attendance?

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melbo

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I watched the game on tv last night and was suprised at the half empty barn. What was the reason for the low attendance? Was something else big going on, was the weather that bad, is it the ticket prices,what? I did see a full student section, perhaps they could be moved to center front. It would sure look better on tv than empty seats.
 

People stayed away because of the weather.
 


melbo said:
I watched the game on tv last night and was suprised at the half empty barn. What was the reason for the low attendance? Was something else big going on, was the weather that bad, is it the ticket prices,what? I did see a full student section, perhaps they could be moved to center front. It would sure look better on tv than empty seats.
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Totally weather and traffic related. By halftime the lower sections were mostly full (80%). Student section never got more than half full. The guy sitting next to me last night got there about 10 minutes after tipoff. He said it took him almost two hours to get there from Eden Prairie.

Many simply skipped the game because the TV weather people were telling us we'd die on the roads. 6pm tipoff probably didn't help, either.
 

Weather was no doubt a factor. The opponent was also. If this were a Big Ten Game the weather would not have had as much an affect. However, with the game being against a pushover like Morgan State surely most people decided to stay home. I went to the game and wasn't that surprised considering how windy and bitterly cold it was outside.
 


A combination of a 6 PM tip (it always looks empty at the beginning of 6 PM games) bad weather and a weak opponent. I too was shocked by just how empty it was at the start. I'd never seen it that empty in my life. But it filled in surprisingly well by halftime.
 

Thanks for the info, being in Louisville I had no idea why the attendance was low. Sorry about your weather, if I could I would send some warm weather up your way but it,s getting cold here also. Stay warm and Go Gophers!
 

Weather was a factor for our giving tickets away, but it is very hard to excited about yet another bad non-conference opponent. You get kind of worn down by the Morgan States of the world.
 

melbo said:
I watched the game on tv last night and was suprised at the half empty barn. What was the reason for the low attendance? Was something else big going on, was the weather that bad, is it the ticket prices,what? I did see a full student section, perhaps they could be moved to center front. It would sure look better on tv than empty seats.
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Yes - it was the 1st winter snowstorm of the year, they were predicting up to a foot of snow. The roads were really backed up, but it only took me about 15 minutes longer to get to The Barn than it usually does, but I know that was the deterrent for most.

I snapped them really quick - so they're not great pics.

<a href="http://s101.photobucket.com/albums/m76/nadinebabu/?action=view&current=IMG_4075.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m76/nadinebabu/IMG_4075.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

The Barnyard:
<a href="http://s101.photobucket.com/albums/m76/nadinebabu/?action=view&current=IMG_4076.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m76/nadinebabu/IMG_4076.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
 



GopherLady thanks for the shots. I get a better overall view of the barn than on tv. Its truly a great gym and I hope to attend a game sometime.
 

The best way to describe how empty The Barn was at the beginning of the game?

The crowd was smaller than anything I saw during the tail end of the Dan Monson era, and that's saying something. As others pointed out, the crowd got bigger & more respectable as the game approached halftime.

Bad weather + crappy roads + early start + (another) creampuff = bad crowd.
 

Yep, everyone is pretty much right on with this.

Tuesday evening, 6:00 start (I had to leave work early), TERRIBLE road conditions, and an opponent that didn't make it worth the effort or risk. It's bound to happen sometime.

Lucky for the Gophers, they probably didn't lose much in ticket revenue considering the number of season ticket holders they have that were already paid, plus the demand for single game tickets.
 

Heber said:
However, with the game being against a pushover like Morgan State surely most people decided to stay home.
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Pushover? According to FOT, Morgan State is one of the three "quality" oppenents on our "good" home NC schedule. The first of those 3, SF Austin, was blown out of the barn by 40 points. The last of the 3, St. Joe's, is coming up Saturday - oh boy, I can hardly wait.

I still contend that this season's home NC schedule may be the worst in school history - victories over the assortment of cupcakes on our schedule will do nothing to ready us for the B10 season nor will it help our RPI ranking - in fact, our home schedule may be responsible for keeping us out of the big dance - for sure we won't get in if we match last year's B10 record.
 



