I was looking at attendance this year (which is obviously depressing), but I noticed our nice little trend with our OOC record determining home attendance for the entire year. Couldn't find stats for 2011-2012. I realize teams like Nebraska/Rutgers, etc aren't really a big win, but in regards to name recognition and people showing up to home games...P5 teams draw in your regular fans more often, even bad ones. We really have to get this whole attendance issue settled. Only 3 home games of 4,000+ attendance going into late February is not looking good.
2009-2010:
Crowds > 6000 = 8
Crowds > 4,000 = 12 (Georgia, Troy, ETSU, Cincy, Butler, ECU, USM, Tulsa, UTEP, Marshall, Tulane, Memphis)
Crowds < 3,000 = 0
Record OOC: 12-2
'Big' wins OOC: Cincinnati, Butler, Arkansas, Georgia
2010-2011:
Crowds > 6000 = 5
Crowds > 4,000 = 11 (USA, VCU, GW, UTEP, SMU, Memphis, Marshall, USM, Rice, UCF, ECU)
Crowds < 3,000 = 1 (SE Missouri State)
Record OOC: 10-3
'Big' wins OOC: Arkansas, VCU, Kent St., GW
2012-2013:
Crowds > 6,000 = 1
Crowds > 4,000 = 5 (Memphis, USM, Marshall, Rice, SMU)
Crowds < 3,000 = 0
Record OOC = 8-7
2013-2014:
Crowds > 6,000 = 3
Crowds > 4,000 = 8 (Rutgers, UNC, UTSA, UTEP, ECU, USM, Tulane, La. Tech)
Crowds < 3,000 = 2 (Newberry, ODU)
Record OOC: 11-3
'Big' wins OOC: UNC, Nebraska, Rutgers
2014-2015 so far:
Crowds > 6,000 = 1
Crowds > 4,000 = 3 (LSU, ODU, La. Tech)
Crowds < 3,000 = 8 (ULM, Young Harris, South Florida, Jackson St., ISU, UNC-A, FAU, FIU)
Record OOC: 4-9
Uncertainty about the future also is playing a role, I wonder who's fault that is???
All I see in your numbers is that this season is an anomaly (at least based on the years you reported). And there has been a lot going on this year that might contribute to that. Right or wrong, you can't doubt that the football decision has had some effect. The fight for football was taking away the attention of fans while the OOC schedule was going on, by the time we wake up from all of that, we're 4-9...
Don't forget, we not only lost our football, rifle and bowling teams, but our AD bolted on us, too. Ray Watts may have executed only three programs, but I believe his actions inflicted some pretty substantial injuries on others.
That has some to do with it I believe. However, I think most of our attendance woes are from 3 prior years of no post season player (Mike Davis' last season and Haase's first 2), the obviously horrid start in OOC, and the fact that we haven't had as many decent to good teams coming to Bartow the past couple of years due to weaker home OOC scheduling + a weaker CUSA. It is a combination of all of those things. Hopefully Haase can right the ship.
One thing is certain: we need to start showing up to games even if they aren't strong or popular basketball clubs because we are going to start seeing a lot more of them than normal in the new CUSA. I really dont want to see UAB wallow in even worse mediocrity of 3,000 being considered a good crowd at a game. Hopefully we can get an AD/President with some vision.
(02-18-2015 02:58 AM)Shrack Wrote: [ -> ]That has some to do with it I believe. However, I think most of our attendance woes are from 3 prior years of no post season player (Mike Davis' last season and Haase's first 2), the obviously horrid start in OOC, and the fact that we haven't had as many decent to good teams coming to Bartow the past couple of years due to weaker hone OOC scheduling + a weaker CUSA. It is a combination of all of those things. Hopefully Haase can right the ship.
One thing is certain: we need to start showing up to games even if they aren't strong or popular basketball clubs because we are going to start seeing a lot more of them than normal in the new CUSA. I really dont want to see UAB wallow in even worse mediocrity of 3,000 being considered a good crowd at a game. Hopefully we can get an AD/President with some vision.
It's more like, we are going to start seeing a lot more of them than normal in the new conference we fall into.
I think that UAB has also started reporting exact attendance this season rather than inflating it for some reason. They did it in football as well.
(02-18-2015 08:28 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote: [ -> ]I think that UAB has also started reporting exact attendance this season rather than inflating it for some reason. They did it in football as well.
The truth that no one acknowledges. In fact, I know that they actually
deflated the football attendance numbers. Some people scoffed at that when we said it back then (especially the AAMU game and the LA Tech game), but now we know why they had motive for such an activity.
I can verify what Dragon said. They were intentionally underestimating attendance and my info came from someone on the inside.
