Students need to be in the sideline seats across from TV camera!!!!!!!!!!!

[spacemonkey]

I am starting a thread in hopes someone who matters, DG, reads this thread and thinks it through.

We have to try something new to get the students to basketball games. Please try a few games where you let the students spread out on the side away from the camera. We are not selling those tickets...let them have fun and have good seats. Duke has had it right for years. Why would we push our students out of great (EMPTY) seats. When the season tickets fill up the rest of the seats then you could think about relocating them. PLEASE TRY SOMETHING NEW. No reason for basketball attendance to be so low. Attendance for the conference was just released and we are averaging 2100. Again...try something new. Give the fraternities and sororities their own section. Let the chess club/football players. Hot girls/Ugly guys section. Anything. Ask the kids what they want. No tickets are selling. Get our attendance up with students.

Thanks for listening. Kerns has done everything he knows to do...it is time to let someone else in on the marketing to students and it needs to be creative and GOOD SEATS!!! (THEY PAID FOR THEM)

[AppStateTailgate]

Could not agree more, although are we sure some season tickets weren’t already sold over there?

[appgrad95&97]

The team has to win consistently (something we've never really done). Campbell, Kennesaw St., Furman, UNCC... win two of those games and we have better attendance. When you loose those games, no one is going to be jazzed to go to against Carlow and Regent.

[bigdaddyg]

Someone commented on the game thread that the students had said they want to be behind the basket. You can leave some there to mess with the opponent shooting free throws but otherwise they need to be on the sides if nothing else to not make our building look half empty

[BambooRdApp]

I get there are a decent amount of students at the game behind the endline. If you take students away from the backline and spread some across the sidelines and leave some on the endline, I believe you dilute the student look where it does not appear many behind the endline and only a few rows taken around the sidelines. I am not sure it would be a much better look. Also, believe it may take away from student experience being pack together behind the endline is like a big party similar to the football games. Not sure if they get same experience spread more thin around sidelines.
I do not have the answer, need more high country folks at the games. Football works for occasional weeknight games as fans (outside the high country) will make effort. Basketball has too many weekday games for people outside the the High Country to make drive. For the weekend games, it is just not the "all day" experience like football such as tailgating, etc
Yes, winning consistently would definitely help the situation, however, bball has more of an uphill battle as App has never been a basketball school. It is the reality of the situation.
I hope Kerns is the guy to get us there and has desire to here long-term if he is successful. IMO this is a decade or so process that has to evolve given we are not a BBall school.

[AppSt94]

Like it or not, those seats in the view of the camera are sold as season tickets. That’s revenue to the school. Yes it looks bad on ESPN+, but it wasn’t an opponent that is going to get people up the mountain on a Tuesday.

[ArmantiWaterSafety]

I guess the real question of the matter is, who exactly is it looking bad for?

I don't know where to find viewership numbers, but I can't imagine many people outside of App fans and the opponents fans are watching, and we don't have that many alumni who watch App basketball on TV.

Even with 2100 people, attendance is up about 200% from when I went about 10 years ago. It was ok in '09, but steadily declined to hardly anybody being there from '10-'13. It's getting there, but we've still got to get a lot better consistently before people will come.

[311neers]

I guess the real question of the matter is, who exactly is it looking bad for?

I don't know where to find viewership numbers, but I can't imagine many people outside of App fans and the opponents fans are watching, and we don't have that many alumni who watch App basketball on TV.

Even with 2100 people, attendance is up about 200% from when I went about 10 years ago. It was ok in '09, but steadily declined to hardly anybody being there from '10-'13. It's getting there, but we've still got to get a lot better consistently before people will come.

Keep incentivizing students to show and we will be fine. All starts with winning. It's just like football, students make up 25% of the attendance.
2,100 average- I bet 500 are students. We definitely need to renovate the interior a little bit. Lose an upper bowl section or two to add standing room only/pavilion and maybe a nice box suite or 2 that looks good and features APP Basketball History. We can lose some seats, make it more intimate and a true homecourt advantage and still be able to host graduation. Tarp the upper bowl as well where the camera doesn't show to force people to sit lower bowl and make it difficult for opposing teams with noise.

