AD monitors are idiots

[Hamdonger]

Ok, here we go with a "back in my day" post. We had 24 in a group for Redbird tickets back in '83 and you had to camp out for a day or so. We had a schedule as your spot could not be left unattended, and everyone had to pull a 2 hour stint to be part of our group and there were a ton of other Redbirds in line. It was actually pretty damn cool. Back then the games were an event, the badley games were insane. The crowd at Horton rocked. Never went in sober, never left with my voice intact. Dressed up as Versace one game and a bu asst. tried to get me thrown out as I yelled at bu from the sideline during the pregame warmups. Security led me away and I won the dick Versace look alike contest that game. Great times. Back then we had a home court advantage. Not so much anymore. It's sad that ISU doesn't seem to care about it anymore. Let the students be students. Maybe the athletic dept should watch some bball on the telly. Watch Ariz. St and the curtain of distraction. Watch Duke students as they taunt and harass visiting teams.

Make Redbird basketball fun again!!!

Love the stories GoBirds85, especially regarding Versace. The coaches in those days were as much of a highlight as the players. Just an incredible time for The Valley. Outstanding coaches (and assistants). The flamboyance makes me laugh. Richardson, Versace, Smithson...Donewald was flamboyance in reverse, which I think, made it just as fun.

I showed up in Redbird's first full season. While we didn't camp out like ISUFan1 mentioned (I wish, though!)...we would get there at the South Gate before they unlocked the doors. By the end of that year and The MVC tourney at Redbird, we had a thousand people waiting there before game time. Bender got in the habit of coming out and going through the line, too. I LOVED that pre-game anticipation.

A guy I absolutely enjoyed was Tony Barone, former ass't to Versace and then head man at Creighton. We were borderline cruel with the man but he would eat it up, and there were several times he would acknowledge us and even come over to congratulate us. So even though we acted like we couldn't stand him, we actually loved him. Shoot, the entire arena, 10K people, chanted "Butterball Barone" one game. (The Harstad chant was much worse) The atmosphere was so much fun and Barone always seemed to embrace that part of the experience. To me, he was a great respector of college basketball and everything it has to offer...and it's fans.

Let's bring this back to point. I bring all this up because Redbird athletics should be doing everything they can to make the gameday experience as enjoyable, fun, and energetic (atmosphere) as possible.

I do believe we're missing the mark on that.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

Been waiting for this to appear on the board as I watched the entire thing unfold.

First, while your friend may have been told by the monitor that the seat he was sitting in belonged to the Athletic Department, it does not. I know exactly who owns the seat that your friend was sitting in.

Second, they did not slid everyone down. There were two guys on the corner that were being loud and the older couple sitting next to them slid down to move away from them. Later in the game two other people tried to move down into the empty seats and their tickets were checked as well. At that point the older couple got annoyed enough by the two gentlemen on the end and decided to leave.

After your boy was asked to leave the seat, he seemed agitated and he flew up to TT with the rest of your group. You and your boy started to mock ISU on twitter for him getting kicked out of his seat. You yourself acknowledged that he was squatting so why is it ISU's fault? Besides, I thought TT was THE PLACE to be to watch a game? If it is, why did he want to sit court side? In the end, your friend was wrong yet the both of you try to throw blame at ISU for doing their job.

A few quick clarifications, lest this turn into a time suck I don't need today:

- Athletics did exactly what you'd expect; you have to police the prime seats. But Twitter is a place where you can have fun with such things, and when we've all been pregaming at a bar for three hours beforehand because the Valley booked 9 PM Saturday tipoffs in order to get ESPN2 exposure, you'll get some of this. (I'm not complaining; usually I'm on my best behavior with my 6-year-old in tow, but this one started after his bedtime, so he was a no-go.)

- If you look at it objectively, where was I slamming Redbird Athletics, other than for not ensuring that our most visible seats were filled for our one nationally televised game? (I do not consider CBS Sports Net a national broadcast.)

- TT is the place to be; I wouldn't trade that vantage point for anything. I've been a courtside guest of Radio Bloomington's in past years, and there have been vacancies then, too. While it's likely impossible to ensure attendance for every seat at every game, I'd at least expect Athletics to check in on their courtside ticket holders to see if anyone is not planning to attend the game that's on ESPN2. For the sake of branding, it's important that these seats be filled - that's really my only issue. If you knew who holds the seats that were being squatted in, where were they? I've known many cases of season ticket holders donating unused seats back for resale. Could they have been donated back to athletics and resold for a WSF donation or won in a raffled benefiting said? A "butt-less" courtside seat for a nationally televised game is an asset wasted.

- Why would someone sit courtside if they didn't want to get loud? If you've perused other forums here, this is a huge issue with loyal and loud donors - present company included - being "shushed" by those who prefer Redbird Arena to be the Milner Library of the Missouri Valley.

