You can add Mass and St Bon, but it wouldn’t matter if we lost the rest of the games this season, there would always be a pot of gold at the end of Mooney’s rainbow in his justifications of how good things are.
Sunday's game sold out
- Thread starter UR80sfan
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Got it. You made it sound like these were more than just casual observers before, hence my curiosity.
I’m sure there are plenty of fans who think we have an ok coach. He’s not terrible, he wins more than he loses. But there are plenty of fans who don’t think he’s the guy. And they don’t all behave like the vocal anti-Mooney guys on here, they’re normal fans who sit around me or graduated with me or similar. Pretending like they don’t exist feels kind of silly.
I don't recall mentioning anyone specifically at all.
Since leaving the newspaper business I've worked with a baseball franchise for the last 12 years. Not once has anyone in our front office, or in the league complained that we've sold too many tickets. Not once. Not once have i heard our GM, or any GM, say that he'd rather have an empty seat than sell a discounted ticket.
Nor have I seen any ads for $2 tickets. The offer I saw was 2 for $20. Maybe raising the prices and having a half-filled arena would be better. That way we'd be less attractive to an alum or a potential fan who wants to take his family to a game. Brilliant marketing.
Like I said, Robins Stadium half-filled = bad. Robins Center completely sold out = bad. Tough crowd.
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I think cultivating the young fan is great. Maybe by the time they're my age they'll have a coach that puts then in the tournament more than once a decade.
I hope so too. But they are two separate issues.
I somewhat agree. Yes. It’s great the game is sold out. Did they basically sell tickets for nothing? Yes. But if that is what we need to do to get a good crowd - so be it.
What you can’t do then is at the end of the year applaud our attendance numbers for growing or being one of the best in the league. It’s not a fair comparison with Dayton or VCU who might charge 30-40 dollars for their cheapest ticket and UR who is giving 2 tickets and parking for 20.
But I much rather have people there in the seats than empty. But for me. The key is always students. They make or break the college game experience.
I’d like to second this.
I travel down to Richmond once a year to catch a game, not because I think Mooney is the guy, but because I love our school and Richmond Basketball, and don’t have the luxury of living close by to enjoy it at my leisure.
Every fall when I plan the trip I convince myself that we’re going to the tourney that year (probably the final four), and most years when we don’t have a shot by the time I go, I still want to support the players, catch a game, and see the changes to campus.
Going to a game shouldn’t be a tacit endorsement to a coach, and would be disappointed if that’s how the athletic department or university leadership look at it.
If having a 'sell out' in any way minimizes the need for change I don't like it. I'm glad the players get to play in front of a full house but the bigger issue is moving on from our million dollar mediocre coach. With our resources There is no reason we should not be in the top quartile in the A10 year after year.
Most families that go to the games do so because it's cheap entertainment. They really don't care if we win or lose. Their attendance is in no way an indicator that the program is in great shape. Their attitude toward Richmond Basketball is the same attitude I think the administration and staff has. It's little Ole Richmond just trying to compete against big schools. Just doing the best we can to compete. I believe we have the ability to be much more and can compete at the top of the league year in and year out.
It’s like buying a flying squirrels ticket. I don’t think Richmond has thousands of die hard minor league baseball fans. But they go to the ballpark because it’s good entertainment, inexpensive, and something different to do on a nice night. I doubt many people are waking up and reading flying squirrel stats and tracking playoff standings. But they put on good entertainment for a good price.
Not even sure where you would get Flying Squirrels stats these days, Certainly not the RTD.
80s, Wouldn't conflate a sell out with an endorsement of Mooney or the state of the program.
As TBone said, there are plenty of us that support the program, want only the very best for it, while realizing Mooney demonstrably isn't the man to get us there consistently. We aren't "haters", just long time avid, but frustrated, fans of Spider basketball. 55% does not, and should not, meet reasonable standards for our program.
VT, Throwing out cherry picked stats in support of Coach rather than looking at his whole body of work is akin to peeing on our legs and telling us it is raining. Winning percentage needs to go up or Mooney needs to go down.
All that said, I'm happy we will enjoy a full house tomorrow. Go Spiders!
