The declining fan experience at Eck

[Kung Wu]

This kind of thing has always mystified me. In other retail businesses, the merchants know that if they want to sell more of something, one good way to do it is to lower the price. That can be done in a variety of ways, incidentally: the obvious one is to reduce what it costs to get in, but another approach can also be to give the buyer more for the price he pays (e.g., free run of the stands, the hill, the bleachers, etc.)

WSU baseball needs to rebuild its fan base. Improving the product will help, and maybe that will occur this year, finally; one can only hope. But improving the fan experience is another good idea, whether it's by making it cheaper to attend -- it can't cost that much more to put on a game for 6000 than for 2500, so why not, considering that 6000 cheaper tickets probably generate more revenue that 2500 more expensive ones, which is the whole behind putting things on sale -- or by giving the fans more flexibility once they do show up. I can understand beer restrictions if there's some sort of legal issue (and in Kansas, when ISN'T there some sort of legal issue associated with beer or alcohol?) But some of this stuff is just bureaucratic, officious foolishness that needs to be rooted out ASAP.

Exactly what McDonalds is doing:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-22/mcdonald-s-to-cut-prices-on-drinks-as-fast-food-industry-slumps

[martymoose]

It's kinda sad we have 2 threads discussing how crappy the fan experience has become at the Eck. I used to go to every single game and bring my kids. I decided to give them another chance this year and have been to 2 already....unfortunately it's been a major disappointment. When I hear about a guy here from LSU with his buddies who wants to catch a game at WSU and one of them walks up to the snack bar to buy a few beers to bring back to the group and then is turned away by security on his walk back out to the hill....because of a rule nobody knows about and there's no signage anywhere showing what the random rules are...that makes me sick. Those guys aren't coming back because of that. WSU decided to randomly start a 3.2 rule for beer a couple years ago and then claim that rule always existed yet all of us who have been going for 20+ years know it hasn't...and yet again not put up any signage that the rule was changing, that's going to run away more fans. People don't attend games regularly anymore people are still finding out about the 3.2 rule because they haven't been to a game in 3 years. I watched several fans walked up the gate Friday and Saturday and get turned away because their beer might not be 3.2. The fans dropped F bombs towards security and walk away, possibly never to attend another game. Is that really how WSU wants to handle the fan experience? Admission was free to Saturday's game and I didn't see a single student on the hill. Attendance is horrible and for some reason those in charge don't seem to want it to change.

[RoyalShock]

Exactly what McDonalds is doing:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ndustry-slumps

Not to go too far out on this tangent, but I've been paying $1 for large drinks at McD's for two years (their tea is pretty good). Were we a test market?

[BOBB]

As a former outfield heckler, many of the players gave as good or better than they got it. Always had a laugh when a guy would put me or my compadres in our place.

[Kung Wu]

Not to go too far out on this tangent, but I've been paying $1 for large drinks at McD's for two years (their tea is pretty good). Were we a test market?

I was thinking the same thing, so I am betting so.

[Shockers5150]

Idk, I smuggle in my own drinks and snacks and just watch the game.

[Shockers5150]

Unless they are checking backpacks now... I'll be there this weekend.