Attendance Drop...Bigly

[HungryHuskies]

You can't start the year 0-2. You can't.

 

[whaler11]

A HUGE difference between the ACC and even Big East/much less AAC is that in ACC country those games have been on network TV forever and are part of culture. When I was in NC mid-90's random ACC games would displace primetime TV/i.e. Seinfeld. So at least in NC its been an entire culture that supports & watches the league consisting of many fan bases. In CT you are simply going after one fan base.
Not to put us in their disgusting company, but it is similar to how BC can't draw any fans now - they get a bump for UNC or Dook, but otherwise their target market is ONLY BC fans b/c there simply isn't a wide swath of college basketball fans (I'd guarantee their 2nd biggest best sales market is fans of other schools). The conference dysfunction has further alienated and eliminated northeast fans of college basketball - its simply easier to know/follow/root for and against local teams and that's been stripped away.

The post said that Sunday night games are inherently bad. Well other leagues have them.

The quality of the AAC isn't any better at noon than it is at 8pm.

 

[Lefty2one]

For the first time since Gampel Pavilion opened in 1990, the Huskies did not play to a sellout at either Gampel in Storrs or the XL Center in Hartford.

And it trickled down to the AAC Tournament at the XL Center, where overall attendance was about 27,000, compared to 45,000 in 2014. UConn played three games and drew 20,296, a 6,765 average.

Yeesh this is depressing. I don't think there's a realistic/logical solution as long as we're in this wretched conference either.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

The rivalries were fun to take part of, no matter how good or bad Uconn was. Now we've started over with our closest "rival" being Cinncy and maybe SMU.

 

[QDOG5]

I'm not going to blame the fans. UConn is situated between two large cities with 12 pro sports team to watch. That's competition plain and simple. New England is beautiful with tons of things to do outdoors. More competition. In Memphis you can watch the Grizzlies or take a dip in the Mississippi. In Kentucky, it's a choice between going to Wildcats games or spending "quality time" with your close relatives. The Huskies have to put a good product on the court. If they do people will come to see them. If not, you get this years attendance figures.

 

[Uconn77Duke74]

I'm still completely baffled why attendance drops off so much for both Men's and Women's in post season tournaments. That trend seems ot make no sense. AAC men's attendance and Women's first two NCAA games at home should really have been sold out. We sort of have the Atlanta Braves syndrome from years ago where we now are only interested in the championship games and nothing else.

 

[August_West]

I'm not going to blame the fans. UConn is situated between two large cities with 12 pro sports team to watch. That's competition plain and simple. New England is beautiful with tons of things to do outdoors. More competition. In Memphis you can watch the Grizzlies or take a dip in the Mississippi. In Kentucky, it's a choice between going to Wildcats games or spending "quality time" with your close relatives. The Huskies have to put a good product on the court. If they do people will come to see them. If not, you get this years attendance figures.

So we werent sitting in between 2 large cities with 12 pro sports teams to watch when we were selling out exhibition games vs. Marathon Oil?

Got it.

 

[temery]

So we werent sitting in between 2 large cities with 12 pro sports teams to watch when we were selling out exhibition games vs. Marathon Oil?

Got it.

I doubt the marathon oil full house followed two crappy seasons.

 

[August_West]

I doubt the marathon oil full house followed two crappy seasons.

No they didn't.

But there is a sweet spot in between somewhere I think?

Maybe somewhere between selling out an exhibition against a pickup team, and not having a half full house for a conference tournament semi final on your home court on a Saturday at 5 pm?

That Cincinnati showing inexcusable by ALL metrics

 

[temery]

No they didn't.

But there is a sweet spot in between somewhere I think?

Maybe somewhere between selling out an exhibition against a pickup team, and not having a half full house for a conference tournament semi final on your home court on a Saturday at 5 pm?

That Cincinnati showing inexcusable by ALL metrics

Had marathon been at the end of a crappy season, I doubt the attendance would have been a fraction of what showed up for Cincinatti. I don't agree with the reasons, but that is the reality.

 

[August_West]

I doubt the marathon oil full house followed two crappy seasons.

