Rick Pitino - Head Coach at St John’s University!!!

bucketshardy said:
"St. John's University (NY) has a total undergraduate enrollment of 15,699 (fall 2023)... At this school, 25% of the students live in college-owned, -operated or -affiliated housing"

So... we would need 12% of the On Campus pop to attend to get 500 students there.... there has to be something that can be rolled out... trust Mr. Kull has to be cookin something up.... at least for the KState game....
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K-State is 11:30 AM, so I'd suggest a fire drill + free Dunkin Donuts to start.
 
A lot of good points made in this thread in regard to attendance. This is an apples and oranges comparison, but I live near Columbia University, and my wife works for the school, and although the sports teams aren't great, just an observation that it appears many of the students aren't even interested in attending sporting events but just there to get an education.

Younger people are different these days than when we were that age. A night of entertainment for them could be going on TikTok for 2 hours. Especially in NYC where there are unlimited opportunities for entertainment, a sporting event may not be the priority. Considering the fact that the basketball team, as much as we might not want to admit, has a reputation for being terrible for 2+ decades. It is not a must attend event.
 
The problem with game attendance is as bad or worse than the state of the teams playing over recent years. The school needs to nurse the metro-area high schools to build interest in future years. There should never be an empty seat in CA. If tickets not sold 2 weeks before game day, start to distribute tickets to local Catholic schools, etc. Give tickets away to charities, etc. Pack the house.
 
room112 said:
A lot of good points made in this thread in regard to attendance. This is an apples and oranges comparison, but I live near Columbia University, and my wife works for the school, and although the sports teams aren't great, just an observation that it appears many of the students aren't even interested in attending sporting events but just there to get an education.

Younger people are different these days than when we were that age. A night of entertainment for them could be going on TikTok for 2 hours. Especially in NYC where there are unlimited opportunities for entertainment, a sporting event may not be the priority. Considering the fact that the basketball team, as much as we might not want to admit, has a reputation for being terrible for 2+ decades. It is not a must attend event.
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My daughters were much more into the arts than sports; as far as playing yeah, when they were younger they were exposed to the typical soccer, BB and softball, but it did not take. They got to HS and College and sports were not on their radar at all.

Their male friends too, again more into music, arts etc. So the present StJ student body make mirror my experience which I am not saying is universal; I have other friends with families more into sports, but not everyone is like that.

That would explain why when we see games on t.v., at X, Marquette, Creighton, Providence, we have nothing to compare it to.

We do not have section after section after section of die-hard student fans.
 
BrookJersey Redmen said:
My daughters were much more into the arts than sports; as far as playing yeah, when they were younger they were exposed to the typical soccer, BB and softball, but it did not take. They got to HS and College and sports were not on their radar at all.

Their male friends too, again more into music, arts etc. So the present StJ student body make mirror my experience which I am not saying is universal; I have other friends with families more into sports, but not everyone is like that.

That would explain why when we see games on t.v., at X, Marquette, Creighton, Providence, we have nothing to compare it to.

We do not have section after section after section of die-hard student fans.
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Its difficult because some of this has to be an organic culture built by the students, or else it'll never fully take. But I also think there are plenty of things STJ can do to make it a fun option. One thing that's universal is that students love free food and, most of them, cheap beer. Maybe it is dollar beers for students who are 21 & over, free chick-fil-a, performer at halftime, tailgates in Taffner. It's not my job to figure it out (nor anyone on here), but if the product is this good, there should be a way to make this a happening place on a Wednesday night! They should definitely make it "free" (aka, just increase the activity fee to pay for it), but also promote how much fun it is on social media. Each game should be a party atmosphere for the students. I think part of this solution has to be giving money and resources to student government and student groups to get these kids to go -- people like me aren't going to figure out the solutions.

