Thoughts on Attendance & Season Tickets

[gobirds85]

Has anyone been able to find out what the attendance was for yesterday's FAU v Loyola game? I can't find it.

 

[BirdGrad2011]

Is it too much to ask our Redbird basketball team to improve their conversion rate on sideline and out of bounds possessions?? ANYONE?? That makes us a better team. In some cases, a way better team. 1 additional bucket every 10 min on out of bounds is a difference maker. Could mean 5 more wins a year.

Is it too much to ask our Redbird basketball team to look at transition opportunities a bit more? 1 additional transition bucket every 10 minutes could mean 5 more wins for us this year...and heck, maybe even a Sunday appearance in StL.

What's the problem with asking this??????????.

Won’t argue point 1. I don’t mind our inbound itself it’s the lack of action once we get it. We usually go into our offense instead of a quick bucket.

The second point is being addressed. Transition opportunities come from forcing turnovers and quick outlets on rebounds. Last year we didn’t have depth and couldn’t really push the tempo with such a short rotation. I would expect to see improvement here this year especially turning defense into offense.

 

[isuquinndog]

Has anyone been able to find out what the attendance was for yesterday's FAU v Loyola game? I can't find it.

ESPN isn't listing it.

Also not in Loyola's official box score on their website.

 

[Manchester Matt]

I took a peek at TM just to see what was available yesterday morning. My guess is they had 3,000 in the building.

 

[Bird Friend]

ESPN isn't listing it.

Also not in Loyola's official box score on their website.

Probably because it was at WinTrust Arena and not Gentile Arena.

 

[Dmills]

Has anyone been able to find out what the attendance was for yesterday's FAU v Loyola game? I can't find it.

It was a doubleheader. A lot of time with doubleheaders the attendance is all lumped into the second game. Per ESPN, attendance for ASU vs MSST was 5,361. I'd imagine at least 75% were at the Loyola game, maybe more.

 

[gobirds85]

It was a doubleheader. A lot of time with doubleheaders the attendance is all lumped into the second game. Per ESPN, attendance for ASU vs MSST was 5,361. I'd imagine at least 75% were at the Loyola game, maybe more.

Color me impressed if they had anywhere near 5,361. Pretty decent crowd.

 

[91Bird]

Lots of good posts on this thread and it's an interesting topic. The lack of attendance is probably a combination of a lot of the factors already mentioned. Winning more consistently would help for sure. The fact that you can watch the games on tv in your warm home with a cold beverage is a big factor for sure. When I was 12 and went to my first ISU game I was instantly hooked with the excitement of the atmosphere. You could yell and cheer and not even hear yourself in the north end bleachers at Horton. At Redbird if you cheer too loudly you feel like people may call 911 thinking you're having some sort of medical episode.

Perhaps our attendance and the atmosphere will never get back to what it used to be, but if we can win and the marketing area can be creative and come up with some enticing offers on tickets hopefully it can get better than what it is now.

 

[Reggie Redbird]

Lots of good posts on this thread and it's an interesting topic. The lack of attendance is probably a combination of a lot of the factors already mentioned. Winning more consistently would help for sure. The fact that you can watch the games on tv in your warm home with a cold beverage is a big factor for sure. When I was 12 and went to my first ISU game I was instantly hooked with the excitement of the atmosphere. You could yell and cheer and not even hear yourself in the north end bleachers at Horton. At Redbird if you cheer too loudly you feel like people may call 911 thinking you're having some sort of medical episode.

Perhaps our attendance and the atmosphere will never get back to what it used to be, but if we can win and the marketing area can be creative and come up with some enticing offers on tickets hopefully it can get better than what it is now.

The problem is if you run too many deals, people will drop their season tickets. Why pay thousands for tickets for a family, the bread and butter of what pays the department’s bills in addition to student fees, if you can get severely discounted seats to the majority of games?

