MVC Games Week 4

[bradley_townie]

1174 for UIC's very first MVC game? I'm sorry but adding them was a very questionable move. Until someone gives me some real TV distribution numbers, I'm really skeptical of why we supposedly need the Chicago market so much, considering before 2014 we never had a team there in the history of the MVC.

Loyola wasn't drawing much more than that when they joined. And UIC has better facilities now than Loyola did when they joined. The school presidents want big markets like Chicago to get their name out there for recruiting students.

[MissouriValleyUnite]

Sad to say it, but that's really not too bad. We'll see what Missouri State can draw tomorrow when they host Bradley. They've averaged 3,005 fans for their two games so far. Wouldn't expect any more than 3,500 but 4,000 would be a nice surprise.

It's insane what most mid-major teams are drawing these days. Watched our old Bears at Northwestern State playing on the road @ Stephen F Austin last night and there couldn't have been more than 700 in the crowd.

Even Wichita was down to 8k last year. I remember them selling out every game like it was yesterday.

SLU was down to 5500.

Outside of 30-35 schools, college basketball attendance is plummeting everywhere, and it shows no signs of reversing.

[BCPanther]

1174 for UIC's very first MVC game? I'm sorry but adding them was a very questionable move. Until someone gives me some real TV distribution numbers, I'm really skeptical of why we supposedly need the Chicago market so much, considering before 2014 we never had a team there in the history of the MVC.

Loyola wasn't drawing much more than that when they joined. And UIC has better facilities now than Loyola did when they joined. The school presidents want big markets like Chicago to get their name out there for recruiting students.

Exactly, it has nothing to do with sports. All schools, and the privates especially, need that presence in Chicago to recruit regular students. UIC will be just fine over time.

[MissouriValleyUnite]

1174 for UIC's very first MVC game? I'm sorry but adding them was a very questionable move. Until someone gives me some real TV distribution numbers, I'm really skeptical of why we supposedly need the Chicago market so much, considering before 2014 we never had a team there in the history of the MVC.

Loyola wasn't drawing much more than that when they joined. And UIC has better facilities now than Loyola did when they joined. The school presidents want big markets like Chicago to get their name out there for recruiting students.

Exactly, it has nothing to do with sports. All schools, and the privates especially, need that presence in Chicago to recruit regular students. UIC will be just fine over time.

At the athletic director level, Chicago is to BB recruiting what Texas is to FB recruiting.
At the presidential level, MVC schools need Chicago students to keep enrollment stable in an environment where enrollment is nosediving nationwide.

UIC can be in last place, and they’re still a valuable member to the league. Their MBB budget is mid-pack in the Valley, so it’s not like they’ll ever be Chicago St.

[racernation]

Sad to say it, but that's really not too bad. We'll see what Missouri State can draw tomorrow when they host Bradley. They've averaged 3,005 fans for their two games so far. Wouldn't expect any more than 3,500 but 4,000 would be a nice surprise.

It's insane what most mid-major teams are drawing these days. Watched our old Bears at Northwestern State playing on the road @ Stephen F Austin last night and there couldn't have been more than 700 in the crowd.

Even Wichita was down to 8k last year. I remember them selling out every game like it was yesterday.

SLU was down to 5500.

Outside of 30-35 schools, college basketball attendance is plummeting everywhere, and it shows no signs of reversing.

I can tell you that there was not 5,500 at the Murray game last night. I think we've adopted the "tickets sold" strategy over the last couple of years vs. butts in seats. We probably had closer to 4,000 there.

[Kyle_Saluki_17]

Even Wichita was down to 8k last year. I remember them selling out every game like it was yesterday.

SLU was down to 5500.

Outside of 30-35 schools, college basketball attendance is plummeting everywhere, and it shows no signs of reversing.

I can tell you that there was not 5,500 at the Murray game last night. I think we've adopted the "tickets sold" strategy over the last couple of years vs. butts in seats. We probably had closer to 4,000 there.

Yes basically everyone does it. Evansville always baffled me when I lived there in 2020. They were always reporting 5,000+ fans, but you couldn't spit in any direction and hit a person. Crowd seemed closer to 500 than 5,000 every game I went to.

[BigMacAttack]

Yes basically everyone does it. Evansville always baffled me when I lived there in 2020. They were always reporting 5,000+ fans, but you couldn't spit in any direction and hit a person. Crowd seemed closer to 500 than 5,000 every game I went to.

Depends if it was the 2019-2020 season or the 2020-2021 season at Evansville. You're correct about about reporting season tickets sold reported in 2019-2020. Of course, after the McCarthy debacle, fans stopped showing up during the losing streak. For the 2020-2021 season, season tickets were sold, money collected, then due to Covid restrictions, only the big donors were allowed to attend games, which was well under 1000 fans. Us normal season ticket holders sat at home to watch the games on tv. Season ticket refunds were not offered until after the season and were applied to the next season, so UE had access to these funds for 1 year while not offering a service.

[E-Villan]

Yes basically everyone does it. Evansville always baffled me when I lived there in 2020. They were always reporting 5,000+ fans, but you couldn't spit in any direction and hit a person. Crowd seemed closer to 500 than 5,000 every game I went to.

We've heard your story before, and it is still quite the exaggeration. Like BCPanther said, everybody is reporting tickets sold. Were you at the debacle Wednesday night? The lower bowl seats around 6K. 60% of that is 3,600. 60% of the lower bowl filled is very conservative, especially considering the suites, baseline, etc. There were a couple of games at the end of the Covid season where they opened up to 25% or 2,500. That place looked very sparse at that point. I have been a season ticket holder for years, and I have never seen it that sparse otherwise.

There are plenty of barbs you can throw for the last 20 years, but considering we stay near the top regardless of accounting method with the product on the floor, attendance is not one of them.

[smidge34]

I’d guess 4K+ at the arena last night as well, I’ve seen enough 5K+ crowds to know the difference. I’m happy we are finally onboard with the way nearly EVERYONE else counts heads. Racer fans will back me up on the fact that our AD before last counted actual butts in seats to everyone’s chagrin. We’d put out an actual 3500 butts in seats attendance as 3500 then travel to say Morehead where the arena had maybe 1500 attendees and they’d announce 3K. The worst BS announced attendance I’ve ever witnessed was a game we had a few years ago at Alabama. I’m telling you there weren’t even 2500 people in that arena yet they announced something like 9K. There is no way we mid-majors will ever match the deception of the big budget conferences and their mythical attendance announcements. The announced figures are what the NCAA publishes as the Gospel so we need to play the game too.

[mvfcfan]

I'm sorry, but 1100 isn't really a presence in a city of 5 million people. And that's 1100 reported so there probably weren't even a thousand actual people there. We have high schools in Indiana that draw better than that. Murray State will feel like they're back in the OVC again when they play up there.

Not that Valpo has been great, but they are officially in the Chicago metropolitan area. We also have 3 Illinois members that have been in the league for decades. Loyola went to the Final 4 from the Valley. If they don't know the Valley brand in that dump of a city by now then they never will.