If it makes the Gopher fans feel any better Purdue played Valpo, I realize not a huge name but a local name, last night and there was at most 12000 out of 14123. By the end there was maybe 7000 left. Granted the weather around here is pretty cold. 13 with 0 windchill. I know that doesn't sound terrible but for people from Indiana it's really cold. Even I'm cold.

So attendence isn't just a Minnesota problem.
 

Southpaw said:
Pushover? According to FOT, Morgan State is one of the three "quality" oppenents on our "good" home NC schedule. The first of those 3, SF Austin, was blown out of the barn by 40 points. The last of the 3, St. Joe's, is coming up Saturday - oh boy, I can hardly wait.

I still contend that this season's home NC schedule may be the worst in school history - victories over the assortment of cupcakes on our schedule will do nothing to ready us for the B10 season nor will it help our RPI ranking - in fact, our home schedule may be responsible for keeping us out of the big dance - for sure we won't get in if we match last year's B10 record.
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Morgan St beat Ark on the road and lost to Louisville by 9 on the road. They ARE a quality opponent that was beaten by a Gopher team playing well.

St Joseph's played Villanova very tough this week. They have a quality coach and a good team.

And yes, SF Austin will be a good team by EOY.
 

Southpaw said:
Pushover? According to FOT, Morgan State is one of the three "quality" oppenents on our "good" home NC schedule. The first of those 3, SF Austin, was blown out of the barn by 40 points. The last of the 3, St. Joe's, is coming up Saturday - oh boy, I can hardly wait.

I still contend that this season's home NC schedule may be the worst in school history - victories over the assortment of cupcakes on our schedule will do nothing to ready us for the B10 season nor will it help our RPI ranking - in fact, our home schedule may be responsible for keeping us out of the big dance - for sure we won't get in if we match last year's B10 record.
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The gophers are going to have to win at least 11 in the B10 to get in.
 

Friend Of Tubby said:
Morgan St beat Ark on the road and lost to Louisville by 9 on the road. They ARE a quality opponent that was beaten by a Gopher team playing well.

St Joseph's played Villanova very tough this week. They have a quality coach and a good team.

And yes, SF Austin will be a good team by EOY.
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SF Austin is 5-2 with 2-pt L to UNDEFEATED Texas Tech as their other L. They defeated Cal St-Fullerton and ex-Gopher Bryce Webster most recently.
 

Well, Alec and I made it. The only time I've seen less fans was at the last NIT game (honest).

I liked it, 'cause we were able to pick our own seats ... meet the four other folks in the row where we sat ... casually chat about the game, the season, etc. Kind of reminded me of high school games where you see somebody you know by face but don't know them personally. ... :)

Highlight for Alec was getting to see Colton Iverson and Ralph Sampson III as they were walking out of the Barn. (We'd stayed late to listen to the interview with Tubby) "Dad, they're BIG!" And they are to a guy who's only 5'4" ... ;)
 

Friend Of Tubby said:
Morgan St beat Ark on the road and lost to Louisville by 9 on the road. They ARE a quality opponent that was beaten by a Gopher team playing well.

St Joseph's played Villanova very tough this week. They have a quality coach and a good team.

And yes, SF Austin will be a good team by EOY.
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I see you conveniently neglected to mention Morgan State's bad losses to Appalachian State and Loyola Maryland.

St. Joe's did play well yesterday in front of a raucous home crowd against arch-rival Villanova - we'll see if they can bring that same intensity level to the barn. There's no sugar-coating the fact that they're on a 5-game losing streak and are projected to finish 11th in the Atlantic 10 conference - doesn't sound like "quality" to me.

SF Austin is projected to finish in the middle of the pack in a very weak conference - again, where's the quality?.

My point is that none of the teams on the NC Home schedule is a Top 100 RPI team (probably not even Top 150). Beating these types of teams on your home court counts very little on your NCAA resume.
 

