Gary Williams and Scott Van Pelt rip Terps student attendence

[GODUKEGO]

I hope this article brings as much joy to you as it did me.

http://terrapintrail.com/sports/2011/02/24/basketball-gary-williams-scott-van-pelt-rip-student-attedance/

[jv001]

I hope this article brings as much joy to you as it did me.

http://terrapintrail.com/sports/2011/02/24/basketball-gary-williams-scott-van-pelt-rip-student-attedance/

I had rather Van Pelt and Gary talk about improving their fans behavior than the fans attendence. Go Duke!

[Ggallagher]

I was really startled at how many empty seats there were while I watched a little of the Maryland-NC State game last weekend before Duke's game started.

Then I was especially shocked when they announced that they had retired Vasquez's jersey and hung it in the rafters during the game - and couldn't get a decent showing for that.

Finally - who shows up at the Duke game that follow but good old Lefty.

I think that says a lot for how "pleasant" it must be to watch a game at the Comcast.

[miramar]

I had rather Van Pelt and Gary talk about improving their fans behavior than the fans attendence. Go Duke!

seems disappointed that they don't have enough students to start a riot after the game. It's a shame that they can't live up to their reputation.

[sagegrouse]

I think these events are bad news. Maryland had a big, long pep rally before the Duke game, at which both Gary and Van Pelt urged the crowd to behave and show some class. Duke won the game in a blowout. The crowd was not a factor. Now the UMd students aren't even going to the games.

Like UMd Lessons Learned: The only reason students come to the games is to behave in an outrageous manner against Duke, VT, and others.

UMd Solutions: Let 'em curse. Let 'em riot. Burn some more sofas.

sagegrouse

[AsiaMinor]

It has been my experience that you cannot FORCE someone into being a fan of anything. Rather than rant, it might be useful for Maryland to determine why the turtle fans would rather stay in their shells than support their team, regardless of the opponents. Seems like a good project for students in the marketing research department. Continuous and sincere support are two more (of so many reasons) why I love Duke and Duke fans.

[Slackerb]

For me this makes it even more impressive that a place like NC State can stay in the top 25 in attendance records, even when being cellar dwellers most years.

This article was spot on:

http://aboverim.blogspot.com/2011/02/nc-state-crowd-numbers-still-strong.html

[killerleft]

It has been my experience that you cannot FORCE someone into being a fan of anything. Rather than rant, it might be useful for Maryland to determine why the turtle fans would rather stay in their shells than support their team, regardless of the opponents. Seems like a good project for students in the marketing research department. Continuous and sincere support are two more (of so many reasons) why I love Duke and Duke fans.

It isn't that hard to fill up 9,314 seat Cameron Indoor Stadium. Not only is Duke a national powerhouse, but it's stadium is probably the most famous venue in college basketball...

I'd be more impressed if we could get students to the football games on time, and they actually stayed for the whole game.

Back to basketball, Cameron Indoor Stadium is also the absolutely coolest name out there for any venue in any sport.

[Slackerb]

That's exactly what I mean. It's easy to criticize other programs fanbase and crowds when you are a top 5 team.

What about if Duke was 6-6 in ACC play....

Or what about Duke's football team?

That's why NC State's fan base is so amazing to me....losing consistently and still putting up good attendance numbers in both basketball and football.

[Acymetric]

That's exactly what I mean. It's easy to criticize other programs fanbase and crowds when you are a top 5 team.

What about if Duke was 6-6 in ACC play....

Or what about Duke's football team?

That's why NC State's fan base is so amazing to me....losing consistently and still putting up good attendance numbers in both basketball and football.

Well they aren't really losing constantly in football, although they're certainly not a powerhouse. And their basketball numbers are generally pretty bad...RBC is near empty if its not Duke or unc it seems like (I go to a few State games a year with some friends).

[juise]

What about if Duke was 6-6 in ACC play....

You mean like 2007. I'm pretty sure Cameron was sold out. It's not really a fair comparison given the respective size of the venues. Of course, student attendance is not as easily tracked.

[anon]

You mean like 2007. I'm pretty sure Cameron was sold out.

Wrong.


Of course, student attendance is not as easily tracked.

Why not, given that students swipe their ID card to get in?

[juise]

Wrong.

Duke's ACC record was 6-6 going into this game (http://espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=270490150) and the attendance was 9,314. That's a sellout. Care to clarify your "wrong?"


Why not, given that students swipe their ID card to get in?

Well, the numbers are never published and do you really think that a card is swiped for every student that enters Cameron? I heard stories of shenanigans time-to-time in my day.

