Dayton Tickets

[billiken_roy]

i remember when i was a student at slu in the late 70's and early 80's we barely would have enough people to fill the front row around the checkerdome. the student section behind the basket was usually me and maybe another 9 guys. anyone upset with our current 8k is too young to remember real bad attendance and poor student turnout.

that said, i agree it should be better not only in the student section but everywhere. it baffles me why it continues to fall as badly as it does. spoon had worse seasons than anything that romar and soderberg have encountered yet the lemmings would file in game after game. maybe we need to get larry the cable guy as the coach.

[Billiken Law]

I went to a Dayton game 2 years ago during break and their student section was packed and loud. There is no excuse for local students to not show up on the weekend to support their school.

[billiken_roy]

someone made the comment here recently about billiken fans think they are at a cardinal baseball fan. at first i blew that off. but the more we write on this string, the more i wonder if there might be some significance to that. think about it. 81 games a year the cardinals pack the place. we all go down there and take in the baseball experience. a game that thrives on action in spurts and far between. an experience that is conducive to having a visit with your game mate or the neighboring fan. you can compare stereo pricing or discuss last nite's law and order between pitches. between innings you wander out to the concourse for whatever. you take walks for an inning or two and dont miss a thing. get the picture? the st louis sports fan is trained to smell the flowers and watch the clouds go by.

not sure that is an easy change.

conversely, the radical sports fan in st louis is the hockey fan. but ever notice those guys dont care about anything but hockey? imo, that was the fan we should have chased this year. instead they are home watching reruns of "3" and those "classic hockey" games on tv.

as to our student section. i was all set for my son to become a "blue crew" member when he started his freshman year. in fact i told him to let me know what the fee was and i would reimburse him. he was all set for it as well and had his roomie up for it too. low and behold about a month after school started i asked him about it (i am summarizing here because i dont remember his exact words) he said he was advised by the people i assume on his floor and in his frat that it isnt cool to be in the blue crew. no one does that.

you might as well have hit me in the face with a hot frying pan it would have hurt less. to think, billiken roy's son wasnt going to be in the blue crew. i told him i never missed a billiken game when i was at slu and i always was one of the front row guys that was screaming at wiley brown and threatening to bite his other thumb off, etc. it was his family duty and honor to be in the blue crew. to make a long story short, he isnt. he either sits with me in my seats or if he does come with another school bud, he sits up near the top of the students to stay out of the blue crew.

now if there is enough student peer pressure and apathy to turn billiken roy's rabid son against the student experience, i can only imagine how it is for the rest of the student body. i.e. enough isnt being done to make the students want to be a part of the experience. if the student life people are doing their job, the peer pressure should be you are a dork if you dont want to be in the blue crew.

until that happens, nothing will change.

fwiw, i still love the blue crew. i think they are fantastic and they have my undying support and gratitude. the kids (including my own son) who dont want to be in the blue crew are the dorks. they dont know what fun (and satisfaction YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE) they are missing.

the picture brad painted last tuesday nite describing gonzaga's student section was awesome. there is no reason saint louis university students cant do the same and doesnt want to do the same.

[billiken_roy]

might want to call ahead and make a contingent hotel reservation. carbondale should be right in the path of this terrific storm that will apparently mostly miss st louis.

[slufanskip]

If you want to know come over to 105 down low ... I am up and loud ... especially during the end of the game. Thicks and Tonka will testify ... There are always empty seats near me ... good seats ... come on over and maybe we can get something started. In close games I am even yelling at the people around me to get up ... every once in a while a couple of people will get up ... the rest of the time they just look at me like I am stupid.

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman

[SLUAvtr]

Roy, that's about the saddest story I've ever heard, and I mean it. I cannot believe that your son would be told that it wasn't good to go and root for your own school's team!!! That's RIDICULOUS!!! If there's any way to get this story to Student Life/Billiken Marketing/Media, it should go to them. I know how hard they all work to try and promote men's games, and to have their work ripped from right out under the noses by some possible snot-nosed punk who thinks getting plastered and pondering the definition of the word "dude" or something like that is preposterous! I'm now an alumn, and even if I wasn't in the band, I'd be at every home game nonetheless. This just makes the crowd blow that much worse. Roy, with all due respect, I am sorry your son had that opportunity ripped away from him.

