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Post by wsuairstrike on Jan 2, 2011 17:20:34 GMT -5
also someone mentioned something about paying the dance coach to pick music. I mean you could do that or you could pick a student for free! The music doesnt even have to be current, it can be a good mix as long as it is good music! I want them to play Sweet Caroline, and play the one part"Ooh sweet Caroline, good times never seem so good" so the crowd and sing that part. Songs that are fun to sing are always good
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Post by CincyDrummer on Jan 2, 2011 17:40:11 GMT -5
As we get 2 free tickets and rewards for going?! are you kidding why not go? I really think that students like to b#%*@! and moan about WSU and im pretty sick of it. If i didnt have people to go with I would probably still go lol I go by myself to just about every single game, and I still have the best time. I make comments, yell, hoot & holler etc and have the time of my life every game lol
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Post by ohiopirate on Jan 2, 2011 19:18:23 GMT -5
If we could get more students to move down to the very front section I think that would really help the atmosphere...help the students be more involved and have a good time and come back again. There's usually a decent number of students at games but they are so spread out and sit all the way up near the top of that section. I'd love for someone to think of a way to get them to come down and get involved with the chants and whatnot that our core few students do every game.
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Post by hhgreen on Jan 2, 2011 19:48:03 GMT -5
That is a good idea about the students gathering down to the front section. Maybe the rest of the fans should all move down as far as they can go it would be a lot louder atmosphere for the opposing team as well. Who is going to care about their personal seat when there is only 3500 fans there? As a season ticket holder it would bother some that they paid a premium for their seats and regular ticket purchasers are sitting with them. It don't bother me the least but that is just me.
If students are not using their tickets maybe they should make sure somebody uses them.
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Post by Raider Country on Jan 2, 2011 19:58:37 GMT -5
That is a good idea about the students gathering down to the front section. Maybe the rest of the fans should all move down as far as they can go it would be a lot louder atmosphere for the opposing team as well. Who is going to care about their personal seat when there is only 3500 fans there? As a season ticket holder it would bother some that they paid a premium for their seats and regular ticket purchasers are sitting with them. It don't bother me the least but that is just me. If students are not using their tickets maybe they should make sure somebody uses them. I always thought they should have a lower section of the arena in one color (yellow) and the upper portion of the arena in another color (green). Stick all season ticket holders in the yellow sections of the Nutter center and have the rest of the arena (green) general admission festival seating. It would preserve the seats of the people that financially support WSU the most and still allow people to sit down closer to the action where ever they wanted in the green section. It would make ticket sales much easier because they wouldn't have to go through the process of assigning seats. Just tell them to sit in any green seat they want. It would encourage walk up fans to get to the games earlier to get the best seats. That would also speed up the box office line because less people would show up at the Nutter center at the last minute before the games trying to buy tickets. It would also encourage people to sit down lower in the arena and make the Nutter Center louder.
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Post by Class of '83 on Jan 2, 2011 21:22:08 GMT -5
WSU should hire Wampler to work with Collins full time. They are great together. Wampler is great. He really knows his stuff and he has a good rapport with Collins.
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Post by CincyDrummer on Jan 2, 2011 21:26:39 GMT -5
Just out of curiosity, can someone tell me where the season ticket holders sit? I'm guessing right in the middle above where Chris Collins does his play by play and then the opposite side?
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Post by Big D on Jan 2, 2011 21:33:59 GMT -5
Just out of curiosity, can someone tell me where the season ticket holders sit? I'm guessing right in the middle above where Chris Collins does his play by play and then the opposite side? You can buy season tickets anywhere in the arena. I believe most of the season ticket holders sit on both sides of the arena in the bottom 12 rows.
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Post by wolf41 on Jan 3, 2011 12:56:07 GMT -5
My cousin sits down on the curve of the horse shoe at the visitor's end of the course, and I knew a guy who used to sit on the other curve. Other than those I'd say Big D is correct in his assessment.
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Post by wolf41 on Jan 3, 2011 16:50:49 GMT -5
I agree that Chris is a wonderful announcer. If he would prefer a full time sidekick I think WSU should come up with one, hopefully a former WSU player.
I agree that we should get rid of the "games" during time outs. Have the spirit squads and band play during TOs. Maybe one TO late in the first half could be used to announce scores from around the country with a focus on the HL first followed by other OH schools. Likewise in the second half. AND tell the band to NOT play during those TOS. Personally I think the Emerald Jazz is one of the best things we've got going and we should use them a lot in TOs. I don't think the cheer squad is as good as in the past, but we have always had a good squad. I don't know why the squad from last year resigned, but they did and we had to start over from scratch.
I agree that the atmosphere is MUCH better at UD than at WSU. First there is the crowd. Our crowd supports the team vocally, but we need to build the crowd. The first thing I'd suggest, like others, would be to cut the price IF you want to pick up casual fans. Someone said $12. That would be okay, but I would seriously consider $10 to attract people. Movies are still under $10 locally. Cut out all the Freebie nights, coupon deals, etc. Establish the price and that is what it is for the season. Of course, WSU students would be free and other youngsters could be $5.
