One more thing to bitch about

[IndySooner]

Attendance. I know we've been through this over and over again, but I'm 100% on the side of we need to put some money into the facilities and make the experience more fan friendly. Look at this list:

http://www.collegebaseballdaily.com/2011/06/14/2011-division-1-college-baseball-attendance-report/

Tell me why we're behind, by over 3x, TCU in attendance. There's more to do in the Ft. Worth metro area than there is in the OKC metro area. OU's a bigger school with a better baseball tradition. There's ZERO reason for this, other than TCU has a better facility and TCU does a better job of selling its product.

EVERY SINGLE TEAM in the top-10 in attendance has a great baseball facility. That's why they lead in attendance. Ours is crap compared to theirs. That's just the honest truth. Baum in Fayetteville, for example, is like Bricktown Ballpark without the upper deck. Great stadium. Florida State's, on TV, anyway, looked awesome. I've seen pictures of South Carolina's and it's incredible.

Until the administration puts more money into the program, it will be a revenue suck for the athletic department. If they do ever decide to put money into the program, our attendance figures will be better and our home field advantage will be MUCH better.

Okay, end of rant. I've had a lot of rants, lately. The end of the season has put me on tilt, I think.

[bcolston15]

Relax, we draw almost as well as Troy.

[IndySooner]

Relax, we drawly almost as well as Troy.

:D

[perryj]

While I do think attendance is an issue that needs to be addressed, it was up considerably this year from the last few. I know a lot of that is based on expectations and publicity but it is likely going to take a lot more of both to keep the attendance numbers rising. Hopefully the fans gained this year will remain next year and bring a friend or two out with them next year.

Facilities aren't everything though and LDM isn't a bad park. I will agree it does little to attract the fan but it shouldn't keep any from coming back. Look at UNC. They have a very nice facility yet only drew a couple of hundred more fans per game than did OU. UNC has a top ranked program and has had a ton of recent success with several trips to Omaha in the last decade, I want to say now 5 out of the last 6 years.

I would like to see them do away with the bleachers at LDM and give everyone a stadium seat as well as expand the seating down each berm and wrap the covered concourse all the way around the expanded seating areas.

One other thing is to get the students more involved. It seems like the majority of the students that show at the games are other athletes. I'm not sure what the answer is to getting students to LDM but something needs to be done. Maybe the students don't know the baseball games are free? Maybe hot dogs and cokes should always be $.50 for students instead of just for everyone on Tuesday nights?

[BoomerJack]

"I would like to see them do away with the bleachers at LDM and give everyone a stadium seat as well as expand the seating down each berm and wrap the covered concourse all the way around the expanded seating areas."

The aluminum backless seats that are there now are just third rate and an embarassment. If ANYTHING is done in the short term, PLEASE put backs on those Gen. Adm. seats.

[fwsooner22]

Indy - Not sure you should use TCU as an example. They are on a real sports high right now and the entire community has embraced them. Somehow they have made it the "IN" place to be. However, it is not about the baseball. A lot of it is about the safe haven they provide for hundreds of elementary and middle school students each night. Its an awesome location. In the middle of Tanglewood neighborhood which is affluent and full of kids.

[IndySooner]

Indy - Not sure you should use TCU as an example. They are on a real sports high right now and the entire community has embraced them. Somehow they have made it the "IN" place to be. However, it is not about the baseball. A lot of it is about the safe haven they provide for hundreds of elementary and middle school students each night. Its an awesome location. In the middle of Tanglewood neighborhood which is affluent and full of kids.

I think it's a PERFECT example. They have figured out how to make it an attraction. Has our administration even TRIED to figure that out? I don't think so. Not if it doesn't involve that brown, oblong ball. And that sells itself.

[ouboomer1]

The culture for OU baseball and basketball from an attendance standpoint has always been puzzling. OU has fielded some very good teams and yet have had a hard time filling the seats. I guess its just not in the culture to go crazy for these sports like people do for football. Granted you have to put a good product out there to draw interest but i am beginning to think the passion of the culture here is not the same as it is at other places in terms of attendance only.

