Basketball Attendance

[CajunEXPRESS]

You can't use 9,513 empty seasts against Marlin. Please!

Take the average of the last 10 years subtract his average attendance and count those as empty seats. Only fair!

The attendance was accurate.

I do believe you can count all the empty seats on any coach. This town has shown it will and can get crowds of over 10K provided the team is entertaining, and winning. None of those teams have won enough, long enough to build a long term fan base who are excited.

Make no mistake about it, Marlin, Hud, Jesse, Robe, all of them are here to win enough to fill the stands. There is a reason baseball is down in attendance, it has to do with lack of wins. Robe established the bar high early and has never come close to regaining the form he had with schlorship restrictions. Marlin gets two year pass, he is now heading into year three and I see no chance it will be a lot different that years one and two. This is basketball we are talking about, you can change a team with one great player, and totally with two. So far zero players of that level.

[BayouBaller]

You can't use 9,513 empty seasts against Marlin. Please!

Take the average of the last 10 years subtract his average attendance and count those as empty seats. Only fair!

The attendance was accurate.

Sure you can. Average home attendance this year was 3,566 and the Senior Night home finale was 5,075. Last season's average was 3,919 and the final three games drew 5,304, 7,071, and 8,066 if you are looking for a history lesson. 2,037 for a post-season home game is pathetic and there is some shared responsibility. If the university wants to be in the business of revenue sports, then they need to develop a full blown marketing plan with go-get goals that will reverse this trend. The Cajun Dome management team needs to be included. They are shepherds to a wonderful venue but the Ice Dogs only average 2,018. At the end of the day, you need to have a product that the people want to see. Coach Marlin and the Ragin' Cajuns need to be in control of this. We lost five of our last seven games - including three of our last four at home.

Try to sell that in 2012-2013.

[cajun4life]

I don't want to look at Duke! Oh... nevermind... I don't have to!!! Hahaha... hahahaha... ha!

I used them as an example as a program whose home court advantage makes them way better than they really are.

[cajun4life]

You may as well face it, Marlin ball will bring no fans without very high level of wins. Not saying he is a bad coach, but if you expect fans he better win a lot more than say Marty did, who by the way always had fun teams even when they had a losing season.

I am not an advocate for Bob Marlin, I am an advocate for fans supporting the program. I would much rather see Marty ball than this style of play, but that is not the point. It is not about what style of play is on the court. It's about fans and students showing up in support of a program. Had we averaged 7000+ I would bet that we would have had a better home record. Look what Utah St does with their home court advantage, and they are not an elite program.

That is what I am alluding to, home court advantage in an 11,000 seat arena in non-existent when you have 8500 empty seats. People want wins, well if people would show up and contribute with energy and noise "the fans" would play an integral role in many more wins. Look at football, had we not had super crowd support we would not have won that bowl game.

[Turbine]

if you are looking for a history lesson. 2,037 for a post-season home game is pathetic and there is some shared responsibility.

Pathetic? Yes. Responsible? No.

The Marlin gets credit for 2,037 not blame. That is 2,037 more than have watched a UL basketball team play in a post sesaon tournament game at home in the last 27 years.

[CajunEXPRESS]

C4L, you and I agree more vocal and fanatic the crowd the better the teams. BUT that is never the way it works except where a recently great program brings in a go getter. In all cases the coach builds the expectations and delivers, then the fans come along.

And again the question I think was why is support so weak? It is weak because people follow, fans follow, they rarely lead. The New Orleans Bowl, the wins Hud got with big crowds? I submit that started with wins on the road, and starting and staying strong early at home and road. Hud loses those two road games against non bcs and comes in 0-3 you see a lot different level of fan support.

My comments about coaches is more about people enjoying what they see. They are willing to give support for excitment vs boring with similar results. Neither will bring huge fan support if the results are average or less.

[CajunAmos]

I am not an advocate for Bob Marlin, I am an advocate for fans supporting the program. I would much rather see Marty ball than this style of play, but that is not the point. It is not about what style of play is on the court. It's about fans and students showing up in support of a program. Had we averaged 7000+ I would bet that we would have had a better home record. Look what Utah St does with their home court advantage, and they are not an elite program.

That is what I am alluding to, home court advantage in an 11,000 seat arena in non-existent when you have 8500 empty seats. People want wins, well if people would show up and contribute with energy and noise "the fans" would play an integral role in many more wins. Look at football, had we not had super crowd support we would not have won that bowl game.

I think it would be great to pack an 11000 seat arena, but keep in mind it's never been done. Never. I'm not sure, but I think our best attendance average has been somewhere between 5 and 6 thousand a game. I'd be very happy to get back to that average attendance, and I think it's doable with a consistent 20 win team and a little promotion.

I think Coach Marlin has gone to great lengths to be inclusive of all of our programs history and players which has been purposefully forgotten for far too long. I think he's the type of coach who can build the program back to where we all want it to be, but nothing happens without some transition. If after three or four years you're no further along than where you started, you look for another coach.

[duggie85]

I think Coach Marlin has gone to great lengths to be inclusive of all of our programs history and players which has been purposefully forgotten for far too long. I think he's the type of coach who can build the program back to where we all want it to be, but nothing happens without some transition. If after three or four years you're no further along than where you started, you look for another coach.

I agree w/you. Theres a reason new coaches don't sign 2 year contracts.

[cajun4life]

I think it would be great to pack an 11000 seat arena, but keep in mind it's never been done. Never. I'm not sure, but I think our best attendance average has been somewhere between 5 and 6 thousand a game. I'd be very happy to get back to that average attendance, and I think it's doable with a consistent 20 win team and a little promotion.

I think Coach Marlin has gone to great lengths to be inclusive of all of our programs history and players which has been purposefully forgotten for far too long. I think he's the type of coach who can build the program back to where we all want it to be, but nothing happens without some transition. If after three or four years you're no further along than where you started, you look for another coach.

I don't think we could average 11k either, but with 17k in students I think we should get at least 3k with students alone and another 3500 in actual fan support.

[TuffGuy84]

Why did we have such a low attendance for this game....its not hard...in fact, its 3 letters...U-L-M. Anyone at that game (Our largest crowd of the season) left watching us get slammed up and down the court by a team with 2 wins. To make matters worse, they saw players acting like Dillholes on the team. Now don't get me wrong, the dillholes are gone, but especially those average fans, they weren't coming back. Think about it like this, if I go to Mcdonalds, and I get crappy service from the cashier, she forgets my fries, spits in my burger and gives me a cup from a trashcan, I don't CARE if she's fired or not, after that experience, I'm never going back to that McDonalds again. There's where the fans were, they went, and had someone spit in their food a couple weeks ago, it didn't help that we were 1 and done in the conference tourney.

[Turbine]

TG84 you are right, that is the cULMination of what happened.

[CrazyCajun]

a lot of the season ticket holders are corporate sponsors and companies who buy season tickets every year and give them away. Season ticket holders were required to purchase a ticket to this game. another words there were no freebies except students. unfortunately a lot of people are either cheap or unable to spend the money. It was poorly advertised both by the university and other outlets. We got our butt handed to us at the last home game, lost in the tourney, dismissed players and rice doesnt exactly jump off the page as a basketball team to be excited about. I dont think you can blame it on one thing, it was a combination of a lot o fthings. Also, the attendence was correct because it was actual paid attendence. who would have bought a tciket to this game , not to go? the highest attended game was 2400 of any other cit game. so we were right there as far as the rest o fthe tournament.