OK, that's about all I've got for now. Please don't take this as an assault on Redbird Athletics; I love my alma mater and delete a good portion of what I consider posting on here in order to be constructive. If you find a way to accommodate the outwardly passionate (aka loud and standing/stomping) fans and ensure that prime seats are filled for national broadcasts, I can't really complain.

Last thoughts:

- In my line of work, I always thank customers who have an issue for bringing it to my attention. Isn't it better to know how your WSF donors, season ticket holders, students, and corporate partners feel about their gameday experience?

- Why not sign your name at the bottom of your post, Redbird? Folks on here appreciate those who don't hide behind handles (yes, I know I use my business, but that probably keeps me even more honest). Engage your most passionate fans. For years the official line has been that the Athletics administration does not bother to read our forums; it's nice to finally see that they do in fact peruse the pulse of their most passionate fans.

I was eagerly looking forward to your response. Nice back and forth. Good topic because it shines a light on something that needs some more light put on it.

Sunlight may be the best disinfectant, but this athletic department may be better served by an enema.

 

[Hamdonger]

Sunlight may be the best disinfectant, but this athletic department may be better served by an enema.

I do believe that you're just the fellow to personally administer that enema.

 

[gobirds85]

Ok, here we go with a "back in my day" post. We had 24 in a group for Redbird tickets back in '83 and you had to camp out for a day or so. We had a schedule as your spot could not be left unattended, and everyone had to pull a 2 hour stint to be part of our group and there were a ton of other Redbirds in line. It was actually pretty damn cool. Back then the games were an event, the badley games were insane. The crowd at Horton rocked. Never went in sober, never left with my voice intact. Dressed up as Versace one game and a bu asst. tried to get me thrown out as I yelled at bu from the sideline during the pregame warmups. Security led me away and I won the dick Versace look alike contest that game. Great times. Back then we had a home court advantage. Not so much anymore. It's sad that ISU doesn't seem to care about it anymore. Let the students be students. Maybe the athletic dept should watch some bball on the telly. Watch Ariz. St and the curtain of distraction. Watch Duke students as they taunt and harass visiting teams.

Make Redbird basketball fun again!!!

Love the stories GoBirds85, especially regarding Versace. The coaches in those days were as much of a highlight as the players. Just an incredible time for The Valley. Outstanding coaches (and assistants). The flamboyance makes me laugh. Richardson, Versace, Smithson...Donewald was flamboyance in reverse, which I think, made it just as fun.

I showed up in Redbird's first full season. While we didn't camp out like ISUFan1 mentioned (I wish, though!)...we would get there at the South Gate before they unlocked the doors. By the end of that year and The MVC tourney at Redbird, we had a thousand people waiting there before game time. Bender got in the habit of coming out and going through the line, too. I LOVED that pre-game anticipation.

A guy I absolutely enjoyed was Tony Barone, former ass't to Versace and then head man at Creighton. We were borderline cruel with the man but he would eat it up, and there were several times he would acknowledge us and even come over to congratulate us. So even though we acted like we couldn't stand him, we actually loved him. Shoot, the entire arena, 10K people, chanted "Butterball Barone" one game. (The Harstad chant was much worse) The atmosphere was so much fun and Barone always seemed to embrace that part of the experience. To me, he was a great respector of college basketball and everything it has to offer...and it's fans.

Let's bring this back to point. I bring all this up because Redbird athletics should be doing everything they can to make the gameday experience as enjoyable, fun, and energetic (atmosphere) as possible.

I do believe we're missing the mark on that.

My roommate for one year was the Miller Brewing rep on campus and they sponsored the arm wrestling contest with the finals being held that year at halftime of the Tulsa game. Anyone remember Nolan Richardson and Reilly boys? My roommate paid me a case of Miller and a t-shirt to wear a gorilla suit to entertain the kids and run around the floor at halftime doing stupid ape stuff. I left me seat with about 5 minutes to go in the half and that happened to be the game in which Rick Lamb and Tulsa got into it. Richardson even got in to with Rick. The refs and security break it up but things are heated and as Tulsa is being led down the ramp to the visitors locker room I happened to be standing right there to run out onto the court. I had a few drinks in me and thought I was brave enough to yell something at Richardson and one of the Reilly boys. Dumb. One of the Reilly boys turned around and started back up the ramp and he didn't look to happy. All I could think about is that he is going to pound the crap out of me and I'm in this dumb ape costume, and who is going to tell my mom what happened. An alert security guy turned him around and looked back at me and told to "shut up." Good times.

Remember the tubas??!?!?!? Horton was a place no one wanted to play at.

I would love to hear what they tell Quinnie about the ticket exchange.

 

[gobirds85]

I'm probably the wrong person on here to be getting into this because I am on the foe list and seen as negative (which admittedly is my fault, I was too negative on the Hein issue and pushed it too far).

