DoubleDeuce
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I'm really going to enjoy our undefeated conference season!
vs Murray St - 12/3/23 - 2 pm - MVC TV Network/ESPN+
- Thread starter isuquinndog
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That's great to hear. I think alumni graduating between 2020 and 2023 will be pretty scarce in particular. I was thinking that whatever excitement the class of 2014-2019 had been riding may have been completely extinguished by the last couple of years. These are alumni who experienced a lot of excitement in Redbird Arena but when they come back to visit, it can feel like a funeral. I could see it being very off-putting and pushing these alumni away. I hope that is not the case. More games like last night will help.
That has what has concerned me the last few years. Yes, losing has derailed everything especially after being pretty consistent in terms of W/L for over a decade. Now, you have people coming back to games and there's exhibition-type crowds there, the band is barely allowed to play, and there's 1 row of students who actually stand and get into the game. Not only does that make alums shake their heads as it was polar opposite in their day, but imagine if you're a current student and you go to a game maybe for the first time after seeing other schools on TV with big crowds and rowdy student sections...and you show up to RA and...that's...all...there...is. It's nap-worthy to them. Only way to fix this is 1. Win consistently and 2. Those who are at the games need to get into it, create some energy and make it fun. Those two things are what bring people back. Great chance to start building that with the win last night, and if we get another one Wednesday and then get Horton cranked up Saturday...then we're on the right track.
100%. I've talked to current students and there is nothing that excites them about going to the games. Sure, there might be good basketball like last night, but there isn't much thrill and that is what students want. They want an experience. So many students would rather pony up $40+ for an Illini game than spend $5 for an ISU game which is shocking. This all changes with a change in atmosphere. A change in atmosphere should come with a change in winning.
And that's another thing...when did Red Alert membership change to where it's pay-per-game? When we created the group in '05 we just flipped the All-Sport Pass to Red Alert membership and boom. $40 for the whole year, all games. It worked great. When and why did that change? That's a deterrent for students. $5 still gets you a burger basket and a beer at Brewe-Has, or a pitcher at the Pub which is what they'd rather spend on than a ticket to see us play EIU. But if it's paid for at the start of the school year, problem solved. It's hard enough to get students interested when we're rebuilding and haven't made the tourney since long before they were born, but if they have to cough up money on top of that...
They still have the Red Alert membership. I think it is $50 for 1 year or $150 for 4 years. I'd be curious to know what Red Alert membership numbers are looking like. A lot of students (who are sport fans) I talk to do not have Red Alert.
This must be a generational thing. I wasn't worried about an experience, I just wanted to see good basketball, everything else was just fluff.
RedbirdSoxFan
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I would say generational, even churches are now getting to where they want to be entertained with Rock worship music, and theatrical plays.
Thats still a great deal. Even if you just go to the football games and men's hoops, it pays for itself. Throw in volleyball, women's hoops and whatever other sporting event and there's big value there. As for numbers, I'd be curious too. I know it was the largest RSO at the university and I believe the largest (or one of) in the whople nation in '07. We had over 5,000 members. It was pretty awesome.
The experience in the arena means a lot. This doesn't mean music and pre-game videos, it means a communal experience where you can experience joy at the same time.
MadBird
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Amen.
I just responded to a survey from Wisconsin about the atmosphere at Saturday's UW-Marquette game. Wondering about my "fan experience". BS. I hate all that "fluff". I don't mind the on-court games during timeouts so much, altho some of them are lame, or the dance team, but that idea that there can't be any "dead time" at a game - every moment that there isn't action on the court there's "music", video on the scoreboard, screaming from the DJ, games on the floor, blah blah blah. Crissakes, the people in the crowd are on their devices during TO's anyway, no one's paying attention. Do people really decide to go to the games because there's cool music during timeouts, or cool videos on the scoreboard? Get off my effin' lawn!!
You're not wrong in that there are generational differences. However, by "experience", I was referring to the game atmosphere - as in a rowdy student section environment. I wasn't really thinking about all the in game junk. I don't care for that stuff all that much but I do think some of our halftime acts have helped keep students interested in the past. I think we had a pretty good halftime entertainment lineup in 2019-20, including the Red Panda, frisbee dogs, etc.
DoubleDeuce
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I would love more than anything to stand up and carry on for the whole game...but I would feel like a complete jackass doing it alone. My wife, God bless her soul, would be first in line pointing out what a jackass I'm being and tell me to sit my bootious maximus down.
Well yes, I meant that part to be more about the students.Don't get wrong, I loved the pep band, cheerleaders and Log into Facebook, but at the end of the day I was there to see winning Redbird basketball.
I can't remember which team it was, but I was watching a game in which the cheerleaders threw out t shirts after every made basket by the home team. I thought that was pretty damn cool. Get the student section to invest in the game. More points, more tees, more fun.
