Attendance

Clock_Tower · January 3, 2013

And that's because UD has done an excellent job of developing their brand and marketing the program. The news wouldn't feature them prominently if the people of Dayton did not care. So what came first? The people caring. For whatever reason.
I understand that SLU can get lost in the shuffle, but that is no excuse. Marquette goes up against NBA teams and the local Big State U, UWMilwaukee, and Big10 and does well with coverage and attendance.

Oh and I live in Peoria so I do get it. Bradley is "the only thing to do" in this little poor cow town. Yet somehow they aren't drawing worth a damn this year either.

What came first? Businesses wanting to advertise, sell, get subscribers and viewers. Without a demand for a product, there will be no buyers. At the same time, stimulating the masses to create more of a demand is what needs to be done. The local media has little to no financial incentive to cover our Bills as opposed to the Cardinals, Rams and Blues - and even Mizzou and the Illini. Gratuitous segments and guys like Frank C. can help but such efforts are too few and far between. IMO, it comes down to SLU needing to sell itself. IMO, SLU has been lacking on this aspect for years. Money needs to be spent (I call it invested) to get on the TV and/or in the newspaper if consumer demand is not deemed to be strong enough to warrant it. At the same time, there is no denying the media market is more crowded here in St. Louis than in other places. And while you are right that having a school in a cow town does not mean automatic success (many schools and programs get very little support from their locals), it is also true that turning around a program and attracting interest from people in a city without many other alternatives is alot easier.

JMM28 · January 3, 2013

I think we agree Clock. My point was that it has more to do with the school doing a good job of marketing and branding versus the notion that "Well XYZU is the only game in town."

I don't know if it is easier or harder, but I think the timeline in a market like St Louis is longer. You are trying to win the hearts and minds of 2.8 million as opposed to a market like Dayton at 850k or Peoria at 400k. The population advantage should make it easier to at least fill the arena to the brim on a nightly basis. 10,600 out of 2.8 million?

Clock_Tower · January 3, 2013

I think we agree Clock. My point was that it has more to do with the school doing a good job of marketing and branding versus the notion that "Well XYZU is the only game in town."
I don't know if it is easier or harder, but I think the timeline in a market like St Louis is longer. You are trying to win the hearts and minds of 2.8 million as opposed to a market like Dayton at 850k or Peoria at 400k. The population advantage should make it easier to at least fill the arena to the brim on a nightly basis. 10,600 out of 2.8 million?

Yes and no.

It always seems easier to fill 10,000 seats from a 2.8 million population rather than a 400k population, but at the same time, we routinely see examples of cities like New York and Los Angeles not support "lesser" events such as youth sports, amateur athletics, etc. despite their 10 million plus populations while cities such as Indianapolis, Omaha -- and St. Louis -- will do a much better job of supporting the same. And again, it is not always for charitable reasons either but when the local who's who of a city (business leaders, mayor/government staff, professional community such as bankers, insurance guys, etc. and charities such as Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, etc.) all decide that their city will host a certain event, they get the newspaper, the local media and other influential leaders to all rally behind the cause. In a city with a 400k population, the who's who might be 20 people whereas the who's who in a 2.8 million population might be well over 100. NY and LA might be 1,000. Barring an event such as the Olympics, getting 1000 on the same page can be just too difficult in places like New York and Los Angeles.

But make no mistake, when social, sporting and business opportunties are limited, there is alot of truth to -- what else is there to do in town?

GOSLU68 · January 4, 2013

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="bk18" data-cid="334247" data-time="1357101019">Attendance numbers (at home thus far) for schools vying to join the BE7 Creighton 16,572 Dayton 12,216 Xavier 9,678 VCU 7,693 Butler 6,972 SLU 6,156</blockquote>

Just to complete the search of this basketball hotbed

"U. Cincinnati numbers- they had some decent teams these years and X out draws them

5/3rd Arena has been rocking in the past two home games. UC hit the magic number of 13,176 during the blackout against Louisville and housed 11,316 for Senior Night against Marquette. But on the season Cincinnati still only averaged a home crowd of just 7,878. I know. As an attendance geek Ive been tracking this all season. The good news about the figure is that the it is up from last year and is approaching numbers set previously while in the Big East:"

I googled the results

2010-11: 7,344

2009-10: 8,076

2008-09: 7,818

2007-08: 8,534

2006-07: 8,831

Duff Man · February 18, 2013

Attendance has picked up dramatically for the A10 games.

