Fan Support

[sooners78]

SUCKS, not only does the OU student body not support bball team, but the city of Norman shows no support........i know we have beeen over this a thousand times, but its getting worse, most feel if you put a better product on the court they will show, i'm not buying it, we have a top 5 football program and the students suck at supporting that program, my question is what can the city of Norman do to help support bball?

 

[seniorsooner]

We have some great students on this board that do everything they possibly can to improve student attendance at the b-ball games.

That being said, I have come to the conclusion that our students as a whole pretty much suck. You are correct, they don't even seem to care all that much about football anymore unless it is a game like 2008 Texas Tech. I think OU is too Greek. The students are all too worried about that night's date party or other such nonsense.

 

[sooners78]

let me say that i'm not saying ALL students, congrats to the ones that do support the student athletes

 

[MsProudSooner]

We have some great students on this board that do everything they possibly can to improve student attendance at the b-ball games.

That being said, I have come to the conclusion that our students as a whole pretty much suck. You are correct, they don't even seem to care all that much about football anymore unless it is a game like 2008 Texas Tech. I think OU is too Greek. The students are all too worried about that night's date party or other such nonsense.

How many Greek students are there, compared to the entire student body? I suspect that the Greek students are a part of the problem, but the majority of the students aren't Greek. The last numbers I saw showed that there were a lot more girls that pledged sororities than men who pledged fraternities. That would seem to indicate that there are lots of male students at OU that aren't Greek and aren't supporting the team.

 

[Sooner_In_MI]

Obviously the way to solve the problem would be to tie basketball attendance into your chances to buy football tickets, but we all know that will never happen. Otherwise, IDK. After this season is over I'll open up a thread that I hope will serve as a collective brainstorming session. I have a few ideas (I am hoping to convince marketing to allow people to buy basketball tickets with football tickets, but I'm not sure if they're going to go for that), and hopefully some of you guys will have good ideas as well. Because I know as much as I rip our fanbase on here, I am preaching to the choir.

 

[tycat947]

SUCKS, not only does the OU student body not support bball team, but the city of Norman shows no support........i know we have beeen over this a thousand times, but its getting worse, most feel if you put a better product on the court they will show, i'm not buying it, we have a top 5 football program and the students suck at supporting that program, my question is what can the city of Norman do to help support bball?

There are 24,000 students on Norman campus, 115,000 people in Norman and over 1,500,000 people less than an hour away. Back in the late 70's there were 18,000 student season ticket holders for football and now there are 6,000 when the enrollment is much higher. Again, I don't think this is an OU issue per se as basketball attendance is not great anywhere except for a few of the top tier schools. Back in the 70's, you had ABC, NBC and CBS...that was pretty much it! Now, you have hundreds of TV channels, internet, mobile media, etc, etc, etc to gather someone else's attention over an average (by OU standards) basketball team. OU fans (term used loosely!) are notoriously poor about supporting athletic teams unless they are winning big. It's just a fact unfortunately. I personally don't subscribe to that thinking and many don't. But many more do!

 

[sunny]

Hey, we are an academic institution. Just listen to President Boren. Those kids need to be studying.

 

[MarnePatch]

GIA has the same problem right now.

 

[NickZepp]

Tubbs and Sampson built something special here and I think some of us took it for granted for those 25 years that we were going to compete year in and year out. Fact is that it's tough to get people to come in and see what we've had the last couple years at Oklahoma. It's tough to watch it sometimes frankly. This year has been much more watchable and much better basketball. But we still aren't that good. And that's a big part in attendance.

 

[MsProudSooner]

Back in the 70's, you had ABC, NBC and CBS...that was pretty much it! Now, you have hundreds of TV channels, internet, mobile media, etc, etc, etc to gather someone else's attention over an average (by OU standards) basketball team.

This is the main problem. Most people's attitude is "Why should I buy a ticket and drive over to LNC when all I have to do is turn on the TV?"

 

[NickZepp]

This is the main problem. Most people's attitude is "Why should I buy a ticket and drive over to LNC when all I have to do is turn on the TV?"

Why is it not the same way for the Thunder or OU football? If there was a winning environment at LNC like there was just 10 years ago it would be full most games.

