Geno Ford Show Questions

[Chico]

As much money I gave the basketball program I better be more than a cheerleader.

Can't argue with that.

[lefty]

As much money I gave the basketball program I better be more than a cheerleader.

So what should you be?

[tornado]

there are cheerleaders, but then there are also some who are avid supporters and "live & breathe" diehard fans...
also some are just viewers & observers and those who want to be entertained but never give a cent and aren't offended much by a loss -

...but most will ultimately get disinterested with poor play -- do you not agree that's what we are currently seeing. Just talked once again @ church this morning to a family who have been 25-yr season tix holders that said this will be their last year... but even more, they feel the poor play is being re-packaged and sold to them as good play

[lefty]

there are cheerleaders, but then there are also some who are avid supporters and "live & breathe" diehard fans...
also some are just viewers & observers and those who want to be entertained but never give a cent and aren't offended much by a loss -

...but most will ultimately get disinterested with poor play -- do you not agree that's what we are currently seeing. Just talked once again @ church this morning to a family who have been 25-yr season tix holders that said this will be their last year... but even more, they feel the poor play is being re-packaged and sold to them as good play

I guess it's the circles we run with??¦..I've never heard anyone talking about the repackaging of poor play being passed as good play??¦..other than here??¦

plenty of other things on why they aren't renewing??¦.poor play being one of them,going south for the winter, other priorities, administration, etc

[tornado]

I guess it's the circles we run with??¦....

could be ...........but the season ticket base was around 7,500 just two years ago - now it's dropped by almost 40% -
so about 1 in every 3 season ticket holders you knew two years ago HAVE not RENEWED - making it a bit hard to believe you never seem to encounter any such fans...
Finding one should be easy and I suspect many will tell you why they are no longer coming....and to imply that enormous number all simply retired at once and moved to Florida is also a bit hard to believe

[lefty]

could be ...........but the season ticket base was around 7,500 just two years ago - now it's dropped by almost 40% -
so about 1 in every 3 season ticket holders you knew two years ago HAVE not RENEWED - making it a bit hard to believe you never seem to encounter any such fans...
Finding one should be easy and I suspect many will tell you why they are no longer coming....and to imply that enormous number all simply retired at once and moved to Florida is also a bit hard to believe

I don't know the numbers. Just saying I've never heard they quit renewing because they felt the team was repackaged and sold to them as playing good.
I've only heard that here

[Chico]

could be ...........but the season ticket base was around 7,500 just two years ago - now it's dropped by almost 40% -
so about 1 in every 3 season ticket holders you knew two years ago HAVE not RENEWED - making it a bit hard to believe you never seem to encounter any such fans...
Finding one should be easy and I suspect many will tell you why they are no longer coming....and to imply that enormous number all simply retired at once and moved to Florida is also a bit hard to believe

Yeah, this is the first year people went South or to Arizona for the Winter.

[lefty]

Yeah, this is the first year people went South or to Arizona for the Winter.

who said they went all at once or this is the first year?

[Chico]

who said they went all at once or this is the first year?

Just can't be used as an excuse for the drop in attendance. As one who is in Arizona for most of the season I can say if I wasn't lucky enough to be able to be here I wouldn't miss a game. Good or bad, lot of people don't realize how much they would miss watching the Braves once they leave for the season. Find it hard to believe so many jump ship. Lucky to have the loyal fans like you.

[bradleyfan124]

I will still go to all the games but the point here is alot of ticket holders are givng up their seats because of the situation at Bradley. Alot of the past activites that Bradley used to have are now being killed by the Adminsitration. Itoo hall, Call in radio show, gouging the ticket holders for more money, etc. All this plus they are not having a good season when everyone expected one

[Tulsa Brave]

Jim Les fallout is happening all across America. "About one out of every five Division I men??™s basketball programs have seen their average regular-season attendance fall by 20 percent or more over the past four seasons, a Chronicle analysis has found." http://chronicle.com/blogs/players/b...programs/29814

The fallout from the Les firing has been very evident down here in Oklahoma, with OU number 7 on the list above, and Oklahoma State seeing a steep dropoff over the past couple seasons since this came out. Tulsa's fallout started earlier, as after years of sellout crowds early in the 2000's, attendance now is less than 50% of capacity.

