Poor fan showing at Gampel

[MuchoDogYears]

Totally agree with this. When I was there students entered a lottery for season tickets. They weren't expensive but cost something. Then they kept a certain amount of tickets available for students for single game. Kids absolutely claim them and don't go. My daughter whi is there said some of her friends couldn't get tickets when they tried to claim then because they were all taken. But I thought you could transfer student to student ?

If the issue is to ensure that the students who attend the games are those whom are really into the team, and into winning, and doing whatever they can during a game to make the win happen...Then UConn needs to remove any, and all, online claiming of student tickets. Make students stand in line to get tickets, with the best choice of seats going to those first in line. Any student who's willing, and wanting, to stand in line during winter, to get tickets to a BB game, are students who WANT to be at the game and will be the most fanatical during the game.

Second point is about where the students get seated. At Gampel, all student seating should be in the lower level, and in the nearest rows to the court. And, student seating should circle the ENTIRE court, not just be behind the baskets. (Hate Duke, but they've got this right). Students should NEVER be seated in the upper levels. A side benefit of putting students in the best rows, nearest to the court and encircling the entire court, is that'll force the monied patrons out of these prime seats. They don't show up anyway unless a game is big-time (and even then, still sit on their hands) so moving them behind the students will lessen the negative impact they have on what should be a rabid, college game day atmosphere.

 

[J187Money]

Is any basketball fan really concerned about Valentines Day? When it's a week night, then people complain about getting up for work. Now it's Saturday night...

When people have wives they do. Mine never goes to the games. I negotiated to take her out Friday and to the game Saturday but she is a reasonable person.

(ultimately she was sick yesterday so I had to give the tickets up but at least my seats were filled)

 

[John]

The student tickets should not be 100% free. Add a nominal cost, like $5-10 and only studnets who really want to go will buy them.
What is hapenning now is kids are logging in, getting their free ticket in case they want to go and then not going. Students tickets are also currently non transferable even between students. makes no sense.

The kids pay exorbitant fees for the right to get those free tickets. I believe those particular fees might be the most expensive in the region but cannot remember where I read that.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

The kids pay exorbitant fees for the right to get get those free tickets. I believe those particular fees might be the most expensive in the region but cannot remember where I read that.

Ironically the students would benefit financially if they bought ST like the old days and resold when the demand is high in October.

 

[Icehawk]

The yellowjackets will not allow you to sit in empty seats after halftime. Dumb policy.

Very dumb. As a physically distant fan it's a bummer to see the lower bowl with large amounts empty. I went to a Heat game a long time back and it was maybe 25% full - they asked everyone to move on down, that way on-camera it looks like the arena is full (since they don't pan out/show wide shots). Ever since that game, I've noticed this phenomenon more times than I can count. It's to everyone's advantage for the venue to look full.

Did this feel like the longest/slowest game in forever outside of OT games? I swear the broadcast was like 2:30hrs (it was 2:05).

 

[Marat]

May need another Muppet Maker style post Ala 2011 to bring out the fans and reboot the energy.

 

[Drew]

Was he not aware the hockey team was playing at 7? Cant be scheduling mens hoops the same time as the en fuego IceBus

I know this is tongue in cheek but in all seriousness UConn is horrendous at scheduling overlapping/competing events at the same time for no reason at all.

Should be staggering things so sports that don’t normally benefit from crowds can benefit when M/W Hoops is on campus

Way too often we are playing a volleyball game on campus at the same time as a home football game and soccer game in the Fall, Hockey overlapping with Hoops, baseball and spring game overlapping, etc etc

its been a thing for a long time

 

[Drew]

This is deflection by Dan.

Georgetown stinks. It's 8pm on Valentine's Day. Outside of St. John's and Nova, the league is not good this year and doesn't move the needle.

When we played a very good team, Arizona, it was a great crowd. The crowds in Boston and NYC were pretty great.

This is a problem nationwide unless it's an elite matchup.

Thank you

8pm tip on Valentines Day night against a terrible team - I could pretty easily argue it was actually a decent crowd when considering all of that

We’ve had plenty of good crowds in different games this year. I was at Arizona - it was an absolute madhouse. Not going to replicate that again the remainder of the season and that’s largely due to the quality (or lack thereof) of the teams coming in to play us

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

The student section has been a major problem for years. In an effort to become more competitive in academics, I think we've sacrified a lot of the rowdiness that we had in prior eras of UConn Men's BB. When you're only accepting the top 10% of high-schoolers + international students, they're not going to do much outside of study. Outside of the students, UConn caters more to corporate sponorships than ever before because our athletic department needs the $. Another reason why we need to get out of the Big East ASAP.

