Thank you XL Center | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Thank you XL Center

businesslawyer said:
Is that part of it? Of course it is. My son will be up from DC for the home 'Nova game and wants to go. I would kill to go, but am not sure I'm ready to sit in a 15k arena at the moment, even though when we played Bonnies in Newark before the variant exploded cases I was. I can't be the only person for whom this is still an issue, because I know many people who are still more cautious than I am.
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Same. Went to that game, and haven't been to a game since. For one reason only.
 
Was at the game. Super fun time, great crowd. Definitely the best game I've been to this year.

Just looked up the attendance numbers for that Arkansas/Auburn game. ESPN says there were 20,327 there in a building that has a 19,368 capacity. Crazy!! I think we woud easily sell out XL Center for a game against the #1 team in the country, but don't know how we'd get 1,000 over capacity.
 
I am a staunch Gampel vs XL fan. However, I distinctly remember the early days when we were on the rise and starting to beat Gtown & Syracuse- the Civic Center was crazy loud and it was really exhilarating to be a part of it. The only thing I ever have been at that was louder, crowd-wise, was a Triple Crown race at Belmont. And that lasted like 3 minutes.
 
Do people really believe that empty seats are about the arena and not fan interest? Seriously?

When we were emerging, we had all the sellouts and fan interest some of these other schools have today. Other schools simply have a more engaged fan base. And it has nothing to do with XL or GP, because GP has empty seats and the student section doesn't remotely compare with our best years

We're complacent, we're spoiled, both our arenas are dinosaurs. But WINNING will help


PS: Dook's rat infested high school gym always looks full because they put the students in the lowers rows across from the cameras. And even Dook has had complaints about waning student interest and empty free bleacher seats.

balldurham.com

Duke basketball: Cameron Crazies owe Blue Devils an apology

Current students are damaging part of the Duke basketball program's mystique by either not showing up to home games at all or arriving with limited passion.
balldurham.com balldurham.com
 
Madmannsucks said:
They were loud. I moved to Colorado over 20 years ago. When I see them it is on TV. I have seen quite a few empty seats even for high profile games. That is why I asked.
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My apologies, I thought you were being sarcastic, lot of that going on around here nowadays :)
 
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ucawn said:
Next 2 games will blow that crowd out of the water through… especially Xavier. Very fun game to be a part of tho
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Seton Hall will be underwhelming because of the 8:30pm weekday tip. I’d imagine Xavier @ Gampel on Sat 2/19 should be sold out, as well as the Villanova game the following Tues at XL.
 
CTBasketball said:
Seton Hall will be underwhelming because of the 8:30pm weekday tip. I’d imagine Xavier @ Gampel on Sat 2/19 should be sold out, as well as the Villanova game the following Tues at XL.
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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.
 
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.
 
John said:
Give people a,reason to show up and they'll show up. Give people a reason to cheer and they'll cheer.
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Where do you get off? sold out arenas are not limited to top 10 teams. Last night was a game between two ranked BE teams it should have been a sell out but for the dumb 6:30 start
 
Chin Diesel said:
Would have been more empty seats if people had to drive all the way to Storrs.
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OUTATIME said:
FTFY
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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 remember going to Uconn/Pitt in 09, the game Blair threw Thabeet over his shoulder and the XL center being completely packed. Hopefully now that UConn is back in the big east they can rebuild old rivalries that were lost when we moved to the AAC.
 
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HuskyHawk said:
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.
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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.
 
bendm said:
Where do you get off? sold out arenas are not limited to top 10 teams. Last night was a game between two ranked BE teams it should have been a sell out but for the dumb 6:30 start
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oh, it's just the 6:30 start? lol
 
Empty seats in the suits area has been way more prevalent at Gampel for a decade. It's funny that dopes are picking today to make it an issue just because the bad XL Center crowd myth has been dispelled, yet again.
 
This quote fires me up about how XL was the 6th man on the court last night. Great job! Crowd really brought it last night from the start.


“I thought UConn played a phenomenal game,” Smart said. “They played with the gift of desperation. The way they started the game, I think was probably as important as any other thing that happened.”

“We always talk about playing with violence,” Smart added, “they were the more violent team. You could see they had real resolve. The crowd was great, and they said, ‘Nah, you’re not coming in here and doing this.’”
 
CV1 said:
Smart said. “They played with the gift of desperation.
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Season 1 Nbc GIF by The Good Place
 
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Vancat said:
Maybe there should be an incentive to give back your seats if you're not going.
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If those are corporate/business seats, the incentive may be less meaningful than just making the process time efficient. Agree though.
 
CL82 said:
If those are corporate/business seats, the incentive may be less meaningful than just making the process time efficient. Agree though.
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Yes, I thought of that, too & agree. They're not ALL suits, though.
 
CL82 said:
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.
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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.
 
John said:
oh, it's just the 6:30 start? lol
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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.
 
bendm said:
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.
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my holy presence? I'm a season ticket holder dude LOL.
 
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CL82 said:
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.
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Realistically they should do it for every game, especially since it’s for the upper deck seats.
TMB4405 said:
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.
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You just don’t get it!!
 
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.
 
Waquoit said:
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.
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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.
 
John said:
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.
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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.
 
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Guapo said:
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
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Yeah you're probably right.
 
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