Loyola Stream??

[Wufan]

I honestly think that Chicago rush hour traffic is a legit excuse. I live 75 miles from Charles Koch Arena. It would take about 75 minutes to get there. Leave work at 5:30, drive, park, walk in and I can sit down at tip off. Game ends at 9. 20 minutes to leave and I'm home by 10:30. Try finding a babysitter on a school night? That's too much for me on a regular basis so I don't have season tickets. I used to catch a half-dozen games per year live, but now everything is sold out and I just make sure to catch the IBA weekend game annually.

[ahunte1]

I honestly think that Chicago rush hour traffic is a legit excuse. I live 75 miles from Charles Koch Arena. It would take about 75 minutes to get there. Leave work at 5:30, drive, park, walk in and I can sit down at tip off. Game ends at 9. 20 minutes to leave and I'm home by 10:30. Try finding a babysitter on a school night? That's too much for me on a regular basis so I don't have season tickets. I used to catch a half-dozen games per year live, but now everything is sold out and I just make sure to catch the IBA weekend game annually.

The weeknights are tough. I work in downtown Chicago and live about 2 miles from the gym, and even I have to make sure I leave work by 5:00 to have time to get home, walk the dog, and drive or train to the game. Weekends are obviously much easier.

I'm not complaining, but it does take some effort. That's true for a certain percentage of fans in other towns, too.

I certainly wish we had more fans willing to make that effort on a regular basis, but I've got some sympathy for people trying to get to weeknight games from farther away.

[agrinut]

I honestly think that Chicago rush hour traffic is a legit excuse. I live 75 miles from Charles Koch Arena. It would take about 75 minutes to get there. Leave work at 5:30, drive, park, walk in and I can sit down at tip off. Game ends at 9. 20 minutes to leave and I'm home by 10:30. Try finding a babysitter on a school night? That's too much for me on a regular basis so I don't have season tickets. I used to catch a half-dozen games per year live, but now everything is sold out and I just make sure to catch the IBA weekend game annually.

The weeknights are tough. I work in downtown Chicago and live about 2 miles from the gym, and even I have to make sure I leave work by 5:00 to have time to get home, walk the dog, and drive or train to the game. Weekends are obviously much easier.

I'm not complaining, but it does take some effort. That's true for a certain percentage of fans in other towns, too.

I certainly wish we had more fans willing to make that effort on a regular basis, but I've got some sympathy for people trying to get to weeknight games from farther away.

I've heard it all now.... Chicago is to big for people to attend the games now. How about instead of the excuses we go with fact.... People don't care about the Ramblers....

[ahunte1]

I've heard it all now.... Chicago is to big for people to attend the games now. How about instead of the excuses we go with fact.... People don't care about the Ramblers....

No one said Chicago is too big for people to attend games. I said it takes effort to get there on the weeknights, and we don't have enough people willing to make that effort.

[uniftw]

I honestly think that Chicago rush hour traffic is a legit excuse. I live 75 miles from Charles Koch Arena. It would take about 75 minutes to get there. Leave work at 5:30, drive, park, walk in and I can sit down at tip off. Game ends at 9. 20 minutes to leave and I'm home by 10:30. Try finding a babysitter on a school night? That's too much for me on a regular basis so I don't have season tickets. I used to catch a half-dozen games per year live, but now everything is sold out and I just make sure to catch the IBA weekend game annually.

The weeknights are tough. I work in downtown Chicago and live about 2 miles from the gym, and even I have to make sure I leave work by 5:00 to have time to get home, walk the dog, and drive or train to the game. Weekends are obviously much easier.

I'm not complaining, but it does take some effort. That's true for a certain percentage of fans in other towns, too.

I certainly wish we had more fans willing to make that effort on a regular basis, but I've got some sympathy for people trying to get to weeknight games from farther away.

I've heard it all now.... Chicago is to big for people to attend the games now. How about instead of the excuses we go with fact.... People don't care about the Ramblers....

Kind of this.

I get it takes some effort. What prompted my whole issue with this is that the Chicago MSA is TEN MILLION FREAKING PEOPLE....TEN MILLION....TEN...THE ENTIRE STATE OF IOWA IS 3 MILLION. Iowa+Minnesota+South Dakota+North Dakota=the Chicago MSA

The Chicago MSA was the big selling item to Loyola. It's clear that some combo of Loyola lied about what market share they had, MVC didn't research potential claims, MVC didn't vet potential growth well/overestimated market share and/or MVC panicked and added someone in the "comfort zone" of Illinois/Indiana schools.

I get it takes effort to get to a game, just as it does for the numerous season ticket holders at UNI that come from Des Moines (2 hours) or Cedar Rapids/Iowa City (1-1.5 hr minutes). I'm sure every school has that kind of travel time for fans to get the game.