It becomes approaching a cliff with a blindfold on. This department can’t afford to lose the STHs it has unless we are cutting a lot of sports, scholarships, and other people. Considering the debt service on the IPF and lack of donations coming through that were used to sell it for approval, there is likely a lot of pressure on the department right now from a fiscal standpoint. Throw in a shortage of fundraising staff, but hopefully Paul Kabbes has a plan in mind for that.

 

[SlackBooDom]

The problem is if you run too many deals, people will drop their season tickets. Why pay thousands for tickets for a family, the bread and butter of what pays the department’s bills in addition to student fees, if you can get severely discounted seats to the majority of games?

It becomes approaching a cliff with a blindfold on. This department can’t afford to lose the STHs it has unless we are cutting a lot of sports, scholarships, and other people. Considering the debt service on the IPF and lack of donations coming through that were used to sell it for approval, there is likely a lot of pressure on the department right now from a fiscal standpoint. Throw in a shortage of fundraising staff, but hopefully Paul Kabbes has a plan in mind for that.

This is by and large sales 101. The most common solution is always - just give tickets away for $1. ISU Athletics is a business with bills to pay. They can’t afford that. Why would anyone pay full price if they consistently panic before games and just slash prices? Think about it this way - would you ever eat at a restaurant for full price if you knew three times a week they said, come in tonight and your meal is $1. No. You’d wait. Outside of winning, the likely answer lies in pure hard work. Phone calls. Outreach. Community engagement. Cultivating relationships. Does ISU have the infrastructure and the staff to implement those things and the desire to get better? Like you’ve mentioned, longtime staff who had ties to the department and the community were the ones pushing those things and were forced out. How does the department get back to that?

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

I have many thoughts and observations to add to this and will. If you’re looking to quote me, just know this will grow tonight. To start:

1.) Winning. It’s been a long time since we have done this consistently. As people move into/out of town, losing a lot more than you win won’t draw them out.

2.) Ticket prices and required donations continuing to increase without winning will guarantee the attendance continues to decline. Every time we raise ticket prices, fewer people will renew. Required donations have skyrocketed for people in a lot of cases. Some have dropped their tickets. Others have moved or just purchase some games.

Fans do not buy the argument that they need more money to compete. We spend more than other programs who have had much more recent success.

Frankly, I have trouble giving away tickets unless it’s to WBB games.

3.) Continued staff turnover has led to difficulties for fans to get issues resolved. We have donor relationships we can’t cultivate or build if we don’t have staff to do it. Paul Kabbes’ first few hires are extremely important for getting the ship turned. There are some former employees they may want to reach out to . It seems a lot of departures were directly related to the toxic Brennan/Mulhauser culture.

4.) This goes along with #2, but Brennan/Mulhauser went the path of slash and burn. Using all the resources to grow assets for their short-term resume building versus looking at what is best for the program and building a sustainable operation. It was clear they wanted to roll out whatever cash grabs they could and then get out before it collapsed. Having them gone is a huge step toward climbing back up.

Good post Reggie but as respects to #3 I believe we had staff continuity under A.D. Lyons? Donations during that era dropped. My point is the impact of the staff chaos during the period post Lyons likely had little impact as the Redbird basketball program was already suffering. Do we really want those people back if the program was failing while they were here? I could absolutely be off the mark as I am unfamiliar with the in house day to day ad staff.

Also under #4 as respects to Brennan/mulhauser “leave before it collapse” reference….same thing. The program was already ill so going back to the prior state is not likely a good thing either?

ISU athletics needs a strategic overhaul big time, imo, including starting with contemplating cutting some sports. Especially in this day we are trying to do too much and ultimately our resources become watered down and too little for each sport. I know others may disagree but I would love to hear the arguments for keeping all the sports we offer.

 

[Birgs]

Good post Reggie but as respects to #3 I believe we had staff continuity under A.D. Lyons? Donations during that era dropped. My point is the impact of the staff chaos during the period post Lyons likely had little impact as the Redbird basketball program was already suffering. Do we really want those people back if the program was failing while they were here? I could absolutely be off the mark as I am unfamiliar with the in house day to day ad staff.

