The House of Blue

I think weather plays a large factor in attendance as well as expactations. In April you can beautiful weather or cold weather. If its a really nice night you could see good numbers come out. If its a cold rainy Saturday night it might be around 5k to 10k as usual.

TCF4life - you could see good numbers if the weather is nice nice, but past experience has shown that you probably won't. I've been to the last dozen or so and if nothing else, the crowds are the on thing that is pretty consistent. Inclement or cold weather - you can expect 3K (or less). Sunny, warm saturday (especially coming off a bowl season) you can expect 5-7.5K tops.

Not ragging on UK football or the fans in the least. Just stating a fact. I believe that Coach Stoops can change that and given the palpable excitement and buzz around the program right now, I think he stands a better-than-average chance. It won't be easy though. I'd think it a real victory if there are 10K in the stands come 04/13/13. If there is anything approaching 20 or better will be a miracle. I wanna believe.

jimlowe7. The point of my original post was that the problem is more than merely throwing money into advertising the Spring Game. Promotion does wonders if you've got a big band or singer coming into Rupp a month from now and you need to get the word out. When you have something like a Spring Game that is an annual event and central to the program and you consistently only turn up a few thousand, that's fan indifference - all the promotional bells and whistles are nice, but tons of money thrown at the event will do nothing if the fans just don't care.

Having Drake and recruits and Coach Mitchell moon-walking is nice and enhances the BBM experience, but the reason people camp out and they sellout Rupp in 45 minutes on a cold October morning because they care deeply about the program and want to "be a part of it."

I believe Coach Stoops knows this and once he has "put the 2013 class to bed" I believe he will be much higher profile in stumping for attention and drumming up that excitement necessary. Don't kid yourself though. A band, an a million dollars in promotions and a dog-and-pony-show in every lot will not make much difference until the fan base really buys into the program and comes to see - not just the Spring games, but Saturdays in the fall as well - l as more than a reason to go get drunk off Nicholasville.

Clearly you've never seen the Snuggie.

I'm just kidding. It has actually sold quite well.

Brave Demon nailed it...Bluedynasty,I see what you are saying to an extent,but the ath dept has to participate in this and get the word out and promote..If you do things for people they will respond..it's tougher for the spring game because when its over you have 5 months before the season starts...Midnight madness is the beginning of basketball and games start within 3 weeks..The athletic dept must make a big splash this year..It will set the tone for years to come..They have never done any promoting before..

Also..I think having a grand..epic..montage of past Uk greats pop up on the big screen would be nice...Parelli,Still,Dawson,Couch,Cobb, Moe Williams, Sonny, George Adams, ect ect ect would be a nice gesture and a cool sight to see. A homage to our heros if you will.

Likely to be better weather on the 20th though.

Yeah but BD, if we waited until SEPT to get excited wouldn't that keep folks away until it was too late? I mean, if you can't take a chance on a long shot once in awhile, have you ever lived? Stoops has done his part, now he has to make them play like they look, but I am ready to go all in again, because I am a UK fan, heck I am even a Bengal fan, but I see market value this time so like I said before I am all in.

UKlaw, I agree 100%. For years no one cared about the spring game because there was no excitement around the program. But now things have changed and there are many reasons to be excited. I'm all in. Now is the time to get things rolling and build up the momentum for the first game. I anticipate a lot of summer caravans across the state. I agree that we can't wait until September to start promoting the program. Starting now it should be a 7 month process until we get to Nashville.

What the heck am I doing posting at this hour? See what football can do to you?