Buckets
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,656
|
Post by Buckets on Jan 31, 2013 14:19:04 GMT -5
Anyone have numbers on student season tickets? I vaguely recall there being a large chart in Lauinger showing the number of season tickets sold with a goal of 3,000 in the fall of 2007 that was actually surpassed, but I may be misremembering.
|
|
CAHoya07
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_yellow.png)
Posts: 3,598
|
Post by CAHoya07 on Jan 31, 2013 14:22:53 GMT -5
1) The present day, average Georgetown student, could not care less about college basketball. Many become fans when they step on campus, but how many Georgetown students followed college basketball growing up? Maaaaybe 5%? And that extends to sports in general. How many Georgetown students are "die hard" sports fans? 2)"Ohhhhh it's soooo academically rigorous I can't possibly spend three hours of my time doing something other than studying." It's absolute bs. I feel like kids say that to "impress" their ivy league friends. 3) No school pride. As others have pointed out, this is the ONLY consistently relevant, national program that we have, and they still don't show up. 1) I was class of 2007, followed college basketball pretty closely in high school (and kept it in mind when choosing a school), and was also (and continue to be) a diehard San Francisco Giants and 49ers fan. So there's that. Am I the 5%? I don't know, but I shouldn't be that rare. 2) Couldn't agree more. I never missed a game because of school work. 4 hours out of my day on a weekday? No problem. It actually forced me to budget my time better. Also gave me a great diversion away from my studies. And I think I still turned out all right. 3) We don't have big-time football, this is our #1 sport, so yes, a turnout like last night's is pretty disappointing. I've been saying this for a long time, but our students are more fickle than the rest of our fan base and take some games off. Nobody complains about the Louisville game, but this is what you get for Seton Hall and Providence (and from what I saw on TV, Seton Hall was much worse than Providence). What NEEDS to be done is an incentive system for these non-marquee games. You get extra points for attending weekday games like Seton Hall, Longwood, DePaul, etc. Those points go towards earlier admission (and better seats) for games like Louisville and Syracuse. It's not that hard, many other schools have a similar system, I think it's finally time for our Athletic Department to pick up the slack on this. The glory years of student attendance were 2006-2008, and obviously there are a lot of factors that go into it, but it's been kind of a slow bleed since then to our current point. It's not a problem that's going away, especially once we jump to our new conference, when Louisville and Syracuse will be probably be replaced by teams like Butler, Creighton, and Xavier, and we'll likely have more games like Seton Hall against teams like Dayton and St. Louis. Something NEEDS to be done. We need to be more proactive, to create a FUN basketball experience for every game, regardless of wins and losses. The lowest student turnout for a midweek Big East basketball game should still be about 1,000, in my opinion. (I also think the lowest turnout for a midweek Big East basketball game period should be 10,000, but let's focus on the students for now.) We are a prestigious, successful, consistently top 25 big-time basketball program, and our team deserves a BIG TIME atmosphere for every game. We have some challenges, playing in the Verizon Center probably the (literally) biggest one, but we've done it before, and we can do it again. So students, I ask... not what Georgetown basketball can do for you, but what YOU can do for Georgetown basketball? (A few other thoughts, but I'll keep it at that for now. Hoya Saxa.)
|
|
DoctorHoya
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,544
|
Post by DoctorHoya on Jan 31, 2013 14:25:58 GMT -5
Wait, so why did the school stop busing students directly over to the game? I'm as big a fan as they come, but if I had to take some indirect route by bus with a Metro transfer to get to every game, I'm not sure I'd go either every time, unless we were top 10 and on some kind of impressive tear. They ought to do the busing thing again. Its a major disadvantage to have an arena that takes 45 minutes to an hour to get to from campus (ask DePaul), and Gtown has plenty of other disadvantages (a student makeup that isn't exactly made up of your typical average huge American sports fan, small enrollment, etc.) To me the bigger question is why we can't do consistently better with non-student attendance. I realize this isn't Maryland, but there are thousands and thousands of Hoyas alums in the DC area. There are also many, many locals for whom Gtown used to be and perhaps still is a local team. And Georgetown hoops tickets have to be about as cheap a major sports entertainment draw as you're going to find in town. Maybe it just go back to the Wilbon/Steinberg discussion about how DC is a bad sports city. But I don't think that's it. This isn't a question of transplants. We're talking about actual alums here. Gtown tickets actually aren't that cheap normally, but they can be super cheap if you look on stubhub. Maybe the athletics dept should do a groupon or LivingSocial deal...