I am the type of ISU fan that is going to support them no matter what happens (team results, administration decisions, etc...) so they can take my support for granted and it doesn't really matter. I don't hold it against someone like Greenlock for no longer getting season tickets either.

This thread has brought a smile to my face because it brings up issues ISU has had for years and don't mind the boat being rocked a little.

First off, unless the students are doing something that the ref makes them stop or is offensive, then leave them alone. This is entertainment and supposed to be fun.

Second, anyone calling out someone for sitting in unused seats in the lower bowl should just stop. I've sat there long enough to realize that a lot of the "big time" WSF donors don't show up half the time. The court side seats are empty most of the time, so who cares if someone is sitting in one? Unless they do something bad, I would rather have it look like someone is in the seat on tv. ISU has bigger issues than checking to see if the 4,000 people in the arena are in the correct location. If you don't like someone sitting in your seats, show up on time or at a minimum go to the game.

I am passionate and love ISU, that will never change. I don't think the current administration are bad people, actually I think they are all great people. They just seem to really rub the fans that support ISU the wrong way and chase $$$. I know money is important, but they can't seem to raise enough of it to get any new projects off the ground, so they could at least be building relationships with future fans like the students.

I agree with most of this. I too am the kind of fan who is going to go to games regardless of how they treat me. For the most part I've had good experiences with the admins/monitors. I've been going long enough and had the same seats behind the visiting bench long enough that I'm friendly with some of the admins and "monitors". But, I also agree that at times the administration seems to focus on the money aspect of the basketball game over the fan experience, and I'm with you rico, I don't fault anyone who stops coming to the games.

Couple of other things I wanted to respond to, but I'm too lazy to do all the quoting:

- While I agree students should pretty much be left alone, there are times we do need to police them a bit. In the instance of the Valpo game, they weren't balloons that were handed out, but pool noodles, and yes they did make quite a bit of noise. Enough that if the other team shot FTs down on our end, the refs would have heard them and T'd us up, especially how these refs were calling things. The students were told on several occasions not to clap them, both by other students (especially the leader with the dry erase board) and monitors. Some students chose to ignore it and keep clapping them. I don't particularly find it distracting or troubling (though this was about 10pm and it was starting to sound like rain so I'll admit my eyes would have gotten heavy listening to it the rest of the game), but I know its a no-no and I don't have any problem with the monitors taking the noodles away from students who ignored the warnings, because I don't want us getting T'd up for it. We give up enough points on the floor, I don't want the crowd doing it too.

- The above being said, I think the admins could do a little more to get the students engaged with props. Don't give them the balls, but like towls/shirts/actual balloons, and other neat little gifts would be cool. And as a whole we need to do a better job at attracting students to games. We don't have nearly enough.

- As to the courtside seats, I'm largely with DP and rico. We need to fill them. I sit almost directly across from one section, and there are always more open seats than filled. I get that sometimes people can't come to games (everyone in my group but me is guilty of it a lot and they don't let me know until last minute so its not common to see my by myself sitting behind the bench), but with how often those seats are open I think it looks bad. I'd love to see the staff check with those ticket holders to make sure they are coming, or make the seats a per game basis, and give the "owners" of the seats first crack at them. That said, I get why they check tickets for those seats. If I'm not mistaken they get free food, and I wouldn't want randoms coming down and sitting in the seats and getting the food (unless that is just for the baseline seats).

- That said, I've never seen them check tickets for anything but those seats and the friends and family seats. People sit in my seats all the time, and I've never had the staff check their tickets. For the most part in the seats around me the fans usually just police themselves. I don't mind this (I usually have someone sitting in my seats before every game, and usually depending on if I'm there alone that game or not, I don't usually mind), but I see the need to police the friends and family seats as well as the courtside.

- While on the topic of seats, I really, really wish they would turn the opposite baseline bleacher section into a student section or an adult part section or something. That section is almost always half full because they are all the corporate seats that no one uses. While I think we should engage with our corporate sponsors and give them free tickets. Make it upperbowl seats, because I'm tired of having no fans on that end.

- Also, on the subject

So we can't have squeaky noodles, but ASU can have the curtain of distraction?!??!?!?? Can you imagine what would happen if Red Alert tried to do something similar? We would have to arrange bail.

 

[SoCalRedbird]

Maybe during timeouts, design contests between campus fraternities and sororities. Provide them with heavily discounted tickets, let Red Alert brief them ahead of time on student seating FAQs, and we voila.... We instantly have 100 to 150 more rabid kids ready to cheer for the good guys.

FWIW, I'd rather see something like that as opposed to snotty 8 year-olds playing on Little Tykes' hoops and cheerleaders handing out shitty pizza.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[dpdoughbird06]

Maybe during timeouts, design contests between campus fraternities and sororities. Provide them with heavily discounted tickets, let Red Alert brief them ahead of time on student seating FAQs, and we voila.... We instantly have 100 to 150 more rabid kids ready to cheer for the good guys.

