SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,067
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Post by SSHoya on Feb 6, 2020 10:31:06 GMT -5
But it is tough to get excited about any aspect of the fan base when we just had our smallest home Big East game crowd since the days when home games were played at McDonough. And we were playing the #1 team in the conference. The fans who did come out last night were pretty engaged, but drawing less than 5,000 for significant Big East games is not an indicator of a healthy program Please read discussion on attendance. It was likely 7,000+. Not great but certainly not doom and gloom.
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vv83
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,323
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Post by vv83 on Feb 6, 2020 10:37:56 GMT -5
But it is tough to get excited about any aspect of the fan base when we just had our smallest home Big East game crowd since the days when home games were played at McDonough. And we were playing the #1 team in the conference. The fans who did come out last night were pretty engaged, but drawing less than 5,000 for significant Big East games is not an indicator of a healthy program Please read discussion on attendance. It was likely 7,000+. Not great but certainly not doom and gloom. Just read the correction on attendance - negative comments retracted! and to reinforce the positive point - the crowd energy was pretty good last night. It does seem that fans are appreciating the effort that our undermanned team is putting in most games.
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hoyajmw
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,028
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Post by hoyajmw on Feb 6, 2020 11:26:04 GMT -5
There is no reason for anyone who thought there were less than 5,000 people last night to retract/apologize. There in fact were less than that many there -- "correction" notwithstanding. Rather amazingly, the REAL number of people in the building somehow got out (not sure how DFW found it), before the normal "let's add in all the free tickets and non-attendees and then just throw in some more for good measure" was then released as the "official" number. Many of us old timers will remember when the number at USAir almost always was announced as 7198 for paltry crowds -- because it was an inversion of 1789. ANYONE there last night (and I know you were too, vv83) should trust their eyeballs on this, just like we should do when the non-conference games in December are generously announced as 4600 or so and one can virtually count the people in the crowd. I say all this not to be critical of the fanbase or ticket office, and such manipulations are far from unique here (Redskins attendance, anyone?). The times of games dictated by FOX during the week are almost uniformly awful (either too early or like last night too late), and it is just a hard sell (and "go to") in the best of times and with the best of teams. Heck, even in the glory days of the early 80s the average ANNOUNCED attendance was at best around 12K a year -- and THAT was generally exaggerated. But it should be acknowledged and not papered over with false numbers that our eyes are not deceiving us and attendance is horrible and getting worse.
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Post by centercourt400s on Feb 6, 2020 12:34:17 GMT -5
There is no reason for anyone who thought there were less than 5,000 people last night to retract/apologize. There in fact were less than that many there -- "correction" notwithstanding. Rather amazingly, the REAL number of people in the building somehow got out (not sure how DFW found it), before the normal "let's add in all the free tickets and non-attendees and then just throw in some more for good measure" was then released as the "official" number. Many of us old timers will remember when the number at USAir almost always was announced as 7198 for paltry crowds -- because it was an inversion of 1789. ANYONE there last night (and I know you were too, vv83) should trust their eyeballs on this, just like we should do when the non-conference games in December are generously announced as 4600 or so and one can virtually count the people in the crowd. I say all this not to be critical of the fanbase or ticket office, and such manipulations are far from unique here (Redskins attendance, anyone?). The times of games dictated by FOX during the week are almost uniformly awful (either too early or like last night too late), and it is just a hard sell (and "go to") in the best of times and with the best of teams. Heck, even in the glory days of the early 80s the average ANNOUNCED attendance was at best around 12K a year -- and THAT was generally exaggerated. But it should be acknowledged and not papered over with false numbers that our eyes are not deceiving us and attendance is horrible and getting worse. I was there last night, from 25 min before tipoff until the end. At 8:30 pm the crowd looked sparse and around 5000 seems credible. By 9pm it had filled up fairly well and I wouldn't be surprised if another 1500+ had gotten seated. All attendance numbers for all sporting events are somewhat unreliable (other than obvious sellouts) but to my eyes it was far closer to 7000 than 5000 last night.
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LCPolo18
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 4,406
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Post by LCPolo18 on Feb 7, 2020 13:21:52 GMT -5
Wasn't the timing of this t-shirt in relation to Black History Month? He is part of that history, and I find it appropriate to recognize that from here on out. Why wouldn't we? As an aside, there is a growing group of younger fans banding together on social media in support of our program. Some current students have grouped together with high schoolers (even beyond the DC area), and they are on a mission to help secure recruits and send positive messages to the current players. They WANT these t-shirts, even though these kids probably were not even a thought in their parents' minds in the 80s. I believe the first recruit these kids started with was Tyler Beard, encouraging him through social media postings to pick Georgetown. Beard did reference being surprised by the fan base, which just fueled these young kids' fire. They are now onto MAM. So, while many feel that the program is getting stale and needs a new direction, this is showing me that some traction is being made and the program is starting to connect with the younger generation. At the same time that many "older" fans are making negative posts on twitter, these kids on Instagram are staying positive and looking towards what the future could hold. And they like PE. There have been unexpected bumps in the road, but there is hope that we are still heading in the right direction. This is good to hear. I didn't mean to start a maelstrom over the shirts. Obviously, I am a huge JT Jr. fan. He gave me and all of us on here some of the great sports-fan moments of our lives. It's certainly appropriate to honor him in this way, especially given that it's Black History Month. That said, it's also emblematic of a program that is constantly looking backwards. If we were simply honoring the man who built our program as a one-off promo, that's one thing. But it's also a reminder of how difficult it has been to move on from that era, and create new success. And part of what has held us back is the stranglehold he still has on the program and its direction. Gratifying to hear of a surge in young fans - this certainly has not been evident at most games this season, but I trust your take on that. Just a note about the comment from njhoyalawya about the young fans on social media, after less than half an hour MAM's Instagram post about his Georgetown official visit has like 175 comments, mostly from Georgetown fans (a lot of them young, like middle/high school) posting emoji's of a bulldog or other pro Georgetown comments. And the young fans that created Georgetown fan accounts are prompting their followers to give him that attention. Who knows if it's effective, but you have to like their hustle.
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Post by njhoyalawya on Feb 7, 2020 15:20:10 GMT -5
Yes, these kids are hard at work. It is a wonderful thing to see, even though they seemed to be posting while they were still in school. And while they were waiting for MAM to post the pictures of his official at GU, they hit the comment section of his OSU visit with pro-Georgetown messages.
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