|
|
CAHoya07
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_yellow.png)
Posts: 3,598
|
Post by CAHoya07 on Jan 31, 2013 14:32:00 GMT -5
Are "lessons learned" passed down year after year in Hoya Blue? Obviously, something went very right the years we filled both sides of the student section (and it wasn't just that our team may have been better). The Corp makes sure that institutional best practices aren't forgotten by having an advisory board of many of the past alumni leaders. Does Hoya Blue have this to make sure what worked in past years isn't forgotten? If not, they really should create this. Totally agree, I was part of Hoya Blue during some of those great years (2005-2007). Great idea, we've had a little bit of dialogue with the current board, but nothing formal. Frankly, the feeling over the years is that they usually don't like to listen to some "old" alumni seemingly telling them what to do. We got nice e-mail updates from the new president in the off-season, but none since the season started. I think I'll follow my own advice and be proactive and send him an e-mail.
|
|
Big Dog
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_yellow.png)
Posts: 3,912
|
Post by Big Dog on Jan 31, 2013 14:48:59 GMT -5
Being at the Louisville game reminded me that on balance the experience of the game apart from the basketball itself is kind of rinky-dink and low tech compared to a lot of places. There isn't a whole lot done in the spirit department, despite the best efforts of some committed student groups.
I'm serious about this: we need to have whoever our full time promotions person is (or hire someone whose sole job is to ramp up the in-game experience) go spend a season interning under Tom Crean and just watch the over-the-top insane way that they do thinks. Some of it is a bit much (I swear by the end they ran through so many Dwayne Wade giveaways at Marquette that they were giving away his fingernail clippings by the end) but as he's shown again at Indiana nobody knows how to tap into school and alumni spirit better. Its the email messaging, its the promotions, its the videoboard, the lighting and sound at the game, the band, the mascots, the cheerleaders, everything.
These things need to be as fun and energetic as possible, not so sleepy. If that means more adrenaline pinching music during timeouts and minimal band play (another Crean staple) then so be it.
|
|
CaliHoya
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,188
|
Post by CaliHoya on Jan 31, 2013 14:52:41 GMT -5
Are "lessons learned" passed down year after year in Hoya Blue? Obviously, something went very right the years we filled both sides of the student section (and it wasn't just that our team may have been better). The Corp makes sure that institutional best practices aren't forgotten by having an advisory board of many of the past alumni leaders. Does Hoya Blue have this to make sure what worked in past years isn't forgotten? If not, they really should create this. Totally agree, I was part of Hoya Blue during some of those great years (2005-2007). Great idea, we've had a little bit of dialogue with the current board, but nothing formal. Frankly, the feeling over the years is that they usually don't like to listen to some "old" alumni seemingly telling them what to do. We got nice e-mail updates from the new president in the off-season, but none since the season started. I think I'll follow my own advice and be proactive and send him an e-mail. Awesome! I really think that something a bit more formal (maybe meeting once before the season and once during the season) could really help share all your good knowledge with the board. As long as it's just delivered as advice that students can act upon on their own, I can't see how they wouldn't appreciate it.
