The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(01-10-2016 09:44 PM)KevMo4UAB Wrote:  I believe most AU and UAT fans do not want to support UAB basketball, period. They have no interest in UAB. They certainly don't want to increase our attendance and potentially help our recruiting chances with local players. It's the AU-UAT effect.

That wipes out a lot of potential UAB basketball fans.

We have to continue to sell UAB as Birmingham's team.

If we are just talking Auburn/Bama fans it is BY FAR the Gump fans...Birmingham has always been known as a "Gump" town...Auburn and UAB have played 18 times and are in the middle of a 4 game series - if not for Cliff Ellis the series might not have ended...the letter to the NCAA by Gene (ALL TRUE) is what made the silver spooned Cub hate us and try to stomp us out of existence...the Auburn series is a good rivalry but w/o the hate...Bama Nation on the other hand wants to see UAB sports die

(01-10-2016 07:17 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  

(01-10-2016 05:08 PM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(01-10-2016 05:05 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  If we were undefeated and ranked top 25 we still would not have broke 7,000 in attendance. Maybe not 6k. Who knows but I'm pretty sure we would not have a sellout. It's deeper than that.

The next time we are undefeated and ranked in January (which has never happened), I think a friendly wager might be in order. I would take several thousand of that action.

Let me know.

We can't sell out Memphis, North Carolina, Creighton, LSU. It's embarrassing. We are two shots from having only one loss and we have cannon fodder teams out drawing us. It's more than wins and losses.

I will. It really is the wins and losses. Until last March, UAB hadn't won an NCAA tournament game since 2006, and hadn't won a conference tournament title since 1987! Last season was also only our second NCAA appearance since 2006. For most of the intervening seasons UAB basketball was disappointing and mediocre.
Couple the mediocrity the program was mired in with the decline in schedule quality and you get crowds of 4,000. I know this team deserves better but it's the reality of our support level (and conference) right now. It took more than one season to get this way and it will take more than one NCAA win to re-kindle interest.

(01-10-2016 01:45 PM)dhruvptl Wrote:  I also think the family 4 pack deal that was in place for the SFA game should be for every game. Not sure financially if the department wants to do that.

I agree with you Dhruv. I was telling a coworker (who graduated from UAB but is an Alabama fan) that he and his family should get the Family Four pack for the UTEP game. I looked it up and saw that we weren't offering that all season like I thought we were.

I think that Blaze is one of our best assets. Little kids LOVE Blaze. My coworker has two little girls, ages 3 and 5. If they would have came and got to hug Blaze, they both would have been pestering their dad to take them back to a game.

If I was a random person in Birmingham I would not pay $60 + concessions for a family of four to go to a school I don't care about's game against a team I've never heard of. $49 plus 4 popcorn and drink vouchers is a really great deal to get people to come for the first time

(01-10-2016 10:04 PM)jthrashr Wrote:  Giveaways and gimmicks are not going to increase attendance.

Improving atmosphere and game day experience would go a long way in bringing people back to more games. If someone leaves Bartow and didn't have fun, why would they ever come back? What's more, they're probably going to tell someone that they didn't have fun.

Bartow could use a family zone playground similar to Region's Field. If the kids associate fun with being at Bartow, parents will be glad to have a go-to activity on weekends.

UAB Athletics should work with a legitimate advertising agency that understands advertising in 2016. I could be wrong, but my impression is that UAB Athletics has always had an in-house team, and I think we could all agree that they've fallen short the majority of the time.

Now, who wants to pay for all this stuff?

That's a great point! We have some really great media companies locally, like BIG and Intermark. If we could afford for them to do some work for us it would probably make a huge difference.

I agree with those who say it is in large part because of wins and losses. In spite of our relative success in basketball, it hasn't been consistent and moreover it hasn't always been at as high of a level as it probably needs to be. Sports fans in this state are spoiled by the national championship teams in recent years with Auburn and Alabama football. Fans want to see a national championship caliber team or else they aren't all that interested. Not to mention basketball will probably always be 2nd fiddle in this state anyway.

If UAB gains more consistent success both with national rankings and with deep runs in the NCAA, I guarantee you will see a huge uptick in attendance. Beating a high profile team once every 3-5 years isn't good enough. Not in this state anyway.

Here is my opinion of the things (in order) that are key to increasing attendance:

1) winning consistently on a national stage (top 25 rankings, deep runs in NCAAs)

2) attractive schedule

3) better marketing with ads, promos, etc

4) better facilities, amenities

Bring back the B-ticket for UAB employees.

(01-11-2016 12:11 AM)Blazer85 Wrote:  4) better facilities, amenities

I would hazard a guess that McAlister's has violated the hell out of their contract by now (if not, Smithers wrote it himself). I wonder if a food truck fest could be held right outside Bartow on the former 7th Avenue South green, with pass-outs to go get these delicacies and fans getting no crap about bringing in "outside food." Would seem to be a deal that helps everyone out.

I sincerely hope this is McAlister's last season hogging those concession stands and selling sub-par stuff (where the hell are the souvenir cups that say C-USA Champions 2015, dammit!?) at beyond inflated prices. Next season hopefully they'll be relegated to one small zone behind the visitors' bench or replaced altogether with a true variety of concessions of tastes of Birmingham. I sure like coming to Men's Basketball games, but forget about concessions there in 2015-16!

We DO get TV commercials rather frequently, but they're kinda like "huh?" Not all that enticing.

The TV commercials we run are simply reminders of the next game/opponent/date & time. Its the same spot with a different tag. Its easily updated, much like the digital billboards we have around the city. Its a bare-bones marketing campaign, but at least we have that.

(01-10-2016 09:24 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(01-10-2016 08:11 PM)CourtsideBlazer Wrote:  

(01-10-2016 02:25 PM)UABslant Wrote:  Some of the best-attended games outside of Memphis matchups during Anderson's years were bobblehead giveaways and the Squeaky Johnson poster night.

