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Sooner24
7/2/2007, 08:59 PM
By Berry Tramel
Staff Writer
NORMAN — Joe Castiglione is thinking small when he tries to create excitement that will bring fans to Lloyd Noble Center. Very small.
Joe C. also is thinking big. Very big.

And the Oklahoma athletic director, newly christened a university vice president, is thinking outside the box. The Lloyd Noble box.

How small? Maybe play some Thursday night games.

How big? A massive renovation of Lloyd Noble that would turn the 32-year-old arena into more of a pure basketball venue.

How much outside the box? Moving some home games, both men and women, to Oklahoma City's Ford Center as part of a mini-season ticket package.

None of this is formalized. None is past the conceptual stage. They're just rolling around the imaginations of Castiglione, who would like to motivate Sooner fans to fill purchased, but unused, seats.

Basketball attendance has been an OU concern for several years and, in truth, several decades. College basketball in general has struggled with enticing fans to the arena for all but the marquee games.

Don't believe it? Last season, the University of Florida, with every starter back from an NCAA championship team, coached by a charismatic young whiz, playing a popular style, sold out only five of its first 13 basketball games last season. Capacity at the Gators' O'Connell Center is 11,697, slightly smaller than Lloyd Noble.

So what of Castiglione's ideas? He won't discuss them much. Some are whims that could be tried and easily scrapped. The Lloyd Noble renovation is complete opposite; it would require serious discussion, monumental finances and deep sacrifice.

Lloyd Noble has provided a decent basketball atmosphere but has become dated.

Its multi-purpose configuration has served the school well. The public, too. Raise your hand if you graduated high school, saw a concert or had a dinner at Lloyd Noble.

But the things that make Lloyd Noble so great for the law school's convocation or for hearing Willie Nelson croon "Whiskey River” make for mediocre basketball viewing. The seats go out, not up, so while a fan on the 15th row at KU's Allen Fieldhouse can flick a fly off Brandon Rush's head, a fan on the 15th row at Lloyd Noble has to squint to tell the difference between Longar Longar and Austin Johnson.

Architects and engineers are doing amazing things with stadium renovations. Look no farther than Stillwater, where Gallagher-Iba Arena was transformed from one of college hoops' great bandboxes to one of the sport's great cathedrals.

Castiglione's grand scheme: gut the interior of Lloyd Noble. Build new concourses, a new suite level, a new seat pitch that puts fans closer to the action.

Build a student section in which the rowdies could stand all game long and not block the view of the genteel customers.

Joe C. said he believes the price tag for such a campaign could fall south of $100 million, which given David Boren's and OU athletics' fundraising history, seems doable.

A dilemma: Can Lloyd Noble's roof be raised and its guts transformed in an off-season? OSU pulled it off with Gallagher-Iba Arena, but it wasn't easy, and the cost goes up with such deadlines.

Castiglione said he has considered playing home games for a season in Oklahoma City, and frankly, next season would be ideal, with the Ford Center going dark from the NBA for what appears to be one year, but it's too late to squeeze something that quick.

But playing a handful of games at the Ford Center next season is possible. Castiglione has no concrete plan — how many men's games, how many women's, who the opponents might be, tickets costs — but is intrigued by the notion.

It seems clear that some OU season-ticket holders who live on the north side of Oklahoma City are skipping many a midweek game. Playing in downtown OKC might draw some of those fans back, might draw the Norman crowd north to the novelty of the Sooners next to Bricktown and might even create some new OU hoops fans.

As for Thursday night, well, here's the theory. High school basketball is played on Tuesday. Wednesday night is church and American Idol. Maybe the Sooners could find a niche on Thursday; convince some lethargic fans that the weekend begins Thursday night.

My takes?

Thursday nights? What can it hurt?

Playing a few games at the Ford Center? Well, I'm not crazy about taking games off campus. OU's biggest attendance problem is the lack of students, and no way will the Ford Center help that. But give Castiglione credit for trying something.

Renovating Lloyd Noble? Sounds like a winner to me.

