Bradley MVC Schedule Announced

[it's boogie time]

While you would like students there, those three games over break will still have high attendance. Unfortunately, there will also be more ISU and SIU fans in the stands.

There have been two changes in the Valley schedule that has pushed up the start of the Valley schedule. The Bracketbuster game takes up a Saturday night in February and there is no final Monday night game leading up to the Valley tournament.

I'm dissappointed not to have New Year's Eve game at home (BU is at WSU). I wonder how many fans will actually show up to that game in the Roundhouse.

[Out of Bounce]

IMO, if the MVC wants to give us a schedule like this, then we should explore changing conferences! TAS, I was going to write this last night, but you are right. This schedule is a travesty! There is no way that a high profile game such as the ISU game should be scheduled during the break period.

Travesty and a Disgrace. First the non-conf home games schedule and now we have 3 home games with the meat of the conf with no students and band. I feel for the students, the team and BU. Its been a fight and struggle to get the students to the games to get involved in supporting THEIR team. Just in the last couple years has things improved and now this. Then you add the selling of the student tickets during break. Theres things wrong and not right here! Whats next, filling the student section with ISU fans and students.?
Is changing or altering BUs break a option?

[Rusty 54]

Does anyone know an email address of someone at the MVC offices we could express our disappointment to?

[Dubl R 1]

I talked on here a bit about creation of a club or students, friends, and alumni to man the student section during breaks last season. To that effect, I sent something off to BU, but received no response. I reforwarded it to them again tonight after reading this thread... It's copied below.

Gentlemen,

I sent this just after the close of last season's CBI tournament. I'm sure it was a busy time, but aside from an out of office from Ken Kavanagh I received no reply. Working under the assumption that it was missed in the post-season shuffle, I wanted to re-raise the inquiry now. With the recently MVC conference schedule putting some of our biggest rivalries during student breaks, I felt like it was a good time to bring it back to your attention.

Regards,
John Dwyer



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: my e-mail
To: kavanagh@bradley.edu; bparker@bradley.edu; jles@bradley.edu; jsearby@bradley.edu
Subject: Students, Friends, and Alumni Section Club Proposal.
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2008 22:01:02 -0500

Gentlemen,

I'm a Bradley alum and men's basketball season ticket holder. I'd like the university to evaluate the possibility of creating a "Students, Friends, and Alumni Section" club. The purpose of this club would be to maintain the atmosphere and advantage that the regular student section provides when many of the students aren't able to make the game during student holidays.

I recently attended the first round CBI game against Cincinnati and saw that the Red Sea student section was largely empty because the students were on Spring Break. Seeing an opportunity to relive my own "Red Zone" days, a couple of my friends and I headed down there to cheer on the team with those students who had been able to attend the game. I understand that the Cincinnati game was a set of special circumstances (Spring Break and very little time to organize ticket sales to the general public) that resulted in the low attendance which allowed us the opportunity to sit there. We had a great time cheering the team from the student section and interacting with some current Bradley students.

Games when the students are gone always have a sort of surreal atmosphere because instead of the band being flanked by a raucous student section, the band is surrounded by what appear to be very casual and very quiet fans. I'm not sure how those seats are marketed, but I'd imagine they're mostly "walk-up" sales since those seats usually are not normally available to the public. The proposed "Students, Friends, and Alumni Section" club, in its simplest form, is to provide an active "student section" to cheer the team on and keep students who do come to these games close to the court while still being revenue-neutral for Bradley.

Club members and students who can make the games would be in the regular student section areas on either side of the band. Membership dues for each non-student member of the club would cover the cost of the seats for the games as well as subsidizing the seating for the student members. If I understand things correctly, students are allowed to purchase $1 tickets during breaks, but that these $1 tickets are for upper bowl seating. The only reasonable cause for this I can determine is that it's a revenue related concept, with the more expensive lower bowl seating being offered to the general public. The subsidy I refer to would allow for membership dues to cover this revenue gap and provide for student seating in the regular student section during breaks.

Such a club would provide a much better atmosphere for the game than the current sale of traditional student section seating to the general public when the students are on break. I'm interested to see if the Athletic Department has an appetite for exploring this idea. I look forward to hearing back from you. I thought Bradley played the better game both Monday and Friday in Tulsa. Go Braves!

Regards,
John Dwyer

Hey Fish, I remember throwing these ideas around, and this year's conf. schedule is a prime example of why something like this club idea is needed. The bandwagon bunch that fills those seats during break just don't get it done Plus, with the club idea, at least in my opinion, the actual students who do show up, would still get first priority in front of the club, and the club members would then fill in around them. Thanks for resending the info. Let's hope BU does something to help out the students and the team with regards to the games during break.

