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Post by wildcatter on Jan 4, 2021 8:17:23 GMT -6
Very fair point.
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Post by bucfan on Jan 4, 2021 10:21:02 GMT -6
Perhaps we travel in different worlds. Much of these were connections I had for about 5 years Abilene coaching little league baseball. I'm not accusing us of being "elite", simply noting that there is probably a good number of locals who seem to think this. I do not think that much of Abilene looks at ACU as "their" school. We are very expensive (contributing more to that "elite" label) and most of our graduates do not stick around here and invest in the local community. I suspect that the percentages of McMurray and HSU grads that settle down in and around Taylor county would be much higher than ours. I could be wrong, but that's my impression. I have a feelin that part of the reason more McMurry and HSU grads stick around is that they were from the Big Country to begin with. ACU has much more of a national reach when it comes to student body. Some of those choose to stay but the majority never planned to stay in Abilene. The city of Abilene grew on me when I was a student at ACU. Growing up on the Gulf Coast of Texas, I thought Abilene was about the ugliest, most desolate looking place I had ever seen. This was in the 80's and so downtown Abilene was pretty dead and even the ACU campus did not have the landscaping it has now. I say that to point out that if you are from the Abilene area already, you are much more likely to stay after graduating. Even today if I say I wouldn't mind living in Abilene if I ever decided to move, many people look at me like I am crazy. But they are usually the ones that have never lived there or even visited and met the people. West Texas people are hard to beat.
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Post by Outsider on Jan 4, 2021 10:57:39 GMT -6
ACU has a much bigger national and international student body reach. That's a good thing for ACU and for Abilene, but it will always pose an ongoing challange for ACU to keep that disconnect gap from being a hinderance. I don't think we will ever get rid of it. What we can do is recognize it and use what we can to close that gap between ACU and the general Abilene resident (sports fan or not). Then, when we implement the specific game day marketing strategies, we should have better success. Hopefully that's because both: we have a better local footprint, and we know exactly what to target and how. We will never be the TCU, UT, TA A*M, Baylors, etc.... We can continue to improve our game day experiences and attendances though. Hopefully added exposure helps as well.
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Post by rc on Jan 10, 2021 12:16:29 GMT -6
Perhaps we travel in different worlds. Much of these were connections I had for about 5 years Abilene coaching little league baseball. I'm not accusing us of being "elite", simply noting that there is probably a good number of locals who seem to think this. I do not think that much of Abilene looks at ACU as "their" school. We are very expensive (contributing more to that "elite" label) and most of our graduates do not stick around here and invest in the local community. I suspect that the percentages of McMurray and HSU grads that settle down in and around Taylor county would be much higher than ours. I could be wrong, but that's my impression. I have a feelin that part of the reason more McMurry and HSU grads stick around is that they were from the Big Country to begin with. ACU has much more of a national reach when it comes to student body. Some of those choose to stay but the majority never planned to stay in Abilene. The city of Abilene grew on me when I was a student at ACU. Growing up on the Gulf Coast of Texas, I thought Abilene was about the ugliest, most desolate looking place I had ever seen. This was in the 80's and so downtown Abilene was pretty dead and even the ACU campus did not have the landscaping it has now. I say that to point out that if you are from the Abilene area already, you are much more likely to stay after graduating. Even today if I say I wouldn't mind living in Abilene if I ever decided to move, many people look at me like I am crazy. But they are usually the ones that have never lived there or even visited and met the people. West Texas people are hard to beat. I traveled and worked around the world, but kept a house in Abilene just in case. Thought long and hard about Twickenham/Richmond on the Green or Rancho Santa Fe (north LaJolla) for retirement, even the Caribe. But Abilene is the easiest place to live I have ever found The people are very special. So after much thought we built a new house about a block east of the the campus (my back yard abuts the pecan orchard east of Judge Ely) and retired to a much easier life. I can get just about anywhere I want to go in 10 to 15 minutes without traffic headaches. Very good health care and three quality golf courses, too. Problem is Abilene is growing and there is a lot of building activity around the campus area. No matter, it is so much easier than Dallas, Houston, Denver, LA, New Orleans, London, Gloucestershire, Geneva, etc., or just about anywhere else I have known. ACU had a huge role in staying in Abilene for retirement. It has been a great choice.
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Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Jan 10, 2021 13:05:30 GMT -6
I have a feelin that part of the reason more McMurry and HSU grads stick around is that they were from the Big Country to begin with. ACU has much more of a national reach when it comes to student body. Some of those choose to stay but the majority never planned to stay in Abilene. The city of Abilene grew on me when I was a student at ACU. Growing up on the Gulf Coast of Texas, I thought Abilene was about the ugliest, most desolate looking place I had ever seen. This was in the 80's and so downtown Abilene was pretty dead and even the ACU campus did not have the landscaping it has now. I say that to point out that if you are from the Abilene area already, you are much more likely to stay after graduating. Even today if I say I wouldn't mind living in Abilene if I ever decided to move, many people look at me like I am crazy. But they are usually the ones that have never lived there or even visited and met the people. West Texas people are hard to beat. I traveled and worked around the world, but kept a house in Abilene just in case. Thought long and hard about Twickenham/Richmond on the Green or Rancho Santa Fe (north LaJolla) for retirement, even the Caribe. But Abilene is the easiest place to live I have ever found The people are very special. So after much thought we built a new house about a block east of the the campus (my back yard abuts the pecan orchard east of Judge Ely) and retired to a much easier life. I can get just about anywhere I want to go in 10 to 15 minutes without traffic headaches. Very good health care and three quality golf courses, too. Problem is Abilene is growing and there is a lot of building activity around the campus area. No matter, it is so much easier than Dallas, Houston, Denver, LA, New Orleans, London, Gloucestershire, Geneva, etc., or just about anywhere else I have known. ACU had a huge role in staying in Abilene for retirement. It has been a great choice. We were apparently neighbors before our recent move to Virginia. We had a house built on Pemelton that backed onto the pecan orchard.
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Post by Cap'n Cattitude on Jan 10, 2021 13:27:09 GMT -6
Well that’s interesting. I live about 150 yards north of you also backing up to the pecan grove. (Although the trees at our end were destroyed a few years ago by blight and had to be replanted.)
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Post by rc on Jan 10, 2021 14:26:41 GMT -6
Well that’s interesting. I live about 150 yards north of you also backing up to the pecan grove. (Although the trees at our end were destroyed a few years ago by blight and had to be replanted.) Hey, neighbor and former neighbor... I had no idea. Its a nice neighborhood. I am on the south end of the pecan orchard, on Newcastle Dr. Right now we are covered in lots of snow!!!
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Post by Cap'n Cattitude on Jan 10, 2021 19:32:18 GMT -6
Yep. We are on Pemelton.
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