Building a new OU basketball arena isn't feasible. The Sooners have invested heavily in their state-of-the-art practice courts, locker rooms and coaches offices, all connected to Lloyd Noble.

If the cash can be found, I say rebuild it, and see whether the fans come.




I have a few ideas.

1. When school is out for Christmas break play some games in the old field house. That's mens and womens games. The first OU basketball game I ever saw was in the old field house in 1974.

2. Make it easy for students to get tickets. My son and most of his friends won't get student tickets just because it is such a hassle to pick them up. Same with the football tickets.

3. Put the band back up over the Carl's Jr sign and let students fill up the north lower end. OSU has students right on the floor so why don't we?



I personally like the idea of gutting the LNC and reconfiguring it. Trammel said in his article it wouldn't be feasible because of the practice courts, locker rooms and coaches offices to build a new arena. Just build the new arena on the south side of the prctice courts and you could still attach them to the new arena. Then you could use the LNC for concerts or graduations or whatever. Also what a set up for the state basketball tournament if you had two playing floors in one place.

Ash
7/2/2007, 09:03 PM
Play an exciting brand of basketball and win, baby, win.

Sooner24
7/2/2007, 09:05 PM
Even when we were winning it was the same problem. When they finally started giving credit for tickets used and not just tickets bought I thought it would help but it hasn't.

Boomer.....
7/3/2007, 07:37 AM
At least he is discussing things. It can't get any worse.

boomersooner82
7/3/2007, 09:19 AM
2. Make it easy for students to get tickets. My son and most of his friends won't get student tickets just because it is such a hassle to pick them up. Same with the football tickets.


Seriously? Is it really that tough to swing by the ticket office three times a basketball season and pick up tickets, or once a week for football? If that's keeping students from attending games, then good riddance to them.

PrideTrombone
7/3/2007, 09:44 AM
Seriously? Is it really that tough to swing by the ticket office three times a basketball season and pick up tickets, or once a week for football? If that's keeping students from attending games, then good riddance to them.

If I remember right, during their very small window of time in which you can do that, I do remember it being a pain in the ***.

soonervegas
7/3/2007, 12:39 PM
My opinion is that all the stops need to be brought out to get the students in the arena. I am constantly amazed that a school of 30,000 has 400 students showing up for basketball games.

Give them the prime seats (or at least a good portion of them)
Give away small scholarships
Free pizza on weekdays games

OU should be pulling in 2,000-3,000 students per game on free food alone.

You may want to look at the issue of giving tickets away to big football donors. I don't know if that is a rumor or not, but that needs to stop.

Reach out the the local Norman commmunity....they are the ones that will support basketball. Not the fat cat from Edmond.

I have been a season ticket holder for two years...and they are definitely trying. I don't know if there is a magic bullet, but start with the students.

Sooner Born Sooner Bred
7/3/2007, 12:39 PM
Why couldn't they just print e-tickets?

Jeopardude
7/3/2007, 12:44 PM
Three words: FIRE DJ NECTKIE!!!

Attendance up 2,000 minimum. :D

Kray
7/3/2007, 12:57 PM
LNC is at a structural disadvantage vs. facilities like Phog or GIA - or even Iowa State's place. Why bother gutting LNC? Why not let it be for concerts and graduations, and put the basketball program into something meant for basketball.

Why not build a basketball palace to rival those places, if we are in it for the long run?

Of course, that won't solve the core problem: fans at KU and OSU care more about basketball (by and large) than we do. They aren't successful football schools, so they care more about other sports. Not a knock on us (or them); it's just the way things are.

We had intense crowds with Tubbs' best teams and even Sampson's 90's teams drew a pretty rabid crowd. The problem was drawing it for anyone besides OSU/KU/UT or visiting out of conference big-name schools. OSU doesn't have the intensity for other schools they do for us or KU, but they definitely have a more intense crowd for your average KSU/Tech kinda game than we have. Part of that is facility, part of that is culture, part of that is numbers.

boomersooner82
7/3/2007, 12:58 PM
Why couldn't they just print e-tickets?

That actually wouldn't be a bad idea. Of course the Athletics Department would probably use that as another excuse to charge more.

