Valley Media Day: BU Picked 5th

[shaunguth]

People are less likely to come if they feel like they've already seen the movie. I think a bit of the staleness of the experience, for me anyway, was addressed by a new staff, and to a certain extent a new scoreboard.

Then give the tickets to someone who is interested. If that proves to be impossible, then give them to a local radio station to give away. As I said before, the lack of rears in paid-for seats says more to me about those people than it does about Bradley basketball.

[Da Coach]

Then give the tickets to someone who is interested. If that proves to be impossible, then give them to a local radio station to give away. As I said before, the lack of rears in paid-for seats says more to me about those people than it does about Bradley basketball.

I agree. Bradley is the 11th best midmajor over the past 6 years. Can't get much better than that!

[tornado]

I agree. Bradley is the 11th best midmajor over the past 6 years. Can't get much better than that!

Had that web site culled data only from 2005-2006 though 2008-2009, then I strongly suspect Bradley would have been higher in those rankings..maybe Top 5!

[dogsrus]

The one thing I agree with you is that "it is what it is".
Somehow you rationalize the huge donations in the past couple years by saying it's because there were building projects, and you rationalize the huge donations last Friday night by saying there were "great opportunities". I guess these examples had nothing to do with the fact that fan support for Bradley is still very high, not dwindling like you believe.
BTW, I can play the rationalizing game, too...the increase in no-shows is because more home games are on TV, and parking spots close to the arena are scarcer.
Again, the things that matter when it comes to support is how money is coming in (all-time record highs), and paid attendance and season ticket sales (not dropping despite your impressions of dwindling fan support).
Why can't detractors see how they rationalize things so they can justify their negative sentiments toward BU?

Because we go to the games and see that the reported 8900 is closer to 7500.... So it tells you 1000 or more BOUGHT tickets (so its not economic) but don't bother to show up. Hmmmmm.......

And when it comes to donations......ONE person can give a Million dollars while 100,000 could give ONE dollar. So did the year donations were up by 900K show there was more interest in the program.....NO.

You act like we are happy the Arena is like a morgue....we are not. We both can see the atmosphere totally different at Carver...just like going to the same movie but you liked it...I didn't. Thats fine. I'm not trying to convince anyone that something isn't "right" but the way I see it, compared to the 25 years I've been going, I see a terrible trend that YES is SOME economic but moreso, IMO, the result of less than stellar performances ON the court.

I hope BU contends this year...goes undeafeated at home and you have fight for tickets. I hope the atmosphere is circa 85-6-7......I know when the ball goes up I will be there as loud as posible to help. I just need more then 7000-7500 others to really make it special.

[dogsrus]

Mediocre results in the recent past have driven mediorce fans.

Nail meet hammer......

[dogsrus]

I believe we were picked 5th because we have not shown any consistency in the paint and our head coach has not earned the respect of the league voters because we have not finished top 3 since he has been here, this would be a good time to change all of that and just win, winning every game at home would be another reason why our crowds would get larger and louder, winning cures pretty much everything.

Well said.....

[dogsrus]

I watch every game on the internet so obviously I do not see the games in person, but I did go to the Drexel game last year.

Bradley quoted the attendance at 9390. There is no way in the world there were 9390 at that game. I walked in the Civic Center and was given 2 tickets. There were huge blocks of seats everywhere empty. And there was little energy within the arena. The game was on a Saturday night and guessing there likely were about 7K actually in the arena.

Again, I do not see every game in person but when they pan the crowds with the cameras at the home games, most games last season looked exactly like the Drexel game. Yes there were exceptions.

Tickets sold is completely different then rears in seats.

I wish you were wrong Houston but you aren't.......

BU has some of the greatest and most loyal fans anywhere. I'm proud to be one of em but like someone said...mediocre results can turn many into mediocre fans that only winning and defending home court will solve.

Lets go do it this year.....

[dogsrus]

And the fact we have more butts-in-seats than everyone in the league except CU and WSU says something.

I sure does but shouldn't we judge ourselves against ourselves? I'm not saying "I don't care about what others are doing' but BU can and should do better.