Also under #4 as respects to Brennan/mulhauser “leave before it collapse” reference….same thing. The program was already ill so going back to the prior state is not likely a good thing either?

ISU athletics needs a strategic overhaul big time, imo, including starting with contemplating cutting some sports. Especially in this day we are trying to do too much and ultimately our resources become watered down and too little for each sport. I know others may disagree but I would love to hear the arguments for keeping all the sports we offer.

"Cutting some sports" easier said then done. Title IX, funding, schollies, all those technicalities. Remember back in my initial undergrad era a formidable wrestling program was axed and the soccer program rolled out. I used to know more on this stuff when reporting; but # of 'ships & budgets definitely play in. Football, of course is a huge scale-tipper in bodies, equipment, travel, and operations. If balancing budgets really is not as significant, amd the term "non-revenue sports" is such a misnomer as, except in rare cases at our level, they are all net losers: what gets '86d and how much money does that actually free up (gymnastics/swimming & diving, M/W golf/tennis - just spit-balling)?

 

[Phantom]

Found this from a few years ago. Students should be force-fed this stuff whey they join/before going to games. Tons of other schools do things like this. We started the whiteboard thing in 2006, I laughed when I saw it was still a thing in 2018 lol

 

[Redbird222]

Found this from a few years ago. Students should be force-fed this stuff whey they join/before going to games. Tons of other schools do things like this. We started the whiteboard thing in 2006, I laughed when I saw it was still a thing in 2018 lol

Keyshawn Evans in the video .... looks like he knew the fight song

 

[gobirds85]

Found this from a few years ago. Students should be force-fed this stuff whey they join/before going to games. Tons of other schools do things like this. We started the whiteboard thing in 2006, I laughed when I saw it was still a thing in 2018 lol

We really need to start winning. One of my son's fondest memories at ISU was when the Birds beat wichita. He and the rest of the student section rushed the floor. He told me how incredible that felt. I had some incredible times at Horton in the mid '80s myself. We need to get back to this. Winning and giving the students something to get excited about. Build a winner and they will come.

 

[Adunk33]

Found this from a few years ago. Students should be force-fed this stuff whey they join/before going to games. Tons of other schools do things like this. We started the whiteboard thing in 2006, I laughed when I saw it was still a thing in 2018 lol

Been saying for a while they need to do this, not just for students, but all fans. For whatever reason, our fans generally lack the basic “fan participation” knowledge. Things like standing until both teams score, making noise when the other team is shooting FTs, being loud when the other team is on D. I know the number of folks that go to games right now is small, but that shouldn’t stop them from being engaged in the game. There’s gotta be something the dept can do to move away from the culture of fans who want to be involved in the game, not to be shunned for doing so. I guess everyone is probably right. Perhaps winning will cause those who looked down on the folks who cheer to start cheering themselves.

 

[Redbird222]

Been saying for a while they need to do this, not just for students, but all fans. For whatever reason, our fans generally lack the basic “fan participation” knowledge. Things like standing until both teams score, making noise when the other team is shooting FTs, being loud when the other team is on D. I know the number of folks that go to games right now is small, but that shouldn’t stop them from being engaged in the game. There’s gotta be something the dept can do to move away from the culture of fans who want to be involved in the game, not to be shunned for doing so. I guess everyone is probably right. Perhaps winning will cause those who looked down on the folks who cheer to start cheering themselves.

They posted on the score board to stand until Illinois Wesleyan scores. We had 2 rows in the lower bowl standing but just about everyone else sat down. It felt awkward after awhile because nobody was participating and you were beginning to get the Stalling stares from some fans.

 

[Buffett1]

Birds are 58 W 96 L ‘s the past 5 seasons = participation problem

 

[redbirds2000]

Birds are 58 W 96 L ‘s the past 5 seasons = participation problem

That just soured my Redbird Kool-Aid!

 

[Aggie]

Win and it all changes