"It's a 106 miles to Chicago...we have a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.....HIT IT!"

Blues Brothers

[billiken_roy]

to clarify, my son is still a rabid fan and he doesnt miss the games. he just doesnt think it is cool to be in the blue crew (or has let someone or a group of his slu peers talk him into that).

if you think about it, since that one friday game earlier this year when the students came out in force, there hasnt been a student attendance to come close to approaching that. now what happened to that one game to get them there? why did they ALL quit coming?

the illini hold interviews to get into the orange crush it is so popular. the candidates have to pledge fundraising goals, etc. that would be nice to get that kind of want to be in the rabid student section. and folks that doesnt happen just in good years. it has always been that way. i still say the on campus people arent doing enough. and i dont want to hear about the off campus arena thing. it isnt a valid excuse. i would bet the farm, far more students leave campus more than once a week to just screw around regularly than what stay. if they can leave for that, they can leave to go to the savvis.

[slufanskip]

I have met Roy's kid a couple of times and he seems like a good guy ... but he didn't have anything ripped away from him ... no matter what you do in life ... some people will think you are "cool" and some won't. He had a choice on which way to go and he made it. I would bet Roy agrees and thinks he should have joined regardless of what his friends thought ... maybe they were actually the un cool ones

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[billiken_roy]

that said, i recognize that "peer pressure" today is so much more intense than when i was a kid many moons ago. i would not want to deal with it. he does a pretty good job overall being himself and i am very proud of him.

[slufanskip]

I wasn't dogging him Roy ... just thought saying something that was ripped away from him was quite a bit overboard.

Hell ... I am affected by peer pressure ... I only post on here because you do.

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman

[SLUAvtr]

Not that it means much, but to clarify, I meant the Student Life/Billiken Marketing/Media Relations work was being ripped right out from under them. And if you think about it, it is. People undermining the work to try and get fans/student section in the door. It just......sucks. I know, not how an alumn should talk, but it is what it is.

"It's a 106 miles to Chicago...we have a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.....HIT IT!"

Blues Brothers

[BleacherBum593]

Hit a little precepitation on the way down, but other than that it was an easy drive down & back for the bus driver.

Good thing the beer was cold, because the game .... well I can't print what I'm thinking at this time... if you know what I mean.

[BleacherBum593]

about row 3 or 4? The guy with the hat?

[SluSignGuy]

>if you think about it, since that one friday game earlier

>this year when the students came out in force, there hasnt

>been a student attendance to come close to approaching that.

> now what happened to that one game to get them there? why

>did they ALL quit coming?

The Billikens are a bad team...No one likes to watch a bad team.

We have potential, but it is hard to sell potential to someone my age for them to get on a Shuttle to go to the game. Yet alone leave their home and friends on x-mas break.

Steve

[slufanskip]

Yes I usually wear a hat ... a Bills cap or lately a blue stocking cap ... Row 3 ... come on down

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman

[BleacherBum593]

Know exactly where your sitting.

And I can hear you too

[SLU_Nick]

There has been alot of speculation about why students do not go to games and as a current student I can say that most of you guys are right. I ended up going to the Hawaii game by myself because my friends wouldnt have it.

Some reasons I have found,

12 oclock afternoon games people are recovering and preparing for a test on monday

The team sucks

getting commuted to the savvis does seem to be a big deal for people

And really the school spirit as SLU just isnt good. People are really more worried about their GPA.

Everyone needs to keep a certain GPA to keep their scholarships (which most people are on). So a lot of my friends get nearly no free time and when they do, it is spent with friends in the dorm, they dont want to expend the energy wednesday night getting trucked to savvis at 630 get back at 10 and then try to relax. I go to every game that ROTC doesnt interfere with, so I certainly dont condone this behavior. But I hope that shines a LITTLE light on where people are coming from.

