The Dome was empty...again. Where are the fans?

[tbonezone]

the recruiting has to hammer canada and new england. we no longer play on BIG MONDAYs
and we typically implode on ESPN primetime . only chance at survival is own the northeast.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

I’ll say this. I don’t remember a ticket increase for me in at least 5 years. That has not been the problem here.

Mine went up every year. Even last year when I moved from A to B it was higher than the prior year’s A.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Mine went up every year. Even last year when I moved from A to B it was higher than the prior year’s A.

Where in A were you?

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Where in A were you?

I was in 123 pre new seating and moved to 122 for $60 more per seat. I didn’t renew this year.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I was in 123 pre new seating and moved to 122 for $60 more per seat. I didn’t renew this year.

Can’t speak to A to B. I know level D remained the same which is center court 3rd level.

 

[Millhouse]

Dollar Dome dogs aren't enough incentive. Every home football game this year they announced early on that students who stayed to the 4th quarter could get $1 dogs. It didnt matter. They were mostly gone midway through the 3rd quarter.

Dollar beers on the other hand...

Make it free and no one will go if it's boring

My season ticket group are the foremost experts in how hard it is to give football tickets away

 

[shandeezy7]

I always justified not having basketball season tix for the previous decade because I lived in Buffalo and it was too difficult to get to many games (football was easier, since games are once a week and on weekends, so I kept those). Now this is the second season that I've been living back in cuse and I haven't really had a desire to get seasons based on the product on the court, which has ranged between mediocre to downright abysmal.

 

[Briancuse]

Unfortunately I am a cowboys fan too and you're right about terrible ownership there.

I've seen terrible coaching in Football and basketball over the last 20 years of watching between SU and Cowboys. Red is a mediocre coach at best. And nobody is striving for mediocre.

Cowboys mets cuse fan here, isn't it fun? Lol

 

[jncuse]

I'm not a local.

Its nearly a 3 hour drive for me to go. They are not good enough right now to justify that level of time and effort needed to go watch them. I wasn't the annual type, but at one point would like to go every 2 or 3 years.

I'm sure those 2+ hours away are not a major part of the crowd, but not minor either. And that segment has to be taking a hit.

 

[NineOneSeven]

And we just had a great win against Tennessee! So disappointing to follow that up with Saturday.

 

[Rage4CUSE]

Cowboys mets cuse fan here, isn't it fun? Lol

Ouch... luckily I don't watch baseball or hockey either, so I can't get routinely disappointed in those sports either.

 

[cortacuse]

Reluctantly purchased the four season tix I’ve had at least a piece of since 2004. Haven’t been to a game yet and not sure how many I will make. Have nine and seven year old boys that would rather snowboard. Talked myself into the portal additions and melo being close to the program. I forgot who the head coach was. This isn’t fun anymore.

 

[Cusefan95]

I'm not a local.

Its nearly a 3 hour drive for me to go. They are not good enough right now to justify that level of time and effort needed to go watch them. I wasn't the annual type, but at one point would like to go every 2 or 3 years.

I'm sure those 2+ hours away are not a major part of the crowd, but not minor either. And that segment has to be taking a hit.

Years ago, even post Gerry - the number of cars I'd see on 81N coming up from Binghamton was huge. I know that even before I'd dropped my season tickets that seemed like it was way down - I'm sure its worse now. One of the things that has died completely was any carryover effect from McNamara in Scranton - up though about 2015 I'd still see a lot Syracuse gear there when traveling for work. Even before he left for Scranton that was gone. I think I've seen more Siena gear than Syracuse stuff this winter in SWB area (and its not a lot, and its inevitably on a 50 year old guy).

I'd guess that attendance from fans 1 or more hours away has totally collapsed.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Years ago, even post Gerry - the number of cars I'd see on 81N coming up from Binghamton was huge. I know that even before I'd dropped my season tickets that seemed like it was way down - I'm sure its worse now. One of the things that has died completely was any carryover effect from McNamara in Scranton - up though about 2015 I'd still see a lot Syracuse gear there when traveling for work. Even before he left for Scranton that was gone. I think I've seen more Siena gear than Syracuse stuff this winter in SWB area (and its not a lot, and its inevitably on a 50 year old guy).

I'd guess that attendance from fans 1 or more hours away has totally collapsed.

GMac bringing his squad up to UVM tomorrow night. Thinking I may go.

 

[Cusefan95]

Reluctantly purchased the four season tix I’ve had at least a piece of since 2004. Haven’t been to a game yet and not sure how many I will make. Have nine and seven year old boys that would rather snowboard. Talked myself into the portal additions and melo being close to the program. I forgot who the head coach was. This isn’t fun anymore.

