There seemed to be some room for error on the announced attendance at 16,800 or so. Some at the game were emphatic that 1,500 max. were at the game. Another EMU guy explained that an unknown corporate friend agreed to buy 15,000 tickets per game for something like 5 years. That would explain the difference. I might suggest that they make 15,000 card board cut outs of people and glue them to the stadium seats and make it appear that stadium is, at least, half full.
Yes, Mr. E.M. Yew purchased 15,000 seats out of his love for his beloved alma mater.
I have to give their marketing department credit for how creative they are.
EMU Marketing meeting: Let's target one person and one person only and see if we can talk him into buying 15,000 tickets. And next year we'll target two, and we'll claim a sellout.
I'll tell you later about the out and out lie that Genyk told me regarding WMU attendance.
It's later now. Spill it.
Sorry, I was on plan time and had to go, and then had a volleyball game to attend after work.
I had a pretty lengthy discussion with Genyk in Detroit. For the most part nobody was talking to him, so I bent his ear for awhile. Talked about some local recruits, Michigan recruits vs. outstate recruits, and I talked to him about the difficulties of recruiting to EMU. He got a little hyper in that conversation, and got really animated when I talked to him about recruiting and how it's effected by the fan turnout at EMU.
He said something along the line of, "Well the last time I was at Waldo I don't think there were 2000 people in the stands and it doesn't seem to hurt Western's recruiting."
I said, "Coach, I've been attending games at Waldo for 20 years, and I haven't seen less than 8,000 people in the worst of conditions."
He muttered something inaudible and mumbled something along the lines of Western isn't packing them in either.
The attendance for the game he speaks of was 20,482, or as the folks at EMU call it..............
A record crowd 
I was at the EMU/WMU game he was talking about and although it wasn't a great crowd, it was in that 15-20k range. I didn't throw that back at him as I could tell he was getting steamed.
Before we got into the attendance thing he bashed Cubit for recruiting Florida saying, "Those Florida kids don't stay." I pointed out that I only know of three Florida kids who quit and returned to Florida, and I gently pointed out that a dozen players left from EMU's 06 class and six more left his 07 class------most from Michigan and many from right down the road.
Most of the coaches and players tend to be too media savy and don't speak their mind (although Cubit's a very straight shooter). So I give Genyk credit. I think he was just glad someone was talking to him.
We've had good crowds for EMU, I don't get what he was thinking. BUGS? Maybe...
I seem to remember watching a NW - EMU game last year (or was it in 2006?) from FF and the camera people seemed to be framing all their shots in the best way as to avoid seeing all the empty seats. If there were 2000 people there, I'd be surprised. There seemed to be more NW fans there than parents of EMU players.
Interesting story, CD. I would think that being HC at EMU is the toughest job in the MAC.
Quote:We've had good crowds for EMU, I don't get what he was thinking. BUGS? Maybe
No he was talking about his last trip to Waldo in 2006. He was just getting flustered because the topic wasn't comfortable for him.
Quote:Interesting story, CD. I would think that being HC at EMU is the toughest job in the MAC
He talked at length about an academic center for athletes that they have and he believes Reynearson is one of the top facilities in the MAC. He feels he has a lot to sell, or at least he tried to portray it that way.
I shared the story with a few on Western's staff. They were pretty blunt about the type of players EMU gets, but I won't share that publicly.
I feel like that was enough of a hint for everyone to be able to draw some solid conclusions.
Quote:They were pretty blunt about the type of players EMU gets, but I won't share that publicly.
EMU gets the players nobody else in the MAC wants, that's no secret. It's an urban campus that lies in the shadow of the Big House-not much of a draw.
What does "urban," campus mean?
Liam9903 Wrote:What does "urban," campus mean?
It means urban. EMU has been swallowed up by Detroit Urgan sprwal. About ten years ago I went to a WMU homecoming. I flew into Detorit and drove to Kazoo. On Sunday I drove back to Detorit to visit family. When I got to Anne Arbor I was amazed at how far metro Detorit had spread. When I went to WMU in the 70's you never really felt you were in Detroit until you got to the airport.
With all that said, pretty amazing how we beat your azzes last year........and almost beat you the year before that. But you guys are real upper echelon. Practically BCS....right? Ho Ho Ho.....chuckles all the way around.
^
Chuckle away, in your stands, nobody will hear you. Question, if a fan cheers at EMU, and there is nobody there to hear him, is it really noise?
Eastern Michigan University last I checked was located in Ypsilanti. It is not urban. You could maybe call it suburban, but to me an urban campus is one that is in a downtown or at least in a city like a UDM, UIC, DePaul, Drexel, Toledo etc... Just because alot of people live in the metro Detroit area doesn't make Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and Washtenaw County purely urban areas. EMU is in a town that is smaller than Kalamazoo. Just because you can leave the city and get to another city before you get to cornfields doesn't make it "urban."