Second, we need to schedule the best teams possible. Go 2 for 1 if we have to, but there are other well known teams I think we can land for a home and away deal. No more D-2 teams or teams ranked over 250...except YSU or other HL teams having a bad year.
Other things to do to improve the atmosphere at the Nutt House. One would be to upgrade the score board. It doesn't have to be the caliber of OSU's, but our board is 20 years old. You know there are better quality boards today with bigger and better screens. Second, use the screen for numerous replays, especially plays that had the boo birds going crazy. Fans can never see everything at the time it happened. Give us replays, with slo-mo at important moments. Periodically report stats for the two teams, such as rebounds and shooting percentages.
The sound system also needs to be improved. Twenty years is a long time for technology. It doesn't have to be up to OSU's standards, but better than what we have.
Cover the concourse with brighter color(s). Make the restrooms like CSU's with green, yellow, and white. Think about putting windows around the top of the walls to let daylight in for day events. Change the walls and doors on the stalls. I recently saw some very nice white walls/ doors made from some synthetic material. They were also suspended from above to make it easier to clean the floors. In short, get rid of as much gray as possible.
Pet peeve...take down the Bomber pictures, box them up and deliver them to whoever is appropriate. Somebody owns those things and I'm sure it isn't WSU.
Are all these ideas winners? Probably not. But I would hope that such a list exists somewhere in Athletics/Nutter Center to address with the administration at the drop of a hat. Our Nutter debt will be paid off this year. The original fee for debt service on the Nutter was $35 per quarter. For most of these past 20 years there has been an annual % fee hike. I'm sure that % was applied to the $35 fee as well. By now that fee should be closer to $100 than the original $35. That would be a great source for funding these type of improvements. And that fee SHOULD go to the Nutter Center/Athletics and to other student related athletic facilities.
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Post by hhgreen on Jan 3, 2011 16:58:53 GMT -5
Ditto what Wolf said.
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Post by Big D on Jan 3, 2011 17:51:41 GMT -5
Until we get some bigger donors, we really cannot afford to drop ticket prices. We count on that revenue to not only fund basketball but to also help fund our other programs.
Last year we averaged over 5000 fans a game for basketball. Assuming that all of those tickets were sold for $17, we potentially made $85000 a game. I know we don't make anything on student tickets and we had discounted tickets etc, but my point is easier to make using simpler math. If we drop ticket prices to $15, we would have to increase attendance to 5667 a game to make the same amount. If we dropped ticket prices to $12, we would have to increase attendance to 7083 a game to make the same amount. If we dropped ticket prices to $10 a ticket, we would have to increase attendance to 8500 a game to make the same amount.
We need that revenue to run our athletic department and I think Grant would probably prefer to have a smaller higher paying crowd than gamble on being able to sell that many tickets every night to just make we are making now.
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Post by bballraider on Jan 3, 2011 18:19:09 GMT -5
I think we could generate some revenue if the HLN started charging for the internet broadcasts. Say $5/game and the school hosting is the one that sells the broadcast. But I also think that all season ticket holders at each of the Horizon League schools gets free access. (Also each school would be allowed to give access to recruits and families of the players, so as not to hurt the recruiting benefits of the HLN.)
This would make it a perk to have season tickets, and those that do not want to pay for tickets to the home games and sit and watch at home would now be forced to come up with $5. This may make a few people reconsider whether they attend the games or not at home. This may either help attendance or at least increase revenue enough to help lower the ticket prices a little.
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Post by Big D on Jan 3, 2011 18:33:53 GMT -5
I've been advocating that for years bballraider. I gladly pay to watch internet broadcasts everytime we play an OOC road game I cannot attend even though the quality is much inferior to the HLN. It pisses me off to no end knowing we give away this service for free. I think we could easily sell a $5 per game fee, $25 season pass for 1 HL team, or a $50 season pass for the entire HL. It doesn't make sense that we are giving this service away for free when other schools and conferences are making money off it.
I never though about offering it to season ticket holders for free or player's families, or recruits but I think that is a good idea. I just don't know if they would be allowed to offer it to player's families or recruits with the NCAA rules. It might be considered an extra benefit. You know how retarded the NCAA is about these things.
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Post by wolf41 on Jan 4, 2011 10:54:59 GMT -5
I understand BigD, but to be fair, when working those numbers to get to the average of 5,000+ I think you should discount all the students, free admissions, reduced fares, player's parents, etc to get to a number that reflects people paying to get in.
Maybe it would be easier to take the total attendance and divide that into the receipts for the season to get the average price per attendee, then work from there.
I also forgot to mention the seat license. That could still be an add on if the powers that be want to charge it. Personally I think that is like the airlines charging you for your bag. Just raise your fares and drop the baggage charge. I like the way Southwest Airlines operates myself.
I do think the normal season ticket holder resents it when we have give aways to boost our numbers for a game. Do they get a refund? Why not lower the price and try to boost our numbers at every game? I think the combination of a solid home schedule and a price cut would attract more casual fans. Of course, that's just my opinion.
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