Sooners are headed for worst home attendance in the Lon Kruger era

[coolm]

along the lines of what dion said I'd really recommend checking this out.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...s-still-looks-red_us_58b5b016e4b060480e0c38ab

 

[vbdad]

1. The LNC is a horrible basketball arena. It is stupid to continue to put money into it with multiple renovations so that it makes it prohibitive to move.
2. The administration isn't supportive of the basketball program at all. They talk a good game publicly but that is the extent of it.
3. The Thunder does hurt attendance. Many people dropped their tickets for Thunder tickets and they were people who attended every game.
4. Attendance is better when we win but it still isn't great.
5. Students are always who create the atmosphere and they haven't been interested in Norman for years. No idea what else they are doing but at most schools and for at OU they don't go to basketball.
6. Game times during the week don't help. I can't get to a 6 o'clock game because of work and traffic. I'm rarely willing to go to an 8 o'clock game because I don't want to get home close to midnight. This is why I don't have season tickets. Yes I know the coaches and they are great guys and I feel bad about not supporting them in person but until I retire it isn't going to happen.
7. If you look at the bodies in the seats in the LNC the average age is very high. This isn't good long term for attendance.

 

[SoonerBred]

1. The LNC is a horrible basketball arena. It is stupid to continue to put money into it with multiple renovations so that it makes it prohibitive to move.
2. The administration isn't supportive of the basketball program at all. They talk a good game publicly but that is the extent of it.
3. The Thunder does hurt attendance. Many people dropped their tickets for Thunder tickets and they were people who attended every game.
4. Attendance is better when we win but it still isn't great.
5. Students are always who create the atmosphere and they haven't been interested in Norman for years. No idea what else they are doing but at most schools and for at OU they don't go to basketball.
6. Game times during the week don't help. I can't get to a 6 o'clock game because of work and traffic. I'm rarely willing to go to an 8 o'clock game because I don't want to get home close to midnight. This is why I don't have season tickets. Yes I know the coaches and they are great guys and I feel bad about not supporting them in person but until I retire it isn't going to happen.
7. If you look at the bodies in the seats in the LNC the average age is very high. This isn't good long term for attendance.

Fans are not coming because of the arena, just stop it already. Last year had several games at standing room only, before they ever reached the Final Four. The product on the floor is what people come to watch. I live in Norman and have attended nearly every home game for the past 10 seasons. At the beginning of this season the attendance was good but has faded along with the team during their tough stretch. Last week against K-State we had a decent crowd all things considered. The students have though been poor in attendance but I think they will return next year. The student attendance at OU Baseball has been great as they are filling the berms out in the outfield. They will be back next year.

 

[BanjoCharley]

As a professional lighting and scenery designer and as a long time Sooner fan, I can say SoonerBounce13 wins this one.

 

[MichaelM]

Step 1 is to reduce - or better, eliminate - ticket prices for students. Get them in the habit of going to the games. You're not making any money with an 80% empty student section anyway.

That improves the atmosphere, and I would think it improves the chances that they will keep coming back after graduation.

 

[tycat947]

Fans are not coming because of the arena, just stop it already. Last year had several games at standing room only, before they ever reached the Final Four. The product on the floor is what people come to watch. I live in Norman and have attended nearly every home game for the past 10 seasons. At the beginning of this season the attendance was good but has faded along with the team during their tough stretch. Last week against K-State we had a decent crowd all things considered. The students have though been poor in attendance but I think they will return next year. The student attendance at OU Baseball has been great as they are filling the berms out in the outfield. They will be back next year.

+1

As I said, Sooner fans can come up with a million excuses not to attend basketball games!

 

[SoonerBounce13]

1. The LNC is a horrible basketball arena. It is stupid to continue to put money into it with multiple renovations so that it makes it prohibitive to move.

2. The administration isn't supportive of the basketball program at all. They talk a good game publicly but that is the extent of it.

3. The Thunder does hurt attendance. Many people dropped their tickets for Thunder tickets and they were people who attended every game.

