We have seen with our own eyes (either in person or on TV) the poor attendance so far this season at Tiger basketball games. Geoff Calkins had a column on the lack of attendance.

I decided to poll our board to see why people are not attending. I admit that i have missed two home games because of events my grandkids are doing this time of year, so let's see what others think.

If you live too far away from Memphis to make home games i have included a choice for that.

You can vote for multiple choices BTW.

Its lack of talent and schedule so far is nothing exciting, I went to a lot of games last year to support tubby and the team. Live a few blocks away so might go to a few conference games but have no expectations. Much like JPs last few years it will be nice to sit anywhere however.

4,113 announced attendance last night. Holy cow that is incredibly bad. The more people see the empty FEF, the more accustomed they are to not caring, the more apathy sets in, the more empty seats.....you get the drift.

Not sure if the program can recover if something isn't done within the next year or so.

I don’t feel like the head coach is putting forth his best effort in recruiting or connecting with the community. If he is laissez faire in those regards, I don’t have the time to invest in that vision.

It's really simple: the product isn't worth my time and money. Clearly a lot of people feel the same way.

There are some who will throw out terms like "loyalty" "responsibility" "fairweather", etc., but at the end of the day sports is an entertainment business (that includes college bball and football). Unless you're a player, coach or staff member, you owe the team absolutely nothing.

It's Tubby's (and, by proxy, Bowen's) job to put a product on the floor people want to see. He's not doing that.

(12-13-2017 12:19 PM)tigerjamesc Wrote:  I don’t feel like the head coach is putting forth his best effort in recruiting or connecting with the community. If he is laissez faire in those regards, I don’t have the time to invest in that vision.

Bingo.

And this was known when he was hired.

They hired him anyways.

We should be saying "Coach Steve Forbes" right now.

I live out of town but attend as many games as feasible. However, I have trouble giving away my tickets for the games I cannot attend.

I think schedule plays a major roll in a city with other entertainment options, couple that with most games are televised somewhere. That’s my take

I don't like Tubby's failure to address the obvious problem of poor recruiting. A huge zero in effort there. Really solve that and the rest should take care of itself. But it looks like keeping his son and buddies on staff is more important than earning that 15 million he'll make.

I don't like the way he set the stage for his own failure here by blaming his inability to get good recruits on Memphis itself.

He excused himself, his son and staff in advance.

I used to fly in from West Coast for 3--5 BB games per season and buy tickets for 4 youngish family members that live here.

Last year was the first time I didn't.

To the OP it’s a combination of many factors. But ultimately it’s on the head coach. We’ve had pretty much the same bad schedules forever. We would at least get 10 to 12,000 back then. Now we are getting 3 to 4.

The schedule is the leading factor, according to the poll so far. But, as a poster commented, we have had terrible Nov. and Dec. schedules forever. The "buy games" that we have to have to balance the basketball budget have always brought in teams like Prairie View and Alcorn State this time of year. Attendance has always been low this time of year, but not this low.

Both the poll and the actual rear ends in the seats this year point to dissatisfaction with the program, at one level or another. The Administration has to address this IMHO. I don't know what they will do, but the old saying is that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

Just a bad hire. Not a good fit here in any way.

Bottom line. Watching games is now overshadowed by the potential for pain. lol

Way too far away obviously. But I will say my watching on TV is a little lower.

Part of it is a factor of being very busy professionally (late 30s / early 40s is big career time), but the lack of quality opponents is a factor as well.

It is a very underwhelming non-conference slate. The bigger games so far ('Ville, Bama, UAB) are all road / neutral. Wish we had a little more meat on the bone. It's really hard to know what we have as a roster when the teams we are playing as either really good (Bama / Ville) or 150+ (most of the schedule).

(12-13-2017 12:55 PM)Tiger1983 Wrote:  I live out of town but attend as many games as feasible. However, I have trouble giving away my tickets for the games I cannot attend.

Do you offer them on this board? I can't recall.

(12-13-2017 04:57 PM)Sundanceuiuc Wrote:  Way too far away obviously. But I will say my watching on TV is a little lower.

Part of it is a factor of being very busy professionally (late 30s / early 40s is big career time), but the lack of quality opponents is a factor as well.

It is a very underwhelming non-conference slate. The bigger games so far ('Ville, Bama, UAB) are all road / neutral. Wish we had a little more meat on the bone. It's really hard to know what we have as a roster when the teams we are playing as either really good (Bama / Ville) or 150+ (most of the schedule).

Well, all that...and...they're hardly on tv any more.

(12-13-2017 05:06 PM)Tiger87 Wrote:  

(12-13-2017 04:57 PM)Sundanceuiuc Wrote:  Way too far away obviously. But I will say my watching on TV is a little lower.

Part of it is a factor of being very busy professionally (late 30s / early 40s is big career time), but the lack of quality opponents is a factor as well.

It is a very underwhelming non-conference slate. The bigger games so far ('Ville, Bama, UAB) are all road / neutral. Wish we had a little more meat on the bone. It's really hard to know what we have as a roster when the teams we are playing as either really good (Bama / Ville) or 150+ (most of the schedule).

Well, all that...and...they're hardly on tv any more.

They've been on TV most nights, correct? Especially if you include ESPN3...

They made our ticket stubs to the last home football game function as free passes to the basketball game that night, and we still didn't go.

(12-13-2017 05:11 PM)aardWolf Wrote:  They made our ticket stubs to the last home football game function as free passes to the basketball game that night, and we still didn't go.

I was at that game, small crowd.