FWIW, I'd rather see something like that as opposed to snotty 8 year-olds playing on Little Tykes' hoops and cheerleaders handing out shitty pizza.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

What fraternities? They've pretty much all been shut down in the past decade. Only a handful remain. My brother's old one is currently being bulldozed into The Lodge 2.0 luxury student apartments; you'd have better luck hanging out by their pool during #DartySZN (translation: unseasonably warm winter weather that gives students an excuse to party all day) than trying to engage what's left of ISU's Greek life.

Go for it, of course, but just don't expect frats and sororities to fill half the student section on their own.

And I agree about the in-game promos. Pretty sure every kid has a half dozen generic t-shirts and mini basketballs at this point.

 

[DWRedbird]

I'm probably the wrong person on here to be getting into this because I am on the foe list and seen as negative (which admittedly is my fault, I was too negative on the Hein issue and pushed it too far).

I am the type of ISU fan that is going to support them no matter what happens (team results, administration decisions, etc...) so they can take my support for granted and it doesn't really matter. I don't hold it against someone like Greenlock for no longer getting season tickets either.

This thread has brought a smile to my face because it brings up issues ISU has had for years and don't mind the boat being rocked a little.

First off, unless the students are doing something that the ref makes them stop or is offensive, then leave them alone. This is entertainment and supposed to be fun.

Second, anyone calling out someone for sitting in unused seats in the lower bowl should just stop. I've sat there long enough to realize that a lot of the "big time" WSF donors don't show up half the time. The court side seats are empty most of the time, so who cares if someone is sitting in one? Unless they do something bad, I would rather have it look like someone is in the seat on tv. ISU has bigger issues than checking to see if the 4,000 people in the arena are in the correct location. If you don't like someone sitting in your seats, show up on time or at a minimum go to the game.

I am passionate and love ISU, that will never change. I don't think the current administration are bad people, actually I think they are all great people. They just seem to really rub the fans that support ISU the wrong way and chase $$$. I know money is important, but they can't seem to raise enough of it to get any new projects off the ground, so they could at least be building relationships with future fans like the students.

I agree with most of this. I too am the kind of fan who is going to go to games regardless of how they treat me. For the most part I've had good experiences with the admins/monitors. I've been going long enough and had the same seats behind the visiting bench long enough that I'm friendly with some of the admins and "monitors". But, I also agree that at times the administration seems to focus on the money aspect of the basketball game over the fan experience, and I'm with you rico, I don't fault anyone who stops coming to the games.

Couple of other things I wanted to respond to, but I'm too lazy to do all the quoting:

- While I agree students should pretty much be left alone, there are times we do need to police them a bit. In the instance of the Valpo game, they weren't balloons that were handed out, but pool noodles, and yes they did make quite a bit of noise. Enough that if the other team shot FTs down on our end, the refs would have heard them and T'd us up, especially how these refs were calling things. The students were told on several occasions not to clap them, both by other students (especially the leader with the dry erase board) and monitors. Some students chose to ignore it and keep clapping them. I don't particularly find it distracting or troubling (though this was about 10pm and it was starting to sound like rain so I'll admit my eyes would have gotten heavy listening to it the rest of the game), but I know its a no-no and I don't have any problem with the monitors taking the noodles away from students who ignored the warnings, because I don't want us getting T'd up for it. We give up enough points on the floor, I don't want the crowd doing it too.

- The above being said, I think the admins could do a little more to get the students engaged with props. Don't give them the balls, but like towls/shirts/actual balloons, and other neat little gifts would be cool. And as a whole we need to do a better job at attracting students to games. We don't have nearly enough.

- As to the courtside seats, I'm largely with DP and rico. We need to fill them. I sit almost directly across from one section, and there are always more open seats than filled. I get that sometimes people can't come to games (everyone in my group but me is guilty of it a lot and they don't let me know until last minute so its not common to see my by myself sitting behind the bench), but with how often those seats are open I think it looks bad. I'd love to see the staff check with those ticket holders to make sure they are coming, or make the seats a per game basis, and give the "owners" of the seats first crack at them. That said, I get why they check tickets for those seats. If I'm not mistaken they get free food, and I wouldn't want randoms coming down and sitting in the seats and getting the food (unless that is just for the baseline seats).

- That said, I've never seen them check tickets for anything but those seats and the friends and family seats. People sit in my seats all the time, and I've never had the staff check their tickets. For the most part in the seats around me the fans usually just police themselves. I don't mind this (I usually have someone sitting in my seats before every game, and usually depending on if I'm there alone that game or not, I don't usually mind), but I see the need to police the friends and family seats as well as the courtside.