|
|
CAHoya07
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_yellow.png)
Posts: 3,598
|
Post by CAHoya07 on Jan 31, 2013 15:04:09 GMT -5
Anyone have numbers on student season tickets? I vaguely recall there being a large chart in Lauinger showing the number of season tickets sold with a goal of 3,000 in the fall of 2007 that was actually surpassed, but I may be misremembering. I'm pretty sure that was exactly the case, and definitely the high point of student attendance in the last decade. But I have no idea what the numbers look like now. Frankly, I hope they've started selling individual game student section tickets again, for students that did not purchase season tickets but want to be in the student section for a game.
|
|
|
Post by HoyaSinceBirth on Jan 31, 2013 15:19:40 GMT -5
Wait, so why did the school stop busing students directly over to the game? I'm as big a fan as they come, but if I had to take some indirect route by bus with a Metro transfer to get to every game, I'm not sure I'd go either every time, unless we were top 10 and on some kind of impressive tear. They ought to do the busing thing again. Its a major disadvantage to have an arena that takes 45 minutes to an hour to get to from campus (ask DePaul), and Gtown has plenty of other disadvantages (a student makeup that isn't exactly made up of your typical average huge American sports fan, small enrollment, etc.) To me the bigger question is why we can't do consistently better with non-student attendance. I realize this isn't Maryland, but there are thousands and thousands of Hoyas alums in the DC area. There are also many, many locals for whom Gtown used to be and perhaps still is a local team. And Georgetown hoops tickets have to be about as cheap a major sports entertainment draw as you're going to find in town. Maybe it just go back to the Wilbon/Steinberg discussion about how DC is a bad sports city. But I don't think that's it. This isn't a question of transplants. We're talking about actual alums here. Gtown tickets actually aren't that cheap normally, but they can be super cheap if you look on stubhub. Maybe the athletics dept should do a groupon or LivingSocial deal... Um they have had multiple groupon and living social deals for hoyas tickets this year and last year.
|
|
hoyatables
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_yellow.png)
Posts: 2,604
|
Post by hoyatables on Jan 31, 2013 15:35:07 GMT -5
I can't speak to the student side, but it strikes me that Athletics has ramped up and modernized its marketing efforts to the general population. The Living Social / Groupon deals seemed very smart (not sure whether they have actually yielded results).
I fault students for student apathy. I'm pretty sure I wrote this exact post a year or two ago.
1) Stop whining about transportation. You know what? The rest of us also have to take multiple modes of transportation to get to the Verizon Center. It's called being an adult and living in a city.
2) Stop whining about distance. If you were at a big state school, you might easily have to trek across campus to get to your game. And you chose to come to school in a city - half of you probably wrote essays about how much you wanted to be "in Washington, DC." Well, here's your chance. Sometimes living in a city means having to travel around that city a little bit. Get used to it.
3) Stop whining about work/time management. So you have class three hours a day. And some reading. And maybe a part time job. And an activity or two. That's not that bad, and you can squeeze in a few games a year. I guarantee that you found four hours to sit on your ass with your friends quoting movies or gossiping about people or drinking yourself stupid or arguing about politics. Guess what? Grab your friends and do that at the Verizon Center. The rest of us manage full-time jobs, home, and family obligations and still make it to games. You can do. Again, it's called being an adult.
4) Stop whining about how "someone else" is supposed to do something to get you to the game. The team needs to win more. The team needs to win in March (and specifically -- at the NCAA tourney. Because we do win in March in NYC). The Athletic Department needs to pay for this or that. Your experience is what you make of it, and you have thousands of other people there who you can interact and build something with. Hoya Blue was "created" in the late 90s by a few students gathering in an empty classroom in White Gravenor on a couple of weekday evenings. It was reignited when JTIII arrived by students. So if you want to build student spirit, make it happen. You're the college students. You know best what other students want and what will get them excited.
|
|
Elvado
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 6,080
|
Post by Elvado on Jan 31, 2013 15:44:34 GMT -5
Amen. If the priority is to get to the game, you will.
However, after the explosion of popularity of GU fueled by the Ewing years, the profile of the GU student began to change and not necessarily for the better when it comes to sports fandom.