Honest question: What looks better at the end of the year? A blowout win against a crappy team or a pretty competitive loss against a quality opponent? Would people be praising the schedule if it were riddled with big names and we were under .500? Wouldn't that just put more pressure on us to win in the Big10? Why not breeze through the non-conference and then just hold serve in the Big10...we'd probably continually make the tournament that way.
 

Southpaw said:
SF Austin is projected to finish in the middle of the pack in a very weak conference - again, where's the quality?.
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Where did you hear that? Might want to check this.

And, this, regarding Morgan State.


Of course, that doesn't mean these teams are great, but they aren't that bad, either. It is way better playing these kind of teams than the really bad teams from those conferences. Playing really bad teams from those leagues is an RPI killer. See Penn State last year. At least we get a small bit of gain from playing the best teams out of these weaker leagues.

And, yes, I'd like to see Tubby schedule another 1-2 BCS type non-conference opponents and certainly at least one at home.
 


tjgopher said:
Where did you hear that? Might want to check this.

And, this, regarding Morgan State.
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SF Austin was picked to finish 3rd out of 6 teams in the East Division of the Southland Conference in the Blue Ribbon College Yearbook. They may have been decent last year but they experienced significant graduation losses (3 starters including Conference Players of the Year from the past 2 seasons).

Similarly, Morgan State lost 3 starters from last year's conference champion team. Although Morgan State may be favored again in the MEAC that is an extremely weak league. As conference champ last year, Morgan State ended up with an RPI of 132; this year they're not as good as last.
 

Rick Mons said:
Well, Alec and I made it. The only time I've seen less fans was at the last NIT game (honest).

I liked it, 'cause we were able to pick our own seats ... meet the four other folks in the row where we sat ... casually chat about the game, the season, etc. Kind of reminded me of high school games where you see somebody you know by face but don't know them personally. ... :)

Highlight for Alec was getting to see Colton Iverson and Ralph Sampson III as they were walking out of the Barn. (We'd stayed late to listen to the interview with Tubby) "Dad, they're BIG!" And they are to a guy who's only 5'4" ... ;)
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That's awesome! You can tell Alec that they're big to a girl that's 5'6 (5'10 in heels) too!
 

Southpaw said:
SF Austin was picked to finish 3rd out of 6 teams in the East Division of the Southland Conference in the Blue Ribbon College Yearbook. They may have been decent last year but they experienced significant graduation losses (3 starters including Conference Players of the Year from the past 2 seasons).

Similarly, Morgan State lost 3 starters from last year's conference champion team. Although Morgan State may be favored again in the MEAC that is an extremely weak league. As conference champ last year, Morgan State ended up with an RPI of 132; this year they're not as good as last.
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For sure, they aren't great teams, as I said. But, as long as we know that "buy" games are going to be on the schedule, it is important to play the best teams from those leagues and that's all I'm saying. As to SFA finishing mid-pack. They could. The coaches of that league, however, tabbed them as the preseason favorite. Penn State played weak teams from weak leagues last year and that ultimately cost them. Playing the best teams from weak leagues helps. Playing No. 132 is better than playing No. 302.

Again, I'm not defending this schedule, but I do understand the intent of scheduling SFA and Morgan State, etc.
 

tjgopher said:
For sure, they aren't great teams, as I said. But, as long as we know that "buy" games are going to be on the schedule, it is important to play the best teams from those leagues and that's all I'm saying. As to SFA finishing mid-pack. They could. The coaches of that league, however, tabbed them as the preseason favorite. Penn State played weak teams from weak leagues last year and that ultimately cost them. Playing the best teams from weak leagues helps. Playing No. 132 is better than playing No. 302.

Again, I'm not defending this schedule, but I do understand the intent of scheduling SFA and Morgan State, etc.
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Well stated tj - you make some very good points. Although it's hard to imagine, I guess the home schedule could have been even worse than it is. All I'm saying is that I think the fans deserve to have a competitive NC home game or two on our schedule - even teams in the 150 RPI range come to the barn as heavy underdogs (the 2 "best" teams so far lost by an average of 35 points). I'll stand by my prediction that none of the teams on the home NC schedule will finish the year with an RPI better than 150.
 

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