As TBone said, there are plenty of us that support the program, want only the very best for it, while realizing Mooney demonstrably isn't the man to get us there consistently. We aren't "haters", just long time avid, but frustrated, fans of Spider basketball. 55% does not, and should not, meet reasonable standards for our program.
VT, Throwing out cherry picked stats in support of Coach rather than looking at his whole body of work is akin to peeing on our legs and telling us it is raining. Winning percentage needs to go up or Mooney needs to go down.
All that said, I'm happy we will enjoy a full house tomorrow. Go Spiders!
Well said KE.
Just because we don't ascribe to the Mooney Mentality - like 4700 and his friends - i.e. it is so hard, how can we do it when everyone else is trying, we won 24 games ONE year. He throws out Gonzaga. HOW ABOUT right in there conference, St. Mary's - they are a consistent winner. Would love to have, and think we can have a program like that. I feel like we have as much or more to hang our hat on as St. Mary's. And don't look now, SDSU - they picked up guys in the portal like us that seemed better but have not quite performed to expectation, but the team just whooped a really good Boise team and in 1st place in a loaded MWC. Because for all Dutcher's faults, he constantly stresses a culture of winning the conference, and defense travels. That is our problem, defense looked a little better, but it is not good enough to carry us.
I agree with wood and 80s, great to have a full house. Great match up with Fordham. But that does not cover up the Mooney mediocrity mentality.
Just because we don't ascribe to the Mooney Mentality - like 4700 and his friends - i.e. it is so hard, how can we do it when everyone else is trying, we won 24 games ONE year. He throws out Gonzaga. HOW ABOUT right in there conference, St. Mary's - they are a consistent winner. Would love to have, and think we can have a program like that. I feel like we have as much or more to hang our hat on as St. Mary's. And don't look now, SDSU - they picked up guys in the portal like us that seemed better but have not quite performed to expectation, but the team just whooped a really good Boise team and in 1st place in a loaded MWC. Because for all Dutcher's faults, he constantly stresses a culture of winning the conference, and defense travels. That is our problem, defense looked a little better, but it is not good enough to carry us.
I agree with wood and 80s, great to have a full house. Great match up with Fordham. But that does not cover up the Mooney mediocrity mentality.
I believe the administration uses crowd sizes to show how well Mooney is doing. If you can't use wins and losses or NCAA appearances, you got to use something. And crowd size is usually a factor.
As I said, attendance and performance are two separate issues. I'm not confusing the two. Our performance has sucked this year. Certainly a large, large portion of that rests on Mooney. No question.
But no one is going to keep him or fire him because of attendance numbers, which (happily so) have remained strong during this down cycle. It shows me there is interest in our program.
And, coming from a solid middle-class family, I have no problem with affordable family entertainment, and I'm not exactly sure why anyone would disparage the fact we make our games financially accessible to someone other than the West End crowd. I certainly don't want someone having to pay $250 for tickets, parking and some concessions for his or her family of four to see us play.
The won-loss numbers matter. And we are clearly failing there.
But no one is going to keep him or fire him because of attendance numbers, which (happily so) have remained strong during this down cycle. It shows me there is interest in our program.
And, coming from a solid middle-class family, I have no problem with affordable family entertainment, and I'm not exactly sure why anyone would disparage the fact we make our games financially accessible to someone other than the West End crowd. I certainly don't want someone having to pay $250 for tickets, parking and some concessions for his or her family of four to see us play.
The won-loss numbers matter. And we are clearly failing there.
Yes, only season tickets holders should pay for parking and full price for tickets.
I think that realistic is a term that would accurately describe most on this forum.
You like to talk in pie-in-the-sky terms which ignore the realism of the coaching / program situation. Of course it is your right to describe the situation any way you like, but, it doesn't make those who disagree with you "wrong."
Season-ticket holders do not pay full price for tickets. There is always a discount from the single-game price, when all single-game price for every home game is added up. I have been buying Oregon State football and baseball tickets for years. The per-game cost is far less than the single-game cost, about half. And I get a better seat.
I expect season-ticket holders get superior seats and better parking options compared to those who get free parking for in a 2-for-$20 ticket package.
