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What will make attendance better?

What do you think Bradley has to average in attendance to break even in paying for the cost to rent Carver? Do we get a cut of parking and concessions?
 
Unless something has changed in recent years, Bradley was not getting anything from parking or concessions (other than the Bradley apparel vendor).
And, there are some variables in the cost and revenues for each game, but Ken Kavanagh told me about 15 years ago that Bradley needed at least 5,000-5,500 to break even.
Recall that when Bradley's attendance dropped into the 6,000's a decade ago, the BU President began moving games to the Renaissance Coliseum and considered playing all games there unless she could negotiate a better deal from the Civic Center. It was not a popular move with the fan base, and one of the first things Dr. Reynolds announced when he was hired was that he favored playing all games at Carver Arena.
 
Da Coach said:
Unless something has changed in recent years, Bradley was not getting anything from parking or concessions (other than the Bradley apparel vendor).
And, there are some variables in the cost and revenues for each game, but Ken Kavanagh told me about 15 years ago that Bradley needed at least 5,000-5,500 to break even.
Recall that when Bradley's attendance dropped into the 6,000's a decade ago, the BU President began moving games to the Renaissance Coliseum and considered playing all games there unless she could negotiate a better deal from the Civic Center. It was not a popular move with the fan base, and one of the first things Dr. Reynolds announced when he was hired was that he favored playing all games at Carver Arena.
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Any idea if they were able to negotiate a better deal from the Civic Center?
 
Sigh...I wonder if anything CAN be done? The current faithful..well...are pretty old and won't be able to go to games much longer. And I wonder about the quality of the competition in the Civic center; don't see BU bringing in Michigan (ok, awful this year), Illinois, Penn State, Villanova (etc.) anymore.
 
braves16 said:
Any idea if they were able to negotiate a better deal from the Civic Center?
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I was told the Civic Center was already losing lots of money for other reasons, and not willing to cut a better deal for BU.
Pres. Glasser wanted to pull out of Carver, and even commissioned the BU engineering department to do a feasibility and cost analysis on adding balconies in the Renaissance Coliseum to see if the capacity could be increased to around 6,000. The engineering people believed it could be done for a reasonable cost, but there were other serious problems like traffic issues, neighborhood resistance, and inadequate infrastructure (utilities, sewer, parking, etc), so it never went any further.
If anyone is privy to more info, please feel free to add.
 
Even if seats were added to Renaissance there is only 1 feasible exit to leave arena which is not good . They would have to add more exits besides adding upper deck. That was one of main reasons Peoria lost the boys sectional .
 
for 15 yrs I've seen multiple threads here and comments elsewhere of what Bradley could consider
or do to promote the brand better, to draw more fans in, get better coverage in the community. A few billboards
is a nice start, but here are just a few of ideas and suggestions people have posted. BUT - note that virtually NONE
of these ideas seems to appeal to the folks in the Athletic Dept as they've never done any of these:

-do some community events, some in summer and some during the season. The Voice of the Braves shows are pretty well attended,usually packed, but anyone who gets there later than 5:30pm can't get in or get a seat and then turns around and leaves. Host a summer festival or cookout, or a fall meet & greet. with players giving out t-shirts, apparel or the little balls they throw into the stands.

-hire someone that appears at Bradley events, makes himself known to the fans, browses thru the arena at games, engages fans, finds out who might have needs or beefs and guides them. KK did this routinely and did a great job, so did Rick Gaa, but nobody in the past decade is ever available. They have a name on their "Directory" for someone who is "Associate AD for Marketing and Fan Engagement", but nobody knows who he is. I spent a year trying to get in touch with calls and emails and was never got a reply (see some of my old posts). I say hire someone fans will LOVE and who has a personality to
do this job (names like Cellus, Daniel Ruffin, Lou Griffith, Luqman Lundy, Pete Hanley). I'm not saying they are all available, those are just examples.

- I am looking at a schedule from 15 years ago - and every game had some special event or activity... several games with free T--shirts, free commemorative keychains, packs of collector cards, worthwhile halftime events or acts, and at least 1 or 2 ceremonies to honor our past Braves & Championship teams.
When they had Chet Walker & Hersey back it drew interest from fans, but bring back fan favorites more often than once a year - Walt Lemon, Anthony Manuel, etc...

