Where are all the students?

[Robertelamin]

You didn't even have to camp out to get season tickets. You just had to show up the day they went on sale. At least that was my experience from 2000-2004 so complaining that it isn't fair is pretty lame, they are just lazy.

 

[whaler11]

That's what I am scratching my head about, I feel like the booze driven mind of a student could certainly figure it out.

Where there's a thirst there's a way.

I know I'm an outlier, but give me a bus ride and give me the last row and I can't be happier.

 

[David 76]

A lot of Alumni or other fans got slammed for not getting out to games or not wanting to drive the extra miles to Storrs.
Sounds like a double standard for students. Remember: Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life!

 

[UConnNick]

I support more and better student seats (and less corporate, non-fans) but when you see empty student sections (which I noticed a couple of times this year) it is confusing.
As far as the difficulty for students to get to the XL, I'm missing something. Does the buss cost a lot? Is it inconvenient?
I'm 60 and my drive is much longer than the students. Parking is outrageously expensive. A 30 minute bus ride would seem like a deal to me.
Not asking you to get off my lawn but I don't understand.

If you're a student and a fan of the teams, you'll figure out a way to get to the games. If you're a student and only a casual fan, you won't. I'm sure there are plenty of UCONN students who never attend a game during their entire four years in Storrs.

If you're a student who whines about how tough it is to go to the games in Hartford, then you're probably a casual fan. Due to no flights available in or out of Tampa, we had to fly to Jacksonville, FL, rent a car and drive to Tampa/St. Petersburg for the 1999 Final Four. We had our return flight from Orlando very early the morning after the title game on Mon night. You find a way to do it if you're a fan.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

I'm not sure I know of another school that doesn't do this

we are all about the money

Off the top of my head, the only one I can think of is UCLA and the Rose Bowl.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

It's Tulsa.

That is part of the problem - conference realignment. Students want to see good basketball games and, even more so, see games in which their school beats the schools that their friends go to. How many UConn students have HS friends who went to Tulsa, Houston, SMU, etc. College sports were built on rivalries and that is where the money came from. Money cannot make rivalries nor can it make students want to go to games.

 

[kemba]

To the point @methodology made earlier in the thread, it's perfectly understandable that the casual fan wouldn't want to go to a game in Hartford. But UConn has what, 25,000 students? A lot of those 25,000 probably applied to UConn in part because of their athletic programs, and basketball is obviously the marquee attraction at this school. There should be no problem filling to capacity, even if it's a semi-inconvenient bus ride away. The problem is that the tickets are in the hands of the wrong people, and that's been a problem for years now. The people who get tickets should be the ones that would die for UConn basketball, not some shmuck who wants to profit by selling them for over face value (these are the worst types of people).

And I get that basketball is way behind alcohol in the pecking order for college students, but God, you sound so lame when you can't go to a basketball game because you can't wait until 9:00 to get drunk.

I never won the lottery in my 4 years, but I bought Hartford student tickets for face value on the buy or sell tickets facebook group every year, and then again the year after I graduated since my ID still worked. The last year the guy I bought them from thanked me for buying them because he thought he wasn't going to be able to get rid of them.

There's just not a lot of students willing to go to Hartford except for the really big games. It's been this way for awhile, there's been empty seats in the student section for much better opponents than Tulsa in the past.

 

[nyhusky89]

The lottery system is a joke. I even emailed Jeff Hathaway when I was there to try to discuss how ridiculous it was to no avail. Absolute joke the way kids buy tickets to sell them. The best system is one where students are rewarding for attending the games of other UConn programs/activities. They all have ID cards and every ID should be scanned at every event-be it hockey, football, womens basketball, tennis, baseball, soccer, etc-and mens basketball tickets should be offered in the order of games attended with any remaining tickets going into a lottery.

The other problem is that I know when I was there, the USF/UCF/Seton Hall type games were ones I would only go to if I had nothing else to do, whereas the early non-con games were great for studying the team and most conference and big non-con games we were finding a way to no matter what (I always felt the "i have a test" excuse was a joke. You know well in advance when both games and tests are. If you failed to prepare its your fault and those 2 hours of studying the night before aren't going to help a whole lot. Freshman year I did not understand this, once i figured out how easy tests were if you studied a few days in advance I never made that mistake again). Now that i have gotten way off track-over half our schedule is made up of those USF/UCF/Tulane/ECU type games so I can understand some waning interest, but then again, you only get 18 home games a year-I can understand not being incredibly loud, but there is no reason for so many empty seats.

The biggest issue in the end is, turn on a B10/SEC/ACC/B12 game and you immediately know that your watching major CBB. The arenas are painted in the team colors and it looks and feels big time. For UConn games, the sideline that is on TV for all 40 minutes is filled with middle aged and elderly fans dressed in every color of the rainbow which makes it look like a local hs game. There is certainly much more to getting a bid than this, but it would be nice to turn a game on and see a sea of blue and white everywhere you look, then again, branding/PR at UConn has been, is and will continue to be, a joke. Hell, for the FF in 2011, UNC/MSU shipped their students to the game and paid for their hotel rooms. UConn offered tickets, but we were completely on our own and ended up buying a used mini-van for $500 and driving 6 of us cross country Friday night directly to Ford Field, drinking a 30 rack and a bottle of booze on line waiting to get in the game and then driving home les than 24 hours later. Most fun trip of my life even with the loss.