Average Home Attendance

2012-13

OOC: 6,191 (11 games, high/low: 8,175/4,817)

A10: 9,473* (5 games, high/low: 10,612/8,462)

OVERALL: 7,217*

*3 games to be played,

2011-12

OOC: 6,730 (8 games, high/low: 8,044/5,677)

A10: 8,784 (8 games, high/low: 10,441/6,346)

OVERALL: 7,757

Prior to the Butler game, only the Ohio A10 rivals Dayton and Xavier had drawn 10k+ crowds. Butler and more impressively Charlotte cracked 10k while Dayton drew only 9,548.

bk18 · February 18, 2013

VCU should break 10k and that is pretty good for a Tuesday.

Billiken Rich · February 18, 2013

I always laugh at these types of comments. There are plenty of other things to do in Dayton, Omaha, and smaller big cities. Their programs have done a good job of getting people into the mindset that there is nothing above Dayton/Creighton/etc. basketball through strong play, good relationship building, good marketing, and a strong value for their entertainment dollar.
What exactly is going on in St. Louis that isn't happening in Omaha or Dayton during college basketball season?

I've been meaning to get to the Air Force Museum in Dayton for the past few years. I'll probably get there this summer. That's one thing anyway.......

Cowboy · February 18, 2013

I've been meaning to get to the Air Force Museum in Dayton for the past few years. I'll probably get there this summer. That's one thing anyway.......

-possible first and second round site

Billiken Rich · February 18, 2013

Attendance has picked up dramatically for the A10 games.
Average Home Attendance

2012-13

OOC: 6,191 (11 games, high/low: 8,175/4,817)

A10: 9,473* (5 games, high/low: 10,612/8,462)

OVERALL: 7,217*

*3 games to be played,

2011-12

OOC: 6,730 (8 games, high/low: 8,044/5,677)

A10: 8,784 (8 games, high/low: 10,441/6,346)

OVERALL: 7,757

Prior to the Butler game, only the Ohio A10 rivals Dayton and Xavier had drawn 10k+ crowds. Butler and more impressively Charlotte cracked 10k while Dayton drew only 9,548.

Hopefully being in the new Big East will allow us to get some bigger names in the non-conference schedule which will help boost attendance.....

brianstl · February 18, 2013

-possible first and second round site

Well the home team never seems to have games that matter this time of the year in Dayton.

MusicCityBilliken · February 18, 2013

Attendance, unfortunately, is dependent upon winning and tradition and SLU has not been good, in this respect, for years. If student attendance has been poor for the last 50 years, then why is it surprising that SLU alums are slow to attend games. Roy, you have mentioned that students totalled 5 to 10 per game in your day. When I walked the campus from 1989 to 1993, SLU was changing but still largely a commuter schools with very little interest from the locals. My point: these local students are now the alums who CONTINUE to not come to games.
The good news is that student attendance has increased dramatically since the opening of Chaifetz. Also, the quality of the team has increased as well. With continued wins, attendance will increase.

Finally, while I am grateful for RM and all his efforts, and while I certainly understand his frustration with Fr. Biondi, the fact remains that we have not had a head coach conducting a regular radio or TV show in years. IMO, RM made a huge splash and did alot of interviews upon being hired. Thereafter, he deflected the limelight until he could rebuild things. His last two (2), he himself was visible and did alot of intereviews but the marketing of the team and the athletic department was substandard. I understand that St. Louis is a much bigger city than Omaha and Dayton whose local news channels and newspapers lead with coverage of their college team (whereas we lead with coverage of the Cardinals, Rams and Blues) but still, SLU has got to find a way to get better and improved coverage.

Our alums are just not interested.

