That might be the last Midnight Madness

[wallacecuse]

If the University chooses to continue with MM, I hope they do something refreshing, and just make it about the basketball. Let's leave the lasershows, dry ice, and rap concert to Calipari, who does it the best anyway.

You wanna have a dunk and 3 pt contest, fine, but other wise just a roll a ball out there and have an open practice in the Dome. This way the fan element is there for bball, and not a social event.

 

[BlackKnight76]

This thread is pushing me towards not allowing my son to go to SU if in fact that is what he decides on in 2 years.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

I hope the situation's been dealt with by then. I never experienced anything like this from 08-12, except for two cat fights at Acropolis which seemed, at the time, to be isolated incidents. It's really just been this year where the gang stuff has become prevalent. I hadn't heard of any gang stuff near SU while I was there.

 

[Cheriehoop]

This thread probably needs to be locked at this point. Allegations that gangs need to kill SU students. Really.

If that was close to being true then the good news is that there have been no new gang members who have ever come close to completing an initiation. Their numbers should be greatly reduced. The truth is they shooting/stabbing each other. They didn't stab nor target a student during Midnight Madness - they were after each other . They aren't normally at SU events - it isn't their passion at all.

 

[TexanMark]

What I don't understand is: the paying fans actually interested in the basketball team...the majority I guess would have no interest in listening to a rap group. Next year sell tix for the event (or send out free tix to season tix holders) and make it for the fans and family friendly and cut out catering to hip hop lovers...they are not your largest fan base.

DoctorBombay please don't even think about playing that card on me.

 

[BlackKnight76]

What I don't understand is: the paying fans actually interested in the basketball team...the majority I guess would have no interest in listening to a rap group. Next year sell tix for the event (or send out free tix to season tix holders) and make it for the fans and family friendly and cut out catering to hip hop lovers...they are not your largest fan base.

I think the rappers are more for the recruits, to be honest. We saw how the kids reacted last year to meeting Meek Mill, and he's a B-level guy at best.

 

[TexanMark]

I think the rappers are more for the recruits, to be honest. We saw how the kids reacted last year to meeting Meek Mill, and he's a B-level guy at best.

Maybe we should start to rethink that...it worked so well.

The schools that recruit with ummm err school hostesses might be a much safer way to impress them. j/k well kinda

 

[DoctorBombay]

What I don't understand is: the paying fans actually interested in the basketball team...the majority I guess would have no interest in listening to a rap group. Next year sell tix for the event (or send out free tix to season tix holders) and make it for the fans and family friendly and cut out catering to hip hop lovers...they are not your largest fan base.

DoctorBombay please don't even think about playing that card on me.

-sigh-
Dude, let's try this one last time: It was about what I PERCEIVED was an attempt at PC waffling, NOT necessarily about the race of the so-called "trash".
The entire point is to call it as it is, instead of hiding one's head in the sand & using sketchy PC-inspired language.
Btw, what is it about an honest discussion of race that makes people turn into ostriches?
Its like we're all supposed to be "race neutral" & therefore it should never be mentioned???
Why the fear?
Just another symptom of our PC-infested society, scared to address issues honestly, instead of running away from them.

 

[Eric15]

This thread is pushing me towards not allowing my son to go to SU if in fact that is what he decides on in 2 years.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

Not to mention that you'll spend about 25% as much sending him to a great SUNY school like Binghamton or Geneseo.

 

[PeteCalvin]

If that was close to being true then the good news is that there have been no new gang members who have ever come close to completing an initiation. Their numbers should be greatly reduced. The truth is they shooting/stabbing each other. They didn't stab nor target a student during Midnight Madness - they were after each other . They aren't normally at SU events - it isn't their passion at all.

Let's be realistic. If there was even a stitch of truth to that, and in fact SU students had/were being targeted, the SPD and State Police would have already gone through and wiped the streets in those neighborhoods. There is no way in hell that would be tolerated. None. Any college in an urban area is going to have problems. Hell, I went to school about as far from an urban center as you could possibly be and even we had robberies. The ironic thing is that the ring was from NYC and they would come up on weekends to "visit" their friends at the nearby state school. My girlfriend and her roommate were sitting in their living room one night reading with only one lamp on. They saw the door knob turn and in stepped a very large black guy who mumbled something like 'wrong room' and left. The next day they heard one of th other apartments in their building had been robbed. This was ON CAMPUS, in student housing, in a little farm town.

