(03-13-2015 02:55 PM)Shrack Wrote: (03-13-2015 01:57 PM)Blazer85 Wrote: (03-13-2015 01:07 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote: 16000+ was not the norm. We averaged 7000 to 9000 in those years.
My question is where are those people? Even 7 or 9k is far better than where we are now. We're there really a good 3-5k UAB supporters mad about the Bartow letter to the NCAA about UA? Or what is your thought on where those several thousand folks went?
It is a combination of things:
- So many more games available on TV now
- UAB's quality of opponent has gone way down. The conference UAB was in helped the attendance a lot. No offense meant to current CUSA schools, but some of the teams playing at the BJCC at the time were a lot bigger basketball draws than FIU/FAU/etc. We went from multi bid conferences to a single bid CUSA to an even worse single bid CUSA. This is why football was so important to keeping basketball relevant.
- I think the Bartow letter + some animosity in the last couple decades have had something to do with a drop in your every day fan attending UAB basketball games. It also has to do with the fact that the state of Alabama just cares less about basketball now. No one in the state has really been very relevant for years.
- We're not making the NCAAs year in and year out like the 80s. That was a golden time that will probably never be emulated unless we get on a big VCU or Wichita St. style run. Going to the NCAA's 8 times and NIT 3 times in 12 years will net you pretty good attendance.
I think that it was primarily the Bartow letter drove many fans away after it was leaked. While the quality of the teams did go down, we were in the Sunbelt so except for a big game or so every year, the quality of our opponents game in and game out was not great in the early years. We actually had better opponents later when we joined C-USA.
The letter was leaked about the same time the arena on campus (now Bartow Arena) was opened. Until it opened I bought single game tickets because tickets were always available at the BJCC. However, when the arena opened I bought season tickets for the first time because I was afraid I would no longer be able to get tickets for every game due to the smaller seating capacity of the arena. While I don't regret getting season tickets that year or ever since, I remember thinking that first season in the arena, "where did all of the people go. I didn't need season tickets after all."
I figured that out later when I talked to a lot of folks who had strong Alabama football ties, but had previously purchased UAB basketball season tickets. They were deeply offended when they learned that Gene had accused the god of their religion of essentially creating an atmosphere which condoned cheating and they vowed to never go to another UAB basketball game.
The issue came up again later when we played Alabama in the Tuscaloosa the NIT. Some of those same people refused to go to that game even to support the Tide. Many other Alabama fans stayed away because they were afraid that if too many people attended the game, it would have the effect of forcing the two schools to play every year for the revenue the game would bring in if for nothing else. They thought an annual game would benefit UAB more than Alabama. I remember this phenomenon discussed in the media at the time.
Consequently when a big contingent of UAB fans traveled to T-town for the game, Alabama didn't have near the home court advantage you would have expected. 58-56! While walking out of Coleman with my wife I noticed Alan Ogg walking out besides us - he had graduated a year or two before and was hard to miss. I asked him what would have happened if he had played in the game. He said, "We would have killed them!" I didn't see Alan again until the ceremony where the first class was inducted into the UAB Hall of Fame. He was alone and my wife and I talked to him briefly. When he died a few months later we were shocked.
Opps - that turned into a walk down memory lane.
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Last night's attendance
