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W&M is currently leading the CAA in a very important statistic: attendance.

W&M: 3728
UNCW: 3649
CofC: 3647
Delaware: 2181
JMU: 2179

It is a very small sample size but there are some encouraging trends.

Attendance at this year's Hofstra game was 597 more than last year's. Both were played on Saturday.

Attendance at this year's JMU game was 1224 more than last year's. Both were played on Thursday.

Attendance last year against Towson was 3425, a high bar for a Thursday night game. Attendance this year will be ????

Last year was a down year for us attendance-wise, about 2800 compared to 3500 the prior two years. Perhaps this is merely a return to the mean. On the other hand, we are playing a very exciting brand of ball that could be attracting new fans.

UNCW has been leading the league the several years but they are way down this year. CofC is about the same as last year.

If I were a JMU fan, I would be very concerned. Look at their attendance figures over the last few years:

2017-18: 2179
2016-17: 3067
2015-16: 3253
2014-15: 3544
2013-14: 3614
Can have new facilities with all the latest bells and whistles, and promos out the ying yang, but in the end, sports enthusiasts come out for winners. Participation trophies are a worthless fantasy.

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Stole this data from the Hofstra message board (EvanJ) :

Three out of five southern teams had better attendance than season, and the two teams that got lower were JMU and UNCW. Four out of five northern teams had worse attendance than last season. Here's the change for each team:

William & Mary: +673
Charleston: +635
Delaware: +537
Elon: +260
Hofstra: -22
Drexel: -106
Northeastern: -187
James Madison: -202
Towson: -255
UNC Wilmington: -434

*********************************************************

The rest of the post is my (Tribeinexile) data.

I believe the numbers above were for total games, not conference-only. That is a very important measure but I prefer to look at conference-only for trend lines.

W&M: +1142
Delaware: +455
CofC: +317
Elon: +280
Hofstra: +83
Drexel: -90
NE: -153
JMU: -535
Towson: -584
UNCW: -649

Top three in home, conference-only attendance were UNCW (4,251), W&M (4,052) and CofC (3,943). NE only averaged 1,292! UNCW's drop was understandable but Towson and (especially) JMU seem to have cause for concern.

Hopefully there will be a concerted effort to build on our momentum next year.
It's a credit to our fan base and, perhaps, a sad reality that we support our teams through good, okay, and bad seasons. We just hang in there like a bunch of puppies.

A couple schools, namely JMU and UD, are fairweather. They're all about it when they're on top but want to fire the world when they suck.

NU fans simply don't appreciate what they have. Real shame.

CoC and UNCW have a strong history with MBB and baseball so they know it's a matter of time before they'll be back in the top tier. I haven't seen a lot of panic from hawks fans.

Towson is probably the worst fan base in the CAA. They don't care no matter how good or bad they are.

I'm too lazy to look it up but I wonder how Mason's attendance looked for the first half vs the second half of the season. I'm not certain, but I think they were decent not too long after we smacked their fat mouths. I'm confident their fans would say no one cared until they played A10 schools.

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Quick check. GMU had 3,400 at home to your Tribe, dived vs GS and a few others, big boost vs VCU, GW, and better A10 schools, dived again after losing a few of those, and picked up a bit after a couple of good outtings.

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(03-19-2018 08:40 PM)Tribal Wrote: [ -> ]It's a credit to our fan base and, perhaps, a sad reality that we support our teams through good, okay, and bad seasons. We just hang in there like a bunch of puppies.

We're riding a high right now with fan engagement, mostly due to winning a lot more than losing. I have not looked up the numbers, but I think it was Marcus' freshman season where we were awful and nobody was showing up.

Our foul weather fanbase is probably as big as the entire fanbase for some other CAA schools, though. Northeastern's marketing is a disgrace. They must pay Coen a lot, because I can't see any reason he wouldn't succeed at a school where people show up to watch games.
W&M home attendance:

2000: 2430
2004: 1976
2007: 2453
2010: 3144
2011: 2287
2012: 2071
2013: 2996
2014: 2839
2015: 2913
2016: 3063
2017: 2623
2018: 3508

W&M has about 2k fans that it couldn't drive off no matter how hard it tried during the Boyages years. Part of what helps attendance now is that the team is actually entertaining.
UNCW has't averaged under 3100 even in our worst years. In our heyday of the Wainright/Brownell years and with a very competitive and exciting CAA, we were averaging from 5400 - 5800. Keatts years we were in the 4500-4800 range. Even this past year we averaged about 4200 with a pretty crappy season and a new coach.
With an improved ooc home schedule, a continued exciting product, and marketing improvements, I don't think that it is impossible to see average home attendance to rise to the 4-5,000 range.
(03-20-2018 07:11 AM)82hawk Wrote: [ -> ]UNCW has't averaged under 3100 even in our worst years. In our heyday of the Wainright/Brownell years and with a very competitive and exciting CAA, we were averaging from 5400 - 5800. Keatts years we were in the 4500-4800 range. Even this past year we averaged about 4200 with a pretty crappy season and a new coach.

