Vidette - Student Attendance

[isuquinndog]

ISU students could give two you know what about halftime. They are on their phones.

 

[gobirds85]

Athletics losses donors and doesn’t follow up to see what they did to turn off the flow why should they invest time and energy trying to get students to attend and make it a more pleasurable experience. My athletic donations are currently at $0.00 and I haven’t attended a game at Redbird Arena in two years. I went to homecoming last year and that was it for me and football. My buddy and I have been buying season tix for football for over 5 years. We are not buying them this year. I simply will not pay for a bad product, especially when I see no effort to fix that product. Larry Lyons has done a spectacular job off running people off and I can only assume that will continue under his leadership. Aim low. No disappointment.

Quick question...does anyone know of anyone increasing the $$$$ to ISU athletics? If so, I’d love to know their motivation. Maybe I’m missing something.

Me. Because I can. Deal with it.

Gotcha. I guess I’ll have to deal with it. Man, you sure told me. I won’t be able to sit for a week.

My $$$ has moved over to the academic side of campus. My wife and I help fund two scholarships we founded with some other alums. We have been involved in other giving thru the Alumni Assoc and gifts of life insurance policies. And are proud members of the 1857 Society but we are not interested in supporting the lack luster efforts of Larry Lyons and Dan Muller. Seven years of zilch is way too long. Look at all the other schools firing coaches in the 6-8 year range. Apparently some schools strive to win, and some have no issues with mediocrity. What group do you think we fall into? Deal with it.

 

[isuquinndog]

You do know that with no money, it's not going to get better, right?

 

[FriscoBird90]

The overall experience for students is NOT enhanced by having grade schoolers running up and down the court for halftime entertainment. If you want students to get into the games... don't bore them to death at halftime.

This subject has been discussed before, but nothing seems to change. Bring back things like the flaming tubas (liability concerns be damned) and add new wrinkles to things that involve the students.

Here is an idea my wife and I brewed up in only about two minutes. Each game, either before the game or at the half, three students and one other fan are called to the floor for a game-show style competition. Each pulls a piece of paper out of a hat. One piece has "Lay-up" written on it, the second "Free throw," the third "Three pointer," and the fourth "Half-court." The emcee tells the crowd each shot, if made on the first attempt, is worth a prize/gift card of a certain amount, such as $15 for a lay-up, $40 for a free throw, $100 for a three-pointer, and $500 for a half-court shot. Before they take their shots, they are each asked if they want to trade with one of the other contestants. Once that is done, the emcee announces they have one more wrinkle to the game: an "X" shot with an unknown value is available for one of the four who wants to trade their planned shot for it. (Yes, kind of like "Let's Make a Deal.") Assuming one takes the offer, the other three contestants shoot their shot first, then the "X" shot shooter is told their shot and the accompanying possible prize. The "X" shot difficulty and value would change from one home game to the next. One game it might be a lay-up worth $50 instead of $15, another it might be a three-pointer worth $20 instead of $100, or maybe a half-court worth $1500 instead of $500. Of course throughout the event the sponsors of the prizes get their names mentioned, so whether they have to pay up or not, they get the advertisement(s) in front of a captive audience.

Just a thought. Might be more entertaining for everyone than watching dot races or whatever else they have done in the past.

 

[birdlife]

ISU students could give two you know what about halftime. They are on their phones.

marketing should find a way to use that to get kids to the games...

i'm thinking something like HQ (that real-time trivia game app) but localized to those in attendance.

winner gets 15 papa johns pizzas.

 

[ricohill]

Athletics losses donors and doesn’t follow up to see what they did to turn off the flow why should they invest time and energy trying to get students to attend and make it a more pleasurable experience. My athletic donations are currently at $0.00 and I haven’t attended a game at Redbird Arena in two years. I went to homecoming last year and that was it for me and football. My buddy and I have been buying season tix for football for over 5 years. We are not buying them this year. I simply will not pay for a bad product, especially when I see no effort to fix that product. Larry Lyons has done a spectacular job off running people off and I can only assume that will continue under his leadership. Aim low. No disappointment.

Quick question...does anyone know of anyone increasing the $$$$ to ISU athletics? If so, I’d love to know their motivation. Maybe I’m missing something.

I think there have become two groups when it comes to this. There are fans that no matter what the results or product will donate and buy tickets. Which, is fine. Going to ISU athletics is a leisure activity for them. Then there are fans that want ISU to win and the school/athletic department to be serious about athletics. I have fallen in the second group for over 35 years. That is why I for the first time in a long time will not renew my season tickets.

To your first point, why doesn't ISU follow up with donors? If you look at it, athletic donations are such a small portion of what pays for the athletic department that unless you are a top end donor you don't matter to them. In 2017, according to the Knight Commission database, donor contributions only made up 8% of revenues to pay for athletics. 69% of the budget comes from Student fees and institutional money. ISU hasn't made a push to increase donors since Zenger left. That is why the number of donors went up 70% while he was here. That is why it's funny when people argue that you have to give money to take ISU to the next level. The money from donors is pretty insignificant.