I never had a problem picking my tickets up when I was a student though. Unless it's changed in the past two years, we had three days to pick our football tickets up each week, and they even extended operating hours Wednesdays to accomodate. I even remember some people being able to pick them up on Thursday if they hadn't sold out the student alotment yet. I don't recall ever having a problem picking up tickets (of course, I was always eager as hell to get mine).

Collier11
7/3/2007, 01:01 PM
LNC is at a structural disadvantage vs. facilities like Phog or GIA - or even Iowa State's place. Why bother gutting LNC? Why not let it be for concerts and graduations, and put the basketball program into something meant for basketball.

Why not build a basketball palace to rival those places, if we are in it for the long run?




Because donors just ponied up a ton of $ a few years ago to renovate that place and build nice practice facilities. If they go build a new place, it will **** off alot of money givers

OUstud
7/3/2007, 02:05 PM
Three words: FIRE DJ NECTKIE!!!

Attendance up 2,000 minimum. :D

:D that would help as well.

I'm glad they're at least acknowledging that LNC is a sucky bball venue right now. Gutting it is the best idea I've heard. So what if we have to play in OKC, I think that would do well while they're working on the LNC.

Taxman71
7/3/2007, 02:09 PM
Increase attendance? Sell beer. Eazy peazy.

But seriously, the LNC, while not the greatest b-ball friendly arena, aint' the problem. Missouri, Arkansas, K-State and others have upgraded arenas without getting better crowds (sometimes worse). Winning games and getting nationally recognized talent will bring more people to the games.

The biggest problem right now is (1) student apathy and (2) donor apathy. Nothing is sadder than seeing a few hundred students in the student section. What the heck else do these lazy do-nothings have to do for the 23 hours they are not in class? As for the donors, if they don't use the seats, they should get them revoked, especially in the lower level which is most apparent on televised games. If you don't attend the games, you don't deserve the seat, regardless of your donation. (listening Joe C.?)

As for Thursday games, that would only work for non-televised games I would think since the TV contract essentially mandates when games are to be played. Besides, weekday crowds aren't any worse than weekend crowds so what's the point?

Jeopardude
7/3/2007, 02:27 PM
As for the donors, if they don't use the seats, they should get them revoked, especially in the lower level which is most apparent on televised games. If you don't attend the games, you don't deserve the seat, regardless of your donation. (listening Joe C.?)



Very much agreed here.

Tear Down This Wall
7/3/2007, 03:07 PM
Hire a real basketball coach, Joe.

toast
7/3/2007, 03:15 PM
LNC doesn't seem to hold the women's program back, they averaged 10,000+ at home last year.

Collier11
7/3/2007, 03:16 PM
trade L2 for AP

NormanPride
7/3/2007, 03:43 PM
Steps to get students in the seats:

1. Fix arena to make Student section fun

2. Make tickets printable online. Kids are lazy.

3. Get those shuttles that take people to class to round people up at the bigger apartment complexes. That won't be a hard sell to the complexes, methinks.

4. Giveaways. Students love free crap, even if it's the worst crap ever. Beer coozies, t-shirts, pens, post-it notes with OU on it. Anything.

Collier11
7/3/2007, 03:54 PM
This is all you need to do to pack the house:

Promote the big games, if we are playing Kansas or ok state on Big Monday sale the hell out of it!!!

Promote rivalry games as that, not "lets go win the b*dlam bell"!

Make tickets more accessible, be able to print them online. Also, when I pick up a set of tickets for 6 seperate games, sometimes you forget about the other games.

Put students on the floor, I know we try to cater to the donors but good lord tell them to shut up once in a while. If I want to stand and cheer, heaven forbid that I not get b*tched at for doing that.

Institute some kind of ticket donation program where if you cant go to a game you can give it to someone who really wants to be there.

Restructure the seats going up like it has been mentioned rather than going out

I am all for school spirit and fight songs, but the gyms that have the most fun are the ones that mix good stadium music at the right moments with fight songs. I am sorry but hearing boomer sooner or the tail end of Oklahoma 37 times per game doesnt do anything for me. We should be excited and pumped to hear Boomer Sooner, not annoyed!