[beav910]

I don't really care where the students go but one thing I see that probably would help our student section look better is if they were corralled into the section better. When I was a student we would just walk in and sit wherever because there were so many empty seats it didn't matter if there was a section for us or not. I've seen that same thing continue on tv and in person. A bunch of students sitting around in random spots rather than filling out the student section. Hopefully they'd be more engaged and standing if they were in the right place too.

[bigdaddyg]

If even 1500 students showed up that would be huge. If on average 500 are there where do the extra 1,000 sit? The other end? Upper deck?

[311neers]

I don't really care where the students go but one thing I see that probably would help our student section look better is if they were corralled into the section better. When I was a student we would just walk in and sit wherever because there were so many empty seats it didn't matter if there was a section for us or not. I've seen that same thing continue on tv and in person. A bunch of students sitting around in random spots rather than filling out the student section. Hopefully they'd be more engaged and standing if they were in the right place too.

Thus, tarp the whole upper bowl. Force people to sit low, on camera, be compact and loud. Take the 8,500 seats and turn it into 4,000 and only spend $5k for a nice black tarp with logo's on it. Or just the upper corners. Have to get people in the lower bowl, force the 2,100 in the 4,000 lower seats.

[WASU 93]

Like it or not, those seats in the view of the camera are sold as season tickets. That’s revenue to the school. Yes it looks bad on ESPN+, but it wasn’t an opponent that is going to get people up the mountain on a Tuesday.

Those few season tickets can easily be moved to the home side. No one who has season tickets (those few dedicated souls) are going to not maintain season tickets if they are moved to a comparable seat on the home side.

Move the Pep Band down low on one side of the basket, allow students to fill the other end lower and fill the rest of the side away from the benches with students. Duke does it, NC State has bleachers down low on the sideline for students, Charlotte has always had that set-up since they moved into Halton.

Yes, winning will fix it, but let's get Kearns Krazies/Yosef's Yellers/the Mountaineer Maniacs closer to the action.

[AppSt94]

Like it or not, those seats in the view of the camera are sold as season tickets. That’s revenue to the school. Yes it looks bad on ESPN+, but it wasn’t an opponent that is going to get people up the mountain on a Tuesday.

Those few season tickets can easily be moved to the home side. No one who has season tickets (those few dedicated souls) are going to not maintain season tickets if they are moved to a comparable seat on the home side.

Move the Pep Band down low on one side of the basket, allow students to fill the other end lower and fill the rest of the side away from the benches with students. Duke does it, NC State has bleachers down low on the sideline for students, Charlotte has always had that set-up since they moved into Halton.

Yes, winning will fix it, but let's get Kearns Krazies/Yosef's Yellers/the Mountaineer Maniacs closer to the action.

Has anyone approached Gillin about this? What was his response?

[goapps93]

How many other arenas seat students behind the benches? I don't know of many. It's just asking for trouble. Maybe we could move the students to the side opposite the benches and move the cameras to the bench side. But again, not many casual viewers are watching on ESPN+, so this is really much ado about nothing.

[WASU 93]

Like it or not, those seats in the view of the camera are sold as season tickets. That’s revenue to the school. Yes it looks bad on ESPN+, but it wasn’t an opponent that is going to get people up the mountain on a Tuesday.

Those few season tickets can easily be moved to the home side. No one who has season tickets (those few dedicated souls) are going to not maintain season tickets if they are moved to a comparable seat on the home side.

Move the Pep Band down low on one side of the basket, allow students to fill the other end lower and fill the rest of the side away from the benches with students. Duke does it, NC State has bleachers down low on the sideline for students, Charlotte has always had that set-up since they moved into Halton.

Yes, winning will fix it, but let's get Kearns Krazies/Yosef's Yellers/the Mountaineer Maniacs closer to the action.

Has anyone approached Gillin about this? What was his response?

That's a good question. How does one approach Gillin? Does he sit down and talk to alumni on a regular basis/respond to random emails? Hold Fireside Chats (it would be cool, if he did)? I would certainly be glad to be part of a suggestion/solution committee, but how do you gain an audience and does he have time for such inquiries?

[AppSt94]

Like it or not, those seats in the view of the camera are sold as season tickets. That’s revenue to the school. Yes it looks bad on ESPN+, but it wasn’t an opponent that is going to get people up the mountain on a Tuesday.