- more games that get local students in - maybe hand out BU game tix at the high school games they have at Ren-Col

-some open practices and summer events, players hang out after games to sign autographs, Athletic Dept staff walking thru arena, greeting & shaking hands

-fall events, cookouts, tailgates, pre-season or post-season banquet - heck, it took a literal fan-uprising to get the Itoo Supper back
They used to have Fan Appreciation breakfasts & lunches where the fans could meet players/coaches and the fans were willing to PAY!

-what has this decade of paying Learfield & IMG gotten us? Are we not paying them to get more sponsorships & promotions?

- the ESPN+ crew should promote game attendance- talk about upcoming games and events, "promote the brand"
 
Don't forget events like pregame rallies (I think there was one earlier this season that was not well publicized), preseason meet & greet events, postseason banquets where team members are honored (MVP, Most Improved, top newcomer, and other awards), etc. Bradley used to do the preseason and post-season banquets, and they were always well attended, and were effective money-raisers.
And have we given up trying to attract students? There have to be some ways to get more students to the game, even if you have to pay or bribe them. :)
Other schools have been effective at drawing students, and there were times in the recent past that even Bradley had way more enthusiasm. Even Joanne Glasser, who usually wrecked everything she touched, was able to get more students to the games. But I had a hard time finding any students at the last couple home games.
 
A lot of great thoughts ...

You know what gets college kids excited? Beer, pizza and a party.

There were always well publicized events at bars near the arena where students can go before the game for a good deal on food/drink. Do these happen anymore?

They also ran the Peoria Charter bus on loop for like 90 minutes before the game from the student center when I was there. Between that and super cheap season tickets, it was really simple to get even people who weren't basketball fans there. I assume this doesn't happen either.
 
I was listening to the Score 670 am this morning and the discussion was about students attending basketball games. They stated that when Porter Mosher was the coach at Loyola, he went to the dorms and asked students to attend and they showed up. I know that their stadium is very small and on campus, but I believe the administration should be marketing to the students.
 
Remember that there is quite a bit of tension and angst on campus this year. Also, incoming class sizes are smaller, and online programs being introduced. So I do not expect student attendance to ever come close to what it once was.
 
The music is WAY TOO LOUD!! My 10-yr-old son attended his 1st BU game and was covering his ears for the player intros and when they were booming the music. He was asking why I wasn't covering mine, and I told him, "Dude - I grew up in the 80s. The music got LOUD around that time, so I grew used to it I guess." ;)
 
molar50 said:
I was listening to the Score 670 am this morning and the discussion was about students attending basketball games. They stated that when Porter Mosher was the coach at Loyola, he went to the dorms and asked students to attend and they showed up. I know that their stadium is very small and on campus, but I believe the administration should be marketing to the students.
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Here are the stats for attendance in the first season that Loyola joined the MVC - http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/2013-14/team.pdf

Loyola was the lowest attendance of any MVC school, 1,928 per game, almost 2 thousand fewer than the next lowest team. Moser must not have been working back then to raise attendance. If he was, he wasn't very successful. But he did some good things for Loyola, and their Final 4 season in 2017-18, there was a little surge in student and overall attendance. But overall attendance that year remained the lowest in the league (2017-18 attendance- 2,405), even lower than Valparaiso! - http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/2017-18/team.pdf

Because of the success, the national attention they got from their Final Four year, and from Sister Jean, they did get their attendance up to over 3,000 for two of Porter Moser's final 3 seasons there, and much of that was a rise in student attendance. But for a school that is almost 4-times larger than Bradley, and located in the 3rd most populous city in the country, it's still mystery why they can't draw better and remained near the bottom of the MVC.
Now that they are in the A-10, their attendance has dropped back quite a bit. This year, despite being tied for the A-10 conference lead, they are only averaging 2,787 per game. Time for Porter to get back into the dorms.

And for the record, every year he was here, Jim Les did visit fraternities, sororities, and dorms to try to get more students to attend. Even Joanne Glasser did some of that for a while. And the current administration has tried a lot of things, but nothing seems to work.
 
