Cambridge
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Canes Pugnaces
Posts: 5,304
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Post by Cambridge on Mar 21, 2005 14:13:37 GMT -5
number quoted to me....so far its a little shy of 50% available for students.
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Post by fsohoya on Mar 21, 2005 14:16:51 GMT -5
I guess that means about 600 to 650 sold? Uggh.
I wonder just how many students will be leaving Tuesday night?
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Cambridge
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Canes Pugnaces
Posts: 5,304
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Post by Cambridge on Mar 21, 2005 14:18:48 GMT -5
I don't think the students understand that this is potentially a once-in-a-lifetime event.
I considered catching a shuttle flight down on monday tuesday evening and catching one back on wednesday morning, but couldn't get one that would work...
Sending my brothers in my stead...they will be loud...probably a little tipsy...but all blue and grey.
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Post by fsohoya on Mar 21, 2005 14:25:38 GMT -5
Why did Easter have to come early this year?
I'm going to try to get some more people to go so we can at least get a sellout.
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gopaland
Century (over 100 posts)
Posts: 125
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Post by gopaland on Mar 21, 2005 14:30:52 GMT -5
I don't think the students understand that this is potentially a once-in-a-lifetime event. I considered catching a shuttle flight down on monday tuesday evening and catching one back on wednesday morning, but couldn't get one that would work... Sending my brothers in my stead...they will be loud...probably a little tipsy...but all blue and grey. Same here, a group of us looked into flying in from New York to go to the game and I don't buy that dark years crap - those of us planning to come down for the game were all 2001 alumni - the first four years of the "dark years"
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Cambridge
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Canes Pugnaces
Posts: 5,304
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Post by Cambridge on Mar 21, 2005 14:31:56 GMT -5
I'm 2002...right smack in the middle of the dark years....
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HoyaChris
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,408
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Post by HoyaChris on Mar 21, 2005 14:47:53 GMT -5
Time to be a curmudgeon. The miserable performance by the students is most enlightening in the context of the persistent wailing about how the alumni don't make enough noise at MCI. I would point out that at least the alumni are there and that appears to be the case for tomorrow night's game as well. I just cleared off of the wait list (which has been building since Friday night) and I can't tell you how exciting it was to sit around wondering if I had bought plane tickets to DC in order to lose a chance to see the game to a group of students who apparently need affirmative action in order to ensure their attendance.
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YB
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 2,494
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Post by YB on Mar 21, 2005 15:02:27 GMT -5
Chris, I agree it's disappointing- but I believe it's a matter of re-developing a culture of fandom among them, as well as the alums. I mean, there are more than 40k GU alums in the DC area alone. We can't even get 10% of them to attend the average MCI game.
My point is, there's lots of disappointment to go around- we should focus in on ways to boost enthusiasm, something that criticism seldom does.
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SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,379
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Post by SSHoya on Mar 21, 2005 15:02:53 GMT -5
Agree with HoyaChris. I bought six tickets by calling in at 10 am last Friday thinking this would be totally sold out. I am an old alum ('77) and make lots of noise. Bringing a '00 Hoya who is also a rabid fan. No more alumni bashing!
Disappointing that with the renewed hope and improvements this year, students can't stumble down the hill to support the team.
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Post by fsohoya on Mar 21, 2005 15:13:17 GMT -5
I support any Hoya fan, young or old, and frankly through the years have been disappointed with every age group. But part of the key to reviving excitement in the program is to make the best of what you have, and an opportunity to play a meaningful game at McDonough on ESPN doesn't come very often. Unfortunately, while it seems the alums are doing there part, the students aren't. That assesment, importantly, requires one central question be answered: How many students really have unchangeable Easter travel plans that take them away from campus before 9:00 Tuesday night (about the time the game should end)? Unless it's a large majority of the student body, there's no excuse for not selling out student tickets. True, alums can buy more, and should if they are available, but they have already taken more than their initial allotment.
