AP Recap Specifically Bashes The LNC Crowd

quick release said:
6:00 games on week nights just aren't feasible for anyone who has a job. I left from OKC right after i got off at 5 and it took 1:30+ to get to Norman. I basically missed all but 5 minutes of the first half. Anytime OU schedules a game on a weeknight at this time there's just not going to be many people there.

The students however is another story. They're probably not going to attend no matter what. the core group they have is about all we can hope for.
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Was this the case 12 years ago (when I was a student)? Don't lots of people commute from the Norman area to OKC for work every day? Is it always 90 minute commute each way or do the extra 1,000 cars on the road for the basketball game make it that much worse?

All the problems (missing class, leaving work early, etc.) are real non-monentary (and maybe monetary) costs of going to the game. But I haven't really heard many that are unique to OU. I just think it's not a great basketball town/state, and the the team being mediocre combined with the football team being good means that there's no reason to jump on the bandwagon.

That said, who are programs that OU is comprable to historically?

Purdue?
Illinois?
Texas?
Missouri?

Who is the best comparison (medium-size football school near medium size metro area)?

Pitt?
Florida?
Florida State?
Notre Dame?
BYU?

Do those schools get attendance like OU gets when they play like OU plays?
 
MI Sooner said:
Was this the case 12 years ago (when I was a student)? Don't lots of people commute from the Norman area to OKC for work every day? Is it always 90 minute commute each way or do the extra 1,000 cars on the road for the basketball game make it that much worse?

All the problems (missing class, leaving work early, etc.) are real non-monentary (and maybe monetary) costs of going to the game. But I haven't really heard many that are unique to OU. I just think it's not a great basketball town/state, and the the team being mediocre combined with the football team being good means that there's no reason to jump on the bandwagon.

That said, who are programs that OU is comprable to historically?

Purdue?
Illinois?
Texas?
Missouri?

Who is the best comparison (medium-size football school near medium size metro area)?

Pitt?
Florida?
Florida State?
Notre Dame?
BYU?

Do those schools get attendance like OU gets when they play like OU plays?
Click to expand...



I don't think anyone is getting great attendance any more. Other places have better arenas that are more vertical and have seats closer to the court which improve the atmosphere. I think they also do a better job of making sure the people who show up to the games are actually in the good seats close to the court. when I was student once conference season started, nazis in yellow jackets would make sure that no one was moving down in seats, in spite of the fact that maybe 1 in 10 of those seats was actually filled. Even if we don't have a lot of people show up, fi we get those that do in close around the court and at least fill up the first few rows, the atmosphere will be dramatically improved.
 
sperry said:
I don't think anyone is getting great attendance any more.
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All you need to do is look at oSu, they are having the exact same problems. Average team + $$$ going to Thunder + Football Success = Negative impact on attendance in a state that isn't basketball crazy to begin with.
 
NMSooner'80 said:
Main thing the water table issue means is that you can't dig down any deeper than the LNC already is.
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I seriously doubt you can't do it. I suspect it is simply a cost issue. There are parking garages that are below ground in downtown OKC and probably even in Norman (although I can't think of any in Norman). With enough money you can build an island in the Persian Gulf and construct a billion dollar resort on it. If man can make an insland in an ocean, man can deal with the water table.
 
Boy, With all these excuses, looks like we will never have good attendance again at an OU game. Bottom line, Worst...Crowd...Ever. OU basketball attendance is a joke.
 
I remember being in Seattle with their fancy mass transit system that could carry you from the airport to the the downtown arenas in less than a half hour for cheap cheap cheap. No stress in driving, no worries about finding expensive downtown parking, and a sure way out after the game without dealing with traffic jams downtown from thousands of people trying to leave the area at once.

If we could do that with Norman to OKC, or even just the main part of campus out to LNC, it would have a positive impact not just sports-related, but also with people camping in parking garages waiting for spots to open up, or annoying each other with incessant "ARE YOU LEAVING?!" questions to every random person walking by a parking space with a car in it on campus.

But... that would probably be crazy-expensive to pull off. A pipe dream, yes. A bigger pipe dream would be such a system connecting Norman to Tulsa so that I could make more games :)
 
ouboomer said:
yes winning helps, but when OU was winning a bunch of games under Sampson they had problems filling the building regularly, having Blake Griffin on the team did not help fill the building each home game. I still think one of the best games i attended was the LSU NIT game, it was during spring break but you had 7,000 fans show up that wanted to be there and were rowdie. No season ticket empty seats that night because those seats were filled with people who wanted to be there that night, wish something like this was more the norm for basketball games.
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I recall the student section being full almost every home game I went to during Blake's last year.

Grant it, we were consistently in the Top 5, Top 10 throughout the majority of the season... Plus Blake was the best/most exciting player in the country, so it makes since why that season was an outlier compared to the rest.
 
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campbest said:
We actually have joked about this when it comes to the "talent" walking around campus.
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I was only half-way joking.

The problem regionally is that basketball pretty much sucks at all levels these days with a few exceptions. If my kids didn't play and weren't so passionate about it, I would probably have stopped attending a few years back when OU and our high school teams became impossible to enjoy because of the bad and selfish characters.
 
Remember, the current freshmen, sophomores, and juniors have seen some AWFUL basketball. And seniors (like me) have but distant memories of good crowds and good basketball. Thanks to the 10% rule in Texas, more and more students come from there and have had no reason to acknowledge Sooner basketball's existence, especially with the Thunder, Spurs, and Mavericks having success. It's a fact. Start winning, and fans will show up. OU basketball fans do exist; I use the completely packed LNC against Texas last year as proof. Yes, it was free, but enough people cared at least enough to drive on the ice to see us get stomped.

Jeff Capel's incompetence as basketball coach is the genesis of why the crowds haven't come around. He created a culture of losing that doesn't wear off immediately. You can see it disappearing in terms of this team's effort (outside of SLU, @ Mizzou, and the second halves of the KU games), but the general expectation to lose to equal and better teams still hangs over this program. That's what made the KSU sweep so sweet.
 
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