[northspeter]

we all know the answer... because about 95% of OU fans are really only OU football fans... they could care less about the other sports... and the only time they do pay attention is when one of those other teams is either in a world series/final four... or they have a dissappointing season according to the media or real fans... it's been that way since i've been alive... and i don't see it changing...

[IndySooner]

I think it can change. I don't think the school has done much to try to change it. Hell, just 3 hours away in Fayetteville, they sell out football and baseball and have very good basketball crowds. There's no reason Norman can't have that, too, but it takes work and means the administration has to shift some focus away from football, something it has never proven it's willing to do.

[perryj]

I agree about shifting some of the focus away from football. How much marketing really needs to be done with football? IMO that ought to be about as easy as it gets. Send out season ticket renewals, have the band show up and do their pre-game thing, let the ruf/neks shoot their guns, and celebrate another win! Why is there any pre-game fan/fun-fest for football? It's not like people are showing up for those things.

Have the football team come sign autographs at, or after, the baseball game. There's what 85 guys on scholarship and roughly 8 home weekend series? That's about 10 guys per series that would draw a few extra hundred fans. You could have each coach bring their position players to a Saturday afternoon game for a signing afterwards so that fans would have to purchase a ticket and stay the entire time. You'd likely get some people to come every weekend for a chance to get every player's and coach's autograph.

I like what they do with the little league teams and the national anthem but maybe they should go a step further and give away some tickets for every game to a different little league team, or for any student that shows up dressed in their uniform. No doubt those kids that get to shake hands and stand next to the players during the national anthem will never forget that.

And finally, and probably most importantly, get the students involved. Place the students right behind the visitors dugout so the Yard Birds can get them worked up and on the opposing team. I still think the $.50 hot dog and coke price for the students all the time would be a great draw. Maybe have different theme nights every Friday night. Be creative but there are several thousand students living very near by that probably have no idea the games are going on or that they are free to get into.

[Sooner74]

As a recent former student, I don't think baseball will ever be a draw for students. Tuesdays are 50 cent hot dog/drink night and still only a few hundred students at best show up.

Baseball is a slow-paced, grind it out, technical game, that many of the students don't really get or want to get. We live in a fast paced, technological world in which a 2 hour game bores my generation. I think the steroid era really helped kill a good number of fans. I for one love baseball, but I couldn't get more than 2 people to go with me to a game, much less sit for the whole 9 innings.

Marketing is pretty pathetic though. That is the real reason I see an issue with OU's "other" sports. Little is done to make students want to go to the games. They get the tickets "free", but many chock that up to having to pay exorbitant fees in their tuition, which isn't really free.

As the Sooner Nation, I think many of us recognize that our Athletic Department is one of the best in the nation, but our marketing of anything outside of football is non-existant. For baseball and softball games, I usually saw 1 or 2 signs on campus. That was it! They don't push anything except football. Overhaul's need to be done in this respect moreso than upgrading a stadium that isn't ever filled to capacity.

[bcolston15]

I'm convinced it has something to do with culture. The entire southeast loves college baseball.

Go to a game in Starkville, Fayetteville, Columbia, Tallahasse, Hattiesburg, etc, etc, and then go to a game in Norman, you'll be ashamed to be an Oklahoma fan.

It's not a marketing problem. It's not a facility problem. Baseball isn't a glamor sport here like it is other places. I'm not sure that will ever change.

[hvhurricane]

If WBB can be made into a glamour sport at OU then baseball sure as hell can bring in 3K a night with a first class facility and proper marketing.

[diverdog]

Just wait when Lacrosse rears its ugly head in the midwest as a real sport. Baseball will start to die an even faster death.

[IndySooner]

Just wait when Lacrosse rears its ugly head in the midwest as a real sport. Baseball will start to die an even faster death.

Baseball is thriving in ACC country, where Lacrosse is big.

I don't think there's any chance lacrosse gets big here any more than there's a chance hockey or soccer gets big here.