What will make attendance better?

[️ Fanatic]

I believe it is time to get players from Central Illinois and throughout the state to come to Bradley. From Chicago to Cairo.

This IS the stated approach from new ISU coach - recruit within the state - will be interesting to see how well Coach Pedon is successful in that goal. He did schedule Illinois teams this year playing Eastern & Western Illinois.

I think Bradley would be better suited recruiting Toughness - no matter where they come from. I agree the more competitive teams consistently will increase attendance (Build it & they will come).

[Da Coach]

I agree, but I think Bradley has had it's share of players with toughness.

I don't want to miss some, but IMO, some of the top ones in the past came from Saskatoon (Ja'Shon), Memphis (Darrell Brown), Kansas City (Elijah Childs), Atlanta (Taylor Brown), Chicago (Tony Bennett), Verona, Missouri (J.J. Tauai) and Peoria (Marcellus Sommerville and Daniel Ruffin).

Who are the "toughest" players in recent Bradley history in everyone's opinions?

[Tommy]

Who are the "toughest" players in recent Bradley history in everyone's opinions?

BW era I'd say Lundy, DLO, and Kennell have to be considered outside of who you already mentioned. Walt Lemon made the NBA and we could still barely win a game when Geno was coach, but you'd have to consider him in that group.

[Bball31]

This IS the stated approach from new ISU coach - recruit within the state - will be interesting to see how well Coach Pedon is successful in that goal. He did schedule Illinois teams this year playing Eastern & Western Illinois.

I think Bradley would be better suited recruiting Toughness - no matter where they come from. I agree the more competitive teams consistently will increase attendance (Build it & they will come).

It will be interesting to see how the new ISU coach does. I do know he was a very, very good recruiter at Ohio State. It may take him a couple of years to turn that program around because the cupboard is pretty bare. His approach is similar to Versace’s and Les’ when they came to BU and we know the success they had with local and Illinois players. Dick loaded his teams with Chicago kids and also got local kids that weren’t heavily recruited but turned out to be fine players in the likes of Eddie Mathews and Trevor Trempe. He had such a Chicago connection, that Bradley had more publicity in the Sun Times and Tribune than Northwestern, Loyola and DePaul. The papers knew the readers wanted to know how their local high school players were doing. It made it easy because so many were going to Bradley. Les did the same with local kids such as Summerville (transfer), Adams, Crouch, Ruffin, Dunson (transfer) and Sims-Edwards as well as players from Chicago and East St. Louis. I would venture to say each of these players would be a starter and major contributor on the teams of the previous coach (Ford) and the current team under Wardle. With the transfer portal the recruiting process is never ending. Establishing positive coaching contacts at the AAU, high school level in Illinois is more critical than ever.

One of the things that destroyed DePaul’s program, from which they’ve never recovered, was turning their back on Illinois kids, especially from Chicago and recruiting nationally. That is when Illinois started getting them and turned their program into one of the best in the Big Ten and on the national scene. Now, after several some success, Underwood is recruiting more nationally. Porter Moser turned the Loyola program around by recruiting a couple of Chicago area kids each year.

If we can’t bring in two kids a year from the state of Illinois that can play at the MVC level, we’ve got bigger problems.

[lb071964]

I’m told that ticket sales were strong this week. Let’s hope people show up.

[Da Coach]

I’m told that ticket sales were strong this week. Let’s hope people show up.

Yes. I am buying a couple extra tickets for friends, and a number of lower bowl and upper bowl seats that we've bought before and are almost always available on game day appear to have been sold.
I think we'll see the highest attendance of the year. Previous high was 4,890 for the UIC game on 12/31/22.

Average home attendance (10 games) so far this this season is 4,097.
Game-by-game attendance-

[BradleyBiz]

Yes. I am buying a couple extra tickets for friends, and a number of lower bowl and upper bowl seats that we've bought before and are almost always available on game day appear to have been sold.
I think we'll see the highest attendance of the year. Previous high was 4,890 for the UIC game on 12/31/22.

Average home attendance (10 games) so far this this season is 4,097.
Game-by-game attendance-

Interesting idea going forward: our school is hosting a Mother-Son event at the game today. Seems to me that could be something that Bradley promotes to the grade schools in the metro area each winter. Tickets were discounted and we have over 100 people (moms and kids) attending today.

[BUBraves2006]

5,854 today and it sounded and looked loud on TV ...

Of course, we get a great crowd today and the long winning streak ends. Oh, Bradley basketball ...