The SAT scores may have gone up but the Northeastern sports fanatic quotient clearly went down.
|
|
Boz
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
123 Fireballs!
Posts: 10,355
|
Post by Boz on Jan 31, 2013 15:53:33 GMT -5
I have not joined this thread because I was guilty of disguising myself as an empty seat last night as well.
In my defense, I am rapidly approaching geezerhood, if I am not already there, and I was really, really tired last night. But this is just another excuse, so I am as guilty as anyone.
But, as I have said many times in the past, if there is one thing that I as a geezer (and presumably at least a little wiser from experience if nothing else) can impart to the undergrads, it is simply this:
You will never, ever, EVER have as much free time in your life as you have now. EVER!! (Unless you win Powerball or something.)
So enjoy that time. Because it goes fast. And it will never come back!
In my opinion, enjoying that time means participating in school events. It doesn't have to be just basketball. Go to everything you can!!! But basketball, as others have pointed out, is kind of our biggest thing. So go to that too.
Hell, you don't even have to like basketball. Go because its a great way to have fun with your current friends and meet new friends.
Or don't. But if not, don't blame me when you show up to your 5-year reunion and no one remembers who you are.
|
|
mfk24
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_yellow.png)
Posts: 2,759
|
Post by mfk24 on Jan 31, 2013 15:58:08 GMT -5
Amen. If the priority is to get to the game, you will. However, after the explosion of popularity of GU fueled by the Ewing years, the profile of the GU student began to change and not necessarily for the better when it comes to sports fandom. The SAT scores may have gone up but the Northeastern sports fanatic quotient clearly went down. I think this is probably the truest of true statements right there. I'd say the majority of our student body really isn't all that into college basketball, which is sad. The only way to combat that is to make games a more social atmosphere and the only people who can do that are the students. It's gotta be drink/food specials either at Verizon or places nearby with proof you went to the game, giveaways other than t-shirts and chipotle burritos, otherwise students are much more apt to sit at home watch the game on their own TV and save the $30 bucks it costs for food and beer at Verizon to spend on something else.
|
|
Big Dog
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_yellow.png)
Posts: 3,912
|
Post by Big Dog on Jan 31, 2013 15:58:28 GMT -5
I can't speak to the student side, but it strikes me that Athletics has ramped up and modernized its marketing efforts to the general population. The Living Social / Groupon deals seemed very smart (not sure whether they have actually yielded results). I fault students for student apathy. I'm pretty sure I wrote this exact post a year or two ago. 1) Stop whining about transportation. You know what? The rest of us also have to take multiple modes of transportation to get to the Verizon Center. It's called being an adult and living in a city. 2) Stop whining about distance. If you were at a big state school, you might easily have to trek across campus to get to your game. And you chose to come to school in a city - half of you probably wrote essays about how much you wanted to be "in Washington, DC." Well, here's your chance. Sometimes living in a city means having to travel around that city a little bit. Get used to it. 3) Stop whining about work/time management. So you have class three hours a day. And some reading. And maybe a part time job. And an activity or two. That's not that bad, and you can squeeze in a few games a year. I guarantee that you found four hours to sit on your ass with your friends quoting movies or gossiping about people or drinking yourself stupid or arguing about politics. Guess what? Grab your friends and do that at the Verizon Center. The rest of us manage full-time jobs, home, and family obligations and still make it to games. You can do. Again, it's called being an adult. 4) Stop whining about how "someone else" is supposed to do something to get you to the game. The team needs to win more. The team needs to win in March (and specifically -- at the NCAA tourney. Because we do win in March in NYC). The Athletic Department needs to pay for this or that. Your experience is what you make of it, and you have thousands of other people there who you can interact and build something with. Hoya Blue was "created" in the late 90s by a few students gathering in an empty classroom in White Gravenor on a couple of weekday evenings. It was reignited when JTIII arrived by students. So if you want to build student spirit, make it happen. You're the college students. You know best what other students want and what will get them excited. This is just foolish and unhelpful. The problem here isn't people who are on Hoyatalk reading about this. Its about the enormous chunk of casual fans (think in particular, females) who need something more to come out. We don't have a large enough group of interested sports-obsessed bros to fill Verizon for every home game. It needs to be AN EVENT. That takes work to minimize the inconvenience and to maximize the fun. It is the reason every single freaking professional sports franchise spends a fortune figuring out ways to entice people to come out and watch. Yelling at the students to care more isn't going to solve the problem.
