A new head coach I’ve been most impressed with is Vandy’s James Franklin. Stepping in and trying to revive a moribund program in the nation’s toughest conference ain’t easy in the best of times, and Vanderbilt’s 2010 season was anything but that. Still, at least in the short run, Franklin has struck me as being up to the task. He’s done some clever promoting (the walk-on videos I’ve posted are a good example of that), brought some needed energy to the program and, most importantly, recruited on a level I never thought the program was capable of achieving.
Which makes this a pretty sad bit of news.
The hiring of football Coach James Franklin and a hard marketing push have not translated to increased season-ticket sales at Vanderbilt.
About 11,000 season tickets have been sold, approximately 1,500 off last year’s pace.
That is despite an intensified focus on marketing, which will increase over the next month.
I’m not a Vandy fan, and I still find that depressing. Not that I expect sellouts overnight, or fail to remember that the fan base did get a little excited during Vanderbilt’s bowl season. But to see ticket sales drop below the level of the Robbie Caldwell season? Sheesh.
Get The Picture 
People up here care about Vandy like people down there care about Georgia Tech.
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No disrespect at all towards Vandy, but I’ve heard the school referred to as “Georgia Tech with social skills”
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1) Coach Franklin makes Jim Donnan look like a warm fuzzy guy.
2) Better sound system and some inflatables? OOOOoooo, now I want some season tickets.
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I was more impressed with Franklin at SEC Media Days than I expected to be, but let’s face it, his turkey-breeding skills pale in comparison to Caldwell’s.
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Hard to believe that makes the difference with the Vandy fan base. 😉
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I think Nashville is going to get on board with that football team, I think it’s just going to take a little bit of time. I think the recruiting is going to have an effect on that. But, I think in Nashville right now, Vanderbilt football is a walk-up event. You don’t need a season ticket to get in, so the folks who had them are letting them lapse so they can just get single game tix or scalp outside the stadium. I mean, even if I was a Vandy fan or grad, I don’t know how desperate I’d be to lock in my chance to see them play Elon in the opener. That said, they’ve got a pretty entertaining home schedule this year with UConn, Army, and the SEC slate. I’m thinking they’ll have the place mostly full for most of the games.
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Nashville is the largest city to host an SEC school. It’s now an NFL city. Vandy has the potential market to put a bunch of butts in the seats.
The one thing they are missing is wins. If Vandy starts to win games, people in Nashville and environs will start to get interesting.
And Vandy can do what it puts its mind to. The Commodores are competitive at the top rungs of the SEC (and, ergo, the top of the NCAA) baseball and basketball already. There’s no reason whatsoever they cannot begin to compete in SEC football as well.
Franklin is going a good job recruiting, and that’s going to pay dividends over the long haul.
Vandy football is my candidate for the SEC’s “most likely to improve.”
PS: Vandy is much, much more than the NATS with social skills. Vandy is the confluence of Phi Beta Kappa and the Interfraternity Council. Even the New Yorkers at Vandy are indistinguishable from the genteel Southern frat boys.
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As a ticket broker, you also have to understand that brokers did not buy this year. The biggest game they have is against UGA and a close 2nd is Arkansas. Last year they had LSU, Sackerlina, Florida, and UFK. And the tix are cheap enough that many brokers buy in bulk…not thta it will make you rich since they never sell out, but I think this has to do with it more than the HC or team.
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Vandy’s new team walk route…
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTTDiYPVPKW5XqVYnhjmQGMNoMY34s7AAIX30TMMKRf3MFXPpA5
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Vandyville’s
http://vucommodores.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/072711aai.html
almost as exciting as LSU
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Er, excuse me. Where did you get this film? You disguised yourself as one of the girls, didn’t you? I would too except my white beard might give womenopause. Always wondered why it is called menopause until my wife went through it and through it and through it…….
A friend of mine who got his Ph.D. at UGA taught there for many years and while in Ca I read an article about his revival of an old sport while there. Marble shooting. Here’s a guy who is a science egghead and he was photographed playing 4-hole marbles that I played in the 2nd-4th grades in a country school. As nice a Dawg as you would ever want to meet who truly had his feet (and hands) on the ground.
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