UVA Football: How about a ‘We Want You Back’ campaign to get the fans back?

I enjoyed your “It starts with an apology” story on UVA Football. I was a season-ticket holder back in the day, so I knew the background. I agree with your take on how to start fixing the problem. But what comes next?

I was never a high-roller and gave up my season tickets because I found that I could scalp better seats for less than my nosebleeds cost. I haven’t been to a game in several years, but I’m thinking it might be time to try again.

But whatever they’re doing to market to townies isn’t reaching me. If it’s not reaching me, they have no chance to sell me.

Are they doing anything to stimulate demand, other than a few ineffective TV ads? The TV spots I’ve seen haven’t made me an offer I can’t refuse. They’re just trying to create an aura of greatness. How about a “We Want You Back” campaign that offers decent seats at super-low promotional prices?

I did a little digging on their site about pricing and donation levels. It’s pretty confusing. And who are they kidding with the priority pricing in the upper decks? On TV, it looks like the upper decks are mostly empty. Until they start selling out again, it seems like most of the seats should be priced at the “value” level.   

Jim Richardson

This is the Mailbag Item of the Week, and the clubhouse leader in the Mailbag Item of the Year race.

Football, I’ve been trying to stress, is a sport and a business.

Right now, the sport part of UVA Football is doing as well as it has in years, with the 4-1 start.

The business side is stuck where it’s been since the 2008 reseating fiasco.

It’s not just a matter of, win, and they will come back.

Jim hits the nail on the head here with the idea for a “We Want You Back” marketing campaign.

The higher-ups in UVA Athletics who get paid big bucks to run the business need to recognize what I wrote in the “It starts with an apology” column, that the biggest issue with low attendance dating back 16 years now is the breach caused by the 2008 reseating.

Once you do that, yes, you actually apologize, and then make that apology a focus of a marketing campaign aimed at reaching back out to the locals who were shunted in favor of fickle big-money folks who abandoned the program when the losses started piling up.

A dose of Tony Bennett-inspired humility is the start to getting those locals back into Scott Stadium.

I say this, recognizing that the University of Virginia isn’t, outside of TB’s first of the Five Pillars, otherwise known for its humility.

The folks there seem to be enamored with the idea that the sun rises and sets due to the greatness of The University.

It would take a lot for the higher-ups to concede the 2008 screwup, and the years of inaction to address what was done in 2008.

If they can bring themselves to do that, though, it would go a long way to repairing the relationships that were abandoned, and start to getting UVA Football fans back in the seats.