Pokes attendance...4,300 ?????

[Looking4#8]

Wow, that is amazingly few people. No football going on, no Garth Brooks concert, no FAA convention . In a arena that seats 13,600 that is close to 10,000 empty seats. I thought they told us all these years they were a basketball school, lol. Even OU had close to 10,000 butts in seats for Arkansas and around 7,000 for the game before that against an opponent that would be about the equal of UTSA. Just sayin

 

[12th Street Baller]

The whole upper deck was empty from what I saw and they did their best to lose that game... of course they will tell you UTSA are world beaters.

 

[Seymore Cox]

The whole Eddie/Sean ending and Boones big football push has sucked the air out of that progam. I suspect they'll be back when OSU starts to suck butt in football next year. A guy named Lance Bedford called their fans roaches in reference to them scattering away when things go bad. Although a sucky D coordinator, he was a very observant guy.

 

[buttermaker1]

Wow, that is amazingly few people. No football going on, no Garth Brooks concert, no FAA convention . In a arena that seats 13,600 that is close to 10,000 empty seats. I thought they told us all these years they were a basketball school, lol. Even OU had close to 10,000 butts in seats for Arkansas and around 7,000 for the game before that against an opponent that would be about the equal of UTSA. Just sayin

damn thats said man

 

[earlpearl]

There have been 10000 season tickets sold. What puzzles me is that OSU basketball tickets are one of the highest in the conference not to mention the extra donation fee that comes along with them. In other words it costs a lot of money to have them so why would you not show up? If you are not going to show up it seems to me that you would not bother with buying the tickets in the first place.

 

[thebigabd]

The whole Eddie/Sean ending and Boones big football push has sucked the air out of that progam. I suspect they'll be back when OSU starts to suck butt in football next year. A guy named Lance Bedford called their fans roaches in reference to them scattering away when things go bad. Although a sucky D coordinator, he was a very observant guy.

Yep... seems like ever since Eddie left people have not liked or trusted the program enough to keep the arena full. They aren't bad this year, so the HORRIBLE attendance numbers still surprise me though.

As for sucking in football, it's gonna be bad for them. 4 starters off the o-line, the best QB in program history, Dez Bryant, all 3 linebackers (sexton, lavine, booker), both corners (anderson and cox), the best safety (antoine), and Keith Toston/Beau Johnson are gone.

 

[Seymore Cox]

I bought some OU vs. OSU tickets from and OSU guy a few years ago for 50 dollars a piece. Same guy emailed me for some of their non conference games and tried to sell me some nonconference tickets this year for 35. I told him he was crazy and I'd think about it for 10 dollars a piece. He said deal.

 

[tomkar98]

:eddie187_jpg_xs:

 

[BimmerSooner]

It was never about any self-proclaimed OSU basketball "tradition", it was never about being a "basketball school", it was never about "the rowdiest arena is college bb"...

It was always about Eddie Sutton and the fact that, for a while, it was simply the fashionable thing as an OSU fan to go to OSU basketball games. When they started losing some games and, more importantly, when whatever shallow identity Sutton provided to that program was gone--then the fun was over.

It was never about deep-seeded loyalty and support. I never thought it was, and now it's obvious.

 

[Seymore Cox]

It was never about any self-proclaimed OSU basketball "tradition", it was never about being a "basketball school", it was never about "the rowdiest arena is college bb"...

It was always about Eddie Sutton and the fact that, for a while, it was simply the fashionable thing as an OSU fan to go to OSU basketball games. When they started losing some games and, more importantly, when whatever shallow identity Sutton provided to that program was gone--then the fun was over.

It was never about deep-seeded loyalty and support. I never thought it was, and now it's obvious.

No, it wasn't te "rowdiest place" in in college bb, but it had great support. It was standing room only for the cupcakes. Sutton's brand of basketball was to such that everyone loved it and more importantly, he was almost a god at OSU. This is a place that was in denial about his DUI until the evidence was overwhelming. This is also a place that has suppressed eddies trangressions for years. A coach who coached drunk and was often drunk in his office.

 

[BigTime]

No, it wasn't te "rowdiest place" in in college bb, but it had great support. It was standing room only for the cupcakes. Sutton's brand of basketball was to such that everyone loved it and more importantly, he was almost a god at OSU. This is a place that was in denial about his DUI until the evidence was overwhelming. This is also a place that has suppressed eddies trangressions for years. A coach who coached drunk and was often drunk in his office.

Let's not go too far here, DM. "standing room only for cupcakes." I don't think so. Really fine attendance for cupcakes. Yes.

Guys, OSU had TERRIBLE basketball attendance (worse than OU for much of the 70s and 80s) for many, many years in between Iba and Eddie. Let's not act like they have always been great at supporting the sport. Its just not true.

 

[Seymore Cox]

Let's not go too far here, DM. "standing room only for cupcakes." I don't think so. Really fine attendance for cupcakes. Yes.

Guys, OSU had TERRIBLE basketball attendance (worse than OU for much of the 70s and 80s) for many, many years in between Iba and Eddie. Let's not act like they have always been great at supporting the sport. Its just not true.