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RBHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 4,134
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Post by RBHoya on Mar 21, 2005 15:29:52 GMT -5
Ok, so the home game at McDonough clearly highlites the problem of lack of student interest. Instead of alums and students alike sitting here and whining about it, we ALL need to try to come up with some ideas as to how to improve the situation in the future. I agree that the key to success is that it has to be "cool" to go to the games and also "cool" to cheer at the games. When everyones doing it, its uncool to not do it, rather than the reverse. At somewhere like Duke or even like Villanova, basketball games are THE thing to do, and people are willing to go to great lengths to get involved. We just haven't been able to reach that level here. Some of that can be attributed to the fact that our student body is much more diverse, some of that can be attributed to the fact that we haven't been a winning program in some time, and some of it can be attributed to poor publicity. Nonetheless, I still think theres a lot that can be done to improve attendance and create more noise at the games. I really think that this offseason we ALL need to try to come up with some better ideas on how to market the team to the student body, both on a large scale and in more of a grassroots-type way. The teams going to be decent next year at the very least, excellent at best, and they'll need our support. There are a lot of intelligent people on this board, so I think we should be able to come up with some ideas here, and those of us undergrads who care enough will find ways to work it out. No rest for us fans this offseason! Once the season ends, we oughta be on here batting around marketing ideas.
As for tomorrow, Can 2007 or any other dedicated student section fans tip me off as to how early youll be headed for McDonough? I sat in the front row at the BU game and so now Im afraid anything else will be a disappointment, but I dont want to go there an extra hour early just to sit outside the building if I dont have to.
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FLHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Proud Member of Generation Burton
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Post by FLHoya on Mar 21, 2005 16:37:04 GMT -5
Ok, so the home game at McDonough clearly highlites the problem of lack of student interest. Instead of alums and students alike sitting here and whining about it, we ALL need to try to come up with some ideas as to how to improve the situation in the future. I agree that the key to success is that it has to be "cool" to go to the games and also "cool" to cheer at the games. When everyones doing it, its uncool to not do it, rather than the reverse. At somewhere like Duke or even like Villanova, basketball games are THE thing to do, and people are willing to go to great lengths to get involved. We just haven't been able to reach that level here. Some of that can be attributed to the fact that our student body is much more diverse, some of that can be attributed to the fact that we haven't been a winning program in some time, and some of it can be attributed to poor publicity. Nonetheless, I still think theres a lot that can be done to improve attendance and create more noise at the games. I really think that this offseason we ALL need to try to come up with some better ideas on how to market the team to the student body, both on a large scale and in more of a grassroots-type way. The teams going to be decent next year at the very least, excellent at best, and they'll need our support. There are a lot of intelligent people on this board, so I think we should be able to come up with some ideas here, and those of us undergrads who care enough will find ways to work it out. No rest for us fans this offseason! Once the season ends, we oughta be on here batting around marketing ideas. As for tomorrow, Can 2007 or any other dedicated student section fans tip me off as to how early youll be headed for McDonough? I sat in the front row at the BU game and so now Im afraid anything else will be a disappointment, but I dont want to go there an extra hour early just to sit outside the building if I dont have to. Hey, more power to you for wanting to come up with ideas to improve the student fanbase! I've always believed that there's a number of great ideas that are practical and would actually work just floating out there in the heads of individual students. It's just a matter of giving those students a place to spill them, and some sense of assurance that whoever's listening can actually do something with the ideas (or better yet, that they'll let the kid who came up with the idea work on it). We need a HoyaTalk blue ribbon panel of students is what we need!! Well, that, or Hoya Blue to grow ears. (EDIT: I guess revisiting Cafe Harmony wouldn't hurt either) I decided not too long ago that I'm going to try and write more Generation Burton columns this summer (of course, maybe I should be telling DFW this first, but whatever). I told myself after the first batch that I'd go to all the games this year and see how things went. Then I'd figure out if there was anything else to say. I think there is. Last summer's were more about general promotional strategies--things like figuring out what the student fanbase looks like, how to market games on a really small grassroots level, etc. What I want to do this time around is take on this issue of how we can use all of this talent and energy among the dedicated fans in our student