4. Attendance is better when we win but it still isn't great.

5. Students are always who create the atmosphere and they haven't been interested in Norman for years. No idea what else they are doing but at most schools and for at OU they don't go to basketball.

6. Game times during the week don't help. I can't get to a 6 o'clock game because of work and traffic. I'm rarely willing to go to an 8 o'clock game because I don't want to get home close to midnight. This is why I don't have season tickets. Yes I know the coaches and they are great guys and I feel bad about not supporting them in person but until I retire it isn't going to happen.

7. If you look at the bodies in the seats in the LNC the average age is very high. This isn't good long term for attendance.

I actually built a graph last year that showed average attendance vs winning percentage.

I don't really think the thunder hurt


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Big Old Booger]

As a professional lighting and scenery designer and as a long time Sooner fan, I can say SoonerBounce13 wins this one.

That picture (if you go to the link) is like a virtual tour thing where you can pan left or right. If you pan left or right away from the lighted area the seats are a red shade. It's a light red because they have faded but they are red.

 

[vbdad]

Fans are not coming because of the arena, just stop it already. Last year had several games at standing room only, before they ever reached the Final Four. The product on the floor is what people come to watch. I live in Norman and have attended nearly every home game for the past 10 seasons. At the beginning of this season the attendance was good but has faded along with the team during their tough stretch. Last week against K-State we had a decent crowd all things considered. The students have though been poor in attendance but I think they will return next year. The student attendance at OU Baseball has been great as they are filling the berms out in the outfield. They will be back next year.

I stood in line for student tickets in the middle of the night when Wayman played for us. I stood outside the arena for a couple of hours before games during that same time and also the final four team. Yes it can be full but it still isn't a good basketball arena. I'm not saying if we had a good arena it would be full but it would be a better facility. Now there are chairs on the ground which is below the floor and behind the seats on the floor. I have sat in them and they are terrible.

The Thunder hasn't decimated attendance but it has hurt. People only have so much time to attend games. I personally know of 10 people who go to every Thunder game and used to go to every game in Norman. Now they never go to Norman. I don't know that many people but every single one hurts the attendance.

As for student ticket prices they are nearly free. I forget the actual price but it is truly nothing. It is beyond my wildest imagination what they have better to do than attend a game. I doubt they are all in the library. You will see a few other athletes attend the games but not most which also is shocking to me.

 

[sooner8693]

I stood in line for student tickets in the middle of the night when Wayman played for us. I stood outside the arena for a couple of hours before games during that same time and also the final four team. Yes it can be full but it still isn't a good basketball arena. I'm not saying if we had a good arena it would be full but it would be a better facility. Now there are chairs on the ground which is below the floor and behind the seats on the floor. I have sat in them and they are terrible.

The Thunder hasn't decimated attendance but it has hurt. People only have so much time to attend games. I personally know of 10 people who go to every Thunder game and used to go to every game in Norman. Now they never go to Norman. I don't know that many people but every single one hurts the attendance.

As for student ticket prices they are nearly free. I forget the actual price but it is truly nothing. It is beyond my wildest imagination what they have better to do than attend a game. I doubt they are all in the library. You will see a few other athletes attend the games but not most which also is shocking to me.

Leaving the LNC after todays game, we drove by 2 different Frat houses. At these houses there were outdoor basketball games going on with probably 12-15 guys playing basketball on their own courts at the house. This was within 10 minutes of the end of the game. Did these students not know there was a game today, or just not care enough to go? Hard to imagine this happening at any other school. ?????????????????

 

[Big Old Booger]

Leaving the LNC after todays game, we drove by 2 different Frat houses. At these houses there were outdoor basketball games going on with probably 12-15 guys playing basketball on their own courts at the house. This was within 10 minutes of the end of the game. Did these students not know there was a game today, or just not care enough to go? Hard to imagine this happening at any other school. ?????????????????

If it were KU, OSU, or Texas then the attendance is larger and not as many frat boys playing pickup games. However, it's TCU on a very nice weather Saturday and the 2 teams are 8th and 9th in the Big 12. That's not a good combination to get fans to come out.

