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Post by ohiopirate on Jan 4, 2011 20:44:48 GMT -5
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? Not to hijack on just this one point, but personally I don't mind paying full price for season tickets and then having the Raider represent night when everyone gets in free. I just consider it a small donation to the Athletic Department. Once I write that check at the start of the year its a sunk cost anyway. That being said though, I can see your point and I'm sure it annoys a number of people. I would also pay for HLN if I knew the money was going to go to help the league and its members - especially when others leagues/schools are making money off their broadcasts. I can't imagine the HLN broadcasts do anything near what the ESPN broadcasts do for us in terms of exposure and being watched by recruits anyway.
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Post by mrose on Jan 5, 2011 18:28:42 GMT -5
RaiderNutt, your post (which I agree with) raises some questions.
As a loyal fan it is sort of embarrassing to see so few at the Nutter Center. The question has been asked many times, why doesn't WSU have higher attendance numbers? I know the reasons everyone throws out (i.e., schedule, parking, time of day, wrong day, Bombers Hockey, etc.), but those are excuses.
15 years ago, or so, Raider basketball had momentum with the community--it was growing. It doesn't have that anymore. Now, the actual product--practice facilities, caliber of recruits and players--has regained its forward progress over the past several years and I think we're in very good hands with Donlon.
But the question remains, why did the program lose support of the Miami Valley? I can't believe all the momentum was lost with the firing of an iconic coach and the subsequent off-years. Maybe that's the simple answer, but I have a hard time believing that...
It seems to me the fan base has shrunk significantly over the years--probably due to attrition of the casual fan. Why? If you go over to the other board and read past comments it was due to the DDN's bias. Now, I'm certainly no fan of the DDN and there are many instances where they could've done a much better job covering Raider basketball, but that isn't the root cause for lower attendance....
Certainly winning has a lot to do with putting more butts in seats. But 4 seasons of 20+ wins has done little to bring the casual fan back to the Nutter Center. Why? Does it take 10 years? 15 years? Butler had been a successfully rising program for 15+ years and even last year their attendace was lacking for a top 10 or top 20 team. After a run to the title game they have finally seen their attendance numbers increase for games against other "mid-major" programs. Will those levels be sustained, or will it take another deep run in the NCAA??
I know people will disagree with me, but part of the issue with the Nutter Center being a "dud" during games is the lack of students. If my memory serves me right, back in the 90's there were a heck of a lot more students attending games than now. Again, why? The schedule wasn't as good then as it is now (based on RPI). Parking was just as bad. Commuter School? There's more student housing now than back then. A couple of years ago I taught some seniors, in business, and they followed UD by either going to the games (one student had season tix via his parents) or watching them on channel 7. None of them had EVER gone to a Wright State game at the Nutter Center. I didn't say anything, but did wonder, Where's the school pride? How 'bout a sense of community and going to the game then out to the Pub afterwards? Unfortunately, that seems to be non existent with today's kids...they're more into themselves via their blackberry.
Is media coverage a problem? Well, possibly. In certain parts of the Miami Valley WONE is hard to receive, depending on the time of day. Perhaps a switch to its sister station 107.7 FM should be looked at. Area coverage would improve immensely. I remember back in the 80's WPDT, channel 16, actually broadcast a few games. When's the last time a local TV station broadcast a game? Don't count WWRD as a station broadcasting games. That's simply the Horizon League Network that is available to a small segment of the Miami Valley. Is "broadcasting" games on the HLN keeping folks away? I doubt it and what few do choose to stay at home to watch on the internet is probably miniscule. I agree with Big D and the model needs to change. I understand the logic of free access as it's chalked up to marketing the product. But, seriously, this needs to be looked at as a source of revenue and not as a marketing tool.
Somehow we need to get the support of more alumni and by having access to "better" media outlets would help. Maybe a partnership (WSU would help offset the costs) with WDTN sports broadcasting games on channel 26 WBTD would be something to look at. Those stations already have an agreement for news so a few select games would be doable. Also, Valpo and the Chicago schools have select games broadcast on Lake Shore Sports. That's the regional PBS stations in and around Chicagoland. I'm not sure if Jack Pohl could be the equal of Mike Hartsock, but certainly sharing LSS resources and spliting costs 3 or more ways is something to explore. In addition, Milwaukee has Time Warner Cable air several of their games too...So the game at UW-M could possibly be shown back here.
That's it...I'm off my soap box.
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Post by CincyDrummer on Jan 5, 2011 20:19:05 GMT -5
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Post by Fastbreak on Jan 5, 2011 22:10:05 GMT -5
I know people will disagree with me, but part of the issue with the Nutter Center being a "dud" during games is the lack of students. If my memory serves me right, back in the 90's there were a heck of a lot more students attending games than now. I question your memory. I was a student at WSU in the mid 1990s. We rarely had more than 20-30 students in the student section except for big games.
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Post by thatbaldraiderfan on Jan 6, 2011 1:58:22 GMT -5
I know people will disagree with me, but part of the issue with the Nutter Center being a "dud" during games is the lack of students. If my memory serves me right, back in the 90's there were a heck of a lot more students attending games than now. I question your memory. I was a student at WSU in the mid 1990s. We rarely had more than 20-30 students in the student section except for big games. I know in the Schilling days I never saw more than a dozen. But I was quite young then.
