Marcus Smart is a hell of a player

[TheGimper]

NO they wouldn't and neither would Kansas.

That would make a terrible college arena. Might as well put up flashing neon and strobe lights.

Have you been to Amway Arena in Orlando? It would make the greatest anything. Can I get gyros at GIA? I didn't think so. Case closed.

 

[KBaden145]

Just like you guys. I'm sure you wouldn't trade your arena for anyone elses in the country either, right?

From the players perspective, the LNC is as nice a college basketball facility as there is in the country. They basically spend game days in the arena (15 nights/days out of the year). The majority of their time is spent in our multi-million dollar practice areas. As a facility, I wouldn't trade it for anything. The arena, however, needs a lot of work.

 

[DenverSooner]

I don't know where you guys have seen OSU fans "touting our fan support", but it's been a LONG time since I've seen any of that.

In fact, there are often threads on OP.com lamenting the level of fan support in basketball and how to "get it back" and so forth.

OSU fans were all about their great crowds. Prior to the expansion it was true, OSU almost always had a good crowd and they loved to brag about it. Problem is once they built a grown up arena they started having trouble filling it for bad games. Then they started having bad seasons and started having trouble filling it for good games. Then OKC got the Thunder.

 

[oSuJeff97]

OSU fans were all about their great crowds. Prior to the expansion it was true, OSU almost always had a good crowd and they loved to brag about it. Problem is once they built a grown up arena they started having trouble filling it for bad games. Then they started having bad seasons and started having trouble filling it for good games. Then OKC got the Thunder.

I can't believe we're talking about this again...

We had no trouble filling the arena post-expansion when we were still good.

Every game was officially sold out with a waiting list for season tickets until Sean's third year. The official attendance average for "butts in seats" from 2001-05 was 11,609, which is 85% of capacity. Conference games in that era rarely had fewer than 12,000, and the "big" games were totally full.

Two primary things contributed to OSU's current attendance problem -- in the following order:

1. The Sean Sutton era. Three straight years of crappy basketball took the life out of the arena, and more importantly, took away basketball as a priority for the students. If you were a senior in Travis Ford's first year, you had gone your entire time at OSU without experiencing a team good enough to make the NCAA tournament. That was the first time that had happened since the freshman class entering OSU in 1988.

2. The rise of OSU football in both performance and price. Coinciding with the Sean Sutton debacle was the massive investment and associated rise in success of OSU football. Part of that included massive increases in season ticket prices and associated donor requirement. Many, many fans who previously were season ticket holders for both basketball and football simply picked football over basketball and haven't looked back.

I think the Thunder phenomenon has probably affected attendance somewhat, but not to the extent that it has affected OU's attendance.

I also think that if Ford could somehow sustain some winning momentum for 2-3 years in a row, you'd see a big spike in attendance. You started to see some of the greatness of GIA return from about the middle of 2010 through the 2011 season when we had some decent teams... but then it fell off the cliff with the past two years of suckage. Maintaining some consistency will be key.

 

[KBaden145]

I can't believe we're talking about this again...

We had no trouble filling the arena post-expansion when we were still good.

Every game was officially sold out with a waiting list for season tickets until Sean's third year. The official attendance average for "butts in seats" from 2001-05 was 11,609, which is 85% of capacity. Conference games in that era rarely had fewer than 12,000, and the "big" games were totally full.

Two primary things contributed to OSU's current attendance problem -- in the following order:

1. The Sean Sutton era. Three straight years of crappy basketball took the life out of the arena, and more importantly, took away basketball as a priority for the students. If you were a senior in Travis Ford's first year, you had gone your entire time at OSU without experiencing a team good enough to make the NCAA tournament. That was the first time that had happened since the freshman class entering OSU in 1988.

2. The rise of OSU football in both performance and price. Coinciding with the Sean Sutton debacle was the massive investment and associated rise in success of OSU football. Part of that included massive increases in season ticket prices and associated donor requirement. Many, many fans who previously were season ticket holders for both basketball and football simply picked football over basketball and haven't looked back.

I think the Thunder phenomenon has probably affected attendance somewhat, but not to the extent that it has affected OU's attendance.

I also think that if Ford could somehow sustain some winning momentum for 2-3 years in a row, you'd see a big spike in attendance. You started to see some of the greatness of GIA return from about the middle of 2010 through the 2011 season when we had some decent teams... but then it fell off the cliff with the past two years of suckage. Maintaining some consistency will be key.