It's marketing and ticket office's job to fill the seats. They've been succeeding.
It's the coaching staff's job to win games. They've been failing.
Folks here aren't necessarily bitching about attendance. We bitch about the "rahrah" crowd using attendance as a barometer for "all is well with the program". Why people think a coach has had 18 years to improve on mediocrity is beyond my pea brain's ability to understand.
Thanks for peeking over on our side, Woody.
Thanks for peeking over on our side, Woody.
Fwiw, you can absolutely get great seats at the RC for less than the season ticket holder price. Parking isn’t thrown in either, you’re basically paying/donating for it.
All of which is fine btw, I have zero complaints, I love my seats and don’t feel the price is unfair.
But it’s not a premium to get same day tickets, STH are likely subsidizing most of the game day costs. Marketing is doing their job to try to make it loud, good for them.
Sold out and on TV, guaranteed pants crapper by the Spiders.
8legs1dream
Team Manager
Looking forward to see what excuse we add to the official list after this one 😂
Maybe we should be paying the big bucks to the marketing staff. Reward success!
There will be at least two vacant seats tomorrow 10 rows up behind the Spiders bench. I will be At Church tomorrow praying for a Spider victory. 🙏🕸🕷
You wanna talk about the wins Mooney has gotten, allow me to bring up the losses. William and Mary, VCU practically every year, oral roberts, longwood, Wyoming (they only won like 2 games that year) pretty much any respectable team in the A10, Mooney will lose to them. let’s talk about the 10 year ncaa drought in which our rivals lost their coaches to better offers and still made the tourney. We aren’t asking much, we just want consistency because I’m not a fan of waiting 10 years for a NCAA tournament appearance.
Wow, the balloon must have been more maneuverable than I thought to need a F-22 to shoot it down. 😊
Y'all that was the biggest Richmond sellout. There were a good 1000-1500 empty seats in the arena. The only game we really sell out is VCU. The whole look everyone supports the program and Mooney because we sell out a couple games is such an odd correlation to draw.
As others have said, this is cheap family entertainment, so that is a huge reason why our attendance is great. A family of four can got to a UR game for less than $50 with food and refreshments, name me one other event you can do like this for less than $50. There isn't one.
Many of our fans are alumni so of course they support our program because they support UR. That will never change. This has no correlation to the fact that a majority of our fanbase would love a new head coach because they do, people aren't dumb, they see what a really successful program looks like because we have VCU in the same town as us. Again, why literally everyone I know and talk to, would love to move on from Mooney. I literally know ZERO people who are like yeah Mooney is such a great coach and leader of our program, with the exception of the same 3 people on this message board who proclaim that.
And if we get a real coach and develop a really successful program, we will have real sellouts and won't be giving away tickets for pennies on the dollar to make that happen.
As others have said, this is cheap family entertainment, so that is a huge reason why our attendance is great. A family of four can got to a UR game for less than $50 with food and refreshments, name me one other event you can do like this for less than $50. There isn't one.
Many of our fans are alumni so of course they support our program because they support UR. That will never change. This has no correlation to the fact that a majority of our fanbase would love a new head coach because they do, people aren't dumb, they see what a really successful program looks like because we have VCU in the same town as us. Again, why literally everyone I know and talk to, would love to move on from Mooney. I literally know ZERO people who are like yeah Mooney is such a great coach and leader of our program, with the exception of the same 3 people on this message board who proclaim that.
And if we get a real coach and develop a really successful program, we will have real sellouts and won't be giving away tickets for pennies on the dollar to make that happen.
I have no idea why we're back on this subject of moving on from Mooney inside of a year after winning a tournament game, graduating four 1,000 point scorers, and extending his contract thru 4 years after this one. it's not on the table. and it won't be on the table for at least 2 more years.
You are right, but at the same time you’ve been blowing smoke up Mooney just like VT all this time 55% . It’s called building a program. Guys leave, next group step up. Mooney has never achieved that
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Because people are gonna air their grievances like it’s Festivus and understandably so when we are on the wrong side of .500 after a contract extension.
Let them eat cake!!!
