I think there's a misconception with that. The $60 is for the mid-court seats. There are chairback seats for less than half that. And CU doesn't charge for parking. It's a very good deal on a basketball game.
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How does CU fix attendance for basketball?
- Thread starter Buffnik
- Start date
I think there's a misconception with that. The $60 is for the mid-court seats. There are chairback seats for less than half that. And CU doesn't charge for parking. It's a very good deal on a basketball game.
While the ticket increase irked me some, it is still one of the best deals for tickets you can get in the NCAA. Buffs had been way way under market value for a long time.
Toxic environment ruined it for me early last year. I lost interest really early.
But I got back on quickly.
Most fans though will need some NCAA run to get their attention. We haven't had one in a long time. Get to that point and folks will pack it. I remember as a kid nobody went to McKale in Tucson. Then it took off, and it's sustained.
Could be misconception, but when I looked for tickets for the game against BYU, every one I saw was $60 a pop, which included corners and up into the 50 something row. Maybe user error when looking for seats, but it's what I saw.. And sure, free parking, but the perception and partial reality is that driving into Boulder can be a pain in the a** and the casual fan will likely head right for the 436 parking garage, which is another pita.
- Winning and being ranked will solve a lot of problems.
- Scheduling has been disappointing. I would like to play Wyoming every year but we are afraid to play them. Lower half teams with better recognition from the P5 conferences. Buffnik mentioned other teams above that would generate interest and ticket sales.
- Students can be a significant factor in home games but haven't been showing up. Feed them pizza and burritos as was done in the past and send 10 of them to the P12 Championship game.
- Parking before and after the game has been poorly handled for years.
- Increasing prices didn't help. While the prices may be reasonable to many people I am also aware of long-term fans being priced out of coming. With the poor scheduling some are just buying cheap tickets and going to fewer games.
- Winning and being ranked will solve a lot of problems
Like others have said, last year's team definitely hurt how the program was perceived by the casual fans, students, and probably even at some level with recruits they were targeting.
Add in that this team didn't schedule too many overly exciting opponents at CEC, and fans are probably taking a wait and see approach. I'm sure if they are 13-2 or something to that effect going into their first home conference games of the year, there will be a lot of interest
I'd keep in mind that Colorado isn't exactly the only one in the conference facing this issue. Outside of Zona and Utah, I think everyone else is dealing with the same issue to varying degrees.
UCLA, even with a home game vs UK failed to sell out. And aside from that, have had a half empty arena. Cal, despite the significantly high hype with their recruiting class, are not selling out OOC games
Add in that this team didn't schedule too many overly exciting opponents at CEC, and fans are probably taking a wait and see approach. I'm sure if they are 13-2 or something to that effect going into their first home conference games of the year, there will be a lot of interest
I'd keep in mind that Colorado isn't exactly the only one in the conference facing this issue. Outside of Zona and Utah, I think everyone else is dealing with the same issue to varying degrees.
UCLA, even with a home game vs UK failed to sell out. And aside from that, have had a half empty arena. Cal, despite the significantly high hype with their recruiting class, are not selling out OOC games
As a very casual fan of Cal basically just because I like college basketball and am in the Bay Area, I think my situation might be analogous to a certain segment of the Colorado fan base. When the Cal schedule was announced, I looked at when the Arizona game was and suggested to some of my friends that we go to that game. Tickets turned out to be $60 and we all agreed that there was no way we were going to pay that to see a team we didn't really care that much about. Then, an alternative game was proposed - Nichols state, I think - and tickets were $40. I'm sorry, but no one who is a casual fan is going to pay anything close to that to see the home team play some no-name team. That's ridiculous.
I've been up to two USF games, but they are $10 and a 10 minute walk away. That's quite a good value. I would think there would have to be something in the middle. $15 bucks seems about right for a no-name team vs. CU.
I think expectations for Tad are high, and people aren't that interested in just a borderline tourney team. They want to see more (which I definitely think this team can be).
I also think the more than decade long crap football team hurts basketball too. No one takes CU sports serious anymore (except the two obscure sports we're good at).
I also think the more than decade long crap football team hurts basketball too. No one takes CU sports serious anymore (except the two obscure sports we're good at).