And I challenge " 2 crappy seasons"

You want to call a year we won the conference tournament , made the NCAA tourney , and won a game in the tourney a " crappy season" and lump it in with this year? You are proving my point.

Was it up to our usual standards? Especially regular season?

No
But 320 teams in the country would've trade places and embraced that " crappy season"

I get that we aspire to better. We should.

But you need to rethink that definition.

 

[Dogdeacon]

The post said that Sunday night games are inherently bad. Well other leagues have them.

The quality of the AAC isn't any better at noon than it is at 8pm.

Sheesh, regardless of any other factors isn't it an inherent truth that Sunday night games are inferior to Saturday or any other day of the week? So my point is you can sell something inferior more easily if you have higher demand.

i.e. David Hasselhoff in Germany

 

[temery]

And I challenge " 2 crappy seasons"

You want to call a year we won the conference tournament , made the NCAA tourney , and won a game in the tourney a " crappy season" and lump it in with this year? You are proving my point.

Was it up to our usual standards? Especially regular season?

No
But 320 teams in the country would've trade places and embraced that " crappy season"

I get that we aspire to better. We should.

But you need to rethink that definition.

Anything short of a tournament appearance for a team that has made five final fours and won it all four times in the past 20 years ... yep, this was a crappy year for UConn.

 

[GetTheFacts]

I think one of the things that the athletic department is grappling with, is prioritizing the reasons why attendance dropped.

Personally, I blame the conference schedule as the main reason. There's a growing lack of buzz around the program due to their conference schedule. I know I personally have a hard time justifying going to any home game besides maybe Cincy or SMU, and I feel like a lot of the fan base feels the same way. Weird start times certainly don't help.

 

[CTBasketball]

Quality of product. Yes we made the tournament but we played some pretty horrific basketball the last 4 years or so.

 

[John]

I think one of the things that the athletic department is grappling with, is prioritizing the reasons why attendance dropped.

Personally, I blame the conference schedule as the main reason. There's a growing lack of buzz around the program due to their conference schedule. I know I personally have a hard time justifying going to any home game besides maybe Cincy or SMU, and I feel like a lot of the fan base feels the same way. Weird start times certainly don't help.

in the Big East days, Cincinnati and SMU would have been "ok, not great" match-ups - definitely a warm-up to the main card. Now they're presented to us as the premier games.

'Nough said.

 

[GetTheFacts]

in the Big East days, Cincinnati and SMU would have been "ok, not great" match-ups - definitely a warm-up to the main card. Now they're presented to us as the premier games.

'Nough said.

yes. well said.

 

[Uconn77Duke74]

I think having games at Mohegan and/or Bridgeport which are both newer arenas vs. the Dump XL center would also help with attendance for at least a couple games a year.

 

[Lefty2one]

I think having games at Mohegan and/or Bridgeport which are both newer arenas vs. the Dump XL center would also help with attendance for at least a couple games a year.

Our arena situation stinks. Gampel is the best but it's too remote for non-students. Everyone hates Hartford but at least it's close enough that students can still go. Students aren't going to Bridgeport but maybe they can do a weekend game over winter break like they did 3-4 years ago. I attended that game, much easier than making it up to Gampel or Hartford. Mohegan Sun might be doable to bus students down to. That drive is what, 10-15 minutes longer than the drive from Storrs to Hartford? I'm not sure there are enough fans local to Mohegan Sun for it to make sense, it's not like it has the population density of FFC for Bridgeport games.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Much of Connecticut is still economically depressed .
The loss of many businesses especially in the manufacturing area has the hurt disposable encome.
Look at the real estate markets the modest house I built in the 1970's and sold eleven years ago for almost $400,000 recently was on the market for $100,000 less , That points to an amazing loss of wealth . Population loss ,on the the face that appears minimal, in reality has only been bolstered by foreign immigration. A former middle class with disposable income has been replaced by an immigrant population with little attachment to the state much less the University and less desposable income ,one that doesn't include athletics. I wonder what the percentage of UConn grads who leave the state after graduatation then to now is?
Connecticut was the huge benefactor of urban flight in the 6o's and 70's thst took place as cities like New York and even Boston were perceived to be dying. A trend that apparently has reversed.
Finally the ticket prices in late 70's until the late 80's were still moderately priced
especially in the heady days of the Big East. The oppunity to see players who were household names at a moderate price is a pretty good enticement to buy tickets.
Even given all that ,the biggest reason for depressed attendance is the perception of underpeformance. Underperforming when Patrick Ewing or Chris Mullen. is coming to town is somewhat acceptable, given the current competition it's death.
I won't even start with the flight of seniors with income from the state asvthere are many factors beyond weather.However when you lose multigenerational residents ,who have a bond with the State and by proxy it's state teams thats not easy to replace.

