Why were the stands empty?

[JohnCuse44]

It looked like no one was there on TV. I know its Rhode Island but come on what were there 20,000 people there? On a Saturday afternoon?!?! I just don’t understand I know the team had some really dark years there but dammit we won a bowl game last year and are 2-0 now.

Can’t get big time recruits without people in the stands but people won’t come even with a winning team. How do you break this vicious cycle?

 

[hungrychuck]

It looked like no one was there on TV. I know its Rhode Island but come on what were there 20,000 people there? On a Saturday afternoon?!?! I just don’t understand I know the team had some really dark years there but dammit we won a bowl game last year and are 2-0 now.

Can’t get big time recruits without people in the stands but people won’t come even with a winning team. How do you break this vicious cycle?

Some guy from New Jersey said this:

It takes a leap of faith to get things going
It takes a leap of faith you gotta show some guts
It takes a leap of faith to get things going
In your heart you must trust

 

[Stern]

Can’t get big time recruits without people in the stands but people won’t come even with a winning team. How do you break this vicious cycle?

You can't get big time recruits when you STRUGGLE to beat Rhode Island. People need to STOP blaming the Fans for every little thing. It's getting old and now laughable!

How do you break the cycle, easy. Play EXCITING football and WIN big when you are supposed to WIN BIG! SU plays a boring brand of football and struggles against other bottom feeder programs and Div II programs. People won't pay to watch that. Fact!

 

[BleedsOrange44]

You can't get big time recruits when you STRUGGLE to beat Rhode Island. People need to STOP blaming the Fans for every little thing. It's getting old and now laughable!

How do you break the cycle, easy. Play EXCITING football and WIN big when you are supposed to WIN BIG! SU plays a boring brand of football and struggles against other bottom feeder programs and Div II programs. People won't pay to watch that. Fact!

Strongly disagree with "boring brand of football." that's incorrect and a BS excuse. Bottom line is, this town is a bandwagon, "event" town. It's the 10-15k that are like that which is why it's empty

 

[Stern]

Every town is a bandwagon event town. Few Bad teams sell out games.

Georiga fans were leaving early yesterday in a 1 score game. It's the same everywhere.

 

[gmoney44]

Stern, hit the nail on the head. I'll cheer for the team no matter how bad they are but this team sucks to watch and I don't blame the casual fan for not going. They've been unwatchable for a decade. The good news is they are at least winning ugly. The next step is maybe a hint of exciting football. Then and only then will the stands fill fill.

 

[JoeSU]

You can't get big time recruits when you STRUGGLE to beat Rhode Island. People need to STOP blaming the Fans for every little thing. It's getting old and now laughable!

How do you break the cycle, easy. Play EXCITING football and WIN big when you are supposed to WIN BIG! SU plays a boring brand of football and struggles against other bottom feeder programs and Div II programs. People won't pay to watch that. Fact!

Pittsburgh gets recruits, and they struggled to beat another CAA team (Maine). They also have a lousy fan base. It's not that simple.

 

[orange03]

Syracuse football is extremely bland. I like Marrone-he's a solid guy who should keep us respectable... but until he opens things up I don't see us ever getting over the mediocre hump. This isn't 1988, the kids and the game are different. No big time recruit is going to want to play in this type of environment. I also hate the Dome for football, just looks dark and dreary on TV

 

[Stern]

Pittsburgh gets recruits, and they struggled to beat another CAA team (Maine). They also have a lousy fan base. It's not that simple.

That is 1 game for Pitt. SU struggled last year vs Colgate and Maine and now this year vs Rhode Island. IF you want to compare the programs of Pitt and SU right now its silly and downright laughable. Pitt has been at a much higher level of play for the past decade than we have. If they have an "off day" and still win vs a team like Maine its no big deal. When SU has a history of this year after year it shows little has changed.

 

[Stern]

Stern, hit the nail on the head. I'll cheer for the team no matter how bad they are but this team sucks to watch and I don't blame the casual fan for not going. They've been unwatchable for a decade. The good news is they are at least winning ugly. The next step is maybe a hint of exciting football. Then and only then will the stands fill fill.

Totally agree. I am glad we are winning and all, but to sit through 4 quarters is rough sometimes. And a lot of those times happen to be at HOME games. This team is dull to watch. And its not about flashy long passes and throwing "the bomb" all the time. It's the little things that make it that way. Unable to run the ball on Maine. Unable to stop Div IAA teams on 3rd and 15 and such. Watching guys come unblocked time after time.

I don't expect to see the Packers or Patriots level of football but I have seen high school teams play more exciting football.

 

[MartyCuse]

I have seasons and try to make every game. I was there yesterday and at times it was hard to watch. I also understand the people who chose not to come to the game... after a week of rain it was the first great day in a week and it made it hard to walk into the dome... not hard to tailgate... If you are going to miss one game I understand those that chose to skip the Rhode Island game on such a nice day. Not everyone is a die hard fan like us on this board.

 

[realcusefan888]

Syracuse football is extremely bland. I like Marrone-he's a solid guy who should keep us respectable... but until he opens things up I don't see us ever getting over the mediocre hump. This isn't 1988, the kids and the game are different. No big time recruit is going to want to play in this type of environment. I also hate the Dome for football, just looks dark and dreary on TV

i love the dome but i agree that its time to spice things up! you are right, its a different world...we need some juice, some build up and smoke when the team runs on the field, time for these unis to go, we are the orange and we where blue jerseys, its horrible. lets see orange jerseys, blue helmuts, and white pants!!!! say what you want and there will be many poking fun but its an event people and these kids are different these days...we need to improve the gameday experience.

also, simply stated, cuse fans are fickle and pompus, still needing the team to prove they can win coming off a nice 8-5 season. alot still have a show me attitude and thats bs because the dome has great sitelines for games, when filled is a great atmosphere, and its the only bcs team in the state peeps!!!