So what you're saying is OState got a reality check about the type of basketball program they actually have. What it all comes down to is OState's athletic program is the following; a 'wrestling school' run by an AD who is a former golf coach who desperately wants them to be a 'football school', while many of their fans want them to be a 'basketball school'.

 

[oSuJeff97]

So what you're saying is OState got a reality check about the type of basketball program they actually have. What it all comes down to is OState's athletic program is the following; a 'wrestling school' run by an AD who is a former golf coach who desperately wants them to be a 'football school', while many of their fans want them to be a 'basketball school'.

I'm not how you derived this non-nonsensical gibberish out of what I wrote.

What I'm saying is that if you put out a mostly mediocre product for a half of a decade, the fans will stop showing up in droves, no matter how much of a tradition you have of strong fan support.

For further reading, please see OU football, mid-to-late 1990s.

 

[skyvue]

For further reading, please see OU football, mid-to-late 1990s.

The truth is, OU drew VERY well while the football program was wandering in the wilderness in the '90s. Did attendance drop off some? Of course. But percentage-wise, that dropoff wasn't in the same ballpark as oswho's dropoff in hoops. Not by a mile.

OU football drew far more fans during those awful seasons than oshwo's football team has drawn during their current upswing.

Ninety-percent of the programs in the country would have killed to draw the fans that OU did during that awful stretch.

What's more, oswho hoops haven't fallen off to NEARLY the degree that OU football did. At its best, the aggie hoops program wasn't remotely at the level of OU football, and the attendance fell much further after a much less precipitous decline in the program's success.

 

[KBaden145]

I'm not how you derived this non-nonsensical gibberish out of what I wrote.

What I'm saying is that if you put out a mostly mediocre product for a half of a decade, the fans will stop showing up in droves, no matter how much of a tradition you have of strong fan support.

For further reading, please see OU football, mid-to-late 1990s.

OU football was in the wilderness on and off for a decade but came back strong under Stoops. OState basketball is not close to being the program OU football is. Ridiculous comparison.

Do you think OState basketball will ever get back to where they were under Sutton? Doubt it. Reality check. Top 25-35 basketball program by most measures, including fan support.

 

[OSUFan]

CBS thinks Smart is the favorite to win National Player of the Year (not freshman player of the year

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/21073510/smart-leads-first-player-of-the-year-watch

 

[skyvue]

Well, they have him at the top of their first and "obviously somewhat premature" (their words, not mine) watch list. They go on to state that the race will be interesting, with "plenty of guys able to get in the equation."

It'd be interesting to know how many recent POY honorees topped CBS's (or other similar) lists two weeks in.

Geno Smith was the frontrunner for the Heisman two weeks into the season.

 

[OSUFan]

They wouldn't base this off one game. They know he's the real deal

 

[oSuJeff97]

LOL... you jokers are proving my point.

I'm fully aware that OU football is more historically successful than OSU basketball.

I'm also fully aware that the OU football following is by far the most supportive and passionate fan base in the state.

That's the point. Even the most passionate fan base won't show up in the same numbers if the team is lousy.

This isn't rocket science. More winning = more fan support.

 

[DenverSooner]

I can't believe we're talking about this again...

We had no trouble filling the arena post-expansion when we were still good.

Every game was officially sold out with a waiting list for season tickets until Sean's third year. The official attendance average for "butts in seats" from 2001-05 was 11,609, which is 85% of capacity. Conference games in that era rarely had fewer than 12,000, and the "big" games were totally full.

Two primary things contributed to OSU's current attendance problem -- in the following order:

1. The Sean Sutton era. Three straight years of crappy basketball took the life out of the arena, and more importantly, took away basketball as a priority for the students. If you were a senior in Travis Ford's first year, you had gone your entire time at OSU without experiencing a team good enough to make the NCAA tournament. That was the first time that had happened since the freshman class entering OSU in 1988.

2. The rise of OSU football in both performance and price. Coinciding with the Sean Sutton debacle was the massive investment and associated rise in success of OSU football. Part of that included massive increases in season ticket prices and associated donor requirement. Many, many fans who previously were season ticket holders for both basketball and football simply picked football over basketball and haven't looked back.

I think the Thunder phenomenon has probably affected attendance somewhat, but not to the extent that it has affected OU's attendance.

I also think that if Ford could somehow sustain some winning momentum for 2-3 years in a row, you'd see a big spike in attendance. You started to see some of the greatness of GIA return from about the middle of 2010 through the 2011 season when we had some decent teams... but then it fell off the cliff with the past two years of suckage. Maintaining some consistency will be key.

Aggies are so pathetic. First, this started when you said something about OSU fans not boasting about attendance and now you are.