- While on the topic of seats, I really, really wish they would turn the opposite baseline bleacher section into a student section or an adult part section or something. That section is almost always half full because they are all the corporate seats that no one uses. While I think we should engage with our corporate sponsors and give them free tickets. Make it upperbowl seats, because I'm tired of having no fans on that end.

- Also, on the subject

So we can't have squeaky noodles, but ASU can have the curtain of distraction?!??!?!?? Can you imagine what would happen if Red Alert tried to do something similar? We would have to arrange bail.

I believe it's an NCAA regulation on noise makers that ISU was enforcing not it's own. I don't believe the NCAA gives two rat farts what you do visually to distract the other team, within reason.

As to what ISU would do, I can't say. I would like to think that if you cleared it with them first they wouldn't give 2 rat farts what the students did either, but I don't know. I was never a part of the student section when I went to ISU, I always just sat with my family.

 

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

1. A week before a game the athletic department should distribute 80% of the unused tickets for free. Get people in the arena and some will buy in. 2. Lower prices. Lose money in the short term but gain money in the long term. Plus, some of the loss will be offset by concessions. 3. A lot of these lower bowl season ticket holders appear you show up for maybe 2/3 games per season. Keep track of who is using their tickets and if there aren't people in the seats for 12/15 games (80%) then the holders forfeit their right to lower bowl seats to someone who will show up. 4. Students get in for free. Fill both end zones with students. In the future you can probably charge $5 per student but draw them in now and worry about the money later. I understand it hurts the pockets in the short term but it's great for the long term outlook of the program. Maybe if these things are done along with others then attendance will go from 55% to 80-85%.

 

[ricohill]

The last thing in the world I would ever want to do is give Bradley praise, but I like this idea.

https://twitter.com/bradleyumbb/status/958094438852685825

You get a lower bowl ticket to the last 4 games and up to a $40 item free at the team store. I know ISU has the family 4 pack, but for people that don't have kids, this is a good way to get them into the game and wearing team gear.

At least they are trying something new.

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

1. A week before a game the athletic department should distribute 80% of the unused tickets for free. Get people in the arena and some will buy in. 2. Lower prices. Lose money in the short term but gain money in the long term. Plus, some of the loss will be offset by concessions. 3. A lot of these lower bowl season ticket holders appear you show up for maybe 2/3 games per season. Keep track of who is using their tickets and if there aren't people in the seats for 12/15 games (80%) then the holders forfeit their right to lower bowl seats to someone who will show up. 4. Students get in for free. Fill both end zones with students. In the future you can probably charge $5 per student but draw them in now and worry about the money later. I understand it hurts the pockets in the short term but it's great for the long term outlook of the program. Maybe if these things are done along with others then attendance will go from 55% to 80-85%.

Suggest you think about a behavioral economics class.

 

[CB2K]

I don't see why ISU shouldn't have a 12 minute timeout policy in play for some of those seats.

In that, if you have not made it to your seat anywhere in the lower bowl by the first half 12 min mark, your seat becomes general admission to anyone in the stadium. This, of course, would be trumped if you were to show up at half and have the tickets. You would be allowed your seats back. But, I have never understood why people get defensive about the seats they are not sitting in. I do it at White Sox games every time I go. I buy a ticket in the corner outfield for $15 then scout the seats right about 1st and 3rd for 3 innings then spend the rest of the game typically about 5 rows off the field.

Gets me closer to the game and makes it more enjoyable, makes the stadium look better on TV and gives the game better atmosphere for the players. If the ticket holder shows up, we say "oop, sorry" and move over to the next available seats. There is no loser in this scenario.

ISU thinks they are losing because they want squatters to donate to get access to those prime seats. That's really all those ushers are there for .... to send that me$$age to the squatter$. Kind of investment protection as well. If those that donate have different squatters sitting next to them every game, their incentive to "pay up" for their seats may lessen, thinking these squatters are getting them donation free.

I like the old Horton general admission days. Packed concourse an hour before an Indiana State game, chanting "Birdshit" to pay respect to Larry Bird, followed by a land rush to whatever seat you could beat someone to when the doors opened.

This is right on...a lot of times it is as simple as protecting the investment of those who fork over the dollars to support the Redbirds via being season ticket holders. We have watched some people that were not season ticket holders enjoy the same lower bowl seats the entire year for general admission because the monitors didn't catch on that they were not season ticket holders. Is it fair for squatters to enjoy something they did not contribute to or pay for that others have actually paid season ticket prices plus the required donation to the WSF? Monitors are just doing their job most of the time. I agree with the sentiments here that there should be something established to release the seats to the general public after a period of time or even a system to voluntarily release seats in advance knowing the seat holder will not be able to make the game.

 

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

Albert Einstein once said that insane is trying the same thing over and over again expecting different results. ISU must be bat shit crazy then.

