KW Article: To Live, BU Spirit Must Get Younger

[amettrick]

Seems like everything in KW's column is stuff that has been discussed here many times. Nothing new, except he seems to suggest that moving to the Civic Center and changing the student seats are the only reason the student attendance fell off so much.

As I have said here before, I don't agree with that logic, and I think it is much deeper that just that. Even when games have been played on campus, there are few students at them. College students just have so many more things to entertain them these days than they did a few decades ago when a basketball game was a big deal on campus, and fewer of them are interested in college sports than they were decades ago. Most students today do not care about basketball. Bradley used to be 70% male, and now is a majority female. It is difficult, if not impossible, to interest most of today's kids in basketball. Plus, there are always video games, DVD movies, hundreds of TV channels, games and infinite entertainment options online via computer, as well as the usual entertainment options like local clubs to occupy their time and interests.
Winning consistently might bring back some of the students, but we'll never see 2,000 like Kirk reminisces about.

I disagree DC. All the reasons you state have nothing to do with stopping kids from going to basketball games. There are a number of mid-major schools who have tremendous student support. You don't think those students have access to DVDs, video games, etc? Thats just silly.

It is entirely possible to build strong student interest. Winning obviously is a key factor, but its not the only one. 2000 students is not unattainable.

[bu fan 9]

No way we ever get 2000 students at every home game again!

[real fan]

BU gets great student attendance when they play ISU , you cannot give them big donor seats because the revenue is way too important for the program, the students seats have nothing to do with why they do not attend as witnessed by their turn out on campus for the red-white and exb. games, this topic has been discussed many times before with the same results, if Bradley starts winning championships you will get more students to attend; but it will never be like it was before because things just change.

[theBUer]

Just win, and everything else will take care of itself.

[Dallas Brave]

Based on earlier threads on student attendance, it seems like the biggest problem is lack of promotion on campus to get students to the game. Being a basketball fan and enjoying the game is one thing, but for most students you need to make it a social event that they do not want to miss regardless of who BU is playing.

[runninfiend]

Has anyone ever led a concerted effort to get the student section to at least be along the court rather than on the end?

I posted this before. The student section needs to be center court lower bowl, fossilized rich boosters be danged.

[Braves4Life]

In today's world I believe that it is important for the head coach to connect with both the students and the alumni. Coach K connects with Duke's student population; he will "call them out" when they don't do their job as a 6th man. Roy Williams, Bruce Pearl, Tom Izzo all connect with the student population; they are revered and make it a point to get their students involved. Sure, winning helps. But I think it is equally important that a coach capitalizes on his popularity with the students.

Jim Les did a great job in connecting with alumni and major "power players" and donors in the community. That is one of the reasons that their is such loyalty to BU and that is why we have always had great attendance. However, I'm not sure he did as good of a job "connecting" with BU students as his predecessors.

[abesimpson]

I think KW missed a point about the demographic change of the students from then to now. Back in the 1940s and 1950s, most college students were men, many coming back from WW2 or Korea. Now, BU's student population is slightly more than half female. Simply, men are more interested in basketball (and sports in general) than women, so that is one part of the student decline.

Also now, BU has a larger amount of foreign-born students, who also don't really follow sports.

And the Greek population is larger, and they won't go to games if there is a conflict with a chapter meeting, or formal, or some other Greek event.

I think the important factors/ideas for getting more students fans are:
-Winning
-Better home opponents
-Better seats for students
-More promotion on-campus (and especially to incoming freshmen)
-Working with the Greeks, student senate, ARH, and other student organizations to get support and turnout
-Pregame parties (when I was at BU, Babe's downtown had pregame parties until it closed, then Big Al's picked it up for a season, but dropped them. I don't know if any bars are doing them now. I remember them always being somewhat crowded, so it seemed like a good idea.)
-Viewing parties for away games

Red Pride started when I was still a student, and I thought it was a great program. I noticed an increase at all the games because of it. Not sure if it is still being promoted though. On the bubraves website, it looks like it hasn't been updated for a while.

But overall, KW is right, BU needs to focus on getting more student interest. But they need to realize incoming students may not be interested at first and they need to work on "creating" fans when they arrive on campus. They can't just expect all incoming students to be big sports fans and find their way to the games.

[amettrick]

Jim Les did a great job in connecting with alumni and major "power players" and donors in the community. That is one of the reasons that their is such loyalty to BU and that is why we have always had great attendance. However, I'm not sure he did as good of a job "connecting" with BU students as his predecessors.

JL's "connection" with the students was nonexistent. In my 5 years at Bradley, not once did he make himself visible on campus. In fact, if not for the fact that I covered the team for the Scout for a year, I would have never had a single encounter with the man.

Forming some kind of connection with the students is part of the job as a college coach, and its part of the job JL completely ignored/disregarded. I only hope whoever the new coach is doesn't do the same.

