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BUConn10 said:
Can you really blame the fans though?

We have had every semblance of a rivalry, which is the lifeblood of college sports, ripped away from us due to no fault of our own. To expect fans to keep showing up to games against teams they have never heard of, and not even beating these teams regularly, is a hard order in a pro sports region.
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Is this really an AAC thing, though? We have always played games like this. Playing BU is actually a lot closer to the intended college basketball experience than a game against Houston, theoretically.

Perhaps you could argue that the residual effect of playing in the AAC has depressed attendance/excitement, and I would agree, but there are bigger problems at play, the most obvious among them being that this might be our worst team in some time.

And you look at recruiting since Ollie took over...there hasn't really been a drop-off. In fact, it's probably improved, so in a vacuum, the conference shouldn't be effecting the attendance of a non-conference game when the conference hasn't proven to have an effect on the recruiting. We're just bad.

I tend to agree with @whaler11 and @superjohn that this is a combination of A) college basketball not being as compelling a product as it once was, and B) people being less likely to send dollars on spectator sport in this day and age.

The biggest factor, though, is that it's not good to watch. I'm probably going to swallow my better judgement and head to New York on Monday, but this is far from all of those other times - even as recently as a month ago, remarkably - where I would have crawled to the end of the earth to get to the game.
 
I think that low attendance is a good sign for the State of Ct. It means we have a lot of smart people who were not willing to shell out good money to see BU play anything. This game should have been played on campus. Didn't we just have an election result due to the fact that a lot of middle class guys don't have a lot of extra money laying around. UConn needs to adjust too.
 
I am not sure what is going on. I am involved in youth basketball, and the youth numbers are solid. AAU seems to be booming. I was at a high school rec league game last year and there were over 50 people (mostly kids) in the stands on a Sunday night to watch some pretty bad basketball.

Yet Florida State looks like they got 500 for a game against Minnesota.
 
whaler11 said:
Yes, and I wasn't trying to say that the issue is unique to UConn. FSU has a good team and they played in front of NO ONE at home against Minnesota on Monday. I was watching LSU last night and the building was completely empty (the game was about the quality of intramural basketball).

The thing is it wasn't THAT long ago when teams that weren't NCAA tournament teams would still have 14-15k in the building for a Fairfield.

It's an epidemic across the sport. A handful of teams now get the top recruits - 95% of the teams play a version of the game that isn't entertaining and the nature of March means that the regular season is meaningless for everyone but 15 bubble teams.

This isn't old man yells at cloud: The sport was a better watch 15-20 years ago.
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You're right about this. Attendance at live sports is down almost everywhere. It's mostly too time consuming, expensive and provides in almost every respect an inferior view of actual game action compared to HDTV. You go for the atmosphere, memories and experience, but as fewer people go, even that dwindles.

Still, if UConn was a one loss team playing well, we would have had closer to 14k in the building.
 
champs99and04 said:
Is this really an AAC thing, though? We have always played games like this. Playing BU is actually a lot closer to the intended college basketball experience than a game against Houston, theoretically.

Perhaps you could argue that the residual effect of playing in the AAC has depressed attendance/excitement, and I would agree, but there are bigger problems at play, the most obvious among them being that this might be our worst team in some time.

And you look at recruiting since Ollie took over...there hasn't really been a drop-off. In fact, it's probably improved, so in a vacuum, the conference shouldn't be effecting the attendance of a non-conference game when the conference hasn't proven to have an effect on the recruiting. We're just bad.

I tend to agree with @whaler11 and @superjohn that this is a combination of A) college basketball not being as compelling a product as it once was, and B) people being less likely to send dollars on spectator sport in this day and age.

The biggest factor, though, is that it's not good to watch. I'm probably going to swallow my better judgement and head to New York on Monday, but this is far from all of those other times - even as recently as a month ago, remarkably - where I would have crawled to the end of the earth to get to the game.
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The lack of attendence at the BU game is simple. This team is simply not good, in fact they are hard to watch more often than not, combined with the fact that it's a game against Boston University on a weeknight in Hartford and it's not hard to see why people are exactly jumping out of their seats.