section for some good. It just makes sense--promotions are going to work better and the ideas are going to be better when the most passionate people get involved. I mean, of all the promotional things I've heard about for the past two games, the best ones involve GUHoya2007 and his friends with a spray can and bed sheets or whatever they're using. These kids aren't in an organization, they aren't working for Hoya Blue--they're just doing it b/c they're die-hard fans who got together and were willing to put in the effort. You're telling me these type of people wouldn't be doing a better job than the hastily put-together (and misspelled) Hoya Blue email that went out (apparently after much "encouragement") this afternoon? The preliminary plan is I'm going to try to find something like 7-8 (or more) students who represent different kinds of "die-hard" fans in the student section. My hope is to interview all of these kids in some form, in part to get their ideas on how to promote the team, but also to ask them about why they like the basketball team so much. The interview's going to be the "glue" that holds together the rest of the article where I talk about bigger things. It's in the planning stages, believe me, there's some work to be done. So why is this relevant to Tuesday night's game? Well, only in the sense that the themes about making it "cool" to go to games and making a better promotions strategy were brought up. Personally, I'm holding off judgement and commentary on the issue of student turnout until I...see the turnout tomorrow night. There's some comments I could make now about the issues raised in this thread--but I'm going to save them. Both of the NIT tickets related threads are on sort of a "flash news" pace right now--not good for philosophical discussion. Maybe sometime in a week or so and maybe on the Hoya Blue board.
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RBHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 4,134
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Post by RBHoya on Mar 21, 2005 20:00:54 GMT -5
Great post FL, as always. I'll keep it succinct because we have the whole offseason to start coming together with suggestions, but Im really looking forward to the results of your research. Whether we decide to try to rework Hoya Blue or perhaps start a new endeavor, theres are at least a handful of spirited underclassmen on this forum alone who want to get things going, and where there is a will there is a way.
I'll keep any eye out for a post on the Hoya Blue Board, I check it from time to time even though theres almost no traffic there at all.
For now, lets get pumped about this game.
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GUHoya07
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 4,083
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Post by GUHoya07 on Mar 21, 2005 20:59:10 GMT -5
Ok, so the home game at McDonough clearly highlites the problem of lack of student interest. Instead of alums and students alike sitting here and whining about it, we ALL need to try to come up with some ideas as to how to improve the situation in the future. I agree that the key to success is that it has to be "cool" to go to the games and also "cool" to cheer at the games. When everyones doing it, its uncool to not do it, rather than the reverse. At somewhere like Duke or even like Villanova, basketball games are THE thing to do, and people are willing to go to great lengths to get involved. We just haven't been able to reach that level here. Some of that can be attributed to the fact that our student body is much more diverse, some of that can be attributed to the fact that we haven't been a winning program in some time, and some of it can be attributed to poor publicity. Nonetheless, I still think theres a lot that can be done to improve attendance and create more noise at the games. I really think that this offseason we ALL need to try to come up with some better ideas on how to market the team to the student body, both on a large scale and in more of a grassroots-type way. The teams going to be decent next year at the very least, excellent at best, and they'll need our support. There are a lot of intelligent people on this board, so I think we should be able to come up with some ideas here, and those of us undergrads who care enough will find ways to work it out. No rest for us fans this offseason! Once the season ends, we oughta be on here batting around marketing ideas. As for tomorrow, Can 2007 or any other dedicated student section fans tip me off as to how early youll be headed for McDonough? I sat in the front row at the BU game and so now Im afraid anything else will be a disappointment, but I dont want to go there an extra hour early just to sit outside the building if I dont have to. Great post, I agree with everything you wrote. As far as tomorrow goes, We're getting there at 4PM BABY!!! YES, that is only 3 hours before gametime, I know, we should be there earlier, haha. We're gonna be grilling and having some good times getting pumped up for the game. I CANT WAIT!!!
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GUHoya07
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 4,083
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Post by GUHoya07 on Mar 21, 2005 21:14:08 GMT -5
All of the banners we put up last night got blown down today by the wind and I also think because of the damp brick last night. However, I managed to put one of them back up today in between my 5 classes. It looks a little crappy now but at least its there.
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