Is this partly a fan problem?

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Tucker32 said:
I appreciate your post. I agree this team is fun to watch and there is promise there. I think the biggest difference is that in 90-91 we had just made a run in the tourney in '89, we had won the Big Ten in '82 and had some really competitive teams in the mid-80's. In addition, the 70's had great teams, including being rated #1 in the country in '77. So, in 90-91, it was only two years removed from a run in the tourney, with the coach who had led that run. The last Big Ten championship was only 8 years before that, and the 77 team that was amazing was only 13 years earlier.

I think if our 98 Final Four run had happened in 2010, we had a Big Ten championship in 2015, and had made a run in the tourney two years ago Williams Arena would be sold out every night. However, it's been 25 years since the Final Four run and the last Big Ten championship, with only a handful of good years in those 25 years.

I was at the Missouri game and for 32 minutes it was a blast. I think there is a lot of potential with this club, and a win against Missouri would have built a little excitement. However, now we need to win at least one of these two Big Ten games in December to build any interest because the rest of the non-conference slate won't do it.

Appreciate the post though - can't wait to get back to the crowds we had in the 90s. That was a blast!!
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1997.

Go Gophers!!
 



The Timberwolves have been one of the worst franchises in all of pro sports. They play in one of the worst arenas in the NBA. Their tickets are more expensive than the gophers.

How is their attendance doing?
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
The Timberwolves have been one of the worst franchises in all of pro sports. They play in one of the worst arenas in the NBA. Their tickets are more expensive than the gophers.

How is their attendance doing?
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Target Center is one of the worst arenas in NBA? It’s just fine and not many stand out over others.
 


Haven't been there myself, but would love to know what stands out so much night and day better about Milwaukee's new arena over current renovated Target Center.


Anyway, is the point that a new Gopher arena would lift attendance up?
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
The Timberwolves have been one of the worst franchises in all of pro sports. They play in one of the worst arenas in the NBA. Their tickets are more expensive than the gophers.

How is their attendance doing?
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Much better than when they were bad.
 




Vegwards said:
The fans are not to blame. MN sports has been one big fat disappointment after another for decades. The only exception is the MN Lynx and the U of M women's dance team. But no one cares about them. There are some bright spots in the past 30 years, but not enough to overcome the massive disappointments.

Any person who decides to take on a coaching job in the Twin Cities needs to realize something. These teams are not just battling division and conference opponents, they are battling an extremely cynical and jaded audience who has suffered a lot for the past 30 years. It is going to take a lot to win us back. We're sick of potential and moral victories.
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Only 30?
 

Big Dawg said:
The fans: "Why should I go to the games? "The Gophers suck". There, I fixed it for you.
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Not only that, they don't schedule meaningful games in the non- conference. When you don't offer a fair deal to your season ticket holders- they decide to buy single game tickets for the best games. So here we are with actual attendance in the range of 3000-4000 for some of these games. It's a downward spiral.

I'd rather go .500 in non conference and see quality games than see a parade of Arkansas Pine Bluffs come through here so that we can win.
 




bga1 said:
Not only that, they don't schedule meaningful games in the non- conference. When you don't offer a fair deal to your season ticket holders- they decide to buy single game tickets for the best games. So here we are with actual attendance in the range of 3000-4000 for some of these games. It's a downward spiral.

I'd rather go .500 in non conference and see quality games than see a parade of Arkansas Pine Bluffs come through here so that we can win.
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I had season tickets for 6 years. Realized I was paying a premium for lesser seats the majority of games. Couldn’t sell them if I couldn’t attend because they were cheaper than my cost for better seats. Helluva business model. Then I get to see Eastern Alabama at Havana, The Mime School for Banana Farmers and Alaska University-North Pole play. Really tough to justify
 

If you are looking for a single issue I will sum it up for you in 3 words: Weak University Leadership.

These are people that see the team as an offering to sacrifice on the alter of their career or to some PC god. No, I am not referring to Ben's hire although one could make a good case for it - this has been devolving for a long, long, time and fearful misguided leaders are pervasive at the school (and state for that matter).
 

Attendance has not been an issue the past decade when the team has looked mildly competent.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
I had season tickets for 6 years. Realized I was paying a premium for lesser seats the majority of games. Couldn’t sell them if I couldn’t attend because they were cheaper than my cost for better seats. Helluva business model. Then I get to see Eastern Alabama at Havana, The Mime School for Banana Farmers and Alaska University-North Pole play. Really tough to justify
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You are exactly right, but for some reason the AD cannot see it. The MINIMUM they could do would be to set up a good schedule and they will not.🦇:poop:
 






Timberwolves are drawing because they are winning. They had the same team last year but KAT was hurt and nothing was working very well and the crowds were a lot lighter and less enthusiastic. Gophers are maybe one careless slow walk up court by Garcia (10 second violation at the worst possible time) from being undefeated.