[amckillip]

JL's "connection" with the students was nonexistent. In my 5 years at Bradley, not once did he make himself visible on campus. In fact, if not for the fact that I covered the team for the Scout for a year, I would have never had a single encounter with the man.

Forming some kind of connection with the students is part of the job as a college coach, and its part of the job JL completely ignored/disregarded. I only hope whoever the new coach is doesn't do the same.

How is this humanly possible? I regularly chatted with JL when I'd see him at events. I'd sneak in question about a recruit and I'd often get a non-answer or smirk that told me what I wanted to know while maintaining deniability. Could JL have done some more? Sure, but if you didn't talk to JL when he was here you absolutely made no effort whatsoever, especially if someone was a writer for the Scout.

[Bravesfan]

Seems like everything in KW's column is stuff that has been discussed here many times. Nothing new, except he seems to suggest that moving to the Civic Center and changing the student seats are the only reason the student attendance fell off so much.

As I have said here before, I don't agree with that logic, and I think it is much deeper that just that. Even when games have been played on campus, there are few students at them. College students just have so many more things to entertain them these days than they did a few decades ago when a basketball game was a big deal on campus, and fewer of them are interested in college sports than they were decades ago. Most students today do not care about basketball. Bradley used to be 70% male, and now is a majority female. It is difficult, if not impossible, to interest most of today's kids in basketball. Plus, there are always video games, DVD movies, hundreds of TV channels, games and infinite entertainment options online via computer, as well as the usual entertainment options like local clubs to occupy their time and interests.
Winning consistently might bring back some of the students, but we'll never see 2,000 like Kirk reminisces about.

While I agree with you in general, this is not the case at places like Duke, Michigan St, and Wichita St. The fans at these places live, breathe and absorb basketball. And while I agree that maybe some students in these places have other interests at times, these are places where you can ask anyone how difficult it is to secure a ticket to a game, especially at Duke.

Now it most certainly helps that these teams are fielding contending teams in most years, but students at these programs do place basketball at a much higher priority than most teams' fans in general.

The part about KW's article that did stick out to me (even if it has been mentioned before) is spreading the student section around the perimeter of the stadium, just like at Duke and Michigan St. It may not automatically bring students back in droves, but at the very least it will spread the noise around the arena and bring the students much closer to the team. And it would look good on tv as well. If the lack of students is a problem, all they have to do is reserve the first few rows for the students until, or if and when more students come back.

And if people behind them complain that they are blocking the view, well, there is plenty of room for them to move up a couple of rows!

[amckillip]

While I agree with you in general, this is not the case at places like Duke, Michigan St, and Wichita St. The fans at these places live, breathe and absorb basketball. And while I agree that maybe some students in these places have other interests at times, these are places where you can ask anyone how difficult it is to secure a ticket to a game, especially at Duke.

Now it most certainly helps that these teams are fielding contending teams in most years, but students at these programs do place basketball at a much higher priority than most teams' fans in general.

The part about KW's article that did stick out to me (even if it has been mentioned before) is spreading the student section around the perimeter of the stadium, just like at Duke and Michigan St. It may not automatically bring students back in droves, but at the very least it will spread the noise around the arena and bring the students much closer to the team. And it would look good on tv as well. If the lack of students is a problem, all they have to do is reserve the first few rows for the students until, or if and when more students come back.

And if people behind them complain that they are blocking the view, well, there is plenty of room for them to move up a couple of rows!

Agreed. Start with the rows just behind the visitors bench. As we get more students start to move down the line...

[FlyingSpaghettiMonster]

Cant happen because the big time donors will not give up there seats for the students.

*Their http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

I don't know how true this statement is, but another Civic Center remodel is likely required for improved student seats of that quality.

[buballer82]

I think that winning helps the student section but at the same time, the student section helps winning. Will a winning team attract more student attendance? Definitely, but will a strong student section help promote a winning atmosphere that helps the team? Definitely. Kind of a catch 22.

Even if the student demographic at Bradley is majority female, I can go to just about any local high school basketball game and find plenty of females standing in each respective schools student section. Girls are interested in being with their schoolmates and friends but someone needs to get everyone on the same page. The local high schools have pep rally's that feature the team to get the students hyped up for the games. I agree with others that if there were more student promotions through the different on campus groups, including pep rallys etc, more students would show.

I dont think the seating matters, I remember the Molinarmy doing fairly well in the current location. I do thinking charging $1 to get in is silly. Why not let the students in for free and even maybe have a raffle for all students in attendance for gift cards etc? Couldn't hurt.

[tornado]

Hmm...let's see...in case you don't subscribe and in case they start charging for the online content...
I will try to summarize everything in that column as well as everything in the last 20 columns combined...

-we need more students to buy tickets and come
-we need more people to buy tickets and come
-we need a different coach, and it is important who is the guy that gets picked
-we need more wins, less losses, and fewer injuries
-we have some great players
-and in the JL tenure we haven't finished higher than 4th and have a sub-.500 record in Valley play