A few questions

[AustinLewis]

Out of sheer curiosity, I have a few questions for the GoMiddle community :

1) Outside of a change at AD / FB HC, what would you do to improve ticket sales? I know the 1st answer most on this board will have is "Fire Massaro. Fire Stock." And I get why. But it's not happening. At this time, MT needs to play with the "toys" they have while looking forward to the day when they have a "new toy" to enjoy.

2) The MT community needs desperately needs to improve NIL opportunities for recruiting & retaining student-athletes. How would you work to improve this?

 

[MTLynn]

Attendance would be excellent if the program was consistently ranked in the top 25, but as long as the school is burdened with mediocre employees we'll see mediocre results.

 

[ewglenn]

Out of sheer curiosity, I have a few questions for the GoMiddle community :

1) Outside of a change at AD / FB HC, what would you do to improve ticket sales? I know the 1st answer most on this board will have is "Fire Massaro. Fire Stock." And I get why. But it's not happening. At this time, MT needs to play with the "toys" they have while looking forward to the day when they have a "new toy" to enjoy.

2) The MT community needs desperately needs to improve NIL opportunities for recruiting & retaining student-athletes. How would you work to improve this?

1) I would try and get 6 home games per year. Only 1 P5 money game. OOC would be a TN FCS team, 2 regional G5 matchups and one payday game. I would like to see more student engagement, have a frat/sorority night for each game (different frat/sorority each week). The one with the highest number of butts in seats at the start of the 4th gets a prize at the end of the year. Do a scholarship give away opportunity for one random student each week (could be small like $250).

2) We have a professional selling program on campus. I would work with Professor Coats to get them involved with “fundraising” with local businesses. Make it a project and they can receive something for their work. I would also work with the city to have a welcome to Murfreesboro sign on i24 in both directions that says home to MTSU (similar to the one in BG with WKU).

 

[Noogaraider1]

I think the answer to both is to market the school better to the Boro community and businesses. Im sure they are doing so already, but going to school there two decades ago it seemed like you saw more MT love around town.

Murfreesboro is exploding obviously and that should provide intrinsic gains to the school, but it has to take advantage of the growth. I dont think the local governance has much love for the school though, which is absurd.

 

[MTFAN61]

I think improved ticket sales begins with early season expectations starting with game 1. Inevitably Stocks teams seem to look terrible game 1. Yes sometimes this is due to opening with the Alabama's of the world. But this is not always the case, aka Army & Liberty in recent seasons.
The coaching staff MUST do a better job of preparing this team as of game 1, Not games 3 or 4 before looking ready to play football.
When you open the season with 42-0 blowouts with the W's & L's in the wrong column your automatically undermining ticket sales for the rest of the season.
Does refusing to have a spring game have anything to do with preparedness? I can't say. However, if I could do one thing as an administrator to push for better ticket sales would be to get my Head Coach to have our team better prepared to play the season opener & in turn effectively garnering a stronger fan interest. Right now no matter who we play MT fans anticipate an opening game blowout. That's no way to effectively build ticket sales.

 

[SpaceRaider]

The on the field records against wku and vanderbilit the last decade is absolutely and totally unforgiveable. Record of season opening games is a disaster, also unforgiveable. No amount of marketing or facility projects announced is going to overcome that.

Improve the on the field play and coaching. There's a lot of fan alienation through that, that must be overcome through results and not going 0 for three or four in conference play to start out.

 

[MidTennMtneer]

I personally feel weeknight games will help. Requesting certain times with the conference as well, such as ensuring we don't play the same time as UT on a Saturday. The beer garden is a start but can be improved on. Most don't realize there are special brews for each game. That is where the missed Spring Game opportunity comes in to play or the need for some sort of fall social kick-off. A way of engaging the local school kids and their parents via free tickets if you attend or something.

Scheduling is a big issue. We should not be opening for Alabama. Years ago we always opened with an FCS school. Go back to that. And 5 home games and 2 power have got to stop as well. A $ game, TN/regional FCS school (we should play a TN school EVERY year), and another non power preferably regional.

Utilize what we have on campus. Marketing, business, advertising. Fraternities and sororities. Use media & entertainment to help, which leads me to NIL. Use them to make NIL commercials etc. Have a local business social where they can meet the players, tour campus. There are probably lots of small mom & pops that have no idea they can become partners with the school and players for a small amount or $. We truly need a recent graduate who can work those small businesses. An NIL liason so to speak.

 

[Raiderclyde]

Out of sheer curiosity, I have a few questions for the GoMiddle community :

1) Outside of a change at AD / FB HC, what would you do to improve ticket sales? I know the 1st answer most on this board will have is "Fire Massaro. Fire Stock." And I get why. But it's not happening. At this time, MT needs to play with the "toys" they have while looking forward to the day when they have a "new toy" to enjoy.

2) The MT community needs desperately needs to improve NIL opportunities for recruiting & retaining student-athletes. How would you work to improve this?