Yes, it can happen anywhere. However, that does not absolve the university for being grossly unprepared for what happened on Friday.

 

[EastCoast2]

I'll say it again, SU needs to make this even about the basketball team and the basketball team's fans. The free concert tuns it into the State Fair/Taste of Syracuse/Juneteenth festival

 

[bozophobe]

I feel kind of embarrassed when the Dome system plays Baba O'Reilly or Sultans of Swing. It's like a presumption that all the white fans up there are TK99 honchos. So whether hip-hop or narrow selection of classic rock, there's always something odd about trying to make pandering judgements about what masses of individuals like.

Hell, when I go see Frenay and Lenin, I request Velvet Underground or something (they play it, too).

 

[BlackKnight76]

Not to mention that you'll spend about 25% as much sending him to a great SUNY school like Binghamton or Geneseo.

Yeah, but then how would bees sneak into the SU student section?

 

[Ward]

I think while its for the fans it's also used as a big recruiting tool. The recruits like coming and the rappers add to the atmosphere when the players and students get excited and start dancing and singing along. I think keep the rappers give free tickets to students alumni and season ticket holders, beef up security, and charge like $5 for the rest of tickets. The main problem was security looked understaffed, and there was no screening or pat down whatever you want them to do at the entrance. I think that would filter it enough to get real fans in.

 

[OrangeChris]

The students like rap/hip hop. A few years back they had Ben Folds play the Block Party and a bunch were ticked that it wasn't a rap/hip hop act (which is insane because Ben Folds is amazing). Since then pretty much every act booked for Block Party, Rock the Dome, Mayfest, etc. have been from those genres. The difference is that those events are either limited to the student body, or charge the general public for admission.

Since Midnight Madness is such an important part of the student experience, I'm not in favor of eliminating an element (music) that the students love, based solely on this incident. Besides, I've yet to see a compelling argument that this happened because Wale performed, or that the perpetrators showed up because he performed. It seems like a bit of a leap to be honest. It's very possible they still would have shown up sans musical entertainment. For all we know these guys listen to Barry Manilow at home.

 

[bozophobe]

On the other hand, now that Skrillex and the Doors are playing together, that would be a win-win coup for the Dome. Everybody can hug.

 

[OttoMets]

There have always been robberies on South, but not much violence. Bnoro and I watched his bike get stolen from inside my apartment two years ago, but we got it back.

The Marshall St stuff is bad though. Apparently townies just meet up at Acropolis and brawl. There were a few fights there last year that I remember (I don't know why always Acropolis as opposed to the other dozen restaurants), but it's gotten out of control this year apparently.

This is a bit much; don't believe everything that comes through the grapevine. There's a lot of talk about crime around Marshall Street. And there have been some crimes committed. I've never felt unsafe.

I will say that SU is flushing its (and our) money down the toilet on DPS. Its employees are some of the laziest, most unpleasant people you'll ever meet. Worthless lumps who don't enforce any laws on campus and spend their days driving around the city and county in university-owned vehicles. I have no faith that they'd be any more successful preventing people from getting stabbed in the Dome than they are at preventing students from getting mowed down in crosswalks by local cab drivers.

 

[wallacecuse]

Since Midnight Madness is such an important part of the student experience, I'm not in favor of eliminating an element (music) that the students love, based solely on this incident. Besides, I've yet to see a compelling argument that this happened because Wale performed, or that the perpetrators showed up because he performed. It seems like a bit of a leap to be honest. It's very possible they still would have shown up sans musical entertainment. For all we know these guys listen to Barry Manilow at home.

You aren't being honest with yourself here; you don't think a free to the public rap performance played any role in this? Come on.

Just to be PC, I'm positive a free Slayer concert at the Dome would attract an unsavory crowd as well.

 

[OttoMets]

Do you have any more info on the bolded portion? After reading your post, I mentioned it in passing to some fellow alums and they were aghast at that part.

