Good Attendance Article

[wloopanther]

Great article from Waterloo Courier about attendance for the Panthers..

http://wcfcourier.com/articles/2006/01/10/sports/local/doc43c3d1f48a159851595714.txt

[UNI MadCat]

You beat me to it WLoo.

Overall, its a decent article. I am glad that it pointed out that attendance is on the rise, although I think more credit should have been given to that and less emphasis on the negative.

A couple things about this article bothered me:

1) Taking out the Iowa game. I would assume that there is more than one team in the MVC that has at least one home game a year that packs them in more than others (ISU vs Indiana, etc), right?

2) "The mystery, however, is in the attendance fluctuation between mid-week games and weekend contests."

- No, there isn't a mystery. The answer was right in the article - it's all about season tickets, always. If CU sells ~11K season tix, the attendance is 11,000 even if no one is actually there.

Everyone has dips -

• CU 14,267 weekend/13852 weekday
• SIU 6801 weekend/5971 weekday

[Newsbreaker]

Good call on the season ticket angle MadCat.

During football season we are constantly giving away tickets. I know of some being given away this week, but by and large, such giveaways for basketball are much fewer and further between.

There is one other 'mistake' that I think UNI makes.

We have a chance to have a marquee men's basketball program. While I want to see UNI successful across the male and female sports landscapes, the radio ads UNI runs for basketball are :30 for mens, then :30 for womens. BIG mistake. It's too much information, too many games to keep straight, too much clutter. The men's program needs to become the focal point for the athletic department's winter message, and that message needs to be clear and easy to follow.

[Marc Wigim]

Wow, I didn't know that Hartzell was the AD at Bucknell before this. Small world.

Articles like these get people talking. I believe that the Courier is doing this to make people aware. I think this article might be a bit premature considering the bulk of Valley contests haven't started, but it's still a good thing in my mind that they're informing like this.

[FMPanther]

Hype

Great article from Waterloo Courier about attendance for the Panthers..

http://wcfcourier.com/articles/2006/...9851595714.txt

A bit early to chastise the lack of involvement now. Yes, they are successful, but the BB program needs to win consistently...and get the McLeod Center opened. Consider these data.

Organized by Metro area:

Creighton 687454
WSU 530508
Drake 429717
MSU 300980
Eville 288929
INSt 148468
ILSt 140797
UNI 121502
Bradley 112200
SIU 59627

By enrollment:
MSU 19540
SIU 19537
ILSt 17771
WSU 14000
UNI 12513
INSt 10679
Creighton 6000
Bradley 5800
Drake 5221
Eville 2300

by attendance (per MVC site)
Creighton 14111
WSU 10403
Bradley 8546
MSU 6965
Eville 6768
SIU 6525
UNI 5578
ILSt 5244
INSt 4799
Drake 3929

We are near the bottom in metro area population, middle of the road in enrollment and, subsequently, about that spot in attendance. Plus, plus we play in a cavernous dome that is not a great place to watch basketball.

Population alone dictates that Creighton and WSU have nice attendance, PLUS a nice arena.


FWIW, Bradley does well with what they have.

[UNI MadCat]

We have a chance to have a marquee men's basketball program. While I want to see UNI successful across the male and female sports landscapes, the radio ads UNI runs for basketball are :30 for mens, then :30 for womens. BIG mistake. It's too much information, too many games to keep straight, too much clutter. The men's program needs to become the focal point for the athletic department's winter message, and that message needs to be clear and easy to follow.

I agree to a point but my guess is that there is a certain amount of money that has to be spent on certain sports no matter what. I wasn't close to this when I worked in the UNI AD but at UW I remember people lamenting at the amount of money we had to throw away advertising the women's softball team, even though they knew there was no way to recoup it. It was just a fact of life, they had to do it.

Its true though, as one of only two sports on campus that have the potential bring in money for the school, the emphasis MUST be there and confusing the fans isn't going to help.

Ironic that you mention all that clutter as last year there was a Men's b-ball ad running about the Bracket Buster that did everything... except tell the date of the game.

[Newsbreaker]

I hadn't thought about that Madcat, and you're probably right about a certain extent of it.

[CF Panther]

No need to run promotions. People that keep complaining about low attendance and lack of promotions need look no further than the Yellow Pages. Free ticket coupon and B1G1 coupon in EVERY SINGLE YP Phonebook! Honestly, unless you are all about getting your reserved seats, there isn't even a need right now to purchase season tickets for basketball...or for that matter even football (although that season is long gone). They do not even have a restriction to numbers of each coupon that can be redeemed at once. In theory, a person can cut 30 of them out of phonebooks and get season tix for 2 people (excluding the Iowa game this season). Tell all your friends and neighbors about it, and get them out to games this year while they're free. Then maybe they'll come back and pay in the future...

[panther2317]

THANKS to all fans who attended the game tonight. Those are the kind of crowds that need to be in the Dome for the remainder of the season! GO PANTHERS!!! Come back strong, shake off the loss and get ready for ISU!

[01PantherFan]

The attendance was listed on the UNI web page as 8612 pretty dang good for a wed night considering some people (myself) have to work nights !

