50% is so arbitrary. So if we move tomorrow to an arena of 7,000...3,500 would be good?Quote:
Originally Posted by lcitsh
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50% is so arbitrary. So if we move tomorrow to an arena of 7,000...3,500 would be good?Quote:
Originally Posted by lcitsh
Yes and if the dome fit 22k....9k per game would not be good. It's really a genius way to look at it.Quote:
Originally Posted by CajunRed
Ok, I do believe that we put in crowds listed near 10k in Blackham Lamar era. Granted probably more like 7.5 k but regardless USL had around 10K students, Lafayette the city around 60K residents and the parking was atrocious. Seats sucked, and it was heaven. If you were a student and you did not get there at least an hour before the game, you probably did not get in.
To consistently put less then 6K in the dome is a shame. The university has 17k students, Lafayette the city 122k, great parking, great seating, and things just do not rock because the fans refuse to make it rock.
I am not sure the Lamar era team could stay on the floor with these kids today, but they blew the opposition away almost every game. No doubt Lamar, Ebron, and Payton Townsend could play today. Almost every game was a race to the century mark. And we were upsetting the established basketball world, especially the established basketball world in the South. It was great to be a troublemaker.
Remember, during the Lamar, Ebron, Townsend era, we were in Blackham watching a top 10 rated team. I guarantee you that should UL ever get back to putting a top 25 team on the court we won't be on this message board talking about lack of attendance. Big time winning solves all attendance problems!Quote:
Originally Posted by CajunEXPRESS
That's why I said this standard is for me. This is just my preference. Just to give you my particular scale, 85-100% average of capacity is excellent, 60-85% is very good, 45-60% is good, 30-45% is fair, below 30% is poor.Quote:
Originally Posted by CajunRed
Just let it go.
Did we ever have crowds in the 9k range? I don't ever remember coming to the Cajundome and seeing 9k fans consistently and don't really remember 7k consistently. I remember coming during the 90's a lot and there were 5-6k maybe. Even back in the Blackham days, I don't think we put more than 5-6k people in there. I could be wrong.Quote:
Originally Posted by CajunRed
However, I just think it will take a wave of momentum for the people who haven't gone much recently to come back. I think some are either disenchanted with Marlin or with the ups and downs that we've seen over the past 6-7 years.
Its a time thing. I don't have time to go to everything and if I lay "no matter what" on my wife's doorstep, I'll be looking for somewhere else to live. With kids activities 3 nights a week and often traveling for those same kids on weekends and such, its hard to be able to make everything.Quote:
Originally Posted by CajunRed
I don't know what the actual numbers for the Fletcher era were although I attended many games then, but the highest average attendance number I could find for the Evans years was 5,100 people per game. However, most of Evans' years, including the tourney team year with Tiras Wade and company averaged much less than that. I don't know what the trend is or why but we weren't exactly packing the house with Evans or FletcherQuote:
Originally Posted by cajunfan79
Evans' best year was 2002-03, with an attendance average of 5,670. Fletcher's best year was 1993-94, with 6,066.Quote:
Originally Posted by zephyr
The Cajun Dome is just too darn big for our program and 90% of the D1 programs in the country. We need a smaller more intimate venue like Blackham was. If we had and 8500 seat basketball only arena then you would start to see an arena that was packed. It would create excitement and lead to sellouts. The Cajun Dome will NEVER do that for this program. If we had an arena like Troy's brand new facility we would not be complaining because we would have had great crowds for a few of the games.
If we were serious about basketball we would downsize and build a nicer facility, but we do not have the leadership in place to push the issue and raise the money for it. Hell they don't want to make a huge grassroots push to raise the money for the current Master Plan. Although I am happy that we are starting it.
Disagree, problems are not size of arena, but quality of teams over a prolonged era. I could see the actual seating reduce to about 9K,if you put in a lot more boxes. I like the way they do it at the arena NOLA. You have all these small to large boxes with seating dropping into the arena from the luxury boxes. Again we need to kill the white ceiling, a black ceiling automatic brings a more intimate feeling.