The game I went to a few years back, It would suprise you. They were an early crowd and they all had orange. One thing about Stillwater is that it is an elderly community. Alot of the people that attended the game were retirees that relocate to stillwater and quite frankly remember the Iba era. That is where their attendance has suffered. In actuality, the student fan support has been the same as Oklahoma.

 

[Mr.B!!!]

4,300 fans meant that a 6,000 seat arena could still be rocking or look mostly full...get 10,000 for basketball is not easy to do week after week after week. Plus I can't help but think that the Thunder has hurt both schools a little bit.

 

[SoonerfanTU]

As for sucking in football, it's gonna be bad for them. 4 starters off the o-line, the best QB in program history, Dez Bryant, all 3 linebackers (sexton, lavine, booker), both corners (anderson and cox), the best safety (antoine), and Keith Toston/Beau Johnson are gone.

OUCH!

Didn't realize they'd be losing that much. Geez. They are going to be pretty bad next year.

 

[Seymore Cox]

4,300 fans meant that a 6,000 seat arena could still be rocking or look mostly full...get 10,000 for basketball is not easy to do week after week after week. Plus I can't help but think that the Thunder has hurt both schools a little bit.

6700 before, 13,000 after. Even with 13000 they still had a season ticket waiting list. the community likes to adopt certain coaches. Sheri has a good following of general fans. Sutton had his following that has disipated. Budke has increased the attendance some with general community residents, but not significantly.

 

[oSuJeff97]

Alot of the people that attended the game were retirees that relocate to stillwater and quite frankly remember the Iba era. That is where their attendance has suffered. In actuality, the student fan support has been the same as Oklahoma.

I strongly disagree with this.

The biggest single thing that has killed OSU basketball attendence since Sutton left has been the decline in support by the OSU students. Their level of attendence now is nowhere near what it used to be.

OSU student attendence was always important during old GIA, and they were one of the driving forces in the very strong attendence from when new GIA opened (2001) through essentially the end of the Sutton era.

The student sections in GIA are comprised of the sections behind each basket from the floor to the top.

Even on games when a lot of the season ticket holders didn't show up (mid-week games against crap non-conference opponents), the students would always show up and have both ends of GIA almost totally full.

As result, there were RARELY ever any games in the 2001-07 time frame with fewer than 10,000 people in the building, even for the worst opponents.

However, due to the Sutton debacle in 2006 and resulting horrible play by the team over the next 2+ years, student attendence started to decline at the beginning of the 2007 season (Sean's first full season) and it has never recovered.

(None of this is to say that "regular" season ticket holders are also not to blame, but to me this is the single biggest factor.)

A big part of the problem was simply having an entire senior class of OSU students who never experienced good basketball. The kids who were seniors last year got their first taste of an NCAA-tournament caliber team. The rest of the time they were in school, we were a mediocre also-ran.

Contrast that with the students that attended OSU from about 1990-2006. If you were a student in that time frame, OSU was essentially in the tournament every year and there was a pretty darn good chance that you at least were there for one really special team (Final Four in 1995; Elite Eight in 2000; Final Four in 2004).

The only thing that will get the students back to where they were is consistently good basketball.

 

[DenverSooner]

Let's not go too far here, DM. "standing room only for cupcakes." I don't think so. Really fine attendance for cupcakes. Yes.

Guys, OSU had TERRIBLE basketball attendance (worse than OU for much of the 70s and 80s) for many, many years in between Iba and Eddie. Let's not act like they have always been great at supporting the sport. Its just not true.

It is truly pathetic how OU fans support OSU basketball by perpetuating myths. More people need to understand the facts as you have been presenting them. OSU is not this great basketball program.

 

[BimmerSooner]

Sorry, but the attendance problem extends much further than simply a student attendance problem.

I'm sure that is a part of it, but your rationale for explaining the OSU students' decline in interest can also be applied to a decent number of the non-student fans.

Which is what I was saying...there is not a deep-seeded college basketball mentality at OSU. They're just like the majority of other schools. Win=attendance, don't=a more apathetic attitude.

 

[oSuJeff97]

It is truly pathetic how OU fans support OSU basketball by perpetuating myths. More people need to understand the facts as you have been presenting them. OSU is not this great basketball program.

You keep fighting the good fight there, Denver.

I'm sure that is a part of it, but your rationale for explaining the OSU students' decline in interest can also be applied to a decent number of the non-student fans.

Which is why I said that very thing in my post.

But I've seen too much with my own eyes to not state the obvious here that the decline in student support has been the primary problem with attendence since about 2007.

As I said earlier, the mid-week December non-conference games against the Savanah States of the world always had lots of no-shows in the "regular" seats... but the students would fill the arena from the floor to the celing behind both baskets.

You don't get that anymore, even for big games.

 

[buttermaker1]

It is truly pathetic how OU fans support OSU basketball by perpetuating myths. More people need to understand the facts as you have been presenting them. OSU is not this great basketball program.

LMAO man I miss Sean running the show. Sweating vodka sauce by the buckets.