Attendance and Atmosphere

NYCRedmen

NYCRedmen

Well-known member
Only 6,707 and half seemed to be in a coma last night. Even the Daily News commented on our poor showing last night. Kudos to those who were there and made noise, it's just unfortunate that there weren't more in the house like you guys.

www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/st-john-loses-critical-big-east-game-xavier-article-1.1701842
 
We will be seeing a lot more conference games at Carnesecca. With no Cuse at MSG it could be really dreadful numbers for us overall next year.
 
Only 6,707 and half seemed to be in a coma last night. Even the Daily News commented on our poor showing last night. Kudos to those who were there and made noise, it's just unfortunate that there weren't more in the house like you guys.

www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/st-john-loses-critical-big-east-game-xavier-article-1.1701842
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say the place was in a coma. But NY fans are never going to cheer when a team is behind a lot. Granted last night it was close and the fans were trying to will the team back into it. I don't think the fans were in a coma. Just low numbers in a big building.

When will SJU realize ticket prices are a flat out joke? All the groupons and half price offers in the world wont fix things.
 
Compared to the Creighton and G'Town games it seemed like there was much less energy in the building to me. I sit on the opposite end of the opposing team's basket and last night was the first time all year I could hear the coach from the other team yelling out instructions to his team. Chris Mack must have quite the vocal chords.

I agree 100% regarding ticket prices though.
 
Only 6,707 and half seemed to be in a coma last night. Even the Daily News commented on our poor showing last night. Kudos to those who were there and made noise, it's just unfortunate that there weren't more in the house like you guys.

www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/st-john-loses-critical-big-east-game-xavier-article-1.1701842
Click to expand...

I was there and I don' agree that half of us were in a coma. There wasn't much to get excited about. And when there was, we were cheering and standing, trying our best to get into it. But when we did, X would come back with yet another easy lay-up and that was so discouraging.

But I thought our students did a nice job and kudos to them.
 
Only 6,707 and half seemed to be in a coma last night. Even the Daily News commented on our poor showing last night. Kudos to those who were there and made noise, it's just unfortunate that there weren't more in the house like you guys.

www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/st-john-loses-critical-big-east-game-xavier-article-1.1701842
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say the place was in a coma. But NY fans are never going to cheer when a team is behind a lot. Granted last night it was close and the fans were trying to will the team back into it. I don't think the fans were in a coma. Just low numbers in a big building.

When will SJU realize ticket prices are a flat out joke? All the groupons and half price offers in the world wont fix things.
Click to expand...

SJU always screwed loyal fans. Remember the intro to the points system? I went on a rant after finding out I had zero points because I did not renew my season tickets after year four of Norm Roberts.

The University said in essence, being a season ticket holder since 1993 meant nothing. I would be in the same spot as someone who was buying for the first time. And it wasn't as if fans were clamoring for tickets either. It is just that the school is very shortsighted. A little loyalty goes a long way. I think we argued the merits of that.
 
Compared to the Creighton and G'Town games it seemed like there was much less energy in the building to me. I sit on the opposite end of the opposing team's basket and last night was the first time all year I could hear the coach from the other team yelling out instructions to his team. Chris Mack must have quite the vocal chords.

I agree 100% regarding ticket prices though.
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Interesting because some said Gtown game fans were on their hands. Blowouts will do that too. Mack is loud, but I heard him from my seats in behind the SJU bench and up. From talking to people at halftime most were nervous that it wouldnt end well. Fans tried to will team back in it a few times but watching a couple breakaways end in trainwreck fashion and the ball bouncing around like a hot potato took the air out of the fans a bit.
 
Only 6,707 and half seemed to be in a coma last night. Even the Daily News commented on our poor showing last night. Kudos to those who were there and made noise, it's just unfortunate that there weren't more in the house like you guys.

www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/st-john-loses-critical-big-east-game-xavier-article-1.1701842
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say the place was in a coma. But NY fans are never going to cheer when a team is behind a lot. Granted last night it was close and the fans were trying to will the team back into it. I don't think the fans were in a coma. Just low numbers in a big building.

When will SJU realize ticket prices are a flat out joke? All the groupons and half price offers in the world wont fix things.
Click to expand...

I totally agree about ticket prices
 
We need win more games. Right now it's mostly core fans of the program. The quasi/casual SJU fan or the New York sports fan isn't coming to watch two bubble teams play, as big of a game as it may have been. Good crowds for Cuse/Nova/GTown (driven in part by opposing fan bases) and that's basically it.

We become a team in the Top 25 beating other Top 25 teams and that's where you get to the Georgetown level atmoshpere or above. Proof is in the pudding with the 2010/2011 team.

Right now as Moose said the place is too big to fill up just on core fans. We need to be more relevant to draw the casual fan at the prices we charge.
 
