SFHoya99
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 17,791
|
Post by SFHoya99 on Jan 19, 2006 10:27:25 GMT -5
If the tickets are given to students for free, the value of the tickets would be tax-deductible if done properly through the University.
For this year's Pointsettia Bowl, the Naval Academy was asking folks to be an extra ticket then donate it so that more midshipmen could go to the game.
|
|
|
Post by Churchwell on Jan 19, 2006 10:44:20 GMT -5
I am a local alum and have had season tickets for 12 years now. I am a relatively quiet, reserved guy in my normal life but a total homer idiot when it comes to Hoya Basketball. If you sit anywhere near the floor in section 110 you've probably heard my high-pitch screams of agony or witnessed my fist-pumps of elation (usually accompanied by a Howard Dean-esque squeal...not that I'm proud of that).
Over the past couple of years I've witnessed two opposite trends:
1) the student support has surged and it is truly awesome to observe the faith and interest that you guys have in the program. Your optimism is well-founded and I hope the team, the coach, the program and the administration continue to fuel that fire.
2) despite this year's ticket sales, the active, vocal butts-in-your-seat alum support has waned. I know the tickets are being bought, but I just don't think we alums are going.
My opinion is that #2 is simply because we don't have a winning, ranked, exciting program right now. We have a ton of potential, and a reason to be optimistic about the future, but this team hasn't proven anything to anybody this year other than an ability to compete. We must win some games against top competition if we want to create the excitement that's going to get people to the games. An unranked Hoyas squad playing scrappy USF just isn't going to bring people in the door. A ranked team coming off wins over Duke and Notre Dame (allow me to dream...) hosting Cincinnati will probably find a pretty packed house at the MCI Center.
On a related note, as important as the "young" alumni are to fan support, I actually think it's the older guys (35+) who are buying up all the HHC tickets (this is a guess, I have no data to support this assertion). I buy tickets with a group of 5-6 guys who all purchase multiple tickets so we can bring friends and family to the games. Many of us have young children, however, and really demanding jobs. As much as I love the Hoyas, where in the past I wouldn't miss a home game for anything at all, these days I have to choose very carefully, because I simply don't have the time to attend every home game. So I skip the crappy opponents and show up only for the ranked teams and key rivals. Could I give tickets away for Fairfield or Savannah State coming off losses to Vandy and Illinois? Not a chance. Unless this team is ranked nobody who isn't a die hard fan is going to care.
My $.02...
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Jan 19, 2006 10:46:20 GMT -5
Rutgers, while not in a big city is definitely part of two big pro sports markets NY + Philly, and has a great home court atmosphere.
Absent our own on campus arena or a natl title contending team, I just don't think that there's much we can do to change the reality of our home court atmosphere. Also, if we ever do get McDonough rebuilt, we should play all the games there. The few marginal extra$ definitely aren't worth the tradeoff of a really memorable experience for everyone-
|
|
SFHoya99
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 17,791
|
Post by SFHoya99 on Jan 19, 2006 10:54:48 GMT -5
Rutgers, while not in a big city is definitely part of two big pro sports markets NY + Philly, and has a great home court atmosphere. Absent our own on campus arena or a natl title contending team, I just don't think that there's much we can do to change the reality of our home court atmosphere. Also, if we ever do get McDonough rebuilt, we should play all the games there. The few marginal extra$ definitely aren't worth the tradeoff of a really memorable experience for everyone- The Rac is 8,000 people. I bet we'd have a great court with 8,000. ------------------ One other thing to note is that in professional sports at least, most teams do not see an attendance boost in the first year of team success. It's the year after that the attendance tends to come; in our case, I'll be curious to see attendance the year after we make the NCAAs.
|
|
|
Post by TrueHoyaBlue on Jan 19, 2006 11:23:15 GMT -5
Rutgers is also more than an hour away from either the Meadowlands, the Wachovia Center, or the Garden, so it's a tough comparison to make.
|
|
nodak89
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Roy Roy Royyyyy!!!
Posts: 1,881
|
Post by nodak89 on Jan 19, 2006 11:57:02 GMT -5
Uh, yeah. Let us know how you feel about your suggestion after you join the working world. You don't have a plain gray T shirt to wear Clark Kent style under your work clothes ensemble? Then you can dash into the Phone Booth and voila.... ps I have a job. A real job. I might not seem like it, but I do.
|
|
FormerHoya
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,262
|
Post by FormerHoya on Jan 19, 2006 12:26:27 GMT -5
Marquette has (or at least has in recent years, I'll know for sure post Hoyas game this year) a great homecourt advantage in a city in a pro arena with fans only at the end of the court. Just saying...
|
|
seaweed
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 4,672
|
Post by seaweed on Jan 19, 2006 12:55:21 GMT -5
Do they even make grey dress shirts?
I have never owned one, never will and if I did I fear I would make no particular effort to wear it to home games, becuase this isn't HS when players have to wear jerseys on game day and cheerleaders have to wear their skirts to pep rallies. This is "oh, there is a game tonight and i can red line down there and still get back to work before me boss notices the proposal is late' world, also known as 'I can blow $25 buck on a ticket even though I can only stay for half the game because I have a family/boss/life' world.