Doesn't look like they are doing anything different in basketball. Our numbers are just down.
It's no shocker that basketball attendance is down this year. We were coming off a year in which we collapsed in conference play. We lost our star player. We had a bunch of new faces. We lost games regularly from day 1. Our home slate was:
Ulm
Non d1
Usf
Jackson state
Morehead state
Illinois state
Unca
Lsu
One game there could draw a casual fan. Going 4-9 OOC did nothing to improve attendance. There will be a lot of hype surrounding this team next year. We play in another decent Tournament next year, and have return trips to Illinois state and usf if I'm not mistaken. We will see what we fill the schedule with from there. Having a team with high expectations is really going to help our attendance in my opinion.
yes we return both ISU and USF. Illinois State is a tough place to play. A lot tougher than USF although the casual fan might think otherwise. If Watts has his way we will be playing the rest of the MVC every year.
(02-18-2015 09:47 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote: [ -> ]yes we return both ISU and USF. Illinois State is a tough place to play. A lot tougher than USF although the casual fan might think otherwise. If Watts has his way we will be playing the rest of the MVC every year.
We play Illinois as part of the Emerald Coast Classic:
http://www.bloggingthebracket.com/2013/1...events-MTE
I would also guess that Illinois will play Chicago State in their opening home game. So, I suppose we'll play Alabama State, Chattanooga, or Jacksonville State as our opening game - probably Chattanooga as the return game from this year...
Emerald Coast Classic
Campus Sites: Nov. 19-24
Finals at Niceville, Fla.: Nov. 27-28
Teams (8)
Host Teams
Illinois Fighting Illini (Big Ten)
Iowa State Cyclones (Big 12)
UAB Blazers (C-USA)
Virginia Tech Hokies (ACC)
Visiting Teams
Alabama State Hornets (SWAC)
Chattanooga Mocs (SoCon)
Chicago State Cougars (WAC)
Jacksonville State Gamecocks (OVC)
Campus Site Games
TBA
Visitors' Semifinals
(Nov. 27)
TBA
Hosts' Semifinals
(Nov. 27)
Illinois vs. UAB
Iowa State vs. Virginia Tech (CBS Sports)
Visitors' Finals
(Nov. 28)
TBA
Hosts' Finals
(Nov. 28)
All of the points given are valid reasons for our attendance being BAD. But, there are other self inflicted reasons for our low attendance. How many here in the Birmingham area hear advertising about the CUSA tournament coming to the Legacy arena, how many hear anything about UAB sports on local media. I said it before but it need to be repeated, UAB doesn't even advertise on its flagship station.
Is this because we don't have an AD or is it being done to kill attendance...Alabama elect politicians based on repeated rhetoric, but the politician ask for our vote, we have to ask the community to come out and support UAB, we have to advertise to the community.
(02-18-2015 11:17 AM)rebounder2u Wrote: [ -> ]All of the points given are valid reasons for our attendance being BAD. But, there are other self inflicted reasons for our low attendance. How many here in the Birmingham area hear advertising about the CUSA tournament coming to the Legacy arena, how many hear anything about UAB sports on local media. I said it before but it need to be repeated, UAB doesn't even advertise on its flagship station.
Is this because we don't have an AD or is it being done to kill attendance...Alabama elect politicians based on repeated rhetoric, but the politician ask for our vote, we have to ask the community to come out and support UAB, we have to advertise to the community.
In fairness, I heard an ad on the radio this morning.
What I've learned from many attendance threads:
1) attendance sucks bc Anderson left
2) attendance sucks bc of watts
3) opponents and records are irrelevant
4) see points 1&2
We completed the contract with Chattanooga. They played at Bartow two seasons ago and we returned the game this year.
That said I wish we played them home and home every year. Easy road trip and most years a descent opponent. If we play them at home it will be because of the tourney.
(02-18-2015 01:05 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote: [ -> ]We have an AD.
We have an interim AD
Having been an interim in my field before, you approach the job in a much different way when you're a place holder vs. the job being yours
(02-18-2015 01:35 PM)iam4uab Wrote: [ -> ] (02-18-2015 01:05 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote: [ -> ]We have an AD.
We have an interim AD
Having been an interim in my field before, you approach the job in a much different way when you're a place holder vs. the job being yours
Yet it is still different from stating we have no AD
(02-18-2015 12:50 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote: [ -> ]We completed the contract with Chattanooga. They played at Bartow two seasons ago and we returned the game this year.
That said I wish we played them home and home every year. Easy road trip and most years a descent opponent. If we play them at home it will be because of the tourney.
Or Samford and coach Scotty Padgett
I would not be opposed to a home and home with Samford due to location.