(12-21-2016 10:50 PM)ddramone Wrote:  I am an OOTer and I've been reading the men's BB attendance figures on GoTigersGo and am seeing at least 3 games with attendance under 8k. So, my question is this:

Are these figures announced attendance in terms of tickets sold OR is it actual people in the seats (due to the Grizzly clause)?

If these are tickets sold (rather than butts in the seats), this is not good, not good at all. I know that our early home schedule is not the greatest, but these figures just really seem to take the wind out of the sails of the program. I was in Memphis for CJP's first two years and attendance figures held up pretty well....had no idea if things are this bad right now attendance-wise.

Attendance figures posted in box scores are "announced" attendance figures...which includes:
Tix Sold
Free Student Attendance
Tix Distributed (marketing and sponsorship agreements)

Thats why the FedEx "actual" numbers were much lower than the "announced" attendance figures for the Tigers...hence the late season push to reach the "minimum" actual numbers for best contract scenario.

Here's how the AAC non-conf attendance rankings look so for this year:

"Announced" attendance averages:

1) UCONN 8,888 (includes some games in Hartford)
2) Memphis 8,616
3) Cinci 7,106
4) SMU 6,795
5) Temple 5,534
6) Tulsa 4,175
7) ECU 3,888
8) UCF 3,806
9) Houston 3,299
10) USF 2,421
11) Tulane 2,178 (Includes hosting UNC at local NBA Arena)
--------------------------
Ave 5,170

(12-23-2016 11:09 PM)ShilohTiger Wrote:  Empty seats already look poorly on the inter web games on ESPN3.

As fans we should demand better scheduling NOW! Fairly simple cause and effect dependency here. If people in the Athletic Department aren't pulling their hair out or worried about getting fired for such poor scheduling then they should be soon based on these numbers. IMHO this is another HUGE strike against the AD (the contract extension being another one, his nickel & diming the basketball program, not being considered in the Top 10 for Big12 inclusion, poor public relations being three more, so......strike 4? 5?)

Date. Opponent# Result Record Site (Attendance)
11/07/2016 Christian Brothers* W 69–42 FedEx Forum (9,676). (Exhibition)
11/14/2016. TR Grande Valley*. W 94–75 1–0. FedEx Forum (9,217)
11/16/2016. Milwaukee* W 68–54 2–0. FedEx Forum (9,398)
11/19/2016. Savannah State*. W 99–86 3–0. FedEx Forum (8,689)
11/22/2006. McNeese State* W 104–65 4–0 FedEx Forum (8,941)
11/30/2016 Jackson State* W 84–69 6–1 FedEx Forum (7,507)
12/10/2016. UAB* W 62–55 7–2 FedEx Forum (9,424)
12/13/2016. Monmouth* L 7–3. FedEx Forum (7,831)
12/21/2016. Incarnate Word* W 95–71 9–3. FedEx Forum (7,919)

I used to manage 300+ consultants at 10+ Fortune 100 clients. If you made one major mistake in front of a client then we'd pull you out. Two major mistakes and you got fired. Everybody knew the rules.

If Bowen thinks he can rest on his laurels due to a couple of good coaching hires then we need to let him know he's on the hot seat over this issue.
We went through this issue last year, where did the Commercial Appeal get Turnstile count numbers at the end of the season?
I plan on attending the SMU game and hope attendance picks up due to some good conference home games.

FYI...almost all non-conf hoop games are scheduled by the HEAD COACH (not the AD), whereas in football...AD's play a bigger role in getting certain games (but yes, even those HC can overrule them).

(12-23-2016 11:09 PM)ShilohTiger Wrote:  

(12-23-2016 02:06 PM)hsvtiger Wrote:  

(12-23-2016 01:55 PM)Brother Bluto Wrote:  

(12-23-2016 01:53 PM)ncrdbl1 Wrote:  

(12-21-2016 10:50 PM)ddramone Wrote:  I am an OOTer and I've been reading the men's BB attendance figures on GoTigersGo and am seeing at least 3 games with attendance under 8k. So, my question is this:

Are these figures announced attendance in terms of tickets sold OR is it actual people in the seats (due to the Grizzly clause)?

If these are tickets sold (rather than butts in the seats), this is not good, not good at all. I know that our early home schedule is not the greatest, but these figures just really seem to take the wind out of the sails of the program. I was in Memphis for CJP's first two years and attendance figures held up pretty well....had no idea if things are this bad right now attendance-wise.

Tickets sold and it will not get any better any time soon. While not making NCAA last two years had some effect. The success of the Griz have had a bigger effect.

Right now this is Grizzlies town and until that changes we will not see the massive numbers of the past.

This can change by either Tigers making deep runs into the NCAA or the Gris begin to miss the playoffs.

I do not see them missing the playoff any time soon.

The Grizz have nothing to do with it. 2 different fan bases

Back in 13-14 both teams were getting 15K plus most nights

In fact you could blame Tiger football's success more than the Griz IMO

The main culprit is JOSH PASTNER.

