SJU's Home Court

[quote="Adam" post=311782][quote="IDRAFT" post=311777]Hey, I can get to Carnesecca in fifteen minutes and also not deal with the LIRR, but MSG is worth every bit of the extra commute. Plus a 6:30 game is not a disaster for the majority of NYC area fans who work in Manhattan. A balance of on campus and MSG games has always been the correct formula and the program needs to schedule one or two more MSG quality games a year.
First move - never play at Barclays again - it is a complete waste to play there. It’s an awful arena with no atmosphere and no one really wants to go there. You can toss the “new” (if a paint job makes something new) Coliseum into the always avoid mix too, and thankfully the program has done just that.[/quote]

I could be wrong, but I think the advantage of playing at Barclays is that it counts as neutral games. For example, this year our two Tournament games there were neutral. I'm pretty sure the Princeton game, despite technically being a Tournament game, is home since we play a certain amount of games at MSG.

If that's the case, I'd say continue to play there. But if they count as home games, then absolutely don't.[/quote]

You are correct. The NET qualified both barclays games as true neutral court games and Princeton a home game.

Other metrics like KenPom only gave us credit for a semi-home game for the Barclays games which costs us around 6-7 spots in the rankings.
 
[quote="Beast of the East" post=311721]After the full house victory at CA, where we enjoyed a marked home court advantage, it begs the question of whether we should forego the cache of MSG at least temporarily while we build a strong program that benefits from packed CA games where fans create a decided home court advantage. The Big East might not like it or even allow it, but St. John's is in the unenviable position that MSG games can become home games or neutral court games against teams like Villanova and even Seton Hall. Pretty sure Syracuse or Duke would not play us on campus if there is revenue sharing on home games, and that against good Johnnie teams they wold be much more likely to get tagged with a loss at CA.

If we packed CA for one or two seasons, building a bigger on campus arena would seem to be a no brainer and should be part of the thinking.

Your thoughts? There are a lot of pros and cons, but my feeling is that W's and NCAA bids will build the program faster than recruiting benefits from playing at MSG[/quote]

Beast wrote: "my feeling is that W's and NCAA bids will build the program faster than recruiting benefits from playing at MSG".

I agree! We can play at MSG 12 games a year but if we don't win and go to the dance the fact that we played in MSG is meaningless to a recruit. They want to play for winning coaches. That's why recruits go to Spokane Washington or Reno Nevada or Storrs Shit Cow Connecticut.
You got to win to land recruits.
 
On his show yesterday, Boomer Esiason advocated that they should all be played at CA because of the noise a sellout pro home team crowd makes there (like Tuesday night) as compared to what 10,000 at MSG sounds and looks like. Evidently he has stated this before.

I would like to see if it were possible to raise the roof and blow out the ends at CA for more seating and upgrades. I don’t see them building a new Arena on campus.

I would like a National game or two at MSG with maybe four league games there. And no more Holiday Festival as it is currently configured. Use that for a National game against Gonzaga or someone as one of the six.
 
[quote="SJU85" post=311810]On his show yesterday, Boomer Esiason advocated that they should all be played at CA because of the noise a sellout pro home team crowd makes there (like Tuesday night) as compared to what 10,000 at MSG sounds and looks like. Evidently he has stated this before.

I would like to see if it were possible to raise the roof and blow out the ends at CA for more seating and upgrades. I don’t see them building a new Arena on campus.

I would like a National game or two at MSG with maybe four league games there. And no more Holiday Festival as it is currently configured. Use that for a National game against Gonzaga or someone as one of the six.[/quote]

Boomer is a moron and should stick to hockey and his Eli bashing.
 
[quote="Enright" post=311740]MSG is still an advantage in recruiting and MSG would have no trouble at all getting someone to take the SJU five or six dates who would then use that in recruiting against us.[/quote]

My fear would be that Seton Hall or Rutgers steps into our ‘vacancy’ and plays 5 - 6 games at MSG, potentially taking the ‘We Are New York’s Team’ mantra as well.
Imagine playing the Hall at MSG—where they are the ‘home’ team?!!?
Ugh!
Nightmare time.
Can’t risk that.
The burden is on St. John’s to field consistent winners years-year.
Winning takes care of everything, including MSG issues.
We’ll pack the Garden if we are ‘winners’.
It’s that simple imo.
 
I would rather play in a packed Garden than a packed CA, and would rather play in a packed CA than a quiet Garden. Think the key is striking the right balance of the first 2 to completely avoid the last.

Wonder if we'll see over the next few months that we've already achieved that? I was pretty surprised at how crowded Princeton was. Lower bowl was pretty full with mostly red. Wondering if that's an early indicator given the opponent and early stage of season.

Add onto that (1) we've scaled back games at MSG by almost 50% from a recent high of I think 8 to 5, only 4 in conference; (2) we're good; and (3) 3 of the 4 remaining Garden games are Saturday or Sunday before a holiday. If we keep up the strong play, those games could be energized.

