(02-22-2013 01:58 PM)monarchmanCUSA Wrote: [ -> ]Student participation never has been a calling card....the days of the field house and the scope, there would be 10-20 of us if we were lucky...the excuse then as it was because we didn't have a nice on campus venue...now we have the Ted, and its the same old story
In the 70s at the Field House, we had very good student participation.
The Wilson Washington led Paul Webb teams were exciting and drew great crowds.
Things were much different then, mostly because of the younger drinking age. The routine was to go to the game, and then hit the Hampton Blvd strip, and/or rotate through the fraternity house parties.
Men's (and even women's) basketball was not just the game, but in fact an event; and there was a commonality of interest that attracted both genders.
I was gone by the time we moved to the Scope; but I suspect that because of distance from campus, student attendance dropped to almost nil?
Today, I would think that an
exciting product, along with
student specific promotions, and
a better seating location would go a long way to bringing back the students.
OK, i'm sorry guys. I know what it is I was at ODU from 04-09. it's been all downhill since. I'll go re-enroll right now!
The students showed up in full force at the beginning of the season, filling not only the end zone seats but the corner sections on each side. It lasted a few games. Then we started losing and the rest is history.
(02-22-2013 03:02 PM)monarchfan4life Wrote: [ -> ]The students showed up in full force at the beginning of the season, filling not only the end zone seats but the corner sections on each side. It lasted a few games. Then we started losing and the rest is history.
It isn't just attendance I am as worried about as participation. Attendance will generally come and go with wins and losses, but there is no point in being there if you never raise your voice or get your nose out of your cell phone. It is sad when section 111/112 is louder than section 115/116. Student attendance was decent in '10/'11 as well, but the atmosphere was horrible compared to the Loughton years when we had a true home court.
Group participation has been on the decline for all activities in this country for many years. Yes there are some exceptions, but unless ODU had a very strong, very time honored tradition of student attendance (which it does not), I wouldn't look for consistent attendance and involvement. I got my under grad degree in 1971 and from then on all I've ever heard is how poor student attendance is at sporting events. I don't look for that to change in this day and age. There will be spikes, but the general trend is down I'm afraid.
There was a routine years ago where the cheerlearders laid on the floor and rolled over and over, propelling Big Blue across the floor. Everybody loved it but it stopped for some reason. There is very little energy or enthusiasm generated at the games these days. This has been true for some years now. Only this year with poor attendance and boring, losing games it has become far more obvious.
Everything went downhill after the Tuba player in the band (during the Scope days) graduated and you no longer got to hear Baby Elephant Walk!
(02-22-2013 03:14 PM)Old Dominion Wrote: [ -> ]Group participation has been on the decline for all activities in this country for many years. Yes there are some exceptions, but unless ODU had a very strong, very time honored tradition of student attendance (which it does not), I wouldn't look for consistent attendance and involvement. I got my under grad degree in 1971 and from then on all I've ever heard is how poor student attendance is at sporting events. I don't look for that to change in this day and age. There will be spikes, but the general trend is down I'm afraid.
There was a routine years ago where the cheerlearders laid on the floor and rolled over and over, propelling Big Blue across the floor. Everybody loved it but it stopped for some reason. There is very little energy or enthusiasm generated at the games these days. This has been true for some years now. Only this year with poor attendance and boring, losing games it has become far more obvious.
Huh?
The absolute "all" almost invalidates that assertion beyond further discussion to start with
It is otherwise so broad and generalized a statement as to be, I suspect, completely unsupportable with empirical data.
(02-22-2013 12:13 PM)SportsDoc757 Wrote: [ -> ]Can we just get jean-vest guy back. Thanks. Problem solved.
Walsh. He still goes to games, I believe, occassionally in "the jacket".
College basketball attendance has been declining for several years, including student attendance. The Cameron Crazies don't even fill their allotment anymore. This was covered pretty extensively last year... Here's one of the stories:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/co...53424996/1
(02-22-2013 01:47 PM)devyanks90 Wrote: [ -> ] (02-22-2013 08:00 AM)UDO Wrote: [ -> ] (02-22-2013 07:17 AM)The Flagship Wrote: [ -> ][quote='devyanks90' pid='8993549' dateline='1361470511']
So what is the beef? Seriously. What has ODAF done/not done?
