Could discontent with football be affecting BBall attendance?
- Thread starter wvpaper
- Start date
(Crap....Adrian played great tonight........ Gotta troll the Dana crowd)
btw, the were less than 300 tickets for tonight's game left for purchase a few hours prior to tip off.. So Mountaineer Nation had every intention of showing up tonight, but the snow kept them away
btw, the were less than 300 tickets for tonight's game left for purchase a few hours prior to tip off.. So Mountaineer Nation had every intention of showing up tonight, but the snow kept them away
When I was there the program was solid for 4 years including the Final Four year, the average fan just never gave a crap unless the opponent could justify a court storming, or the opponent was Pitt, or the game was in a conference/NCAA tournament. This year appears to be the same but weather ruined the attendance on the KU game.
There is also the issue of our arena seating ,14,000, which is very big for a college arena, and the difficulty of getting to Morgantown. For football a big chunk of the 50-60k of fans who show up are out of towners that come in for the weekend, that crowd does not really exist in basketball so it is on the students/Morgantown locals to make up the difference, I think that is asking a lot of the 30,000 or so residents + 30,000 students to fill up 14,000 seats consistently.
There is also the issue of our arena seating ,14,000, which is very big for a college arena, and the difficulty of getting to Morgantown. For football a big chunk of the 50-60k of fans who show up are out of towners that come in for the weekend, that crowd does not really exist in basketball so it is on the students/Morgantown locals to make up the difference, I think that is asking a lot of the 30,000 or so residents + 30,000 students to fill up 14,000 seats consistently.
We literally never sold out a game vs Providence ever, please post a link if Im wrong.
If the football team was ranked in the top 10 I'm sure every football game would be a sellout. Honestly the problem is the WVU fanbase itself. 25% are diehard WVU fans who go to any WVU event they can. 50% are fairweather fans who only show up when WVU is doing great or playing a great team. 25% are T Shirt fans who couldn't name more than 1 player from any WVU team and don't care enough to go just care to say they like WVU. Unfortunately the first 25% is not big enough to fill the stadium every game because most of those live out of state.
Football games are all day events that are used to reconnect with old friends, there is also only 6-7 games per season, not 15. As I said, most of the football crowd comes in from out of town, if that faction of the fanbase didnt exist and we were dependent on Morgantown only to sell out the stadium, our stadium would be 15,000 seats and wed be FCS. Basketball is just different when it comes to attendance, its a less popular sport (nationally, not just in WV), the games are much less of an "event", the games are also on a lot of weeknights. Were not the only team struggling to consistently sellout, its just the nature of the sport.
Also, 50% of basketball games are played on Tuesday night and the sport is played in the winter months. Tailgate party. What's that? Forget about it and call for Chinese take out.
Bingo!
My sister in Rivesville took THREE days before she could get out of her own driveway and onto a secondary road that had ONE lane plowed.
My God, up to 40 inches of show hit West Virginia.
Before the Kansas game, there were 55 wrecks in Morgantown in 5 hours.
Fans take their lives into their own hands to get to winter games at WVU Coliseum. There always are more tickets sold than fannies in the seats.
This isn't Florida, where WVU will play Saturday. where you want in the sunshine to get to the sold-out noon game.
Getting to a WVU game is like climbing Mount Everest some nights.
It's easier to make it to every football game in Mountaineer Field, before El Nino sends avalanches in the way of WVU fans trying to get to WVU Coliseum.
Be realistic, OP. Unless you're just trying to piss on our parade.
WVU is 17-3. We'll all happy about it. And we understand if people can't dig out of 40 inches of snow to get to the game, particularly on secondary roads.
CUYAHOGA FALLS EERS
How could anyone not know that this past weekend's snow storm had an effect on attendance last night?
People were still digging out from the snow fall yesterday. And if they were dug out they may have been exhausted. Or they didn't want to travel roads at night time that are far from being in good shape in the day time.
I mean really .... How could anyone not know that this past weekend's snow storm had an effect on attendance last night?