[wsb3]

I for one am pulling for a bonfire celebration at Maryland tonight.;)

[anon]

Duke's ACC record was 6-6 going into this game (http://espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=270490150) and the attendance was 9,314. That's a sellout. Care to clarify your "wrong?"

Sure. First, you have to realize that Duke quotes its attendance as 9,314 for every single game regardless of the student attendance. Take for example this year's home game against Boston College, which was very poorly attended. If I remember correctly, Krzyzewski even commented after the game about the poor turnout. The stated attendance for that game?

Why, 9,314. (<http://espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=310270150>)

See also this article <http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3100960>, which details the ill-fated "validation system" that was instituted for 2007-08 as a reaction to the dropping student attendance figures.

The fact is (and this has been discussed in another thread about Cameron very recently) the Cameron Crazies might not be as blindly dedicated as we would want to believe. (I say this as an undergrad myself.) The fact is that all athletics programs struggle sometimes with attendance figures.


Well, the numbers are never published and do you really think that a card is swiped for every student that enters Cameron? I heard stories of shenanigans time-to-time in my day.

I'm not stupid enough to think that it would be an exact measurement, but they ARE pretty strict about it, and I'm sure the athletic department keeps track of the numbers (to, for example, know how many general admission tickets to sell for Section 17—don't get me started!).

[Newton_14]

That's exactly what I mean. It's easy to criticize other programs fanbase and crowds when you are a top 5 team.

What about if Duke was 6-6 in ACC play....

Or what about Duke's football team?

That's why NC State's fan base is so amazing to me....losing consistently and still putting up good attendance numbers in both basketball and football.

I am sorry, but despite that article, I just do not buy it. The RBC may have been full for the UNC game, but Saturday against Tech it was half-empty. In the Duke game it was about 90% full, with a decent number of us wearing Duke Blue. Over the past several years, if the opponent was not Duke or UNC, the place is no where near full. If State is in the Top 25 in attendance in basketball, the networks are using some sort of trickery for a lot of the games around the country that show capacity crowds on TV.

For football State consistently puts 52K+ fannies in the seats every Saturday for a team that hasn't exactly set the world on fire, but yet cannot get 40% of those same folks to show up and support the basketball team. It just makes no sense. The RBC should be full game in and game out.

[Slackerb]

I am sorry, but despite that article, I just do not buy it. The RBC may have been full for the UNC game, but Saturday against Tech it was half-empty. In the Duke game it was about 90% full, with a decent number of us wearing Duke Blue. Over the past several years, if the opponent was not Duke or UNC, the place is no where near full. If State is in the Top 25 in attendance in basketball, the networks are using some sort of trickery for a lot of the games around the country that show capacity crowds on TV.

For football State consistently puts 52K+ fannies in the seats every Saturday for a team that hasn't exactly set the world on fire, but yet cannot get 40% of those same folks to show up and support the basketball team. It just makes no sense. The RBC should be full game in and game out.

It should?

You think it's reasonable to expect a program to be able to have 20,000 people come to basketball games when the program they are watching has finished no better than 9th in the ACC since 2005?

What other program around the country would do that?

Would Duke even sell out a place like RBC center every game? Doubtful.

State is top 25 in attendance by totals, not by percentage. It's not a conspiracy by the "networks" or something. Not that many programs can average >10,000 in attendance, so if State can fill it's stadium 60% on average, it'd be top 25.

[killerleft]

It should?

You think it's reasonable to expect a program to be able to have 20,000 people come to basketball games when the program they are watching has finished no better than 9th in the ACC since 2005?

What other program around the country would do that?

Would Duke even sell out a place like RBC center every game? Doubtful.

State is top 25 in attendance by totals, not by percentage. It's not a conspiracy by the "networks" or something. Not that many programs can average >10,000 in attendance, so if State can fill it's stadium 60% on average, it'd be top 25.

"Would Duke even sell out a place like RBC center every game? Doubtful." Duke couldn't fill up a 12,000 seat arena for every basketball game. We could fill up the Carolina game with Duke fans. We could fill up the State game, but only with help from State fans. After that, only an occasional Maryland game and the odd big nonconference game would be full. And even a modest drop in interest once the K years are over would leave us with some very poorly attended games at times.

[Slackerb]

Exactly.

People seem to see empty seats and equate that with lack of support, but it's different when a stadium seats 20,000.

For example, even for the GTech game, which the ACC Roundup stated no one cared about, and the above posted said it was half full, recorded about 16,000 in attendance.

It's pretty impressive that Maryland and State have such high numbers considering their recent years and program status at this point.