[DWadle1983]

A bit early to chastise the lack of involvement now. Yes, they are successful, but the BB program needs to win consistently...and get the McLeod Center opened. Consider these data.

Organized by Metro area:

Creighton 687454
WSU 530508
Drake 429717
MSU 300980
Eville 288929
INSt 148468
ILSt 140797
UNI 121502
Bradley 112200
SIU 59627

By enrollment:
MSU 19540
SIU 19537
ILSt 17771
WSU 14000
UNI 12513
INSt 10679
Creighton 6000
Bradley 5800
Drake 5221
Eville 2300

by attendance (per MVC site)
Creighton 14111
WSU 10403
Bradley 8546
MSU 6965
Eville 6768
SIU 6525
UNI 5578
ILSt 5244
INSt 4799
Drake 3929

We are near the bottom in metro area population, middle of the road in enrollment and, subsequently, about that spot in attendance. Plus, plus we play in a cavernous dome that is not a great place to watch basketball.

Population alone dictates that Creighton and WSU have nice attendance, PLUS a nice arena.


FWIW, Bradley does well with what they have.

FYI: Peoria County is larger than that. I looked up the Peoria MSA which is Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford Counties, and it has a population of 346,000 http://www.ci.peoria.il.us/faq.asp?deptid=2.

Part of the attendance issue is tradition. Bradley, Creighton, SIU, and Wichita State are Division I programs that have a tradition of success that dates before UNI was a Division I program.

That being said, as I wrote previously, it amazes me that UNI wouldn't consistently draw for the better MVC games at the UNI Dome what they drew last night. UNI headed into the season as a likely NCAA Tournament team, so why don't people who live within an hour of Cedar Falls attend the games more than they do when UNI is as good, if not better, than Iowa and Iowa State this season? I have seen more UNI games in person the last couple of seasons (UNI @ UWGB, and UNI against Georgia Tech) than people I went to school with at UNI who live in eastern Iowa.

[GoCats05]

FYI: Peoria County is larger than that. I looked up the Peoria MSA which is Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford Counties, and it has a population of 346,000 http://www.ci.peoria.il.us/faq.asp?deptid=2.

Part of the attendance issue is tradition. Bradley, Creighton, SIU, and Wichita State are Division I programs that have a tradition of success that dates before UNI was a Division I program.

That being said, as I wrote previously, it amazes me that UNI wouldn't consistently draw for the better MVC games at the UNI Dome what they drew last night. UNI headed into the season as a likely NCAA Tournament team, so why don't people who live within an hour of Cedar Falls attend the games more than they do when UNI is as good, if not better, than Iowa and Iowa State this season? I have seen more UNI games in person the last couple of seasons (UNI @ UWGB, and UNI against Georgia Tech) than people I went to school with at UNI who live in eastern Iowa.

You also have to take into consideration that Bradley, Creighton and Wichita don't field football teams either. BB is their main sport (Wichita is BB & baseball). We just came off a run for the national championship. We just need to let people know that UNI has BB team, too!

[Newsbreaker]

No need to run promotions. People that keep complaining about low attendance and lack of promotions need look no further than the Yellow Pages. ...

I could not disagree more.

First of all, traditionally we have had a basketball program that hasn't been worth the price of admission. To the casual fan, who might see UNI Basketball as a fun family outting, but doesn't really follow the season with passion, promoting what we've got and getting them in to see what the reality of this product is, is VITALLY important. Until we're averaging 7000+ a game, there is a huge need to run promotions.

That's great that there are coupons in the Yellow Pages. There's a reason they feel comfortable doing that, and it's because most likely VERY few of those are redeemed. They're not in a medium that gets very high traffic, and certainly not a place that people automatically go when thinking of UNI. Additionally, most people scan right over those types of things, so unless you tell them the coupons are there, they'll never even notice.

It's a bit like saying we could print a coupon in the 'Hometowner', which ends up in as many trashbins as hands. Any and all promotions do not have equal return.

[JCPanthers]

That's great that there are coupons in the Yellow Pages. There's a reason they feel comfortable doing that, and it's because most likely VERY few of those are redeemed.

Actually they ARE getting used and according to the ticket manager at UNI they will NOT be in the phone books next year. I guess some people have brought in as many as 40 free coupon tickets at one time.

[UNI MadCat]

I could not disagree more.

First of all, traditionally we have had a basketball program that hasn't been worth the price of admission. To the casual fan, who might see UNI Basketball as a fun family outting, but doesn't really follow the season with passion, promoting what we've got and getting them in to see what the reality of this product is, is VITALLY important. Until we're averaging 7000+ a game, there is a huge need to run promotions.

That's great that there are coupons in the Yellow Pages. There's a reason they feel comfortable doing that, and it's because most likely VERY few of those are redeemed. They're not in a medium that gets very high traffic, and certainly not a place that people automatically go when thinking of UNI. Additionally, most people scan right over those types of things, so unless you tell them the coupons are there, they'll never even notice.

It's a bit like saying we could print a coupon in the 'Hometowner', which ends up in as many trashbins as hands. Any and all promotions do not have equal return.

Yep!!!