|
|
Big Dog
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_yellow.png)
Posts: 3,912
|
Post by Big Dog on Jan 31, 2013 16:00:02 GMT -5
Amen. If the priority is to get to the game, you will. However, after the explosion of popularity of GU fueled by the Ewing years, the profile of the GU student began to change and not necessarily for the better when it comes to sports fandom. The SAT scores may have gone up but the Northeastern sports fanatic quotient clearly went down. I think this is probably the truest of true statements right there. I'd say the majority of our student body really isn't all that into college basketball, which is sad. T he only way to combat that is to make games a more social atmosphere and the only people who can do that are the students. It's gotta be drink/food specials either at Verizon or places nearby with proof you went to the game, giveaways other than t-shirts and chipotle burritos, otherwise students are much more apt to sit at home watch the game on their own TV and save the $30 bucks it costs for food and beer at Verizon to spend on something else. I disagree that it is only students who can make it a more social atmosphere. There is lots of room for improvement in the promotions department. But you do bring up one ace-in-the-hole that I forgot about that it is a unique Gtown advantage. They serve freaking BEER at these games! You can't get that on campus.
|
|
|
Post by hoyasaxa2003 on Jan 31, 2013 16:00:57 GMT -5
3) Stop whining about work/time management. So you have class three hours a day. And some reading. And maybe a part time job. And an activity or two. That's not that bad, and you can squeeze in a few games a year. I guarantee that you found four hours to sit on your ass with your friends quoting movies or gossiping about people or drinking yourself stupid or arguing about politics. Guess what? Grab your friends and do that at the Verizon Center. The rest of us manage full-time jobs, home, and family obligations and still make it to games. You can do. Again, it's called being an adult. As somebody who has gone through Georgetown and has been working for several years, I recognize and acknowledge all your points. However, from the college student's perspective, there are a few problems: (1) You mention squeezing in a few games a year. I think that's a really good point, but the problem is these "few" games a year are going to be Syracuse, Louisville, Marquette, Pittsburgh, etc. They aren't going to be Seton Hall, Providence, DePaul or Longwood. The complaints here aren't that we cannot draw for the good games, but that the less exciting games get bad turnout. (2) I hesitate to say that college students are generally selfish (because many aren't), but the fact is that if there's ever a place for people to be self-centered, it's college. Sure, college students waste time in all sorts of ways (like gossiping, drinking, or arguing about politics), but why should they do this at the basketball game? Your post makes it sound almost like it's a duty for people to attend, when really, it's not. Most of these kids chose Georgetown for academics, not basketball. (3) "The rest of us manage full-time jobs, home, and family obligations and still make it to games. You can do. Again, it's called being an adult." Perhaps most importantly, college students are NOT adults (even though they think they are). We make it to games or make time to watch them on TV (for those of us outside DC) because we care about the sport and we choose to make it a priority. Most students don't care. To some degree, I can relate to this issue. As I've written on this message board before, my interest in college basketball and Georgetown arose in 2008/2009, almost 6 years after graduating from Georgetown. I was there during the entire Esherick era. Nobody in my family was a basketball fan and I never took interest in the game. If you had asked me, as a student, whether I was going to go to a game, I would have probably never gone because to me - as someone who was not a fan of basketball - I would not have had any desire to go. Instead, I was part of other clubs that met on a weekly basis (and took as much time as going to a basketball game - just a matter of preference). Of course, looking back, I regret that I wasn't a fan at the time because I missed out on those college years of going to games, even if they would've been the awful Esherick years. However, as unbelieveable as it may sound to many here, a lot of students have no interest in basketball at all, and no matter what you do, they aren't going to go. The key is getting the casual fans - those with some interest, but maybe not a ton - to get off their couch and get to the games.
