Does ISU have best football fans in America?

[binsfeldcyhawk2]

With no Iowa or UNI on its home schedule, and after yet another losing season, it'll be interesting to see how many fans show up next year. With a new stadium expansion, they can't practically give away tickets forever. At some point they'll need to start charging more if they want to avoid financial trouble.

TV money will kepp them out of "trouble". Low attendance would hurt profits but they make enough TV money to keep them solvent.

 

[cmmnsenscfb]

After hawks break consecutive wins streak the state of Iowa should cancel all other football programs at state schools and issue hawk gear to all.

 

[HerkyFan]

Don't know about best fans, but hawks have the most band wagon fans. Cannot turn around in Omahole without running into one.

There it is. One of the burs under the saddle for all clone fans, they are pissed that Iowa has "bandwagon" fans while with isu's history no one in their right mind would "bandwagon" isu.

Does Michigan turn away all the licensing revenue they get from folks that didn't graduate from Michigan? Nope but the fact that Michigan, Iowa and many, many others have fans that didn't graduate from their Universities drives clone fans completely bonkers.

 

[Lone Clone]

I am a diehard Hawk fan and have been for 35 years. I graduated from ISU in the early 90s (i.e. Walden years). I used to work for the school newspaper and cover the athletic teams (wrestling, football, basketball). I think the best way to describe ISU fans is they are "enduring." ... Enduring ... Meaning, they are more tolerant than most fan bases. I won't say they are "better fans" ... they are just more tolerable and their expectations really aren't that high (i.e. wrestling, football). If they have a coach the fanbase really likes and finds entertaining, etc., (i.e. Orr, Walden, Rhoads) they are willing to put up with losses on the court/field. Fred turned out to be a really good coach. And Rhoads is not. Walden was not a good coach. Orr was above average but he was a God in Ames.

My vet I go to in Des Moines. He is in his 60s ... Been an ISU season ticketholder forever ... We had a talk about this during one office visit. He admits the athletics at ISU are generally average at best (taking into account the entire athletic program) but he still goes to the games because he has always done it. Even though many times he expects defeat, he still goes for the "event" itself. He "accepts" that ISU football will never be a consistent winner. He said "that's just the way it is."

Another thing to consider ... Lots of ISU graduates end up in Des Moines. Ames is about a 25-minute drive away. If I was 20 minutes away from Iowa City I would have season tickets for about every sport. The DSM metro has a lot of people. Yes, there are tons of Hawk fans here but ISU has plenty of them and I know many of them who indeed have season tickets to lots of sports simply because it is a short drive away.

ISU has its core (though small) diehards who stick with the team through thick and thin. No matter what, they are there. I think ISU has more "casual fans" than Iowa does. Example: I sit in an office with 7 ISU fans. Four of them have season tickets to ISU football. I know more about ISU football than 3 of the 4. That's not exaggerating. I know who ISU is playing next. I know the point spread, etc. I know more player names. It's not because I purposely follow ISU football ... I just like sports in general. Two of the three I talk with don't know most of the names of the players. But what they do know is "Fred Hoiberg" ... and Fred is God to them because he "one of them." Rhoads was a local boy (Ankeny) and they loved him for the first few years and his "I'm so proud to be your coach" speeches ... And well, the last two seasons have shown that the off-the-field rah, rah stuff only works so long if you aren't winning. Rhoads will be gone after this season. Even so, the next coach will come in ... And the fans will continue to be patient ... ISU doesn't have high expectations in football because for the most part, it's simply not a successful football program. Basketball, as of late, HAS had some success and so now some ISU fans have raised their expectations and they "expect" ISU to make the Elite 8 or Final Four ... So some success on the basketball court has raised their expectations ... And now they bring in a coach with no ties to ISU ... and he is following in the footsteps of "God." So ISU fans will be impatient if Prohm does not have some of the success Fred experienced. And for Prohm, if he experiences any success whatsoever, he will quickly move onto some place else (i.e. like Chizik did) ...

So no, ISU fans are not "better fans" ... they are just humble fans with few expectations because they haven't experienced much success (the programs as a whole during their existence). If you haven't experienced much success and become "conditioned" to "hating/wanting to beat Iowa" and "upsetting a team or two" along the way .. then life is okay. ISU has it's core diehards but many of them are casual fans ... much like I am casual fan of the Steelers. I love the Steelers but don't follow them nearly as closely as I do the Hawks.

This is a very sound analysis. I could probably find something with which to quibble, but it would be quibbling. This is generally the way I would see the situation as one who has followed the Cyclones for 53 years and had season football tickets for 41 years.

One point that isn't really a quibble: There is a new generation of Cyclone fans who are not nearly as patient as people in my generation. Not sure how that will affect things in the future.

 

[MeetTheFerentz]

Reminds me of an old neighbor. His 19 year-old son---nice entrepreneurial spirit---started an auto detailing business out of his garage. Wanted an empire TODAY, so he tried one of those Groupon offers. Practically gave away his services---I think his regular rate was $175 for a full detail (which I thought was worth it---he did great work), but with Groupon he was only getting like $45 per detail. Not sure how it all breaks down, but I know Groupon gets a chunk for doing the marketing/promoting.

It worked to get him customers. Within a few weeks he got a check for $10,000 from Groupon and had a list of customers a mile long. Was booked solid the entire summer. At first he was flying high. Had $10,000 and customers lined up for months.

But then something happened. About a month later he had blown the $10,000 on a small boat, a POS 4-wheeler and god knows what else. He still had business expenses and employees to pay, not to mention his own personal expenses. All this while still having a few months worth of work he'd already been paid for. So at that point, with all the money dried up, he was working for nothing. And soon all of his employees (2-3 friends of his) were nowhere to be seen. Mom and grandma were out helping him. Little brother was out helping him. It was sad.

A few weeks later I'm out washing my truck and my neighbor walks over. I ask about his son's business and he tells me he'd made a huge mistake using Groupon, and that he ended up breaking the contract with them (took him an attorney and who knows how much money to do it). Took on way too many customers and charged practically nothing. He tried to get some of those Groupon customers back, but it never worked out. He ended up shutting down and going to work at Best Buy.

So after that long winded nugget, the moral of the story is, letting people buy or watch your product for practically nothing with the hopes of repeat business later on, when you're probably going to have to raise your prices to actually make money, seldom works.

I get what Iowa State is trying to do, but at some point they'll have to raise prices to make some real money. Question is, if the product continues to be sloppy, who's going to buy it?

LOL. I know this isn't the topic at hand, but I love how your neighbor and his kid blame Groupon for his business failure, and not the completely unrealistic expectations and irresponsible handling of finances.

 

[Birky]

This is a very sound analysis. I could probably find something with which to quibble, but it would be quibbling. This is generally the way I would see the situation as one who has followed the Cyclones for 53 years and had season football tickets for 41 years.

One point that isn't really a quibble: There is a new generation of Cyclone fans who are not nearly as patient as people in my generation. Not sure how that will affect things in the future.

I agree with Lone mostly agreeing with Rusty.

 

[Hawk-A-Doodle-Doo]

After hawks break consecutive wins streak the state of Iowa should cancel all other football programs at state schools and issue hawk gear to all.

 

[iahawkeyes17]

I'm assuming by lack of responses to doodle the troll got the ban hammer. Like Kilroy I'm sure he will be easy to spot under a new screen name. But well played doodle. I enjoyed your responses to the lowly husker troll.

 

[Lone Clone]

I agree with Lone mostly agreeing with Rusty.

We're just agreeable people.

 

[Birky]

High five.