Now the poor attendence during conference games, even the year we were defending champs, is due to a poor conference schedule wth no reconizable names that are compelling to the fans. You simply can't expect the fans to show up with the same level of force when the product on the court is significantly reduced in quality, significantly. Top ranked UConn bs Top ranked Cuse/Nova/Gtown on Big Monday vs unranked UConn with 6 losses bs unranked Tulane on Thursday evening isn't even in the same stratosphere.
 
BUConn10 said:
The lack of attendence at the BU game is simple. This team is simply not good, in fact they are hard to watch more often than not, combined with the fact that it's a game against Boston University on a weeknight in Hartford and it's not hard to see why people are exactly jumping out of their seats.
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Weeknight in Hartford is a feature, not a bug.
 
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whaler11 said:
Yes, and I wasn't trying to say that the issue is unique to UConn. FSU has a good team and they played in front of NO ONE at home against Minnesota on Monday. I was watching LSU last night and the building was completely empty (the game was about the quality of intramural basketball).

The thing is it wasn't THAT long ago when teams that weren't NCAA tournament teams would still have 14-15k in the building for a Fairfield.

It's an epidemic across the sport. A handful of teams now get the top recruits - 95% of the teams play a version of the game that isn't entertaining and the nature of March means that the regular season is meaningless for everyone but 15 bubble teams.

This isn't old man yells at cloud: The sport was a better watch 15-20 years ago.
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In the late 90s, if you didn't have season tickets you didn't go to home games. Period.
 
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Boring and bad basketball. Plain and simple. Anyone in their right mind could've told you that neither team would score more than 70 points in last nights game before it took place. Well, crap, it was even worse. The two combined for 100. Our basketball and football teams combined could have the most boring offenses in all of the FBS. Not all are as die-hard as many of us on this board who will attend no matter how bad it gets. Can't blame them for sitting on the couch and drinking away the pain as opposed to attending live.
 
I will say this as a season ticket holder at XL. When I see uconn giving discounts on tickets on Facebook it sickens me to know I paid full price for every game when they are giving some away for 5 dollars (last night). That is a big slap in the face to me as a season ticket holder. My upper level full price seats aren't worth what I paid for them.
 
Attendance and tv viewing is off pretty much everywhere. One part of it is that too many games are available on tv. Another specific to college basketball is that the regular season is becoming baseball. Too many games that barely matter. Who cares until March? And the next time they expand the tourney they should just take everyone. Basketball is now a playoff sport. And the season is too long. Ought to start the weekend after thanksgiving and play 26 games. Screw the early season Fournier in exotic locales too.
 
CalsNeighbor said:
I think we should just stop playing at the XL center all together. Fill the stadium with students at gampel. I mean how many other teams in the country drive 30 minutes to play a home game? Never understood that. I watched the Duke game last night an the atmosphere there was nuts, it will never be even close to that at the XL center with a bunch of oldies an a handful of students that drove 30 minutes to a home game.
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Driving to Storrs is a pain for 90% of the state.

Not to mention when XL is packed, it's just as good, if not better than Gampel. Georgetown last year was nuts.
 
osully said:
Driving to Storrs is a pain for 90% of the state.

Not to mention when XL is packed, it's just as good, if not better than Gampel. Georgetown last year was nuts.
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i was at that game, that was when that huge snow storm came. It was loud there, probably the loudest i've heard it in a while.
 
whaler11 said:
Yes, and I wasn't trying to say that the issue is unique to UConn. FSU has a good team and they played in front of NO ONE at home against Minnesota on Monday. I was watching LSU last night and the building was completely empty (the game was about the quality of intramural basketball).

The thing is it wasn't THAT long ago when teams that weren't NCAA tournament teams would still have 14-15k in the building for a Fairfield.

It's an epidemic across the sport. A handful of teams now get the top recruits - 95% of the teams play a version of the game that isn't entertaining and the nature of March means that the regular season is meaningless for everyone but 15 bubble teams.

This isn't old man yells at cloud: The sport was a better watch 15-20 years ago.
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The sport was better 15 - 20 years ago, but a 26 year old consumer isn't worried about that. The alternative ways to watch a game have improved by 300% (not scientifically valid, i made that number up). Add the loss of manufacturing and mid level white-collar jobs around Greater Hartford and the seperation from our real rivals. The outcome was inevitable.
 