Numerous times this year I've opened ESPN on my phone and seen Syracuse was playing a game that was either deep in the 2nd half or over already. I had no idea they had a game that day. I used to have the schedule memorized and look forward to either going to the game or watching on TV. I think the belief on the hill is that if the team starts winning, the fans will quickly return...I'm not sure that's the case (to the degree they believe). At this point other activities - like skiing with my kids - have replaced Syracuse basketball. And even if they start winning I'm unlikely to do much more than catch more games on TV - too many other activities have replaced Syracuse basketball that I'd have to give up. The habit of watching and going to games is permanently altered for me; I think its unlikely that's uncommon.

 

[Cusefan95]

GMac bringing his squad up to UVM tomorrow night. Thinking I may go.

I have tickets to the game vs Mount St Mary's on 1/11/26 - so I will probably make more Siena games this year than Syracuse.

 

[Sbucketball]

I'm not a local.

Its nearly a 3 hour drive for me to go. They are not good enough right now to justify that level of time and effort needed to go watch them. I wasn't the annual type, but at one point would like to go every 2 or 3 years.

I'm sure those 2+ hours away are not a major part of the crowd, but not minor either. And that segment has to be taking a hit.

I'm 2 hours away. We were about to get tickets to the Clemson game on NYE, but I killed that immediately after the Hofstra loss.

 

[FrancoPizza]

I hope BOT members read this and start to feel shame. It starts and ends with them.

And they probably don't care because they can't be fired. Lifetime appointments are stupid.

 

[LAorange44]

I'm 2 hours away. We were about to get tickets to the Clemson game on NYE, but I killed that immediately after the Hofstra loss.

I traveled to see Autry’s team in year one on the night they honored Boeheim. Any other potential trip has been cancelled based on the product on the floor.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

I hope BOT members read this and start to feel shame. It starts and ends with them.

And they probably don't care because they can't be fired. Lifetime appointments are stupid.

They probably don't care because their #1 priority is Syracuse UNIVERSITY, not Syracuse Sports.

 

[FrancoPizza]

They probably don't care because their #1 priority is Syracuse UNIVERSITY, not Syracuse Sports.

The success of sports has a huge impact on the university, so not sure why you're trying to apologize for their negligence.

 

[LAorange44]

I’ve heard Wildhack interviewed as well as statements from unofficial mouthpieces in the media, the prevailing thought seems to be “they will be back; all we need is one winning season.” Peak hubris.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

The success of sports has a huge impact on the university, so not sure why you're trying to apologize for their negligence.

You say negligence, I say due diligence.

If I was on a local school board, my priorities would be teachers salaries and building maintenance.

Making sure the football team had new jerseys every year would be at the bottom of the list.

At every job interview I ever had I was asked about my education and degree.

Nobody gave a crap that JB went to 5 Final Fours, and nobody cared if we missed the tournament for 5 straight years either.

Feel free to disagree with me.

 

[FrancoPizza]

You say negligence, I say due diligence.

Due diligence? They had a clear conflict of interest being friends with JB. And you completely sidestepped the fact that athletics have an oversized impact on a D1/P4 university, especially one that does not rely on state money. Comparing that to local schools is just a facepalm.

 

[RF2044]

With the exception of the fluky Final Four run and a couple of Sweet 16s, the last 10-11 years have been bad. We have, by far, the biggest arena in all of college basketball and we finished, what, 7th in attendance last year? That’s what bad, no-NCAA bid hoops will do.

Sobering.

I'll add that over that since that 2016 F4, we've had DOUBLE DIGIT losses in every season, "only" had 10 losses once, and have averaged more than 14 losses per year.

During that span, we've also fielded our only two losing records in nearly five decades, with 17 and 19 losses respectively. And we haven't been to the NCAA tournament in 4 straight years, going on 5.

It is a shocking dropoff.

These numbers are just going from memory, so order of magnitude, but I remember doing some analysis around this Boeheim's final year. Prior to 2016, he'd won something like 73% [and it might be slightly different, but order of magnitude it is directionally accurate] of his games. From 2016 to the end, it was something like 55% -- and we had a losing conference record in the ACC.

This wasn't a "dip" in performance, it was a consistent, steady decline over a multi-year span of time. We finished in the bottom half of the conference 6 out of those 10 years [and came in 8th place one of the other times].

I think this consistent poor performance is what has driven fan apathy.

Factor in frustration with the poor play in general over the past two years, and I think attendance is bottoming out, in direct correlation with the poor product on the court.