|
|
|
Post by strummer8526 on Jan 31, 2013 16:02:16 GMT -5
Being at the Louisville game reminded me that on balance the experience of the game apart from the basketball itself is kind of rinky-dink and low tech compared to a lot of places. There isn't a whole lot done in the spirit department, despite the best efforts of some committed student groups. I'm serious about this: we need to have whoever our full time promotions person is (or hire someone whose sole job is to ramp up the in-game experience) go spend a season interning under Tom Crean and just watch the over-the-top insane way that they do thinks. Some of it is a bit much (I swear by the end they ran through so many Dwayne Wade giveaways at Marquette that they were giving away his fingernail clippings by the end) but as he's shown again at Indiana nobody knows how to tap into school and alumni spirit better. Its the email messaging, its the promotions, its the videoboard, the lighting and sound at the game, the band, the mascots, the cheerleaders, everything. These things need to be as fun and energetic as possible, not so sleepy. If that means more adrenaline pinching music during timeouts and minimal band play (another Crean staple) then so be it. I have said many times that our in-game fan experience is absurd on a lot of levels. You've got cheerleaders falling down, a band that at one game had fewer than 20 members there (and last night, the band leader had to play the drums on one song), contests that are becoming rather tired (STOP HAVING KIDS DRESS IN BIG CLOTHES), prizes that no one wants (are we still giving away lube jobs?), fat teenagers spinning arrow signs (at least last year, the sign spinners were athletic and could do cool flips and stuff). The only thing that consistently gets the students excited is Jack eating a box. I also think the Gatling gun and Chipotle parachute drop have been welcome additions; though absurd, they are entertaining and get people out of their seats. I appreciate the cheerleaders, band members, and everyone else who contributes to the experience. But it just never feels like a well-oiled machine.
|
|
rosslynhoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_yellow.png)
Posts: 2,595
|
Post by rosslynhoya on Jan 31, 2013 16:13:07 GMT -5
An able-bodied student should be able to walk to Rosslyn Metro in 20 minutes from Red Square (it's probably 10 minutes longer to Dupont). Rosslyn to Metro Center is four stops, it takes no more than 20 minutes MAX at rush hour, i.e., when weeknight games start, including the longest possible wait for a train. Add about 8-10 minutes to walk the five blocks from Metro Center to the student entrance to Verizon. We're talking 40-45 minutes at most each way. To me the bigger question is why we can't do consistently better with non-student attendance. I realize this isn't Maryland, but there are thousands and thousands of Hoyas alums in the DC area. There are also many, many locals for whom Gtown used to be and perhaps still is a local team. And Georgetown hoops tickets have to be about as cheap a major sports entertainment draw as you're going to find in town. Maybe it just go back to the Wilbon/Steinberg discussion about how DC is a bad sports city. But I don't think that's it. This isn't a question of transplants. We're talking about actual alums here. That's a much better line of inquiry. Some of the apathy is no doubt simply due to alums who did not enjoy their time at Georgetown and want nothing more to do with the school. Some of the apathy may stem from a general disinterest in sports or the joyless hipster lifestyle that thinks it's stupid to cheer for your school. This is the flipside of encouraging people to attend games to cheer on their classmates or take part in the big campus social event. There's the notion that you grow out of sports or college sports as you mature. Tickets may be cheap relative to other sports options in DC, but that's not saying a lot. A season ticket package is a significant up-front investment, including a donation to the school for the right to even buy tickets, but decent single game tickets are sold by the ticket office at something close to market rate. You can point to the price of the cheapest possible tickets, but there's no way I'm shelling out real money to sit in the upper rows of a 400-level end or corner section to watch Georgetown play Seton Hall or Providence when I can watch it on television. I also spent a little time at last night's game pondering the degradation of the in-game experience. It's boring, especially compared to past years. I think the SCS