 

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

1. A week before a game the athletic department should distribute 80% of the unused tickets for free. Get people in the arena and some will buy in. 2. Lower prices. Lose money in the short term but gain money in the long term. Plus, some of the loss will be offset by concessions. 3. A lot of these lower bowl season ticket holders appear you show up for maybe 2/3 games per season. Keep track of who is using their tickets and if there aren't people in the seats for 12/15 games (80%) then the holders forfeit their right to lower bowl seats to someone who will show up. 4. Students get in for free. Fill both end zones with students. In the future you can probably charge $5 per student but draw them in now and worry about the money later. I understand it hurts the pockets in the short term but it's great for the long term outlook of the program. Maybe if these things are done along with others then attendance will go from 55% to 80-85%.

Suggest you think about a behavioral economics class.

Albert Einstein once said that insane is trying the same thing over and over again expecting different results. ISU must be bat shit crazy then.

 

[ricohill]

I don't see why ISU shouldn't have a 12 minute timeout policy in play for some of those seats.

In that, if you have not made it to your seat anywhere in the lower bowl by the first half 12 min mark, your seat becomes general admission to anyone in the stadium. This, of course, would be trumped if you were to show up at half and have the tickets. You would be allowed your seats back. But, I have never understood why people get defensive about the seats they are not sitting in. I do it at White Sox games every time I go. I buy a ticket in the corner outfield for $15 then scout the seats right about 1st and 3rd for 3 innings then spend the rest of the game typically about 5 rows off the field.

Gets me closer to the game and makes it more enjoyable, makes the stadium look better on TV and gives the game better atmosphere for the players. If the ticket holder shows up, we say "oop, sorry" and move over to the next available seats. There is no loser in this scenario.

ISU thinks they are losing because they want squatters to donate to get access to those prime seats. That's really all those ushers are there for .... to send that me$$age to the squatter$. Kind of investment protection as well. If those that donate have different squatters sitting next to them every game, their incentive to "pay up" for their seats may lessen, thinking these squatters are getting them donation free.

I like the old Horton general admission days. Packed concourse an hour before an Indiana State game, chanting "Birdshit" to pay respect to Larry Bird, followed by a land rush to whatever seat you could beat someone to when the doors opened.

This is right on...a lot of times it is as simple as protecting the investment of those who fork over the dollars to support the Redbirds via being season ticket holders. We have watched some people that were not season ticket holders enjoy the same lower bowl seats the entire year for general admission because the monitors didn't catch on that they were not season ticket holders. Is it fair for squatters to enjoy something they did not contribute to or pay for that others have actually paid season ticket prices plus the required donation to the WSF? Monitors are just doing their job most of the time. I agree with the sentiments here that there should be something established to release the seats to the general public after a period of time or even a system to voluntarily release seats in advance knowing the seat holder will not be able to make the game.

It would be a problem if someone was sitting in a seat and refused to leave. I don't mind if someone that didn't donate sits in the lower bowl. If they are having fun and enjoying the game thats all that matters. Maybe someone sits down there and enjoys it enough to donate and buy season tickets there?

For the last few years it's hard for me to defend WSF members who don't go to the games and are upset that people sit in the lower bowl/in their seats.

Also, in the lower bowl, now that they sell the unsold seats (unlike back in the day when they would refuse to sell them to the public), you are paying a different price. People that aren't donating are buying those seats. At every pro event the ticket price from one seat to the next is completely different with dynamic pricing and secondary markets.

 

[dpdoughbird06]

1. A week before a game the athletic department should distribute 80% of the unused tickets for free. Get people in the arena and some will buy in. 2. Lower prices. Lose money in the short term but gain money in the long term. Plus, some of the loss will be offset by concessions. 3. A lot of these lower bowl season ticket holders appear you show up for maybe 2/3 games per season. Keep track of who is using their tickets and if there aren't people in the seats for 12/15 games (80%) then the holders forfeit their right to lower bowl seats to someone who will show up. 4. Students get in for free. Fill both end zones with students. In the future you can probably charge $5 per student but draw them in now and worry about the money later. I understand it hurts the pockets in the short term but it's great for the long term outlook of the program. Maybe if these things are done along with others then attendance will go from 55% to 80-85%.

One tweak to the no-show season ticket holder issue:

Instead of threatening to non-renew their seats (lose-lose proposition), have your ticketing software identify the chronic or even periodic no-shows and send them a weekly or gameday email to confirm attendance. If they are not coming, offer some small incentive (WSF points, discounted concessions, credit towards promo items or apparel) for allowing their tickets to be resold at the box office or donated to local schools, etc.

Make it a win-win where season ticket holders are incentivized and encouraged to ensure that their highly visible prime seats are occupied every game. And make it easy and routine for them to let you know if they can't attend - and automate this process so we don't have to waste much labor doing this manually.

