Sellout?

[shaunguth]

how many sell-outs have we had this year?

Doesn't matter. How many people would rather stay home and watch the Bears on television?

[flipper]

Doesn't matter. How many people would rather stay home and watch the Bears on television?

just askin.didn't we sell out isu? football season is over.

[GoBirds]

You guys are correct ISU should draw more. For the Bradley and Drake game had unbelievable student sections and for some reason those have gone away. Also like many have said about Bradley the marketing department at ISU appears to be missing the basics when it comes to ticket sales. For instance ISU has been doing a Redbird Ambassador program all year which is a great idea. It brings some old crowd favorites back, but they never promote who is going to be back. So people dont even know who its gonna be from game to game. Im sure if people knew certain people were gonna be there to see it would help drag a few more out. Owell but like been said above being succesful year in year out helps.

[AZ BU Fan]

One thing I have always wondered about is the apparent lack of widespread suppport for BU MBB from the African American population in the Peoria area. Given the large interest in high school basketball in Peoria area with the African American population, I would have thought their support and numbers at BU games, particularly with the local BB talent BU has had, would be much higher than it appeared to me when I was still able to attend games.

IMHO this is an untapped resource of fan support for BU Mens BB.

[Buesch N Chips]

just askin.didn't we sell out isu? football season is over.

It was close, but there were a lot of no shows. I know at halftime they came up to my section and took all of the shirts still on the backs of chairs.

[BradleyDU4]

Not saying we should ever be this desperate, but ISU is offering $3 tix for senior night. Though wedont market well, I'd prefer being mediocre marketing than begging fans to come see us (cough ISU).

[Da Coach]

There is a difference- Bradley doesn't own the Civic Center, and the Redbirds do own their own arena. ISU can afford to let people in free if they want just to boost attendance numbers, and some schools do that..
I am not sure how it works, but I think Bradley pays a fee to the Civic Center for each paid admission. I don't know what the split is, but they cannot reduce the ticket price too much, or they end up losing money.

[houstontxbrave]

It probably is, but IMO it has as much to do with the odd times and days for the games than anything. We have never had so many afternoon games, and Sunday games as we have had this year. And the abundance of Wednesday night games always hurts the attendance, too (church activities for many).

BU games for the most part have always been Wed/Sat. When this program had records other then 14-13, the day of the week was irrelavant. People will go and support a winning program.

BU also has had afternoon games in the past. Infact there was a time that BU played on Super Bowl Sunday.

Point is if your team is good and wins and does not blow big home leads the casual fan will show up and support regardless of day of the week or starting time. And I bet that diehard you speak of would be more inclined to forget about those church activites if the above had not occured this season.

But when your very average and have blown to many home games, it isnt hard for people to find something else to do.

[dogsrus]

I think this is one of the biggest reasons for a little dropoff of attendance.
I know several families who always buy tickets before the season and go to a bunch of selected games per year. Because of the economy, the lack of Saturday night games, and the abundance of Wednesday night games (church activities for many people) they held off buying tickets, and have bought for just a couple games as the year went along. Since the BracketBuster game was an unknown opponent, it may have suffered more than the conference games. I think we'll have 10,000.

While the economy certainly CAN affect attendance blowing all those games at home has hurt us worse then anything. People will come in tough times for a REAL good product.

Cat was reeling back in the early/mid 80's and THOSE teams were good enough to draw people inin SPITE of tough economic times.

IF this team was competing for a top 3 spot we'd be getting those 2k fans we are down this year.....

[dogsrus]

I am not arguing your numbers or trying to start something here, but....

Tickets sold and tickets used are two different things. I understand BU only cares about the # sold, but the actual attendance at games SEEMS down to me this year.

PLEASE PLEASE don't get me started on this....too late.

The rears in the seat are ALL THAT matter. Its the PULSE of the program. Selling tickets means places like Cat and other busineses have bought seats but when they go unused it shows that the excitment just isn't there.

More often then not these corporations GIVE these tickets away so the economy excuse is lame, at least to a certain degree.