I think the Grizz have SOMEthing to do with it, but agree that is not the biggest factor. There are Tiger fans that are also Grizz fans. There are people that have season tix to both, so that is about 60 trips to the FEF each year. That can get to be a bit much and it can be difficult to get your butt down to the FEF to watch the Tigers play a Incarnate Word or McNeese St.

You have a good Grizz team playing other NBA teams with the best players in the world, compared to a decent Tiger team playing teams with RPIs of 250 or 300. Which games will basketball fans tend to gravitate to. The Tigers are in a bit of a competition against the Grizz. It's not everything, but it's a factor and the Tigers have got to amp up their schedule to be more competitive, even if that means playing 2 fewer home games per year. When the Memphis basketball fan has 60 FEF dates to choose from and support, only the die-hards are going to waste their time and money with Tiger match-ups against very low-level teams.

Another thing that would help is to minimize the number of conflicts where the Grizz are playing at the same time as the Tigers. I know that this can't be avoided completely, but attendance and TV ratings for both will be increased when the two do not conflict. Right now, it seems that there is no attempt and reducing the number of such occurrences.

I'd agree that attendance is a multiple layered complex issue with many contributing factors.
Lack of relevancy due to not winning nor being in contention for a conference championship nor getting an NCAA berth is at the top.
Poor home scheduling is a huge contributor.
Burned bridges with season ticket fan base, and lack of perceived value for entertainment dollars $$ is also big.
Do the Grizzlies compete for some of those same basketball fan dollars? Yes, some, but go on a big NCAA run and generate hype by winning (big win streak) and landing big recruit names and the FEF can be full again for the Tigers.
In the meantime, we will question whether the big wins will come or even return us to our known previous heights.

Winning is up to Tubby and the team, and will take time, especially since recruiting isn't quite back to the high standards we were used to for a long time.

But scheduling needs to be fixed by the athletic department in the short term, like next year 2017-2018.


According to Wikipedia page the average attendance is ~8,733 through the first 9 home games (including exhibition) but I doubt that is accurate. I assume that is tickets sold. It says highest attendance so far was the CBU exhibition game, 9,676 people.
I was at the Sav State game and it felt like less than <5k to me.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016–17_...tball_team

Empty seats already look poorly on the inter web games on ESPN3.

As fans we should demand better scheduling NOW! Fairly simple cause and effect dependency here. If people in the Athletic Department aren't pulling their hair out or worried about getting fired for such poor scheduling then they should be soon based on these numbers. IMHO this is another HUGE strike against the AD (the contract extension being another one, his nickel & diming the basketball program, not being considered in the Top 10 for Big12 inclusion, poor public relations being three more, so......strike 4? 5?)

Date. Opponent# Result Record Site (Attendance)
11/07/2016 Christian Brothers* W 69–42 FedEx Forum (9,676). (Exhibition)
11/14/2016. TR Grande Valley*. W 94–75 1–0. FedEx Forum (9,217)
11/16/2016. Milwaukee* W 68–54 2–0. FedEx Forum (9,398)
11/19/2016. Savannah State*. W 99–86 3–0. FedEx Forum (8,689)
11/22/2006. McNeese State* W 104–65 4–0 FedEx Forum (8,941)
11/30/2016 Jackson State* W 84–69 6–1 FedEx Forum (7,507)
12/10/2016. UAB* W 62–55 7–2 FedEx Forum (9,424)
12/13/2016. Monmouth* L 7–3. FedEx Forum (7,831)
12/21/2016. Incarnate Word* W 95–71 9–3. FedEx Forum (7,919)

I used to manage 300+ consultants at 10+ Fortune 100 clients. If you made one major mistake in front of a client then we'd pull you out. Two major mistakes and you got fired. Everybody knew the rules.

If Bowen thinks he can rest on his laurels due to a couple of good coaching hires then we need to let him know he's on the hot seat over this issue.
We went through this issue last year, where did the Commercial Appeal get Turnstile count numbers at the end of the season?
I plan on attending the SMU game and hope attendance picks up due to some good conference home games.

I have only seen Bowen at two or three games this season. On another note has anyone else noticed that he now has a FedEx forum security guard trailing him at all times? I didn't realize he was that big time. Things must have gotten bad at the end of last season

(12-23-2016 11:09 PM)ShilohTiger Wrote:  

(12-23-2016 02:06 PM)hsvtiger Wrote:  

(12-23-2016 01:55 PM)Brother Bluto Wrote:  

(12-23-2016 01:53 PM)ncrdbl1 Wrote:  

(12-21-2016 10:50 PM)ddramone Wrote:  I am an OOTer and I've been reading the men's BB attendance figures on GoTigersGo and am seeing at least 3 games with attendance under 8k. So, my question is this:

Are these figures announced attendance in terms of tickets sold OR is it actual people in the seats (due to the Grizzly clause)?