They've done nothing. That is the point.
There was no (VCU) rivalry week.
There were no bus trips to any away game in any sport. (Something literally printed in the membership brochure) Last year, we went to W&M and Georgia Southern for football and VCU for basketball.
No giveaways at games (outside of the worst timed Mustache Night in the history of game promotions)
There is a much smaller sense of being a part of the campus community. (Previous years members would get emails from different organizations about events on campus, Maniacs had a Relay for Life team, etc.)
There is no one to lead the (non-existent) student section.
---
My first year was 09-10, so the only interaction I had with Dr. Runte was at a prospective student open house so I don't know the difference between now and then and I will be the first to admit the Maniacs have been on a steady decline since my freshman year, but this year did nothing to stop it.
Bingo, you nailed it.
Sorry, that's ALL on the game promotions people. And who hires the game promotions people? Wood Selig. He's completely let our game day atmosphere collapse around him, the people he hired are clearly incompetent and deserve the blame.
The "mustache night" was the dumbest promotion in odu history and it isn't even remotely close. Our basketball program hasn't just collapsed on the court, it's collapsed off it as well. That is all on Wood.
And if he brings in yet another Western Kentucky retread, it's time to examine this schools relationship with Mr. Selig the same way we had to with Blaine.
(02-22-2013 01:58 PM)monarchmanCUSA Wrote: [ -> ]Student participation never has been a calling card....the days of the field house and the scope, there would be 10-20 of us if we were lucky...the excuse then as it was because we didn't have a nice on campus venue...now we have the Ted, and its the same old story
Nope. In the mid 2000's we had a completely packed student section and there were lines around the door. People even camped out and partied on the lawn behind the Ted the night before the vcu game.
Blaming the student apathy that was apparent when we were a commuter school in the 70's and 80's for the apathy in today's program is completely misguided.
We had a ton of student fans. We just lost them for a multitude of reasons.
(02-22-2013 04:47 PM)Jerry Falwell Wrote: [ -> ] (02-22-2013 12:13 PM)SportsDoc757 Wrote: [ -> ]Can we just get jean-vest guy back. Thanks. Problem solved.
Walsh. He still goes to games, I believe, occassionally in "the jacket".
His name is not Walsh and no, he doesn't still attend games.
(02-22-2013 02:14 PM)MonarchManiac Wrote: [ -> ]I disagree...the student section was filled (at least 80%) on a regular basis from about 2005-2009. The numbers declined in a major way from 2009 onward
Sorry but the numbers do not support this. Please provide some backup for this statement.
Here are the average attendance figures that I see:
08 - 6756
09 - 6048
10 - 6995
11 - 7745
12 - 7142
13 - 6616
Now I believe that the attendance is based on student tickets claimed, and not students coming through the turnstiles. But I doubt that is a big difference, meaning no more than 100 or 10% any given game. I think that you can dig further into these numbers and after pulling out the games over the break between semesters or Thangsgiving, you can determine that the student attendance improved after 2009.
This is not to say that the enthusiasm was better. I'm just saying that there were more bodies in the seats.
(02-22-2013 10:38 PM)Dominion Wrote: [ -> ]College basketball attendance has been declining for several years, including student attendance. The Cameron Crazies don't even fill their allotment anymore. This was covered pretty extensively last year... Here's one of the stories:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/co...53424996/1
Those numbers are rather insignificant to point to any real, quantifiable decline. I think that the total number barely decreased at all and I promise you most of that decline was based around the downturn in the economy, people just flat out cannot afford to pay for season tickets, especially when they continue to raise the price, while most average people's budgets are tightening.
Yes, extra teams were added to college basketball, but most of those teams bring next to no one too their home games and have no real effect other than to pull the "per game average" down drastically! But again I think the cost of tickets going up while entertainment options and viewing options increase and people's budgets decrease plays a much bigger factor than any real "loss of interest".
