here is a note to our marketing people : kids like free stuff.

heck, old timers like free stuff. AgAlum and I both have Pizza Guys contact information on our phones for our free pizza promotions!

that's the Aggie Pack I remember!!!!

I'm guessing it comes down to money. I might be wrong but I'm sure they were looking at cutting costs somehow and decided that giving away shirts, beanies, sweatshirts, etc. wasn't cost effective. Nevermind that you build a fanbase by getting them to go to games and sometimes the way to get them to go to games is to give them free stuff (like someone else said). You sacrifice some money short term to build the fan base long term where the hope would be they continue to go to games after they graduate and eventually, bring their spouse and kids.

This doesn't make any sense to me. I can remember tube sock madness, free burritos, free pizza, etc. None of these gimmicks could have cost more than $50, and the burritos and pizza were probably free and marketing by Woodstocks and wherever the burritos came from.

I feel like it's more about not having something like the Aggie Pack. I'm sure different decades have had different iterations of stufent-lead spirit groups. But that doesn't seem to exist today.

I get a few dozen college interns every semester and my intern coordinator does these little info sessions about how to understand today’s younglings. I normally dismiss these kind meetings as HR huggy nonsense. The themes they presented were shortened attention span, an expectation management will get involved with issues of hurt feelings/mental health, and that they struggle to develop peer leadership and navigate ambiguous situations. They instead want very explicit direction. I know a lot of that sounds like old man speak but idk maybe there is something to the fact that pandemic effects are still reverberating. It might actually be hard to find students with peer leadership skills. I’m certainly not seeing it with my interns.

Maybe we were spoiled with the people that led the Aggie Pack in the late 90s. There was so much energy and a whole team of goofballs leading cheers and going nuts.

It can and has been done. Those student sections were loud too!

In work, management matters. In sports, coaching staff matters. In event promo, staff matters.
Its all about who's on staff and 'holding the mic.' Its about level of effort. Those Aggie Pack guys had heart/determination and pride.

I suspect there is a lot of turnover in whatever paid staff is dedicated to promotion and securing/leading interns for sports events (in this case football). You really need a leader/champion and with turnover that can be difficult to sustain. I have been out of touch for decades on that front. We just had the band-uh and the north end zone students screaming their lungs out.

There was actually some key turnover mid-season, which may have thrown a bit of a wrench in things

I think atmosphere is an equally important barometer of support. The alumni section looked pretty good the last game, but I was pretty much the only person in my section making any noise. And when I did, folks were mostly nice and polite but treated me like a kid. When I tried to high five some folks after a touchdown, they looked annoyed. Maybe it was just me though

From a live marketing standpoint, if I didn't know better I'd say it looked like our football games are quiet, serious affairs. Not sure that's a great pitch for neutral/less engaged students as a Saturday pass time.

Ah yeah....I was there...still got one of my old Rec Hall t shirts

Next time I'm showing up in my Barney Dinosaur costume...get those kids attention!

I was pretty much the only person in my section making any noise. And when I did, folks were mostly nice and polite but treated me like a kid. When I tried to high five some folks after a touchdown, they looked annoyed. Maybe it was just me though — quadshock

Same here. We were in sect 120 in the 4th row. At one point, I high fived the entire front row. Not much of a response.

On a side note, the young man sitting next us was quiet, but very interested in the game and also had ESPN up monitoring all of the playoff scores. Turns out in 2017, he broke the Guiness World Record for being the youngest person to visit every country! Crazy!

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/meet-the-new-youngest-person-to-visit-every-country_b_591ac755e4b03e1c81b0089f

Folks on the concourse were going nuts when we rallied against MSU. But yes, I get looks when I exhort our team.

what a cool story! Hopefully he gets to add Frisco, TX to his list of travels next year

this is exactly my experience every time I sit in the alumni section. God bless season ticket holders, they put their money where their mouth is when it comes to supporting the program, but you can tell who's a long timer because making noise seems to be looked down upon. I TRULY think a bigger stadium // expanding seating would help in terms of giving more opportunity (seating) for the groups who know that to help our team, we doooooo have to make noise and create a hostile environment. I appreciate the Aggie Pack trying their best but yes, even they're still a ways away from the Pack that I remember from '03-'07... And these weren't even teams that were as successful!

I have yet to meet any of you folks at a game but imma make an effort the next time!

SochorField and I are always mingling at the 50 out in front of the Bruce Edwards room on the west side of the stadium.

I was also at that game, just to the right of you in the end zone. I thought I had some pictures from that day but I can't locate them at the moment. Hard to believe the school could grow by something like 10k students since that day and the student section is now a fraction of what it was. I don't understand young people these days [old man speak].

welcome to the board! I agree with you!

I was not too far (section 122) and that's a cool story! I'm not saying everyone needs to enjoy the game the same way, but we weren't exactly providing home field advantage either.

Maybe we should do a bit more coordination around the section we'll be in, for the sake of us and the more old timey folks that want a peaceful watch

the Aggie pack that was there did a good job, but I'd really like to see 4 more sections filled up

https://herosports.com/fcs-football-2025-attendance-leaders-bzbz/

Looking good this season!

pretty awesome!

Sounds like they are expecting less than 10k Saturday unless there is a surge in student attendance. No idea what the popularity of Brewfest will be.

ticket sales looks pretty damn good from looking on the ticketing page/stadium seat map..

I thought so too. I mentioned that to someone in the department and he was surprised. When I looked early in the week, the west side showed ‘low availability’ in all sections, and most showed only a handful of seats. We’ll see.

Maybe he was focused more on the student turnout.

There are only 8500 or so seats and the student section is a big chunk of that.

Isn’t Saturday a Homecoming Game? I would expect more students will show up.

On a separate note, didn’t the Basketball team used to have an annual “Break the Record Night” in the 90’s? Can this be marketed for football? (Although allowing more than 17,000 in a 10,000 seat stadium doesn’t seem very safe). Expand the seating capacity, Rocco! Great time to be an Aggie!

expand that dang stadium!

Aside from a few rows down near the field in Section 121, and the SE corner of seating alongside the band, the game looks to basically be sold out - still some GA left, with it being Homecoming, expecting a huge presence in the berms with kids running everywhere.