People were still digging out from the snow fall yesterday. And if they were dug out they may have been exhausted. Or they didn't want to travel roads at night time that are far from being in good shape in the day time.
I mean really .... How could anyone not know that this past weekend's snow storm had an effect on attendance last night?
I don't think any reasonable person expected a full house on a Tuesday against a mediocre K State team. Oh, and if WV is anything like MD, there is still a couple feet of snow on the ground.
Ya know, that might have a little to do with it. But troll on.
Ya know, that might have a little to do with it. But troll on.
i get the troll stuff. anytime, some of you are prompted to think - a troll is making you do it.
anyway, i'll say it again. attendance has been down for a while, not just when it snows.
Morgantown is just not big enough to consistently fill the Coliseum as things stand. The more people they cram into town the worse the traffic gets. Parking is inadequate. Two feet of snow on the ground makes parking worse and walking distances worse. Not enough basketball fans in the student body or residents within a half hour drive. Somebody needs to think creatively about getting more people interested and easier ways to get people in and out of there.
Other than building a parking garage in the Coliseum parking lot I dont think there are any other realistic options. The roads around the Coliseum are as wide as they're going to get and the congestion is still crazy. Unless mountains around Morgantown disappear out of towners will always struggle big time to get into town if there is snow on the ground.
Every game WV and most other schools play can be watched on big screen HDTV. Fans can thank E$PN for that. The same E$PN is keeping fans away from the actual game. Even 'real' fans have decided to watch from home. Yes............attendance is declining and will continue to decline. It ain't stopped the cash flow. Has it?
Wrong again, pal
2015 brought the 6th highest average attendance in the Coliseum's history......
This season, our OOC average attendance, despite the lack of big name opponents at home, was nearly 2,000 more fans per game than the previous year.....
Hell, we opened with 10k for Northern Kentucky.........
This is the 46th season in our 14,000 seat arena..... our current average attendance, which has been deeply affected by the snow storms, is 9,289........... ranking the 12th best. And there is still more games to play....
KC......................some folks don't like your input into such matters.............because you come to the discussion with actual numbers. Good job!
Facts don't matter to the Paper Troll - he's Keaton's little sub boi and can't get enough.
I live on a back road Preston County, so I know about how much snow hit WV, and I didn't have problems getting to Morgantown. I knew this topic would come up, so I timed how long it took to get from where I work (not far from Kegler's) to actually sitting in my seat at the game...the count was 23 minutes 48 seconds. The roads were clear, and if you don't hit the Boulevard CharlieFoxtrot, and know how to navigate traffic, there are no problems. I totally avoid parking at the Coliseum because that isn't a pleasant experience, but it's no worse than a lot of other venues across the country.
A lot of folks don't come to the games, and that's their choice for whatever reason...however, that being said, excuses are only that...excuses. If you really wanted to make it to the game last night and lived in the greater Morgantown area, there weren't any major obstacles to overcome. I totally respect the reasons why people don't show, however, these folks shouldn't complain about recruiting or lack of respect from the media. Attendance DOES affect recruiting and DOES affect national perception.
Huggs hit the nail on the head when he said the vast majority of our fans come to watch who we're playing, not the Mountaineers.
The only way I would buy season tickets is if I lived close enough that I thought I could get to every game. If I had to drive as far as you do I would probably try to catch a few games on the spur of the moment when there are tickets available and the weather looked clear, I would probably do a weekend game and try to do some other things when I am in town. Heck, there are even long time fans in Morgantown that are staying home, having a few beers and eating pizza while watching it on ESPN, like TexasEER said. You are allowed to be a Mountaineer fan and still exercise prudent judgement. There are a lot of fans with season tickets who really don't care that much about basketball, or even know much about it. I used to sit with them when I had season tickets. Clueless about the most basic things. There needs to be a LOT more rabid fans than we have to fill that place up even on a good weeknight in the middle of winter.
The next 3 home basketball games are already sold out......
The 4th game is a Big Monday match against ISU at home, and assuming we continue to win, that will also sell out.......
