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Seems like in the past there were more high school groups, grade school groups in the upper bowl at games. Do they make any kind of effort to get more people to the games?? With all the problems with people getting ahold of the ticket office the answer is no! Who’s fault is that? Seems like Chris Reynolds. The attendance is embarrassing, you can keep blaming Glasser but it shouldn’t take this long to get fans back in the stands! I get Covid had something to do with it but if u turn on the Illinois game the games are sold out. Id be interested in the deal with the civic center too. I don’t know why it has to be a secret and sent as dm
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Three points on this topic:
1. Attendance decline is a systemic issue among mid major conferences. It's happening everywhere. And success does not mean greater attendance with these programs. Look at Loyola. Many games, they barely fill half of a 5,000 seat arena.
This is a few years old (2018 ), but a good snapshot of what is going on. The departure of WSU and Creighton has hurt the MVC - both in losing programs that fill their arenas and draw strong crowds at away games. Next year, Belmont will replace Loyola as far as % of seats filled (a wash). Murray will help the MVC, UIC will hurt the conference.
Full article is here: https://athleticdirectoru.com/articl...bb-attendance/
2. Bring back the mobile season ticket option. It provided a lot of flexibility for families who can't make games because of their kids' activities or 8 p.m. starting times (which I know are rare). This was a great offering...please make it happen again for 2022-23. That went away with the pandemic.
3. Bradley does not have a football program, so they should be able to focus their marketing efforts on getting basketball fans to Carver. Do more promotions with companies in and around Peoria (CAT, RLI, OSF, Unitypoint, Pekin Insurance, etc.). Provide discounted tickets to these companies for every home game and give out free red Bradley tshirts for their employees to wear to the game. Partner with the local arts community to do indoor art fairs after weekend afternoon games. Create a package with the Riverfront Museum where you get museum admission and a game ticket all in one (plus free parking if you don't mind walking 3 blocks). Collaborate with the Peoria Home Builders to do a package for the Home Show and going to the Valpo game that Saturday. Have two local high schools play a quick game during halftime (which gets high school kids and their families to attend). Provide family 4-packs with food included for a single game price (not just season tickets). Just some potential ideas.
Bottom line: the marketing for basketball has to improve.Comment
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That's really interesting, so thanks for posting BradleyBiz. Losing Creighton and Wichita State was certainly a huge hit to our overall attendance. I wonder what the capacity was then and now, as well? Either way, when we continually lose our most competitive teams it isn't going to help us in the attendance stat, and the power conferences just keep poaching until there's nothing left.
I still think the day is coming when the mid-majors create their own league, but that's probably just wishful thinking.Larry Bird
I've got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.Comment
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BradleyBiz, or anyone else, what is this is referring to?Originally posted by BradleyBiz View Post
I have had season tickets for 44 years and I never heard of this until Bradley teamed up with Ticketmaster to offer the current mobile (paperless) season ticket deal.
Is that what is being referred to? Because it is available this season and a lot of season ticket buyers use this option.
The tickets are digital, can be displayed on a cellphone screen to be scanned for entry to games, but can also be emailed to anyone you want to give your tickets to.
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Da Coach - https://bradleybraves.com/news/2018/...-available-nowOriginally posted by Da Coach View Post
It was a great ticket option that they had in 2018-19 and 2019-20. Not promoted enough I would imagine.Comment
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Does anyone else find the Braves club area to be a complete Eye Soar? Put the damn seats back in. There is a place behind the stands where all that can be done or the area next to the band. What happened to half time shows..ETC.?Comment
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This article is from the Cedar Rapids Gazette
IOWA CITY — The tipoff time for Thursday’s Indiana-Iowa men’s basketball game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena is 8:07 p.m., which means this:
There will be empty seats, and probably more than a few.
It doesn’t necessarily mean interest in the Hawkeyes has decreased. It does mean many fans have reasons to be inclined to stay home.
