Coach Ehsan tweeted
Door to door tonight to every student on campus! Bartow Arena tomorrow @ 7:00 we need 1000 students.
Apparently Coach has knocked on every dorm room on campus and personally invited students to come to the game tomorrow night. Hope it works. Great that he is willing to do this. Ridiculous that he has to.
At least he didn't have to work at subway for a day like ODU's
Students... you get in free. .your team and fellow classmates need you.
Good for you coach but like MB said, sad you had to do this.
Great he is doing it. Sad he has to do it.
(02-08-2018 06:29 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote: [ -> ]Great he is doing it. Sad he has to do it.
I used to feel that way, that my job was to do brilliant, creative stuff and if the world didn't notice then that was the world's loss. When I first heard the phrase "build (your) brand," from Paul Finebaum, I laughed. That was perhaps the stupidest thing I've ever done not involving a woman.
It's part of the package: the world doesn't care all on it's own. You have to tell it to care. This is not a sad thing; it's good to see Ehsan realizing that now, not 20 years later.
UAB is in no position to think it can just play a game and people will automatically show up. Getting a story in the B'ham News and local newscasts and a few well-placed tv and newspaper ads used to be all that was needed to get 4k-5k+ to a game.
Get into the top-25 and it's a different story.
UAB is a football school now. Any basketball coach we hire is going to have a tough time getting folks (students or general fans) to games if they aren't putting out a consistently great product.
It's deeper than all that but that is for another thread.
I'll just salute him for doing it.
(02-08-2018 10:09 AM)demiveeman Wrote: [ -> ]UAB is a football school now. Any basketball coach we hire is going to have a tough time getting folks (students or general fans) to games if they aren't putting out a consistently great product.
I agree, and it really will be in a couple of more years, especially if Clark keeps landing local kids, and stadium is actually built. HS Football is a big deal in Birmingham & surrounding area.
(02-08-2018 10:09 AM)demiveeman Wrote: [ -> ]UAB is a football school now. Any basketball coach we hire is going to have a tough time getting folks (students or general fans) to games if they aren't putting out a consistently great product.
That's BS. If the students would come to the games, it could be both. Dismissing one sport in favor another is a recipe for failure of both sports. It should be neither a football school or a basketball school. It should be a school where the fans and students support it no matter the season.
(02-08-2018 11:21 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote: [ -> ]It should be a school where the fans and students support it no matter the season.
Should be. But that isn't the reality we are living in right now. Put out a consistent winner and people will show up. If you don't have marquee opponents, you better be the marquee opponent. Right now, we don't have either.
It wasn't too long ago when students were the only ones coming to games (as in 2 or so years). It would not be very hard for me to find people on this board saying..."at least the students showed up".
This is not just a marketing problem. You also have to have a product that sells.
More BS. The product is UAB. Other schools in CUSA support their team. Marshall has sucked in basketball for a long time. They showed up then and they show up now. They are "football dominant" too. Western Kentucky supports no matter their record. I reject the argument that fans and students should only support the team if they are winning.
Had Marshall & Western Kentucky been in a league with Cincy, Memphis, Louisville, etc. & had to stay in a league where those schools left & FIU, FAU, etc. came in you would see similar attendance issues.
Yes, the opponent shouldn't matter for attendance but we all know it does at UAB.
(02-08-2018 12:03 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote: [ -> ]More BS. The product is UAB. Other schools in CUSA support their team. Marshall has sucked in basketball for a long time. They showed up then and they show up now. They are "football dominant" too. Western Kentucky supports no matter their record. I reject the argument that fans and students should only support the team if they are winning.
Bowling Green and Huntington are vastly different markets than Birmingham. You can reject whatever you want...it won't help make your imaginary view of UAB/Birmingham exist.
As long as everyone keeps making excuses for poor fan support, nothing will change.
(02-08-2018 11:21 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote: [ -> ] (02-08-2018 10:09 AM)demiveeman Wrote: [ -> ]UAB is a football school now. Any basketball coach we hire is going to have a tough time getting folks (students or general fans) to games if they aren't putting out a consistently great product.
That's BS. If the students would come to the games, it could be both. Dismissing one sport in favor another is a recipe for failure of both sports. It should be neither a football school or a basketball school. It should be a school where the fans and students support it no matter the season.
Truth hurts. This isn't the 80s or 90s. These kids don't see nore care about what happened over 20 years ago.
The last big influx of fans was during the shutdown. But there was a lot going on. The shutdown, the roll the team went on, making the NCAAs in Louisville.
Winning cures some, not all. It takes trying to see what's stopping then from coming. It's not the teams in the league because they aren't boring. La Tech, USM, MTSU, and WKU are always great games. But why aren't the students as engaged.
I'll just say for the longest, it was "UAB is a basketball school."
Well basketball has taken a sideseat to football. Not a backseat, but it's not driving the bus as it once did. Ehsan engaging the students is a great first step.
(02-08-2018 01:00 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote: [ -> ]As long as everyone keeps making excuses for poor fan support, nothing will change.
Yep. Excuses are plentiful.
There are ways to improve this but it won’t be solved here or with the arttitude of the current administration.
Instead of arguing we should all work together to help be a part of the solution. Part one actually show up to games and stop making excuses not to go and make time to go.
I go to the games to see UAB play. Do I want bigger names to come to UAB during Out of conference play, yes, but I am going to see UAB play even if they are playing five guys hamburger joint.
(02-08-2018 03:02 PM)Rebounder2u Wrote: [ -> ]I go to the games to see UAB play. Do I want bigger names to come to UAB during Out of conference play, yes, but I am going to see UAB play even if they are playing five guys hamburger joint.
That's great...but there's only about 3500 other people that feel that way right now.
So, if you want more people...you need to get them there by winning or scheduling. Then maybe they'll become that level of fan.
(02-08-2018 01:43 PM)rook360 Wrote: [ -> ]But why aren't the students as engaged.
Harris did a poll in 2014 of 18+ aged adults and only 3% of those polled said college basketball was their favorite sport.
Professional hockey and auto-racing scored higher.
Do you think college basketball as a sport is more popular now than it was 4 years ago?
Many people now view college basketball as a one-month season that starts in March. We certainly can't argue against that in C-USA.
So there's also the general popularity of college basketball as a sport to consider.