LittleBrave said:
The music is WAY TOO LOUD!! My 10-yr-old son attended his 1st BU game and was covering his ears for the player intros and when they were booming the music. He was asking why I wasn't covering mine, and I told him, "Dude - I grew up in the 80s. The music got LOUD around that time, so I grew used to it I guess." ;)
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It is too loud and people complained so they turned it down some for a few games but now the volume is way up again. I get you want the players and fans excited but they do not have to go overboard.
 
Illinois St. game: did you notice the groups in attendance? They are doing what the Peoria Chiefs do. I think that you need to attract lots of casuals i order to get larger crowds.
 
Da Coach said:
Here are the stats for attendance in the first season that Loyola joined the MVC - http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/2013-14/team.pdf

Loyola was the lowest attendance of any MVC school, 1,928 per game, almost 2 thousand fewer than the next lowest team. Moser must not have been working back then to raise attendance. If he was, he wasn't very successful. But he did some good things for Loyola, and their Final 4 season in 2017-18, there was a little surge in student and overall attendance. But overall attendance that year remained the lowest in the league (2017-18 attendance- 2,405), even lower than Valparaiso! - http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/2017-18/team.pdf

Because of the success, the national attention they got from their Final Four year, and from Sister Jean, they did get their attendance up to over 3,000 for two of Porter Moser's final 3 seasons there, and much of that was a rise in student attendance. But for a school that is almost 4-times larger than Bradley, and located in the 3rd most populous city in the country, it's still mystery why they can't draw better and remained near the bottom of the MVC.
Now that they are in the A-10, their attendance has dropped back quite a bit. This year, despite being tied for the A-10 conference lead, they are only averaging 2,787 per game. Time for Porter to get back into the dorms.

And for the record, every year he was here, Jim Les did visit fraternities, sororities, and dorms to try to get more students to attend. Even Joanne Glasser did some of that for a while. And the current administration has tried a lot of things, but nothing seems to work.
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that's a bit misleading as it apparently counts online students, many of whom don't live anywhere near campus.
Their Chicago campus has 8,000 in-class students but only 3,000 of those are undergrads. LINK
On top of that, 69% of their undergrad students are female, perhaps a bit less likely to go to basketball games.

Of those 3,000, the freshman and sophomores are generally required to live on campus but the rest, mostly those
taking graduate courses, are likely scattered around Chicago. So I think they do pretty well given the actual number
of students on campus, but they don't draw very well at all from the community. You'd think there'd be more interest
from the 60,000 Loyola alumni who live in and around Chicago.
 
yoda said:
that's a bit misleading as it apparently counts online students, many of whom don't live anywhere near campus.
Their Chicago campus has 8,000 in-class students but only 3,000 of those are undergrads. LINK
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You are interpreting those numbers all wrong. My numbers were the correct ones.
First, Loyola may offer online classwork options, like most colleges now do, but they do not appear to have a full-time remote curriculum available as you seem to suggest, meaning that even those who might do work online, still live either on campus or nearby in the Chicago area and attend classes on campus.

And this page, directly from the Loyola website, has their current accurate enrollment statistics.
It shows their precise enrollment numbers for 2023 compared with 2022 - https://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/oie/By School.pdf

Note the last line on the first page, total enrollment this year is 17,397, for 2022 it was 16,899, and those numbers have been pretty consistent over the recent years.
At the top of the first page, it shows that 10,867 are full-time undergraduates and over 11,200 total undergrads(not 3,000 as you claim). In addition, per that link, there are also part-time students, associate degree students, and post-graduate students. All of which still count as students, attend classes, live nearby, and are part of the enrollment numbers. And they have the option to attend basketball games if they felt like supporting their team.

Your misinterpreted link to the "over 8,000 students", are only the students who attend classes at the Lake Shore campus (they also have campuses downtown and other locations). They have thousands of post-graduate students who attend schools of Law, Medicine, Nursing, Business and others and are not at that Lake Shore campus, but are located nearby in the Chicago area. But those thousands of students still count as enrolled Loyola students, just as Bradley's post-graduate students do. And they are all just a few miles from the Gentile Center and could attend basketball games if they were interested.
And finally, the 3,000 figure you claimed as the number of undergraduates, is completely misinterpreted and is way off. There are 10,867 full-time undergraduates as noted above (and over 11,200 total undergrads). The 3,000 figure refers only to those students (mainly freshmen) who reside full-time in campus housing at the Lake Shore campus.
 
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