Taxman71
7/3/2007, 04:49 PM
I have an idea, how about a local band playing a 10-15 minute set at halftime rather than the typical dance routine, gymnasts or the like. College kids would dig it and the band would do it for next to nothing for the exposure and CD sales in the concourse.

Beef
7/3/2007, 05:54 PM
Nekkid chicks on poles.

Sooner Born Sooner Bred
7/3/2007, 08:14 PM
They really need to assess the way they sell season tickets. It's frustrating to want to go to a game, but then be told it's sold out. Then you see that there are empty seats all over the place because some jackass wasted their tickets.

Oh and get rid of the dumb gimmicky games that they do at timeouts.

illinisooner
7/4/2007, 12:00 AM
I'm a student, and I didn't get season tickets last year (I did the previous year), mainly because I had some night classes and a tough schedule. I wonder how many other students have the same problem, because it doesn't make much sense to buy season tickets if you can only go to the weekend games. And the early afternoon Saturday games are not exactly a hot ticket with a bunch of hungover college kids. The perception among everyone that OU is only a football school does not help either.

The university does a decent job of promoting games in the Daily, but we're college kids...we like free stuff! If only a few hundred kids are showing up to games, then the athletic department isn't losing a whole lot of money...so make the tickets free. Or if the tickets aren't free, maybe a free hot dog and soda or something like that. Put the word free in promotional materials and the students will come!

KsSooner
7/4/2007, 09:46 AM
OU is a football school but put a consistent exciting winning product on the court and people will show up. (women's BB team for example)

King Crimson
7/4/2007, 12:29 PM
OU is a football school but put a consistent exciting winning product on the court and people will show up. (women's BB team for example)

we've had one losing season in the last 30 years. not a good excuse phrased as such. and the whole "please me, i'm the sports consumer" version of this argument is pretty lame.

OSUAggie
7/5/2007, 09:28 AM
I think Collier mentioned this earlier, but OSU has a program that makes it pretty easy for you to find someone to use your ticket for a game that you either can't or don't want to attend. That's a fairly effective way to curtail the non-used ticket problem.

I think I've noticed people bitching about the student section being split into like 5 different locations now... That may be something that was just done this past year. Seems kind of strange. In an arena like LNC, there's not much of a reason to do that. I don't know of any other school that has a multi-purpose arena (Illinois, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, etc) that splits it like that.

I'm sure there are a thousand different things that could be done, but if the arena is gutted from the inside and the concrete is re-configured, I think that would generate some interest from the students to attend the games. And as long as the university keeps growing south (they should probably add some apt.-style housing in that area), it won't seem like it's way the **** off campus.

Boomer.....
7/5/2007, 09:36 AM
They have demolished and rebuilt some new college apartments northwest of the stadium. There are also a few complexes on the west side of the LNC.

toast
7/5/2007, 11:30 AM
To the poster who negged me for stating the women's program averaged 10,000+ in attendance, here you go...

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/colleges/oklahoma/stories/062907dnspobig12brief.24e2b632.html

Texas Tech was third in the nation in home attendance with an average of 10,668, while Oklahoma was fourth at 10,437.

usmc-sooner
7/5/2007, 04:39 PM
coin beer nights

TopDawg
7/5/2007, 09:05 PM
Renovating Lloyd Noble? Sounds like a winner to me.

Building a new OU basketball arena isn't feasible. The Sooners have invested heavily in their state-of-the-art practice courts, locker rooms and coaches offices, all connected to Lloyd Noble.

I personally like the idea of gutting the LNC and reconfiguring it. Trammel said in his article it wouldn't be feasible because of the practice courts, locker rooms and coaches offices to build a new arena. Just build the new arena on the south side of the prctice courts and you could still attach them to the new arena. Then you could use the LNC for concerts or graduations or whatever. Also what a set up for the state basketball tournament if you had two playing floors in one place.

It looks to me like he thinks you can't build a new arena, but that he is for renovating the LNC.

