Shame on season ticket holders!

[beast of the east]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2aaVWhqcc[/video]

We owned the Garden once. We'll own the Garden again! 

 

To own the Garden we will need an enormous season ticket base. As soon as tickets go up for sale now, fans of other schools have access to seats. My guess is that we have about 2500 season ticket holder, meaning at MSG 17000 seats are up for grabs. We will never again see a situation like 1985, where 90% or more in attendnace rooted for SJU.

We are now in year 2 of a phenomenal reversal by SJU, first an NCAA bid and now one of the best recruiting classes in the country. If we win, our fan base will increase, but unless we can control 75% of MSG with season tickets unpresendented in our history), games against schools with a strong local alumni base will range form Saturday's embarrassment to neutral.

 

[lawmanfan]

If the program wins 20+ three years in a row and makes a couple of deep NCAA runs, people will come. Until we do, they won't. Period.

 

So to you, fans will stay away if we make the tournament in consecutive years and make a deep run into the NCAA tournament, but then be convinced after 3 years of great basketball and magically return?

I think you have a reading comprehension problem. Or perhaps it's me, since the above is incoherent.

Let's try this again: We will need three consecutive years of 20+ wins, NCAA appearances, and at least one or two deep runs in those NCAA tournaments to revive and maintain a significant level of support for this program. Last year was nice, but one fun year after 10 years of awfulness, followed by a season in which the program struggles to reach double-digits in wins is not going to get it done. And nobody other than hardcore fans cares about recruiting, they care about winning. SJU will draw if it is a marquee program (like Syracuse, for example), and not until then. That means sustained success at a fairly high level. NYC is not Podunk (to coin a phrase), and if the program is not viewed as a national power, it is not going to get significant support.

Is this your brilliant thinking, or is it anecdotal deduction, given that we made the tournament last year, rose to top ten in the rankings, nailed one of the best recruiting classes in the country, and people have still stayed home and the number of season tix haven't increased substantially?

No, this is proof of my point. One nice season (with a first-round NCAA loss) that amounts to an oasis sandwiched between 10 years of mediocrity (at best) and one year of rebuilding does not interest or excite the average fan to care about St Johns. Go to the Sweet 16 next year and support will build. Go to the Elite 8 the year after that and suddenly you will find that people are coming to SJU games.

Are you out of your mind to think we never had a strong graduate ticket base? Most of our long term season ticket holders went to St. John's. Of course there was a time when we were NYC's college basketball team, adopted by many New Yorkers as "their team". As a commuter school, at times the only thing tying people to St. John's was Redmen basketball. For many of us who still show up, it's STILL the main attraction of the school.

It's not 1985 anymore. A lot of the current fan base is leftovers from then (or before). I don't think you will find a lot of people who graduated in the last 10 years with a strong connection to SJU basketball. Gee, I wonder why that is? Meanwhile it is easier than ever for fans to follow other schools on TV, the internet, or even at the Garden.

Are you a season ticket holder?

Only for 25 years.

Were you there on Saturday? Saturday was an embarrassing joke, as are the so called fans of the program who stayed home on Saturday while Syracuse took over MSG.

 

Yes, and it was no different than any other Syracuse or UConn or ND or Duke home game we have had for the last 10 years. Build a winning program, and fans will come. I think we are well on the road, but you won't see average fans or substantial Garden attendance until the results are on the court, SJU is on the Top-25 ticker, and the program's connection to the NCAA tournament is more than a TV shot on Selection Sunday and a bad loss in the first round (and yes, I was there for that, too).

 

[beast of the east]

By the tone of your posts, you seem to possess a superiority complex. I'm okay with it, and used to dealing with, but usually from people that have a reason to possess one.

If you've been a season ticket holder for so long, perhaps the neuropathy from sitting on your hands during games has dulled your senses. Sports is instant gratification, and if you think that any other major college program would require three twenty win seasons (and four in five using your logic) and four trips in five years to the NCAA tournament to rebuild our fan base than you are as apathetic as most of our alumni.

Bottom line is, after a much faster turnaround by Lavin and co, fans should be showing up now. It is only the dull minds of fans that don't understand basketball that can only comprehend wins and losses. Anyone who knows basketball can plainly see that something very good is happening on the court now.

My further point is that we aren't going to "rebuild" our fan base, we have to construct a new one. Maybe it will take five years, and maybe it will never happen, but it should be happening now.

Thanks by the way, for your unfailing support of Redmen basketball. Disagree as we may, we are on the same team.

If the program wins 20+ three years in a row and makes a couple of deep NCAA runs, people will come. Until we do, they won't. Period.

 

So to you, fans will stay away if we make the tournament in consecutive years and make a deep run into the NCAA tournament, but then be convinced after 3 years of great basketball and magically return?

I think you have a reading comprehension problem. Or perhaps it's me, since the above is incoherent.

Let's try this again: We will need three consecutive years of 20+ wins, NCAA appearances, and at least one or two deep runs in those NCAA tournaments to revive and maintain a significant level of support for this program. Last year was nice, but one fun year after 10 years of awfulness, followed by a season in which the program struggles to reach double-digits in wins is not going to get it done. And nobody other than hardcore fans cares about recruiting, they care about winning. SJU will draw if it is a marquee program (like Syracuse, for example), and not until then. That means sustained success at a fairly high level. NYC is not Podunk (to coin a phrase), and if the program is not viewed as a national power, it is not going to get significant support.

Is this your brilliant thinking, or is it anecdotal deduction, given that we made the tournament last year, rose to top ten in the rankings, nailed one of the best recruiting classes in the country, and people have still stayed home and the number of season tix haven't increased substantially?

No, this is proof of my point. One nice season (with a first-round NCAA loss) that amounts to an oasis sandwiched between 10 years of mediocrity (at best) and one year of rebuilding does not interest or excite the average fan to care about St Johns. Go to the Sweet 16 next year and support will build. Go to the Elite 8 the year after that and suddenly you will find that people are coming to SJU games.

Are you out of your mind to think we never had a strong graduate ticket base? Most of our long term season ticket holders went to St. John's. Of course there was a time when we were NYC's college basketball team, adopted by many New Yorkers as "their team". As a commuter school, at times the only thing tying people to St. John's was Redmen basketball. For many of us who still show up, it's STILL the main attraction of the school.

It's not 1985 anymore. A lot of the current fan base is leftovers from then (or before). I don't think you will find a lot of people who graduated in the last 10 years with a strong connection to SJU basketball. Gee, I wonder why that is? Meanwhile it is easier than ever for fans to follow other schools on TV, the internet, or even at the Garden.

Are you a season ticket holder?

Only for 25 years.

Were you there on Saturday? Saturday was an embarrassing joke, as are the so called fans of the program who stayed home on Saturday while Syracuse took over MSG.

 

Yes, and it was no different than any other Syracuse or UConn or ND or Duke home game we have had for the last 10 years. Build a winning program, and fans will come. I think we are well on the road, but you won't see average fans or substantial Garden attendance until the results are on the court, SJU is on the Top-25 ticker, and the program's connection to the NCAA tournament is more than a TV shot on Selection Sunday and a bad loss in the first round (and yes, I was there for that, too).