A lot of UConn 'fans' should be ashamed of themselves

[whaler11]

do you have numbers to prove that?

Well I went to the first ten games. Ask around.

Your premise is laughable - but I'd double and triple down on it.

 

[whaler11]

Bro they wet too expensive what don't you understand.

Bro they sold all session tickets for a week for $10. Is that too expensive?

 

[Deepster]

Welcome to Connecticut.

How can anyone really be surprised at what's happening? This state is filled with bandwagon fans and hasn't ever supported any team other during "tough times". Yet there are people who'll scream from the rooftops that the Yard Goats will get support too.

This state sucks as a sports fan base. Period.

 

[whaler11]

Welcome to Connecticut.

How can anyone really be surprised at what's happening? This state is filled with bandwagon fans and hasn't ever supported any team other during "tough times". Yet there are people who'll scream from the rooftops that the Yard Goats will get support too.

This state sucks as a sports fan base. Period.

*shotspotter*

 

[gampelcrazies]

I just don't understand the conference thing as far as attendance.
Are we UCONN fans or conference fans?

I've been saying this for awhile. I feel like people were bigger fans of the big east than uconn basketball

 

[champs99and04]

Also, there are consequences to going 15-16 in the regular season and having a bad year. Depressed attendance is one of them.

Isn't that the definition of a bandwagon fan base?

He's got a point.

 

[UConnDad]

Personally I enjoyed all 3 games and the fans that showed were into it. I will say some of our fans are loudmouth jerks and downright embarrassing. How you curse and belittle your own coach and players at the top of your lungs just astounds me. Now about the refs......

 

[NielsisGood]

I'm one person so I'm not 'ya'll'.

We are supposed to have a great fanbase - sorry for pointing out the evidence shows differently.

The SMU coach was interviewed during the game and made a point of how fired up and into the game the crowd was. Today's crowd was the best I've seen at XL in quite awhile. Usually XL crowds can't even be bothered to throw on a team shirt/hoodie and just end up wearing some random button down or sweat shirt.

 

[Kenny11]

I went to the USF game (atmosphere was depressing) and the Houston game the next night (crowd was awesome and drunk). Losing the last 4 games of the regular season definitely affected turnout too. A lot of people just waiting for next year.

 

[Kitaman]

Also it was bitterly cold yesterday. Just saying.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

Not mentioned yet, but playing a fairly large role in this is money.

There's a lot of competition for attention in this small state, and the UConn men are suffering because of it. In my circle, I have friends and family members who also have Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics, Yankees, UConn football, women's basketball, and men's soccer season tickets. I especially want to emphasize the impact that Geno's dynasty is having on stealing away people who used to be men's fans. UConn is entirely unique there.

That's a lot of very serious competition for ticket dollars. I am not aware of any other Div. 1 school with that much competition. I can't think of one, seriously.

Unless the UConn men look like they're going to compete for a title, a lot of people are simply not going to spend the money there. They're spoiled for choice. Does that make them bandwagon? I'd say so. Does that also make them discriminating consumers? Also yes. The only solution is to win.

In the context of what @whaler11 mentioned about deserving of P5 status - I felt that was a cheap shot. Even in our worst year in thirty years, we outdrew half of the existing P5. Reconcile that.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

If we use the P5 card then we really should be talking about the need to sell out (and win) football games. I know this is the basketball board but selling out the XL Center for every game won't even inch us closer to the ACC. Barclays wasn't even full until a UNC/Duke matchup.

 

[FartMan69]

CT is squished by the 2 biggest and best sports markets in the world. 2 hours from numerous pro sports franchises all of whom have had ridiculous amounts of success. (except the Knicks) You really think it's a crime to have a "bandwagon" culture when that is the case? Honestly its amazing UConn has the fan base it does because it carves itself out of Boston and NY who couldn't give less of an about college sports except for the 5 days a tourney is held in the city. With the Big East out of our lives and mediocre regular seasons with really only one marquee home game a year no one outside of the diehards are going to consistently show up.

But if you want to hop on your soapbox and plead to the casual sports fan in Fairfield or NH county why they should spend their time and money on a weeknight to watch a sub .500 team play former community colleges be my guest. Maybe you can convince them that they're wrong and flip CT sports culture on it's ear overnight.

 

[J187Money]

Also it was bitterly cold yesterday. Just saying.

I'm pretty sure the game was played indoors.

 

[champs99and04]

CT is squished by the 2 biggest and best sports markets in the world. 2 hours from numerous pro sports franchises all of whom have had ridiculous amounts of success. (except the Knicks) You really think it's a crime to have a "bandwagon" culture when that is the case? Honestly its amazing UConn has the fan base it does because it carves itself out of Boston and NY who couldn't give less of an about college sports except for the 5 days a tourney is held in the city. With the Big East out of our lives and mediocre regular seasons with really only one marquee home game a year no one outside of the diehards are going to consistently show up.

But if you want to hop on your soapbox and plead to the casual sports fan in Fairfield or NH county why they should spend their time and money on a weeknight to watch a sub .500 team play former community colleges be my guest. Maybe you can convince them that they're wrong and flip CT sports culture on it's ear overnight.