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whaler11 said:
Maybe someone already knows, but it feels like it's been a long time since the announced attendance at the XL Center for a scheduled regular season game hit this kind of low (I think the first AAC tourney game 2 years ago may have been announced lower).

It's crazy to think about what the atmosphere was like 20 years ago compared to today.
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We at Marquette are experiencing a similar, albeit lesser malaise. In our case, it isn't so much conference affiliation as it was a result of our former coach leaving us high and dry after a ridiculous regime change at the top, whereby we hired a clueless president and holier-than-thou AD. Buzz could not function with his necessary eccentrics, lol, and off he went. Prior to his departure, MU enjoyed many 18,000+ attendance games. Sellouts for top opponents were common under Buzz and Tom Cream. Against UConn in our inaugural BigEast foray, it was 19,000+ witnessing the Steve Novak led assault on Coach Calhoun and the Huskies. Halcyon days indeed. But in our case, I think we will get back there. A new stadium awaits, and Wojo fits the image of what the university wants, and has the pedigree of a successful up and comer. Yes, the new Big East is not quite the one of old, but ask any student or alum at any of the current schools, and almost all would say "we are delighted with our conference, and it's trajectory." Nova winning it all was huge, and as FS1 gains acceptance, eyeballs will follow. Which brings me to you guys...

It's beyond clear what UConn brings to the table...huge championship cache, if not cash, a proud and still passionate fan base knowledgeable about the game, and a characteristic that top coaches live for: hoops is the primary driver of the athletic program. Basketball is, as our head coach here at Marquette has reiterated about our program, "woven into the very fabric of the university." It is high time that you guys see what all other college basketball fans across the country have known for years, that you are first and foremost a BASKETBALL school.

Snap out of your football stupor, UConn. Even with Trump as President, football will be on the decline in America. Participation at youth levels is already down. Basketball, despite the current NCAA pigskin money grab, is the real future. Look, we don't need you here in BEast land, but we do want you. All we ask is a commitment to see what even the staunchest BigEast detractors (ahem ESPN) are now admitting...the BigEast is not only viable well into the future, it is essentially the purest basketball conference in existence, and has consistently ranked as a top three or four conference nationally since its reincarnation. You dont have to scrap football, UConn, just deemphasize it and abandon your Power 5 ambitions. The BigEast is a Power1 conference, and even a power breakaway from the NCAA, as stupid as that would be, would not preclude BigEast inclusion in the new format. There is too much history and tradition with the BigEast schools and brand. Wake up, Huskies....your table at your old favorite hoops den is set and ready.
 
The Big East is like that ex-girlfriend who used to be a smoking hot 10, but has let herself completely go.

"Yeah, now, well, the thing about the old days: they the old days."
-Slim Charles
 
John said:
The Big East is like that ex-girlfriend who used to be a smoking hot 10, but has let herself completely go.

"Yeah, now, well, the thing about the old days: they the old days."
-Slim Charles
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... but she is still hotter than the pig we are sleeping with now.

I am confident that the AAC is the best option for us at the moment, though even more confident that a slate of Nova, Gtown, PC and Marquette would be significantly more interesting than what we have today.
 
BigEastRPI1 said:
It is high time that you guys see what all other college basketball fans across the country have known for years, that you are first and foremost a BASKETBALL school.
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If Bob Diaco is our head coach January 3rd, we are a hot mess.
 
The fact that it's a bad team playing boring basketball isn't really the point. Attendance for the non-conference schedule has always been built on season tickets. The point is it's amazing how few season tickets they sell today versus years ago. Obviously the schedule is a huge reason - but this team was still supposed to be pretty good and this is a long term trend it didn't happen overnight. It also isn't confined to UConn... turn on almost any game outside of like 10 schools and the buildings are empty and the atmosphere is dead.
 
mjmoney23 said:
I will say this as a season ticket holder at XL. When I see uconn giving discounts on tickets on Facebook it sickens me to know I paid full price for every game when they are giving some away for 5 dollars (last night). That is a big slap in the face to me as a season ticket holder. My upper level full price seats aren't worth what I paid for them.
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I've been slammed here for years saying that UConn's strategy to dump tickets in both basketball and football when they get desperate is going to kill their long term season ticket sales. It's pretty much day 1 marketing stuff but they continue to try and flush the attendance further down the toilet.
 