Why I don't want to give my money to ISU this year is because the University leadership (Dietz and Lyons) no longer care about making ISU an elite athletic program. When I started watching ISU the school was hungry to be a national basketball program. They overcame the toughest admissions standards ever to get into the Missouri Valley because they knew to get to the NCAA Tournament and grow the program that is what they had to do. Winning mattered at ISU.

My reasoning why ISU no longer cares about athletics...follow the money. The year before Zenger got here the basketball budget was $998,822. When he left it was $1,991,617. He nearly doubled the budget for basketball. Since Lyons has been here the budget has increased by $56,860. However, if you look at the last 3 years it has decreased $243,830. How can you be serious about athletics and have your premiere sport budget go down almost $250,000?? Also, during that time period we gave Muller the largest contract in ISU history for an NIT appearance??

With Zenger and Bowman they knew that for ISU athletics to take the next step football had to go BCS. They brought in Spack, got the first part of the stadium off the ground, and the football team made it to Frisco. Those are all great things. Since then the problem is over half the teams in the league kept growing and built better facilities than us. South Dakota is putting in $30 million. SDSU built a new stadium and practice facility, Youngstown State built a practice facility (we even used the photo of theirs as our prototype in the online brochure), NDSU has everything better than us, Missouri State has a nicer football facility. We just stopped growing and expected to win. Now we are left for dead in the Missouri Valley for basketball and football.

Then you throw in the the fact that ISU has made Redbird Arena one of the worst atmospheres in the country to watch a college basketball game and it is pointless to give Larry Lyons my money. I love ISU basketball and want to see it be great, but to give them a donation and buy season tickets would be giving this administration my approval of the current state of affairs and I won't do it.

 

[gobirds85]

You do know that with no money, it's not going to get better, right?

Or you can send a message that you have had enough of their shortcomings and changes needs to be made. Maybe, just maybe dwindling attendance coupled with a drop in $$$$ will signal to ISU that alums and donors are not happy with the product on the floor and the direction of that product. One can dream...

 

[ricohill]

You do know that with no money, it's not going to get better, right?

Or you can send a message that you have had enough of their shortcomings and changes needs to be made. Maybe, just maybe dwindling attendance coupled with a drop in $$$$ will signal to ISU that alums and donors are not happy with the product on the floor and the direction of that product. One can dream...

:text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1:

 

[isuquinndog]

Or you are guaranteeing that Dan will be here for the next five season, which isn't good if you don't think he's doing a good job. The opposite should be happening, if you don't think Dan is doing a good job and donors need to get the money to buy him out.

But what do I know.

 

[gobirds85]

Athletics losses donors and doesn’t follow up to see what they did to turn off the flow why should they invest time and energy trying to get students to attend and make it a more pleasurable experience. My athletic donations are currently at $0.00 and I haven’t attended a game at Redbird Arena in two years. I went to homecoming last year and that was it for me and football. My buddy and I have been buying season tix for football for over 5 years. We are not buying them this year. I simply will not pay for a bad product, especially when I see no effort to fix that product. Larry Lyons has done a spectacular job off running people off and I can only assume that will continue under his leadership. Aim low. No disappointment.

Quick question...does anyone know of anyone increasing the $$$$ to ISU athletics? If so, I’d love to know their motivation. Maybe I’m missing something.

I think there have become two groups when it comes to this. There are fans that no matter what the results or product will donate and buy tickets. Which, is fine. Going to ISU athletics is a leisure activity for them. Then there are fans that want ISU to win and the school/athletic department to be serious about athletics. I have fallen in the second group for over 35 years. That is why I for the first time in a long time will not renew my season tickets.

To your first point, why doesn't ISU follow up with donors? If you look at it, athletic donations are such a small portion of what pays for the athletic department that unless you are a top end donor you don't matter to them. In 2017, according to the Knight Commission database, donor contributions only made up 8% of revenues to pay for athletics. 69% of the budget comes from Student fees and institutional money. ISU hasn't made a push to increase donors since Zenger left. That is why the number of donors went up 70% while he was here. That is why it's funny when people argue that you have to give money to take ISU to the next level. The money from donors is pretty insignificant.

Why I don't want to give my money to ISU this year is because the University leadership (Dietz and Lyons) no longer care about making ISU an elite athletic program. When I started watching ISU the school was hungry to be a national basketball program. They overcame the toughest admissions standards ever to get into the Missouri Valley because they knew to get to the NCAA Tournament and grow the program that is what they had to do. Winning mattered at ISU.

My reasoning why ISU no longer cares about athletics...follow the money. The year before Zenger got here the basketball budget was $998,822. When he left it was $1,991,617. He nearly doubled the budget for basketball. Since Lyons has been here the budget has increased by $56,860. However, if you look at the last 3 years it has decreased $243,830. How can you be serious about athletics and have your premiere sport budget go down almost $250,000?? Also, during that time period we gave Muller the largest contract in ISU history for an NIT appearance??