Anyway Happy Thanksgiving. Did not mean to rattle any cages. You are all super fans. But sports have gotten a little weird. Every single game has one winner and one loser. Every team cannot win 90% of their games. If a team plays in a strong evenly matched conference they will win about half their conference games - more in a year with good health and some good breaks, less in a year with many injuries and some bad breaks. Of course the college playing field never has been totally equal and NIL has made that worse. The haves will have even more and win even more and there will be fewer of them. Everyone else will scramble mightily to catch up financially and there will be some kind of parity in the rest of the pack (average wins a little less than half, factoring in that the big dogs will do better), within their conferences. So if college sports are to be healthy there have to be some fans who enjoy their teams during a .500 year (conference) that includes some really good moments. Especially if there is realistic reason to be looking forward toward more wins the next year if everything comes together. The math says that is so. I remember a time when a realistic Big Ten goal was winning most of your home conference games and half of your road conference games. Maybe we will get back there. The non-conference schedule is just for getting ready to compete in the conference and will look different in different years depending on what preparation is deemed most useful. Some years a lot of stiff challenges are helpful to push an established team a little higher; some years the need is just a lot of games to evaluate players and combinations and develop offensive and defensive concepts and strategies. This year our team has to evaluate and integrate transfers Hawkins and Mitchell, reintegrate Fox and Ihnen, bring in Christie and Betts, add all that to core of Payne (as he heals), JOJ, Carrington, and Garcia, and prepare Thor, our secret weapon. Plenty to do against these kind of teams. In that 1990-91 year that I used as my enjoyment comparison we opened with NDSU (way before any D1 aspirations) and lost to Furman.

In thinking about this the Vikings have become the exception. They are a mediocre .500 team. But everyone realizes that any NFL team has some talent and could end up being competitive on any day. And they put on great pageantry. I think maybe it would help if the Gopher basketball dressed up their presentation (Musselman style but a more modern variation). The Gophers Volleyball team does a good job with showtime at the Pavillion!
 

BleedGopher said:
Huh? A fan problem? I will go to my grave that our fan base is one of the most loyal in all college basketball. Even if it's been cut by 65% since Clem days. My gosh, we have 1 Big Ten title since 1997 and 1 that's recognized by the NCAA since 1982. 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We've won 2 NCAA Tournament games since 1997. 2!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have finished behind our biggest rival in the BT every year since 1997. EVERY YEAR!!!!!!!!!

While The Barn has a cool old-school vibe, there hasn't been a material fan enhancement to the fan experience since 1994. 1994!!!!!!!!!!!

Yet we have endured a massive seat license program, shot ourselves in the foot with suspensions of players during early Tubby years that other programs would have allowed to play, we refused to hire an assistant coach because of his involvement in our program in decades earlier even though we felt good enough about him to name him an interim-HC at the time, we don't have a modern NIL program to help elevate recruiting, and this is all off the top of my head.

Our fan base, as small as it is now, is literally the best and most consistent part of this program.

Go Gophers Basketball Fans!!
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So much this!
 





BleedGopher said:
Huh? A fan problem? I will go to my grave that our fan base is one of the most loyal in all college basketball. Even if it's been cut by 65% since Clem days. My gosh, we have 1 Big Ten title since 1997 and 1 that's recognized by the NCAA since 1982. 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We've won 2 NCAA Tournament games since 1997. 2!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have finished behind our biggest rival in the BT every year since 1997. EVERY YEAR!!!!!!!!!

While The Barn has a cool old-school vibe, there hasn't been a material fan enhancement to the fan experience since 1994. 1994!!!!!!!!!!!

Yet we have endured a massive seat license program, shot ourselves in the foot with suspensions of players during early Tubby years that other programs would have allowed to play, we refused to hire an assistant coach because of his involvement in our program in decades earlier even though we felt good enough about him to name him an interim-HC at the time, we don't have a modern NIL program to help elevate recruiting, and this is all off the top of my head.

Our fan base, as small as it is now, is literally the best and most consistent part of this program.

Go Gophers Basketball Fans!!
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I have been reading this post nearly every day since it was posted.
 


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