1. Setting clear expectations on winning a conference championship and delivering at least 2 out of 4 years. I don’t always feel that we send a strong message that we will win the league. Our “coach speak” and “body language” is too fixated on being competitive instead of being a dominant force in C-USA. Scheduling plays a big role in this and often we have two strikes (used baseball analogy) against us before fans get to see the season opener. By mid October we’re practically eliminated from winning an outright football championship and we’re largely playing for bowl eligibility.

2. Corporate Sponsorships. Get Nissan Motor USA or a major banking institution onboard as being a major contributor to Blue Raider athletics. We need well-known names and dollars, not the typical local insurance agent or small town car dealership sponsoring all of what we do. Our first downs on the radio are sponsored by a car dealership in the next county. Our branding and marketing plan still operates too much like D-2 or FCS. Our strategy needs to be as relevant as anyone in the Southeastern Conference. Naming rights to facilities should also be sold for a period of time. In turn, the proceeds need to be invested back into facilities and coaches who can deliver consistent results.

 

[RaiderDoug]

Well, ignoring the elephant in the room is almost impossible in this case, but i'll try. The fact is, people don't want to buy an entertainment product that's not entertaining. Everything else is ancillary to the product on the field, which is, as mentioned above, not entertaining.

1. Scheduling. Everyone is excited about every football season every August and September. Even me, even with who we are stuck with, I always get excited for the start of the season. Every year, probably due to the necessity for money games, we come out of September with a losing record. I did a post a few years ago, that, in all Stock's years, we only had a winning record into October like 3 times or something like that. By the time MTSU starts to get competitive, the novelty of football is over and people aren't paying attention. When you win doesn't matter when it comes to the all important "bowl eligibility", but when it comes to getting people excited for your product, winning in September>>>>>winning in November.

MTSU might be doomed to 6-6 for eternity, but if you're 4-2 going into mid-October, you're going to sell a lot more tickets than if you're 2-4. Still gonna end up 6-6, but you will sell more tix.

2. Make it more fun. If you can't win, (and we can't), at least make it fun. Like I mentioned above, at the end of the day, you're selling an entertainment product - not a whole lot different than going to a movie, a circus, concert, whatever. If people aren't having fun, they're not coming.

One of the big problems is that this program has no personality whatsoever. Our head coach couldn't care less about the fans and has the personality of mold. I'm not saying go full on Savannah Bananas, but get some social media stuff going. Have some fun with the players and coaches. Release some slick hype videos. Sell a T-shirt of the month (and, no, not just a black MTSU one). Have a video showing players having a belly flop competition or a paintball match or a home run derby - get some personality, generate some warm fuzzies.

2. NIL - we need a collective. I'm not going to buy a MTSU Player T-Shirt. I don't care enough about these guys individually (I don't really know who they are) and with blah the product we have, it's not like we have any really elite players or personalities that you can rally behind.

But a collective, which can distribute out the funds to the players, is probably the way to go. Start a collective and sell memberships - look at what UT has (https://thevolunteerclub.com/). The collective then works with staff to distribute funds to players, recruits, transfers in or out, whatever is needed.

If you had someone start an MTSU collective, sell memberships for 10 bucks a month, send me a sticker and a koozie or maybe an autographed 8x10 every quarter - i'd sign up.

 

[RaiderDoug]

Also, I'd like to impress upon anyone and everyone at MT who might read this - things need to start moving for MT now. Not years from now, but now.

College football is a'changin' and no one knows what it looks like 5-10 years from now. But I can say this with certainty, the bottom end of FBS is not in a great position.

Looking around at the rest of our new conference mates - there really is no reason we can't win, and win big, amongst all sports. There's nothing budget wise, facility wise, tradition wise, market wise, or anything else that would prevent this overall athletic program from winning big here immediately.

The perception of this program if it allows itself to be passed by again by a bunch of start up and FCS move ups would absolutely kill it, especially as the entire college football continues to shift. There's going to be opportunities, and they're not going to a program that hasn't won anything in decades and has an apathetic fan base.

In short, another thing that would help would be for the MT administration to communicate a sense of urgency or some sense of ambition or demanding-ness (not a word, but you get my point).

I want to hear the following:

"Yes, we haven't won much, and we got overlooked for the Sunbelt and turned down the MAC, but that's because we feel like our new home is a good fit for us, we are going to win championships here and we're going to win them soon. We have everything we need to be the best program in the conference, and that's the expectation of the fans and the program, and we're going to get it done. Anything less than a championship is not a successful season"

One thing I cannot stand about this athletic department is the feeling that I care more than they do. I can take losing. I can't take not trying.

 

[ewglenn]

I think we also need some new traditions. I grew up a Clemson fan. I went to South Carolina, Louisville and Liberty. They all have great traditions and tons of engagement opportunities for fans. We’ve got the Raider Walk and the MTSU chant but that’s really it. South Carolina plays this song on every third down. It’s short and sweet but everyone gets fired up and if you’re at the concessions line you know what’s going on. Our band seems to just miss the boat on traditions at football games imo. Clemson does the same thing (see below). There are sooooooo many things we could do but we’re just missing it.