The 'Basketball Capital of the World' moniker has always been cringe, too. I am a diehard UConn basketball fan but we cannot seriously claim to be the basketball capital of the world when Indiana/New York have always been bigger basketball markets.

This argument falls flat when you look at the likes of Duke or UNCs student sections. Plenty of smart students that are still passionate about their team

 

[JRDBWK]

I said this before on an older thread but my opinion on the matter is that they exclusively sell season tickets to donors and current season ticket holders, so people like myself who want to buy season tickets, can't because they're only sold to people who already have them for some reason, this allows those current holders to have additional seats that they can sell on aftermarket sites, unless uconn cleans it up, which they won't because it's all about money , you're going to consistently have poor attendance. I saw this when I went to the Arizona game, these lower bowl season ticket holders also decide to show up halfway through the first half, this is something that you never see at a duke or Kansas game, all of their fans are in the seat at a sellout before the game even starts versus UConn where they dwindle in throughout the first half

 

[3rdbass]

I really don't think UConn has ever had the fanbase of other big Teams. I mean we defefinitely don't travel. We have been outnumbered greatly in Final Fours. I still remembr to this day the 2011 final four in Houston and we had local college students filling up our student section. Just pitiful there isn't a bigger following from our students and state. I know we are a small state but we have no professional teams and really on UConn baskeball for pride. I think the UConn women have a bigger following which is sad.

 

[drayenob]

‘A lot of empty seats’: Hurley sounds off on low-energy UConn home crowds after Cooley’s criticism

backdoor access

Hurley has been known to encourage the crowd to get loud during games – it even got him ejected once. But he is starting to get fed up.


“I’ve kind of given up on that a little bit. You know, I’ve done that and I don’t get the same response,” he said. “When we first got here, we played in front of paltry crowds… I remember playing at the XL Center in front of 7, 8, 9,000 people versus Tulsa or in here versus South Florida – I’m not (bleeping) on them, those are all really good programs, but just the state of where we were getting 5 or 6,000 people. I mean, we’ve given our fans two national championships out of the last three years. We’re 24-2 and 14-1, and we’ve been ranked at the top of the rankings the whole year.”


This season in particular, home games have been a short respite from the hostile environments UConn has faced on the road, where – just about – every opposing team and fan base makes the most of their shot at one of the top teams in the country.


“When we look at the environments that we play in when we wear the UConn jersey, Xavier is a madhouse when we go there, Creighton is a madhouse, when we play St. John’s now in the Big East road game, that’s not Storrs South no more. That environment that we played in was a serious, serious, nasty environment, intense environment, we were at a major disadvantage in terms of the atmosphere,” Hurley said. “Fans can criticize me all you want, I’ve got some (bleeping) equity. I got two national championships here in the last three years. We’ve given you the season that there’s a lot of programs across the country whose fans wish they had going.”


“I’m not (trying to hype the crowd) anymore though,” he said. “I asked the players to try to do it… It’s not a (bleeping) social event, right? Like, this is the Basketball Capital of the World, we need our fans to come to the game and be loud as (bleep) from the start. It needs to be a madhouse.”

 

[Hey Adrien!]

He’s not wrong and clearly p’d. Hats off to him.

 

[UDann]

Thank you

8pm tip on Valentines Day night against a terrible team - I could pretty easily argue it was actually a decent crowd when considering all of that

We’ve had plenty of good crowds in different games this year. I was at Arizona - it was an absolute madhouse. Not going to replicate that again the remainder of the season and that’s largely due to the quality (or lack thereof) of the teams coming in to play us

Just as an aside I sit a few rows behind the elder Hurleys. They were not at the game. Could be a personal thing but based on some of the posts it could be Georgetown wasn't enough motivation to drive from NJ.

 

[Trudy Gay]

Couple things. One, it absolutely is a social event. They’re college students, you go to have fun with your peers, which is by definition a social event, what do you want them to do, Keep the box score?? Two. storrs is a trek for anyone who doesn’t live in Hartford county, and is just a sleepy place in general. If Gampel was in New Haven county, it would be a madhouse, but it’s not and never will be so it is what it is.

 

[Trudy Gay]

So I was at the game, and afterward walked around campus. The place was absolutely dead on a Saturday. I took a drive through Hunting Lodge. Nothing. Nothing going at all.