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Post by Big D on Jan 6, 2011 7:10:30 GMT -5
In the early 1990s we had pretty good studnet turnout, but back then we had good attendance in general. We averaged between 7,000 and 9,000 fans a game. We lost a lot of fans after Underhill was let go and the students went away too around that time.
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Post by raiderfan14 on Jan 6, 2011 8:16:58 GMT -5
I've followed the team since 1985 and I agree that our fan base was a solid 6-7k every game and up in the 9k's when a good opponent came to town. Mike Cusack gets a good wrap from the local media, but the way he handled BOTH Underhill and Jim Brown soured many Wright State faithful. Underhill made a mistake and was pursecuted for it. Jim Brown should have been given more than 1 season to prove himself. After 2 seasons of Schilling basketball we dropped our season tickets. I think Wright State lost a lot of its thunder in those pathetic years only to lose what steam we started under Biancardi with his troubles at OSU. I will always be thankful for what Brownell did. He got us to the tourne, and 4 20 win seasons. I am happy that he moved on and that we now have his understudy Donlon hopefully with us for a long time. Go Raiders!!
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Post by CincyDrummer on Jan 6, 2011 9:44:16 GMT -5
We averaged between 7,000 and 9,000 fans a game. We lost a lot of fans after Underhill was let go and the students went away too around that time. I can't even imagine what having 7-9K fans at a Raiders game would be like (on average?!) Must have been a pretty awesome atmosphere.
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Post by mrose on Jan 6, 2011 9:51:26 GMT -5
Not sure what happened to the students in the mid -90's, but in the early 90's there were many more than 20 -30 students at the games. I was there. The student section was in the riser seats....which currently isn't in use.
I didn't know WONE wasn't streaming games! They used to, why did they stop?
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Post by rathskellar on Jan 6, 2011 13:52:28 GMT -5
In the early 1990s we had pretty good studnet turnout, but back then we had good attendance in general. We averaged between 7,000 and 9,000 fans a game. We lost a lot of fans after Underhill was let go and the students went away too around that time. I don't ever remember us averaging 7,000 to 9,000 per game.
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Post by mrose on Jan 6, 2011 14:26:11 GMT -5
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mrg
Mail Room
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Post by mrg on Jan 6, 2011 14:40:32 GMT -5
I believe you can look up the historic attendance figures on-line. When I was at WSU in the early 90's they did infact average over 7k in attendance. Then after Underhill was let go the attendance went down. I tried going to a few games in the Schilling years and it was almost unwatchable.
There are a number of little things WSU could do to improve the basketball experience at the Nutter Center. I don't think there is anything wrong with the Nutter Center itself. The scoreboard probably needs to be updated. It's a pain having to look up in the corners to the score. Since Nutter Center no longer has the Bombers, time for an upgrade.
Lowering ticket prices may help. They could also make it a little more family friendly, let kids 12 and under in free with a paying adult ticket. Don't just limited that to the family fun zones. Bring back the Jr. Raider program for parents with season tickets. $20-$30 bucks for season of tickets for kids. A lot of resturants figured it out if you have kids nights through the week, you increase business. Not only that but, you get young kids interested in WSU.
The overall game experience could improve. The cheerleading squad seems to get worse every season. Do you really need MC's for time outs? I don't go to game to watch someone chuck t-shirts into the first few rows of the stands at almost every timeout. How about giving the scores to other league basketball games or game involving Ohio teams?
When you have promtions..execute them. I remember a couple of years ago they had a promotion for a free hot dog and pop. They ran out of hot dogs before the game even started. That shoud not happen. It makes people coming to the game think of WSU as a joke..and why should they come back?
I do think the local economy has affected attendance too. A lot of jobs have left the area taking some fans with them.
The product on the court is pretty good. I think the program is in good hands with Coach Donlon. The university just needs to figure out how to create a buzz in the community about WSU basketball again.
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Post by Wolf on Jan 6, 2011 18:52:43 GMT -5
In the early 1990s we had pretty good studnet turnout, but back then we had good attendance in general. We averaged between 7,000 and 9,000 fans a game. We lost a lot of fans after Underhill was let go and the students went away too around that time. I don't ever remember us averaging 7,000 to 9,000 per game.Then you must have spent too much time at the rathskellar.
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Post by ralphrules on Jan 6, 2011 22:10:39 GMT -5
Not only did we average 8k per game, but those Raider teams averaged 80-90 points per game. I feel it was this style of play that brought many of the casual fans out to the games. I've been a season ticket holder since 1990 and most of my friends quit coming to games during the Schilling era because the games were boring. The product on the floor is what puts butts in the seats. Our success over the last 4 yrs is a good start, but scoring 60 ppg won't bring the casual fan out to check out a WSU game.
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Post by rathskellar on Jan 7, 2011 9:05:43 GMT -5
Not only did we average 8k per game, but those Raider teams averaged 80-90 points per game. I feel it was this style of play that brought many of the casual fans out to the games. I've been a season ticket holder since 1990 and most of my friends quit coming to games during the Schilling era because the games were boring. The product on the floor is what puts butts in the seats. Our success over the last 4 yrs is a good start, but scoring 60 ppg won't bring the casual fan out to check out a WSU game. I could care less with how many points we score as long as we win. Winning and quality opponents is what sells.
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