Attendance

After reading the article again, I'm not really sure what Zach is talking about. He's complaining about almost 13k at MSG for a game against Fordham??? That's a bad number?? The UBS and Barclay experiments were a failure. That's not on the fans. Let's compare apples to apples: what do we draw at MSG, and only MSG, against UCONN, Nova, Georgetown, etc.

Did we even play PC at MSG under Mullin? weak article and arquement by Zach if you ask me. Read like a "filler" story.
 
monte said:
After reading the article again, I'm not really sure what Zach is talking about. He's complaining about almost 13k at MSG for a game against Fordham??? That's a bad number?? The UBS and Barclay experiments were a failure. That's not on the fans. Let's compare apples to apples: what do we draw at MSG, and only MSG, against UCONN, Nova, Georgetown, etc.

Did we even play PC at MSG under Mullin? weak article and arquement by Zach if you ask me. Read like a "filler" story.
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I agree. I also found the whole article poorly argued.

The Barclays game isn’t even in the season ticket package, and there were like six other games going on. And it was against Boston college — is that a game people are expected to be excited about?

And the $35 (I’m not sure he’s factoring in fees, which bring that up anyway) resell thing is apples to oranges. If he cares about more people in attendance, then he should base his argument off of Ticketmaster prices.
 
dk423 said:
I agree. I also found the whole article poorly argued.

The Barclays game isn’t even in the season ticket package, and there were like six other games going on. And it was against Boston college — is that a game people are expected to be excited about?

And the $35 (I’m not sure he’s factoring in fees, which bring that up anyway) resell thing is apples to oranges. If he cares about more people in attendance, then he should base his argument off of Ticketmaster prices.
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Yep, poorly researched, poorly argued and poorly written. Zach is normally much better then this.
 
RedStormNC said:
Good article.

Interestingly he only notes the $35 cost on secondary market and $15 student tickets but not regular price range.

Buying secondary will help with warm body hopefully cheering in seat but does it count as an additional sale for reported attendance figures?

Think he and school are missing the reality of the current economic environment that was not as hard on many pre-covid.
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My view on this is win and they will come regarding casual college fans who came during eighties and couple of years we were good under Jarvis. Whoever brought up point that in NYC people want to go to events that have media buzz (like US Open) was right on. I don't think ticket prices is the prime problem although not discounting its importance. Consumer spending is very strong and people don't hesitate to buy tickets to the Knicks or U.S. Open to give a couple of examples. Media coverage like Zach's article today on fan support can't hurt in stirring up interest from casual sports fan.
We do need to do the kind of things Mike Zaun and others spoke of to get student body involved and enthused; I watch a lot of college hoops and the successful programs' games are always full of loud and engaged students.
 
NCJohnnie said:
My view on this is win and they will come regarding casual college fans who came during eighties and couple of years we were good under Jarvis. Whoever brought up point that in NYC people want to go to events that have media buzz (like US Open) was right on. I don't think ticket prices is the prime problem although not discounting its importance. Consumer spending is very strong and people don't hesitate to buy tickets to the Knicks or U.S. Open to give a couple of examples. Media coverage like Zach's article today on fan support can't hurt in stirring up interest from casual sports fan.
We do need to do the kind of things Mike Zaun and others spoke of to get student body involved and enthused; I watch a lot of college hoops and the successful programs' games are always full of loud and engaged students.
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Nice post
 
NCJohnnie said:
My view on this is win and they will come regarding casual college fans who came during eighties and couple of years we were good under Jarvis. Whoever brought up point that in NYC people want to go to events that have media buzz (like US Open) was right on. I don't think ticket prices is the prime problem although not discounting its importance. Consumer spending is very strong and people don't hesitate to buy tickets to the Knicks or U.S. Open to give a couple of examples.
We do need to do the kind of things Mike Zaun and others spoke of to get student body involved and enthused; I watch a lot of college hoops and the successful programs' games are always full of loud and engaged students.
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Here's the thing NCJ, most of the other programs that have large, engaged student fan based, have had succsss in those student's lifetimes. Think about it:except for Lavin's first year, I would not call any of the past 20+ years a successful one by most standards. So what do any of these kids know about a successful SJU program, except what they hear from their parents and grandparents about the teams of the 80s and 90s?