 

[MsProudSooner]

Why is it not the same way for the Thunder or OU football? If there was a winning environment at LNC like there was just 10 years ago it would be full most games.

No doubt there would be more people at the games if we were winning like we were 10 years ago, but we didn't pack the place when Blake was here.

With football, it's an all day event, complete with tailgating and beer. For some people just going to the games is a tradition that goes back 3 generations.

The Thunder is new and they are winning. If they weren't a playoff team, you probably would see a dropoff in attendance there.

 

[tycat947]

Why is it not the same way for the Thunder or OU football? If there was a winning environment at LNC like there was just 10 years ago it would be full most games.

The Thunder is new. The first year when they won about 20 games it was sold out. NBA isn't basketball, it's entertainment.

 

[SoMuchDramaInTheLNC]

We have some great students on this board that do everything they possibly can to improve student attendance at the b-ball games.

That being said, I have come to the conclusion that our students as a whole pretty much suck. You are correct, they don't even seem to care all that much about football anymore unless it is a game like 2008 Texas Tech. I think OU is too Greek. The students are all too worried about that night's date party or other such nonsense.

Oh, please. Greek/non-Greek isn't an issue at all. Too many students aren't from Oklahoma and OU basketball sucked the past 2 years. Not that hard to figure out.

Is OU a spoiled fanbase? Hell yeah, that's what happens when its programs have long-term success and marketing force-feeds the "There's Only One" concept. Right now, basketball is a less successful 1999 version of football. When the team gets better, these lower ticket prices will pay off and you'll see good crowds, perhaps even more than in the past.

 

[schoonerdriver]

I think cost is prohibitive. Donations for lower bowl seats are out of this world expensive. Concessions are pricey and lousy quality. You can't have the current pricing structure and a crappy product and expect any type of decent turnout. You have to make it cheap to attract new people. Get them hooked on the product and then you adjust prices.

As an example of just how bad the attendance is, when I come in on the southwest door, you can usually find a pile of tickets that people lay on the table for anyone who wants them because they can't even give them away.

 

[sooners78]

excuses, we have the worse attendence in the league, turn on the the tv and you wont see as many empty seats as you do when watching our games

 

[kbsooner]

I think cost is prohibitive. Donations for lower bowl seats are out of this world expensive. Concessions are pricey and lousy quality. You can't have the current pricing structure and a crappy product and expect any type of decent turnout. You have to make it cheap to attract new people. Get them hooked on the product and then you adjust prices.

Do not agree, I have 2 season tickets front row on the upper ring and paid just over $200 FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON. I buy a extra general admission ticket for my 5yo for $5 on the online outlet on Soonersports. Concessions will be that at any sporting function, expensive and over-priced. But I cannot agree on the pricing being the issue. You would be hard pressed to find anything else in town where me, the wife and the kid can be entertained for 2 hours for $25 bucks.

 

[rickjames]

There are 24,000 students on Norman campus, 115,000 people in Norman and over 1,500,000 people less than an hour away. Back in the late 70's there were 18,000 student season ticket holders for football and now there are 6,000 when the enrollment is much higher. Again, I don't think this is an OU issue per se as basketball attendance is not great anywhere except for a few of the top tier schools. Back in the 70's, you had ABC, NBC and CBS...that was pretty much it! Now, you have hundreds of TV channels, internet, mobile media, etc, etc, etc to gather someone else's attention over an average (by OU standards) basketball team. OU fans (term used loosely!) are notoriously poor about supporting athletic teams unless they are winning big. It's just a fact unfortunately. I personally don't subscribe to that thinking and many don't. But many more do!

could have sworn there were at least 30,000 students on campus

 

[campbest]

We have some great students on this board that do everything they possibly can to improve student attendance at the b-ball games.

That being said, I have come to the conclusion that our students as a whole pretty much suck. You are correct, they don't even seem to care all that much about football anymore unless it is a game like 2008 Texas Tech. I think OU is too Greek. The students are all too worried about that night's date party or other such nonsense.

Vast majority of OU's students are not greek.

 

[tycat947]

could have sworn there were at least 30,000 students on campus

There are 30,000+ on Norman, OKC and Tulsa campuses combined. About 24,000 are on Norman campus only.