Those few season tickets can easily be moved to the home side. No one who has season tickets (those few dedicated souls) are going to not maintain season tickets if they are moved to a comparable seat on the home side.

Move the Pep Band down low on one side of the basket, allow students to fill the other end lower and fill the rest of the side away from the benches with students. Duke does it, NC State has bleachers down low on the sideline for students, Charlotte has always had that set-up since they moved into Halton.

Yes, winning will fix it, but let's get Kearns Krazies/Yosef's Yellers/the Mountaineer Maniacs closer to the action.

Has anyone approached Gillin about this? What was his response?

That's a good question. How does one approach Gillin? Does he sit down and talk to alumni on a regular basis/respond to random emails? Hold Fireside Chats (it would be cool, if he did)? I would certainly be glad to be part of a suggestion/solution committee, but how do you gain an audience and does he have time for such inquiries?

He has a university assigned email address and phone number. If he is at the basketball game next Saturday, I can ask him.

[WASU 93]

How many other arenas seat students behind the benches? I don't know of many. It's just asking for trouble. Maybe we could move the students to the side opposite the benches and move the cameras to the bench side. But again, not many casual viewers are watching on ESPN+, so this is really much ado about nothing.

I wouldn't seat them behind the benches (for that exact reason). All of the programs that I mentioned sit the students across from the benches. To me, it's not about TV, it's about atmosphere and putting the students in the action. For TV, you need to fill 6-8 rows of seats with other fans. If we can't do it with ticket sales, give 100 seats to a local school each game to put bodies in those seats.

[AppSt94]

How many other arenas seat students behind the benches? I don't know of many. It's just asking for trouble. Maybe we could move the students to the side opposite the benches and move the cameras to the bench side. But again, not many casual viewers are watching on ESPN+, so this is really much ado about nothing.

I wouldn't seat them behind the benches (for that exact reason). All of the programs that I mentioned sit the students across from the benches. To me, it's not about TV, it's about atmosphere and putting the students in the action. For TV, you need to fill 6-8 rows of seats with other fans. If we can't do it with ticket sales, give 100 seats to a local school each game to put bodies in those seats.

Most of those seats in the first eight rows behind the benches are already sold.

[311neers]

Like it or not, those seats in the view of the camera are sold as season tickets. That’s revenue to the school. Yes it looks bad on ESPN+, but it wasn’t an opponent that is going to get people up the mountain on a Tuesday.

Those few season tickets can easily be moved to the home side. No one who has season tickets (those few dedicated souls) are going to not maintain season tickets if they are moved to a comparable seat on the home side.

Move the Pep Band down low on one side of the basket, allow students to fill the other end lower and fill the rest of the side away from the benches with students. Duke does it, NC State has bleachers down low on the sideline for students, Charlotte has always had that set-up since they moved into Halton.

Yes, winning will fix it, but let's get Kearns Krazies/Yosef's Yellers/the Mountaineer Maniacs closer to the action.

Has anyone approached Gillin about this? What was his response?

That's a good question. How does one approach Gillin? Does he sit down and talk to alumni on a regular basis/respond to random emails? Hold Fireside Chats (it would be cool, if he did)? I would certainly be glad to be part of a suggestion/solution committee, but how do you gain an audience and does he have time for such inquiries?

It's sad we even have to ask these questions. Surely he sees the issues and that they are an easy fix. The ACC championship tarps the upper deck because they can't fill BOA, we should do the same with Holmes. Would force people to move down, create a more hostile environment. We can't keep losing at home to Kennesaw States and Campbells of the world.

[Appstate88]

Block off the upper section now and get that parking deck built adjacent to Holmes. Give the building a cool nickname like we did Kidd Brewer Stadium, “The Rock”. IDK a good one but here is a start “The Cave”. Make it open seating, general admission for all except for one section which could be reserved for season ticket holders that might show up for a game on a first come first serve basis. This reserved section should not be on ESPN+ camera view. Give prizes during all second half time outs and commercial breaks to random seat location. If someone is in that seat at the time they call it out they win a prize and are entered into a grand prize drawing. You get their information for the grand prize. Later you contact them during the off season and encourage the to join Yosef club and become.a basketball season ticket holder for next year.