 

[willie99]

I obviously can't speak for every school, but when Marist made the Sweet Sixteen in women's basketball, the school had a student package that included tickets, hotels, flights and all ground transportation for something like
$ 229.

I know other schools subsidize students in similar fashions

BC charges something like $ 175 per year for access to football, basketball and hockey games

I have to believe our students pay more than just about any other student body, and they're given the worst seats of any student body. Always in the endzone, never on the sidelines

 

[BoatShow]

I never won the lottery in my 4 years, but I bought Hartford student tickets for face value on the buy or sell tickets facebook group every year, and then again the year after I graduated since my ID still worked. The last year the guy I bought them from thanked me for buying them because he thought he wasn't going to be able to get rid of them.

There's just not a lot of students willing to go to Hartford except for the really big games. It's been this way for awhile, there's been empty seats in the student section for much better opponents than Tulsa in the past.

There was a thread a while ago with people complaining the bar area took up student seats and that the second level was no longer students at the XL. There were NEVER students in the second level sans Nova/Cuse/Georgetown type games.

 

[firstnline]

CMON WARDE, lets schedule some Saturday games at Gampel. What did we have 1 lousy home game on a Saturday this year. No excuses, never mind the Sunday crap, bring on some Saturday games. We should have at least 4-5 on a Saturday every year.

 

[Bonehead]

That is part of the problem - conference realignment. Students want to see good basketball games and, even more so, see games in which their school beats the schools that their friends go to. How many UConn students have HS friends who went to Tulsa, Houston, SMU, etc. College sports were built on rivalries and that is where the money came from. Money cannot make rivalries nor can it make students want to go to games.

Thank god that Yale game was on campus and not in Hartford - students would have missed a good game.

I don't buy this argument. How many Arizona students have friends that went to Oregon??

How many Kentucky students have friends that went to Alabama??

If that is really what you want - to beat schools your friends go to - the conf would be UConn, CCSU, WCSU, ECSU, University Bridgeport, Springfield, Bryant and a couple others.

 

[David 76]

This wasn't an ECU game. It was the leader of the conference.

Complaining about lost seats and not filling what is there, is sort of a strange argument.
But as I said, I support (and most people here) support more and better seats for students. But now I question the demand. Maybe students would like to wait until we are in a P-5 conference then give them more seats but not on nickle night.
I know the students on this board probably aren't the weak links. I find it funny that some 40-something fan from Fairfield County catches grief about preferring XL games because Gampel is a 2 hour (plus) drive for him but the crowd is soft on a 20 year old hating his 30 minute bus ride or missing happy hour. Sneak a flask on the bus and go to the game! This is the easiest it will ever be in your life to see a game.
I wish I caught even more and we were playing UMass and Maine at the time.

 

[MuchoDogYears]

It's a thursday, shltty weather, below freezing, 30 min bus ride/car ride against tulsa... they're home or at the bar

That's funny, all the same excuses that the students throw against the alumni when there's a game at Storrs and there are some empty seats for the suits.

Fact is that the "suits" show up in more numbers at Storrs than the students show up in Hartford,. The students are a complete no-show most game nights in Hartford and that's a shame, because they admittedly more loud and bring more energy than the suits.. Like someone once said, "half of life is just showing up", and the students don't.

 

[Bonehead]

That is part of the problem - conference realignment. Students want to see good basketball games and, even more so, see games in which their school beats the schools that their friends go to. How many UConn students have HS friends who went to Tulsa, Houston, SMU, etc. College sports were built on rivalries and that is where the money came from. Money cannot make rivalries nor can it make students want to go to games.

So you are opposed to UConn to Big10?
How many of your friends ended up going to school at Nebraska, Minnesota and Pudue??

 

[zls44]

CMON WARDE, lets schedule some Saturday games at Gampel. What did we have 1 lousy home game on a Saturday this year. No excuses, never mind the Sunday crap, bring on some Saturday games. We should have at least 4-5 on a Saturday every year.

That's a TV thing. Get used to it.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

So you are opposed to UConn to Big10?
How many of your friends ended up going to school at Nebraska, Minnesota and Pudue??

Almost none; but, UConn's academic profile is a lot different today than it was in the 90's. Today UConn students are still applying to BC, Notheastern and Syracuse; but, many are also applying today to the other top 50 national universities in the region, like Rutgers, Penn St, Maryland, etc. Those are UConn's peers and rivals today.

 

[UConnSwag11]

That's funny, all the same excuses that the students throw against the alumni when there's a game at Storrs and there are some empty seats for the suits.

Fact is that the "suits" show up in more numbers at Storrs than the students show up in Hartford,. The students are a complete no-show most game nights in Hartford and that's a shame, because they admittedly more loud and bring more energy than the suits.. Like someone once said, "half of life is just showing up", and the students don't.

The student seats in hartford are gone. Except for two dozen does or so there are no student seats at the xl. The top are not students because I tried sitting there. The bottom has a lot of rows taken away for the bar. So the dozen- two dozen rows on the bottom that's all there is for students.

 

[Bonehead]

Almost none; but, UConn's academic profile is a lot different today than it was in the 90's. Today UConn students are still applying to BC, Notheastern and Syracuse; but, many are also applying today to the other top 50 national universities in the region, like Rutgers, Penn St, Maryland, etc. Those are UConn's peers and rivals today.

Fair enough - but I know more people that are at Navy and south Florida than BC - my friends would never go to BC. I think UConn could get in conference with Northeastern though.

 

[David 76]

My friends went to UCONN. Became and still are my best friends.