[Da Coach]

Also, from Dave's article--

Kavanagh declined to comment on the early home/road imbalance, but expressed dismay about the placement of the Illinois State home game.
'We're disappointed for our students that the Illinois State game isn't where it usually falls when they come back from break,' he said. 'That's obviously a tremendous rivalry game that our students look forward to. It's the first time in 21 years we'll be playing that rivalry game at home when our students aren't here.'

Hard to believe it's been 21 years since Bradley last played ISU during a student break. It would appear that usually the people at BU must work to avoid that happening.

[squirrel]

They now have a mini-mester during January that runs until just before classes start (this year it's Jan. 21), and appears to be 6 weeks as the fall term ends Dec. 17.

[Out of Bounce]

I can undertand, but there is a silver lining....

Both SIU and ISU are dealing with some of their important players having serious injuries and those guys might just still be coming back in December (Bobby Hill & Brandon Sampay of ISU and Bryan Mullins & Anthony Booker of SIU). Plus both teams will be using a lot of their new & inexperienced players because they have lost a lot of minutes from their graduating seniors.
SO-- just maybe it is to Bradley's advantage to be catching those two teams early in the conference schedule, and possibly be able to get a win on them early on before they get back to full strength.

I understand what your saying here T but I don't think that will stop the bleeding of the students or replace the excitement lost by no student body and band at the ISU game anyway. Also my concern is any fall-out of support by the students and any effects it would have on the team!! Because the student body support means a lot to the players and has a effect on their play. Besides with all the injuries you have mentioned I would think we would win those games anyway being the better team and playing at home. I to want to look for positives and not just look at the nagitives. There's a solution to everything and maybe one can be found here, I hope. One maybe to give every student a Free ticket, pizza and bus ride to ISU for the game there. All this paid by the MVC scheduling committee!
As for the MVC schedule we have to play everyone twice, so playing three big ones at HOME doesn't concern me that much. I also like the 4 out of 5 home games at the end.
For all the students, there will be a lot to cheer about this year. As we will Win the MVC and there will be a NCAA Bid.

[Dallas Brave]

How many students sit in the student section at a typical home game while school is in session?

If the liklihood is that there are enough BU students in the Peoria-area over the break to fill in the the vacant seats, then I believe that the university should make every effort to re-allocate those seats to other BU students who can attend the game. Which would mean building a simple web-tool to (1) allow student season ticket holders to notify the university that their seats are available for re-allocation and (2) to allow other students to request tickets. Could be a Fall project for one of the Computer Science classes.

[Beninator]

How many students sit in the student section at a typical home game while school is in session?

If the liklihood is that there are enough BU students in the Peoria-area over the break to fill in the the vacant seats, then I believe that the university should make every effort to re-allocate those seats to other BU students who can attend the game. Which would mean building a simple web-tool to (1) allow student season ticket holders to notify the university that their seats are available for re-allocation and (2) to allow other students to request tickets. Could be a Fall project for one of the Computer Science classes.

This is a great idea Dallas.

[squirrel]

Yeah, this is a stinky sked.

However, I think the league may need to look at pushing the conference schedule to early December. That might allow fewer of these problems and would also allow a staggered start where each team can play their first conference game on the road.
Edit--I mean at HOME.

But coaches hate to have key conference games just a few weeks into the season.

[Dallas Brave]

This is a great idea Dallas.

I come up with one a year I can take the Sept - Dec off now!

[TheAsianSensation]

You know, to think of it, I wouldn't even be THAT mad if it was just the ISU game that was misplaced. But if you do that to BU, then you owe us. To put the next 2 biggest conference names during this same time is bush league. Bush league.

Not only are we losing the student, but all the marquee games are earlier in the season. Guess what that means: No TV games on FS Midwest down the stretch. No exposure. That hurts the resume, like it or not. When we're busy mopping up against the bottom of the league in February, no one will care and we can't play our way onto the bubble. This has ramifications, people.

[ph]

You know, to think of it, I wouldn't even be THAT mad if it was just the ISU game that was misplaced. But if you do that to BU, then you owe us. To put the next 2 biggest conference names during this same time is bush league. Bush league.

Not only are we losing the student, but all the marquee games are earlier in the season. Guess what that means: No TV games on FS Midwest down the stretch. No exposure. That hurts the resume, like it or not. When we're busy mopping up against the bottom of the league in February, no one will care and we can't play our way onto the bubble. This has ramifications, people.

Unless the Drake is great, again.
We might have a better shot of having a good last 10 record, though.

Overall, though, this is terrible. Is the MVC shooting itself in the foot by not having marquee games at the end of the season?

[ph]

The MVC now owes Bradley a lower bowl block at St Louis this year.

[Out of Bounce]

This is a great idea Dallas.

I'll second that!! Great Idea!!