This has probably been beaten to death, but if we got 1/3 of the people that go to our football games to attend our bball games, the Convo would be packed every night. Think of what kind of atmosphere that would set for our players. Think of the revenues that would be raised. How about we all try to bring one more person to the next game at home (Buffalo, or if thats too soon, then the next home game). Think of how fun it would be to have 10,000 people all wearing red, cheering for the Huskies. We have a great asset in our 10,000 seat arena, and we as fans need to take advantage of that.

We all saw how great the Kansas State game was when we had a large crowd. If we could produce a crowd like that we truly would have a huge home court advantage, not to mention its a lot more fun going to the games when there is more then 2000 people there.

Just win and the stands will fill.

The Huskies don't lose that often at home, so I don't think that is the problem.

the choran character has a point.

BleedsHuskieRed Wrote:This has probably been beaten to death, but if we got 1/3 of the people that go to our football games to attend our bball games, the Convo would be packed every night. Think of what kind of atmosphere that would set for our players. Think of the revenues that would be raised. How about we all try to bring one more person to the next game at home (Buffalo, or if thats too soon, then the next home game). Think of how fun it would be to have 10,000 people all wearing red, cheering for the Huskies. We have a great asset in our 10,000 seat arena, and we as fans need to take advantage of that.

Even at that, NIU students have it good! We should be so lucky that we can still go see all the NIU Sports teams for free. Almost every college makes their students pay for tickets to attend games. Think about how much revenue must be getting made off all those U of I students who go to basketball games. They have to pay for those tickets. Just the mere fact that we don't have to pay should be putting a**'s in the seats!

NIU students take everything for granted.

(me)"hey wanna go to the game tonight? The tickets are free."
(NIU student friend)"no, I think I'm going to go out drinking tonight." or "no I'm just going to stay in and watch a movie, it's too cold outside."

This conversation has happened to me a couple times.

My favorite comment is
(friend) "theres nothing to do, DeKalb is boring, I'm going home this weekend."
(me) "there's a basketball/football game this weekend."

It seems sometimes like I have to talk my friends into going to the games. I hate the excuses.

"the loud crowd noise gives me headaches."
"I'm going home this weekend to sit on my a$$ and do nothing"
"I have a hangover from partying too hard"
"It's too cold"
"It's too hot"
"I'm taking a nap"
"I have to study"
"It's poker night with the guys"
"The team is just going to loose anyways"
"I'm going to Walmart"
"The games are boring"
"I don't support NIU athletics"
"I don't like sports"
"Too lazy to get a ticket"

All of these have been actual excuses that I have heard from one friend or another.

i agree, free tickets can't be passed up. what else are we supposed to do on a tuesday night.

NIUGAHuskie Wrote:NIU students take everything for granted.

(me)"hey wanna go to the game tonight? The tickets are free."
(NIU student friend)"no, I think I'm going to go out drinking tonight." or "no I'm just going to stay in and watch a movie, it's too cold outside."

This conversation has happened to me a couple times.

My favorite comment is
(friend) "theres nothing to do, DeKalb is boring, I'm going home this weekend."
(me) "there's a basketball/football game this weekend."

It seems sometimes like I have to talk my friends into going to the games. I hate the excuses.

"the loud crowd noise gives me headaches."
"I'm going home this weekend to sit on my a$$ and do nothing"
"I have a hangover from partying too hard"
"It's too cold"
"It's too hot"
"I'm taking a nap"
"I have to study"
"It's poker night with the guys"
"The team is just going to loose anyways"
"I'm going to Walmart"
"The games are boring"
"I don't support NIU athletics"
"I don't like sports"
"Too lazy to get a ticket"

All of these have been actual excuses that I have heard from one friend or another.

Nothing has changed. I always ran into that. I even went to some games by myself. Here's an excuse to add to the list. I had some friends on the gymnastics team. When I asked if they wanted to go, one of them once told me, "they don't go to our meets, so why should I go to see them?"

BleedsHuskieRed Wrote:This has probably been beaten to death, but if we got 1/3 of the people that go to our football games to attend our bball games, the Convo would be packed every night. Think of what kind of atmosphere that would set for our players. Think of the revenues that would be raised. How about we all try to bring one more person to the next game at home (Buffalo, or if thats too soon, then the next home game). Think of how fun it would be to have 10,000 people all wearing red, cheering for the Huskies. We have a great asset in our 10,000 seat arena, and we as fans need to take advantage of that.

If we only had 5 home bball games you would be right.