Second, your own numbers support exactly what I said. When you built a big boy stadium you had trouble filling it for lesser quality opponents. That is simply life. When your team was not very good you had trouble filling it for better games. Why can't you acknowledge this?

If OSU basketball gets back to competing for the final four, attendance will increase significantly but OSU like virtually every other school in the country will have difficulty filling a large stadium to play UTA or some other low level D-1 program. That doesn't mean no one will attend. You might get 60-70% for a school like that which is actually pretty good. OU will do the same thing.

If we could time warp back to the 80s when games were not almost always on TV or the internet attendance woudl be better for those type of games for both schools.

 

[skyvue]

LOL... you jokers are proving my point.

I'm fully aware that OU football is more historically successful than OSU basketball.

I'm also fully aware that the OU football following is by far the most supportive and passionate fan base in the state.

That's the point. Even the most passionate fan base won't show up in the same numbers if the team is lousy.

This isn't rocket science. More winning = more fan support.

But you claimed OU football had a big drop-off in attendance--stopped coming in droves, is how you put it--as we've seen with oswho basketball. That's not so. The two are not remotely equivalent.

And stow the insults -- you're a guest on this board.

 

[MNsooner]

Guest or not, if you're going to insult someone's intelligence make sure your not the one who sounds silly.

 

[HoHum]

I think skyvue types 'oswho' so naturally he doesn't even notice that he does it anymore.

I pronounce it oz-who literally every time I see it, before realizing what it really is.

 

[stoops4pres]

I can't believe we're talking about this again...

We had no trouble filling the arena post-expansion when we were still good.

Every game was officially sold out with a waiting list for season tickets until Sean's third year. The official attendance average for "butts in seats" from 2001-05 was 11,609, which is 85% of capacity. Conference games in that era rarely had fewer than 12,000, and the "big" games were totally full.

Two primary things contributed to OSU's current attendance problem -- in the following order:

1. The Sean Sutton era. Three straight years of crappy basketball took the life out of the arena, and more importantly, took away basketball as a priority for the students. If you were a senior in Travis Ford's first year, you had gone your entire time at OSU without experiencing a team good enough to make the NCAA tournament. That was the first time that had happened since the freshman class entering OSU in 1988.2. The rise of OSU football in both performance and price. Coinciding with the Sean Sutton debacle was the massive investment and associated rise in success of OSU football. Part of that included massive increases in season ticket prices and associated donor requirement. Many, many fans who previously were season ticket holders for both basketball and football simply picked football over basketball and haven't looked back.

I think the Thunder phenomenon has probably affected attendance somewhat, but not to the extent that it has affected OU's attendance.

I also think that if Ford could somehow sustain some winning momentum for 2-3 years in a row, you'd see a big spike in attendance. You started to see some of the greatness of GIA return from about the middle of 2010 through the 2011 season when we had some decent teams... but then it fell off the cliff with the past two years of suckage. Maintaining some consistency will be key.

Not seeing the pattern you are making here... How can you attribute the fans' pessimism with Sean Sutton as the number one cause for the underwhelming attendance records, when fans were still selling out up until Sean's 3rd year? Did they all of a sudden becoming an apathetic fanbase within such very short notice (one season, in which they still finished with a winning record)? OSU did reach the NCAA tournament immediately after Sean's 3rd and final year.

 

[Dignon003]

The split of the fan base between the Sutton fans (Suttonistas) and those wanting a change was pretty severe. The product on the court was ok during Ford's first two years, but a lot of folks didn't care because it wasn't a Sutton running things.

 

[KBaden145]

The split of the fan base between the Sutton fans (Suttonistas) and those wanting a change was pretty severe. The product on the court was ok during Ford's first two years, but a lot of folks didn't care because it wasn't a Sutton running things.

Are you saying a reason fans left was bc a Sutton wasn't coaching? I would say that is really weak and another example of why OState is not as good a basketball program as the Bedlam Basketball Myths make them out to be.

By the way, the Bedlam Basketball Myths are the mistaken beliefs by most of the state's sports media, OState fans, and even some OU fans that OState has the better basketball program and GIA is a tougher home court advantage than LNC.

 

[miesvander]

I'm sure any Kansas fans on this site that are reading this thread are laughing their butts off. Can we just agree that neither OSU or OU has near the basketball team or basketball attendance as they used too? I, for one, am looking forward to the day when the bedlam basketball game actually means something again. As of right now we seem to just be saying our sucky team is less sucky than yours, or our lousy attendance has less no-shows than your sorry attendance does. Good grief & Go Pokes!!!