Lack of fan retention after halftime clouds first win of the 2013 season

Even as University of South Dakota staff attempted to bolster student attendance at the football home opener versus UC Davis Saturday, President Jim Abbott said he was disappointed with the number of students who left after halftime.

“I was really disappointed with that,” Abbott said.

Despite the poor attendance, Abbott seemed unwaivered in regards to how student participation affects USD’s title as the state’s flagship school, and said he is happy with the direction of fan participation.

But to address a lack of student support at athletic events, Abbott created the Student Participation Committee last spring.

The committee has representatives from the Student Government Association, USD Athletics, University Marketing and Student Services. Created with the sole purpose of getting students involved in supporting on campus activities, the committee has generated new ideas and new groups to achieve their goals. One of these groups is the “Coyote Crazies”- a semi-autonomous organization that is coordinated by students to encourage a more traditional D-I fan base.

The group’s president, senior Jarrad Emery, said the goal is to make the DakotaDome one of the hardest and loudest places for opponents to play in. In order to do that, student attendance must be bolstered, he said.

“It comes down to us as students believing in our team,” Emery said.

In order to draw more students to the games, the Crazies in conjunction with Student Services and the Athletic department are planning on organizing multiple pep rallies to increase interaction between athletes and the rest of the student body.

On Friday, the Crazies got to test out their new strategy by hosting a pep rally outside of Muenster University Center. The pep rally suffered from low attendance, with a turnout of only around 150 students.

Athletic Director David Herbster said afterwards that he would have liked to see another 2,000 students at the rally but pointed out this was the first pep rally of the year and attendance would hopefully grow.

When asked about the pep rally and attendance Emery said he was happy with the turnout but that there could be room for improvement.

“We have a few weeks until the next home game so we are going to use that time to work out some kinks,” Emery said.

Student Services also wants to attract students by altering tailgating by allowing students to park their vehicles in Coyote Village’s overflow parking lot to have a more authentic D-I experience.

Aside from getting students to the games, the Crazies also want to keep students there for the entire game by doing special half time events.

“There’s one really cool one that we’re planning for Dakota Days. It’s going to be a world record setting thing that we’re going to do but I’ll leave it at that for now,” Emery said.

Along with the revamped Coyote Crazies group, the athletic department is also trying to help boost attendance at games by launching a new marketing campaign called “Can We Count on You?”

The campaign is focused on increasing student attendance at various university activities, including football games. Different ads and banners can be seen throughout campus with various administration officials and football players in eye black accompanied by the words “Can We Count on You?”

Herbster said the marketing campaign isn’t just focused on the athletic activities at USD, but on all university activities.

“It’s saying, ‘Can we count on you to support the football team?
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Can we count on you to go to the fine arts concert? Can we count on you to be a Coyote?’ ” Herbster said.

Coach Joe Glenn also expanded on the theme of supporting different campus events and programs in his speech at the pep rally on Friday.

“We all need to support each other,” Glenn said.

The program saw limited success this week though. When asked about what he thought university officials could do to get more students involved first-year Andrew Koch replied

“They could advertise big events like the pep rally more to make people more aware that it’s going on.”

His friend fellow freshman Atara Wimpf nodded her head in agreement.

“I didn’t even know there was a pep rally Friday,” she said.

Abbott says student participation at football games is good for everyone including the team. His expectations for student participation are high.

“I would like to see the place packed. I would like to see it standing room only practically.”