A lot of this begs the question of whether there are too many non-conference games in college basketball. Creampuffs, D2 teams, mediocre mid-majors... everyone in the P6 (football's P5 + Big East) suffers from this. Might we be better off and see more value from the season ticket package if 22 game conference schedules became the norm (home/away with each conf team)? Non-conference would likely end up as 3 neutral games for a tournament, 3 home games (creampuff + 2 teams with enough cache to command a home/away deal) and 2 away games.
I know that would be a killer for the mid-major programs, but it would be a huge moneymaker for the P6 schools both for increased attendance/value of the home schedule and by commanding more money in media deals when there are more high profile matchups.
Edit: Also, 22 games works for 16-team conferences if we ever get there. 7 home/away against your division rivals and than single games against the 8 teams in the other division.
I know that would be a killer for the mid-major programs, but it would be a huge moneymaker for the P6 schools both for increased attendance/value of the home schedule and by commanding more money in media deals when there are more high profile matchups.
Edit: Also, 22 games works for 16-team conferences if we ever get there. 7 home/away against your division rivals and than single games against the 8 teams in the other division.
Much rather have longer conference schedules. I'm a huge fan, and I have trouble thinking all these crap games mean anything other than an opportunity to look bad
Agree. Scheduling "up" I little bit might help.
Cu exists in a difficult scheduling position right now.
1) Tad believes we deserve enough respect to get home and homes. We will not do 2-1 or one offs, unless it's a neutral site.
2) Big name teams like to load up their OOC with sure wins to improve their seeding come march, and CU is not a sure win. Especially in Boulder.
3) We are a long trip for a lot of the bigger name teams, and the ones nearby are already in our conference.
Getting KU here was solely based on the fact that Tad is an alum. No way would they have come here otherwise. I remember hearing rumblings a year or two ago that Calipari or one of the other blue bloods back east backed out of a contract with us for a home and home.
1) Tad believes we deserve enough respect to get home and homes. We will not do 2-1 or one offs, unless it's a neutral site.
2) Big name teams like to load up their OOC with sure wins to improve their seeding come march, and CU is not a sure win. Especially in Boulder.
3) We are a long trip for a lot of the bigger name teams, and the ones nearby are already in our conference.
Getting KU here was solely based on the fact that Tad is an alum. No way would they have come here otherwise. I remember hearing rumblings a year or two ago that Calipari or one of the other blue bloods back east backed out of a contract with us for a home and home.
prf
RalphieReport Writer
I don't think this works. I'm not going to look it up because I'm super lazy, but there are rules regarding early season tournaments. They don't count towards your total game caps, but you can only play in a tournament every 4 or five years or something. That's why Kansas (or whoever) doesn't play in the Bahamas every year, and also why there are 5th place games in all of these- because they're guaranteed games that don't count against the cap. It's why we're playing in this garbage tournament that isn't a tournament.
Anyway- an annual Rocky Mountain Classic or whatever doesn't satisfy any of that. You'd eat into your total games and also potentially lose a game or 2 if you get knocked out. And none of those teams move the needle attendance-wise. I'll just say this- The Pepsi Center traded the CHSAA championships for the MWC tournament. CHSAA moved to the CEC. CHSAA had better attendance head to head.
prf
RalphieReport Writer
no, I'm not. You can play in an early season tournament every year, but it has to be a different tournament.
Not technically a tournament. All those big 5 games are just regularly scheduled games that end up crowning a city championship. I don't know if that tourney rule is right, but some sort of round robin set up at a neutral site could be done, just would have to be regularly scheduled games that count against the total.
That's what I'm thinking. I don't think that the NCAA would care whether they were played on home courts or neutral. And all of these tournaments count toward the record, so I don't know what that was about (which was why I assumed he was talking about those preseason foreign tours).
http://www.bloggingthebracket.com/2...ll-early-season-tournaments-exempt-background
Good summary of exempt tournaments and how they count against the game total. Big Five is obviously not an exempt tourney, and I think that's the set up Nik is talking about.
Slurpeee
It's only a gambling problem if you don't win.
Same experience here. When I looked for BYU, corners and 50 rows up were indeed $60+ service charge. Daaah's point about how casual fans view this cost explains a lot. I'm not saying cost is the only problem, but certainly plays a role. Crappy facility (ie bleacher seats w/no backs, restrooms that are disgusting, terrible concessions, terrible parking/access, etc), coming off a bad year, uninspiring home schedule, etc etc also play roles. Plus, as someone else said, I think much of it is blue hairs that bought $2k of tix and just don't bother showing up..... it's a perfect storm of issues....