It is really sad cause even if we do have a good team I dont see people coming to all the games. Their attitudes wont change. They will come for Louisville, Cinci and Marquette. IT REALLY MAKES ME MAD. At least you alum dont have to listen to the lame lame excuses I get from people.

People are trying to spread school spirit. But Darren Pais cant do it all by himself. I have thought about this for a while, and I really dont see how our poor attendance would change with the current situation. i.e bad team and savvis center

I hope that sheds some light

[Box and Won]

I think that having an on-campus arena will have a great impact.

Maybe you just run with a different crowd than I did, but I don't think anyone I knew was studying on Saturday afternoons. Recovering from hangovers, maybe, but not studying. Even my girlfriend, who was a near 4.0 student in the PT program, still managed to find the time to go to games with me. I have a hard time buying the "I have to study" excuse from most people anyway, unless someone has a test the very next day. Whenever someone would tell me that, I took it as a polite way of telling me to f--- off. SLU is not Harvard for Christ's sake, it's not all that hard to have a social life and maintain a high GPA.

[SLUAvtr]

Take it from a recent graduate in May, I'd hate to break it to everyone, but that is the mentality students have. They do use the excuse I have to study almost EVERY frickin' time. I understand about the GPA/scholarship thing (as I was one of them), but I still went to every game, hell, I'm in the band, we're there an hour and a half before game-time and usually at least 30-45 minutes after too. You're right! Having to study is not a valid excuse, EVER!!!!

"It's a 106 miles to Chicago...we have a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.....HIT IT!"

Blues Brothers

[eskimo]

I loved the 12 o'clock Saturday games...gave me a reason to drink earlier.

As much crediblity as that statement gives me...my friends went to the basketball games because we had a blast at them. We never paid for a ticket (since money is an issue in college)...either we got them at the box office for free the day before or someone from the blue crew would get them for us (SShoe thanks).

How do you get students to these games??? You make the games free and you get the college kids drunk. The Athletic Department needs to make the environment of these games like parties for students. Unless college kids have changed in the 3 years since I've graduated...they like to party. For the remainder of the season, why not take 2,000+ tickets for each game (that obviously won't be sold anyway) and give them away to student groups. Not only fraternities/sororities, but any of the organizations could turn those free tickets into a damn fun social event...(i.e. if I was social coordinator for one of these organizations I would take these free tickets, have a tailgate before the game around SLU's campus, rent a bus with social funds, and then have a party at The Arena Club, Al Hrabosky's or Mickey's after the game.) These students might then find these games fun and go to more of them this year and next. If the students think these games are fun and not too expensive they will go...no matter how much they will fall behind in their College Algebra class.

[slufanskip]

It's hard to drink much at the Savvis at $10.00 per beer ... Think that might have something to do with it ... Maybe we could just put a 6 pack under each seat in the student section ...

There are many more students at the soccer games than at the BBall games ... I wonder how they get around studdying for those ... they don't ... they drink a little in their rooms and then come to the game and finish the party afterwards ...

The poster above nailed it ... make alcohol easier to obtain and less expensive and we have a good student crowd. Hell ... about now the team could use a few shots before the game to loosen up a bit.

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman

[cheeseman]

First of all - 1:00pm games are stinkers for getting students to attend - they are still trying to figure out that it is Saturday at that time. The don't start thinking about what to do until after 5:00pm - An on campus arena with more evening games will get more students to attend. I do have one question - How are tickets obtained by students - do they have to buy individual ones, do they have an all sports pass, is it included in their activity fee?

[slufanskip]

I don't have a clue ... but I still think the answer is a free 6 pack or a 1/2 pint under every seat in the student section ... Hell there college students it doesn't even have to be good liquor ... I am going to suggest that all my future donations go to a student liquor fund.

That's right Skip for President next election ...

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman

[billiken_roy]

it is my understanding that unless they bought a season ticket (only like $35 per year) the student has to go to the ticket office before the game and pick up a ticket with their id. they are free on a first come first serve basis.