Home attendance and environment

[BigTime]

who do you think would be buying the seats in this new arena? ...

the same corps and donors ..


not to mention that with a couple more years of ncaa runs .. we will be back up over 10k season ticket holders ..

This is where we disagree - many of this corps and donors "auto-renew" tickets every year and have done so for years. They don't show and they don't care about being at the games.

A new arena equals a new start. Make people reapply and don't auto renew. Let all the corps that don't show buy Thunder tickets.

Who the hell cares if we sell 10k season tickets if there are at least 4k no shows for every game? It makes money? Hardly. Football pays the bills. Make basketball about the fans.

9k seats would be perfect.

Our current infrastructure is broken. Fix it. And infuse some excitement with a new arena.

 

[Sooner04]

It'd be nice to get more than 50 students at a conference game when the home team is ranked. But with pornography easily downloaded at your fingertips........

 

[garyeb2]

This is where we disagree - many of this corps and donors "auto-renew" tickets every year and have done so for years. They don't show and they don't care about being at the games.

A new arena equals a new start. Make people reapply and don't auto renew. Let all the corps that don't show buy Thunder tickets.

Who the hell cares if we sell 10k season tickets if there are at least 4k no shows for every game? It makes money? Hardly. Football pays the bills. Make basketball about the fans.

9k seats would be perfect.

Our current infrastructure is broken. Fix it. And infuse some excitement with a new arena.

You are right about the season ticket auto renew. When I go to games I am the benefactor of that situation. The actual owners of the tickets haven't been to a game in years. More often than not they go unused.

When they reconfigure the seating at LNC, I bet that they fix that problem.

OU basketball as it works now and using the most recent figures that I could find is just about a breakeven operation. They don't need football money. They are staying afloat on their own. TV money along with the current ticket revenue gets the almost self sufficient.

Just a wholesale change in the way things are done could have a negative impact on the program. If the program were to suddenly jump into the red, things like recruiting budgets and the like could be cut.

I think that they should and will be prudent in the way that they make changes.

 

[BoulderSooner]

so you think donations should have no impact on seating in the "new stadium" ..


ok .. can we get back to reality ..

 

[garyeb2]

so you think donations should have no impact on seating in the "new stadium" ..


ok .. can we get back to reality ..

No, as I understand it , the corporate and donor class will be steered toward luxury boxes or suites. Thus, freeing up some of the closer to the court seating for other fans.

 

[BigTime]

so you think donations should have no impact on seating in the "new stadium" ..


ok .. can we get back to reality ..

Put the corporate donors in the luxury suites with tinted windows. Track the donors who come to games/get their tickets used over the past 5 years...put those that don't on the non-camera view side so we don't look so pathetic on TV.

You are high if you don't think this can be better managed.

We have a completely broken system right now...completely effed up and broken. I can't believe the comments of several on this thread.

 

[BoulderSooner]

our system is far from "completely effed up and broken" ...


donors pick where they want to sit ... period .. there are lots and lots of donors ... the 5k seats of donors that don't come are still going to buy seats .. why? because they can .. because they want to go to ou ku and ou osu .. because they want to have tickets for clients .. ect ...

those of us that are donors that attend games are still going to buy seats ..

with a couple more ncaa tourney years the season tickets base will be back up to 10-11k ....

the students not coming is the biggest issue with attendance ... and they wonder why their seats get worse and worse ..

selling tickets and donor relations .. are every bit as important as filled seats .. for building a long term successful program ..

 

[Escape Goat]

I haven't read this thread all the way through but one thing that is lost on me are the comments JC made when he announced Kruger as the HC three years ago. He mentioned, and I couldn't find the quotes, a commitment to making bball important and that they (JC and DB) were going to explore all avenues with enhancing the program including; increasing fan participation, new/remodel arena, etc. etc. To me, at this point I haven't seen this commitment or anything exciting from the administration. I see Kruger doing his part but I haven't seen the commitment from the top brass. We are three years down the road and to my knowledge nothing ground breaking has occurred. I would hope, during this timeframe, something could have been developed or put in the works to put a spark in this program other the play on the court and the future success of the team.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Sooner04]

My main beef still lies with the students. It is much, MUCH, easier to get tickets and get to the games than when I was in school. The whole ticket pick-up policy back then bordered on cockamamie. The students just stay away. In droves. The AD can't make the student section much smaller.

Attendance is down across America. I get that. But to have 50 students show up on a weeknight when the home team is ranked? That's amazing. If you'd told that to an OU student in the 70s, 80s or 90s they'd have called you crazy.

Maybe it's the loss of TopDaug.

 

[badger]

It'd be nice to get more than 50 students at a conference game when the home team is ranked. But with pornography easily downloaded at your fingertips........

Doesn't LNC have free wifi so students can still download while attending the game

 

[JBaker]

My main beef still lies with the students. It is much, MUCH, easier to get tickets and get to the games than when I was in school. The whole ticket pick-up policy back then bordered on cockamamie. The students just stay away. In droves. The AD can't make the student section much smaller.

Attendance is down across America. I get that. But to have 50 students show up on a weeknight when the home team is ranked? That's amazing. If you'd told that to an OU student in the 70s, 80s or 90s they'd have called you crazy.

Maybe it's the loss of TopDaug.

Attendance could be much better, yes. But there were a few hundred students there. Not 50.

