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52 minutes ago, Taj79 said:

skip -- read my lips ... this has little to do with attendance and teams moving.  This has to do with the question of will more local players on the roster result in greater attendance at Billiken games.  My answer remains the same --- no.   Yes, there might be an exception in a Hughes or Tatum or Beal-type player but in general, no.  Names?  How about Kevin Lisch.  Tommie Liddell III.  Dwayne Polk.  Luke Meyer.  Matt Naiak.  Luther Burden.  PeeWee Lenard.  John Duff.  Reditt Hudson.  Dale Renken.  Chris Sloan.  All ns, just like my list of minor league teams.  I'd offer you can have a team comprised of 13 St. Louisans and if they go 10 and 24, short of their families, the general St. Louis area and fan won't care.  

This will be easy enough to verify.  When we make consecutive tournaments with this crop of local players, compare the attendance to the Majerus tournament teams, which didn't have a local flavor.  

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Interesting fun fact - at Travis Ford's previous school - their average attendance this past year was only 300 more per game, despite playing in a more high profile league and having an arena capacity 3,000 more than the Fetz - so far example, they have the ability to get a big one-time boost when they play a high profile opponent like Kansas or OU.

 

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I assume you mean 300 more at OSU than us at SLU?  And I am not surprised.  I think we might be in the middle range of mid-major attendance figures slumping well behind the North Carolinas and Michigan State's of the world.  Of course, all that is governed by size of facility too.  But I also think schools like High Point and others will naturally decrease the gene pool because evenif they sell out, their gyms only hodl 2 or 3 grand.  That's why I'd love to see what the average is for the smaller group sof "big" schools an dkeep the small frys out.  Better representation in the numbers.   Would also advocate taking the so-called P5 schools out and see how the rest of those conferences compare.  Just so I'm ready for that "Jeopardy" question when it comes up.

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10 hours ago, Taj79 said:

skip -- read my lips ... this has little to do with attendance and teams moving.  This has to do with the question of will more local players on the roster result in greater attendance at Billiken games.  My answer remains the same --- no.   Yes, there might be an exception in a Hughes or Tatum or Beal-type player but in general, no.  Names?  How about Kevin Lisch.  Tommie Liddell III.  Dwayne Polk.  Luke Meyer.  Matt Naiak.  Luther Burden.  PeeWee Lenard.  John Duff.  Reditt Hudson.  Dale Renken.  Chris Sloan.  All ns, just like my list of minor league teams.  I'd offer you can have a team comprised of 13 St. Louisans and if they go 10 and 24, short of their families, the general St. Louis area and fan won't care.   

All teams move (so it seems) and will continue to do so if the bottom lien remains in the red.  I would say Baltimore lost the Colts because Irsay put a bad product on the field, made going to a game miserable and expensive for such a poor product and when no one showed up, gave him the  perceived  right to bolt to Indy. Bidwell continually put a weak product on the field and made constant demands on the city.  As I said, I was proud of the city when they said don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.  And what has that family done since they got to Arizona?  One miraculous Super Bowl appearance.  And constant runs for the #1 draft pick.

The Bullets eventually moved because the Baltimore Arena (still used today) is/was antiquated.  Still is.  There is no fan experience there.    They got a sweet deal to move to Largo and play in the Cap Center.  Then, what with allthe killings in DC and Baltimore, 'Bullets' was too politically insensitive,  They went to Wizards.  The Cap Center was akin to DC as Florissant is to downtown St. Louis, ergo the downtown Verizon Center (or whatever it is) with its fan-friendly, price-gouging amenities.

The only reason you don't hear about the Orioles moving is because Peter Angelos got a sweet deal in the Expo's relocation from Montreal to DC.  It created the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) and gave the Orioles and Nats equal-standing television outlets whereby they generate and keep their own revenues.  Or at least add to the pot.  Ownership of baseball in Baltimore is not concerned with winning or losing --- they have the revenue and Oriole Park is seen as a additional source for such -- the product on the field is horrible.  All these new palaces are like that ---- look over here, we have a nice crab cake stand or craft beer line.  Don't look over there, the product on the field s horrible.

Have you seen Jacobs Field lately?  The Indians can't draw to fill the stadium.  They have changed over the upper deck in right field into something other than stands.  I think the press might sit there or something like some sort of picnic deck.  In any case, they took a lot of the seats out.  So yes .... exactly like the Indians and Jacobs Field.

Your point on D1 attendance is fine ---- however, there are what, 354 "D1" teams in NCAA men's basketball?  Powerhouse places like High Point, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Chicago State, Florida A&M, Arkansas -Pine Bluff.  I would offer that average attendance is more telling if you only do it for the Top 8 or 10 conferences.  Then do your average.  Then see how SLU compares.  My problem is with SLU's accounting ---- I believe they count tickets sold, not fannies through the turnstiles.  Which might be the way every team does it.  But you could have a 'sell out' and no  one shows.  I was at the Butler game which I believe was labeled a sell out and seats were available or unoccupied to say the least.  This still would never answer the question 'what was the walk up crowd?' which I think is also important in determining if the support is local to the area or just local to people affiliated with the school.  Bottom lien is we'd never really know.

 

I don't care what you think about whether SLU will have better attendance with local players or not. I think it'll help but not as much as winning will. I was responding to your digs at St. Louis. 

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Again, for the record, I love St.Louis.  Wouldn't change a thing.  But it is what it is.  Just as Philly fans are obnoxious ..... Washington fans are arrogant ...... Baltimore fans are perennially optimistic ......

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If somehow we could achieve a consistent winning program that is a regular at the annual big dance and avoid the sputtering of 2-3 good years followed up by 4-5 mediocre or bad years, attendance will go up. I don't think it will matter a heck of a lot where the players are from. Yes, good locals will put more folks in the seats but not by leaps and bounds. A perennial winner is what's needed. 

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On 4/18/2019 at 6:51 PM, Band Legend said:

Blues support is actually a lot like Billikens support.  They have approximately 12,000 bluesiers who will show up faithfully no matter what.  We have 5000 who will do the same.  The Blues were begging for more fans at the end of the Dave Checketts era.  Additionally, they are on shaky financial ground even when they're selling out.  I wouldn't be citing the Blues as a bulletproof franchise.

 

 

 

 

 

Complete non-sequitor, but a bit of Blues/Bills trivia.  Patrick Maroon.  His father was a soccer Bill.  Walked on in 74.  Played a couple of games in mop up time.  Backed up Hudson/Droege.  Did not return in 75.  

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