Every year I go to the Braves-Cards alum event at Turner Field. Usually about 30-40 alums show up, with wifes and kids they have maybe 60-70 total. All seem to have graduated between 1965 to 85. All seem to be St Louis ex-pats and are in Atlanta because of job transfers. Talking with them, they are completely clueless what league we are in, who the coach is (even with Majerus) and no idea how good we are. Living in ACC/SEC country, that kind of attitude is unheard of. Now they all had Cardinal World Champion tee-shirts on, I am one of the few that will wear a Chipper Jones tee .

Now the Atlanta Chapter president did put together a viewing party at a local bar in North Atlanta to view last months Butler-SLU game, since I drove into St Louis to catch that game I didn't get to go. Would have been curious to see what kind of turn-out that was.

Deutschkind · February 18, 2013

Just checked on the Chaifetz site while procrastinating and saw there are only 370 tickets listed as available for tomorrow's game

slufan13 · February 18, 2013

VCU should break 10k and that is pretty good for a Tuesday.

If we can get 10612 on a Thursday, we should get 10612 on a Tuesday.

RUBillsFan · February 19, 2013

If we can get 10612 on a Thursday, we should get 10612 on a Tuesday.

There are a number of difference between the Butler game and the VCU game that makes the VCU game a tougher sell.

1. Tuesday =/= Thursday - It is much easier for out of town folks to skip work on Friday and come in, a lot of students don't have Friday classes, etc.

2. Butler was ranked in the top 10 at the time and VCU is "only" #24.

3. Butler is a bigger name (2 championship game appearances vs 1 final four) and closer geographically. They also have a local player (Roosevelt Jones).

4. For the Butler game free shirts were given to everyone, VCU it is just the students. Its just a shirt, but people like free stuff.

I will be happy if the announced attendance is over 9,500 and the crowd is a good one in terms of noise.

MB73 · February 19, 2013

Attendence has been disapointing for 10-15 years. It is not just "winning". Even with Sodie we won "enough" to get interest except, things have changed a lot, say, since Spoon.

1.Our non conference schedule has been dull, boring, wretched, who wants to see most of those games? IMO some yrs if we had been a game over .500 and played some top notch teams we would be better off than when we won 20 but played USC Upstate whatever.

2.The A-10 is not interesting at all as a conference, 14 (now 16) teams but the only top tier teams are Temple, Xavier and Dayton (well now, this yr, Butler and VCU). No regional interest at all... who is a close rival that fans from other teams can drive to an stir up "fun" and vice versa?

3.No good local players stay here... if they are 4* or 5*, they want to play in a power conference, be on ESPN etc. and play against the best. Yes, it matters, fans want to see a local high school player play in the NCAA.

4.Who wants to drive all the way downtown, park 6 blocks away, all of that... the people who pay money to watch the games live in the county. (please do not compare us to NFL football or The Cardinals)

5.24/7, there is a plethora of sports events on high definition TV to watch... NFL, NCAA football, hoops, NHL, etc. most of the time the Billikens are playing... and yes, HD makes a difference.

6. We still have a brand problem locally, Missouri is on TV all the time and the The SL Post has been favoring Missouri since Moby Dick was a minnow.

7. The St. Louis economy is far worse than the overall national economy, which is far worse than most think.

Again, I have been a season ticket holder on and off for > 30 yrs... not currently... might come back if we get in the C7+... that will help us in so many ways. Friends and associates of mine, including SLU alumni have shocked me, they do not want to go to our games for some or all of the reasons above except the big highlight games.

Basketbill · February 19, 2013

I do not think we won anything like we did the last two years with Sodie. Even last year it was winning, near the end of the season. This year we have built some momentum. For the first time in a while, I had a coworker, tell me they tried to get tickets to a game, Butler, and could not. I could not use my tickets Sauturday, so texted the co-worker and they jumped at the chance. So the momentum is there, another win and we will open up the eyes of many locally and nationally. VCU will be tough but we can beat them....

PS not too many seats left as far as I can tell, perhaps only a few hundred left.....

dlarry · February 19, 2013