I think the athletic department should sell basketball tickets in packages like OSU does with football tickets. That would help bring the price down (a problem for several students I know) and eliminate the hassle of picking up tickets too often (apparently another problem). That same system might even work for the general public. There are a lot of games in the basketball season and sometimes it's just hard for people to make it to them all.

I don't necessarily think that a new arena will change our attendance overnight...but it will help us get more intensity out of those who do show up and, perhaps with time, might help make it a more fun environment and help with attendance a little. In other words, I'm all for the renovations, but I think something else needs to be done with the ticketing/seating situation in order to really affect attendance.

Oh, and BBTD. :D

SOONER STEAKER
7/5/2007, 10:03 PM
Let Jeff's team do the talking. Have some early season success and the seats will begin to fill up. Start slow and you could mistake LNC for a mosileum.

Sherri Coale's team could cause problem for Jeff's crew as well. If the OU women start off strong by beatig TN and go on a long winning streak, Jeff's team mght just be out of luck no matter what they do in the win/loss column.

TopDawg
7/5/2007, 10:30 PM
This is just to balance out the forum columns again.

OUstud
7/6/2007, 12:51 PM
As long as the sections of empty seats for big games get filled, that's ok. To me, the problem isn't dead crowds for Colorado types, but the upper level sections on the N & S ends and the lower level sections to the right and left of the student section being largely empty for our "big" games.

Petro-Sooner
7/6/2007, 02:46 PM
Theres been some good suggestions about the student section however its my belief that most students really dont give a rats about our bball team. They would rather be doing something else. I dont blame them. I went for several years and finally stopped going for a couple reasons. Sampson and the fact that I had been there done that. It got old and wasnt fun anymore. Just didnt care going. I barely caught them on tv last year. I think I watch more of the women than the men. If your the type that thinks that you should be at every game to be called a true Sooner fan then so be it. Whatever.

TopDawg
7/6/2007, 11:15 PM
Theres been some good suggestions about the student section however its my belief that most students really dont give a rats about our bball team. They would rather be doing something else. I dont blame them. I went for several years and finally stopped going for a couple reasons. Sampson and the fact that I had been there done that. It got old and wasnt fun anymore. Just didnt care going. I barely caught them on tv last year. I think I watch more of the women than the men. If your the type that thinks that you should be at every game to be called a true Sooner fan then so be it. Whatever.

Well when you get right down to it, most students don't care about football either. At least, not enough to buy season tickets. The cost of the season tickets keeps some students who would love to go and be loud and rowdy and great fans from going.

oumartin
7/6/2007, 11:21 PM
any game I attended in the Tubbs area seemed to be packed. I never attended a Sampson game. I can get almost as good of nap on the couch.
I say if Capel wins and plays a type basketball that is a bit more up tempo the seats will fill up.

okienole3
7/7/2007, 09:08 AM
Get rid of the horsepigs and bring back Top Dawg

King Crimson
7/7/2007, 10:11 AM
Get rid of the horsepigs and bring back Top Dawg

agreed.

LittleWingSooner
7/7/2007, 10:28 AM
You need to win games to get crowds.

But also making the games more fun to go to would help. I've gone to games since the late Tubbs era and people are falling asleep going to games. Even in the Tubbs era this was happening. The crowds will be fine for big games though.

okienole3
7/7/2007, 05:51 PM
You need to win games to get crowds.

But also making the games more fun to go to would help. I've gone to games since the late Tubbs era and people are falling asleep going to games. Even in the Tubbs era this was happening. The crowds will be fine for big games though.

First off, Sampson won plenty of games and the crowds were still bad. Second, what is your definition of making the games "more fun"? Third, you must not have been to any big games last year, because the crowds were not fine for them.

LittleWingSooner
7/7/2007, 07:13 PM
First off, Sampson won plenty of games and the crowds were still bad. Second, what is your definition of making the games "more fun"? Third, you must not have been to any big games last year, because the crowds were not fine for them.

You can't have the boring half times and boring timeouts they've had there for as long as I have gone. I never realized how bad those were for OU till I went to about 10 Hornets games over the last 2 years. Even if the Hornets got killed which has happened the games were always fun to go to because of the atmosphere. I've gone about 30 OU games since 1990. And there have been some great games and great crowds for those big games. But the atmosphere has never been the same because the people working at OU don't put anything into it.

