In all seriousness, that is extremely well put.

Thanks for the response.

Do you really think that Wichita State won't draw the biggest crowd of the year? Come on.

They will, and it will be because they went to the Final Four last year and have been ranked all of this year.

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Yes, it will obviously draw the biggest crowd of the year. However, he is insinuating that a visit from WSU ("our pub") will have some sort of long-term effect on our "attendance woes"

It's a ridiculous statement.

I took it to mean that he was just talking about the one game.

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Wednesday games really suck. If you have any kind of travel in your business, you usually plan on leaving on Sunday or Monday and returning Thursday. Wednesday is a lousy time for a game. Thursday/Saturday used to be a nice fit especially when teams could be paired for traveling purposes.
The weather since December 1st has really sucked in Chicago. This has been the most brutal and intense winter in nearly thirty years. It would help if they could finish construction on the offices linking the parking lot to the Norville because it is a short but cold and windy walk to the ticket office. The casual fan will stay away. The parking lot link would spare that walk.
It is disheartening to see empty stands. I have missed more games this year than the previous four combined and that is because of the Wednesday games. If my good friends were not available to drive my wife home, she would not have been able to attend either and I have four seats. I have almost attended as many road as home games.
The current ticket manager has been working very hard to keep the fans as happy as he can.
Unfortunately as the economy has improved, there have been notable defections in the athletic department because of better opportunities. This has left the staff short handed.
Winning, however, will help. My wife and I have gotten to be volleyball fans and they have had some great contests that are fairly well attended. The three games against USC, Brigham Young and another top team were well attended.
Many might not know it but Loyola has been ranked number two in volleyball and is hosting the final four in volleyball in May.

You sound like a dick.


Sub - I think that Gentile will fill up to/near capacity for WSU. We always managed to pack the place for Butler.

That's more like it.

Which makes me think...where did the Athletic Department mess up? What type of measures have they been taking to increase attendance? From what I can tell, the significant decrease doesn't appear to be the students, but rather the non-student population.

For the last few home games, I have braved the frigid tundra to take a walk around campus for nostalgia's sake, but also to see if the game has been advertised around campus. I've never really noticed any large signs, posters etc. that would call attention to the game...

I was told that a great deal of it comes from us canceling our contract with that ticketing firm from Indiana. We used them last year but decided to cancel the contract when the founder left to go work for the Minnesota Timberwolves. The job of that company was to reach out to community groups and offer deals...to get groups in that wouldn't normally come to the game (i.e. that game last year with the Indian dance troupe). When the contract was canceled, it left the ticket manager as the only point of contact. As of Jan 1, they brought on an intern from Northwestern's sports management program to specifically deal with community groups and increase tickets.

That's great and all...to bring in community groups and organizations...but I think the group that is REALLY dropping the ball here is the Alumni Association. There is this great deal to bring in Alum this weekend and I have YET to see the Alumni Association publicize it on Twitter or Facebook. What is the Alumni Association doing to bring graduates back into the fold? It's easy for us to blame the ticketing office but they aren't the only ones that should be doing outreach.

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Cigarboy sucks!

Too many posts to quote so I'll just say this, I was only talking about our game as some have already pointed out. I wasn't trying to be arrogant or anything but with the Final Four and currently being undefeated and ranked in the top 5, I would expect a larger draw than what you've been getting. I don't know about our game at SIU, but I do know that are games at MSU and ISU have been by far their largest attended games of the year, and not just by a little.

It would be great if that game is close and gives the crowd something to get behind and support and maybe excites a few people into coming back and supporting the team for other games.

Look, I'm one that is pulling for you guys to do better and rise up the standings in time. Hopefully some better weather comes your way as well as I'm sure that at least plays a part.

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