If we were as good in basketball as we are in football the place would be full.
Students are not in town right now, so I don't think we can really say how many people will come this year. (School starts the 17th if anyone was wondering when students will be back)
Also.. the "usually win at home theory" doesn't mean much, its not like the students don't know the team is losing its away games. We aren't oblivious, the missouri state game still happened.

I go to every game, but each game is harder to watch with Judson coaching so I can see why people don't go. It is harder each time for me to find a friend to go back to a game. But here are a few things I think should be changed to get people to come.
(K-State was packed b/c the tickets were a dollar.)

1. Get the students out from behind the basket until the place starts filling up, those are terrible seats, I always move to an empty seat near midcourt so I can get a better view of the game. The convo. isn't full.. why not move the people to a place w/o an obstructed view? (on the plus-side no one ever kicks you out of your seat, we sat in the first row behind the team last week and no seemed to mind, so that was pretty nice )

2. More Dollar food days, why not give out food half off, I won't ever buy anything at those regular prices (and most other students won't waste their money either), but if they had a dollar day you could gaurantee I'd be buying a pop, popcorn and hotdog. I know they are still making money at that price, a pop is like 3 cents to them. Things like that get people to come.

3. Lower ticket prices, I go for free b/c I'm a student, but a lot of my friends are not willing to pay that much to see a bad team that plays a boring style of basketball w/ no play makers. Rather see 6,000 people there who paid 1-5 dollars then 1,000 who paid more. Look at how many people came out for the K-State game. Plus all the money they make from concessions with that many people going to the game, it has to be more profitable for them.
4. Win.

i think with students back, we can maybe expect 100 more at the games? hopefully, that would make our chants a bit louder. maybe we can get some sort of another cram the convo night for the public and then some more incentives for students.

We had 6800 for the Central Michigan game in 2002 when we were competing for the MAC West title.

If we continue to win, the fans will be there.

I was sick that there were only 1,856 at the game. My wife and I were the only ones in our row. (Of course, that could be related to the sudden onset of flatulence on my part.) It was such a great game that I wish more people could have seen it. That game has left me with a high for three days.

Perhaps there should be a bit more publicity of our games. I like the $1 days, but I'm not sure even that would work on a continual basis. There seems to be an apathy toward our basketball program that has carried over from last year. Maybe people are burnt out from football and need to get on with their personal lives. I don't know, but it's a shame. I really like watching our BB games in the Convo Center.

Obviously, the weekday games cannot be well-attended by us Chicagoans. I get to every weekend game (even pre-season), but it's just too damn hard to trek to DeKalb on a weekday evening in winter. I try to get to one or two weekday games a year, but that's it. I really wish we could schedule more weekend games - even Sundays if need be.

Dog Fan Wrote:I was sick that there were only 1,856 at the game. My wife and I were the only ones in our row. (Of course, that could be related to the sudden onset of flatulence on my part.) It was such a great game that I wish more people could have seen it. That game has left me with a high for three days.

Perhaps there should be a bit more publicity of our games. I like the $1 days, but I'm not sure even that would work on a continual basis. There seems to be an apathy toward our basketball program that has carried over from last year. Maybe people are burnt out from football and need to get on with their personal lives. I don't know, but it's a shame. I really like watching our BB games in the Convo Center.

Obviously, the weekday games cannot be well-attended by us Chicagoans. I get to every weekend game (even pre-season), but it's just too damn hard to trek to DeKalb on a weekday evening in winter. I try to get to one or two weekday games a year, but that's it. I really wish we could schedule more weekend games - even Sundays if need be.

I live in the far western burbs about 43 miles from DeKalb and it's hard for me to get to a weeknight game. The Convo is a great place to watch a game and $5 for an upper level seat is cheap. Northwestern charges $20, UIC $15 (except for some 3 for $40 specials) and Loyola is $10. IMO 20 wins this year is a reasonable goal, hopefully the Huskies can pull out a win on brackebuster weekend in Feb. ;-)

Our Marketing Department needs to increase our season ticket base in basketball & football. Until our season ticket base increases, we area the mercy of a walk -up crowd.

We should have 5 game packages in Basketball and 3 game packages in Football. Sell season tickets, and fans will want to be at the games.

We had 27K + for Tenn Tech. I think football is ok. Basketball is where we have a problem. We need a new coach who can recruit in the city of Chicago and bring in talent that this program deserves. I think it's time to fire Jud the Dud and get rid of yet another cancer that the previous AD has bestowed upon us.

michaelsmetko Wrote:We should have 5 game packages in Basketball and 3 game packages in Football. Sell season tickets, and fans will want to be at the games.

That is a good idea.