When I was a student at OU, I had student tickets and went to almost every game. I bet in my fraternity of at least 100 men, only 15 of us went to the basketball games. Everybody went to football games but far fewer attended basketball games and this is back around the final 4 teams. More went to the bigger games or the Saturday night games if no big parties were planned on campus.

 

[NMSooner'80]

If it were KU, OSU, or Texas then the attendance is larger and not as many frat boys playing pickup games. However, it's TCU on a very nice weather Saturday and the 2 teams are 8th and 9th in the Big 12. That's not a good combination to get fans to come out.

When I was a student at OU, I had student tickets and went to almost every game. I bet in my fraternity of at least 100 men, only 15 of us went to the basketball games. Everybody went to football games but far fewer attended basketball games and this is back around the final 4 teams. More went to the bigger games or the Saturday night games if no big parties were planned on campus.

My frat house in the last four years of the Bliss era turned out pretty well for basketball. I guess it was kind of a novelty at the time, especially in '79 when we won the school's first-ever Big 8 title.

We also turned out well for football. But, less than 40 years later, I've been to the house that my nephew is in, and they don't hardly bother going to the games in person. :facepalm

 

[Big Old Booger]

My frat house in the last four years of the Bliss era turned out pretty well for basketball. I guess it was kind of a novelty at the time, especially in '79 when we won the school's first-ever Big 8 title.

We also turned out well for football. But, less than 40 years later, I've been to the house that my nephew is in, and they don't hardly bother going to the games in person. :facepalm

I can remember marveling at how full was the student section for the big games. So, I'm guessing all the student tickets were sold but many only showed up for the big games. I can remember mid-week games against good teams like Lon Kruger's KSU team where the student section had a number of empty seats on every row.

 

[TINY]

Sooners are also headed for the highest loss total in school history.

When the team sucks, the fans won't come. When the team is good, they will come. It is what it is. It won't ever be like ku or duke but we have a very good home court advantage when we are playing well.

I think the thunder have hurt the attendance for sure and the LNC sucks, but the highest correlation is between winning and attendance.

 

[Chiefdaddy]

I went to the game yesterday and it was pretty embarrassing. Where are the students? You are not studying on a Saturday afternoon. And if you are, you are not living the college life like you should be. Maybe everyone was hung over. I don't know. I was hung over and still made it down from Yukon. It was funny to me that one lady was checking tickets to get down to the lower bowl. We had tickets in the lower bowl that my sister got from her employer for $5 each. But I was like come on lady, this bowl is not going to be close to full today. Lol.

1. Reward the faithful fans and give them the lower bowl seats. My parents drive up from Ardmore for every home game. Either that or make all seats general admission except for the ones on the front row on the floor. Get your big donor money but make them start coming to games to keep their seats.

2. Make it like an event you want to attend. Beer tents outside with other games on would be awesome. I don't make it down to every game because every game is on TV. If you could go a little earlier, watch other games and have some suds, more people would come. Take a look at other games that are not blue blood bball schools and you will see that they serve beer at the games. I have Thunder season tickets and the reason people love to go to those games is for the atmosphere, drinks, and food. The social aspect.

3. I don't know what you do for students these days. As an alum, most of my friends always went to the games in the Sampson era. We would pregame, head to the LNC for a couple of hours and have fun. Maybe give these kids free food and some form of smartphone fun to get them there. I would be catering to the sorority houses to get the girls there. Surely then, the guys would want to come to see the girls at least. I mean, college guys still chase girls right? Make a cool app for meeting at the game and communicating with each other.

These are just a few suggestions. We as fans can't complain about not getting big time recruits when fans won't show up to games. Maybe that will change next year with Trae. I know that OU bball fans only show up when we are winning so we need to win games also. It's crazy that we can get 84k to football games and can't get 10k to bball games. Maybe provide a discount to out of area bball fans that show up on their football tickets? Anyway, OU needs to step up to address this issue. As a former bball player, I can tell you that it sucks not playing in front of a packed house at home. The fans can give you even more energy when you really need it. Especially when you go on the road in this conference and play to full crowds most of the time.