The BU administration had no idea the fallout would be so widespread, so it's hard to fault them.

[LongTimeFan]

I don't know who is right or who is wrong in this discussion. However, you can tell interest in Bradley Basketball is still strong in some quarters.

I only got back for four games but talked to a few fans around me. I only met one who said he had enough. However, it is very discouraging to note he had held up to 8 tickets for over 30 years. I have to be honest and say he was even older than I am and may not feel like making an effort to get to the games.

What has been most discouraging to me is the performance of recent recruits. Ford will need to have a better success ratio to continue as a basketball coach at Bradley. Whether it is right or not, Ford will be Bradley's basketball coach for two more years. He deserves his chance to right the ship and besides his contract is too big to buy out.

[tornado]

... "About one out of every five Division I men’s basketball programs have seen their average regular-season attendance fall by 20 percent....

really - so college basketball (just like every other sport and maybe every other endeavor)...
has a group that might be called the worst 20% - not just "mediocrity" - not just 4th place...but bottom 20% and battling every year for last place...?

the teams who have done poorly, lost LOTS of games, dropped way below their historical standards - teams who schedule poorly then get blown out by IUPUI, and who put terrible talent on the floor - such that their attendance slides and fans feel they just won't pay for tickets to see worse than mediocrity...........and slides to historically low levels - losing as much as 20%, 30% and even 40% of their fan base over a very short time...
and many of them fire gobs of personnel, spend tens of millions bringing in new people from outside who claim they know best how to run all the programs, and who dramatically revamp everything. Then just as they promise, assure, and guarantee they'll be lots better and win championships - they find themselves right back again battling for last
Wow - I sure hope Bradley never falls into that really terrible worst 20%

[lefty]

I don't know who is right or who is wrong in this discussion. However, you can tell interest in Bradley Basketball is still strong in some quarters.

I only got back for four games but talked to a few fans around me. I only met one who said he had enough. However, it is very discouraging to note he had held up to 8 tickets for over 30 years. I have to be honest and say he was even older than I am and may not feel like making an effort to get to the games.

What has been most discouraging to me is the performance of recent recruits. Ford will need to have a better success ratio to continue as a basketball coach at Bradley. Whether it is right or not, Ford will be Bradley's basketball coach for two more years. He deserves his chance to right the ship and besides his contract is too big to buy out.

I agree with pretty much everything??¦..it's really not about who's right anyway ??¦.the attendance base is and has been older for a very long time and younger people don't seem to be that interested and certainly some of that has to do with winning. My son who played in HS and college could care less about going and its not because of the program??¦he's got other things to do. I had 8 tickets for several years and I gave up 4 of them 6 or 7 years ago??¦.I don't think the timing was right for the "luxury seat" increase at all and I agree some of the past pre-season events sure wouldn't hurt ticket sales and interest. Since we haven't been attracting a younger base eventually older people quit, or can't go any longer.
I agree with what Tulsa says too??¦.other than a few schools you see empty seats in the lower bowl of two ranked teams fairly often on TV??¦.

I know I'm in the minority here but even if we were winning championships I don't believe we are going to see 10-11k at a Bradley game on a consistent basis any time soon if ever

[lefty]

Just can't be used as an excuse for the drop in attendance. As one who is in Arizona for most of the season I can say if I wasn't lucky enough to be able to be here I wouldn't miss a game. Good or bad, lot of people don't realize how much they would miss watching the Braves once they leave for the season. Find it hard to believe so many jump ship. Lucky to have the loyal fans like you.

To answer you Chico??¦I'm not saying it's the only reason??¦just a part. I run into a lot of folks over the last several years that have not renewed because of going to a warmer climate during the winter and I just don't think they get replaced