UNI Facilities

[unipanther99]

New plans for facility upgrades at UNI:

http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/educat ... 15f0d.html

[Cdizzle]

What's the size of the football fanbase at UNI? Season ticket holders, average attendance, etc.? I know UNI has had a very successfully football program for some time. Curious if those numbers are large, and if so, if UNI fans have ideas why it isn't translating into a bigger basketball following.

TIA

[BCPanther]

What's the size of the football fanbase at UNI? Season ticket holders, average attendance, etc.? I know UNI has had a very successfully football program for some time. Curious if those numbers are large, and if so, if UNI fans have ideas why it isn't translating into a bigger basketball following.

TIA

UNI typically averages between 12-13k in most years with a season ticket base of around 6k. Homecoming and family weekend typically see near sellouts at 16k.

I see three things that contribute to UNI basketball attendance malaise.

1--We haven't been very good at basketball for very long relatively speaking. There are people that believe we don't play at the same level as Iowa and Iowa State even though we've routinely beaten them for the past 15 years.

2--Cost. UNI Football season tickets are pretty inexpensive and there is now a really good tailgating scene. UNI football is an event. Basketball isn't there yet and its not for lack of trying.

3--Schedule. Too many weeknight games. UNI is all in on being the young family alternative to Iowa and Iowa State. School nights and, to be honest, late tips on weekends are tough.

In the end, and its been proven, if we put together successful seasons, people will show up.

[uniftw]

UNI season football tickets can be had for $59 (~$10 per game). Basketball is roughly the same per game on season tickets but with 3 times as many home games you see the raw number of $XXX and it looks much higher.

As of now the "cap" for "hardcore/every game" type fan attendance is about 13k for football and 5k for basketball. BC touched on it, and the reasons sound lame to places like WSU that have a long history of winning and a fan base that grew up with WSU. UNI hasn't had a real fan base, in any sport, until about the last 10-15 years, and it's probably closer to 10 than 15. The fan base is also pretty dang young. We have a good number of those 50+ but I would be the majority of our fan base is a lot like BC and myself. People who went to UNI, or had a spouse/kid go to UNI in the early through mid 2000s and are now between ages 25-35 with elementary ages kids. As lame as it sounds that does make 7 or 8PM tip offs, even on a Saturday, tough for many families to make work. The Cedar Valley is also a very church going area and Wednesday nights (a week night that the MVC seems to like) is church night. We really have the two extremes for a fan base - pretty old and pretty young. Our 35-50 market is pretty damn small.

Those all sound lame, I realize. However, in the coming ears as people grow, as kids grow, etc... the fan base will grow. It's unfortunate that it's going to take so long after most schools to get that kind of established fan base, but UNI has always been happy to play third fiddle to Iowa and Iowa State until the last decade, and even really until Dannen came on in 2009. For reference, the walk on freshman this year from Waterloo is really the "first" age of kids to grow up going to UNI games and being a UNI fan their entire life. It's a large part of the reason he picked UNI to walk on over his D2 scholarship offers.



BC, is the performance center going to be Price Lab's left over gym? I would assume if that's the case the offices will move over there and the existing basketball offices will go to other uses?

[BCPanther]

BC, is the performance center going to be Price Lab's left over gym? I would assume if that's the case the offices will move over there and the existing basketball offices will go to other uses?

Nope.

Would be a standalone facility located where the current outdoor football practice field is. Would house administrative offices (AD, SID, etc), full practice facilities for both basketball teams and volleyball and shared offices. Main coaches offices would stay where they're at as they just put about $2.5 million into those spaces in the last couple of years. Would also have banquet space to accommodate large gatherings.

Football and soccer would share a lit FieldTurf and natural turf practice area just to the West of the West Dome (PSC) Lot.

The old NU Fieldhouse has pretty much been taken over by ROTC and Physical Education Teaching Programs (HPELS).

[pafan]

If you have 5k season ticket holders, that should make the McLeod pretty full every night, right? Or was that a number from right after the Sweet 16 run?

[Championz]

I was gonna say. That 5k number had to be grossly exaggerated. There's box scores from games in November and December where UNI barely broke 2k for games.

[uniftw]

I was gonna say. That 5k number had to be grossly exaggerated. There's box scores from games in November and December where UNI barely broke 2k for games.

Who said 5k basketball season tickets?

[Cdizzle]

I was gonna say. That 5k number had to be grossly exaggerated. There's box scores from games in November and December where UNI barely broke 2k for games.

Who said 5k basketball season tickets?

Agreed that no one said that. I think the 5k "hardcore/every game" fans may have been grabbed, and I would agree that the numbers suggest that is probably a little high, probably in the 4k range. But that's kindof beside the point; I have the basketball attendance numbers. I'm curious about the football attendance numbers, because I think they point to a group of people that easily could become UNI basketball fans with continued success.

Has the football fanbase been growing the past ten years or so, as that team sustained success, and presumably the interest of less and less recent graduates? I don't know much about football schools or their fanbases, so I'm curious if there is some sort of "3-year-lag" type thing that could go on.

[lime]

it was said that the cap on hardscore attendance is probably about 5k. they can sell out if they're contending or playing a big game, but they're probably not going to draw more than 5k for a less attractive game when they're in 3rd place.