Defending the fans

[longislandcuse]

Was the attendance yesterday sad, yes. Do we need to get more people in the building, especially against weaker opponents, yes. However, lets take it down a notch on ripping the fans. We, have one of the best, if not the best fan-bases for Syracuse college basketball. We battle Kentucky for attendance records year in/ year out and take over arenas up and down the eastern seaboard.

Lets look at the Basketball fan success.. Great recruiting, consistent top 10 teams, consistent big games, great rivalries, played and will play in the best basketball conference in all of college basketball and knock on wood, we always start off the season well.

Lets look at the football team. One of the worst teams in D-1 under G-Rob, Marrone took over and turned us around but the term "turning us around" needs to be looked at under an objective microscope. Under DM's 4 years we went to two lower tier bowls. We haven't recruited well up until now and we played in the worst Power Conference in College Football. Who wants to watch a bad to mediocre Syracuse team play Cincinnati at noon? Not the casual fan. We keep scheduling like we're a Top 5 team and start every season behind the 8-ball so before the casual fan can even get excited we're 0-2. I need to question your sanity if you thought we'd have a good attendance showing at 12:30 against Tulane sitting at 1-2 with some of the worst football I have ever seen played in Games 1 and 2. Games 1 and 2, against big name opponents, those were the games I guarantee you the "casual fan" watched and then turned off at halftime of the NW game to say "Here we go again, can't wait til Basketball season"

Bottom Line: We need to win! That's it, that's all. Just get it done. I don't care if we have to follow Rutgers formula for a few years. To quote a great Syracuse alum "Just Win Baby" Win and the Dome will fill itself. (I don't know if that last statement makes any sense but it sounds dramatic so i'm going with it.)

 

[djcon57]

They should fill the dome with leaves and hand out rakes at the door.
Guaranteed sellout.

 

[OrangePA]

In other words, front runners.

 

[longislandcuse]

In other words, front runners.

Every team in every city has casual fans and yes, they are usually front runners. That's why winning is so important. Even a team like USC will have bad attendance numbers if they keep floundering by USC standards. Look at Miami's recent crowds in the past few years, they make yesterday look like a sellout.

 

[anomander]

Sorry i'm not buying it. I don't even want to think of the day, but for some reason our basketball program has 4 or 5 years like we have under Robinson the same things would be echoed on the basketball forum. All of those teens tweeting at the basketball players claiming to be die hard Cuse fans would bail like it's a sinking ship. There is nothing we can do about it we just don't have a very good fan base.

 

[longislandcuse]

Sorry i'm not buying it. I don't even want to think of the day, but for some reason our basketball program has 4 or 5 years like we have under Robinson the same things would be echoed on the basketball forum. All of those teens tweeting at the basketball players claiming to be die hard Cuse fans would bail like it's a sinking ship. There is nothing we can do about it we just don't have a very good fan base.

By that summation, no team in America has a good fan-base. I guarantee you even Kentucky and Kansas would have issues if they suffered 4 or 5 years where there basketball team was one of the worst in college basketball.

 

[wfschrec]

By that summation, no team in America has a good fan-base. I guarantee you even Kentucky and Kansas would have issues if they suffered 4 or 5 years where there basketball team was one of the worst in college basketball.

Um UK nearly sold out their game vs Kent St at home last year for football ... and they are one of the worst teams in the SEC ... sorry but you are wrong. They had over 48K in attendance ... honestly you can't defend our fans ... they are awful.

 

[anomander]

By that summation, no team in America has a good fan-base. I guarantee you even Kentucky and Kansas would have issues if they suffered 4 or 5 years where there basketball team was one of the worst in college basketball.

yes i am sure almost all college basketball programs would take a dip, besides maybe 2 or 3. however i am talking more about college football where there are great fan bases. it should be easier to attract fans, its by far the more popular sport, and is basically an event. college football is a totally different beast when it comes to fan bases

 

[longislandcuse]

Um UK nearly sold out their game vs Kent St at home last year for football ... and they are one of the worst teams in the SEC ... sorry but you are wrong. They had over 48K in attendance ... honestly you can't defend our fans ... they are awful.

We were talking about Basketball.

 

[wfschrec]

yes i am sure almost all college basketball programs would take a dip, besides maybe 2 or 3. however i am talking more about college football where there are great fan bases. it should be easier to attract fans, its by far the more popular sport, and is basically an event. college football is a totally different beast when it comes to fan bases

Did you know UK had 46K+ in attendance to watch them at home vs Stanford ... a team they beat 34-3 at the end of the season ... the important precursor is ... UK was 1-9 heading into that game ... and they still had over 46K ... we can't even get that in game where we even our record at 2-2.