I was at STJ '09-13 and thought we had pretty good student involvement during the Lavin years. RedZone also had some fun trips to opposing games. There was always a hangout component to it. Even the soccer games were well attended and fun when I was there.
 
dk423 said:
Its difficult because some of this has to be an organic culture built by the students, or else it'll never fully take. But I also think there are plenty of things STJ can do to make it a fun option. One thing that's universal is that students love free food and, most of them, cheap beer. Maybe it is dollar beers for students who are 21 & over, free chick-fil-a, performer at halftime, tailgates in Taffner. It's not my job to figure it out (nor anyone on here), but if the product is this good, there should be a way to make this a happening place on a Wednesday night! They should definitely make it "free" (aka, just increase the activity fee to pay for it), but also promote how much fun it is on social media. Each game should be a party atmosphere for the students. I think part of this solution has to be giving money and resources to student government and student groups to get these kids to go -- people like me aren't going to figure out the solutions.

I was at STJ '09-13 and thought we had pretty good student involvement during the Lavin years. RedZone also had some fun trips to opposing games. There was always a hangout component to it. Even the soccer games were well attended and fun when I was there.
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I think you hit the nail on the head here. If there is a culture on the campus that the basketball games are can't miss events, and it's a really fun experience, then word of that will spread, and there will be anticipation for the games. Unfortunately I feel like the lack of enthusiasm has a lot to do with the success of the program over the past 25 years.

This is not a clean comparison, but when I got to UConn for school, it was a whole thing for kids to camp out for student tickets. Obviously that was a winning program at the time coming off of a championship a few years earlier, and obviously many of the students that went to the school were already fans of the team, but it was part of the culture.
 
room112 said:
I think you hit the nail on the head here. If there is a culture on the campus that the basketball games are can't miss events, and it's a really fun experience, then word of that will spread, and there will be anticipation for the games. Unfortunately I feel like the lack of enthusiasm has a lot to do with the success of the program over the past 25 years.

This is not a clean comparison, but when I got to UConn for school, it was a whole thing for kids to camp out for student tickets. Obviously that was a winning program at the time coming off of a championship a few years earlier, and obviously many of the students that went to the school were already fans of the team, but it was part of the culture.
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It's an interesting cycle because schools definitely an a boost in applications from a team's successes in March. If you're one of those people who are applying to a school (even in part) for that experience, then you'll be determined to be a part of it it when you step foot on campus.
 
All good points being made, and I'll add that another key part of this - watching a game at Carnesecca isn't great. Obviously this has been discussed many times.

But the general admission 5 dollar tickets that students can get at the window, those (in my time at least) were always bleacher seats. It's uncomfortable, I even remember when I was there, not only was the seating uncomfortable, but the temperature was too, and then there'd be weird sh*t like sometimes there are these flashing lights that go off in the corners of the building, that used to blur my vision. I don't know if anyone else has noticed that before while there.

It just simply isn't that nice to watch a game there. It would be awesome to remodel it but I understand that is a very tall task.
 
Jack Williams said:
All good points being made, and I'll add that another key part of this - watching a game at Carnesecca isn't great. Obviously this has been discussed many times.

But the general admission 5 dollar tickets that students can get at the window, those (in my time at least) were always bleacher seats. It's uncomfortable, I even remember when I was there, not only was the seating uncomfortable, but the temperature was too, and then there'd be weird sh*t like sometimes there are these flashing lights that go off in the corners of the building, that used to blur my vision. I don't know if anyone else has noticed that before while there.

It just simply isn't that nice to watch a game there. It would be awesome to remodel it but I understand that is a very tall task.
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Yeah if the place isn't fun and not comfortable, watching your team trounce a low/mid-major isn't exactly box office.
 
In terms of student attendance, I have posted this in a thread previously but we need more engagement from on campus greek life organizations and other sports team.

Remember how much noise the lacrosse team made last year at the game they all went to? If we can get 2-3 other teams at each game that is a huge boost.

In terms of Greek Life, why isn't every frat brother at every game? I don't know what the administration can give them to incentivize it but they can potentially make in an accreditation event. Same thing with the sororities.
 
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