If this is your take after the last few games then you just don't get it.

There's no soapbox here. People will spend their money how they want. If you spend it on something other than UConn basketball then that makes you, by definition, less of a fan. I'm not sure why this is controversial. Nobody is suggesting that it makes you a bad person. If you're a fan only when they win, fine. It's honestly fine. That describes me for at least a few of the teams I root for and your dollars count just the same as the ones who watch them play New Haven in October.

There is no need to take anything the post other than, to the people who stayed home, "come on man, you're missing out." Especially when a lot of those same people moan constantly about being in the AAC.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Being out of state without a car makes it damn near impossible to get to Hartford so I wasn't in attendance so I don't really have a leg to stand on, but this idea of the "entertainment dollar" in CT can only go so far is absurd.

Situated between Boston and NY I thought was a good thing from what I read on the Conference Realignment board for the better part of a decade.

You guys really think we're unique being surrounded by multiple professional sports teams?

I guess that's why nobody goes to Penn State games because interest I'd divided between the Eagels/Steelers, Phillies/Pirates/, Penguins/Flyers and Sixers. Their are countless other examples.

I guess my point is this - I didn't go so I can't say anything to anyone, but I can say when people throw out these insane excuses that it is BS. Just say you couldn't go.

The idea we were playing the only team that we have any semblance of a rivalry with, they were ranked, and we needed to win it to get to a 1 game playoff to go to the Dance and the place was no where near capacity? Horrible optics.

 

[kemba]

But if you want to hop on your soapbox and plead to the casual sports fan in Fairfield or NH county why they should spend their time and money on a weeknight to watch a sub .500 team play former community colleges be my guest. Maybe you can convince them that they're wrong and flip CT sports culture on it's ear overnight.

Who's talking about that though? We're talking about not showing up for essentially a home playoff game against a top 15 team on a Saturday evening.

 

[upstater]

Connecticut is a bandwagon fan base always has been always will be, going back to The Whalers.
I went to the USF game it was the only one I could make.
Not enough people have our passion.

Whalers drew a lot of fans for a perpetually losing franchise.

Once the owner announced plans to leave, ticket sales dropped. Duh.

But before that, they were around 13k avg., for a franchise that never did anything.

 

[August_West]

Sounds like whaler didn't get a return on the Investment of a few strips at bargain basement prices

 

[Calhoun's Court]

I thought the small crowds were great. Brought a lot of energy.
That said tickets were dirt cheap prior to the tourney. But I guess the so called big Uconn fans weren't big enough fans to buy them.
Even singles were doable away from box office.

That said can't tell people how to spend their money.
The AAC hurt themselves by over pricing the retail price of the event.

 

[whaler11]

Sounds like whaler didn't get a return on the Investment of a few strips at bargain basement prices

I got a high five from the Memphis Tiger. What else could one ever want.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

Before you trash on the state of Connecticut, why don't we get all the facts together.
Again, this is not a home game. It's a 10 team tournament, which means the ticket allotment is different.
My father and I tried to get tickets for saturday, and the cheapest we could find on any website, whether straight from XL or a secondary market came to over $110 for 2 tickets.
There had to have been several people from other teams who were holding tickets for other sessions but didn't bother to sell them after their team got out. That may or may not be the case, but let's not act like the tickets by the time Saturday came around were cheap/easy to get.

 

[J187Money]

Before you trash on the state of Connecticut, why don't we get all the facts together.
Again, this is not a home game. It's a 10 team tournament, which means the ticket allotment is different.
My father and I tried to get tickets for saturday, and the cheapest we could find on any website, whether straight from XL or a secondary market came to over $110 for 2 tickets.
There had to have been several people from other teams who were holding tickets for other sessions but didn't bother to sell them after their team got out. That may or may not be the case, but let's not act like the tickets by the time Saturday came around were cheap/easy to get.

Agreed here - if you decided to go on Saturday, there were not a lot of cheap options. We payed a little more than $100/seat for section 105. One of my buddies picked up tickets for $40 each at the Tavern from a guy, but honestly wasn't sure he was going to get in before that.

 

[huskymagic]

Whaler shaming fans isn't going to get people to attend games against AAC opponents and get people excited about attending games in a losing season.

I'd like to see how any top program who has been permanently demoted would do attendance wise in the AAC against our opponents and in a losing season. Can't fight reality. If we're ranked in the top 25 and playing like it attendance will go up and fan interest will go up, but not by a big number.

This is why going to the Big East is our only hope to salvation unless we get lucky enough to be invited to a P-5 conference 7-8 years from now.

Its like an entitlement once you have it and you've experienced it and it's yours everything is great. Once it gets taken away and ripped away from you the inevitable pain and suffering begins. That's where UCONN is right now. We have lost our entitlement and are stuck paying out of pocket for a product(AAC) we don't want that we used to get for free(BEAST) figuratively speaking.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I'm not a big basketball guy. Got tix for nosebleed seats for $30 and sat a few rows behind their announcers.

We've earned our place in CR.