(09-07-2015 01:03 AM)Antarius Wrote: (09-06-2015 04:41 PM)MOBweb Wrote: Therefore, show quality has never resulted in any sort of direct impact to resources, funding, or facilities -- positive or negative. If you're going to tell me that reduced funding is the result of long-term, poor execution, I'm going to tell you that -- with the way Rice has organized the departments and funding -- the band has no chance to succeed. The best it can seem to hope for is status-quo, but it is always at risk of losing more.
Individual show quality does not directly result in improved funding but trends do matter. Interest in the MOB is in a lot of ways parallel to interest in KTRU, very limited. As time wears on, if more and more audience members do not get interested, you end up with limited growth in terms of supporters (outside of the organization) which leads to a slow but sure deterioration resulting in a major change (be it losing the band hall or selling the radio station)
I never said "individual" show quality. I was referring to overall quality on the level of an entire season. Even the very best seasons do not result in any substantial improvement to The MOB's disposition with regard to the administration or the athletic department; consequently this "trend" you suggest
may result in negative consequences but it's not equitable and doesn't offer any reward in the other direction. That was my point.
There are better seasons and worse seasons, but I would assert to you that the
average show quality for a given season has not changed much in the last two decades. In fact, going against the common perception that things were better "in my day", I'd say that the quality of the last half of 2000-2014 was better on average than the first half. Yet The MOB could take commercial air flights to away games at Michigan in 2000 and fill three charter buses. We can't even afford game seats for a bus trip to UT Austin in 2014. We're going to have a difficult time putting quantitative numbers on a factor like "show quality" but I just don't see any direct correlation over the time span that I've been present.
To your point comparing The MOB with KTRU, there are indeed many similarities. They're unique organizations that add character to Rice and don't necessarily fit with a prim and proper corporate image -- be that of academia or today's commercialized arena of "amateur" sports. They don't always appeal to the majority of the general public, though that was often
by design in the case of KTRU whereas The MOB
is generally trying to entertain its audience. Where the students don't understand their audience, that fails; it happens more than anyone would like. Audiences that don't really care about our not-well-known opponents don't make things any easier, but thanks for holding us accountable for
that "trend" completely outside of our control.
Without some form of quantitative measurement and a corresponding, concrete goal in mind, you're proposing arbitrary criteria that probably -- in all honesty -- cannot be met. Unlike KTRU, we don't have Nielsen. For The MOB, obtaining mass approval requires generating unique content from scratch and it's not as easy as changing which selection of artists get included on a playlist. Like KTRU, The MOB is a unique aspect of Rice culture that we're in danger of losing. I would think that should be a larger concern, unless you're of the opinion that The MOB should just go away entirely. (In which case, I wish you'd outright say so.) Keeping The MOB means taking the good and the bad.
I'll say again, though you seem to be ignoring it, that the impact of what's been going on is larger in scope than simply The MOB. Even if everyone here wants a traditional marching band, or even a simple pep band, in slowly killing The MOB the same resources needed for any alternative other than
no band whatsoever are also being killed. Halftime show scripts are only a portion of what The MOB does, but you're at risk of losing everything if we can't maintain a critical mass.
(09-07-2015 01:03 AM)Antarius Wrote: As a freshman in 2006 who wasn't from Houston (and had never visited Rice), I had no idea what the MOB was. I am not sure what freshman enrollment numbers can and do tell us. It might be worth plotting those against Rice football wins and see if we can find a trendline. Could you please post the numbers?
First, the majority of numbers I quoted were overall membership; only the loss of 68% of returning now-sophomores in 2013 was in reference to freshmen. Since your only familiarity with The MOB is that of a spectator, let me put the freshman statistic in terms you'll understand as a sports fan: it's our recruiting class. You have one bad year with the freshmen, and you lose 25% upwards of 30% of your potential -- before accounting for later losses due to increased coursework demands in subsequent years. Two such bad years and now you're at a 50-60% loss -- and yet you wonder why The MOB looks smaller and smaller?
We don't have scholarships to offer. No one* transfers to Rice in order to play with The MOB. We deal strictly with "walk-ons". As the band gets smaller, the walk-on appeal diminishes in a "lost bandwagon" effect.
(* Okay, technically it has happened but it's so rare as to be inconsequential.)
Ant, you asked for numbers. The data set I was referring to is included below. The composition percentages will not sum to 100 because I didn't include all categories (those excluded are negligible). The game attendance numbers are on average; the number of individuals that participate in any given season are higher but we don't have any sort of mandatory attendance policy.
Code:
. PerGame Estimated Composition
YEAR Avg(#) Fr(%) So(%) Jr(%) Sr(%) Alum(%)
2006 72.4 23.6 21.1 9.8 13.0 17.9
2007 70.0 24.3 17.1 16.2 7.2 18.9
2008 77.9 28.5 14.6 11.4 12.2 17.9
2009 77.1 35.0 17.5 9.5 8.8 16.1
2010 93.4 29.3 28.0 11.3 7.3 17.3
2011 96.4 30.0 18.8 17.5 8.1 20.0
2012 75.3 22.4 21.6 18.4 21.6 14.4
2013 53.5 23.2 9.5 21.1 22.1 17.9
2014 56.0 28.0 10.8 5.4 19.4 23.7
While we don't have the numbers prior to 2006 due to a different tracking system in use at the time, the percentage compositions don't sound out of line from what I would estimate from when I was an undergraduate during the Hatfield era. This was before your time, Ant, but "win record" wasn't much of a factor back then and I'll be surprised if it is now (as far as The MOB goes).
Always remember, as much as the shows may be hit-or-miss, you're looking at some of the most dedicated students in attendance at Rice football games. It is truly a thankless job to do all of that and have to justify one's existence from year to year.
(09-07-2015 12:05 PM)owl at the moon Wrote: (09-07-2015 09:42 AM)Grungy Wrote: (09-07-2015 01:03 AM)Antarius Wrote: Grungy Wrote:Who is The MOB's audience?
Everyone who watches Rice football and everyone who we WANT to start watching Rice football.
"Everyone" is a very diverse group.
Should The MOB try to please them all or target a subset?
The subset with a sense of humor.
(Above quotes snipped for brevity.)
All of them
think they have a sense of humor. Among all of those that actually do, there are many
different senses of humor. This hasn't really narrowed down the original set very much at all.
Chef, they're trying to keep that under wraps. Want to get rid of hedge-jumping? Chop off the hedges at the ground and regrow them for longer than the students' institutional memory lasts. Shoving the band in a basement didn't work, let's try a gym and co-schedule them with basketball and badminton LPAP classes.
