At the core of every sporting event are tickets selling and being distributed. Whether it is the student tickets every Ohio University student gets through his or her tuition or the general admission tickets for all other fans, getting people in seats is how sports survive.
OU has built a culture around this act, as selling the ticket is just step one in selling an all-encompassing experience.
“The first job is selling the ticket, the second job is getting people to use their tickets,” Tim Doyle, OU’s associate athletic director of marketing and fan engagement, said. “We don’t take for granted, ‘OK, we sold the ticket, our job is done’ … we really want (fans) in the stadium.”
One tried and true way college athletics has been able to sell tickets starts outside of the stadium: tailgating. Over the years, OU has put time and resources into making the tailgating experience a crucial part of its game day experience.
The culmination of the time and resources is Bobcat Boulevard, located just outside Peden Stadium on South Green Drive. Bobcat Boulevard is a place for fans to mingle, cookout and have fun with the various activities the area offers, usually including inflatables, airbrush tattoo artists and live music.
“That was kind of the idea for Bobcat Boulevard,” Doyle said. “How do we create a space that can be for everyone … that you can stop by for five minutes and have a good time or you can stop by for a few hours and have a good time?”
Two of the patrons of the Ohio football tailgating experience are Tom and Therese Ritchie, 1989 graduates from OU who have been tailgating for the last 15 years, and now stake out their spot on Bobcat Boulevard.
The Ritchies both talked about the inherent closeness of being part of the Ohio fanbase.
“I think there’s a little more something to Ohio football,” Tom Ritchie said. “We live in Columbus, so obviously it's Ohio State up there. I think it goes back to the saying, ‘I wear this (OU) shirt because I went to Ohio University, (Ohio State fans) wear that shirt because you went to Wal-Mart.'”
The inherent community that comes with rooting for a mid-major school is evident in the words of the Ritchies, who were attending Bobcat Boulevard with a friend they had met at a tailgate in a previous year, 1983 OU graduate Phil Marcum.
However, if OU purely marketed to its alumni and student body, the people behind marketing and selling tickets would not be doing their job. OU’s marketing department still needs to tap into the much larger base of people outside of Athens who have seldom trekked down the escalators of Baker University Center. The vehicle for that is consistency.
“(Fans) want to know that this thing is real, that it's going to continue to be real, that it's going to endure,” Doyle said. “If we want people to start showing up an hour earlier … we have to give them a reason to continue showing up an hour earlier.”
These reasons largely come from OU’s sponsors, which are eager to get out in front of the fans. Although this consistency exists at Bobcat Boulevard, or any other tailgating space OU provides, the action happens in Peden Stadium.
Whether it's the "Prokos Kick for Rent" or the new deck in the stands, equipped with new self-scan checkout systems, Peden always has something to offer to energize its fans, and in turn, the fans energize the Bobcats taking the field. At the end of the day, winning is what draws fans in the most, and the Bobcats have gone 13-1 on their home field since its name was changed to Frank Solich Field.
“Bobcat Nation is the best in our league,” Ohio coach Tim Albin said in a press conference, following the team’s matchup against Syracuse. “Peden Stadium is the best it has ever looked in my time.”