In all fairness, 82Hawk, you are a "basketball" school and your fan base is starving to attend a sporting event by the time that November rolls around. By contrast, our dedicated fan base spent years in the desert before anyone even knew that we existed and even today our rise in attendance is solely the work of Tony Shaver, his entertaining and successful teams of the last half decade, and a dedicated group of individuals like Mr. and Mrs. Got Ribe who decided that enough is enough, and that our program and fans will not be totally ignored anymore.

At UNCW, you have no identity crisis. I will make no controversial comments about where I believe our identity should be.
It's clear the interest and engagement is there and the fan base is supporting the team. Time for the athletic department to do the same and invest in the program so we don't squander this momentum.
(03-20-2018 09:35 AM)WMTRIBE75 Wrote: [ -> ]
(03-20-2018 07:11 AM)82hawk Wrote: [ -> ]UNCW has't averaged under 3100 even in our worst years. In our heyday of the Wainright/Brownell years and with a very competitive and exciting CAA, we were averaging from 5400 - 5800. Keatts years we were in the 4500-4800 range. Even this past year we averaged about 4200 with a pretty crappy season and a new coach.

In all fairness, 82Hawk, you are a "basketball" school and your fan base is starving to attend a sporting event by the time that November rolls around. By contrast, our dedicated fan base spent years in the desert before anyone even knew that we existed and even today our rise in attendance is solely the work of Tony Shaver, his entertaining and successful teams of the last half decade, and a dedicated group of individuals like Mr. and Mrs. Got Ribe who decided that enough is enough, and that our program and fans will not be totally ignored anymore.

At UNCW, you have no identity crisis. I will make no controversial comments about where I believe our identity should be.

It wasn't meant as a comparison to William and Mary, just some historical numbers to show the difference success can make. From a low of 3100 to a high of 5800 is a pretty big jump. Success on the court is reflected in attendance and I think you are seeing at W&M. It's great to see the Tribe on the rise in success and attendance. IMO, recent success is showing that basketball could and should be king at W&M. It's an overall better investment financially. However, I know many people who will not go to a school without football like UNCW. For that reason alone, Campbell University is on the rise in NC as they improve their football program.
(03-20-2018 10:35 AM)82hawk Wrote: [ -> ]
(03-20-2018 09:35 AM)WMTRIBE75 Wrote: [ -> ]
(03-20-2018 07:11 AM)82hawk Wrote: [ -> ]UNCW has't averaged under 3100 even in our worst years. In our heyday of the Wainright/Brownell years and with a very competitive and exciting CAA, we were averaging from 5400 - 5800. Keatts years we were in the 4500-4800 range. Even this past year we averaged about 4200 with a pretty crappy season and a new coach.

In all fairness, 82Hawk, you are a "basketball" school and your fan base is starving to attend a sporting event by the time that November rolls around. By contrast, our dedicated fan base spent years in the desert before anyone even knew that we existed and even today our rise in attendance is solely the work of Tony Shaver, his entertaining and successful teams of the last half decade, and a dedicated group of individuals like Mr. and Mrs. Got Ribe who decided that enough is enough, and that our program and fans will not be totally ignored anymore.

At UNCW, you have no identity crisis. I will make no controversial comments about where I believe our identity should be.

It wasn't meant as a comparison to William and Mary, just some historical numbers to show the difference success can make. From a low of 3100 to a high of 5800 is a pretty big jump. Success on the court is reflected in attendance and I think you are seeing at W&M. It's great to see the Tribe on the rise in success and attendance. IMO, recent success is showing that basketball could and should be king at W&M. It's an overall better investment financially. However, I know many people who will not go to a school without football like UNCW. For that reason alone, Campbell University is on the rise in NC as they improve their football program.

82Hawk, I did not view your comments as a comparison at all, and I , in fact, think that it is admirable that even in your down years you have averaged more than 3100 fans. Kudos to your fan base. I just used your comments as a lead in to something that has stuck in my craw for decades.
Talking about College of Charleston, I think that attendance will rise next year. They have a better schedule of games, and that CAA championship game I think spiked interest in the program locally.

