Anonymous
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01-04-05 12:13 AM - Post#1803
For those who would like to see more people (and more enthused people) show up at Ivy games, there's a pretty simple solution: beat a 'name' team like Bucknell did over the weekend!! Watch how much excitement very quickly builds around a program that occassionally (even very occasionally) shows that anything is possible.
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Buckeye Quake
PhD Student
Posts: 1601
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Want to improve attendance?
01-04-05 11:52 AM - Post#1804
In response to
And perhaps install an offense that does more than try to create an open three pointer.
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Pennsylvania69
Junior
Posts: 206
Loc: Chester County, PA
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Want to improve attendance?
01-04-05 12:43 PM - Post#1805
In response to
A second option is to stop televising the Palestra games in the immedicate Philadelphia area, unless there is a projected sellout.
It's too easy to stay home and watch the game from the comfort of a den or living room than to fight traffic and go into the city during the winter.
The days when most adults who are interested in Penn basketball and also worked in center city are over. Today, those jobs are in the suburbs and most folks will take the easy choice of staying home if the game is on the tube.
Leave the radio broadcasts in place. Televise via Comcast or other cable outlets using a local blackout. There has to be an added incentive for those who can travel to the Palestra to see the game on TV other than pressing that power button on that remote.
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Buckeye Quake
PhD Student
Posts: 1601
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Want to improve attendance?
01-04-05 01:39 PM - Post#1806
In response to Pennsylvania69
Although I would agree that television will certainly reduce attendance, an entertaining team with a decent shot at winning each game is surely an elixir for that problem.
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Anonymous
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Re: Want to improve attendance?
01-04-05 03:47 PM - Post#1807
In response to Buckeye Quake
The alums in the suburbs are not the problem---and what's more, anyone who would rather watch the game on TV because it's more comfortable won't go to the Palestra to sit on hard benches anyway(all the seatbacks are sold out).
As noted before, the problem is primarily scheduling and secondarily, getting the University community more interested. No one other than the diehards who post or read here will go to see Rider and Lafayette. They have to schedule better home games---once someone sees a thriller against a good team, they will be more likely to come to more games. The students will come if there is a campus buzz around the team, which doesn't exist right now. TV has nothing to do with attendance.
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Buckeye Quake
PhD Student
Posts: 1601
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Want to improve attendance?
01-04-05 03:55 PM - Post#1808
In response to
You could schedule the entire ACC. If your team doesn't stand a chance of beating them, who's gonna come watch that?
I don't know about you but If I pay to see something, I want to be entertained. Watching my team lose is not entertaining.
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Jon Solomon
T.A.
Posts: 88
Loc: Mercer County, NJ
Reg: 11-22-04
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Re: Want to improve attendance?
01-04-05 04:06 PM - Post#1809
In response to Buckeye Quake
"I don't know about you but If I pay to see something, I want to be entertained. Watching my team lose is not entertaining."
Penn has gone 34-11 at home since 2001.
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AsiaSunset
Postdoc
Posts: 4361
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Want to improve attendance?
01-04-05 04:39 PM - Post#1810
In response to Jon Solomon
I need luxury boxes and someone to take my wife to the art museum.
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Pennsylvania69
Junior
Posts: 206
Loc: Chester County, PA
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Want to improve attendance?
01-04-05 04:49 PM - Post#1811
In response to
Quote:
As noted before, the problem is primarily scheduling.
My memory is probably failing -- but -- I remember that the Penn - Kansas game didn't sell out. The weather was fine and the game was on TV. I wish that the primary problem were scheduling. I think that the problem is more complex.
I think TV has played a part in the lack of Palestra attendance for years, and not just for Penn basketball, going all the way back to the days when Al Meltzer was broadcasting Big Five games.
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Anonymous
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Re: Want to improve attendance?
01-04-05 04:52 PM - Post#1812
In response to Pennsylvania69
You are right....Penn-Kansas didn't sell out, although it got a very very nice crowd. I can't remember the last time Penn sold out a non-Big 5, non-Ivy game (Penn-UVa to open the 1992-93 season wasn't a sellout....neither was Penn-Maryland a few years ago). The only Penn games I can remember that sold out recently are the Princeton games, Big 5 games, and the Yale game in 2002.
