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Fan Behavior in STL

bigjimmy said:
I think back through the years at fans behavior and anytime there's a big fan base they are criticized, rightly or wrongly. The hatred directed at Wichita St was more towards their former wonderful head coach Gregg Marshall and his equally wonderful wife. Creighton's fans got very "we're better than you" attitudes as they kept winning and especially when they were leaving the Valley. Loyola certainly got that way before they left. On the hole throughout my time attending Arch Madness I've had very positive experiences. As for the championship game BU had well over half of the arena filled [/QUOTE

Some of the Wichita State fans were idiots
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Da Coach said:
Having made the trip to Des Moines dozens of times over the last 45 years to watch Bradley play at Drake, I feel I need to say that in my experience the fans I have encountered at Drake have been the nicest and most friendly as any fans I have encountered anywhere. Any of the negative experiences I am reading about probably come from a few bad apples like might be found in any fan base. I hope nobody generalizes and applies those sentiments to the entire fan base of Drake.
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100% agree. The 2000 or so folks that regularly attend Drake home games are generally good, friendly people.
 
bradleyfan124 said:
I think back through the years at fans behavior and anytime there's a big fan base they are criticized, rightly or wrongly. The hatred directed at Wichita St was more towards their former wonderful head coach Gregg Marshall and his equally wonderful wife. Creighton's fans got very "we're better than you" attitudes as they kept winning and especially when they were leaving the Valley. Loyola certainly got that way before they left. On the hole throughout my time attending Arch Madness I've had very positive experiences. As for the championship game BU had well over half of the arena filled
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bigjimmy said:
Some of the Wichita State fans were idiots
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I agree with you, bigjimmy. I think when teams become consistently good, their success draws in more fans, and sometimes that includes trash-talkers and fans who boost their ego by demeaning or insulting other teams. It happened with Creighton fans in the 2000's. They had some of the nastiest and demanding people in St. Louis every year. Even the MVC league office people were not sad to see them leave. Then it was the Wichita State and Loyola fans. Nobody misses them.
The last couple seasons, Bradley and Drake have risen to the top of the MVC. I love seeing the private schools (BU, DU, Belmont, and maybe even Valpo) doing well. They have a distinct disadvantage of having less overall school resources compared to the larger taxpayer-supported state schools.
And it's great to have a lot of new, passionate fans. But I hope Bradley continues to have success without seeing any fans become like those Wichita State fans.
 
Every team has fans that do not how to act properly. I have been to the Tour. a lot of times and the Wichita fans to me were the worst as far as behavior. The Creighton students were just really bad because of them pretty much being drunk. It was funny watching the ushers continually having to make them leave the arena because of the way they acted, a lot of foul language coming out of their mouths.Most fans that attend these games no how to act and they are there to cheer their team on in the proper way.
 
Da Coach said:
I agree with you, bigjimmy. I think when teams become consistently good, their success draws in more fans, and sometimes that includes trash-talkers and fans who boost their ego by demeaning or insulting other teams. It happened with Creighton fans in the 2000's. They had some of the nastiest and demanding people in St. Louis every year. Even the MVC league office people were not sad to see them leave. Then it was the Wichita State and Loyola fans. Nobody misses them.
The last couple seasons, Bradley and Drake have risen to the top of the MVC. I love seeing the private schools (BU, DU, Belmont, and maybe even Valpo) doing well. They have a distinct disadvantage of having less overall school resources compared to the larger taxpayer-supported state schools.
And it's great to have a lot of new, passionate fans. But I hope Bradley continues to have success without seeing any fans become like those Wichita State fans.
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A few years ago I ran into a Wichita State fan on a bus trip to St. Louis during the off season. I saw this guy with a Wichita State sweatshirt on. I went up and introduced myself as a Bradley fan thinking I would strike up a friendly conversation about our mutual basketball connection. He proceeded to tell me how much better off Wichita State was being out of the Missouri Valley. I just looked at him not wanting to give him a response in any way. I then turned around and walked away
 
bradleyfan124 said:
He proceeded to tell me how much better off Wichita State was being out of the Missouri Valley. I just looked at him not wanting to give him a response in any way. I then turned around and walked away
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Well he's so right! Look at how many NCAA tourney games WSU has won since leaving the Valley!
(Oh wait a second...appears the Shockers haven't won an NCAA tourney game since 2017, oddly, their last year in the MVC!) ;)

Side-note: Last WSU NCAA appearance was in 2021, losing to MVC-member Drake in the First 4 round. LOLOL
They'll likely not get another 1-seed in the tourney (as they got in 2014) for a LONG time.
 
bradleyfan124 said:
A few years ago I ran into a Wichita State fan on a bus trip to St. Louis during the off season. I saw this guy with a Wichita State sweatshirt on. I went up and introduced myself as a Bradley fan thinking I would strike up a friendly conversation about our mutual basketball connection. He proceeded to tell me how much better off Wichita State was being out of the Missouri Valley. I just looked at him not wanting to give him a response in any way. I then turned around and walked away
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Funny, since Wichita State has had nowhere near the success after leaving the MVC that they had in the MVC.
They were in the NCAA Tournament the last 7 years they were in the MVC. And they were Top 25 ranked during all 7 of those seasons
But in the 8 seasons they have been in the AAC, they have been ranked in only 2 of the seasons. And they have gotten only 2 bids to the NCAA Tournament in those 8 years in the AAC, both at-large bids, and both times they lost their first game. Their last bid was 5 years ago.

They have really struggled the last 4 seasons with losing conference records each season and declining attendance. This year, they finished 8th in the AAC. They averaged a full capacity of over 10,000 per game for many years. Now they are down to an average of 6,030 this season, and they were 5,983 last year.
And the American Athletic Conference has lost significant prestige. The AAC has ranked below the MVC in conference RPI the last couple seasons. Last year they got 2 bids, but both were eliminated in their first game. This year, they have only 2 teams in the Top 100 NET (Memphis at 48, North Texas at 60). They will likely be a 1-bid conference.
 
LittleBrave said:
Well he's so right! Look at how many NCAA tourney games WSU has won since leaving the Valley!
(Oh wait a second...appears the Shockers haven't won an NCAA tourney game since 2017, oddly, their last year in the MVC!) ;)

Side-note: Last WSU NCAA appearance was in 2021, losing to MVC-member Drake in the First 4 round. LOLOL
They'll likely not get another 1-seed in the tourney (as they got in 2014) for a LONG time.
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Also, they now play in a mostly empty arena. They can report whatever they want attendance-wise, but there's not 3k people in those stands when they're on tv.

All while the Missouri Valley has passed by the AAC in NET conference rankings.
 
Thanks. And here is a panorama shot from behind the Bradley student section of the arena, showing the huge number of Bradley fans. And this shot doesn't even show the multiple sections behind the cameraman, which were filled exclusively with Bradley fans. - https://x.com/HOTBraveNIL/status/1899491830472872084

GlxZwCVWkAAEOHn
 
Da Coach said:
Thanks. And here is a panorama shot from behind the Bradley student section of the arena, showing the huge number of Bradley fans. And this shot doesn't even show the multiple sections behind the cameraman, which were filled exclusively with Bradley fans. - https://x.com/HOTBraveNIL/status/1899491830472872084

GlxZwCVWkAAEOHn
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To get a real idea of how many Bradley fans were there we need a picture from the opposite end. I wonder if anyone has one?
 
The end zone photo was given to us from Peorias finest optometrist, Bradley fan, and corporate supporter Tim Cundiff of Vision Care Center.

It’s amazing because to the left is where there were 1000+ Bradley fans that you can’t even see.
 
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