 

[longislandcuse]

yes i am sure almost all college basketball programs would take a dip, besides maybe 2 or 3. however i am talking more about college football where there are great fan bases. it should be easier to attract fans, its by far the more popular sport, and is basically an event. college football is a totally different beast when it comes to fan bases

I'll agree with that. I honestly cant see any SEC teams having fans bail on football games.

 

[OrangeinBoston]

Um UK nearly sold out their game vs Kent St at home last year for football ... and they are one of the worst teams in the SEC ... sorry but you are wrong. They had over 48K in attendance ... honestly you can't defend our fans ... they are awful.

No, you're talking about the South where Fball is religion. They have nothing else to do but go catch catfish with their bare hands.

 

[wfschrec]

We were talking about Basketball.

You posted in a football forum about fan attendance and made a correlation to basketball ... what I am telling you is that even bad programs who don't win get people to show ... how hard is that to comprehend? I don't care about our basketball attendance you used it to justify that winning leads to attendance and my point is that we should have people showing up no matter what because other schools do ... if you want to strictly talk basketball attendance then go to the basketball forum ... you were defending our football attendance using a weak correlation ... honestly you are wrong no other way to slice it our fan base is awful.

 

[OrangeinBoston]

Was the attendance yesterday sad, yes. Do we need to get more people in the building, especially against weaker opponents, yes. However, lets take it down a notch on ripping the fans. We, have one of the best, if not the best fan-bases for Syracuse college basketball. We battle Kentucky for attendance records year in/ year out and take over arenas up and down the eastern seaboard.

Lets look at the Basketball fan success.. Great recruiting, consistent top 10 teams, consistent big games, great rivalries, played and will play in the best basketball conference in all of college basketball and knock on wood, we always start off the season well.

Lets look at the football team. One of the worst teams in D-1 under G-Rob, Marrone took over and turned us around but the term "turning us around" needs to be looked at under an objective microscope. Under DM's 4 years we went to two lower tier bowls. We haven't recruited well up until now and we played in the worst Power Conference in College Football. Who wants to watch a bad to mediocre Syracuse team play Cincinnati at noon? Not the casual fan. We keep scheduling like we're a Top 5 team and start every season behind the 8-ball so before the casual fan can even get excited we're 0-2. I need to question your sanity if you thought we'd have a good attendance showing at 12:30 against Tulane sitting at 1-2 with some of the worst football I have ever seen played in Games 1 and 2. Games 1 and 2, against big name opponents, those were the games I guarantee you the "casual fan" watched and then turned off at halftime of the NW game to say "Here we go again, can't wait til Basketball season"

Bottom Line: We need to win! That's it, that's all. Just get it done. I don't care if we have to follow Rutgers formula for a few years. To quote a great Syracuse alum "Just Win Baby" Win and the Dome will fill itself. (I don't know if that last statement makes any sense but it sounds dramatic so i'm going with it.)

Exactly right. Economics has next to nothing to do with it.

 

[longislandcuse]

Did you know UK had 46K+ in attendance to watch them at home vs Stanford ... a team they beat 34-3 at the end of the season ... the important precursor is ... UK was 1-9 heading into that game ... and they still had over 46K ... we can't even get that in game where we even our record at 2-2.

One thing and again is another bad reflection on our football fan-base is that Kentucky has no football tradition. Theyve never been that good. They dont know what its like to be really, really good and then just flat out have the air taken out of the program for almost a decade.

 

[wfschrec]

No, you're talking about the South where Fball is religion. They have nothing else to do but go catch catfish with their bare hands.

Its obvious you are pretty ignorant so I won't spend too much time on this ... but football is religion and while it is heavily followed there is a lot to do in the south ... I guess could counter with the fact that if the morons in Mass would stop electing Kennedys to office they would have more disposal income to go see the games instead of paying outrageous taxes but then again the truth is something many don't want to hear.

 

[longislandcuse]

You posted in a football forum about fan attendance and made a correlation to basketball ... what I am telling you is that even bad programs who don't win get people to show ... how hard is that to comprehend? I don't care about our basketball attendance you used it to justify that winning leads to attendance and my point is that we should have people showing up no matter what because other schools do ... if you want to strictly talk basketball attendance then go to the basketball forum ... you were defending our football attendance using a weak correlation ... honestly you are wrong no other way to slice it our fan base is awful.

Lol, ok. I'll post my basketball correlations in the basketball forum when im using them to compare and contrast what is considered one of the best fan-bases in college basketball to one of the worst in college football. Relax.

 

[wfschrec]

Lol, ok. I'll post my basketball correlations in the basketball forum when im using them to compare and contrast what is considered one of the best fan-bases in college basketball to one of the worst in college football. Relax.

And again my point is that even poor programs have good attendance and the basketball attendance has NO BEARING on whether or not our fan base stinks ... not sure why that is hard.