 

[IHateWSU]

I think we have the technology to track what students are at the game and where they live. Have them scan their ID's in each game and the 2 Dorm Floors with the most students in attendance have a rainbow shooting contest (you know where you continue to shoot and then back up each time a basket is made). The winner for the longest shot made each night is asked to return the final home game of the year and who ever wins that night gets a big prize of sorts ($1,000 tuition waiver or Books). That might start getting dorm floors recruiting kids to come to the game. It does not have to be this exact contest, but something better than the Oreo on the head or tricycle race contest.

 

[normalguy79]

I'm probably the wrong person on here to be getting into this because I am on the foe list and seen as negative (which admittedly is my fault, I was too negative on the Hein issue and pushed it too far).

I am the type of ISU fan that is going to support them no matter what happens (team results, administration decisions, etc...) so they can take my support for granted and it doesn't really matter. I don't hold it against someone like Greenlock for no longer getting season tickets either.

This thread has brought a smile to my face because it brings up issues ISU has had for years and don't mind the boat being rocked a little.

First off, unless the students are doing something that the ref makes them stop or is offensive, then leave them alone. This is entertainment and supposed to be fun.

Second, anyone calling out someone for sitting in unused seats in the lower bowl should just stop. I've sat there long enough to realize that a lot of the "big time" WSF donors don't show up half the time. The court side seats are empty most of the time, so who cares if someone is sitting in one? Unless they do something bad, I would rather have it look like someone is in the seat on tv. ISU has bigger issues than checking to see if the 4,000 people in the arena are in the correct location. If you don't like someone sitting in your seats, show up on time or at a minimum go to the game.

I am passionate and love ISU, that will never change. I don't think the current administration are bad people, actually I think they are all great people. They just seem to really rub the fans that support ISU the wrong way and chase $$$. I know money is important, but they can't seem to raise enough of it to get any new projects off the ground, so they could at least be building relationships with future fans like the students.

I agree with most of this. I too am the kind of fan who is going to go to games regardless of how they treat me. For the most part I've had good experiences with the admins/monitors. I've been going long enough and had the same seats behind the visiting bench long enough that I'm friendly with some of the admins and "monitors". But, I also agree that at times the administration seems to focus on the money aspect of the basketball game over the fan experience, and I'm with you rico, I don't fault anyone who stops coming to the games.

Couple of other things I wanted to respond to, but I'm too lazy to do all the quoting:

- While I agree students should pretty much be left alone, there are times we do need to police them a bit. In the instance of the Valpo game, they weren't balloons that were handed out, but pool noodles, and yes they did make quite a bit of noise. Enough that if the other team shot FTs down on our end, the refs would have heard them and T'd us up, especially how these refs were calling things. The students were told on several occasions not to clap them, both by other students (especially the leader with the dry erase board) and monitors. Some students chose to ignore it and keep clapping them. I don't particularly find it distracting or troubling (though this was about 10pm and it was starting to sound like rain so I'll admit my eyes would have gotten heavy listening to it the rest of the game), but I know its a no-no and I don't have any problem with the monitors taking the noodles away from students who ignored the warnings, because I don't want us getting T'd up for it. We give up enough points on the floor, I don't want the crowd doing it too.

- The above being said, I think the admins could do a little more to get the students engaged with props. Don't give them the balls, but like towls/shirts/actual balloons, and other neat little gifts would be cool. And as a whole we need to do a better job at attracting students to games. We don't have nearly enough.

- As to the courtside seats, I'm largely with DP and rico. We need to fill them. I sit almost directly across from one section, and there are always more open seats than filled. I get that sometimes people can't come to games (everyone in my group but me is guilty of it a lot and they don't let me know until last minute so its not common to see my by myself sitting behind the bench), but with how often those seats are open I think it looks bad. I'd love to see the staff check with those ticket holders to make sure they are coming, or make the seats a per game basis, and give the "owners" of the seats first crack at them. That said, I get why they check tickets for those seats. If I'm not mistaken they get free food, and I wouldn't want randoms coming down and sitting in the seats and getting the food (unless that is just for the baseline seats).

- That said, I've never seen them check tickets for anything but those seats and the friends and family seats. People sit in my seats all the time, and I've never had the staff check their tickets. For the most part in the seats around me the fans usually just police themselves. I don't mind this (I usually have someone sitting in my seats before every game, and usually depending on if I'm there alone that game or not, I don't usually mind), but I see the need to police the friends and family seats as well as the courtside.

- While on the topic of seats, I really, really wish they would turn the opposite baseline bleacher section into a student section or an adult part section or something. That section is almost always half full because they are all the corporate seats that no one uses. While I think we should engage with our corporate sponsors and give them free tickets. Make it upperbowl seats, because I'm tired of having no fans on that end.

We have had seats behind the north basket since the arena opened and I don't know of any corporate seats in our section. A lot of those empty seats are just unsold tickets.

