Thank you XL Center

[HuskyHawk]

It would be great yes there was a simple way for lower bowl season ticket holders to be able to indicate that they were not using their seats so that they could be made available to others. It would be great to have students in there, but I could see the potential conflict with other season-ticket holders if you had kids jumping up and down. maybe create a Season ticket holders perk that allows people higher up to be able to move down? I don’t know, but I do hate seeing the seats around the sideline being empty.

That’s exactly what I’d do if I was AD Dave. Find a way to use an app to put those tickets into a pool that goes to students when they aren’t being used. It’s worse in the early season games when those people rarely show up.

 

[bendm]

oh, it's just the 6:30 start? lol

according to you it's not. for some reason they haven't "earned" your holy presence even though they are ranked and heading for the tourney. go root for duke.

 

[John]

according to you it's not. for some reason they haven't "earned" your holy presence even though they are ranked and heading for the tourney. go root for duke.

my holy presence? I'm a season ticket holder dude LOL.

 

[UConnDad]

Unfortunately only one XL game left.

 

[CTBasketball]

You’re probably right about the Seton Hall game, which is a shame, because they match up well with us and a raucous XL Center would help.

When the place is packed for meaningful games, the noise level can be impressive there. The athletic department should follow the same discounted ticket methodology that worked so well last night. Consistently Seeing a packed XL Center will encourage people on the fence to buy tickets.

Realistically they should do it for every game, especially since it’s for the upper deck seats.

Honestly I am fine with 12-13k at XL. As many have pointed out the building is antiquated. I will no longer go
To a game if I have to sit anywhere above the middle of upper section. Too far away from the court as it’s a design from 1950. New arenas higher sections are still good to watch from but XL terrible. So I don’t judge anyone who won’t go and sit there.

You just don’t get it!!

 

[KembaKek]

I’ve been to every home game this year, the loudest and most engaged games have been:

1. Providence @ XL
2. Marquette @ XL



….

3. Georgetown @ Gampel

i thought CCSU was better than GTown

 

[Waquoit]

Another thing is that the XL is a pro-active crowd. They try to get it going during the lulls. This team has been giving up too many answer buckets though. When they made that breakthrough stop during the second run it carried them and the crowd home.

 

[ct06111]

Another thing is that the XL is a pro-active crowd. They try to get it going during the lulls. This team has been giving up too many answer buckets though. When they made that breakthrough stop during the second run it carried them and the crowd home.

Big improvement in the pro-active chants vs last game. Hurley didn’t have to wave his hands as much to the crowd after every prolonged quiet period. Admittedly which has been common lately.
However, XL doesn’t have the Jumbotron initiate chants like NBA games.
Next time, Can we at least get a student bass drum beat thump thump for DE FENCE.

Note: the fire doors being removed makes a huge difference in noise vs back in the day. Those heavy ass doors you had to open for every section kept in a lot of noise. So it’s hard to compare crowd noise today vs OBE days.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

You're new to UConn basketball I take it. You do realize that during the Calhoun era, especially after the 2004 championship, that attendence started to slide in both buildings.

No, I'm not new to UConn basketball. I was born and raised near Storrs, but I am much younger than the BY demographic I think. Please don't pull the "guhh you must be new" condescending fan card for a small point I made.

I went to plenty of games in the mid-late 2000s. Granted, mostly Gampel games, which were always filled to the brim it seemed. And the XL games I went to didn't have as many empty seats as last night for a midweek BE game, but my memory could be failing me.

Regardless, my point was moreso about why other schools around the country get a packed house for a mid-week game. Arkansas pulled a sold out game last night on a Tuesday- 20,327 was the attendance listing for that game against Auburn last night. And I swear there were no empty seats in that building. If there were, I couldn't see it.
We're UConn playing a ranked team, and we had 78% capacity with 12,188 in attendance.

I'm thinking it has to be a covid factor. If covid wasn't a thing, that XL center would be sold out or close to it, right?

I'm not really criticizing the fan base or the program. It's just interesting. I totally get not wanting to go because of covid.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

You know I’m on your side generally in this debate, but this crowd was perfectly adequate for a 6:30 tip on a Tuesday vs Marquette.

There are only a handful of other programs that’ll pull 12k for that draw/tip time

Yeah you're probably right.

 

[bendm]

my holy presence? I'm a season ticket holder dude LOL.

then why are you saying fans have not been given a reason to show up and cheer for this team???

 

[Hoophound]

The empty seats you see in the lower bowl at XL (and at Gampel too) are never allocated to students. Those go to the high donation level corporate types, doctors and lawyers (and TikTok stars I suppose). They tend to be (a) busy and (b) "casuals". This is a problem we've had for decades so I don't understand why people blame the arena. You want those seats behind the benches filled so it looks good on TV, give them to students like Duke does. But since our AD is $40M+ underwater each year, I don't see it happening.

The crowd was loud enough. A strong XL crowd is louder than a strong Gampel crowd just because of the nature of the building.

I just don't understand why they can't get these people to donate the seats so the AD can fill them. Not showing up is one degree of sucky, but wasting the tickets when someone could enjoy them and support the team is just selfish.

 

[John]

then why are you saying fans have not been given a reason to show up and cheer for this team???

UConn teams that were world's better than this years got the same or less fannies in the seats during the OBE days. All thing considered the fan numbers have been decent.

 

[mjmoney23]

The amount of s

The empty seats you see in the lower bowl at XL (and at Gampel too) are never allocated to students. Those go to the high donation level corporate types, doctors and lawyers (and TikTok stars I suppose). They tend to be (a) busy and (b) "casuals". This is a problem we've had for decades so I don't understand why people blame the arena. You want those seats behind the benches filled so it looks good on TV, give them to students like Duke does. But since our AD is $40M+ underwater each year, I don't see it happening.

The crowd was loud enough. A strong XL crowd is louder than a strong Gampel crowd just because of the nature of the building.

One caveat at XL, the sections that abut the 2 sections behind the hoop (traditional student section) are also student sections. These had plenty of "older students" there last night, particularly 123.

 

[BleedHuskyBlu]

The Xl center looks way emptier on TV than all actuality. The camera on tv only shows that first section behind the benches which is always empty for some reason. I was there and the only seats the were really open were all the way at the top