You should come sit in our section. There is a group of us that sits together. We may not stand all game but probably do more than others and we tend to be pretty loud at times. Heck, I choose to sit in the last row of the lower bowl so I can stand and not have to worry about annoying the people behind me. It is a basketball game, not the library. We need fans up and cheering during game, especially close games.
Our cheerleaders now throw out shirts for every 3 pointer made.
I was on the last Red Alert Board when it was an RSO before being absorbed into the Athletic Dept. The good thing about that shift is that they now have more budget to do giveaways/have pizza, and whatever else, where as when I was a part of it as an RSO, we could only afford like one giveaway per year (for either football or MBB) and one pizza party or whatever. The bad part of the shift is that the students were completely removed from the decision making process and promotion. I know they have designated "chant leaders" now that student can apply to be. No idea what goes along with that.
One note about the pregame experience yesterday (it's probably happened before but we haven't had a home game in so long I may have forgotten about it) is how they play the intro/hype video before starting line ups and once it ends they roll into an O'Brien Ad. I get they paid to sponsor the starting line up but play that ad right after the away team is done being announced. It's odd you play a hype video to get the crowd excited (its a really cool video this year, kudos to those who worked on it) and then as the cheering and intros are supposed to begin, you play an ad? Womp wahhh. Just totally killed what little energy was in the building before tip.
I noticed the cheerleaders throwing shirts after three pointers...does the crowd know this before hand? Is there an announcement? If not, having one could get fans more exited after 3s. Right now it doesn't seem like the crowd knows its happening until the cheerleaders run around the moat waving them in the air.
Crowd had some good moments last night, led by Pedon urging them to. I recommend going out to Goredbirds.com and watching the last couple minutes of his presser where he talks about how important it is for the fans to bring energy. He definitely doesn't seem like a guy that wants to HAVE to urge the crowd to get into games, but he's willing to. We gotta do our part, ya'll. Saturday will be fine because Horton has that special vibe but it's gotta keep building with Wednesday against NKU.
The hype video into an ad is a great example of momentum cavitation. Things like that, along with the wrong music over the PA, not cueing up the fight song at the right times, and sticking too much to the script (more on that in a moment) are all ways that gameday ops can unwittingly kill the vibe in the room.
Interesting point re: the shift in information/resources for Red Alert once absorbed into the AD. As an RSO we worked in those early years as an extension of the Athletics Marketing Dept, so we helped plan promos/giveaways, etc. We also were able to include the band, cheerleaders and Redline into all that and we would see copies of the gameday production schedule each night so we knew when to do what/what was coming, etc. so all 4 groups could pounce on it and keep the momentum and energy going. It got everyone involved. But it also allowed for a little impromptu fun. I remember a big run one game in '08...Creighton or MSU I think, but we had a string of big plays, other team calls a timeout and the arena explodes. We pointed at the drummer who was a friend of ours, who kicked off a huge I-S-U chant. Whole arena started doing it. It was awesome. The band director at the time looked like he wanted to kill me and chewed the drummer a new a**hole for not sticking to the script which called for a different song I apologized to the director after the game, but it was pretty damned hard to NOT ride the momentum of a packed house at that moment. Its little stuff like that you can't, and shouldn't plan for.
Then we brought the whiteboard into the mix which was a big hit and served and important purpose. Point being, when you don't just entice students with free pizza or a t-shirt, but also make them part of the show, they will reciprocate. Win on top of that...and voila. College hoops atmosphere as it should be.
Interesting point re: the shift in information/resources for Red Alert once absorbed into the AD. As an RSO we worked in those early years as an extension of the Athletics Marketing Dept, so we helped plan promos/giveaways, etc. We also were able to include the band, cheerleaders and Redline into all that and we would see copies of the gameday production schedule each night so we knew when to do what/what was coming, etc. so all 4 groups could pounce on it and keep the momentum and energy going. It got everyone involved. But it also allowed for a little impromptu fun. I remember a big run one game in '08...Creighton or MSU I think, but we had a string of big plays, other team calls a timeout and the arena explodes. We pointed at the drummer who was a friend of ours, who kicked off a huge I-S-U chant. Whole arena started doing it. It was awesome. The band director at the time looked like he wanted to kill me and chewed the drummer a new a**hole for not sticking to the script which called for a different song
I apologized to the director after the game, but it was pretty damned hard to NOT ride the momentum of a packed house at that moment. Its little stuff like that you can't, and shouldn't plan for. Then we brought the whiteboard into the mix which was a big hit and served and important purpose. Point being, when you don't just entice students with free pizza or a t-shirt, but also make them part of the show, they will reciprocate. Win on top of that...and voila. College hoops atmosphere as it should be.
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