I didn't go to any of the bigger games last year because I wasn't anywhere near Norman last year. But it seemed like the crowd was good for those bigger games from watching them on TV. They seemed pretty good. What the School has to do is put more into the timeouts and halftime to keep the crowd there.

Sooner74
7/8/2007, 01:22 AM
I went to the big games like Kansas and the place was packed to the top minus patches. I think the problem is partially the tickets. Hell even if a student wasn't lazy it's a pain in the *** to get to the ticket office in the stadium. If you live off campus and have a full schedule and have to do various things it can make getting a ticket challenging. Now that aside most students are lazy and will not go to these games because of hangovers like someone stated and the atmosphere. I felt like the students that were at the games did their part ,but OU is lacking in the atmosphere. The music is bland and the band needs to chill out every once in awhile. I would say that the students seats for mens games are akward and need to be closer to the action which would mean renovations.

TopDawg
7/8/2007, 04:07 AM
Oh, and BBTD. :D


Get rid of the horsepigs and bring back Top Dawg

BBTD

okienole3
7/8/2007, 05:20 PM
BBTD


I hear ya.

okienole3
7/8/2007, 05:21 PM
Would anyone consider the A&M game a "big game" last year? How about Texas? It was embarrassing when their fans were louder than ours.

Sooner74
7/9/2007, 12:23 AM
I can see A&M because they brought a pretty good student croud chanting all their hooplah ,but in the texas game OUr student section was kinda boring.

Petro-Sooner
7/9/2007, 09:00 AM
Get rid of the horsepigs and bring back Top Dawg


Bingo

Bruiser53
7/26/2007, 09:48 AM
Our student section at my high school was about 20x better than at OU games for 3 reasons-
1. We were good
2. The front row was basically standing on the court
3. All the students (who are the fans who stand the whole game and get lound and make an atmosphere) were all sitting together.

Lloyd Noble has none of that. When I felt like I was getting a better atmosphere at my high school games for free than an OU game that I have to pay for, then I think the money might be better spent on a 30 pack of stones. Renovate it, put students in one big section that goes to the floor, win some games, and they will come

OSUAggie
7/26/2007, 10:38 AM
You got in free to high school games?

illinisooner
7/26/2007, 11:36 AM
My high school team went 2-23 my junior year and we still had to pay!

CobraKai
7/26/2007, 12:32 PM
I realize this is a little out of the box, but I'm going to put it out there. Free Oriental Massage parlor in place of at least one of the concession stands. Think about it.

badger
7/30/2007, 02:03 PM
Just winning alone won't do it. It would help, but not entirely.

First, establish a connection with the crowd. The OU women's team has done this perfectly, which results in older alumni and Norman area people wanting tickets and actually attending games. This involves volunteer work, meet-and-greet sessions at schools and community events (including football games) and fan giveaways, like the opportunity to tour facilities and meet players.

Next, do away with any rewards program that involves buying basketball tickets in return for the ability to buy any OU football tickets. If football and basketball tickets must be intertwined, at least make it a "USE your basketball tickets, and be able to buy better football tickets."

Third, make some games more affordable please. I am sure many families would love to bring their kids to games, but with high prices (and concession prices aren't incredibly cheap, either), it is difficult to do. You do it for the women, so why not have free tickets for kids who join the Sooner kid's club? They don't have to be great seats, just get them to the arena! Establishing a younger fanbase will ensure loyalty for years. Think how many of you started watching OU football when you were young.

Finally, gut the arena and make seats closer to the action. Have a bleacher box for students so they can stand and yell without getting in the way of precious donors. Oh, and reward students that dress funny and actually cheer! You want those guys on television showing prospective students that the university is fun and not just football. Right now, short chicks like me usually have stuff obstructing views (like taller people sitting in front) no matter where you go in the arena.

stoopified
8/1/2007, 11:04 AM
Just winning alone won't do it. It would help, but not entirely.