In the 2000-2001 season, each of the then-15,500 seats was sold for every home game. The lowest home season average for men’s games since Carver opened in 1983 — not counting last season’s fan-less COVID-19 season — is the 11,635 of 2010-11. It was 12,869 two seasons ago.
Iowa’s average announced home crowd this season is 10,963. That will rise with nothing but eight conference games left on the slate, but the three remaining 8 p.m. games aren’t likely to help much.
We can list a lot of other reasons why fans might not be coming. Carver isn’t the most fan-friendly arena. The pandemic certainly doesn’t help. The team, 1-3 in the Big Ten, has some winning to do to capture some buzz.
Here’s where your resident know-it-all would propose possible solutions. The thing is, there may not be any of real substance to offer unless you think the school would make major changes to accommodate its students and bring in more of them. Maybe someday.
Quite simply, the dominant factors in crowd size are the starting times. When Iowa hosted Maryland on Jan. 3, the announced crowd was 10,327 and there were considerably fewer people than that in the arena. There was a time when the thought of Carver being half-empty for any Big Ten game was unimaginable.
The reason the crowd was so small was the game being at 8 p.m. on a Monday, on the heels of a holiday week.
This is winter in Iowa, after all, and the games are on television.
The Big Ten has all its conference games on BTN, an ESPN network, FOX, FS1 or CBS. With 14 members, that makes for a lot of games, multiple games almost every day from New Year’s until the end of the regular season. They’ve been scheduled to make the traditional 7 p.m. starting time in the Central time zone obsolete.
Iowa’s biggest announced home crowd this season easily was the 15,056 for its Dec. 29 game against Western Illinois, certainly not a marquee opponent. That the game was played during a holiday week helped greatly, and its 7 p.m. tip made it even more palatable.
The 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. weeknight games the Hawkeyes and other Central time zone league teams typically get are hard on fans. Either it takes too much effort to get to the arena on time for the early games, or the late starts are too taxing for people to get home at a reasonable hour.
“You know, 8 p.m. on a Thursday night is tough for someone who wants to drive over from Des Moines,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said this week. “We all recognize that. We wish they could be better, but that's when the games are.
“There are a lot of things you would like to see done differently. Everybody wants Saturday home games. Can't always get them.”
The days of everyone playing every Saturday are long gone. Every game is a television property, and the networks and league don’t want them bumping into each other. Typically, two to four Big Ten games are played on Saturdays.
Iowa’s lone Saturday home game of the season will be next week, against Penn State. Barring inclement weather, fans will show up, happy the television gods gave them a day and time that were merciful to them.
From a business sense, the only reasonable choice is for the conference to take the enormous money the networks give it to air its “inventory.” But at what long-term cost? Won’t the connection and interest the fans feel gradually be reduced as they attend fewer games in person?
On Wednesday afternoon, online ticket broker StubHub had over 100 tickets to the Indiana-Iowa game available from $6 to $10. The cheapest adult tickets at the UI athletics box office are $15.
It’s a buyer’s market. It has been for a while, and that’s the way it likely will stay. Your attendance is desired, but your convenience is of no concern.
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Seems quite clear that the MVC attendance declined since 2010 cause Bradley got rid of Jim Les... and just look at the Big West, they've had the greatest increase. See? Proof right there.Originally posted by BradleyBiz View PostThree points on this topic:
1. Attendance decline is a systemic issue among mid major conferences. It's happening everywhere. And success does not mean greater attendance with these programs. Look at Loyola. Many games, they barely fill half of a 5,000 seat arena.
This is a few years old (2018 ), but a good snapshot of what is going on. The departure of WSU and Creighton has hurt the MVC - both in losing programs that fill their arenas and draw strong crowds at away games. Next year, Belmont will replace Loyola as far as % of seats filled (a wash). Murray will help the MVC, UIC will hurt the conference.
Full article is here: https://athleticdirectoru.com/articl...bb-attendance/
2. Bring back the mobile season ticket option. It provided a lot of flexibility for families who can't make games because of their kids' activities or 8 p.m. starting times (which I know are rare). This was a great offering...please make it happen again for 2022-23. That went away with the pandemic.