If these are tickets sold (rather than butts in the seats), this is not good, not good at all. I know that our early home schedule is not the greatest, but these figures just really seem to take the wind out of the sails of the program. I was in Memphis for CJP's first two years and attendance figures held up pretty well....had no idea if things are this bad right now attendance-wise.

Tickets sold and it will not get any better any time soon. While not making NCAA last two years had some effect. The success of the Griz have had a bigger effect.

Right now this is Grizzlies town and until that changes we will not see the massive numbers of the past.

This can change by either Tigers making deep runs into the NCAA or the Gris begin to miss the playoffs.

I do not see them missing the playoff any time soon.

The Grizz have nothing to do with it. 2 different fan bases

Back in 13-14 both teams were getting 15K plus most nights

In fact you could blame Tiger football's success more than the Griz IMO

The main culprit is JOSH PASTNER.

I think the Grizz have SOMEthing to do with it, but agree that is not the biggest factor. There are Tiger fans that are also Grizz fans. There are people that have season tix to both, so that is about 60 trips to the FEF each year. That can get to be a bit much and it can be difficult to get your butt down to the FEF to watch the Tigers play a Incarnate Word or McNeese St.

You have a good Grizz team playing other NBA teams with the best players in the world, compared to a decent Tiger team playing teams with RPIs of 250 or 300. Which games will basketball fans tend to gravitate to. The Tigers are in a bit of a competition against the Grizz. It's not everything, but it's a factor and the Tigers have got to amp up their schedule to be more competitive, even if that means playing 2 fewer home games per year. When the Memphis basketball fan has 60 FEF dates to choose from and support, only the die-hards are going to waste their time and money with Tiger match-ups against very low-level teams.

Another thing that would help is to minimize the number of conflicts where the Grizz are playing at the same time as the Tigers. I know that this can't be avoided completely, but attendance and TV ratings for both will be increased when the two do not conflict. Right now, it seems that there is no attempt and reducing the number of such occurrences.

But scheduling needs to be fixed by the athletic department in the short term, like next year 2017-2018.

According to Wikipedia page the average attendance is ~8,733 through the first 9 home games (including exhibition) but I doubt that is accurate. I assume that is tickets sold. It says highest attendance so far was the CBU exhibition game, 9,676 people.
I was at the Sav State game and it felt like less than <5k to me.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016–17_...tball_team

Empty seats already look poorly on the inter web games on ESPN3.

As fans we should demand better scheduling NOW! Fairly simple cause and effect dependency here. If people in the Athletic Department aren't pulling their hair out or worried about getting fired for such poor scheduling then they should be soon based on these numbers. IMHO this is another HUGE strike against the AD (the contract extension being another one, his nickel & diming the basketball program, not being considered in the Top 10 for Big12 inclusion, poor public relations being three more, so......strike 4? 5?)

Date. Opponent# Result Record Site (Attendance)
11/07/2016 Christian Brothers* W 69–42 FedEx Forum (9,676). (Exhibition)
11/14/2016. TR Grande Valley*. W 94–75 1–0. FedEx Forum (9,217)
11/16/2016. Milwaukee* W 68–54 2–0. FedEx Forum (9,398)
11/19/2016. Savannah State*. W 99–86 3–0. FedEx Forum (8,689)
11/22/2006. McNeese State* W 104–65 4–0 FedEx Forum (8,941)
11/30/2016 Jackson State* W 84–69 6–1 FedEx Forum (7,507)
12/10/2016. UAB* W 62–55 7–2 FedEx Forum (9,424)
12/13/2016. Monmouth* L 7–3. FedEx Forum (7,831)
12/21/2016. Incarnate Word* W 95–71 9–3. FedEx Forum (7,919)

I used to manage 300+ consultants at 10+ Fortune 100 clients. If you made one major mistake in front of a client then we'd pull you out. Two major mistakes and you got fired. Everybody knew the rules.

If Bowen thinks he can rest on his laurels due to a couple of good coaching hires then we need to let him know he's on the hot seat over this issue.
We went through this issue last year, where did the Commercial Appeal get Turnstile count numbers at the end of the season?
I plan on attending the SMU game and hope attendance picks up due to some good conference home games.

Contract extension was primarily NOT Bowen.
AD budgeting was planned by Bowen, Rudd, big boosters, etc. And it was the right move considering the contract we were under and the need to get in P5.
We were most certainly in the top 10. There's no logical thought otherwise - regardless of public announcement timing.
Poor public relations? Eh. He's not Uncle RC, for sure. But he's always been visible and friendly enough with me.

Scheduling was a combination of Pastner watering down, Bowen, and Tubby getting some last minute fillers.

I've been to most games. UAB felt like 9k. That was the only one. I believe these numbers reported are turnstile + student + other adjustments. Might be sold, but I don't think so. I've also seen Bowen at most games.

Scheduling has been headed this way for a few years. I expect upgrades over the next 2 years. If we don't have a much better schedule by Tubby year 3, I will be upset. This year and next - I'll have to live with it. Don't think there's much choice otherwise.

UNLV just played Duke, Oregon and Kansas in a two week period.