MikeH wrote:
Like your reports. But, praising attendance of 2,800 is wrong because it included about 1,000 enthusiastic Bradley fans who would have easily stolen the home court if their team played any better.
Agree to disagree. Last season when Bradley came to town we had a crowd of 2,089 and that was with students. Bradley got loud when they cut the lead to 13 late in the second half; I’m fine with that, makes for a fun atmosphere. With students I’m sure the Loyola side is even louder.
We’re likely always gonna have more opposing fans in gentile when compared to other MVC schools. Chicago has a hugely dense population with plenty of alumni bases present, especially from midwestern schools. Then you throw in the tourism aspect, a Rambler game is a perfect addition to a weekend trip to the city. Even if there were 1000 Bradley fans (which I would say is probably closer to 700), that’s still nearly 2000 local fans showing up to a winter break game with no band or students.
Opposing fans poked fun of gentile initially because it was small, but the fact is it gets loud, it’s well lit, clean, and the sitelines are great. If I recall correctly Bradley has fans pretty far away from the court. The better we get the more opposing fans will want to come and try and see their team take down a big dog. It’s why I went to see us play at Notre Dame a few years back (obviously we’re far from that kind of attraction, but you never know what could happen in the next 5-10 years). Best of all, the money it supplies the program with is all the same.
