Great idea, Nate. I was thinking of something where we all show up and try to bring at least one other person along. I'm ready for the 15th with a daughter and two grandchildren. Let's do it. Meanwhile, I have some thoughts on things that are do-able but beyond our control to improve the atmosphere:

Ideally what you want to do is make cheap seats available to get people in the habit of coming to more games per year while at the same time charging full price to the committed fans and season ticket holders. You hope the newer fans will become regulars. The problem is that a sales program like that makes it seem that the faithful are suckers. Why buy a season ticket if you can get in for five dollars a game and sit pretty much wherever you want? But that happens already on a fairly regular basis. One thing that makes it palatable is that seeing more fans in the arena is worth it, at least for me. Another answer is to increase the basic premiums that go with season tickets. I believe that a lot of us value information as much as anything else. The open forum that Steve Watson conducted was a great event. More of that kind of thing would help. Time with the players and staff is always appreciated. I am sure others can suggest some things to make buying season tickets more valuable.

For team support purposes, which is what this discussion has been about, we should want people as close to the action and to each other as possible. Right now, I can (and often do) scream my head off, but in the middle of a sea of empty seats it does no good. The first thing I would do is to move the student section behind the visiting bench and put the band and the cheerleaders in that same area (why are our cheerleaders 84 feet removed from our students??). Make it as difficult as possible for the visitors and put the student section in full view of TV cameras. There won’t be revenue loss (for the time being) from moving the students because there are at least that many Gold seats that are unsold anyway for almost every game. Encourage as many season ticket holders as possible to move to the south side as well. I would not put all the cheap seat buyers behind the basket. Keep everyone close to the action. If you fill up the three Gold sections on the south side with students and loyal fans, the people with the cheap tickets can get good seats on the other side of the arena with visiting fans where they will see how much more fun it is to be on the south side.

Besides having fans scattered throughout the arena, another thing that makes crowd noise difficult to generate before the game, during introductions, and when the clock is off – and I know I’m giving away my age here – is that the extra loud music and announcements drowning out the fans. It looks like an amateur attempt to create the illusion of a loud crowd. The whole game script should be designed to generate excitement in the crowd, not just produce noise for noise sake. As for the contests at half-time and during timeouts, everyone involved should be required to read Bill Veeck’s autobiography, “Veeck as in Wreak” or a great recent bio by Paul Dickson to get the creative juices flowing. They will find there’s no end to the number of “interesting” things you can do.

A view from the cheap seats...
Hi Ramblermaniacs,
It took me a bit to recover from the last game. It was rough in a lot of ways. It was rough to see the I. S. U. folks flaunt their big banner when the Ramblers
were shooting free throws. (Thanks Swella for bringing this to the attention of the cops.), It was rough to see this banner waving after the game. It was rough to see the decisive, demoralizing Rambler loss. Stunning.
Yes, we need more fans at the games. How about a 2 for 1 promotion? Or a season ticket- holder, bring -a -friend promotion? I think that we could accommodate them all. Missed the wonderful band, cheerleaders and dancers. They are excellent and fun.
Great to see the Ramblermaniacs at the game, dinosaurs or otherwise!
Go Ramblers.

It's not just the geezers. I felt like this was much improved until Sunday. The Arch Madness promo in particular was ear-splitting. It's pretty bad when you can't have a conversation with the person next to you during breaks because the music is so loud.

That said, I'm up for whatever the group decides as an action plan, but keep in mind spring semester doesn't start until the 17th. I imagine the halls open that weekend for move-in, but not sure how many students will be around for the game on the 15th.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

OK,,,,,I am willing to do the following but I would like some feedback to see if you think I am on the correct path.
1. Is the 15th the correct day to try this since students are not for sure back till Tuesday as the 16th is Martin Luther King Day. IF not what day should I shoot for,?

2. I will pitch ideas to AD Watson and see what he says. May be difficult to rearrange seats but where should we shoot for? behind LU bench....middle section behind scorers table....across from the bench? Might be hard to get opposing fans out of their seats but we should be able to get students to another section. If I think I know anything about Pat Schultz we should be able to get him on the floor with the mic to help rearrange the crowd or we could get ushers to hand out instructions......chance there may be all kinds of objctions but what the hell

3. Ask AD Steve to give our group a password etc,,,, to use for a special price.....on that day.
4. Also a thought should we had out a small flyer with the address of this forum so it becomes bigger,,,,,hard to be better!!!!!!
any other ideas?

Just came to me.......Is there a student liaison either to the Athletic Department and or Student Activities???? someone at the Phoenix we can misuse for some ideas or publicity?

Myself and my family would definitely be in for the 15th and certainly any other weekend dates we can make the trek down for.
And for further support on my earlier post about ticket prices, I checked ticket prices at Grand Canyon, the fightin Majerle's.
I did this because know the have huge fan support in a few years and I thought I remembered Steve Fisher comparing Gentile to their arena.
I checked 3 games and the tickets were all $4.75 to $9.00!
http://gculopes.com/facilities/?id=21

The fun part about Grand Canyon University (whom Loyola plays on a regular basis in men's volleyball as a fellow MIVA member) is you can check how they're doing financially any time you want. Just look up the NASDAQ stock code: LOPE.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=c ... ASDAQ+LOPE

As of this morning, they have a market cap of $2.73 billion dollars.