April 24, 2003
Q: First off, congratulations on winning the national championship. It was an unforgettable year.
I was fortunate enough to see seven games last year. In my view, one of the few disappointments from last season was the poor attendance for home games at L.T. Smith Stadium. I think we averaged 2,000 less in per game attendance in 2002 than we did in 2001. While winning the championship should increase interest in the program, I was curious about what your ideas are for improving attendance for home games? -- Submitted by Bruce Smith, Frankfort, Ky.
Coach Elson: Thank you for the congratulations. It was truly an unforgettable year!
Without us lifting a finger, I would like to think that our attendance will increase because of the excitement in this community over Western Kentucky University's 1st ever National Championship in any sport! All the credit for that accomplishment goes to our players and Coach Harbaugh. They showed us all that with persistence, hard work and togetherness, anything can be accomplished!
Obviously we are planning to lift a finger, if not every one in our entire program.
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1. We are looking at moving the starting times of home games the first two months of the season to 7:00 p.m. Homecoming as always will be a 4:00 p.m. kickoff but I really think a 7:00 p.m. start time could help a lot of families make it to Smith Stadium that are tied up during the day with soccer/softball/work etc. ... It will also help make Thursday and Saturday nights the place to be four nights this fall in the South Central Kentucky area for families that want great entertainment for a reasonable cost.
Making this an evening event will help us to market football to some of our best fans, our students! We are going to challenge our students to get out and make this the most intimidating environment in college football!
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2. Our Marketing Department has put together a great plan that is going to give Hilltopper Football more exposure over the next four-six months than it has ever had! All I can tell you is that Jon Zimmerman has put together a 15-page plan that is awesome! From gameday atmosphere to advertising throughout the South Central Kentucky area, we have a number of action plans that are going to make sure that there won't be many people who don't know what's going on with Hilltopper Football!
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3. Myself, our staff and players will be out in both our campus and South Central Kentucky community, building personal relationships with all the great people that make this region such a great place to live and go to school in. I truly believe that when people can say that they have a personal connection with our program and they see what a great group of young men we have as players and coaches, they will come out in droves, and eventually WKU Football is going to be the toughest ticket in town!!
For anybody who was in Diddle Arena for the Sunbelt Tournament Championship game, just imagine that atmosphere TIMES 2!!
That is what we can and will have in Smith Stadium!!
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The last thing I will say is this. If you surveyed our players and asked them what is the one thing they would like to have within our program, the dominant answer would be: "To turn around after making a big play to see a packed house of wild and crazy Hilltopper fans cheering us on!"
It's not about revenue, it's about supporting these student-athletes that work their tails off year round in order to give our community something to get excited about.
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There were 4,000 thousand student tickets issued for the Sun Belt Championship in Diddle Arena.
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I want 8,000 issued 6 times a year at Smith Stadium!!
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We certainly don't have all the answers, so if you or any of our fans have any specific (reasonable) ideas please feel free to e-mail to this site or to my e-mail address at david.elson@wku.edu.
Thanks for your interest in Hilltopper Football!
Go Toppers!
David Elson