[BUfan14]

I’m finding it really hard not to feel apathetic myself right now as a fan. Of course I’ll keep watching all the games, but right now we are in a weird state where we don’t seem good enough (or as good as expected) to do a whole lot this year. And the future is sort of up in the air (how do we get better from here and who will even be back in terms of players?). Middle of the pack doesn’t cut it anymore, especially in a weak Valley. Wins against low level competition have lost their luster a little. I want big wins and competing for conference regular season championships. I want to get the point of seeing Bradley not get blown out by 20-30 against ranked teams, but actually have a chance. I want to see that light at the end of the tunnel. Can we make a miraculous turn this year at the end? Will it be here next year? It’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel where it will finally be us at the top.

Tonight’s win is maybe the emptiest I’ve ever felt at a win. I know if I’m feeling apathy, others must be too. That isn’t good to build a fan base and increase attendance. Maybe if we beat SIU at least once, I’d recover a little, but it’s really hard to see that happening right now. I hope I’m wrong. It’s just really hard to watch this team we’ve built up to for three years, that was suppose to finally take us to the next level, severely underachieve and seemingly get worse, even at fundamentals like free throws, as the year goes.

[Stryker]

I’m finding it really hard not to feel apathetic myself right now as a fan. Of course I’ll keep watching all the games, but right now we are in a weird state where we don’t seem good enough (or as good as expected) to do a whole lot this year. And the future is sort of up in the air (how do we get better from here and who will even be back in terms of players?). Middle of the pack doesn’t cut it anymore, especially in a weak Valley. Wins against low level competition have lost their luster a little. I want big wins and competing for conference regular season championships. I want to get the point of seeing Bradley not get blown out by 20-30 against ranked teams, but actually have a chance. I want to see that light at the end of the tunnel. Can we make a miraculous turn this year at the end? Will it be here next year? It’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel where it will finally be us at the top.

Tonight’s win is maybe the emptiest I’ve ever felt at a win. I know if I’m feeling apathy, others must be too. That isn’t good to build a fan base and increase attendance. Maybe if we beat SIU at least once, I’d recover a little, but it’s really hard to see that happening right now. I hope I’m wrong. It’s just really hard to watch this team we’ve built up to for three years, that was suppose to finally take us to the next level, severely underachieve and seemingly get worse, even at fundamentals like free throws, as the year goes.

Agree 100%. I think losing Terry Roberts really really hurt this team, but transfers happen all the time now, in and out. There should have been another good guard on this team to pick up the slack, but there isn't. I think this a recruiting failure mostly, and BU will be lucky to get wins against teams with average to above average guard play now.

I'd be fine if Ville never got another meaningful minute in a BU uniform. I like him but he can't even do the one thing he is supposed to do, and can't guard anyone. I know Hickman gets praise as a all around scrappy defensive player doing all the little things, but his decision making is not good, he is undersized and can't guard decent players, and he can barely score as well. At least that has been my impression of him.

Apathy is a pretty accurate feeling right now. Wardle needed time to dig the program out of the whole it was in, and he has done that. But it feels like his wheels are spinning. I only see some really good transfers/recruiting turning this around at all for coming years.

[Tommy]

I’m finding it really hard not to feel apathetic myself right now as a fan. Of course I’ll keep watching all the games, but right now we are in a weird state where we don’t seem good enough (or as good as expected) to do a whole lot this year. And the future is sort of up in the air (how do we get better from here and who will even be back in terms of players?). Middle of the pack doesn’t cut it anymore, especially in a weak Valley. Wins against low level competition have lost their luster a little. I want big wins and competing for conference regular season championships. I want to get the point of seeing Bradley not get blown out by 20-30 against ranked teams, but actually have a chance. I want to see that light at the end of the tunnel. Can we make a miraculous turn this year at the end? Will it be here next year? It’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel where it will finally be us at the top.

Tonight’s win is maybe the emptiest I’ve ever felt at a win. I know if I’m feeling apathy, others must be too. That isn’t good to build a fan base and increase attendance. Maybe if we beat SIU at least once, I’d recover a little, but it’s really hard to see that happening right now. I hope I’m wrong. It’s just really hard to watch this team we’ve built up to for three years, that was suppose to finally take us to the next level, severely underachieve and seemingly get worse, even at fundamentals like free throws, as the year goes.

You exactly defined the way I feel right now BUF14. And Stryker is right about Terry Roberts being a huge loss, and we knew that at the time. With the new rules, we all have to accept the new way of doing things, but in fairness everyone in our conference is under the same rules so I'd like to think we can manage it as well or better than our competition. Right now, that doesn't seem to be the case.

I guess I just don't have much to add to what's already been stated. We all want a perennial winning program, not a middle of the pack one and I'm sure fans of all programs want the same thing. Mediocrity wears thin over time.