We got in BIG trouble for the Squeaky poster AND the Taylor Twins bobbleheads. Seems there is an NCAA rule about using current students with sponsorship logos which we violated. If you have a Ronnel/Donnel bobblehead with the sponsor logo on it, its a collectable. Those stickers were supposed to have been pulled off before giveaway.

I thought as much. Bobble head status should go to former greats anyway.

We have also given away player cards before with corporate logos.

I believe team/spirit group photos are OK for sponsorship logos because it is the collective. The NCAA has a problem with individual student-athletes being used for promotional purposes (other than, of course, the benefit of the NCAA)

There are some excellent ideas being posted in this thread but, like has been mentioned many times, how to pay for them? Advertising budgets are usually set up at least a quarter (3 months) in advance and most are annual. It is very difficult (if not impossible) to get any $$$ not already allocated.

Using social media we won a major victory over the BOT, returned football, raised 31 million in pledges, and are about to build facilities.

I think we have our answer.

Social media. It's our best weapon.

(01-11-2016 08:28 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  Using social media we won a major victory over the BOT, returned football, raised 31 million in pledges, and are about to build facilities.

I think we have our answer.

Social media. It's our best weapon.

exactly.

GangGreen is taking care of getting the students to the games. I expect the next home games to be well attended in that section. Its up to the rest of us to elevate the Blazer story to the masses. We can't expect the media to do it. We can't expect the administration to pay for it. We are a grass-roots operation. Let's grow this thing!

(01-11-2016 12:11 AM)Blazer85 Wrote:  I agree with those who say it is in large part because of wins and losses. In spite of our relative success in basketball, it hasn't been consistent and moreover it hasn't always been at as high of a level as it probably needs to be. Sports fans in this state are spoiled by the national championship teams in recent years with Auburn and Alabama football. Fans want to see a national championship caliber team or else they aren't all that interested. Not to mention basketball will probably always be 2nd fiddle in this state anyway.

If UAB gains more consistent success both with national rankings and with deep runs in the NCAA, I guarantee you will see a huge uptick in attendance. Beating a high profile team once every 3-5 years isn't good enough. Not in this state anyway.

Here is my opinion of the things (in order) that are key to increasing attendance:

1) winning consistently on a national stage (top 25 rankings, deep runs in NCAAs)

2) attractive schedule

3) better marketing with ads, promos, etc

4) better facilities, amenities

Spot On! Nailed It! This season we are on pace to have the best winning % season ever, only the 81-82 season compares. However, the last 4 seasons have been some of our worst. Glad Haase has a longterm deal, however only Murry Bartow has a lower total winning % right now, and all of our previous coaches played against stiffer competition. We've won 19 in a row at home, but again only Murry has a lower home winning % than Haase. So I think Haase should continue to win, then worry about attendance.

If Haase does not see some growth in attendance, he won't be here to have to worry about it. I think he wants to build at UAB and stay here until he moves up to a much better job, but attendance is part of what his pay is based on. He's got a team that has not lost at home in over a year and made the dance and we still play in a half full house. He's used to Kansas and North Carolina, where people actually care about basketball. I imagine he's feeling more than a little frustrated, seeing all the love for Clark while his team is under appreciated.

Yeah, I know this is football crazy Alabama and that traditionally attendance stinks until after football is completely over, but I can't blame him. I know that it's not all us, that the administration is part of it, poor marketing, that it is hard to get high end teams to sign for a home and home... but all I can do, personally, is to go to games and to do my best to get people who otherwise would not to come as well.

How many non-UAB people have you gotten to attend a game this season? That is something that *we* can control. Buy an extra pair and arm twist friends or family into going, or take a couple of friends's children to a game.

"Buy an extra pair"......TICKETS !!! he means TICKETS.

Being that Alabama is a football state and folks' mental focus is on football while its available it would be interesting to see a breakdown of attendance during and after football season...

(01-11-2016 09:33 AM)WesternBlazer Wrote:  Being that Alabama is a football state and folks' mental focus is on football while its available it would be interesting to see a breakdown of attendance during and after football season...

Yeah, and see how many casual fans are now attending two other programs projects whether or not it's better or so

I think all of these points raised are valid. However, until UAB is no longer perceived as being under the thumb of the BOT, we will have trouble achieving anything better than second rate status at best. Hopefully with our victory in the football debacle, the reality and perception of that are changing..

That's not to say that UAB isn't shooting itself in the foot by doing all of the things mentioned in this and other threads poorly or not at all.

I like a lot of the suggestions in this thread, especially marketing the pregame tailgates and having food trucks and live music pregame. Playing our away games on the Jumbotron and marketing that as a fun event would be a good thing also, IMO. I loved watching some of our CUSA tourney and NCAA tourney games with big groups of students at th HUC.

Haase is currently the 4th best coach statistically of 5 we've had. We all know his million dollar payday had more to do with making it harder for football to come back than rewarding him for success. We all want better attendance, 19 home wins against the teams we've played means about as much as a 20 win season these days. Win more games that matter to fringe fans and they will come. I dare you to compare the winning % of all of our coaches against teams from power 5 conference. Here, I'll help you

vs ACC

vs Big 10

vs Big 12

vs Pac 12

vs SEC

Post Season
Haase NCAA (1-1)
Davis NIT (3-4) NCAA (0-1)
Anderson NIT (2-1) NCAA (3-3)
Murry NIT (1-2) NCAA (0-1)
Gene - Didn't bother to compare

Should we have better attendance? Yes! Has Haase had the success some think he's had? No! Excite the fringe fans. This program was built off big games, big wins, consistent wins. It will have to be rebuilt that way.