Is it true that OSU

[StatGeek]

is just opening the doors to GIA for their game vs V'Tech in an attempt to get some fans to show up??

 

[Tundrasooner]

is just opening the doors to GIA for their game vs V'Tech in an attempt to get some fans to show up??

Yes.

 

[tycat947]

Yes.

Shocking for a blueblood basketball program!!!

 

[Sooner23]

 

[DenverSooner]

That is pretty funny given the pompous attitude of OSU fans on the internet.

The shocking reality is that it is difficult to fill a 12,000 plus seat stadium for college basketball in Oklahoma. For years we heard how great OSU fans were and then they built a real stadium.

 

[tycat947]

I think this is more than an OU problem. If you look all around the country, many, many schools, out side of bluebloods (Duke, UNC, KU, UK, etc.), are not doing that well with basketball attendance. texas had a game this year in Austin that showed in the box score as 8,900 paid attendance, turnstile attendance listed at 4,000 in a 16,000 seat arena! This is from a perinnial near the top of the conference team. And then look north!

 

[BoulderSooner]

texas has always had the same problem as OU ... people buy the tickets and don't show up ..

we have around 9k tickets sold for OU bball this year .. during most of kelvin's era we "sold" out every game ... people just didn't show up

 

[badger]

From the Stilly paper:

Fans interested in attending the Oklahoma State New Year’s Eve matchup with the Virginia Tech Hokies will be granted free admission, it was announced Wednesday by Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford and the OSU Athletic Ticket Office.

Link

OSU's athletic department has a money managment problem and the athletic director admitted as much earlier this year. A few years ago, the basketball program was the ticket seller and football was the "please attend us please" program. After years of trying to milk the bright orange clad for all they could via overpriced tickets for NIT-bound teams, the athletic department finally wised up that fans were not going to travel to Stillwater to see them take on crap opponents while fielding an underachieving team with an overpaid coach... yes, I know, sounds sadly familiar

So alas, I don't even think they're selling tickets anymore, let alone getting people to show up to GIA. I anticipate the same will happen to football in a few years, when suddenly just going to a bowl game or having a winning season is no longer good enough with... wait for it... an underachieving team and an overpaid coach (Gundy is about to get a pay raise and contract extension methinks).

 

[Sooner04]

The addition to GIA is way too big. Doubling the size of the joint always seemed very risky to me. I hope they saved a bunch of the revenue from those first few years of big crowds because it's going to be a LONG time before they fill that place again.

 

[OUhoops11]

I find this hilarious after all the criticism from OSU fans over the years about OU's giveaways and marketing ploys to get people into the LNC. (ie, Star Wars Day).

 

[seniorsooner]

OSU is a football school. Has been for years now.

 

[Max Power]

OSU is a football school. Has been for years now.

:ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh:

they beat us once in 9 years, win 1 conference title, and they have been a football power for years

:ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh:

 

[seniorsooner]

:ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh:

they beat us once in 9 years, win 1 conference title, and they have been a football power for years

:ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh::ez-laugh:

Nowhere did I say they are a football "power". I'm just saying the proof is in the pudding, and the reality is that their fanbase as a whole cares much more about football than they do basketball at this point. Welcome to our world, OSU basketball fans.

 

[OUhoops11]

Nowhere did I say they are a football "power". I'm just saying the proof is in the pudding, and the reality is that their fanbase as a whole cares much more about football than they do basketball at this point. Welcome to our world, OSU basketball fans.

Exactly. You don't have to be good at football to be a football school. See Texas A&M.

 

[BigTime]

I find this hilarious after all the criticism from OSU fans over the years about OU's giveaways and marketing ploys to get people into the LNC. (ie, Star Wars Day).

Oh for sure. They used to have long threads over on gopokes (usually led by some aggot named MegaPoke) absolutely ripping us about family packs and discounted tickets.

Now they open the doors for free against a BCS conference opponent and there isn't even a blizzard. LOL

 

[stoopified]

OSU is a football school. Has been for years now.

Now THAT is fuuny stuff.

 

[Dignon003]

There might be a blizzard, it's 11 days away. New Years Eve, no students, most fans will already be in Arizona and it's a rematch of a game that happened two weeks ago...

Sucks for the folks I know that purchased a ticket to the game though.

 

[AdaSooner]

I think this is more than an OU problem. If you look all around the country, many, many schools, out side of bluebloods (Duke, UNC, KU, UK, etc.), are not doing that well with basketball attendance. texas had a game this year in Austin that showed in the box score as 8,900 paid attendance, turnstile attendance listed at 4,000 in a 16,000 seat arena! This is from a perinnial near the top of the conference team. And then look north!

tycat, to expand on what you said, even the so-called "bluebloods" have attendance problems. I posted an article a little over two years ago to show that Duke, as well as other so-called basketball schools, do not fill the arena for every game. I might be able to find the article if I looked hard enough, but don't really want to take the time. I do remember that Coach K was perplexed by the decline in attendance.

To emphasize the point Sooner04 made, it's also easier to fill a 9,314 capacity Cameron Indoor Arena than a LNC that seats 11,528. Remove 2,000 seats and the majority of OU games in years past would have been filled to the brim.
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