Post season event?

[Jim]

"But more baffling to me, if the women's program can honor their team and fans by hosting a post-season event like this, I cannot understand why the men's team, and their thousands of fans don't deserve a similar post-season event?"

Who at Bradley would be the appropriate person/people for us to contact to ask this question?

[tornado]

"But more baffling to me, if the women's program can honor their team and fans by hosting a post-season event like this, I cannot understand why the men's team, and their thousands of fans don't deserve a similar post-season event?"

Who at Bradley would be the appropriate person/people for us to contact to ask this question?

Jim- I was just showing da coach - that SIUE held their post-season banquet Saturday night...
they actually kinda billed it as an all-sports Athletic Banquet and tickets were fairly expensive so they'd raise some money for the sports programs.

And this event was not really that broadly publicized - here's their Athletic website and see if you can even find a reference to it! - LINK

The reference is in there and the tickets were $150 each or $1500 for a full table but it was a sellout

Remember - this is SIUE - they barely get any press coverage - worse even than what we get...
but there was a writeup after their banquet in 2017 - over 300 people were at that one and the picture below looks like maybe they did better this year. In 2017 they raised almost $150K
...just sayin' - maybe it would cut into recruiting to apportion some time for such a banquet - but I'd say give Ken Goldin a call -
remember what he did? He got over 1,200 people at a hastily arranged banquet back in 2015 - https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...nd-new-coaches

[Da Coach]

Who at Bradley would be the appropriate person/people for us to contact to ask this question?

I don't know. But the best way for a message to get to whoever might respond or act on it would be to send to Chris Braun, the men's basketball administrative assistant-
https://bradleybraves.com/coaches.as...69&path=mbball

[Mikovio]

Ask Wardle at the radio coach's show. Maybe the players didn't want it or couldn't all make it or the assistants/staff all couldn't find a date that works with their recruiting schedules.

[Da Coach]

I can't believe the players wouldn't want it, but maybe. But since when do the players run the program? There are probably a lot of things the players don't want, but the coaches and administrators make the decisions of what is best for the program. And so far, they are doing a great job.
Bradley just had their most successful season in the last 12 years, and they would benefit greatly from things like this to generate enthusiasm and boost season tickets sales, which just started. Note that despite the improvement in the program, ticket sales have not increased in the last 5 years. In fact they continue to drop. Average attendance for 2018-19 was down 5% from 2017-18, and season ticket sales are dropping.

I can believe that the excuse that the coaches had recruiting trips planned. They definitely do. But recruiting drops way off after April and the months of May and June are almost entirely recruiting "quiet periods" or "dead periods"-
https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/eli...ngCalendar.pdf

Numerous other programs hold postseason events for their fans. Such an event could still be set up and happen at Bradley.
Bradley always had preseason and postseason banquets from the 1980's through the Ken Kavanagh years as AD. They were well attended and were loved by fans. And they functioned as fundraisers, since the fans paid to attend. I recall banquets held at the Pere Marquette for many years, at the Par-A-Dice, and on the Bradley campus at the Michel Student Center Ballroom and in the Renaissance Coliseum.
Another possibility is that it could have been combined with the women's team event, and IMO would have benefitted and boosted interest for both programs.

[Jim]

"I don't know. But the best way for a message to get to whoever might respond or act on it would be to send to Chris Braun, the men's basketball administrative assistant-
https://bradleybraves.com/coaches.as...69&path=mbball"

I sent an email to Chris. I hope she will get the message to the people that can help.

[Da Coach]

Thank you Jim. I have heard from a couple others who plan to send an email. I would like everyone who can to email a note and ask Bradley to consider an awards banquet for the team and fans this season. As I said, it is not too late to put it together, and fans are passionate about the progress this team made, and the contributions of the players and coaches. Please consider taking a few minutes to send an email. The people at Bradley are very much interested to hear from fans, and are very responsive to these kinds of suggestions.
The email address for the basketball program's administrative assistant is in this link-

https://bradleybraves.com/coaches.aspx?rc=2069&path=mbball