 

[John]

Our arena situation stinks. Gampel is the best but it's too remote for non-students. Everyone hates Hartford but at least it's close enough that students can still go. Students aren't going to Bridgeport but maybe they can do a weekend game over winter break like they did 3-4 years ago. I attended that game, much easier than making it up to Gampel or Hartford. Mohegan Sun might be doable to bus students down to. That drive is what, 10-15 minutes longer than the drive from Storrs to Hartford? I'm not sure there are enough fans local to Mohegan Sun for it to make sense, it's not like it has the population density of FFC for Bridgeport games.

I'm a XL guy, but I do think they need to start shrinking their XL footprint. Move one or two games down to Bridgeport like they used to do at the NH Coliseum, and also hold more games at Gampel. Hartford should go down to maybe a 5-6 game package.

 

[freescooter]

BullScalito

We are talking about a team who has given us 4 titles in 18 years. They deserved a pass and our support no matter what league we are playing in and how poorly the season was going.

We have multiple years down like this one and I start to buy the conference/performance metric.


Our fan base is made up of pathetic front runners.

This program deserved better from us, if for nothing else, then as thanks for what they have given us previously.

They may or may not "deserve" support but here is the reality. A bad team playing a mediocre schedule at odd times is going to struggle. Add to this the overall decline in live sports attendance. If UConn went 35-0 the crowds would be back though probably not to 1999 levels. And in fact they were already declining in the later years of Calhouns tenure. You really need to stop the nonsensical blaming of the AAC for everything from UConns poor record to North Koreas nuclear program. It isn't a great league but guess what? We have done little since Year 1 to add to its luster.

 

[freescooter]

The rivalries were fun to take part of, no matter how good or bad Uconn was. Now we've started over with our closest "rival" being Cinncy and maybe SMU.

It is clear that many of you guys weren't around in the early days of the Big East. I bought tickets at the box office day of the game for almost every game including the Chris Mullins St Johns team and the Villanova team that won the NCAA title. Here is the thing. In those early days we were Tulane compared to those other guys. Heck we bought tickets to Georgetown in DC from the UConn ticket office and the gave us 2 for half price because we bought 4. They couldn't sell them in those days. It was only AFTER Calhoun started winning that these rivalries developed. If you asked people in the days when UConn played in the infamous 8-9 game at the BET if we were anyone's rival they would have told you "No. Not a rival but if you lost to UConn, the coach would be on the hotseat."

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

The problem with Gampel at 7pm on a weeknight is that no one will get there on time. Move it back to 8pm and you have a problem with people getting home at midnight. I live in Manchester off 44 pretty much halfway between XL and Gampel. After a game in Hartford I can go from getting into my car to my house in 25 minutes. From Gampel it's almost an hour. Remember the crowd for the 9pm start vs Temple in Storrs? Woof. Having games in Hartford is a must.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

It is clear that many of you guys weren't around in the early days of the Big East. I bought tickets at the box office day of the game for almost every game including the Chris Mullins St Johns team and the Villanova team that won the NCAA title. Here is the thing. In those early days we were Tulane compared to those other guys. Heck we bought tickets to Georgetown in DC from the UConn ticket office and the gave us 2 for half price because we bought 4. They couldn't sell them in those days. It was only AFTER Calhoun started winning that these rivalries developed. If you asked people in the days when UConn played in the infamous 8-9 game at the BET if we were anyone's rival they would have told you "No. Not a rival but if you lost to UConn, the coach would be on the hotseat."

yes i was born in 86' and watched games mostly growing up but not attending as many till i went to school there in 04'