At the same time Georgetown is on a Sunday, it will be interesting to see if Providence generates a lot of excitement, and Nova may be down (which could limit their fan attendance) + long weekend. So there are some factors working against the MSG games as well, not a lock that all of them will be packed, I think if things continue as they are I think Seton Hall may be the only one that is an absolute lock to be an insane environment.

I guess where I land is this year will be a good test case for when we are (hopefully) good what the numbers and atmospheres look like at MSG vs. CA across a variety of circumstances.

The ultimate goal is to go 9/9 between the two in terms of strong fan turnout and energized crowds, so will be interesting to see how close we get to that. Would be great if that number were 7 or 8 this year and then incrementally adjust/add as Paultz suggested.
 
[quote="SJU1512" post=311838]I would rather play in a packed Garden than a packed CA, and would rather play in a packed CA than a quiet Garden. Think the key is striking the right balance of the first 2 to completely avoid the last.

[/quote]

Where does a loud packed Garden with 50% of attendance being for the opponent fit into your rankings?
 
I think the way it is scheduled now is fine, less games at MSG. As we increase our profile MSG games can be increased ,especially against high profile programs. MSG still a nice draw to recruits, but have to have a lot of fans there to make it worthwhile.
 
As our roster improves, we should schedule a couple of high profile non league games at MSG
 
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[quote="austour" post=311844][quote="SJU1512" post=311838]I would rather play in a packed Garden than a packed CA, and would rather play in a packed CA than a quiet Garden. Think the key is striking the right balance of the first 2 to completely avoid the last.

[/quote]

Where does a loud packed Garden with 50% of attendance being for the opponent fit into your rankings?[/quote]

It's a fair question. If we are good it's almost all the same from my perspective. If we are bad it's borderline unbearable :) Some of the Cuse games between 04-12 in particular were just awful.

Obviously I'd prefer the crowd be heavily tilted SJU. But when SJU is good and the few programs capable of making it 50/50 are good (Nova, Georgetown, Duke, Cuse, and UConn) the buzz and energy around a big game at likely the best basketball venue in the world is still a net positive in my view: for the game, for recruiting, for the media coverage, for the buzz around the program in general.

Most of the best/most enjoyable games I've been to at MSG were against those teams in a 50/50 type environment. Cuse on a Saturday night in '00 which we won close and then turned around two days later on Monday and ran UConn out of the gym. Duke '11, UConn '11, Duke '18.

If we were to get to the point where we were consistently winning our fair share of those games, and then could fill MSG mostly red in other big games against teams outside those 5 (ala Pitt in '11) I think that's a good place for the program to be venue-wise. Everything else at CA. Use both to our advantage.
 
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we are several years away from our fans becoming less. Yes, if we get out of the gates fast in conference at 5-1 or 6-1, they will begin to buy garden tickets. By then Villanova fans will have bought most of the tickets at MSG. That will happen in any season where we play Syracuse, Duke, UCONN, Villanova, or any semi local team on a big upswing. Our fans only begin to creep out when we create a buzz in NYC. Despite Marquette win and Seton Hall debacle, only the real fans are showing up. Marquette was like a weekend game at CA. My guess if it was scheduled for tonight at 6 30 or 830 we'd have less than the sellout we had.

To me, despite the glamor of the Garden, there is nothing like CA being jam packed, fans very close to the court, students almost hanging on the backboards and blowing the roof off with noise. Those around in the 80s know that Marquette was just an appetizer compared to not being able to hear the person next to you because it was so loud.

Filled Garden with our fans? Of course. Garden with 10K fans and the upper bowl closed? CA. Sellout at MSG courtesy of Nova,Syracuse, or Duke fans - give me CA any day.
 
I still would love to see expansion and improvements to CA. More and better seating and A/C would be great.
 
[quote="Knight" post=311933]I still would love to see expansion and improvements to CA. More and better seating and A/C would be great.[/quote]

Basketball is a winter sport, who needs A/C :)
 
I think it is naïve to think that the SJU administration cares if SJU fans or Georgetown/Villanova/UCONN fans or whomever are buying tickets. The fact that fans from all over buy tickets to see games at MSG is a positive for SJU as they still receive their cut.
 
Liam
@El_Hines
St Johns is in negotiation to move all home Big East games to The Garden, per AD Mike Cragg #SJUBB
 
[quote="RedStormNC" post=312263]Liam
@El_Hines
St Johns is in negotiation to move all home Big East games to The Garden, per AD Mike Cragg #SJUBB[/quote]

Wow... Cragg getting out and being aggressive. Love it!
 
RedStormnc wrote: Liam
@El_Hines
St Johns is in negotiation to move all home Big East games to The Garden, per AD Mike Cragg #SJUBB


Wow!! New AD means business..Will work if we win this year and rebuild that wider fanbase. NY's Team!
 
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[quote="RedStormNC" post=312263]Liam
@El_Hines
St Johns is in negotiation to move all home Big East games to The Garden, per AD Mike Cragg #SJUBB[/quote]

Back to the way it used to be prior to the past few years. This is a good thing.
 
Might be a good idea to lower the price of a ticket a bit but don't know if Garden or we control pricing.
 
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