basketball

drex · January 18, 2005

Since the season is relatively young and so are many of you on the board, I'd like to share a few thoughts about basketball. We have an opportunity to make some waves nationally and to put some big money in our athletic pockets...all we need is you and all your football buddies. I know that many of you are football fans and care little about basketball. Please bite the bullet and attend as many of the home games as possible for the sake of the teams and the sake of the economic impact on the athletic department. If the men and women can win the conference, there is gold in them thar hills. Also, the teams will be getting a lot of media attention. I know how thrilled everyone is that the football team gets as much tv time as it does....the basketball teams can garner much national tv, as well. All it takes is you and your friends. We must have people at the games to make our home games a living hell for the visitors. If we do our part the teams can win this thing. The tournament will have tv and the first and second rounds of the ncaa's will have tv. There are hefty paychecks for going to the big dance and some real good money if we can just make it to the second round of the ncaa tournament. If you won't go for the fun and excitement, go for the sake of the athletic budget possibilities. See you at the games.

SUMG · January 19, 2005

Good points, drex.

You know it's very possible that our school would make more money from an NCAA tourney appearance than we do from the NO Bowl. The reason I say that: In his latest "Ask The Commish", Wright Waters implies that bowl guarantees aren't mandatory--he says that the league just makes sure that our SBC rep doesn't lose any money by going to the bowl. (At least that's the way I read it). But, I do know that schools get a significant check for a NCAA tourney appearance. (And the expenses are a lot less; transporting 4 coaches and 13 players, as opposed to 12-15 coaches and 100 players).

One more thing: Not only should those who have never been.....go and experience a men's game.....our women are playing great right now, and deserve your support, as well.

drex · January 19, 2005

Good point sumg...there is money to be had and national exposure to be had at both the dances. Plus, basketball can really help football recruiting and vice versa. The bb teams deserve at least the proportionate support that football gets.

January 19, 2005

It really shouldn't even be a question of whether the teams get bowl money or tourney money. There are so many people who should be supporting these teams, if they would each only go to a couple of games a season then across them all there would be a good crowd every time. Tickets purchased add up to significant $. Heck, I flew down there and saw basketball against TCU and screamed like a maniac and I'm 40 years old, and am driving 4 hours to see them at MTSU next month. If I lived down in DFW I'd be in Denton all the time. I think a lot of things people keep talking about are excuses for poor promotion. The approach seems to be if you get wins then people will come. I think the people are going to have to come first. I think they will come even without wins or big-name opponents or a new stadium if you reach out to them enough. If you care about these teams you should be asking yourself every day, what is the school doing to get in front of people (i) the fact that the team will be playing and (ii) the reasons why they ought to be there.

January 19, 2005

There is no doubt that the basketball team doesn't get near the promotion like it should, and the promotion it does get makes the promotion the football team gets look like an ESPN produced movie. But if the people who claim to be NT die-hards would come out to basketball games then that would be a great start. Many people wonder why we couldn't get into CUSA, and all they have to do to answer that question is ask themselves how many basketball games they have gone to the past couple of seasons.

Talon90 · January 20, 2005

I agree with a lot of your points but it's tough to compare basketball and football as far as attending.

There are more home basketball games than football and half of those games are on a weeknight. Most of us alums who live outside of Dallas just can't make many weeknight games. It's tough to get there on time and you get home fairly late depending on where you live. Football games (almost always on Saturdays) are planned for in advance and become a half or full day event for a lot of us fans. The game is just part of the experience.

I love that tailgating before the game is encouraged and I hope it continues to grow as I was there for the TCU tailgate party.

I used to have season tickets with Greenbat and we loved it and still support the team as much as the football team but weekend games are the only ones most of us can attend that live a fair distance outside of Denton. Those who live outside and can make all of the weeknight games, more power to you and I applaud that.

Just a few thoughts for those of us who follow and support the basketball team but just can't always attend weeknight games.

I will be there Saturday night against Ark. State!

GMG!

Edited January 20, 2005 by Talon90

January 20, 2005

I was talking about the people who don't go to any basketball games and don't care about anything other than football, and then complain about the support that the football teams get and our inability to move up the conference food chain.

If you go to the games you can whether they are on the weekend or whenever, then no one can ask any more from you and you are part of the solution and not the problem.

The lack of promotion is a problem in that people who aren't aware of the basketball teams don't go to games, but there is really no excuse for the apathy by those who are aware and still don't care until it comes time to complain about how the basketball teams are holding back the athletic department as a whole.

FirefightnRick · January 20, 2005

Question: Besides the near 5,000 students that live on campus, how many would you say live within say a 20 block radius? I lived two blocks north of Oak and everyone in between my apartment and campus was a student. Multiply that by 10? I'm going to guess our 20 block radius population is....13,000?

So say there are 13K within 20 blocks of campus including those on campus. How in hell do you get even half of them to a basketball game? That would easily fill the lower half of the Pit. Get one quarter of that and you have the best crowd we have had in years. As it stands right now, we have about 200 students out of 30,000 that are interested in attending a game at the Super Pit. When drex was our marketing and promotion man we were averaging at least 2,000 per game in attendance but on the special nights attendance would easily go up to 4 or 5k for Southland Conference games. Having the women's game as a warm up prior to the men's game may have had something to do with it a little? Not sure. But it was just the place to be on game night. I hated to miss a game and many others did too. Why it's not like that now I have no clue. Possibly all the years of losing?

Rick

Edited January 20, 2005 by FirefightnRick