With Zenger and Bowman they knew that for ISU athletics to take the next step football had to go BCS. They brought in Spack, got the first part of the stadium off the ground, and the football team made it to Frisco. Those are all great things. Since then the problem is over half the teams in the league kept growing and built better facilities than us. South Dakota is putting in $30 million. SDSU built a new stadium and practice facility, Youngstown State built a practice facility (we even used the photo of theirs as our prototype in the online brochure), NDSU has everything better than us, Missouri State has a nicer football facility. We just stopped growing and expected to win. Now we are left for dead in the Missouri Valley for basketball and football.

Then you throw in the the fact that ISU has made Redbird Arena one of the worst atmospheres in the country to watch a college basketball game and it is pointless to give Larry Lyons my money. I love ISU basketball and want to see it be great, but to give them a donation and buy season tickets would be giving this administration my approval of the current state of affairs and I won't do it.

Hammer meet nail. . If they won’t make the effort, then why should I?

 

[SgtHulka]

ISU students could give two you know what about halftime. They are on their phones.

marketing should find a way to use that to get kids to the games...

i'm thinking something like HQ (that real-time trivia game app) but localized to those in attendance.

winner gets 15 papa johns pizzas.

a couple of pikachus and a charmander hiding in RA should do the trick

 

[ricohill]

Hammer meet nail. . If they won’t make the effort, then why should I?

What is scary to me is what happens 5-10 years from now? The donor base is dwindling from the 80's and 90's when ISU was great. Students have been ignored for years as fans, while footing the bill for athletics. I think ISU is much closer to becoming Eastern or Western Illinois than Wichita State or Creighton as an athletic program.

 

[gobirds72]

You do know that with no money, it's not going to get better, right?

Or you can send a message that you have had enough of their shortcomings and changes needs to be made. Maybe, just maybe dwindling attendance coupled with a drop in $$$$ will signal to ISU that alums and donors are not happy with the product on the floor and the direction of that product. One can dream...

:text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1:

That’s exactly right! Why would you continue to donate to something that is declining? At some point you send a message that we are going in the wrong direction. I can go to a game and sit in the lower bowl without handing out a free donation. Money doesn’t grow on trees!

 

[SgtHulka]

Or you can send a message that you have had enough of their shortcomings and changes needs to be made. Maybe, just maybe dwindling attendance coupled with a drop in $$$$ will signal to ISU that alums and donors are not happy with the product on the floor and the direction of that product. One can dream...

:text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1:

Money doesn’t grow on trees!

It does in my neighborhood. You should talk to a realtor about moving

 

[Hamdonger]

:text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1:

Money doesn’t grow on trees!

It does in my neighborhood. You should talk to a realtor about moving

It's true. I live in Hulka's garage. My finances have never looked better.

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

ISU students could give two you know what about halftime. They are on their phones.

i laugh when I read or hear statements about peeps on their phones. It is a sign of the times/the way of the world..etc. I hope ISU admin is also not ridiculing the students and alternatively is figuring out how to succeed in today’s environment. If not they are at least 15 years behind.

Btw empty seats does not mean no revenue nor does it mean that less peeps are watching. Every big Ten team x osu/mu brings home significantly more (and for Michigan it is nearly the same) revenue from their rights/media/licensing deals annually than they do from all tickets sales to all their sports. And with all of that media revenue comes a lot more eyeballs watching than their stadiums could accommodate and with it more university/athletic exposure, more apparel sales, more endorsements ...etc. Yes that is the extreme but with today’s tech fans of all universities don’t need to be there live to watch and cheer/boo for their team. What they do need to do is s put out an entertaining product that peeps want to watch regardless of where they are located at game time

 

[SgtHulka]

Money doesn’t grow on trees!

It does in my neighborhood. You should talk to a realtor about moving

It's true. I live in Hulka's garage. My finances have never looked better.

That reminds me, sorry about leaving the car running last night Humdinger

Humdinger?
Humdinger?!?
HUMDINGER?!?!?

 

[gobirds72]

:text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1:

Money doesn’t grow on trees!

It does in my neighborhood. You should talk to a realtor about moving

I bet! My pocket is $1000 richer this year!

 

[Redbird Alum 2004]

Or you can send a message that you have had enough of their shortcomings and changes needs to be made. Maybe, just maybe dwindling attendance coupled with a drop in $$$$ will signal to ISU that alums and donors are not happy with the product on the floor and the direction of that product. One can dream...

:text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1:

That’s exactly right! Why would you continue to donate to something that is declining? At some point you send a message that we are going in the wrong direction. I can go to a game and sit in the lower bowl without handing out a free donation. Money doesn’t grow on trees!

Well too be fair my wife and I are recent donors in the last few years. Same with a bunch of our classmates from ISU. Now that we are comfortable we are donating. For people who have coach and leadership and don't go to games you all sure bitch a lot on here. We get it. Move along.

 

[ricohill]

https://twitter.com/MichaelOsipoff/status/1110690610145579008

I found this article interesting. Valpo AD at least seems like he wants to win in Basketball.