Attendance

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

the announced attendance for the redbirds last season was 5,900 per game and that probably includes the oft used ploys of counting players and arena workers. A 27-6 team that most believed should be an at-large team couldn't even draw 60% capacity. Really sad.

[ACECARD]

The biggest issue is that everyone in the MVC has struggled somewhat for quite a while now. Attendance was great when our teams were good, but now our attendance isn't so great because the product isn't as good. Improving the product on the floor is the key thing that is going to bring people in.

Let's also be completely honest with ourselves. Most (if not all) of our schools our not the primary school that fans in their respective city cheer for. I know there are far more IU, Purdue, and Notre Dame fans in Terre Haute than there are ISU fans. I'm guessing there are more Illini fans in Bloomington/Normal than ILST fans. I could go on and on. The people that are diehards will go no matter what, but the people that aren't won't typically go when the team is down.

Lowering ticket prices could also help. At the Hulman Center it is $25 to sit in the lower bowl and $8 to sit in the upper bowl. Well the Hulman Center has been 80% empty for all of our games this season. The team also isn't that good. No one that is not a serious ISU fan is going to pay $25 to watch us play. I think $15 might be more reasonable. Most people anymore seem to just buy the $8 tickets and sit down low anyways.

It also seems like at least at ISU (don't know about other MVC schools) we do a terrible job of advertising that we are D1. If you took a poll in Terre Haute I bet more than half of the people would say that we are D2. We also seem to do a terrible job of advertising when our games are.

Last but not least I think TV has hurt most of the MVC schools. Now that most of our games are televised it's pretty easy for people to just sit at home and watch it as opposed to buying a ticket, maybe paying to park, spending money on concessions, etc. Even if our games weren't televised there are so many other games that are televised that I'm not sure it would make a difference.

I really think that this was written by an Aces fan. The only thing that might be different probably would be the ticket prices, and the fact that nobody sits in the upper bowl of the Ford Center until all the lower bowl is sold out, and that is yet to happen this year.

[E-Villan]

I agree with some of what MVCFan wrote, but others, not so much...

I agree attendance is an issue..and there are a lot of reasons. Societal changes are certainly part of it, but a lot of it is self inflicted..particularly in the historically larger drawing markets like Peoria, Evansville and Springfield. These programs have a history of drawing 10K plus, but have pretty well sucked for the better part of the last decade. If you put UNI's performance over the last decade at any of those schools, you would see near sell outs every night. UNI can't put up big attendance simply because they are in a small town. I would even say both ISU's and SIU will put up decent attendance by being competitive. I have been to games in both Terre Haute and Carbondale that were pretty well sold out in the past.

I do think you are putting too much on the larger state schools. For example, there has always been a lot of IU fans and alums in Evansville. That didn't just start happening when the attendance dropped...I would say the same of Illini alums in Peoria, or Bloomington-Normal, even with IU and Purdue in Terre Haute. Let's face it, when UE and InSU were drawing well, IU was much more of a force than it is now.

I do think TV is an issue, but not for the same reasons you listed. Most of our games aren't really on TV..they are on ESPN3. Casual fans are not streaming ESPN3 looking for MVC games. In Evansville, we used to have local broadcast of all away conference games, and tape delay of most home ones..that was when we were drawing over 10K. We need local awareness in our communities. Now we don't, and ESPN, along with talking arsehats like Vitale, Digger etc are telling us every night how wonderful Duke, UK, NC etc are..and broadcasting all of their games. That impression is what hurts. Local pubs and restaurants, that supported the local teams, are being replaced by BW's and Applebees, who only follow a corporate mandate to show nationally televised sports.

Along the lines of impressions, you state many in our communities think we are D-2. I don't think that, but I do agree that many think we are much lower than we are. I have been critical of our fans who post links to so-called mid-major polls, etc. There may be some talent differences from P5 to us, but we managed over the years to pull plenty of upsets, and years ago, people didn't dwell so much on the difference between the Big10 and the MVC. Now we have this imaginary term "mid-major" that no one can adequately define. The P5 schools, along with ESPN, Vitale, etc use it to draw a line in the sand...but where is the line, and if there is a mid, why isn't there a low? We sit on here and debate why conferences like the A-10 get more love, when top to bottom, most of us feel we have the better overall conference. We certainly do in terms of facilities and attendance. The bottom of the A-10 is pretty low. The A-10, and the MWC do not participate in the mid-major poll, yet we jump in and wear it like a badge of honor. Perception is reality. If Elgin wants to raise the profile of the conference, the first thing he should do is eliminate participation in any such non-sense that calls us mid-major.

Like I said, I think much of our attendance woes can be addressed within. In Evansville's case, the Ford Center isn't 60% empty because of IU or video games..it's due to 19 years of no postseason, and a stubborn, entitled introvert running the program. You can't get people back if you are losing and not engaging the community. UNI is the only program I would say is getting all they can draw at this point.

[mule]

I can agree with your assessment except for the following statement.

UNI can't put up big attendance simply because they are in a small town.

Valpo, ISU blue, and SIU all draw from metropolitan areas from 1/3 to 1/2 the size of Cedar Falls.

[pafan]

I do think you are putting too much on the larger state schools. For example, there has always been a lot of IU fans and alums in Evansville. That didn't just start happening when the attendance dropped...I would say the same of Illini alums in Peoria, or Bloomington-Normal, even with IU and Purdue in Terre Haute. Let's face it, when UE and InSU were drawing well, IU was much more of a force than it is now.

Back then in Evansville you might have heard IU or Purdue on a scratchy AM radio station and read 3 column-inches the next day about the game in the Courier & Press. Meanwhile the Aces were on a big FM radio station, had a few games televised, the newspaper would usually put them on the front page of the sports section - and Roberts Stadium was nearby and tickets were cheap.

The Big Ten Network made IU and Purdue (plus Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa) way easier to follow. Given a choice between watching the Hoosiers at home for free, or paying $30 for a ticket+coke+nachos for an Aces game, what would you do?