...that the LNC crowds will be bigger this year now that Calvinball is gone? I can definately see a lot more people coming, at least this year, to come and check out what our new coach is doing vs. what our old coach was doing, scheduling Southern and scoring 28 points a half, etc. Thoughts?
Originally Posted by SicEmBaylor
we'll never dunk the ball enough to please our casual basketball "fans".
Never until the foolsball season be over. After that dependin on who is scheduled and whether or not we are winning. But normally OU basketball doesn't get much in the way of a crowd until league play starts.
Honestly, I don't think it would matter much who the coach is around here. And it's a real shame. We seem to be able to support an NBA franchise in this market but we can't seem to show pride and support those kids who play their hearts out in the name of our state's finest school.
No difference.
If the basketball team were to win two or three National titles in a relatively short period of time, and then follow that up with another title in the following ten years, then I think you would really start to see a consistent fan base. Ofcourse you would still need good marketing, and some decent success in those non-championship years, and probably a few other factors to really get good crowds to all of the games.
Otherwise, I think this year will be like any other.
No...as a matter of fact at first it will be less, just because of the large base of our "real" fans that will say "once he proves he won't be boring...I MIGHT come"
Maybe if the LNC were to get a complete and total renovation. From the outside in. Totally redoing seating, adding in some boxes, making it attractive on the outside. You never know, something like that might happen. Sooner than we think.
I think attendance will be down. There's too much of an unknown factor with new coach, non-marquee players, etc.
The only way I see it going up is if people's football seats don't improve or get worse because of the point-award system for attendance they've implemented in the Sooner Club. People may have to be forced to attend a game where they don't sit in 95 degree 95% humidity weather on hard plastic benches and they need binoculars. Go figure.
1. I wish they hadn't already added the practice facilities and such to LNC - because now we have no shot of moving it all, starting over, and actually building an arena designed to function first as a basketball venue. anything we do now will have to be done on that spot, involving much more work, and we'll have to build farther up, because the floor can't go any lower.
2. I agree that we need better (or any) marketing. I still think tv blackouts in the OKC area would help. Make it so the game can go out on ESPN or whatever, but if you're in OKC or Norman you have to go to Lloyd Noble to see the game.
... that's not food.
I truly believe that the only thing that a blackout will accomplish is that people who might have actually bothered to watch an OU basketball game on TV simply won't. Thus, there will quickly be even less interest in basketball locally as suddenly many stay-at-home fans won't even know what's going on. If there was an inherently high demand regionally to see OU basketball, I guess it could work. But does anybody here have even the smallest shred of evidence that college basketball, much less OU basketball, is that important to anybody in the OKC area?
In the past I attended almost every OU basketball home game each season. Things were less restrictive then. Once they started the new points system, requiring the big spenders to purchase choice seats for basketball games they don't care to attend, a whole new dynamic became involved.
Now if you buy a general admission ticket you are relegated to sitting in a specific nose-bleed area. Without the proper ticket you are highly discouraged from even entering higher priced seating areas no matter how empty they may be. It's sad really. The best and most coveted seats go totally deserted for over 50% of the games. Since all the games are now on local TV I personally would rather sit home with a beer in hand or go to a local bar and watch the games with friends than spend $20 to sit in the cheap seats while the better seats stay empty.
My suggestion... remove basketball from the sponsor program and seperate it from football sales completely. Sell the seating first come first serve and minimalize elite seating sections that segregate the fans into have/have not groups. And then blackout all games that are not sold out.
Trust me there is still much interest in OU basketball but they have really mucked up the experience of going to see the games IMO.
Returning season ticket holder. Bought 4. Will do everything in my power to assist Capel in success. Buying tickets is the way I can.
i completely agree with point 1, and felt at the time (post Final Four) they kneejerked into improving/building the new facilities--which did need to be done--but it seemed like a project without much foresight toward the future. like an impulse buy at the store.
as aggressive as the University has been annexing property and razing part of neighborhoods around Owen Field (which i have mixed feelings about as a townie)...a central campus basketball-only arena could be built on the site of Jacobs Track (for example) and move the track to the South Base area of campus....but now they're married to the LNC.
i wouldn't, however, be in favor of blackouts....though i do think all the games being on TV does negatively affect attendence more than the prolific Billy vs. Kelvin's attendence/style of play firestorms that rage on Sooner hoops boards can adequately explain.
No, it won't change. OU basketball fans suck, its just a way of life unfortunately.
1. Blackouts wouldn't work because think about it: 12,000 seats in the LNC, 1 million people in the metro. (This is assuming the blackouts were on ESPN-type networks.) The majority get screwed. Now, if we were having football attendence problems, it would work. I think the answer is take away a lot of games on the SSN. The coverage sucks on there anyway, and putting OU-Alcorn State or whatever on there only increases desire to stay home.
2. Joe C. needs to lighten up a lot. It's ok, Joe, no one will think less of OU if they see a sign at a game on TV. Also, I liked what they did with the CrimZone, to a certain extent. I didn't like how it was separated from the real student section, though. I think they need to wrap the student section around the north end, put the band directly behind the visiting bench, and allow standing room seating, like in the CrimZone, that goes closer to the floor than it does now in front of the student section.
3. No one likes the Human Hamster Race. Seriously. Or the "fan cam" (read: a swirling camera through 2 rows of students to promote AE.) If we are going to have contests, let's have all of them be things like 3 point shootouts or half court shots.
4. The sound is awful. Why we insisted on playing Zombie Nation after every opposing timeout, I have no idea. All songs have high treble and sound bad.
The Frat Boys in balls really is a buzzkill. The only thing worse were the year before's video commercials for OU women's b-ball--horrifying.
The sound isn't that bad. I've heard worse. But that DJ is a DORK and he plays the same ol' same ol'. Besides, we've got a band there to rock it.
Hope Capel changes the player intro tune too. Last year's was a dud.
I dunno, I kind of liked the hamster race thing. Watching two people smack into each other full force is pretty funny. They need to book higher quality acts, though... Some of my favorite are the FlyBall Dogs or whatever they're called now. The dogs that do stunts.
We need to take lessons from the Hornets' intro video and show cool highlights from the year (and the past) with good, pump up music, instead of "CLAP CLAP".
You really think that'll draw more people to the games? The intro video?
No, but was the intro "video" lame last year? Yes it was.
I will go to as many games as I can both men and women. Living in Ardmore sometimes things just don't work out where I can go. Since I am an OU fan and not just an OU football fan I support the Sooners whenever the chance arises, by attending OU sporting events. I have gone to many Big 8/12 basketball tournaments that I knew we didn't have a chance to win because I am an OU fan. If you are a real fan you don't just show up when you think a W is in the books. Also people that only go to the football games and gripe about the basketball team but don't attend the games is akin to the people that don't vote but moan and groan about the way the county/state/country is run.
Man what a bunch of rambling.
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