What's really funny (or sad depending on how you look at it) is that we drew more fans for a conference team with 2 wins on a Tuesday at 9:00 than we did last night. The Butler game had over 7K in attendance. It's not a big difference from last night but that was against a last place team at 9:00.
 
If you're looking for the cause of the coma atmosphere, just look at the lackluster
performance from this team.
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The coma atmosphere was there before the lackluster performance. Half of the fans who did make it into the arena were not there for the starting lineups or opening tip. We all talk about how it was "the biggest game of the year" but IMHO, the fans laid an egg just like the team did. I'm not pointing fingers ant anyone individually, because there are always valid reasons why someone can't make a game...but it was extremely dissapointing to see the lack of support for the biggest game in at least 3 years.
 
I was there last night and was obviously disappointed in attendance as well. I didn't feel that the crowd was in a coma as when the game was close we tried making some noise, as apparent when Pointer and Sanchez (I believe) had those back to back blocks when we were down six. Personally I think walking into the arena and seeing how empty it was took away the enthusiasm from some fans. My section comprised of a few pretty good/loud fans but behind me their were a bunch of tourist who kept yelling, "lets go NYC." When Xavier started off on a 6-0 run the girls next to me decided to root for Xavier. I think if done right the school could bring in a lot more tourist but that would have to do with the marketing and ticket prices. If we made tickets more affordable I believe that a bunch of tourist would pay the $15-$20 to see a game in the upper bowl at Madison Square Garden. Ticket prices definitely need to go down in order for us to fill the Garden on a regular basis though. Living in the Hartford area I know that UConn sells upper bowl seating as well as baseline seats for $19 dollars and center court seats around $45. They still struggle to draw tons of fans for their low level OOC games but it makes it much more likely for casual basketball fans with nothing to do to go catch a game, especially the bigger games.
I also think that seeing that how the upper bowl is COMPLETELY empty that we should try and take the community by storm and give out some tickets to families in the housing projects around the city, to residents of queens, schools around the city etc. Not only do I think that this would draw a few more fans but would also improve the interest in the team throughout the city, especially if they win and could possibly pay of in the future with local recruits who will have that memory in their heads. If the tickets aren't being sold anyway I don't see any harm in giving them away. Have some of the marketing interns stand in times square giving out tickets before games like the comedy clubs do etc.
 
In fairness, the Nova fans were complaining about the lack of enthusiasm from their side when we played them on Sat. I wasn't there, but on TV seemed that our small fan base outshouted them on several occasions.
 
I also think that it is ridiculous for some fans to say that we are better off without MSG. Without MSG we don't get the players we need to win on this stage and things get much worse, much faster.
 
Ticket prices have barely anything to do with ST. John's.

This is all MSG and having to pay for renovations. Costs have gone up.

Before renovated you could sit in the 300's for 15 to 25 dollars. Times have changed.

It is up to SJU and MSG to try to come to some sort of an agreement on what is best trying to get the maximum amount of fans into MSG. But starting price of 35 to get into a game is just got not going to get it done.

Bucknast
 
Was there with 3 others in Section 108 last night. It was a bit subdued. But then again the game was pretty ugly.

At the very end, a very loud fan, sitting behind us, shouted very loudly at DLo, "this loss is directly on your shoulders, you were terrible Harrison, this game was lost because of you, etc."

The place was so quiet, and actually DLo was on the bench in the last minute or so with a badly banged up knee.

I thought the guy was probably right in his assessment, but his shouting it at the player was uncalled for.
 
Ticket prices have barely anything to do with ST. John's.

This is all MSG and having to pay for renovations. Costs have gone up.

Before renovated you could sit in the 300's for 15 to 25 dollars. Times have changed.

It is up to SJU and MSG to try to come to some sort of an agreement on what is best trying to get the maximum amount of fans into MSG. But starting price of 35 to get into a game is just got not going to get it done.

Bucknast
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Your right but guess what. If SJU wants to try to make money off of the new Garden rent they will be swimming upstream for a long time. Walk before you run. You aren't putting asses in the seats and just marking down half the arena with groupon and 50% off codes. Put asses in the seats. Then if the team gets good you can raise the price of tickets. We have no choice. We use the Garden as a crutch and they can charge us whatever they want. Sometimes you have to suck it up and think of more creative ways to cover the loss.
 
If you're looking for the cause of the coma atmosphere, just look at the lackluster
performance from this team.
Click to expand...

The coma atmosphere was there before the lackluster performance. Half of the fans who did make it into the arena were not there for the starting lineups or opening tip. We all talk about how it was "the biggest game of the year" but IMHO, the fans laid an egg just like the team did. I'm not pointing fingers ant anyone individually, because there are always valid reasons why someone can't make a game...but it was extremely dissapointing to see the lack of support for the biggest game in at least 3 years.
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Where did I say I wasn't there.
 
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