On a somewhat related note... has anybody walked up University Ave. lately? They just spent all that money to gentrify it, and literally overnight half the new lights were knocked out, all the benches and new signage were tagged with graffiti, and all the pretty new stuff was defaced or destroyed. Someone said it best earlier in this thread: "this is why we can't have nice things."

A. People who do that kind of thing are pieces of and should be punished harshly.

B. Why did the University install superfluous bollard lights that so clearly would be an attractive nuisance (and, at best, would present a maintenance inconvenience to a cash-strapped city)?

C. Again, DPS is such a waste. With all those employees, all those cars, how are they not deterring this kind of behavior? It says a lot about DPS's effectiveness that they allegedly have a strong presence in that neighborhood yet no would-be vandal is sufficiently discouraged by that presence.

 

[OttoMets]

If that was close to being true then the good news is that there have been no new gang members who have ever come close to completing an initiation. Their numbers should be greatly reduced. The truth is they shooting/stabbing each other. They didn't stab nor target a student during Midnight Madness - they were after each other . They aren't normally at SU events - it isn't their passion at all.

Good post.

There's some absurd stuff being tossed around (not just in here; all the innuendo in the Daily Orange is so silly). Maybe it's fun to perpetuate urban legends about gang initiation, but that's pretty outlandish. The Dome stabbing is a dreadful situation, but - as you said - none of this is random crime. And anyone who claims to feel uncomfortable around campus is either really sheltered or being a little alarmist. Take out your earbuds, get off your phone, and walk around the city in which you've chosen to spend these four years.

 

[TexanMark]

Since Midnight Madness is such an important part of the student experience, I'm not in favor of eliminating an element (music) that the students love, based solely on this incident. Besides, I've yet to see a compelling argument that this happened because Wale performed, or that the perpetrators showed up because he performed. It seems like a bit of a leap to be honest. It's very possible they still would have shown up sans musical entertainment. For all we know these guys listen to Barry Manilow at home.

You are not serious are you? :rolling:

 

[AlaskaSU]

The students like rap/hip hop. A few years back they had Ben Folds play the Block Party and a bunch were ticked that it wasn't a rap/hip hop act (which is insane because Ben Folds is amazing). Since then pretty much every act booked for Block Party, Rock the Dome, Mayfest, etc. have been from those genres. The difference is that those events are either limited to the student body, or charge the general public for admission.

Since Midnight Madness is such an important part of the student experience, I'm not in favor of eliminating an element (music) that the students love, based solely on this incident. Besides, I've yet to see a compelling argument that this happened because Wale performed, or that the perpetrators showed up because he performed. It seems like a bit of a leap to be honest. It's very possible they still would have shown up sans musical entertainment. For all we know these guys listen to Barry Manilow at home.

Funniest post of the year.

 

[Bayside44]

I've talked to security at the Verizon Center...they all said the most violence is at rap concerts and country concerts. No one is brawling at Coldplay. Country concerts have lots of drunken chick fights. Need to take some of those in.

 

[SUfanNC]

I think midnight madness is great just the way it is. I would imagine most of the team listen to rap and this event is just as much for team as it is fans and recruiting. They should charge $10 per ticket for general admission for non ticket holders. If you don't like the music artist too bad most of us go to see the team to get looks at the new guys and to see how everyone has improved from the previous year.

 

[OrangeChris]

I just don't buy the argument that the perpetrators would not have been there but for the presence of Wale. If you buy the stereotypical argument that rap appeals to "those people," then there's an equally prevalent stereotype that basketball appeals to "those people." So unless you want to eliminate basketball from the event too, I'm not sure what you can do. There's absolutely no way to prove that the troublemakers were only there because some rapper showed up (short of actually asking them), and it just strikes me as lazy to blame a genre of music for what happened.

 

[Bayside44]

I just don't buy the argument that the perpetrators would not have been there but for the presence of Wale. If you buy the stereotypical argument that rap appeals to "those people," then there's an equally prevalent stereotype that basketball appeals to "those people." So unless you want to eliminate basketball from the event too, I'm not sure what you can do. There's absolutely no way to prove that the troublemakers were only there because some rapper showed up, and it just strikes me as lazy to blame a genre of music for what happened.

Except for the simple fact that violence follows that genre around more a opposed to other things.