 

[Frozen]

The helmets and uniforms are fine.


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=40.603780,-73.942332

 

[Cusey]

It looked like no one was there on TV. I know its Rhode Island but come on what were there 20,000 people there? On a Saturday afternoon?!?! I just don’t understand I know the team had some really dark years there but dammit we won a bowl game last year and are 2-0 now.

Can’t get big time recruits without people in the stands but people won’t come even with a winning team. How do you break this vicious cycle?

All the empty seats were the first thing I noticed when the ESPN-3 stream cut in. It's got to have an effect on potential recruits and does make a difference when we're trying to get 4 and 5 star kids. Syracuse always has been a front-running town that only supports winners. So winning is the only thing that will fix the problem, especially against Top 25 type competition which is what really gets people's attention. The die-hards will always be there, but like it or not, it also takes the "fair weather" types to fill the stands. That's just the way it is in my old hometown.

 

[Moontan]

At the start of the season you'd expect URI to have the lowest attendance. Toledo may not be much better... unless people see a solid effort next week.

 

[Cusey]

Whenever I'm tempted to start getting negative, all I have to do is think back to the G-Rob era. I'll take what we've got now any day. We're just going to have to be patient. While we can quibble over some of the details, HCDM is doing the right things overall. Given the injuries and kids getting into trouble, quality/experienced depth is a big issue with this team. It will take some luck getting more under the radar "sleepers" and even a few acknowledged difference makers into the program, but I really believe it will happen. The right coaches are in place and there is a committment to get the program back to respectability. We're just going to have to cut them some slack in the meantime.

 

[JohnCuse44]

Whenever I'm tempted to start getting negative, all I have to do is think back to the G-Rob era. I'll take what we've got now any day. We're just going to have to be patient. While we can quibble over some of the details, HCDM is doing the right things overall. Given the injuries and kids getting into trouble, quality/experienced depth is a big issue with this team. It will take some luck getting more under the radar "sleepers" and even a few acknowledged difference makers into the program, but I really believe it will happen. The right coaches are in place and there is a committment to get the program back to respectability. We're just going to have to cut them some slack in the meantime.

I agree and believe it will happen too but to see so many empty seats coming off a win and a winning season last year was just disheartening. Don't get we wrong I wasn't expecting a sellout for URI but I thought it would at least be respectable, even the lower level seats looked half empty.
And I just read the offical announced attendance was 36,421 :rolling:

Does that number count everyone watching on TV or ESPN3?

 

[44cuse]

Strongly disagree with "boring brand of football." that's incorrect and a BS excuse. Bottom line is, this town is a bandwagon, "event" town. It's the 10-15k that are like that which is why it's empty

Sorry, I'm not buying that. Unless you are an incredible diehard Orange fan, Syracuse football over the last 8 yrs has been awful to watch. That's reality. It is tough to watch a team that has such and incredible lack of balance year in and year out.

The last thing SU Football is would be entertaining. I love it because I always will no matter what. But that doesn't mean it's a quality product. If we were where we thought we were this season, we should have beaten that team by three scores.

We barely won...lost the TOP battle and only gained 36 yds on the ground against a team that is not even in our division. That's unacceptable.

44cuse

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[SmilinBob]

Fan ex-cuse 101:
-I don't go because I want to know they are going to win...it was RI and Syracuse was a 27 point favorite
-GRob ruined me, win more...they're 10-5
-10-5 in your last 15, should be 95-0...good point I can't debate that one
-It was RI, I only go to OOC games against the Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio State or Notre Dame...getting a couple of "easy" games help develop depth and wins, everyone else does it.
-They have to have NFL talent for me to go...if you go it helps attract it and it's embarrassing seeing 36K at the Dome but I'm sure recruits think it's nice since their families will always get good seats.
-It was nice out and I like to be fair weathered.
-I'm never happy and when I went they lost on Senior day last year and I booed Rob Long when he shanked a couple of punts. It made me feel good about myself booing a kid in front of his parents.
-It's not my job to make them better...but you have no problem complaining how bad you think they are and we all know you'd do better if you were out there.
-It's the economy stupid
_SU is a private school and we don't have the number of people a state school has...and yet the basketball team gets great numbers and for 18 or so games.

 

[Orangetradition44]

It looked like no one was there on TV. I know its Rhode Island but come on what were there 20,000 people there?

I think it is pretty obvious by now. We have about 25,000 Syracuse football fans in CNY, about 10,000 CFB fans, and then about 10,000 that enjoy going to "event" games.

So we need a game that interests all three groups completely in order to even come close to filling the place. The 25,000 Syracuse Football fans made it to the game this weekend.

 

[MartyCuse]

I think it is pretty obvious by now. We have about 25,000 Syracuse football fans in CNY, about 10,000 CFB fans, and then about 10,000 that enjoy going to "event" games.

So we need a game that interests all three groups completely in order to even come close to filling the place. The 25,000 Syracuse Football fans made it to the game this weekend.

Well said...

 

[upperdeck]

I think they should remove 6k of the seats and improve the seating thats left for 44k seats that people can enjoy sitting in.

 

[Syracuse44]

Nobody.. And I mean nobody up on the SU campus was excited about this game. My profession allows me to walk through several areas close to campus, and the students couldn't have cared less about this game. Not that I blame them, it was freakin Rhode Island. SU should be happy they got 25k to show up for this one

 

[JohnCuse44]

I think they should remove 6k of the seats and improve the seating thats left for 44k seats that people can enjoy sitting in.

Or how about put in real seats and get rid of the benches...

 

[All4SU]

I also hate the Dome for football, just looks dark and dreary on TV

It looks great in person.