The UNI/Loyola game was a "slap in the face" to the MVC to an extent when it came showing what kind of support your team will give the MVC based on what might have been sold during the "recruiting" process.. Top 15 team, at your place, and they bring as many/more fans from 5 hours away as you do from your own city.

10 million people and roughly 600 made the effort

[Ricardo del Rio]

Eight pages of Loy bashing. Well, almost eight pages.

[Ricardo del Rio]

Eight pages of Loy bashing. Well, almost eight pages.

[rlh04d]

I don't get the Loyola attendance bashing. Loyola's attendance sucked before they joined the conference, and it sucks now. If anyone in the MVC front office got "tricked" by Loyola's market share in Chicago, they're idiots and the conference front office needs to be rebuilt from the ground up with people who are, foremost, literate.

The MVC isn't so much better than the Horizon that their attendance was going to jump up because of the awesome MVC teams coming into town. Even teams like WSU and UNI rolling in with top 15 ratings are going to be more about random people wanting to see those two teams or local alumni.

Loyola won a national championship 52 years ago. College students at that time are in their mid-70s. Whatever fanbase was built the last time Loyola was truly good is dying out. Loyola hasn't even made the NCAA tournament in 30 years.

Loyola's not going to build an audience without winning. Put a top 10 team out there and they'll start benefiting from Chicago's MSA. The Valley was never going to be enough to carry Loyola -- we're not the ACC where joining is going to bring in sweeping TV contract revenue, national primetime games, terrific name brand opponents, and legitimate buzz.

Loyola's limitations now are the same limitations they had prior to joining the MVC. Getting mad at them now for it is just mean. Nothing's changed on their end. The problems they have now are the same reason most WSU fans were opposed to them joining in the first place.

[COUTEAU]

I lived in Chicago, briefly (actually Schiller Park for about 18 months).
Having met quite a few people that attended or had graduated from Loyola and DePaul, it seemed to me, that both were more of commuter schools, than anything else.
I think both schools have something like 5 or 6 satellite campus' around the city.
A student or alum, can correct me if I'm wrong.
But, my assumption was that campus life...i.e. Greek, sports, student activities aren't all that important to the typical Loyola student.
I might think, unless you work in the Loop and live in Old Town where can just hop the Red Line. Getting to a game after work, find parking, and get home to Hoffman Estates, might be just a bit more of a challenge than catching a game at The FC, in downtown Evansville.

[Rambler63]

To a large extent, rlh04d is right-- and I never thought I'd ever type out the letters to form those words.

Loyola doesn't bring the Chicago market without winning. Where I disagree with rlh04d is that Loyola never misrepresented their audience pull without becoming a winning program. The MVC was also considering UIC and Valpo, and they don't have stellar attendance either. Loyola's pitch was they were better situated to win in the long term, with better management at the top, more resources, newer facilities, more alumni in Chicago, better tradition, more connection with current MVC schools, and more potential for greater resources in the very near future. All those things were/still are true.

If Loyola got to the MVC tournament final on CBS (win or lose), the ratings would be significant, as there are more TV households in Chicago than all the other MVC markets combined. And YES, I am factoring in that there's far, far less interest for Loyola in Chicago than Missouri State in Springfield or Drake in Des Moines.

Besides doubling the number of potential viewers, Chicago area eyeballs also have higher per capita/disposable income, which improves negotiations for league-wide TV contracts. Chicago is home to corporate headquarters of United, Miller Beer, Kraft, Sears, Boeing, Allstate, Walgreens, etc., and a lot of national advertising firms. And all of this is completely irrellevant to exactly how many people show up on a cold Wednesday night for Loyola vs. Evansville.

Take a look at attendance for college basketball in other large markets: New York, LA, Dallas, Houston, SF, Atlanta, DC, etc. Wichita State exceeds them all (UCLA, St. John's, Georgetown, SMU, Cal, Stanford, GA Tech), but having maxed out on attendance the only way for further growth is through media. The media component (TELEVISION), is increasingly where revenue and attention comes from-- it supplants revenue from declining attendance (particularly in larger markets). Loyola brings a wider POTENTIAL audience, but won't bring the actual numbers unless they win in a competitive league-- and now they're in a competitive league.

Watch the ESPN documentary about the rise of the old Big East (available for streaming on Netflix), and you'll see how Loyola has the opportunity to help build the MVC into something stronger if they can only compete. Loyola was on the verge of getting there in only season two before Doyle got hurt.

I absolutely understand the impulse to use attendance as a gauge for success. It's reassuring, visual, and energetic; it provides a great game atmosphere, and brings solid revenue. It's important, and in the MVC, a source of pride. But when the checks get deposited, they don't sort them out by attendance or energy.