Senior Night is against TTU and is a week night game......... hopefully by that point, the bandwagon has rounded up enough to make that showing decent too....
5 games at home left.......... I say we'll average 12,000 for them........ which would bring our season averaged to 10,200 attendees a game... Not bad at all considering the snow took away both the UT and the KSU attendance projections
"discontent"
The 4th game is a Big Monday match against ISU at home, and assuming we continue to win, that will also sell out.......
Senior Night is against TTU and is a week night game......... hopefully by that point, the bandwagon has rounded up enough to make that showing decent too....
5 games at home left.......... I say we'll average 12,000 for them........ which would bring our season averaged to 10,200 attendees a game... Not bad at all considering the snow took away both the UT and the KSU attendance projections
"discontent"
Keaton...you are so quick to protect your position that you miss the point of what some folks are saying about basketball support. SOLD tickets do not equate to GAME ATTENDANCE. The point the OP is making (and I have made in the past) is that fannies in the seats for games seem to be trending down...not tickets sold or distributed. Big difference. Questioning the number of people who show up for a game isn't an indictment of the program...it is a valid observation however.
BTW: I had the opportunity to work in professional sports for a while and we would release ticket sales/or distributed as attendance numbers. That is a common practice. There were days where the "official attendance number of 15,000 for example" included thousands of folks wearing blue or red depending on the empty seat color. And that happened with or without snow. LOL.
So, is it the townies or the students or both who only show up occasionally?
Also, don't use the fact that I now live in Fl and can't get to Mountaineer games as much to run your raggedty troll response my way. lol
BTW: I had the opportunity to work in professional sports for a while and we would release ticket sales/or distributed as attendance numbers. That is a common practice. There were days where the "official attendance number of 15,000 for example" included thousands of folks wearing blue or red depending on the empty seat color. And that happened with or without snow. LOL.
So, is it the townies or the students or both who only show up occasionally?
Also, don't use the fact that I now live in Fl and can't get to Mountaineer games as much to run your raggedty troll response my way. lol
Attendance seems to be about the same as it was when I was at WVU. I certainly wish I could attend more games but I live far away and have little kids, and my wife and I both have demanding work obligations - that's life.
"The point the OP is making (and I have made in the past) is that fannies in the seats for games seem to be trending down...not tickets sold or distributed. "
and I showed in this very thread that this is wrong..... AGAIN:
2015 brought the 6th highest average attendance in the Coliseum's history......
This season, our OOC average attendance, despite the lack of big name opponents at home, was nearly 2,000 more fans per game than the previous year.....
Hell, we opened with 10k for Northern Kentucky.........
This is the 46th season in our 14,000 seat arena..... our current average attendance, which has been deeply affected by the snow storms, is 9,289........... ranking the 12th best. And there is still more games to play....
WVU get their attendance from the ticket scanning/ID scanning devices at the entrances to the WVU Coliseum btw, not by using sales numbers......
If that were true, the KU game would have had an attendance of 14,000+
and I showed in this very thread that this is wrong..... AGAIN:
2015 brought the 6th highest average attendance in the Coliseum's history......
This season, our OOC average attendance, despite the lack of big name opponents at home, was nearly 2,000 more fans per game than the previous year.....
Hell, we opened with 10k for Northern Kentucky.........
This is the 46th season in our 14,000 seat arena..... our current average attendance, which has been deeply affected by the snow storms, is 9,289........... ranking the 12th best. And there is still more games to play....
WVU get their attendance from the ticket scanning/ID scanning devices at the entrances to the WVU Coliseum btw, not by using sales numbers......
If that were true, the KU game would have had an attendance of 14,000+
Keaton is weird and a little dim when taken out of her comfort zone...but she is a good entertainer. Lets all try to get along!
Trying to Paper. I just can't understand how some folks take a question or honest opinion and try to turn it into a juvenile forum warrior situation. LOL
If we used tickets sold we would have announced near sellout attendance for some games when we didnt.
We've always announced turnstile, not tickets sold.
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