 

[longislandcuse]

Its obvious you are pretty ignorant so I won't spend too much time on this ... but football is religion and while it is heavily followed there is a lot to do in the south ... I guess could counter with the fact that if the morons in Mass would stop electing Kennedys to office they would have more disposal income to go see the games instead of paying outrageous taxes but then again the truth is something many don't want to hear.

Football in the south is a totally different animal than football in the north unless youre a giant state school. There is no other way around it. I just moved to Atlanta and "Go Dawgs" or "Roll Tide" is used to end almost every sentence. Athens is mayhem on Saturdays in the Fall.

 

[anomander]

Did you know UK had 46K+ in attendance to watch them at home vs Stanford ... a team they beat 34-3 at the end of the season ... the important precursor is ... UK was 1-9 heading into that game ... and they still had over 46K ... we can't even get that in game where we even our record at 2-2.

yes and they had 2 times as many people at their Spring Game then they did at their biggest college basketball game that season. i don't think many would argue that they are the biggest "basketball" school out there and they dont use any excuses. Our fans just suck.

 

[wfschrec]

Football in the south is a totally different animal than football in the north unless youre a giant state school. There is no other way around it. I just moved to Atlanta and "Go Dawgs" or "Roll Tide" is used to end almost every sentence. Athens is mayhem on Saturdays in the Fall.

I know I live 30 mins from Athens.

 

[wfschrec]

yes and they had 2 times as many people at their Spring Game then they did at their biggest college basketball game that season. i don't think many would argue that they are the biggest "basketball" school out there and they dont use any excuses. Our fans just suck.

^^ THIS!

 

[anomander]

No, you're talking about the South where Fball is religion. They have nothing else to do but go catch catfish with their bare hands.

just how much more is there to do in central new york? again, i'm not buying it, our fans just suck

 

[rrlbees]

Was the attendance yesterday sad, yes. Do we need to get more people in the building, especially against weaker opponents, yes. However, lets take it down a notch on ripping the fans. We, have one of the best, if not the best fan-bases for Syracuse college basketball. We battle Kentucky for attendance records year in/ year out and take over arenas up and down the eastern seaboard.

Lets look at the Basketball fan success.. Great recruiting, consistent top 10 teams, consistent big games, great rivalries, played and will play in the best basketball conference in all of college basketball and knock on wood, we always start off the season well.

Lets look at the football team. One of the worst teams in D-1 under G-Rob, Marrone took over and turned us around but the term "turning us around" needs to be looked at under an objective microscope. Under DM's 4 years we went to two lower tier bowls. We haven't recruited well up until now and we played in the worst Power Conference in College Football. Who wants to watch a bad to mediocre Syracuse team play Cincinnati at noon? Not the casual fan. We keep scheduling like we're a Top 5 team and start every season behind the 8-ball so before the casual fan can even get excited we're 0-2. I need to question your sanity if you thought we'd have a good attendance showing at 12:30 against Tulane sitting at 1-2 with some of the worst football I have ever seen played in Games 1 and 2. Games 1 and 2, against big name opponents, those were the games I guarantee you the "casual fan" watched and then turned off at halftime of the NW game to say "Here we go again, can't wait til Basketball season"

Bottom Line: We need to win! That's it, that's all. Just get it done. I don't care if we have to follow Rutgers formula for a few years. To quote a great Syracuse alum "Just Win Baby" Win and the Dome will fill itself. (I don't know if that last statement makes any sense but it sounds dramatic so i'm going with it.)

Good post and true. Gotta love all these posts and threads about leaves and front runners and community support. There are so many differences between when we had decent crowds in the 90's and now, it's not funny. And many of the differences have been conscious decisions made by SU.

1. Winning, winning, winning

2. Lime OOC schedule/MetLife

3. Pricing structure of sideline seats

4. Parking has gotten worse.

5. Marketing

6. Economy especially considering #3.

People want to act like we are this huge state school with a large active alumni base. I'll use PedSt as an example. Even when they were down some for a few years, they packed the stadium. You think it's because Happy Valley is some large metropolis? No, it's because they are a STATE school supported by fans across the state with an alumni base that comes to games in droves.

I know everyone will pick on the personal favorite gripe above, but it's the totality of all of them that has made the perfect storm. It's a lot different playing a Florida in the 90's as a 9-3 program than it is playing Tulane as a .500 program.

I have 6 seasons, so I could easily blame the locals and not take shots at myself. But I see the reality and and it's not about leaves.

How many alumni does SU have in a 6 hour radius? I dare every single one of them to come back for at least one game a year, maybe more. Actually, if people want a big time program, there's no reason most of those alumni shouldn't come back for most games.


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[longislandcuse]

I know I live 30 mins from Athens.

So you should know its not fair to compare a private school in the North to a giant state school in the South. Our fanbase sucks for football right now but we are not in the South, we are not a giant State School and we sucked for almost a decade and keep starting off seasons 0-2. That's a recipe for disaster.