So, like the casual NY college basketball fan, it may take some time to get the students on the bandwagon in significant numbers.
 
monte said:
Yep, poorly researched, poorly argued and poorly written. Zach is normally much better than this.
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Although Zach is not alone, but you are giving him too much credit in my opinion. Many of the writers — including the “tough guy” NY writers — just pile on to an obviously easy subjective topic. It is lazy reporting.

And using price of a ticket as one reason is disingenuous. Inflation is horrendous (not political, just is what it is). Zach gets credentials for games and free meals in the media room before games.

Geez, how many times can we listen to the cries of, “oh boy, look at the uninspiring attendance numbers. The SJU fans are horrible.”

Throw in NYC is more of a pro town, filled with alums from various other universities, who would rather spend their money in that area. And even the professional sports teams are advertising their ticket availability.

If — by the grace of the college basketball gods — Pitino delivers SJU a national championship, none of us will give a subway sized rat’s a** if the only people in attendance are the posters of this site.

Crap. Sorry, I went on a rant even though I agree with you (except for the Zach is better than this line).
 
kranmars said:
Although Zach is not alone, but you are giving him too much credit in my opinion. Many of the writers — including the “tough guy” NY writers — just pile on to an obviously easy subjective topic. It is lazy reporting.

And using price of a ticket as one reason is disingenuous. Inflation is horrendous (not political, just is what it is). Zach gets credentials for games and free meals in the media room before games.

Geez, how many times can we listen to the cries of, “oh boy, look at the uninspiring attendance numbers. The SJU fans are horrible.”

Throw in NYC is more of a pro town, filled with alums from various other universities, who would rather spend their money in that area. And even the professional sports teams are advertising their ticket availability.

If — by the grace of the college basketball gods — Pitino delivers SJU a national championship, none of us will give a subway sized rat’s a** if the only people in attendance are the posters of this site.

Crap. Sorry, I went on a rant even though I agree with you (except for the Zach is better than this line).
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Well ranted, but way too many paragraphs
 
NCJohnnie said:
My view on this is win and they will come regarding casual college fans who came during eighties and couple of years we were good under Jarvis. Whoever brought up point that in NYC people want to go to events that have media buzz (like US Open) was right on. I don't think ticket prices is the prime problem although not discounting its importance. Consumer spending is very strong and people don't hesitate to buy tickets to the Knicks or U.S. Open to give a couple of examples. Media coverage like Zach's article today on fan support can't hurt in stirring up interest from casual sports fan.
We do need to do the kind of things Mike Zaun and others spoke of to get student body involved and enthused; I watch a lot of college hoops and the successful programs' games are always full of loud and engaged students.
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Reaching casual fans in NYC area is key as you noted.

I chuckle when there is aggressive posting here about attending games. Blowing off steam is fine, but many RM posters do attend, many live in other states and our total readers and posters is not huge enough number to move needle anyway.

“No excuses” mantra seems flawed and better applied to financial support of the program. Just my two cents and realize the basis of exhorting fans to attend games is steeped in good intention.
 
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monte said:
Here's the thing NCJ, most of the other programs that have large, engaged student fan based, have had succsss in those student's lifetimes. Think about it:except for Lavin's first year, I would not call any of the past 20+ years a successful one by most standards. So what do any of these kids know about a successful SJU program, except what they hear from their parents and grandparents about the teams of the 80s and 90s?

So, like the casual NY college basketball fan, it may take some time to get the students on the bandwagon in significant numbers.
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Agree Monte. However, I'd argue it should be a little easier to get student body going to games due to reduced ticket pricing, free bus transportation and student ambassadors creating a buzz around the team by on campus activities so that going to the games becomes the thing to do. But it's been a long time since I was a college student so maybe I'm delusional on that one! I'd hope to see an incremental spike in student attendance at PC , Marquette & Nova games which should mushroom if we win at least 2 of those games.
 
