And the other foot in the ODAC, or is it Patriot?
Gameday Experience
- Thread starter CH_Spider
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8legs1dream
Graduate Assistant
The guy behind me kept yelling de-pressed, instead of de-fense, that is until we came back.
Gameday atmosphere seems fine. Concessions have definitely hit the skids both in quality and service. I think that's a function of Dining Services perhaps, maybe they need some input.
If we had a consistently winning/post-season performing program, that would make the stale popcorn and Pepsi products unnoticeable.
If we had a consistently winning/post-season performing program, that would make the stale popcorn and Pepsi products unnoticeable.
This should spice up our gameday experience.
How many times has this happened? Again, speaks to a culture of accountability. What other business would tolerate employees sending out misspelled documents all of the time, without putting in some type of corrective action plan.
Apparently we have hired several vcu grads? Lol!
I believe this violates the Spiderfans moderator policy.
I knew a guy at Richmond his nickname was Pubes.
Well, maybe we can correct this immediately and chalk it up to just being a close shave.
$12-$22 for pubic assess is a steal, particularly in these inflationary times.
Seriously, baffled how this sort of stuff happens repetitively. Sad state of affairs.
Seriously, baffled how this sort of stuff happens repetitively. Sad state of affairs.
I don't think it's big time. It feels worse now than it did 6 years ago. We're getting worse, not better. A new coach would help in this area, though.
Our gameday experience is far from Big Time. Do we have a nice arena - sure do. Did the upgrades to the sound system, video boards, etc - move us to the upper portion of A10 arenas - no doubt.
But to me - if you want to be known for a true home court advantage or a big time arena - it all comes down to crowd support and most notably - student section support. I am a firm believer that when the student section is pumped, and as Dickie V says "Rockin and Rollin" that the rest of the crowd feeds off that as well. You can't rely on the older crowd to carry the atmosphere in a college arena. And the most well know arena's have a student section aspect to them. The Cameron Crazies at Duke. Arizona State has the Curtain of Distraction. Kansas has the Rock Chalk Chant. Even locally, not so much on a national level (although they do send them to the Today show usually around March Madness) - VCU has strong student support, but usually the student band gets them rocking. I would argue we have a better arena than VCU, but they have a better gameday experience from a student and home court advantage aspect.
But considering the reply to this thread will be all the excuses we have heard before - we don't have enough students, we don't have enough alumni - we don't have a band - then maybe the gameday experience fits our older crowd. Mostly quiet for most of the game, except for a key part here and there. A few passionate older fans spread out around the arena and hope on a good night you can get 100 students to not only show up, but make some noise. Maybe that is what the people who buy tickets are looking for and the school as well.
But to me - if you want to be known for a true home court advantage or a big time arena - it all comes down to crowd support and most notably - student section support. I am a firm believer that when the student section is pumped, and as Dickie V says "Rockin and Rollin" that the rest of the crowd feeds off that as well. You can't rely on the older crowd to carry the atmosphere in a college arena. And the most well know arena's have a student section aspect to them. The Cameron Crazies at Duke. Arizona State has the Curtain of Distraction. Kansas has the Rock Chalk Chant. Even locally, not so much on a national level (although they do send them to the Today show usually around March Madness) - VCU has strong student support, but usually the student band gets them rocking. I would argue we have a better arena than VCU, but they have a better gameday experience from a student and home court advantage aspect.
But considering the reply to this thread will be all the excuses we have heard before - we don't have enough students, we don't have enough alumni - we don't have a band - then maybe the gameday experience fits our older crowd. Mostly quiet for most of the game, except for a key part here and there. A few passionate older fans spread out around the arena and hope on a good night you can get 100 students to not only show up, but make some noise. Maybe that is what the people who buy tickets are looking for and the school as well.
It’s not saying much, but I will say the student section has been much better this year than the last 10 years.
Like you said - not saying much. Lets face it - we have been battling the issue of students showing up for years now. It might just be an issue we can't fix.
I wish they would do big giveaways during games for the students - see if that works. Throw money and prizes at them through Contests. Maybe one game - pick a student out of the crowd and if they can make a layup, free throw, 3 pointer, and half court shot in 30 seconds - they win a semester scholarship. Or maybe have a season long competition of fraternities and soriorities where the winner takes home $5,000 for their frat and soriority. Maybe a half court shot to win a car or something. Go Big and see what happens - if they still don't show up, then all hope is loss.
I wish they would do big giveaways during games for the students - see if that works. Throw money and prizes at them through Contests. Maybe one game - pick a student out of the crowd and if they can make a layup, free throw, 3 pointer, and half court shot in 30 seconds - they win a semester scholarship. Or maybe have a season long competition of fraternities and soriorities where the winner takes home $5,000 for their frat and soriority. Maybe a half court shot to win a car or something. Go Big and see what happens - if they still don't show up, then all hope is loss.
UR student demographics do not suggest we should reasonably expect rabid athletic support from them. Sad, but true.
I salute the ones who do show support. Perhaps what amount to bribes could bring in a few more, but their motivation for attending would not primarily be to support their team.
I salute the ones who do show support. Perhaps what amount to bribes could bring in a few more, but their motivation for attending would not primarily be to support their team.
It was finals week, no? Most students are likely studying so will be more telling what happens when they return after winter break. I’m hopeful the spiders give them a reason to go to the games.
Everything about our program reflects the personality of our coach. Understated, blase, unremarkable, content, no urgency. No surprise -- he's had 17 years to leave his mark on it.
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Disagree. Win games and they’ll show up. I think there would be excitement around the program if we had 1 or 2 losses and were close to being a ranked team.
blasé is the atmosphere for the most part..............conditioned to "also ran" status.............
There are a lot of things that compete for student attention these days on campus, and to a lesser extent, off campus. So particularly during weeknight games, you are going to have that factor to deal with.
That said, if you have an exciting, WINNING product on the floor, students will engage. We've seen this every year for the last 7-8 years where early participation is good, then we kind of hit the skids with some early season losses that take us out of any kind of momentum and student participation softens dramatically. Gotta win early and often.
That said, if you have an exciting, WINNING product on the floor, students will engage. We've seen this every year for the last 7-8 years where early participation is good, then we kind of hit the skids with some early season losses that take us out of any kind of momentum and student participation softens dramatically. Gotta win early and often.
Social media has opened up many ways to glue your eyeballs. Maybe a flash mob descend on the Robins Center to cheer for fellow students on the team(and stay awhile)!
The student support has been noticeably better this year. I think UR has been doing a number of things to get more students to come to games and it has appeared to have some success.
Obviously winning is the tide that raises all boats, even Hardt knows that. The only other thing that moves the needle is marquee home games and that is something that doesn’t happen unless there is a dominant A10 team.
Concessions are definitely on the downswing, but at least part of that is COVID related (staffing) so they get a partial pass there. Also spending way less on promotions and halftime entertainment which is likely a mix of COVID uncertainty and a lack of creativity.
The inexcusable problem is the lack of any sort of proofreading on press releases, social media, promotions etc. Simple lack of professionalism, which reflects poorly on the athletics department and the University.
Obviously didn't have Dr. Guthrie for freshman English where one misspelled word on any essay resulted in a failing grade. (And to be on the 'safe side' I checked and when used as an adjective the singular freshman is always correct.)
I was going to suggest bribes. I just paid the spring semester tuition bill. I am all in on bribes; i will also accept donations. Large denominations only.
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