Student Section

[sportsnut2]

First off, I would like to commend the students who come to the game, stand, and make noise. You do a terrific job!

I was a little disturbed last night though, as the number of people in the band might have actually outnumbered the number of student fans at the game. What is going on to promote the team on campus? Anything? The entire section to the band's right was practically empty, and this trend is getting worse. I know, I know...only if we had an on campus arena.....but come on. Is it that difficult to get downtown? Do students on campus not really care about basketball in general....or just our program, or what? I wish we could pack the student section, which in turn I think, would give more energy to the rest of the crowd. Just some rambling thoughts.

I was just wondering what some of your thoughts were.

[Future Walk-On]

who knows....i've offered my theories many times...we get there 10 min early and walk down to the 1st row...

[Stryker]

From my experience student respond to the team doing well, that is about it. When they are not doing well it loses popularity within the student body fast. It's been slowely dwindling the past couple of years, and then a drake or evansville comes to town, on a tuesday night, and students just don't get out for it. Sad I know but it's the truth. It would be that way overall too if it weren't for all the great basketball fans BU has in Peoria.

[SFP]

The school marketing is doing a poor job then with the students! The games have to become an event all in itself, a ritual where you just have to be there. IMO going to games and pre-partying is part of the overall college experience that these duds for students are missing out on. Wake up kids because one day it will all be over. These are some of the funnest days of your life and sitting in front of a screen with little social interaction at your age is a complete waste of time. I understand if you have a heavy load and need to balance studying with fun but for the majority of the students I'd have to think it is complete apathy. You'll have the rest of your lives to sit at a desk in front of a monitor!

[dogsrus]

The decline in the student section mirrors the decline in the ADULT section....we have been losing fans this year and while it happens faster with the students the crowd is getting close to those that come heck or high water 6500 loyalists only.

Lose last nite and we could have seen those last 500 from the 7000 that were there stay home.

[Stryker]

[The school marketing is doing a poor job then with the students! The games have to become an event all in itself, a ritual where you just have to be there. IMO going to games and pre-partying is part of the overall college experience that these duds for students are missing out on. Wake up kids because one day it will all be over. These are some of the funnest days of your life and sitting in front of a screen with little social interaction at your age is a complete waste of time. I understand if you have a heavy load and need to balance studying with fun but for the majority of the students I'd have to think it is complete apathy. You'll have the rest of your lives to sit at a desk in front of a monitor! ]

I agree. It really takes word of mouth from the students that go all the time (Like I did) to get new freshmen or sophs out for it. Some Freshmen go to on the first semester, then don't get back again because it isn't something fanatical among them. If they could get the Greeks involved it would help a lot, because I think they are one of the biggest parts of the student bodies and the least seen at the games. They used to do the human surfboard thing which was good to get them out.

Also- pregame was huge for me and ifarania and a couple of others that post here. A few years ago we would put em back before every game!

The decline in the student section mirrors the decline in the ADULT section....we have been losing fans this year and while it happens faster with the students the crowd is getting close to those that come heck or high water 6500 loyalists only.

Lose last nite and we could have seen those last 500 from the 7000 that were there stay home.

Agree. You got to win to keep a good buz going and the fans in the seats. I think the S16 buz has completely fizzled and people have been waiting to see better teams, but they have continued to decline steadily since the 06' run. I've talked to several people this year being in the sales profession that have given up their season tickets. They are tired of the small ball/poor coaching and expect to see better basketball.

[BU_EMT128]

[QUOTE/] Also- pregame was huge for me and ifarania and a couple of others that post here. [/QUOTE]

Yep... Took a few people to get me interested, then with the aid of budweiser I thoroughly started enjoying the games

[thefish7]

Yeah, I only got in because my roommates were "Molinarmy/Redzone" guys and told me about the deal... I can't remember, but it worked out to like $2/game or something. Whatever advertising was done it never reached me before that. Also, to get that deal you had to show up at one meeting somewhere in the bowels of Bradley Hall... Might have been Baker.

It's a shame really... Freshmen have nothing better to do anyway, for the most part, so if you kept hitting them with the opportunity they'd show up. Get 'em young and make it EASY and I think you can get more students involved.

[Future Walk-On]

like i said...it is hard for kids who have never heard of BU basketball to come here and be instant die hards.

if this was any big time program nationally it would be diff.

i imagine they would have to come here and hear about our team being good....then maybe more would be interested from the beginning

[DUBrave5]

I get it, the student section sucks. I remember when me and a couple other guys would get to games at like 5-5:15 for a 7pm game in order to get in the front of the student section.

Frankly though the buzz from the Sweet Sixteen has worn off and it is hard to get people to the stadium, especially with the team blowing so many games at home.

We can have a thread about this every week, but it isn't going to change it. You'll probably see more students at the game on Tuesday since it is ISU, but after that I doubt you will see that many.

But while we get upset about students not showing, how about everyone else not showing as well. I remember coming to a game expecting 9,500 to 10,500 easy, but now I honestly think we are lucky to get over 8. Sure the report said 8,670 or something at the last game, but there was no way that there was more than 8,000 there.

[thefish7]

DUBrave, I'm not blaming the students, here. The rest of the crowd was weak from what I hear during the Drake game. I agree, no way that was more than about 7K last night. I'm just saying that students can't be expected to show up on campus as diehards... We (the university) have to work them into diehards, that's all I'm saying. I don't think the team has to be that good either, they certainly weren't when I was converted.

[ChewaBrave]

I'm not sure there really is much if any effort put into getting students to go honestly. I started going because I was an avid ncaa bball fan growing up in KY, and because I knew a handful of the cheerleaders. It is definitely true that the ability and record of the team tends to correlate to the size of the student crowds, but on the same token, even during the S16 year, i remember driving down to StL for arch madness, and meeting all thee kids from much further way that had come with packages including tickets, transportation, etc. put together (at least in part) by their schools to get big crowds of students involved.

And i remember the fraternity/sorority surf board thing (believe we got money for philanthropy for it) - but that wont help much on tuesday games. Thats Chapter night, so while some greeks will still go, it cuts into time you have to get other things done, and still deal with the 'awesomeness' that is chapter. From my experiences, you were much more likely to find either non-greeks, or only small pockets of greeks in and amongst the student sections, while the majority of them would sit up in upper bowl area if they did show up in larger groups.

In the end, if we start winning consistently, and playing well consistently, the student numbers will go up.

[SFP]

We use to have to buy season tickets, hand over our student id and ticket were for around a $1 a game otherwise we could not get tickets. BTW we had assigned seats. So we all got together before the games and had a few rituals going before we slogged it down the hill. I can't imagine attending BU without going to the basketball games. The best thing besides BU in Peoria was the going to those games!

[Bravesfan]

From my experience student respond to the team doing well, that is about it. When they are not doing well it loses popularity within the student body fast. It's been slowely dwindling the past couple of years, and then a drake or evansville comes to town, on a tuesday night, and students just don't get out for it. Sad I know but it's the truth. It would be that way overall too if it weren't for all the great basketball fans BU has in Peoria.

They should be okay the next two home games. The students will be out for our archrivals from ISU and for a ranked UNI team. The house should be rocking those two days, irregardless of our record, though winning at Evansville will be big too!

[ChewaBrave]

never had assigned seats, just the 6 o'clock coat dash to the student section, and you just kinda threw you jackets, and coats over as many seats as you could. While a second and third member of your party did the equally important task - gathering nachos and beer.