NCJohnnie said:
Agree Monte. However, I'd argue it should be a little easier to get student body going to games due to reduced ticket pricing, free bus transportation and student ambassadors creating a buzz around the team by on campus activities so that going to the games becomes the thing to do. But it's been a long time since I was a college student so maybe I'm delusional on that one! I'd hope to see an incremental spike in student attendance at PC , Marquette & Nova games which should mushroom if we win at least 2 of those games.
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I can be wrong, but don't some programs make season tickets "free" to students since their activity fee pays for it? I think something like that is a no brainer to boost revenue + make it as easy/accessible to go to as possible.
 
NCJohnnie said:
My view on this is win and they will come regarding casual college fans who came during eighties and couple of years we were good under Jarvis. Whoever brought up point that in NYC people want to go to events that have media buzz (like US Open) was right on. I don't think ticket prices is the prime problem although not discounting its importance. Consumer spending is very strong and people don't hesitate to buy tickets to the Knicks or U.S. Open to give a couple of examples. Media coverage like Zach's article today on fan support can't hurt in stirring up interest from casual sports fan.
We do need to do the kind of things Mike Zaun and others spoke of to get student body involved and enthused; I watch a lot of college hoops and the successful programs' games are always full of loud and engaged students.
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I haven't been to a Knicks game in a while but I feel like they get a lot of tourists at a lot of their games. Kind of like Broadway.
 
dk423 said:
I can be wrong, but don't some programs make season tickets "free" to students since their activity fee pays for it? I think something like that is a no brainer to boost revenue + make it as easy/accessible to go to as possible.
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Good point. I mean, in the case of tonight where you know it won't be a sell out, offer 1k free ticket to, let's say, the 1st 1K students with a GPA over 3.0 or whatever. Or maybe offer them game by game to the various schools: Tobin, Law, Pharmacy, etc. So it's somewhat incentivized as well.

SJU has nothing to loose by doing that.
 
Last comment on attendance:

Would Nova sell out most MSG games if they were NY based program with their championships?

Interesting they moved away from playing many BE games from Wells Fargo Arena where did not always sell out to play in 7,000 seat campus arena? Not NYC, but a large city w a ton of sports fans.

Just theorizing that selling out large arenas not easy unless stellar teams like Duke, UConn, etc are in the opponent mix.
 
paultzman said:
Last comment on attendance:

Would Nova sell out most MSG games if they were NY based program with their championships?

Interesting they moved away from playing many BE games from Wells Fargo Arena where did not always sell out to play in 7,000 seat campus arena? Not NYC, but a large city w a ton of sports fans.

Just theorizing that selling out large arenas not easy unless stellar teams like Duke, UConn, etc are in the opponent mix.
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Maybe I'm naive, but I think with a few changes + STJ winning, I think we can consistently get 12-15k by next year.
 
dk423 said:
Maybe I'm naive, but I think with a few changes + STJ winning, I think we can consistently get 12-15k by next year.
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I agree and once it gets to ~14k, MSG doesn't feel empty, that should be the goal. If things keep going in this direction, I think averaging ~14k+ is within the realm of possibility next year and we should also hit that number the later half of the conference schedule this year at MSG. Getting ranked would be huge, and also more casuals pay attention to college bbal in feb/march.
 
paultzman said:
Last comment on attendance:

Would Nova sell out most MSG games if they were NY based program with their championships?

Interesting they moved away from playing many BE games from Wells Fargo Arena where did not always sell out to play in 7,000 seat campus arena? Not NYC, but a large city w a ton of sports fans.

Just theorizing that selling out large arenas not easy unless stellar teams like Duke, UConn, etc are in the opponent mix.
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Good Point for sure. I always feel when we get anything over 12K its a good crowd and makes playing at MSG worth it. We didn't sell out even in the Mullin era for most of our MSG games.
Think with CRP coming some had unrealistic expectations. If we can win big and make a bit of a run in the tournament the crowds will increase next year
 
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