I see it being obvious that Purdue isn't getting the big splash hire. With that said, what does Purdue do to get butts in the seats. Winning is the obvious answer, but what else? I liked one persons idea I heard the other day...free student tickets. Any other realistic ideas?
I would go a step further with free student tickets and add a couple of free dogs and large pops each game. College students will go anywhere for free food, even a Purdue football game.
Invite high school marching bands from around the state/region to games and let them play a number or two pre-game or halftime. Don Canham, the legendary AD at Michigan, did this to help fill Michigan Stadium when -- gasp! -- it wasn't even close to being full in the first days of Schembechler's career there. The bands filled seats and served as marketing outreach by Michigan football. Also, let the bands join the AAMB in playing Purdue favorites during the game in lieu of recorded music during the game that is annoying, cliched, and doesn't do much to differentiate a college football game from the NFL.
Give away tickets to non-conference or "lesser" conference games to various schools, Ys, Boys and Girls Clubs, etc. Again, try to create a tie between Purdue and the community and at least attempt to get young people interested in Purdue athletics early.
I don't care if Jesus Christ is hired to coach, the wins will not come immediately and it's going to take some creative marketing and outreach to get seats filled. Why charge outrageous prices (or any prices at all in some cases) when you will just end up with empty seats? Perhaps I'm naive, but I have faith that MBob will make a solid hire and get the program back up and running. Then you can begin to charge market value for a marketable product. We're not close to that right now, so act accordingly to generate and hold interest in the interim.
Down the list of the marketing side, decide on a damned shade of gold once and for all. I prefer Old Gold, but don't monkey around with various shades of gold/yellow on licensed products. Also, let's go with one identifiable main logo, be it a motion P or a block P, the griffin, whatever -- but one logo that is instantly recognizable on television, in stores, etc. In that vein, away with the 50,000 train iterations (especially the phallus train). I can count at least four different train logos in my lifetime and I'm 44. It's confusing to casual fans and dates merchandise rapidly. Choose one and stick with it for at least a decade.
Just a few thoughts...I seem to have gotten carried away there!
