Listening to Sports Line Live last night, Keith and crew broached the subject of lagging basketball attendance. They asked great questions: when and why did attendance tank for MBB and what will it take to bring it back? The question assumes that attendance is in the tank, which I think is pretty evident.
For my part, I think it started under Schroyer and accelerated under Edwards. It tanked because we stunk and Schroyer was a raging ass - and Edwards was given one too many years to flunk out (if Burman didn't care enough to make a change to alter our fortunes, leaving us twisting in the breeze, why should the average fan?). I also think that the reseating and botched reno of the AA adding gas to the fire.
I don't know that attendance ever rebounds. The malaise is real. NIL and the porthole don't allow us to know the players - truly. They fumbled the Cowboy Shootout, which used to entice folks in the northern end of the state to follow the Pokes. Linder is seen by many to be a Napolean-like character. CJC is a joke. The Arena is generally uninteresting and a chasm of mostly empty, uncomfortable seats (upper deck).
I'd tear out all of the upper deck seats and replace 1/2 of them with seats like the lower bowl (but brown). Create a standing room only party deck in part of the upper 1/2 of the upper deck behind the baskets - and open the one behind the student section to the students only and the other one to everyone else (not just CJC and NIL fat cats). The days of huge arenas are over - look at Baylor's new arena, Oregon's, Nebraska's, Ole Miss'.
For my part, I think it started under Schroyer and accelerated under Edwards. It tanked because we stunk and Schroyer was a raging ass - and Edwards was given one too many years to flunk out (if Burman didn't care enough to make a change to alter our fortunes, leaving us twisting in the breeze, why should the average fan?). I also think that the reseating and botched reno of the AA adding gas to the fire.
I don't know that attendance ever rebounds. The malaise is real. NIL and the porthole don't allow us to know the players - truly. They fumbled the Cowboy Shootout, which used to entice folks in the northern end of the state to follow the Pokes. Linder is seen by many to be a Napolean-like character. CJC is a joke. The Arena is generally uninteresting and a chasm of mostly empty, uncomfortable seats (upper deck).
I'd tear out all of the upper deck seats and replace 1/2 of them with seats like the lower bowl (but brown). Create a standing room only party deck in part of the upper 1/2 of the upper deck behind the baskets - and open the one behind the student section to the students only and the other one to everyone else (not just CJC and NIL fat cats). The days of huge arenas are over - look at Baylor's new arena, Oregon's, Nebraska's, Ole Miss'.