.... at the end of the day, I agree conference play and getting a sniff at a national ranking will fix a great deal of this for the short term. Fixing it for the LONG term will require addressing all of the things mentioned..... plus sustaining winning.
Thank you. This kind of stuff is why I'm asking. Because, personally, I'd be perfectly willing to pay more for my season basketball tickets than I would for equivalent season tickets for football. More games, more limited availability and I have a lot more fun at basketball games. I'm clearly not representative of the fan base on this topic.
The CEC does need to be upgraded. The AD could do better in engaging the students, definitely a ding on RG's record. Parking and traffic is what it is, I don't think that issue will ever improve much.
On scheduling, it was a bad idea to schedule the best non-con game anywhere near finals week. Student attendance is probably better if BYU is here a week earlier. This goes along with my complaint whenever they schedule CSU during the week. Normal attendance from the average joe could have been better sure, but it wasn't bad for a game in mid-december. If Boyle wanted the game to sell out, then he needs to start the 'Sell out the CEC' battle cry sooner than he did.
The post Dinwiddie hangover is still lingering. Last season it seemed like both coaches and players were just going through the motions. The fan base was turned off by that, and frankly that's the reason for the dip in attendance. To his credit Boyle has shown some fire this season, and so far the team has responded. A good showing in Vegas, and get a win on the Bay Area trip, and I don't think attendance is an issue the rest of the season.
On scheduling, it was a bad idea to schedule the best non-con game anywhere near finals week. Student attendance is probably better if BYU is here a week earlier. This goes along with my complaint whenever they schedule CSU during the week. Normal attendance from the average joe could have been better sure, but it wasn't bad for a game in mid-december. If Boyle wanted the game to sell out, then he needs to start the 'Sell out the CEC' battle cry sooner than he did.
The post Dinwiddie hangover is still lingering. Last season it seemed like both coaches and players were just going through the motions. The fan base was turned off by that, and frankly that's the reason for the dip in attendance. To his credit Boyle has shown some fire this season, and so far the team has responded. A good showing in Vegas, and get a win on the Bay Area trip, and I don't think attendance is an issue the rest of the season.
Get football better. The perception of Buff fans has turned into a perpetual case waiting for the other shoe to drop, Case in Point this site. The perception that everything is going is inevitably go wrong is permeating the fan/student culture. It will take this team to be ranked for a period of time before people take notice outside of the extreme die-hards before others show up whereas if football wasn't nearly as bad as it had been, people wouldn't be expecting the worst out of all the teams.
There are a ton of good points here, and I agree with many of them. To start right off the AD/Marketing portion of this has fallen down, they rely too much on the good will Tad has built up and the assumption that winning fixes everything. A focus on driving attendance in general for all sports has been a weakness of RG - I'd like to see him hire some one and allocate funds to specifically work on that. To date this basketball season:
- Attempts at student engagement have been poor BYU is a good example - free pizza probably lifts student numbers by 500
- Attempts to engage fan base have been poor, Tad's sellout challenge is great and I noticed some mentions of it in CU's media accounts like twitter but that was it, too little too late
- On bad weather days update season ticket holders on the expected road conditions in boulder, I live in Denver we had probably double the snow out of this last storm than Boulder, I texted rugged for a road update.
- Price walk up tickets slightly more competitively (not for the Arizona's of the world but for Nichols, UNC etc.)
- Family night against ****ty teams or over breaks (kids under 7 free if they wear Buff gear?)
- Market the ticket transfer system better.
- Have one of the staff writers for CUBuffs.com send out a game preview 3-5 days before the game to season ticket holders via email and over their official team social accounts.
- Player profiles, there is a player poster every game, let us know who it is ahead of time, give us a bio for them and send that out like the preview above but 24 hours before tip-off
- Market add-on tickets for ****ty games, they do this once a year for football but again over breaks against bad teams it should be done for CUHoops
- Try to better manage traffic flow digital board on 36 that says "if you are going Colorado wait is approx 25 minutes - exit baseline for faster parking" or similar; Used official twitter accounts to help encourage this flow as well. With the hope of getting more people to filter round to lawschool and those lots earlier.
- Increase the CUnits budget
- Make the points system for students more lucrative, create one for regular ticket holders that gives some prize to the top 250 in % of games attended