I mean FREEBIES and people won't come.

To keep spouting these USELES numbers of tickets sold that ONLY help the bean counters is like burying your head in the sand.

Anyone (even Ray Charles) can actually go to a game and SEE first hand it just is not the same as past years...and is often quite lame.

Its sad.

Attendance is down...PERIOD.

Reasons...

Economy...a little....not a real great product...ALOT. Other factors include not enough Sat. Nite games and too many (ONE is TOO mnay) of those gosh awful SUNDAY games.

GIVE EM UP BU...THEY ARE A WASTE.

[dogsrus]

Which doesn't exactly coincide with the "tough economic times" reasoning. Why would 2-3,000 people buy tickets for something and not show up in these tough times?

Corporations.....and they can't GIVE em away. That says alot.

[dogsrus]

BU games for the most part have always been Wed/Sat. When this program had records other then 14-13, the day of the week was irrelavant. People will go and support a winning program.

BU also has had afternoon games in the past. Infact there was a time that BU played on Super Bowl Sunday.

Point is if your team is good and wins and does not blow big home leads the casual fan will show up and support regardless of day of the week or starting time. And I bet that diehard you speak of would be more inclined to forget about those church activites if the above had not occured this season.

But when your very average and have blown to many home games, it isnt hard for people to find something else to do.

Winner winner Chicken dinner....

[cpacmel]

Despite the disappointing record, and the economical issues, Bradley is still drawing well by comparison to the other teams in the MVC, and nationally. The majority of college teams have seen a decline in attendance.

According to the MVC, Bradley's average attendance for all home games is 9,349.
Bradley's average of 9,349 ranks third behind Creighton, and Wichita State, as it does every year. BU is still more than 2000 per game ahead of the 4th ranked team in attendance (MSU).

Bradley's average home attendance last year was 9,110, so they are on pace to exceed last year's average.

School...............2009-10....2008-09....Diff.
Northern Iowa......5,511........4,212....+1,299
Indiana State.......4,392........4,009....+383
Wichita State......10,398......10,094....+304
Bradley................9,349........9,110....+239
Missouri State.......7,265........7,147....+118
Creighton........... 15,934......15,930....+4
Illinois State.........6,532........7,118....-586
Drake..................4,406........5,101....-695
Evansville............4,840........5,863....-1,023
Southern Illinois....4,774........5,892....-1,118

This years stats-scroll down about 1/2 way to see attendance numbers-
http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/CONFLDRS.HTM

This is no offense to you DaCoach, because all you are doing is reporting the #'s that are out there. But these #'s are skewed by the way each school reports their attendance.

Illinois State has 3, 754 season tickets that have been purchased by ISU students. Unless those students actually show up to the game they aren't counted towards ISU's attendance.

Now we know at other schools they report tickets sold.

On average, I would say there is probably 1-1,500 students that actually show up to most ISU games.(more for the Bradley game, and much less for break games, maybe 200 for break games).

So on average, we are missing out on somewhere around 2-2,700 fans in our attendance per game because of the way we report our #'s.

If Illinois State went with tickets purchased, like Bradley and others do, our attendance just based on student season tickets purchased would be somewhere between 8,500 and 9,200 (estimated)

[it's boogie time]

The 2008-09 season was a good attendance year for BU before the CIT tournament. Bradley topped the rare 10,000 mark for the regular season (10,019).

For the nine Valley games last year, attendance average was 10,440.
This year for the eight Valley games, attendance average is 9,663 from my quick calculations. Please let me know if my numbers are off. I didn't double check them.

Credit: Last year's attendance #'s come courtesy of Shaunguth's post from March 2, 2009.

[bake]

I'M with DC

I will not be in attendance, the first BU home game I have missed in years. While I am not impressed with the team performance this year, I am a BU fan period. I have friends all around the country who poke fun at the Braves and the Valley and I remind them that I see, 15 Division 1 games each year in person before tournament time. That usually quites them down.

I have got 3 calls today from friends looking for some tickets. That is a good sign. maybe we will have 10K plus!