After the game, I tried to get a UConn chant going, and nothing happened.

Are the kids alright? What the is going on?

UConn has been trying to shed its image as a party school for over a decade. coupled with the fact that Gen z doesn’t party and is justifiably terrified they won’t be able to get a job when they graduate, they spend all their free time in the library trying to get the highest GPA they possibly can.

 

[CTBasketball]

He’s not wrong and clearly p’d. Hats off to him.

And as some others have pointed out, the Valentine’s Day excuse falls short. Plenty of arenas were packed and loud yesterday.

I can’t help but think this goes back to the athletic department pricing the diehard fan out of their seats, messing up the student resale market, and lack of awareness by the athletic department to fix the problem.

 

[nadav]

Cooley is 15-39 in the BE at Gtown and this is his main concern? He’ll be mortified by the crowds in the MAAC in a few years.

 

[JungleLobo]

Yeah, I'm not buying this. UConn isn't the University of Chicago. There's schools who are considered far superior to UConn who have rabid fanbases at the games.

It’s a public Ivy, you could say it’s not Virginia or Michigan but Chicago is a bridge too far.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

One theory pitched to me from a parent of a recent UConn grad: maybe kids are home this weekend with no school on Saturday? That could explain why campus looked so dead before and after the game.

 

[TheHorde]

I think peacock deserves some of the blame for the scheduling of a game at 8pm on Valentine’s night. When you take the money from these streaming services, don’t be surprised when they want to have content to air on Saturday night. In a perfect world, this game should have been played at noon or 2pm. I’d bet that the crowd would have been significantly bigger without it conflicting with Valentine’s Day dinner plans. Money is ruining sports in general unless you have the means to not sweat the exorbitant ticket prices.

 

[HooperScooper]

It’s a public Ivy, you could say it’s not Virginia or Michigan but Chicago is a bridge too far.

UConn is a public Ivy? Ah.....no.

U. of Chicago is a private school anyway.

 

[superjohn]

It’s a public Ivy, you could say it’s not Virginia or Michigan but Chicago is a bridge too far.

Lolz, UConn is ranked 69th in U.S. News and World Report. We're behind UMass for crissakes.

 

[husky8273]

It’s a public Ivy, you could say it’s not Virginia or Michigan but Chicago is a bridge too far.

Chicago is D3, withdrew from the Big 10 in 1946

 

[Hoophound]

Lolz, UConn is ranked 69th in U.S. News and World Report. We're behind UMass for crissakes.

Don’t get us started on US News again. UConn simply chose not to play their game anymore. It’s a really silly ranking system. Unfortunately, perception is reality and we should have just played the game since most people assume it’s a worthwhile system of ranking schools. I know for a fact that the school that has benefitted most from tailoring their setup to climb the rankings is UF. They spend a ton of time tweaking their system to appease US News

 

[TheRealKBuks]

This has been a great thread and I’m not nearly finished reading it but I will say, I think the problem is that it’s too expensive for a majority of hardcore fans to attend. It’s not even the ticket price but the cost of living in general is so high it’s tough to justify spending that hard earned money on a game vs Georgetown. The past 8 years I usually attended between 3-5 games every season, but this year I’ve only been to the one game vs TX (and then only because a friend hooked me up with a ticket). I make a very good living but have a growing family and UConn games are not worth spending that much money on compared to what my family wants/needs. That’s really the bottom line.

 

[BigTenFan]

This argument falls flat when you look at the likes of Duke or UNCs student sections. Plenty of smart students that are still passionate about their team

Paintcrew

 

[superjohn]

Don’t get us started on US News again. UConn simply chose not to play their game anymore. It’s a really silly ranking system. Unfortunately, perception is reality and we should have just played the game since most people assume it’s a worthwhile system of ranking schools. I know for a fact that the school that has benefitted most from tailoring their setup to climb the rankings is UF. They spend a ton of time tweaking their system to appease US News

Then that's another dumb move by UConn. Doesn't seem like we have the best decision-makers at the school.

Gemini says University of Florida's acceptance rate is 24%, UConn's is 54-56%.

 

[HCCForever]

Then that's another dumb move by UConn. Doesn't seem like we have the best decision-makers at the school.

Two ways to look at it. UConn playing the game vs operating with integrity. They’re not begging for applicants nowadays.

 

[superjohn]

Two ways to look at it. UConn playing the game vs operating with integrity. They’re not begging for applicants nowadays.

Why on earth would UConn choose to make the school look worse than it actually is?