Winning will do it. Some programs even winning won't help. It will at BU. We can get back to the days of TRUE sellouts aka..."rears in the seats"

[dogsrus]

You're equating season tickets with total butts in the seats. Not true. People who can afford season tickets are, by-in-large, not going to be effected by a downturn, but the regular joe's are, that is who largely didn't show up last year. At minimum it's $60 to take a family to see a game, when they could stay at home and watch it on TV or do something else. I'm lucky now that I can do stuff like that, but growing up I can tell you my family would not have been taking to many trips to do activites that would have cost us $60 for 2 hours of entertainment, especially in this economy (seeing as my father had to take a 50% pay-cut in his new job, after, not one, but two companies went under, and his current one is shutting down midwest operations).

I agree with some of what you said. The economy has certainly hurt BU. But I disagree with your rears vs reported argument IF I am "hearing" you correctly.

IF BU reports 9000 tickets sold and 7000 show up those 2000 that stayed away are not those that choose not to afford the price to go. The 2000 are tickets ALLREADY sold and for SOME reason they chose not to go.

I know of one company that buys setas for employees to use. I never grabbed them becuase I allready have seats so I leave them for others to enjoy.

Multiple times I was approached late in the day with the offer to take the tics cause no one else wanted them.....thats NOT and economic issue.

[dogsrus]

Then give the tickets to someone who is interested. If that proves to be impossible, then give them to a local radio station to give away. As I said before, the lack of rears in paid-for seats says more to me about those people than it does about Bradley basketball.

I dunno shaun....gotta disagree with ya on this one. Were you around for the Hawk years.....Les......perhaps the AP years. THe end zones were full....not 3-4000 open seats like recently.

IF the product is good...they will come. And the TV was better then too...not the cr@p you see now. No offense to Snookie or the situation. (puking as I speak)

[Braves4Life]

I think you guys are seriously underestimating the impact that social media, video games, blackberry's, iphones, ipods, and the new and never-ending soap operas known as reality TV are having on people's lives.

This would be a great topic for some Bradley student to do a report on, IMO. Because, like dogs or someone said, many of the people who do go to the games spend much of their time on their phones or socializing instead of watching the games. We've seen what this faster, technology-driven world of ours has done to the former American pastime -- baseball. I think it is highly likely we're seeing the same effect on those who come out to watch sporting events.

Now, throw in the fact that many people are so highly leveraged in debt paying for all these new toys, etc. and you have a recipe for declining attendance. I won't dispute that winning big and creating excitement helps, but I think the above factors are playing a role as well.

[Da Coach]

Sorry, but it is not that simple. I have listed the many reasons why about 80-90% of all schools have seen declining attendance. You can pretend for your own purposes that it is all because Bradley is just bad, but that is simply not true. If it were, then eventually the season ticket sales would drop, and the paid attendance and donations would drop, too. But those things haven't happened. Bradley is actually doing better than the great majority of schools.
Some schools have just accepted that their attendance may never be what it was a decade or two ago, and others have moved into smaller arenas. I do agree that if Bradley wins more, their attendance will go up a little, but other than ISU or a marquee opponent, it will be difficult to see sellouts like we used to see.

[shaunguth]

I dunno shaun....gotta disagree with ya on this one. Were you around for the Hawk years.....Les......perhaps the AP years. THe end zones were full....not 3-4 open sats like recently.

IF the product is good...they will come. And the TV was bette then too...not the cr@p you see now. No offense to Snookie or the situation. (puking as I speak)

So.....NOBODY wants those tickets or the people that purchased those tickets are too lazy to find someone to give them to?

I'm just saying.....if I was unable to use tickets that I already purchased, I would find someone/somewhere to take them.

[cpacmel]

Either way, I've gone to many games at both places (though a lot more BU), and outside the BU-ILSU game, the best ILSU games don't come close to BU's average game, despite being 3 times the size and having TONS more alum and finishing higher the last 3 years. Suffice it to say that BU is ahead of ILSU, and pretty much everyone except CU and WSU, despite any discrepancy in reporting means.

Ahh the good old "eye test" eh amckillip?

And you would NEVER look at things with even a slight Bradley Bias, right?

[tornado]

Hey -- I can be happy that we get 7 pages+ just on the topic of where BU was picked..
a few MVC teams don't even have more than one or two fans who even seem to care!