Carver arena

[braves16]

Does anyone know what we pay to use Carver on a nightly basis. Do we get a cut of the concessions and beer sales? I've always wondered how that worked out.

[yoda]

Good question, but drawing only 3500 anymore and not getting any cut of concessions, surely BU is losing money.

Recall the decline started as soon as JKG started firing people in 2009 and really hit the slippery slope after 2011
Covid played a part but BU was headed towards the 3500 figure inevitably, due to the reasons cited so many times.
Dr. Reynolds & Coach Wardle have done their part by restoring good basketball, a winning program, the events like Itoo that fans love and other things, but Bradley still needs to get someone in the Athletic Dept. who knows how to run the marketing, fan engagement, promoting the program and boosting ticket sales. I know I am not the only one who is a long time season ticket holder who is considering ending it and just buying single game tickets because of the way many in their department treat the loyal, long time fans with such disrespect.

This is going to be the first year in decades that our home attendance drops a couple notches and lands below SIU, Missouri State and even possibly others, and yet nobody seems to even notice.

From 2014

Bradley's home attendance average over the past decade....
and recall many began predicting exactly what you see each year since 2010-11, and it's gonna happen again this year and next year until we're under 4000....
If you choose not to believe that then point to one single thing that would argue otherwise?

2004-05 9338
2005-06 9220
2006-07 9728
2007-08 9600
2008-09 9110
2009-10 9339
2010-11 8447
2011-12 7640
2012-13 6557
2013-14 6608 (and was also right at 6600 at this point after 5 home games)
2014-15 5261 so far but lots of empty seats - something rarely ever seen prior to 2011 also have dropped behind both Illinois State & Missouri State for the first time ever and at risk of falling behind Indiana State, SIU, Evansville & UNI

contrary to some bogus claims that the "free fall" or "slide" started in 2008 or 2009...
it can clearly be seen that the entire problem, whatever it is, did not start until 2011 then accelerated rapidly thereafter...

If you wanna find a scapegoat - look to the people in charge from 2009 up top the present and look at the decisions made since then to eliminate multiple long time favorite fan events, force long time ticketholders out of their seats and jack up prices, fire popular members of the Athletic Department, schedule ridiculously poorly, move games to alternate arenas, spend recklessly for little or no gain, screw up the long time TV relationships and drop the ball on televised games, hamper the successes of the programs by manipulating staffs, and multiple other decisions and changes in that interval that match precisely with the huge dropoff in attendance.

[braves16]

I partly read an article, got cut off by not being a subscriber, on the sharp decline in attendance at Iowa Hawkeye games despite having the leading scorer in the country. Part of the reason is that Iowa has had more than a couple of 8pm start times. 8pm is a killer for the people living in Des Moines almost 2 hours away or even Cedar Rapids a half hour drive or the Quad Cities about an hour away.

[BUBraves2006]

Why is there basically no student section anymore? I know this was probably discussed ages ago, but when I was there, BU made it a thing - there were always shuttle buses running from the student center and we filled both sides next to the band. Now there aren't even many seats for the students if they went. Does anyone have connections to students going now? I can't imagine they don't just care at all - is there no promotion?

[molar50]

They need to relocate all games to the Renaissance Coliseum until there is a significant demand for tickets. Economics 101.

[Dub]

They need to relocate all games to the Renaissance Coliseum until there is a significant demand for tickets. Economics 101.

disagree. We don't have the data and models to demonstrate that. There are intangibles and recruiting considerations here too. One key driver of my level of fandom is tied to my being in a full carver arena in the mid 80's. Ren col does not do it.

[braves16]

So, nobody knows what Bradley's fee is to use Carver?

[Da Coach]

So, nobody knows what Bradley's fee is to use Carver?

Check your Private Messages

[braves16]

Check your Private Messages

I'm going to come off as an idiot, but I have no idea how to do that.

[Da Coach]

I'm going to come off as an idiot, but I have no idea how to do that.

Haha, sorry. No problem. I just assumed you've used the Private Message function before.
Scroll all the way back to the top and look at the top right of the Bradleyfans screen, and there should be a tab titled "Messages".
Click on the word Messages, and a drop-down menu should show up and there should be a message titled "Rental for Carver Arena".
You can click on that title, or you could click on "Go to Message Center", and you'll find the message there. Hope that works!

For those wondering what we're talking about, I messaged Braves16 some info I heard about the Carver rental from a previous AD.

[Braves2006]

I’d be interested in that info as well DC if you are able to shoot me a message.

[yoda]

They need to relocate all games to the Renaissance Coliseum until there is a significant demand for tickets. Economics 101.

Renaissance Coliseum is a great facility, better than many in the MVC that are being used as primary basketball venues.
Reminder, since it inevitably comes up, that Renaissance Coliseum was planned, funded and mostly built BEFORE the people who took credit for it were even on the scene at Bradley. Even the name "Renaissance" predated the arrival of the people who subsequently took credit for it. LINK

[braves16]

Are season ticket sales down this year, or remaining steady while the casual fan isn't coming out.

[Da Coach]

Season tickets are down significantly from 2 years ago. Recall that because of Covid season ticket sales were stopped and refunded last year.
They are at an all-time low since Bradley moved into the Fieldhouse in 1949.

[basketball nut]

Last night's game was fun as we had the biggest crowd this season. It was loud.
I say that knowing the crowd was probably a little over half of what we drew 12-15 years ago.