 

[MidTennMtneer]

I think we also need some new traditions. I grew up a Clemson fan. I went to South Carolina, Louisville and Liberty. They all have great traditions and tons of engagement opportunities for fans. We’ve got the Raider Walk and the MTSU chant but that’s really it. South Carolina plays this song on every third down. It’s short and sweet but everyone gets fired up and if you’re at the concessions line you know what’s going on. Our band seems to just miss the boat on traditions at football games imo. Clemson does the same thing (see below). There are sooooooo many things we could do but we’re just missing it.

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I felt that exact way my last game against FAU. It was the first time I'd been to campus in 5yrs. Game was of course great, and the fans that were there were engaged. It also was by far our most complete game of the season though.

IDK what we can come up with so I didn't suggest traditions earlier.

We also finally have a decent PA guy in Kris. Give him some support other than basic canned music.

Someone mentioned social media. I've said it before, Shane Beamer. USC's social media dept is great. He constantly does fun videos posting goofy stuff. It gets people noticing and curious. Engaged. Stock isn't that but there are zero reasons we can't utilize our players' personalities.

 

[Sommy]

Hire a good marketing firm (and they don't have to be in the local area) that can come up with a complete refresh. The marketing efforts of this program are so terrible, I think they could do a case study on how pathetic it is.

• Local community outreach is lacking. Exploding area of Middle Tenn and still no excitement or attendance. No reason they can't give kids at local schools blocks of free tickets. We need butts in seats.
• Media outreach - I don't live in the area, but I would assume we are not in the spotlight with local tv, radio, etc. Missing an opportunity.
• Name and image refresh. The pegasus horse either needs to be refreshed or faded out to a minor part of the logo. Get something new, cool and exciting that people like. REFRESH. Push the envelope, take a chance, anything.
• Alumni - We should be marketing the hell out of top players at all sports that went onto the next level. The Kevin Byard retirement night was embarassing. We should have former top players on the sidelines during games on tv, then let the broadcasters know they are in attendance to get some publicity.
• Leverage the academics to get more buzz. Projects for marketing students. Communication majors - what would you do? Let them invest in solutions. Hey why not get some students to make a documentary on the program, similar to a low budget Hard Knocks.
• Specific to football - any player in the transfer portal (that is good) that has a hometown within 300 miles of MT needs to be looked at hard. Bring back these kids looking for a new home. Some might just be homesick and need a new start. No reason we can't push to get a 4 star kid from the Boro to come back home.

All of these would be have already been vetted by a proper AD, which we don't have. So the easiest solution - Move on from Massaro! Sorry, I know this thread started that we can't, but why the hell not?

 

[ewglenn]

Hire a good marketing firm (and they don't have to be in the local area) that can come up with a complete refresh. The marketing efforts of this program are so terrible, I think they could do a case study on how pathetic it is.

• Local community outreach is lacking. Exploding area of Middle Tenn and still no excitement or attendance. No reason they can't give kids at local schools blocks of free tickets. We need butts in seats.
• Media outreach - I don't live in the area, but I would assume we are not in the spotlight with local tv, radio, etc. Missing an opportunity.
• Name and image refresh. The pegasus horse either needs to be refreshed or faded out to a minor part of the logo. Get something new, cool and exciting that people like. REFRESH. Push the envelope, take a chance, anything.
• Alumni - We should be marketing the hell out of top players at all sports that went onto the next level. The Kevin Byard retirement night was embarassing. We should have former top players on the sidelines during games on tv, then let the broadcasters know they are in attendance to get some publicity.
• Leverage the academics to get more buzz. Projects for marketing students. Communication majors - what would you do? Let them invest in solutions. Hey why not get some students to make a documentary on the program, similar to a low budget Hard Knocks.
• Specific to football - any player in the transfer portal (that is good) that has a hometown within 300 miles of MT needs to be looked at hard. Bring back these kids looking for a new home. Some might just be homesick and need a new start. No reason we can't push to get a 4 star kid from the Boro to come back home.

All of these would be have already been vetted by a proper AD, which we don't have. So the easiest solution - Move on from Massaro! Sorry, I know this thread started that we can't, but why the hell not?

A student produced “hard knocks” series would be interesting. That is a great idea that could be pushed on social media. Who knows, maybe it gets picked up by a network.

 

[MidTennMtneer]

The biggest issue is fresh ideas. When Lee came there was major energy. He really tried. I think this first year was his baseline so to speak so I am anxious to see what they come up with for his second year.

If he leaves (and he will be an AD somewhere someday), we will be hurting. His community engagement has been top notch and that has been an issue for YEARS. But he obviously still has a tough job ahead of him.

I agree we need to utilize what we have on campus. There should be an elective with the Jones College for marketing/b.a. etc majors to take for athletics to come up with new ideas.
If students knew they could get involved and have their ideas become real, it would create a built in alumni fan base.

Love the Hard Knocks idea. If we had a decent social media plan we wouldn't need a network anyway as we'd have plenry of eyes. For the record, our main MT Athletics has on Twitter 38k followers, FB 21k. WKU has almost same.

 

[ewglenn]

MT Football has 53.2k on Twitter
MT Athletics has 37.6k on Twitter
WKU Football has 56.4k on Twitter
WKU Sports has 37.7k on Twitter

I will say our education day is top notch for WBB. I wish they would come up with something like that for the MBB.