Creighton Game #2
- Thread starter Jack Williams
- Start date
Let's face it our fan base is awful. Blame whoever you want (administration, poor coaches, MSG disconnect from campus), not enough people care about St John's basketball. That's the bottom line.
Most of our MSG games are the equivalent of neutral site games. You think we'll have a home court advantage against Georgetown next week? I doubt it and would expect their fans will be louder than ours even if we outnumber them. I was actually pleasantly surprised that our crowd last night actually made some noise in something other than the tee-shirt toss. It was definitely one of our more vocal crowds.
Creighton had more fans on a Sunday night in NYC than we did in Brooklyn. We couldn't sell out vs # 2 Cuse or Nova when their fans bought more tickets then our non-season ticket holders. Do you think maybe those 2 games may have turned out a little differently with an actual home court advantage? Who knows but I'd imagine it wouldn't have hurt our chances. If we win 1 of those 2 our season looks entirely different right now.
What a shame!
Most of our MSG games are the equivalent of neutral site games. You think we'll have a home court advantage against Georgetown next week? I doubt it and would expect their fans will be louder than ours even if we outnumber them. I was actually pleasantly surprised that our crowd last night actually made some noise in something other than the tee-shirt toss. It was definitely one of our more vocal crowds.
Creighton had more fans on a Sunday night in NYC than we did in Brooklyn. We couldn't sell out vs # 2 Cuse or Nova when their fans bought more tickets then our non-season ticket holders. Do you think maybe those 2 games may have turned out a little differently with an actual home court advantage? Who knows but I'd imagine it wouldn't have hurt our chances. If we win 1 of those 2 our season looks entirely different right now.
What a shame!
jerseyshorejohnny
Well-known member
There were quite a few Hoya fans at The Michigan State game last week.
Would not be surprised in the least if their fans didn't outnumber ours this coming Sunday.
Then again, we always draw well on the road !! LOL !!!!!!!!
Would not be surprised in the least if their fans didn't outnumber ours this coming Sunday.
Then again, we always draw well on the road !! LOL !!!!!!!!
STJ11Redmen
Active member
Georgetown fans will not be louder than our fans. They're the tamest group in the Big East.
jerseyshorejohnny
Well-known member
A total void of school spirit.
STJ11Redmen
Active member
I thought the students did a good job last night. The real problem is the alums who never show and administrators who charge 45 dollars for the cheapest seat in the house.
Great idea JSJ...Kieran Lynch (Editor in Chief) torcheic@gmail.com...Just sent him this eMail
Hi Kieran
I am a proud '78/'82 graduate of St. John's and season ticket holder since 1974. I have lived and died with the Redmen and now the Red Storm for 40+ years.
The lack of success over the recent past has really taken its' toll on attendance. But, as I am sure you already know and feel, we are on the precipice of a real resurgence. Unfortunately, jaded NYers are not so quick to jump on the bandwagon - preferring to wait for results before investing time and a few $s.
This is the most talented team we have had in years and they really need the support of the student body. From what I hear the school has made some very attractive ticket prices, available to students, for the upcoming Georgetown (Sunday, February 16 @ 7pm) and Butler (Tuesday, February 18) games.
Georgetown has a large NYC-based alumni base that will come out in force on Sunday and is reportedly encouraging students to take advantage of an attractive bus/ticket offer. It's time for the SJ student body to respond to the challenge, show their school pride and support a very talented team and great bunch of kids. With Monday being a holiday, this should be a "no brainer".
The bandwagon is ready to roll and we need the help of media like the Torch to help generate the buzz. Perhaps a front page challenge!
Go Johnnies!
jerseyshorejohnny
Well-known member
Excellent ! Excellent !! Excellent !!!
jerseyshorejohnny
Well-known member
The students who were at The Garden were great. The problem is there are too few of them.
I would guess there are more alumni and their families in the arena than actual students.