 

[AdaSooner]

Doesn't LNC have free wifi so students can still download while attending the game

I know you were half joking, but there may be more truth to what you said than you care to admit. Young people today are more sedentary than anytime in my memory. Most would rather hang out with their friends, play video games or piddle with every electronic gadget known to mankind. The majority of kids today can't let go of their smart phones long enough to attend a silly ol' basketball game.

I realize there's more to the small number of students the games are attracting now. Just thought I would add my two cents to one you hit on without really trying that hard.

 

[Sooner04]

Attendance could be much better, yes. But there were a few hundred students there. Not 50.

Are you counting OUr team, the band, the pom squad AND cheerleaders? Did you also add TCU's training staff to the mix?

There were about seven rows of standing students behind the goal. I noticed them yelling at a few calls from my seat on the East side. I may go as high as 75, but there were not a few hundred there.

 

[BigTime]

our system is far from "completely effed up and broken" ...


donors pick where they want to sit ... period .. there are lots and lots of donors ... the 5k seats of donors that don't come are still going to buy seats .. why? because they can .. because they want to go to ou ku and ou osu .. because they want to have tickets for clients .. ect ...

those of us that are donors that attend games are still going to buy seats ..

with a couple more ncaa tourney years the season tickets base will be back up to 10-11k ....

the students not coming is the biggest issue with attendance ... and they wonder why their seats get worse and worse ..

selling tickets and donor relations .. are every bit as important as filled seats .. for building a long term successful program ..

There is so much bull**** to this post. This is a sensitive subject to me because I have in the past poured a lot of sweat and time into researching and trying to do my part to fix this issue.

If you watch ANY game on TV of a program that is even remotely close to our magnitude, then you will find donors at basketball games with their butts in the seats. OU? Horrid and wretched. Half the bodies down there are folks that move down from the nosebleeds and high school teams. We give a huge front and center section to other teams.

Donors pick seats. Fine. But show up - to even half the games - to even a quarter of the games. That KU you game you mentioned was rittled with empty seats on my TV set. It looked terrible - and that will be out best non student crowd of the year (thanks to the 2k KU blue fans).

There is a serious problem when you consistently have 40% no shows since Kruger has been here.

As I mentioned, football pays the bills. Let the yuppies that donate and never show go to Thunder games.

At some point, this needs to be fixed. It is ridiculous that it had been allowed to go on this long.

You keep saying win and 10 or 11k will buy season tickets. I partially agree (I think it will be closer to 9k). But if we have a 40% no show rate then how does that help the program and brand win games and look good on TV. Perception is reality. We have the worst basketball fan base in the Big 12.

You, Boulder, are not the problem, but you will be part of it if you don't think the system needs to be fixed.

Don't get me started on the students...but the donor no show system can be fixed.

 

[NMSooner'80]

My main beef still lies with the students. It is much, MUCH, easier to get tickets and get to the games than when I was in school. The whole ticket pick-up policy back then bordered on cockamamie. The students just stay away. In droves. The AD can't make the student section much smaller.

Attendance is down across America. I get that. But to have 50 students show up on a weeknight when the home team is ranked? That's amazing. If you'd told that to an OU student in the 70s, 80s or 90s they'd have called you crazy.

Maybe it's the loss of TopDaug.

We didn't have TopDaug in the first five years of the LNC (years 2-5 were the ones I was a student, until May of '80 graduation). But we were more than happy to drive down to the LNC and rock the place. For the 1977 OU-Mizzou game, it was the first true sellout (10,871 was the capacity), and probably 6,000 of that total was made up of students. We even got there at 6 p.m. for a 7:30 tip.

The '79 Big 8 title team was wildly supported by students. We did the original "court rush" when that game with KSU ended, and clinched OU the outright title.

Even in '80, when we had a run of bad luck with last-second game-winners being waved off in league road games, we still showed up pretty well. Of course, when Norm Stewart came to the LNC back then, it motivated us to show up and give him an earful.

That said, I don't get the notion that students won't go to games because it's "too far," etc.

 

[DenverSooner]

You are high if you don't think this can be better managed.

Is that Colorado weed or Washington weed?

 

[BigTime]

Is that Colorado weed or Washington weed?

Definitely Rocky Mountain Colorado weeeeeed



Build us a new home, Joe C!

 

[SoMuchDramaInTheLNC]

I know you were half joking, but there may be more truth to what you said than you care to admit. Young people today are more sedentary than anytime in my memory. Most would rather hang out with their friends, play video games or piddle with every electronic gadget known to mankind. The majority of kids today can't let go of their smart phones long enough to attend a silly ol' basketball game.

I realize there's more to the small number of students the games are attracting now. Just thought I would add my two cents to one you hit on without really trying that hard.

I don't buy the "kids these days" argument. Why is OU's football student section almost always full (and yes, even when the corners aren't filled, it's sold out; they just cram in toward the 50). How do Colorado's games (from what I can tell on TV) have a full student section when they could be smoking legally? What I DO think is interesting is that OU took advantage of Texas' 10% rule, so OU has a lot of kids who didn't grow up OU fans. They go to football games because that's the thing in town Saturdays in the fall, but basketball? What draws Plano and Allen kids to OU basketball? Through raiding Texas, OU may be producing a lot of graduates, but I don't necessarily know that it's producing a lot of OU fans.

 

[StatGeek]

I will say it again, create a course that requires basketball attendance. Easy elective and GPA boost for students and easy student participation boost at games.

 

[StatGeek]

Also, what do you think about the potential of this type of technology? http://yinzcam.com