Hoya Shuffle is one of the few things that actively engages fans at the game, with the gatling gun and the Capital One card contest well behind it. There's no Fan of the Game any more. The one timeout that used to play a popular dance track and get people to get on their feet and bounce around a little has instead played "Gangnam Style" every game until last night in a pitch for UnitedHealthCare and wellness. The Subway Challenge stinks on fire. I hate how they try to find the drunkest/least coordinated students to fumble around and badly shoot a basketball, all for a chance to win a prize worth much less than $10. Boring. Dress like a Hoya is what it always was. Cheerleaders no longer hand out Chipotle burritos to a deserving few, and my section has yet to have any Chipotle parachutes drop upon us. They don't identify the winners of the Stubhub seat upgrade. They don't identify the winner of the Twitter Trivia. Jack's box-eating comes and goes so quickly with little fanfare, I wonder if they're ready to phase it out altogether. I've never liked the crowd-suppressing lameness of Hey Baby. If there were any consultants involved, they should really focus on "what can we do for the people who physically came here to make it better than watching from home?" Working the timeouts has got to be a major factor, but likewise, it's annoying that there's absolutely no in-game information conveyed other than who made the last basket, who was charged with a foul, and who just subbed in. Every inexplicable stoppage in play remains unexplained, etc. Why aren't the big displays in the corners used to show anything of value (beyond the scores of other games in progress)?
|
|
skyhoya
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 2,496
|
Post by skyhoya on Jan 31, 2013 16:48:26 GMT -5
we true is that we are just another tenant for Ted that doesn't spend much for his crappy food or $9.00 beers. I get tired of trying to watch the game in the first 10 minutes and people coming to their seats late and everyone stands up to let them come in.. I asked the usher about it and she said, it's only Georgetown?
|
|
Dhall
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,679
|
Post by Dhall on Jan 31, 2013 16:52:39 GMT -5
1. Unless you are totally inept at travel, it does not take more than 40 minutes to get from Gtown to Verizon, and it could take as little as 15 minutes. I know from personal experience over several seasons.
2. The Hoyas have been ranked in the top 20 for most home games over the past several years. What happens in March of one year is kind of irrelevant as to how the team is doing the following January. Bogus excuse about poor NCAA performance.
3. I will give fans a minor pass last night, but last night only. We have 3 home games this week and that is a tough task. Louisville was full. I expect St. John's to be full. It's kind of OK for Seton Hall in between not to be full. But this was a rare home stand with the lousy team in the middle. It should not be the norm.
|
|
Just Cos
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Eat 'em up Hoyas
Posts: 1,507
|
Post by Just Cos on Jan 31, 2013 17:12:28 GMT -5
In game entertainment only gets you so far. It is about getting people to want to go to the game. And for the average student, alum, local resident, tourist, or able body in the DC metro area it is about making a Georgetown game an event. That takes a lot of work, but it pays off in the end.
Look at the most successful MLS teams and they are successful at getting butts in the seats because the game is an event. There are so many reasons to not go to a Georgetown-Seton Hall game, but if a material number of people you know are even thinking about going then you may consider going. The idea that it could be an event will get people there.
Making it an event requires a lot of hard work by Hoya Blue, Georgetown athletics, and Verizon Center promotions. Groupon deals are great but they don't get at the source of the issue. The question to try and solve is why should an average person go to a game. And the answer is that an average person will go if other people are going.
I'm not going to pretend I know the answers on how to execute but you have to keep trying things. What gets a 19 year old off their butts and to a game? I would bet it involves either food, beer, or some combination. As for the older folks that don't have season tickets, I think you need to focus on aggressive group sales, pre-game activities, and social media. Again, this all takes work.
And if all else fails close the 400 section for EVERY game. Supply and demand.
|
|