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Post by E-Villan on Feb 19, 2024 15:11:52 GMT -6
Wyatt Wheeler, beat writer for Missouri State has an in-depth, 3-part series on the crash of interest and attendance at Missouri State. While they have gone as long as we have without an NCAA appearance, they have had a little more success than we have had in that period. Barry Hinson had them close and they did get an NIT bid. I believe they are the largest school in the league, the arena is on campus and Springfield is a mid-sized city. Puzzling how it has gotten this bad.
While it makes you appreciate our fan-base, there are probably some ideas we can learn on increasing our student section.
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Post by ATP on Feb 19, 2024 16:02:41 GMT -6
Wow, not a good look for attracting recruits, NIL and other sponsors. Misery State, indeed.
They aren't the only program in trouble, as we all know. Fan bases age and lose interest. Students increasingly don't find the experience rewarding. Kinda makes you wonder if little gyms like Meeks might be the best bet after all.
Losing the core fan base is murder. You don't just do gimmicks to get them back. They aren't interested. It's also true at Valpo and probably always was at UIC.
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Post by ATP on Feb 19, 2024 16:14:07 GMT -6
I think, as well, for the people who want the students to come back, they should stop whining about the music they play on the sound system. Nobody is listening to the 1980s on college campuses now.
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Post by aceloverlarry on Feb 19, 2024 16:24:30 GMT -6
I think, as well, for the people who want the students to come back, they should stop whining about the music they play on the sound system. Nobody is listening to the 1980s on college campuses now. I agree the modern music complaints have always been silly, but students aren’t attending games for music either. We gotta win to keep them interested and find some sort of incentive for them to actually sit in the student section. Maybe they need to evaluate a different section for students too? I don’t know what the solution is, but I do know there’s more than 10 students in attendance most nights and they’re just not sitting in the student section. Even with a small campus of 2,000 students, there’s no doubt in my mind that there is 100+ serious college basketball fans on campus. They’ve got to find a way to convince these kids to cheer for their school instead of staying home to watch IU or Purdue play on TV. |
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Post by stlscooter on Feb 19, 2024 16:30:48 GMT -6
Ford was hired the same year as that alleged rapist that we hired. Ford hasn't won anything and I'm sure the fan base has grown apathetic towards their team.
Someone on one of our other boards was talking about Marty. They mentioned an 8 year rule, and how it is tough for a coach to remain at a school for longer than that.
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Post by municup14 on Feb 19, 2024 17:04:54 GMT -6
Would love to have that arena in Evansville.
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Post by wildbill on Feb 21, 2024 14:15:21 GMT -6
Would love to have that arena in Evansville. Definitely. I love that their seats are close to the floor. No tarps either. I hope they make changes for next season in Evansville. Curious, does anyone here go to the hockey games in The Ford Center? I would like to get an estimate on the average attendance. I doubt the city, or the service running the Ford Center are very profitable. Curiously, if the hockey program would fold as a failure, maybe they could remodel the arena and enhance the basketball atmosphere. |
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Post by aceloverlarry on Feb 21, 2024 14:26:42 GMT -6
Would love to have that arena in Evansville. Definitely. I love that their seats are close to the floor. No tarps either. I hope they make changes for next season in Evansville. Curious, does anyone here go to the hockey games in The Ford Center? I would like to get an estimate on the average attendance. I doubt the city, or the service running the Ford Center are very profitable. Curiously, if the hockey program would fold as a failure, maybe they could remodel the arena and enhance the basketball atmosphere. I’ve been to a few. Attendance isn’t great, but I don’t think it’s bad enough to not be profitable, considering how many home games they play in a season. I’d say average attendance is around 2,000 at most games I’ve been to. Considering they’ll play 2-3 games in a weekend when they’re home, that’s not too bad honestly. Nowhere close to the Icemen days when they consistently drew 4-5k, but probably enough to keep the team in operation. I doubt the city ever does anything to get rid of hockey. If the Thunderbolts fail, they would just try their hardest to attract another ownership group. I hate that the arena is a hockey first venue, but I understand why the city is committed to a multi use facility. Even with 1,500-2,000 people only going to a game, that’s still bringing a lot more people downtown on a Friday or Saturday night then they would otherwise have. I hate having to be relegated to the noon weekend tips, but it is definitely good for the restaurants and bars downtown to be bringing in all those people on a weekend. Downtown has improved a lot since the arena was built and a big part of that is keeping the ford center booked with events to keep people coming downtown and making it more attractive to live in that area. I don’t see us ever getting out of a situation where we share the facility with a hockey team, but maybe they will find a way to make the arena more suitable for both basketball and hockey one day. I’m not going to hold my breath waiting on it though. |
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Post by E-Villan on Feb 21, 2024 15:06:56 GMT -6
I have been critical of Venuworks screwing us on Saturday afternoon games, but there has been at least 2 games this year that we played in the afternoon and there was no hockey game that night. I have to think if UE really wanted Saturday night games, we could get more than we do.
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Post by aceloverlarry on Feb 21, 2024 15:13:39 GMT -6
I have been critical of Venuworks screwing us on Saturday afternoon games, but there has been at least 2 games this year that we played in the afternoon and there was no hockey game that night. I have to think if UE really wanted Saturday night games, we could get more than we do. I emailed the city to complain about this when Winnecke was in office, and they emailed back and gave a pretty good explanation on it. I wish I could find the email, but long story short, they have an agreement to reserve a few weekends a year for just us and we aren’t making the most of them. Due to the logistics of their season and other events, it’s hard to guarantee more than 3-4 evening slots on the season, but we seem to only take advantage of 1-2 a year. I’m not sure what goes into scheduling in our end, but I wish we would push for more Saturday night tips and run promotions to get more casual fans into attendance. You’re definitely more likely to get people without ties to UE into the stadium with a weekend evening tip over a 1 PM tip. |
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