Alonzo P Hawk Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 while i am heavily involved in the SLU TV project, i'm coming from the theatre major/business administration major side of things. so i am involved in slu tv's "features," "arts & entertainment" and "sports" departments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Thanks for the report Alonzo. We old folks on the board like to hear about things happening on campus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonka Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 the whole bus thing and that students should find a way to the games no matter what - is crap. You are just being argumentative. Sure these students can find a way if they had to, but that's not the point. Our student section has been horrible for years. I must say I am impressed with the BlueCrew and glad to see the effort and support. If the university and the athletic department can't see to it that students have a way to the games each and every time, that is just horrible! This is not the students fault! Since the games are played off campus, then SLU to needs to make every darn effort possible to make sure there are plenty of busses available. How anyone could argue that the students should have made due is just crap. How in the world are you going to get students to come to games if stuff like this is happening. I'll tell you what, everybody talks about the future of this program being bright, well it's going to take a hell of a lot more than just bring in a good coach and good recruits. We have Brad, he's getting us recruits, and arena is on the way - now it's time for all the stuff to start happening. Marketing needs to pick up, there needs to be a local bar or on-campus bar picking up the games, and so on. People keep dropping the ball and that is unacceptable! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicCityBilliken Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 30 years ago we used to walk it. Many times it was in the rain or bitter cold. I remember after beating ND with a Jesse Leonard buzzer beating beautiful move to the basket we celebrated on the way back by running around the old Union Station. That's when trains used stop at Union Station. WOW, am I showing my age........... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueCrewPres Posted January 16, 2004 Author Share Posted January 16, 2004 cheeseman is correct...Blue Crew members still find (and have found) ways to get to the games, but the casual student (who is what we really need since there are 7k of them) decides to go back to the dorm room and watch it on tv. I've seen it happen vs. Zona and now SMiss... its like on Braveheart when the troops desert William Wallace before battling the English. Yes, Humphreys has bailed us out on numerous occasions but ITS NOT THEIR RESPONSIBILITY...we dont drink there before games and were not technically patrons of the establishment, theyre just nice enough to help us out. If it weren't for Jan at Humphreys, 35 BC members and I wouldnt have even gotten to the SMiss game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StlCardinal Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Was it uphill both ways, in a driving hail storm, too? Kids must have been a lot tougher back then ;-). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluecrewwebmaster Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Yes i am a student and yes i am a passionate Bills fan. I would walk to the game if it was the only way but this just simply isnt the case with most of this campus. Let's face it, most students just arent billikens fans. The program just hasnt offered them much in the last five or ten years. A big dance appearense or NIT here and there and thats it. A good majority come from other cities and root for other teams such as the Arizona's and Cincinnati's. SLU needs to make it easy to attend games, that is the only way a lot of students will show up. Offering a casual fan a free ticket and bus ride will do it, but with not bus ride and not much of an emotional investment in the team, most students would rather just watch it on TV. "IF you provide transportation, THEY will come." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alameda bob Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Where are the seats? Downstairs, are you kidding me? Rather watch on TV! I don't get it? Take the metro with a gang of guys and gals and root for your classmates! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Ok ... I have to get my 2 or 3 cents in. I can't believe the students don't feel very much love for the team that represents their school. I think that is sad. Going to the games would help them form an attachment to the team and as we all know, that will be easier with the on campus arena. Even with the arena a couple of miles away ... it seems to me more students should attend and support their team ... especially with free tickets ... find a way to get to the game. SLU should not be obligated to provide free bus service to the games ... but I think they should anyway. The real problem is the fact that they did obligate themselves by promising the bus service. To not follow through and provide it is wrong. We spend thousands of dollars and many man hours of a highly paid employees time, to get the best players to come to SLU and to play and win games. To not be able to get a low level employee to support that cause and do the little things that provide a winning and supportive enviroment for the team is utterly ridiculous. But as we see across the board at SLU the overall management of the athletic department is poor. They rarely take care of the small details. If they have someone assigned to get these tasks complete, then they need to be held accountable ... if not then top management needs to take a look at the big picture and get a plan of action in place to run a quality department ... all the way down to the smallest detail. Many times you can do so many things right ... but when you forget the little details ... it leaves a sour taste and negates all or most of the positives. It is not just SLU though ... I am in the car business. Dealers spend mega dollars on employees and advertising to sell a car. Then how many times have you left with a bad feeling about your transaction ... because the first stop you had to make was at the gas station ... or you would quickly be walking again. Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 no offense guys, but you are preaching to the choir. the couple few students we hear from on this board are billiken nuts just like us. i appreciate the fact they are telling us a solution to get the dead a$$ students to at least consider a trip to the savvis. what is sad, is that it has always been a problem. when i was a student, i will never forget sitting in the front row under the basket with about 5 other students watching the soon to be national champion louisville team of darrell griffith and friends dismantle david burns. you had two of the most exciting players in the country playing, you had the number one team in the nation and we had about 5 students at the game. whenever i get p'd about the students, i remember that game and say, "it was even worse". that said, unless the kids start to come out, they sure wouldnt get all of the best seats in the new house. i would leave them right where they are until they show some consistent support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Agreed .... That's what I said ... it is very hard for me to believe that they are not just dying to go ... especially with free tickets. Still ... that doesn't release the school from it's responsibility to fulfill it's promise. It really is just a case of piss-poor management. I'm sorry to say ...but I think we see a lot of that from the Bills. I say we give Margo a nice raise and put her in charge of overseeing a lot of these type of things. She is always on the ball and does a great job. I bet we would see immediate improvement. Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lobo Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 When I was at SLU I rarely misssed a home game and usually went to 2 away games per season. There was fairly decent student support from the dorm students. However, there wasn't much else to do as there really wasn't a campus. There were no free tickets and no free bus. We took the city bus or walked. We lived with most of the players and new them, some well. We believed in school spirit and supported our team. Now if the school said there would be bus service then they should have provided it. This Jan at Humphrey's sounds like a real fan and a true supporter. I don't understand the apathy of the students. If free tickets and bus service doesn't help then I doubt an on-campus arena will. Maybe college credit for perfect attendance might. I suspect the problem is systemic. Maybe the very success of college sports (football & bb)exposure and $ are the very reasons for its failure with students. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonwich Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 We were so poor that we lived in a shoebox in the middle of the road... (The scariest part of all is that routine itself is now about 30 years old!!!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLUBandTBone Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 I'm a current SLU student and I too and discouraged by the lack of student attendance to the basketball games. But I don't think the only reason is the lack of bus transportation. One thing is the lack of marketing on behalf of the athletic department. Even for the Arizona game, which was on ESPN, there was hardly any promotion. It wouldn't be hard to send out a mass e-mail before games or put up flyers around campus advertising the games or even if you could see it on Charter. Another point that was stated earlier was the kids who come from Cincinnati or Milwaukee or Big 12 country don't see the quality in SLU's program so just assume they arn't any good. I think that if the AD promoted the fun and competition of SLU games it would improve student participation dramatically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 and for those not as old as us bonwich, that is vintage monty python...........ahhhh they dont make sketch comedy like that anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StlCardinal Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 As see I it as one of the die-hard students who goes to all the games, I think there are two major reasons for students not coming out to the games. First, the perception on campus is that the team is not very good. This is obviously not true, but since students don't see the Bills on SportsCenter every night, I think they just assume that the team must be bad and not worth their time. If the team were ranked, I guarantee that you would see a lot more students at the games. Second, it seems like SLU is not a school that kids dream of going to since they are in grade school. I can't count how many people I've talked to that passed up their first choice school and chose SLU because they were offered the best financial aid package here. It's considered cool to bash SLU, and if you have school spirit, people look at you like you have three eyes. It really is a shame, because going to games with tons of students can be so fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 I know when I was a student, I felt that I always had to sell the program to my fellow students. I still sell it to my friends now. People complain that the atmosphere at the Savvis Center is a far cry from that of Cameron, but by just showing up, making noise and occasionally acting a little crazy, THEY have the power to make the Savvis a lot of fun. The Blue Crew is doing an awesome job, and I hope that it gets the support it needs from the administration to help build momentum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alameda bob Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Thanks for enlightening me how much the times have changed since I attended SLU in the early 60's. There was no ESPN, of course, so we thought we had the best game in town, even with the Hawks sharing Keil with us. I agree that the details sound pretty shaky at the AD now and that has to be fixed. The Billiken booster club should be able to help turn it around. I say to the students, you are adults and should not be whining that the school bus didn't come like when you were in grade school. SLU is big time D-1 hoops and they won't win every game, but you will enjoy the experience if you check them out. Get off your rears and off your computers for a few hours a week, you will be in for a lot of memories later on when you tell the folks you work with you saw the Bills play and they ask you "What's a Billiken?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lobo Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 I was there in the early 60s also and experienced the 'slow down ball' of Coach John Bennington. There was spirit at the games and we all had fun. And as I recall the girls (women) left the dorms and attended in small groups. Fraternities were supportive of the games & TKE had their bell and it was the place to be... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Most of these issues will be solved by the new on-campus arena. It isn't just a coincidence that more students attend soccer games on-campus than basketball games off-campus. Those of us in the "real" world soon forget that a college student's world typically consists of the campus boundaries, plus the block or two that students will walk for cheap food and drinks. Plus, this isn't the same SLU that many of the posters on this board attended--the majority of the undergraduate students are no longer from the St. Louis area. With a new arena, the caliber of players, the atmoshphere, and the student attendance will all increase significantly. Does anyone know how the "accelerated fundraising" is going this month? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lobo Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 I didn't know that more students attend soccer games than basketball. And... you are correct SLU isn't the same school today as it was in the early 60s. It has imporved exponentially in all ways and the on-campus arena - a creek runs through it - will be just one more major imporvement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 I didn't make any soccer games this season, but I have been to at least one game every other year since they moved back on campus. While I don't have any statistics supporting my claim, it always appeared as though there were a lot of students at the soccer games. Because soccer isn't exactly the most popular spectator sport in the U.S., I assume that the good student support was due to the on-campus location of the soccer stadium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBand Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 It certainly could be true that more students are attending the soccer matches, However, I think that since the venue is smaller (6,000 seats compared to 22,000) a student section of 500 at the larger venue will appear smaller than those same 500 at the smaller venue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alameda bob Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Back in my day SLU won about 8 of the first 10 National Championships in Soccer and I can not recall where they played the games because NO ONE went to watch them then. Maybe a few parents, but that's about it. Keil used to rock and roll at basketball games. My best memory was a New Years Eve game against Ohio State with Lucas, Havlichek, etc. that we lost but was a real barnburner. It didn't get any better than that back then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyClyde Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Yep...somebody elses responsibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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