The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

http://www.uabsports.com/genrel/021815aa...91bb611d81

Open Letter to UAB Fans from Interim Athletic Director Shannon James Ealy

Dear Blazer Fans,

I wanted to take this opportunity to provide a comprehensive update surrounding our athletic program. Specifically, I wanted to share more information on six topics: 1) Athletic Assessment Task Force; 2) National landscape for NCAA intercollegiate athletics; 3) Conference affiliation; 4) Conference USA Men's & Women's Basketball Championships; 5) Director of Athletics Search and 6) Department priorities moving forward.

Yikes. Our fan base is giving the administration exactly what they want

Well what did they think would happen? People are tired of the tail wagging the dog. Basketball attendance would have been better if they would have left football alone because of the carry over. With basketball being the only game in town now, it puts more pressure on the young team being successful than it should.

Well done Watts...you're well on your way to achieving your goals

Yep. In any event I think we will make the tournament a success financially anyway via single-game tickets. But our team has to hold up their end of the bargain.

I have yet to see any marketing for the CUSA tournament beyond a banner hanging on the back of Boutwell Auditorium facing the BJCC. It should be on TV, on the radio, and online hitting hard and it is not. Beyond driving UAB into a ditch, this is also a reason for poor ticket sales.

I've never been more ashamed of UAB fans. Our success in hosting this tournament will go along way directly or indirectly deciding how CUSA deals with our affiliation. If the tournament is an embarrassment, they may show us the door immediately.

Of course that will create the chaos that some of you want so badly.

"as disappointed as we are relative to how the past couple of months have played out, we need to be cognizant that we not further impact our student-athletes and athletics program."

So what was that about UAB being a basketball school? I'm tired of the fans being made the fought of everything.

We had fans when Anderson was here, then someone screwed it up and brought in Mike Davis.

We had fans coming to games, then Black Friday, Jimbo Fisher, the OCS denile, and the cancelation of our football program that brought back fans.

I payed darn near $60 bucks for four tickets per game. So now I'm being guilt tripped into shelling out $100 to $200 bucks for seats. GFY and that bald headed, bottle water sucking, slack jawed, sycophant of a program killing president and the grinched face son of a dead BAHR he rode in on.

SCREW THIS BS!

*And Memphis GFY too. Have you purchaded tickets? Are you traveling down for the tournament or are you using the same "I live out of turn and have to work" excuse again? Have you purchased season tickets this year?

CUSA has Watts' phone number. They should probably discuss things with him.

(02-18-2015 08:41 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  I've never been more ashamed of UAB fans. Our success in hosting this tournament will go along way directly or indirectly deciding how CUSA deals with our affiliation. If the tournament is an embarrassment, they may show us the door immediately.

Of course that will create the chaos that some of you want so badly.

You cant blame the fans on the administration lack of vision MB. The fans didnt do this they did. I don't want to hear fan bashing from the administration at this point. They have a lot things to do and the least of them is calling out our fan base at this point.

(02-18-2015 08:46 PM)kdblazer Wrote:  

(02-18-2015 08:41 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  I've never been more ashamed of UAB fans. Our success in hosting this tournament will go along way directly or indirectly deciding how CUSA deals with our affiliation. If the tournament is an embarrassment, they may show us the door immediately.

Of course that will create the chaos that some of you want so badly.

You cant blame the fans on the administration lack of vision MB. The fans didnt do this they did. I don't want to hear fan bashing from the administration at this point. They have a lot things to do and the least of them is calling out our fan base at this point.

Watts need to leave to remove this stain from our University.

It is sad that he was reduced to effectively pleading for people to come out.

I don't envision a lukewarm attendance hastening the boot to kick us out. As far as conference affiliation goes, I think it's all about the findings of the committee and the final decision made in light of them. I'll be there for sure, though. There's so much parity this year anything could happen.

I've been a season ticket holder for a few years now and I have always looked forward to basketball season, particularly after football is done. But, I must admit, if I didn't have season tickets I don't think I would attend as many games. The whole football cancellation thing has just taken a lot out of it for me. My wife hardly ever goes anymore so her ticket often goes unused. I can't put a finger on exactly why and I really enjoy myself at the games, but the desire to go is lacking. I know there shouldn't be a direct link between football and basketball, but there seems to be an emotional connection. I make the effort now out of obligation rather than anticipation and excitement.

From CUSA Twitter Account:
CUSAbbs ‏@CUSAbbs
UAB Interim AD pleads with fans to buy C-USA Championship tickets. Only 500 sold so far. http://www.uabsports.com/genrel/021815aa...91bb611d81 …

Nobody would be happy to spend $100 on tournament pass & our team go 0fer. UAB has gone 1-4 in game 1 of the CUSA tournament over the last 5 years. Hometown advantage means what exactly. We barely had 4k show for the Bartow Classic.

(02-18-2015 08:41 PM)rook360 Wrote:  "as disappointed as we are relative to how the past couple of months have played out, we need to be cognizant that we not further impact our student-athletes and athletics program."

So what was that about UAB being a basketball school? I'm tired of the fans being made the fought of everything.

We had fans when Anderson was here, then someone screwed it up and brought in Mike Davis.

We had fans coming to games, then Black Friday, Jimbo Fisher, the OCS denile, and the cancelation of our football program that brought back fans.

I payed darn near $60 bucks for four tickets per game. So now I'm being guilt tripped into shelling out $100 to $200 bucks for seats. GFY and that bald headed, bottle water sucking, slack jawed, sycophant of a program killing president and the grinched face son of a dead BAHR he rode in on.

SCREW THIS BS!

*And Memphis GFY too. Have you purchaded tickets? Are you traveling down for the tournament or are you using the same "I live out of turn and have to work" excuse again? Have you purchased season tickets this year?

Of course, we had less fans under Davis (despite a higher average attendance during the Davis years, when compared to the Anderdon years)

I haven't had season tickets in basketball since the year prior to XCMA's last year.
Prior to that I had season tickets from the late 80's to that year.
His last year they jacked up the season ticket price out of my price range at the time.
I did go to almost all the conference games along with a few others.
I also went to a lot of the games during AJ's last 2 years.
I have probably not attended more than 10 games during any season since.
It is getting harder for me to get out to the games especially when the opponent isn't that exciting.

I must admit though that the majority of my money goes towards the football games & since football was removed by Watts my desire has gone south.

Since it appears that my daughter will be attending Jax State and probably playing in the band there I think my upcoming football season will be spent at their games.

I am still working as much as I can to get football restored. I have been to about half a dozen council meetings, a task force meeting, & plan on heading to Montgomery on the 10th.

I do believe that should this team stay in tact that next year it should be really good. It would be nice if we are still in a conference of the level of CUSA.

I do believe that we can win the CUSA tournament & I plan on purchasing single game tickets for the UAB games.

I think it has a lot to do with it not being at Bartow Arena, too. Outside of Tulsa, it's always hosted on someone's home floor. While, I would definitely be going if I lived in town, playing in the BJCC wouldn't feel like home court advantage to me. Therefore, I'd probably wait until closer to the game to get my tickets.

Bartow Arena isn't big enough. Not from a seating standpoint, but from a logistics standpoint.

(02-18-2015 09:08 PM)WesternBlazer Wrote:  From CUSA Twitter Account:
CUSAbbs ‏@CUSAbbs
UAB Interim AD pleads with fans to buy C-USA Championship tickets. Only 500 sold so far. http://www.uabsports.com/genrel/021815aa...91bb611d81 …

That is the twitter account of the Conference USA section of this site, not the conference itself.