STJ11Redmen
Active member
As there should be. Most schools only allocate around 10% of their total tickets for students. Yesterday's student crowd was double the biggest student crowd I ever saw during the Norm years. Rome wasn't built in a day. If you consistently win then people will come. It's not a situation that is unique to St. John's either. There isn't a school in America that has lost as consistently as we have for the entire lifetime of our current students that would draw more students than we have thus far to see a team that's under .500. Fact of the matter is that the average student sees we are under .500 and playing a team they have never heard of so they don't want to spend 10 bucks on a ticket, 5 bucks on transportation and 10-15 bucks at least for food.
beast of the east
Active member
I knew there would be a post like yours. You cannot defend student apathy. $99 for a student season ticket is less than most concert tickets, a single game ticket at $10 is less than it costs to go to a movie. Obviously, it's not a requirement for students to support school teams, and by and large, our students don't.
St. John's basketball just isn't a hot ticket for anyone right now. Over the years I'd call the athletic department if I needed extra game tickets near my section and pay full retail price plus a fedex charge if applicable, about $85 per ticket. Yesterday, 2 hours before game time I went on ticketmaster and bought a ticket in the 100s for $43, after taxes and service charge. A seat in row 1 in section 3 (courtside) was $60 total. Already tickets to remaining games have been slashed, but not if you contact st. john's directly.
Many of our frequent posters here consider the cost and time of commuting to the garden not worth the effort, and many of our frequent posters don't live in metro NYC anymore. Our fan base is small. The advantage is that during a single timeout yesterday I was able to get food, return it to my seat, then go to the bathroom, and didn't miss one second of action. In a sold out Garden that's a 10-15 minute adventure.
If I had to venture a guess, students who won't spend $10 plus $5 in transportation probably aren't watching our games on TV either.
STJ11Redmen
Active member
I don't get your point. If people don't want to go to a basketball game what are you gonna do? When I entered school during the Norm years the basketball team was such a joke on campus that if you would even propose going to a game people would laugh at you. The team was the butt of jokes from professors and students in class. Now I see people actually having pride in their school and enjoying the games. The student turnout last night was on par, if not better, than every other school in the Big East. You also have to remember that 3/4 of the current students have never seen St. John's have a good season while they were students. Win and people will come, it's that simple.
Class of 72
Active member
Red, as you know, traveling to the Garden can be an adventure if you live in the outer boroughs and driving into Manhattan can be time consuming. Our Manhattan alums have an easy trip to MSG. The guys in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island may as well be driving in from Philadelphia. College towns like Syracuse, Lawrence, Omaha, Chapel Hill, etc. are small towns with folks driving less than 15 minutes to get to the arena....with plenty of parking. The Sunday night lunacy has to stop since Manhattan is a great date city with so many things to do before or after a game. On a Sunday night not so much. I think it has as much to do with Fox not understanding the demographics of NYC versus Omaha as much as fan apathy to a team that people lost interest in when they went 0-5. That apathy is apparent here on redmen.com as much as it is at home games where even long time fans and some mods have basically thrown in the towel. As some people have said, keep winning and the fans will start coming back.
BTW, the student turnout was great but many in our fan base go back half a century to when the Beatles were a must see on a Sunday night on the Ed Sullivan show. My guess on the poor attendance this past Sunday was that at least 2,000 of those fans who would have been at MSG stayed home to relive their youth! LOL!!!!! Look for around 8-9,000 for the Gtown game, and even more if both teams keep winning.
beast of the east
Active member
The point is, in a city where a glass of wine can cost $12 or more, a movie ticket as much as $17, concert tickets at $100, theatre at $180 for good seats, you can't give the tired old argument that $10 plus $5 in mass transit is too expensive. Students spend $10 in Starbucks for a latte and scone - its not about the money. You are right about winning, but don't tell me we have a spirited student section, or that there is plenty of school spirit around SJU bball. That's a joke. Watch games on TV, you see students with giant poster heads, faces or chests painted, absolutely a terror for visiting teams. Our pathetic students discarded the LAVINWOOD sign after our 0-5 start and on Sunday, all that remained was a "D" that some kid was waving, presumably for "Defense". I know for a fact that Villanova on campus games are filled with students, in an old arena that seats 6000 from a school with 7000 kids. Every kid on campus knows who the coach is, who the players are - even if they aren't big sports fans.
I agree with your point that winning solves a lot, but in our pathetic fan base, that doesn't even mean 8-3 in conference and not 5-6. It would mean top 15 ranking, major buzz in the city about the team, and then more students and older fans will show up. That's pathetic, because we have a talented roster that has played well for a month now, and people are still staying home. Why? Because by and large, sports fans are fans of winning, and not of that sport or that team.