Dome upgrades will begin after next basketball season. It is a 19 million dollar project and will improve the basketball atmosphere. Plan is to have it completed prior to the 2015-16 season. Also, we will accept an invite to any post season tournament offering us a bid. That could be CIT or CBIT. In fact there is a slight chance for the NIT but for that to happen we would need to finish the regular season strong but lose to Ga.State in tourney final. If we get a bid to any of these, we likely won't play at home due to dome conflicts. Therefore there are only two more chances to watch the team in Lafayette. Those are tomorrow night against Troy and on Sunday March 2 against South Alabama.Quote:
Originally Posted by CajunEXPRESS
Cajundome and other arenas have increased their prices so much that I think it cost the University in GATE and butts in the seats. We finially get some fans in football, baseball, and softball coming out and THOSE in charge of concessions are PULLING our EYES out. Instead of rolling the prices back some so Mom and Dad can bring the kids to MOST home games, they price gouge us!!! Its NOT just UL or college they all do it. BUT for UL, I think Peanuts instead of $4 make it $2 or $3, Drinks like water $2, Cokes $2-$3, Nachos $3, etc. Allow these coaches to build their programs and bring in the people, YOU WILL MAKE YOUR MONEY ON VOLUME!!!
$5 for a drink, etc. Dad and Mom say only one football game per season, but if the prices are more reasonable they may do ALL 5-6 home games.
Compare the LSU season ticket prices and TAF prices to their concessions. Then compare a UL season ticket price and RCAF donor level and concessions, I bet UL's concessions ratio wise are MUCH HIGHER, much!
Look it may be that finances are hurting attendance. The cost of a soda is almost as bad at the movies. No doubt movies make their money on concessions, while the producers and stars make it on ticket sales. I would think sports programs make their money on, in our case, RCAF and ticket sales. Concessions are a nice plus but not at the cost of attendance.
The Cajun Dome, I believe, gets all the concession money so it is not a good thing for Louisiana basketball when the dome overcharges. The dome needs to be sure they are not maximizing per patron revenue in lieu of maximizing total revenue from more customers, but in the end if we are losing only three or four games a year prices won't matter much.
My dad always sold his donuts cheaper when other sales were weak, wanted the traffic in his grocery. You would think the dome would get that marketing concept. Weak club lower prices on concessions.
Softball and baseball has figured it out, you can now buy a souvenir cup and you get free refills all year long.
I agree with both C4L and CE. I think the Dome itself is too big, but I think the seating capacity is fine. The Dome was designed real poorly. It's actually too tall. Majority of the permanent seats are along the lengths and then both width sides only have second level seating and/or boxes. This leads to having 25+ rows in the third level which makes the dome too tall, thus sounding too cavernous.
The first level should be complete perm seats with bottom 10 rows and one entire side as retractable for stages for concerts. Second level should stay the same. Third level should subtract about 15 rows and wrap around the whole way. I never understood what that big area, across from the boxes, on the 3rd level was ever meant for.
But all of these ^ improvements definitely would not be in a $19MM budget.
I was able to see Funroe's "arena" (Fant-Ewing Coliseum). While I've certainly seen bigger and better, it reminded me of Blackham, at least in terms of its intimacy. Indeed, it was almost like being at a high school gym. But the floor was a complete wooded circle, so plenty of lost space there.
Anyhow, I remember thinking it would have been nice to hear even 3,000 Cajun fans in that place, or a similar facility..... I know it's "pie in the sky," but I would love to see Blackham completely renovated in a way that preserves the external facade but upgrades the interior so we could pack that place once again.
My understanding, though, is that there are other plans for Blackham... and nothing so spectacular.
My 12 year old daughter thought fun row stadium was a dump. Spoiled by the Cajun Dome. She also hates the big chicken they have for a mascot.
So they stole the chicken from us too? Real original Moanroe.Quote:
Originally Posted by BayouRichard
Probably a lameass WarHawk.
I didn't tell her the difference. She hates their mascot. Couple years ago it came by us during a came over there and she smacked it.Quote:
Originally Posted by CajunFan3406
we spent all day in the nwsu gym tuesday i liked how they had it, now its tiny-3,400 capacity but its a good example to scale up i think
Atta girl. :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by BayouRichard
Actually what you mentioned on the first level is exactly what they plan on doing.Quote:
Originally Posted by cajunfan337
If I were them I'd spend money to install a few rows of rafters that would hang just above the suite level. At least two long rows on either side of the court. You could put new court lighting on them that would only light the court, not the thousands of empty seats in the dome. You could also hang all the banners on them so they'd be right above the court. I think that would go a long way towards improving the atmosphere in the dome.