For the last couple of weeks CofC has kind of owned the market. We had almost 8,000 fans at the championship, and all but 100-150 of them were CofC fans. When we played our NCAA game (Friday night at 7:30) also was big, because most bars in the Charleston area were packed with people watching our game and seeing how we played. TD Arena had about 1,000 people watching the game there.

Next year, Rhode Island, Charlotte, and Coastal Carolina all come in, games which will boost attendance in a good way. This season our best non-conference game was probably Siena or Western Carolina.
I feel like William and Mary should strive for excellence across the board so I applaud any and all increases of internal support that may happen. However, most of the examples of profile enhancement we keep pointing toward within the mid-major ranks are from schools that suffer from an identity crisis or reputation deficiency in relation to the other universities in their cities/states. That is not the case with William & Mary. It is not some directional school not getting the credit it may already deserve. The College will not receive the comparative "bump" many schools have when it does in fact splash into March Madness. It truthfully doesn't need it. It will simply be more fun.
(03-20-2018 01:27 PM)Tribe3455 Wrote: [ -> ]I feel like William and Mary should strive for excellence across the board so I applaud any and all increases of internal support that may happen. However, most of the examples of profile enhancement we keep pointing toward within the mid-major ranks are from schools that suffer from an identity crisis or reputation deficiency in relation to the other universities in their cities/states. That is not the case with William & Mary. It is not some directional school not getting the credit it may already deserve. The College will not receive the comparative "bump" many schools have when it does in fact splash into March Madness. It truthfully doesn't need it. It will simply be more fun.

Respectfully, this is just wrong. When I'm on the west coast, I find few people who can identify W&M as a college in Virginia. Moving further afield, outside the US, it is very rare that anyone has knows who or what we are.

Moreover, even on the east coast, our reputation is sterling for academics, but suspect for turning out well-rounded people. I guarantee you that when we make the Dance, there will be people who apply to W&M who would not have done so before. And they will likely look different, think differently, and act differently from our existing student base.

And to say that W&M "doesn't need" a bump in reputation suggests a dangerous complacency. I guarantee you that Harvard, Georgetown, Davidson, and Richmond aren't being complacent about this.

As I said at the outset, I respect your opinion. But it is profoundly different from my experience.

Got Ribe!
And our AD continues to show that she gets it. She drew attention to this article on her Twitter feed.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Mu...ake/242858

"At UMBC, there’s already one clear beneficiary: the UMBC Athletics Twitter feed. Before tipoff against Virginia, it had fewer than 6,000 followers. Now it’s well above 95,000 and rising."
(03-20-2018 02:10 PM)Mrs. Got Ribe Wrote: [ -> ]And our AD continues to show that she gets it. She drew attention to this article on her Twitter feed.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Mu...ake/242858

"At UMBC, there’s already one clear beneficiary: the UMBC Athletics Twitter feed. Before tipoff against Virginia, it had fewer than 6,000 followers. Now it’s well above 95,000 and rising."

The person behind that UMBC account is amazing. It would be great to get a little more character behind the Tribe Athletics account.

I also really miss the TribeGameDay account, it was a great one stop update for every sport going on at any given time.
It's staggering how many people, FROM VIRGINIA, think W&M is the quaint school in Fredericksburg.

And, yes, the UMBC Twitter account was hilarious for a few days. I'm a big fan of how the person or people running it seized the opportunity.

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(03-20-2018 01:27 PM)Tribe3455 Wrote: [ -> ]I feel like William and Mary should strive for excellence across the board so I applaud any and all increases of internal support that may happen. However, most of the examples of profile enhancement we keep pointing toward within the mid-major ranks are from schools that suffer from an identity crisis or reputation deficiency in relation to the other universities in their cities/states. That is not the case with William & Mary. It is not some directional school not getting the credit it may already deserve. The College will not receive the comparative "bump" many schools have when it does in fact splash into March Madness. It truthfully doesn't need it. It will simply be more fun.

Let me be perfectly clear here. When I used the words "identity crisis", I was in no way speaking of William & Mary as an entity itself. I believe that academically we clearly know who we are and our reputation could only be exponentially enhanced by a team of 13 true student athletes making the Big Dance and potentially becoming the darlings of the country for a week in March.

My words "identity crisis" are aimed solely at athletics, or, more to the point, the sport that most supporters probably still seem to think we should be identified with when recent results suggest otherwise. And, to be clear, I have felt that way for the past 40+ years.
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