3. Bradley does not have a football program, so they should be able to focus their marketing efforts on getting basketball fans to Carver. Do more promotions with companies in and around Peoria (CAT, RLI, OSF, Unitypoint, Pekin Insurance, etc.). Provide discounted tickets to these companies for every home game and give out free red Bradley tshirts for their employees to wear to the game. Partner with the local arts community to do indoor art fairs after weekend afternoon games. Create a package with the Riverfront Museum where you get museum admission and a game ticket all in one (plus free parking if you don't mind walking 3 blocks). Collaborate with the Peoria Home Builders to do a package for the Home Show and going to the Valpo game that Saturday. Have two local high schools play a quick game during halftime (which gets high school kids and their families to attend). Provide family 4-packs with food included for a single game price (not just season tickets). Just some potential ideas.
Bottom line: the marketing for basketball has to improve.Comment
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Facts are facts.Originally posted by MacabreMob View Post
Larry Bird
I've got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.Comment
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Just an opinion! NCAA over management and need for marketing revenue are harmful to the game. Emphasis should be the game and continuous flow. Officials call too many fouls.
Reviews of incidental events occur far too often. Time outs are too long. Basketball is great to watch when left to unfold by player effort. " Let the game begin and let it be played!"Comment
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Wow, I couldn't agree more with every statement you made here. The foul calling, in particular has gotten completely out of hand, and it seems like in every game both teams are in double bonus every half. A foul a minute is just too much and sometimes they just need to let them play, especially on the calls off the ball but even on the ball if it isn't egregious.Originally posted by Scoretable View Post
Anyhow, you really put it perfectly. Let the players be the stars of the game, not the refs!Larry Bird
I've got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.Comment
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I have also laid a fair amount of blame on what's going on up there in the Athletic Dept right now, just check my past comments.Originally posted by JMG 76 View Post
Glasser's moves tanked the attendance from almost 10,000 down to 4,000-5,000. Then we had to rebuild for 3 years after she left so even more fans gave up, moved away or died. Then Covid hit and trying to get the fans back was made even harder.
But the way the Athletic Dept personnel treats fans now and potential ticket buyers is abysmal. Nobody answers phone calls or returns email, even when I was trying to buy additional season tickets. Nobody has time to talk to anyone, and they pass the buck like it's contaminated with Covid. there's no fan events, preseason events, post-season banquet, summer events, tailgates, pre-game rallies etc... Heck, there'd be no Itoo had some of us fans not threatened an "insurrection" (sorry, bad word).
I don't blame Wardle or Dr. Reynolds, as they have their jobs to do, but everyone else in that dept doesn't seem to givad*m. Can you even name anyone in the Athletic Dept or identify them even if they bumped right into you? There used to be people like KK, Craig Dahlquist, Dennis Kalina, Fergie, Virnette, Rick Gaa, Jackie, Breanna, and others who mulled around in the lower bowl engaging with fans and helping to solve any issues. Now, even with the rare sighting of someone from the department - they don't make eye contact and never speak. When I have grabbed them to ask a ?, I get "someone from the department will give you a call"- then, as fully expected, nobody ever does. It's almost as if they seriously DO NOT NOTICE that 60% of the long time fans are gone, and it's not long before it's gonna be 61%
and that ridiculous graph that claims the MVC has lost 13% of their attendance since 2010 is total hogwash. It's way over 50%.Comment
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Great idea. Put more supply in when you are complaining about demand being bad. That should fix things right up.Originally posted by JMG 76 View Post
That area has actually helped drive new ticket sales and Braves Club membership.
The halftime shows have been little kids basketball games. Thats for that other part you complained about - "no group sales!" Those are specifically that. Your group buys X amount of tickets, you get to see your kids play at Carver Arena at halftime of that game. Pretty simple.Comment
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Originally posted by JMM28 View Post
I know several people that had season tickets in the seats that are gone now and they no longer have season tickets because of it.
So you have 10 kids playing and a couple coaches and some parents. 40 people at most? Brilliant!!
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