thing might be an issue for a while still.

I agree the program has dropped the ball somewhat on fan engagement in recent years.  FBC used to be vital, now it is basically just a website (a useful, very good website, but still not something that will get new fans into the building).  They need to amp up the fan outreach efforts for current fans and to draw in new ones who may have interest but need a nudge to get to a game.  Now is the perfect time to really work on getting new fans and energizing the old ones.