 

[Sladerunningbear]

I remember the time I went streaking across the court with only my Gibbons mask and when I got to halfcourt the Corphyees shrieked in horror, “That’s one Big Beak!!”

Shortly after, I founded One Big Beacon Insurance.

Tired of it!

Spread it!

 

[DWRedbird]

I'm probably the wrong person on here to be getting into this because I am on the foe list and seen as negative (which admittedly is my fault, I was too negative on the Hein issue and pushed it too far).

I am the type of ISU fan that is going to support them no matter what happens (team results, administration decisions, etc...) so they can take my support for granted and it doesn't really matter. I don't hold it against someone like Greenlock for no longer getting season tickets either.

This thread has brought a smile to my face because it brings up issues ISU has had for years and don't mind the boat being rocked a little.

First off, unless the students are doing something that the ref makes them stop or is offensive, then leave them alone. This is entertainment and supposed to be fun.

Second, anyone calling out someone for sitting in unused seats in the lower bowl should just stop. I've sat there long enough to realize that a lot of the "big time" WSF donors don't show up half the time. The court side seats are empty most of the time, so who cares if someone is sitting in one? Unless they do something bad, I would rather have it look like someone is in the seat on tv. ISU has bigger issues than checking to see if the 4,000 people in the arena are in the correct location. If you don't like someone sitting in your seats, show up on time or at a minimum go to the game.

I am passionate and love ISU, that will never change. I don't think the current administration are bad people, actually I think they are all great people. They just seem to really rub the fans that support ISU the wrong way and chase $$$. I know money is important, but they can't seem to raise enough of it to get any new projects off the ground, so they could at least be building relationships with future fans like the students.

I agree with most of this. I too am the kind of fan who is going to go to games regardless of how they treat me. For the most part I've had good experiences with the admins/monitors. I've been going long enough and had the same seats behind the visiting bench long enough that I'm friendly with some of the admins and "monitors". But, I also agree that at times the administration seems to focus on the money aspect of the basketball game over the fan experience, and I'm with you rico, I don't fault anyone who stops coming to the games.

Couple of other things I wanted to respond to, but I'm too lazy to do all the quoting:

- While I agree students should pretty much be left alone, there are times we do need to police them a bit. In the instance of the Valpo game, they weren't balloons that were handed out, but pool noodles, and yes they did make quite a bit of noise. Enough that if the other team shot FTs down on our end, the refs would have heard them and T'd us up, especially how these refs were calling things. The students were told on several occasions not to clap them, both by other students (especially the leader with the dry erase board) and monitors. Some students chose to ignore it and keep clapping them. I don't particularly find it distracting or troubling (though this was about 10pm and it was starting to sound like rain so I'll admit my eyes would have gotten heavy listening to it the rest of the game), but I know its a no-no and I don't have any problem with the monitors taking the noodles away from students who ignored the warnings, because I don't want us getting T'd up for it. We give up enough points on the floor, I don't want the crowd doing it too.

- The above being said, I think the admins could do a little more to get the students engaged with props. Don't give them the balls, but like towls/shirts/actual balloons, and other neat little gifts would be cool. And as a whole we need to do a better job at attracting students to games. We don't have nearly enough.

- As to the courtside seats, I'm largely with DP and rico. We need to fill them. I sit almost directly across from one section, and there are always more open seats than filled. I get that sometimes people can't come to games (everyone in my group but me is guilty of it a lot and they don't let me know until last minute so its not common to see my by myself sitting behind the bench), but with how often those seats are open I think it looks bad. I'd love to see the staff check with those ticket holders to make sure they are coming, or make the seats a per game basis, and give the "owners" of the seats first crack at them. That said, I get why they check tickets for those seats. If I'm not mistaken they get free food, and I wouldn't want randoms coming down and sitting in the seats and getting the food (unless that is just for the baseline seats).

- That said, I've never seen them check tickets for anything but those seats and the friends and family seats. People sit in my seats all the time, and I've never had the staff check their tickets. For the most part in the seats around me the fans usually just police themselves. I don't mind this (I usually have someone sitting in my seats before every game, and usually depending on if I'm there alone that game or not, I don't usually mind), but I see the need to police the friends and family seats as well as the courtside.

- While on the topic of seats, I really, really wish they would turn the opposite baseline bleacher section into a student section or an adult part section or something. That section is almost always half full because they are all the corporate seats that no one uses. While I think we should engage with our corporate sponsors and give them free tickets. Make it upperbowl seats, because I'm tired of having no fans on that end.

We have had seats behind the north basket since the arena opened and I don't know of any corporate seats in our section. A lot of those empty seats are just unsold tickets.

Interesting. I've been told that country companies owns more than a few of those seats and gives them out to people that then don't go. The fact that they are just unsold is disappointing on the whole.