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omegahouse
Freshman
Posts: 84
Reg: 12-06-04
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Re: Want to improve attendance?
01-04-05 04:57 PM - Post#1813
In response to
Didn't the 2003 Brown game at the Palestra (the infamous Klatsky three point shot game) sell out, or if not, wasn't it darn close to a sellout (only a handful of seats in the corners)??
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Anonymous
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Re: Want to improve attendance?
01-04-05 05:24 PM - Post#1814
In response to omegahouse
I see we've gone from "improving attendance" to sellouts. To those who haven't been around too long, Penn attendance has never been great for non-league games against mid-majors or worse. It also hasn't been great for Ivy games, except when the game is meaningful for the title. Even in the glory days of the '70s, there were many empty seats. I think attendance is good for St. Joe's and Villanova (both teams bring in fans), Princeton, and meaningful out of conference games when we can get them---Kansas (almost a sellout for you quibblers), Virginia, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Maryland. Assume under 3000 for anyone resembling a Patriot or MAAC team. I would rather exchange some 2 for 1's to get in teams like that than have a horrible schedule like Penn does this year. People will come to any game that matters to them, TV or no TV. In general, if they choose to watch a Penn game on TV, it's because they weren't going to come anyway. I do think the seats matter, though---I have midcourt seatbacks and have no trouble at all getting friends from the suburbs to come in and see a midweek game.
None of this applies to the weak Penn community attendance, though.
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SomeGuy
Professor
Posts: 6412
Reg: 11-22-04
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Re: Want to improve attendance?
01-04-05 05:28 PM - Post#1815
In response to Pennsylvania69
I've never bought into the blackout theory in regard to the NFL, and I don't buy it here. The best thing you can do to sell tickets is create as much exposure as you possibly can -- and TV is still a pretty good way of getting exposure. If even fewer games are on TV in the area where people who might attend the games reside, I suspect you lose fans instead of gaining them.
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Buckeye Quake
PhD Student
Posts: 1601
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Want to improve attendance?
01-04-05 05:29 PM - Post#1816
In response to Jon Solomon
34-11 and entertaining. This team could go 44-1 and you'd have to pass out no doze at half time of each game.
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Buckeye Quake
PhD Student
Posts: 1601
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Want to improve attendance?
01-04-05 05:54 PM - Post#1817
In response to SomeGuy
As much as it pains me to agree with Palestra38, gimme some two for ones and lets get some draws in here. Wouldn't a return game with Georgia Tech have been nice this year? How about Stanford instead of San Francisco tonight, they come here next year and we go back the following year? Are our hands that tied?
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Anonymous
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Re: Want to improve attendance?
01-04-05 06:12 PM - Post#1818
In response to omegahouse
Quote:
Didn't the 2003 Brown game at the Palestra (the infamous Klatsky three point shot game) sell out, or if not, wasn't it darn close to a sellout (only a handful of seats in the corners)??
You're right...it didn't sell out, but it was close. 8114.
And re: the other points, I think everyone has a good point as to problems with attendance (except for the quality of play point, which I do not agree with), scheduling, advertising, Penn students and community, etc. There's no one right answer here.
Speaking of schedule, anyone have any info on games for next year's home schedule?  Is the famouc Colorado game going to happen? (Not that that will bring out students in the droves). Maybe we need to call Roy Williams and remind him how much he "loved" his Palestra experience and to bring UNC to town.
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Redfish
Masters Student
Posts: 767
Loc: under a bridge in Phoenix...
Reg: 11-26-04
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Re: Want to improve attendance?
01-04-05 08:19 PM - Post#1819
In response to Buckeye Quake
The only solution is to drop out of the Ivy League, offer athletic scholarships, admit recruits who can barely spell S-A-T, and have boosters who can supply cars, no-show jobs, tutors (test-takers), and plain old cash.
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