First, establish a connection with the crowd. The OU women's team has done this perfectly, which results in older alumni and Norman area people wanting tickets and actually attending games. This involves volunteer work, meet-and-greet sessions at schools and community events (including football games) and fan giveaways, like the opportunity to tour facilities and meet players.

Next, do away with any rewards program that involves buying basketball tickets in return for the ability to buy any OU football tickets. If football and basketball tickets must be intertwined, at least make it a "USE your basketball tickets, and be able to buy better football tickets."

Third, make some games more affordable please. I am sure many families would love to bring their kids to games, but with high prices (and concession prices aren't incredibly cheap, either), it is difficult to do. You do it for the women, so why not have free tickets for kids who join the Sooner kid's club? They don't have to be great seats, just get them to the arena! Establishing a younger fanbase will ensure loyalty for years. Think how many of you started watching OU football when you were young.

Finally, gut the arena and make seats closer to the action. Have a bleacher box for students so they can stand and yell without getting in the way of precious donors. Oh, and reward students that dress funny and actually cheer! You want those guys on television showing prospective students that the university is fun and not just football. Right now, short chicks like me usually have stuff obstructing views (like taller people sitting in front) no matter where you go in the arena.
While I question the feasibility of gutting the LNC,I would say your suggestions are dead on.

MextheBulldog
8/2/2007, 03:47 PM
-Win, win and win. #1 motivation by far.
-Play hoops on campus - not in the middle of a parking lot. Renovate the Fieldhouse (on campus) to accomodate 8-10k fans a la Cameron Indoor Stadium. Make it hard to get a ticket, i.e. students camping out for big games, etc.

GottaHavePride
8/19/2007, 12:23 PM
You know how to get students in to the basketball games?

Studens get in free. No tickets, you just scan your student ID at the door and when the place is full, they stop letting people in. Oh, and with 10 minutes left in the first half, start letting students in again to fill in any seat that doesn't have an *** in it.

Beer sales would more than make up for the money lost.

Sooner24
8/19/2007, 01:40 PM
You know how to get students in to the basketball games?

Studens get in free. No tickets, you just scan your student ID at the door and when the place is full, they stop letting people in. Oh, and with 10 minutes left in the first half, start letting students in again to fill in any seat that doesn't have an *** in it.

Beer sales would more than make up for the money lost.


Students get in free to the women's games but now that they have big crowds Joe C is probably going to start selling tickets to students for that too. One of the biggest mens crowds they had last year was when they served the students free pizza. Go figure.

the_ouskull
8/19/2007, 07:27 PM
I am but a simple man, but I know what suggestions are:

First of all, it would make no sense, financially, to let students in for free. HOWEVER, what WOULD make sense is this...

1) Donor E-Tickets. First of all, donors are a lot less likely to "scam the system." Second, spending a little extra cash for an automated e-mail sent to the donors, with that game's E-Ticket code wouldn't be a big deal at all. Third, tying in with the second point, if the donors weren't able to make the game, they could give that game's code to someone, or sell it to someone... Then THEY could print off the tickets and use them.

2) Luxury seating. Allow the fat cats to roll that way. They either get to be a part of a guaranteed-use courtside pack, or they can do the VIP box thing. Either way, Joe C. and company would see to it that the "best and brightest" of OU's celebrity fans were being seen being there.

3) Cheaper student tickets. Supply and Demand should be taken into account, of course, but public perception of a program can have an amazing effect on Supply and Demand.

Example: The perception lately, is that the Women's program has been much, much more successful than the Men's. The truth, however, is that since 2000, the Women's program has only 12 more wins (1.25 per season) and 76% of their games, compared to 74% for the Men's program.

If people watching on TV see celebrities at courtside, a packed, and rowdy student section, and a winning team, regardless of its style of play, then they're going to want to come to the games...

...especially when it's an affordable ticket. If people are demanding the tickets at a rate greater than the supply, then perhaps you increase the price of the tickets for the "Big Ticket" games... (Examples from last season: Nova, Texas, OSU, Tech, Kansas...) In fact, we could offer a slightly higher priced "Big Ticket" package for our big games... Students AND Alums would dig on that.