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The low attendance at early season XL Center games has been going on for 5 years.

2012: UNH - 8705, Maryland-Eastern Shore - 8841
2013: Yale - 8848, Loyola - 9681
2014: Coppin St. - 8260
2015: Sacred Heart - 8563, UMass-Lowell 9848, Central Connecticut - 7123

The early season attendance seems to be impacted by conference realignment and crappy matchups. Early season games against "name" opponents seem to do better.
 
BigEastRPI1 said:
We at Marquette are experiencing a similar, albeit lesser malaise. In our case, it isn't so much conference affiliation as it was a result of our former coach leaving us high and dry after a ridiculous regime change at the top, whereby we hired a clueless president and holier-than-thou AD. Buzz could not function with his necessary eccentrics, lol, and off he went. Prior to his departure, MU enjoyed many 18,000+ attendance games. Sellouts for top opponents were common under Buzz and Tom Cream. Against UConn in our inaugural BigEast foray, it was 19,000+ witnessing the Steve Novak led assault on Coach Calhoun and the Huskies. Halcyon days indeed. But in our case, I think we will get back there. A new stadium awaits, and Wojo fits the image of what the university wants, and has the pedigree of a successful up and comer. Yes, the new Big East is not quite the one of old, but ask any student or alum at any of the current schools, and almost all would say "we are delighted with our conference, and it's trajectory." Nova winning it all was huge, and as FS1 gains acceptance, eyeballs will follow. Which brings me to you guys...

It's beyond clear what UConn brings to the table...huge championship cache, if not cash, a proud and still passionate fan base knowledgeable about the game, and a characteristic that top coaches live for: hoops is the primary driver of the athletic program. Basketball is, as our head coach here at Marquette has reiterated about our program, "woven into the very fabric of the university." It is high time that you guys see what all other college basketball fans across the country have known for years, that you are first and foremost a BASKETBALL school.

Snap out of your football stupor, UConn. Even with Trump as President, football will be on the decline in America. Participation at youth levels is already down. Basketball, despite the current NCAA pigskin money grab, is the real future. Look, we don't need you here in BEast land, but we do want you. All we ask is a commitment to see what even the staunchest BigEast detractors (ahem ESPN) are now admitting...the BigEast is not only viable well into the future, it is essentially the purest basketball conference in existence, and has consistently ranked as a top three or four conference nationally since its reincarnation. You dont have to scrap football, UConn, just deemphasize it and abandon your Power 5 ambitions. The BigEast is a Power1 conference, and even a power breakaway from the NCAA, as stupid as that would be, would not preclude BigEast inclusion in the new format. There is too much history and tradition with the BigEast schools and brand. Wake up, Huskies....your table at your old favorite hoops den is set and ready.
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If football is dying, why did the Cavaliers' players say they wish they could suit up for Ohio State football?

That was a lot of typing. UConn to the Big East? Seriously?? The school is destined for a P5 conference, because as you said, basketball is also important.
 
ConnHuskBask said:
I think spectator sports (and life in general) has been reduced to people staring at 4 inch LED screens 2 feet from their face.

The average attention span before and after this cell phone Nation is stunning.
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Bingo. Just waiting on the day where we take our driverless cars to a place where we sit in our work pod, watch robots play games in our personalized sports pod, all while never having to interact with another human being.
 
osully said:
Driving to Storrs is a pain for 90% of the state.

Not to mention when XL is packed, it's just as good, if not better than Gampel. Georgetown last year was nuts.
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Ya its easier to get to for most people but 100% harder to get to for the students that should be filling the stands, not the 70 year old fan that doesnt feel like driving to the actual campus. Name one other school that does that? No one will ever convince me that playing at the XL center is better than playing at gampel except for the state of connecticut using it as a way to bring people to downtown Hartford where there is nothing going on. All games should be at Gampel whether you feel like driving there or not. If not you can always root for Yale, New Haven, Fairfield, or Sacred Heart, take your pick.
 
Yes all games should be at Gampel and the athletic department can figure out how to fill a gap of a few million more in the budget. Shouldn't be an issue.
 
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