This is an edit addition: just wanted to say, I am still a BW fan. I think he's a classy guy and he's done a good job of rebuilding our program from the scrap heap that Geno left it in. Still believe he can turn us into a perennial winner, but I think it's going to require a change in the way we recruit.

[BradleyBiz]

Pretty blunt article from the News Leader on the state of the Missouri State basketball atmosphere in Springfield. A long but good read. Despite Bradley's shortcomings, I think we have a lot of positives over a program like MSU right now (higher attendance that's trending up after COVID, better fan engagement, passionate fan base, better product on the court, etc.).

https://www.news-leader.com/story/sports/college/msu/2023/01/31/missouri-state-basketball-experience-wyatt-wheeler-attendance-column-kyle-moats-dana-ford-clif-smart/69830114007/

[Da Coach]

As we've noted before, Bradley is not the only school seeing falling attendance. Per the article in the previous post, Missouri State, despite having a decent MVC season and still in contention at 7-5, is having their lowest average attendance in the last 47 years (not counting the 2020-21 Covid season).

They joined the MVC in 1990, and until the last few seasons, they were always among the top 2 or 3 teams in the MVC in attendance. A decade ago, they averaged over 7,000 per game, but this season, attendance has dropped to 3,092 per game, which currently ranks 8th out of the 12 MVC teams. That average is the lowest since the 1975-76 season. That was 7 years before they became a Division I school in 1982!

https://mvc-sports.com/stats.aspx?path=mbball&year=2022

As recently as 2018-19, they averaged 5,150 and have dropped over 2,000 per game since then. In that same interval, Bradley's average attendance has dropped about 1,000 (from 5,429 to the current average of 4,406).
And they aren't alone. Most MVC teams saw their average attendance drop after the Covid season (2020-21), and the numbers have not returned to the pre-Covid average. Drake is averaging just 2,890 per game despite being the preseason favorite to win the MVC. UNI is averaging just 3,144, despite winning the MVC regular season last year. Illinois State's average is down (3,389 per game) partly due to a rebuilding season, though usually a coaching change results in an increase of season tickets like it did this year for Evansville. UE is 2nd in the MVC with an average of 4,647 this season after averaging just 3,232 last season. Valparaiso's average is down from 1,758 last year to 1,445 this year. UIC's average attendance has dropped from 2,093 last year to 1,705 this year, despite joining the MVC. And even Belmont, which also moved to the MVC, a better conference, and despite leading the league all season, has seen their attendance drop slightly from 1,996 per game last season to 1,964 per game this year.

[BUBraves2006]

I have no idea if it's a total coincidence but since I started this thread, there definitely seems like there has been uptick in engagement, not just in overall attendance but also in the regular BU emails I get (giving people all sorts of incentives to come out to games), the student attendance, at least a bit, and now this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngCkyniA3Ng

This was an awesome video. Short but sweet, gets the players involved ... I love it.

(Not patting myself on the back but if starting this thread in any way helped a few more fans go to games, I'm really glad I did it.)

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I'm surprised about some of the comments from the diehards on here. I'm as excited as ever for Bradley basketball. I think there seems to be such a ping pong of emotions from game to game that it's hard to really see the whole picture. Would I rather us be 10-2 in conference, taking at least 2 of those marginal games we very easily could have won? Sure. To me, it seems so crazy that people have a lot negativity when we are one game out of first and have the best NET in the Valley. Even the returning roster for next year looks quite good (though we know transfers could affect this positively or negatively).

Can this team be maddening at times, feeling like they are one step below where they should be by now? I guess, but I am also not so short sighted to remember when we were awful not that long ago. Now, whether it comes to fruition or not in wins, I think we have the best roster in the league other than maybe Drake. We have a really good coach, who while isn't perfect, is definitely good for the program/team/school.

Eight to go - let's be realistic - nobody in the Valley was going to be contending for an at large this year. Let's see the team start peaking before STL and win another conference tournament. I'm all in.

[tecon89]

Eight to go - let's be realistic - nobody in the Valley was going to be contending for an at large this year. Let's see the team start peaking before STL and win another conference tournament. I'm all in.

For me the expectations will always have a team competing for an at large berth. I don’t want to lower that expectation. The team is in a great spot compared to 5-7 years ago no doubt about it, however The generations that grew up on this team in the 70s, 80s, and the in the mid 2000s knows what is possible and there is still plenty of growth that can happen with this team.. Really good teams year in year out should be the standard. The quality of the conference has dwindled so let’s take Advantage and win it. Anything lower is open to critique.