Believe it or not, that does not make me a bad fan. Come find me someday, hear the yelling and the observations, here the supportive hollers and the hard heckling of JJ Nodick, see what it is like. Why just the other day I was the ONLY person in my section who yelled out HOYAS after the cheerleaders did the H-O-Y-A-S thing - the only one. Kind of lame of the folks around me, but I am not about to get up in their grills with a mega phone, especially when the megaphone-toters of their own admission can't even do the job properly cause they are too OCD to turn away from the game so people can hear them - that's lame!
But seriously, has anyone ever worn a grey dress shirt?
I need us staying focused on these important issues...
|
|
YB
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 2,494
|
Post by YB on Jan 19, 2006 13:06:51 GMT -5
I have a grey dress shirt, and a grey suit, I wear each often. I think though that he meant wearing a grey t-shirt UNDER the work clothes and simply taking off the dress shirt at MCI. I will try that in the future.
Though, on the date of the USF game I was down in laundry and was wearing an olive green shirt and matching tie- USF's colors. I wondered that night if THAT was the cause of our troubles!
|
|
SFHoya99
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 17,791
|
Post by SFHoya99 on Jan 19, 2006 13:14:59 GMT -5
Marquette has (or at least has in recent years, I'll know for sure post Hoyas game this year) a great homecourt advantage in a city in a pro arena with fans only at the end of the court. Just saying... Ok, we got one. Although I'm not sure it is a great atmosphere on the level of Cameron, Alumni Hall, etc., and Milwaukee is also stretching the definition of major metropolitan area in some ways. (Insert obligatory big dog comment here).
|
|
RBHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 4,136
|
Post by RBHoya on Jan 19, 2006 14:54:12 GMT -5
That reminds me.... I watched a Marquette game over winter break. They played Cincinatti at home.
And you know what I saw in the crowd? There were these people right... and they weren't students... they were actually like, 30, 40, 50 years old. And you know what they were wearing? Marquette clothes. And you know what they were doing? Standing up. And you know what else? Opening their mouths, moving their lips, and emitting loud noises.
I was astonished. Mind-boggling that these Marquette fans could pull off such a feat. The adversity they must have overcome to do it! Simply remarkable.
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Jan 19, 2006 14:58:46 GMT -5
Rutgers BTW, is not more than 1hr from the meadowlands, and also it is not in a state that has a real attachment to its teams like Iowa football etc. I do agree however that a big public state univ is not that comparable to GU for a lot of reasons mostly regarding the student composition, I doubt that most of the fans at the RAC are local families-they are RU students.
Though I've never been to one of the games I suspect that Big 5 basketball in Philly or BC Harvard hockey games e.g., get pretty raucous crowds
|
|
Big Dog
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 3,912
|
Post by Big Dog on Jan 19, 2006 16:24:42 GMT -5
I can't even think of a great college basketball environment in any city dominated by pro teams, on-campus arena or not. I suppose Washington and Minnesota might come close, but they also have student bodies 10 times the size of GU. BC certainly does not have a great hoops atmosphere, and they have a building YB would die for. It is a considerably uphill battle, and I applaud those who want to improve the situation but I don't think it is worth all of the angst the topic seems to create. Edit: Forgot about UMCP, but that is getting easier and easier. Its Marquette. But maybe they're an aberration.
|
|
Big Dog
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 3,912
|
Post by Big Dog on Jan 19, 2006 16:28:37 GMT -5
Marquette has (or at least has in recent years, I'll know for sure post Hoyas game this year) a great homecourt advantage in a city in a pro arena with fans only at the end of the court. Just saying... Ok, we got one. Although I'm not sure it is a great atmosphere on the level of Cameron, Alumni Hall, etc., and Milwaukee is also stretching the definition of major metropolitan area in some ways. (Insert obligatory big dog comment here). I'm not sure what value your distinctions have in defeating the point. Its not THE GREATEST in basketball, but its pretty impressive--the kind of thing we could only dream of. Wisconsin fans, who have their own brand new court in Madison, openly complain that Marquette's atmosphere is better. And its a pro town. If anything, wouldn't the fact that Milwaukee is a smaller city make it MORE rather than LESS bizarre that they've been successful at creating that atmosphere?
|
|
Jack
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 3,411
|
Post by Jack on Jan 19, 2006 17:32:29 GMT -5
I can't even think of a great college basketball environment in any city dominated by pro teams, on-campus arena or not. I suppose Washington and Minnesota might come close, but they also have student bodies 10 times the size of GU. BC certainly does not have a great hoops atmosphere, and they have a building YB would die for. It is a considerably uphill battle, and I applaud those who want to improve the situation but I don't think it is worth all of the angst the topic seems to create. Edit: Forgot about UMCP, but that is getting easier and easier. Its Marquette. But maybe they're an aberration. Flyover country does not count.
|
|
FormerHoya
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,262
|
Post by FormerHoya on Jan 19, 2006 17:42:01 GMT -5
Flyover country does not count. Neither does pretentious prick country... And that's where you live. Stupid.
|
|
HoyaSox04
Silver Hoya (over 500 posts)
Founding member of the ROCK-tavius Spann Fan Club.
Posts: 726
|
Post by HoyaSox04 on Jan 19, 2006 18:07:17 GMT -5
You mean there are actually other parts of the country outside of the northeast?
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Jan 19, 2006 18:14:32 GMT -5
I currently live in prick country... they just don't happen to be pretentious.
|
|