Now the downturn in number of people attending the NCAA tourney probably has more to do with the availability of every game online or on tv, every single game is available for viewing during the entire tourney online or on tv. Combine that with the downturn in the economy coinciding with an uptick in the prices of the tickets and you have the same problem. The NCAA is pricing the average fan out of being able to attend the NCAA tourney especially when they end up moving teams like odu to New Orleans or buffalo (our trip to DC not withstanding) to watch their team play.
Average fans can't afford that cross country trip on a 1 week notice from selection Sunday until when the game is played anymore for a multitude of reasons and especially not with it available on tv or online for free. Expect to see that trend continue but not because of any perceived loss of interest from the fans.
This article isn't very well written.
(02-23-2013 07:26 AM)The Flagship Wrote: [ -> ] (02-22-2013 02:14 PM)MonarchManiac Wrote: [ -> ]I disagree...the student section was filled (at least 80%) on a regular basis from about 2005-2009. The numbers declined in a major way from 2009 onward
Sorry but the numbers do not support this. Please provide some backup for this statement.
Here are the average attendance figures that I see:
08 - 6756
09 - 6048
10 - 6995
11 - 7745
12 - 7142
13 - 6616
Now I believe that the attendance is based on student tickets claimed, and not students coming through the turnstiles. But I doubt that is a big difference, meaning no more than 100 or 10% any given game. I think that you can dig further into these numbers and after pulling out the games over the break between semesters or Thangsgiving, you can determine that the student attendance improved after 2009.
This is not to say that the enthusiasm was better. I'm just saying that there were more bodies in the seats.
Just going based on what I've seen, when we were good in 10' and 11', student attendance wasn't nearly as good as it was in 05' 06' and 07'.
That's based off nothing but an "eye test", but again, I think that I am remembering that correctly. The increased TOTAL attendance had much more to do with a big time increase in season ticket holders thanks to two factors, 1. Was our success on the court and 2. because people were trying to get priority points for better football season tickets.
I think we had something like a thousand extra season ticket purchases in the span of two years after football started so of course that bumped reported total ticket sales significantly. Nothing in those totals shows anything about actual student attendance and just based on memory alone, I remember seeing far more students in the seats during Loughton and vasylius's glory days than I remember during Lee and Hassell's.
I don't have any real evidence to back this up though and you don't really have any evidence to dispute it. Those attendance totals really don't prove anything at all except that in the years we were winning, we has far more fans than in the years we were mediocre.
(02-23-2013 07:26 AM)The Flagship Wrote: [ -> ] (02-22-2013 02:14 PM)MonarchManiac Wrote: [ -> ]I disagree...the student section was filled (at least 80%) on a regular basis from about 2005-2009. The numbers declined in a major way from 2009 onward
Sorry but the numbers do not support this. Please provide some backup for this statement.
Here are the average attendance figures that I see:
08 - 6756
09 - 6048
10 - 6995
11 - 7745
12 - 7142
13 - 6616
Now I believe that the attendance is based on student tickets claimed, and not students coming through the turnstiles. But I doubt that is a big difference, meaning no more than 100 or 10% any given game. I think that you can dig further into these numbers and after pulling out the games over the break between semesters or Thangsgiving, you can determine that the student attendance improved after 2009.
This is not to say that the enthusiasm was better. I'm just saying that there were more bodies in the seats.
You don't really believe our average attendance is 6616, do you? Also, even if true, these numbers say noting of student attendance. In 2005, the student section was packed and there was a line around the Ted every game. There was a problem with alum attendance and participation. You can trot out these phantom numbers that include thousands of season ticket holders with empty seats all you want, but the eyes don't lie.
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They always count the student section as sold out whether it is our not. Those numbers don't help either way.
(02-23-2013 09:00 AM)pandorazboxx Wrote: [ -> ]They always count the student section as sold out whether it is our not. Those numbers don't help either way.
That's right, forgot about that!
Those seats are all already "sold" thanks to student fees so every one of those seats is counted. That's why the eye test is sadly, the only real measure.
Exactly. I know I am not remembering it wrong. Ive been at just about every home game for the last 7 years or so and it has been a steady decline since 09
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