4) The tough one...

Unless you have a donor seat, a VIP seat, or a faculty, family, player will-call, etc... seat...

...your seat is first-come, first-served.

The people that really WANT to be there, will be courtside, guaranteed. If people have a problem with this, it can be their choice to not renue. OU basketball will be able to find someone to replace a five games a year "fan."

5) Move the seats, and especially the students, closer to the court. The press does NOT need to be courtside to call the game. If the students are given easier access to tickets, and guaranteed a great seat with an early arrival, then it's a win-win for OU, and for the National perception of our program.

6) For the Longwood's and Chaminade's of the world, we SHOULD give away tickets. Do a "first 1000 through the gates get in free" promotion. For those that already have tickets, allow them to get a face-value refund credited to their bursar bill or their donor account, or whatever... Also, we could offer, at a similar price to the "Big Ticket" package, a "Little Game, Big Value" package, in which you'd get tickets to all of the exhibition and crap games, and a complimentary beverage and hot dog, or slice of pizza or something... or maybe a shirt, even.

7) Children's packages. Local schools, etc... would LOVE the opportunity to bring students to games. If all of those students were sitting in a block, they'd be loud and proud... especially if a couple of the players and / or a coach came out and thanked them, personally, before the game. Also, we'd be creating younger and younger Sooner fans... which never hurts. Hell, it worked on me. :D

Those are just a few more ideas to bandy about.. They're rough drafts, but good ideas usually DO start that way.

the_ouskull

the_ouskull
8/19/2007, 07:27 PM
Double-Post: My bad.

King Crimson
8/19/2007, 07:36 PM
Colorado has a couple freebee games with a free individual pizza to each fan (local sponsor), a t-shirt game (powerbar is the sponsor)...they are well attended by comparison. last year a lot of our games LOOKED like CU's Events Center, before you laugh.

and getting out-marketed by CU is like losing in tic-tac-toe.

today's college students don't respond to immediate sports loyalty, they respond to narratives about social importance. their world is not local, it's dispersed across all forms of media. sometimes those things converge, but not always.

i also think it's kind of naive when people refuse to acknowledge that nearly every game is on TV as a factor in attendance.

thatmediadude
8/22/2007, 11:39 PM
There is no comparison to the venue between Gallager-Iba and Lloyd Noble. Personally, the atmosphere at GI trumps LNC 10 to 1 even when it's sold out simply because the fans are so much closer to the floor. The players would get more adrenaline going if they had their student fans screaming within 3 feet of them on the baseline. I think the seats should be moved closer and have the atmosphere upgraded to the new century..plus contending for a conference championship couldn't hurt.

badger
8/25/2007, 09:58 PM
There is no comparison to the venue between Gallager-Iba and Lloyd Noble. Personally, the atmosphere at GI trumps LNC 10 to 1 even when it's sold out simply because the fans are so much closer to the floor. The players would get more adrenaline going if they had their student fans screaming within 3 feet of them on the baseline. I think the seats should be moved closer and have the atmosphere upgraded to the new century..plus contending for a conference championship couldn't hurt.
I've been to Gally when it's mostly empty--- it was with a Sooner fan group to the women's ou-osu game. We had more fans than they had there (it was goodenough era) and we ****ed them off hardcore. The empty seats were amusing--- there's nothing like a big empty arena to intimidate the visiting team :D:D:D

On that note, Joe needs to encourage average fans like me to attend games. Here are more ideas:

1- Have games that are on the same weekend as home football games.

Offer packages--- attend the basketball game AND football game! If basketball is before football, offer better football tickets for attending basketball!

Besides, if 80 thou Sooners are in town, you have a better chance of getting 10 thou to stay for Sooner basketball.

2- Free beer night!!!!

Ok, so they can't give away alcohol on a dry-ish campus. How bout free other things, like football autographs, or football jerseys?

3- Have football games played in Lloyd Noble, arena bowl style.

Face it, it's the way they sell those tickets, anyways, by offering ou-texas tickets and such. So lets just combine the two. RED RIVER INDOORS!!!