Are you saying that if the team does not win the conference tournament or does not win a game in the NCAA tournament you would want the coach fired now? I am not sure you meant that. Perhaps you meant to say that if a tournament win does not occur before his contract expires we should then look elsewhere. Contract expires in 2 years. Even if you were willing to write the entire buyout check now, as Willis said Dr. Maggard would not accept it. However a friend of mine thinks an automatic extension will be given due to the regular season championship. I am not sure that is in the current contract but it may be. All that being said, we all join you in pride for what this team has accomplished.
Adjusted for inflation, median household income in this city has dropped from a high of $53,000 to $45,500. There is less disposable income to go around in this city. And yes, some of these families are UL fans.
Personally, I think it is more than safe to assume that this reality is one reason (out of many other reasons) that our attendance is lower.
If you are going to maintain that this has absolutely no effect on attendance, if you really beleive that there are no UL fans in Lafayette having to readjust how they spend money these days, I don’t know what else to say to you.
Does anyone know if an automatic extension comes with either the regular season title or the tournament title? I seem to recall that happened after the division championship in his first year. As someone said a few days ago, they would be surprised if Coach Marlin's agent does not negotiate for a raise once the season ends. Of course post season performance will dictate those details. Also, I believe the 2004 wins were vacated due to an eligibility issue. The 2000 team was the No. 1 seed but I believed they shared the conference title. Same thing in 1992. Therefore a recognized outright regular season title was last accomplished here in 1982. Hope it is not that long before the next one comes our way.
I'm not going to the dome to see other teams. Don't get me wrong, I was in the Dome back when UMASS came in #1 in the country so that point has exceptions but I would go to see a good cajuns team that has chemistry and character not to mention talent and is coached well. This year's team has all of that. I'll go see them even if we are playing Troy versus UNC. I go to see my team, not the opposing team.
Also, I think you are being a little dismissive of this year's accomplishments. To say that you'd want us to move on if we don't an NCAA game or get in after the year we've had is a little hardcore. I've seen something in this team that I have not in some time. Consistency. Because of that, we have a shot at a 5 star recruit and have already had a decent recruiting class.
Just curious but are you a big baseball guy? How do you feel about Robe? Curious to know with what this season is shaping up there how you feel his job security should be?
What do you mean by that? Are you trying to say that people who follow baseball are not the same as the ones who follow basketball? There may be some truth to that. Why has the economy not affected the baseball folks? Are they more financially stable? I will add one point about basketball. The people who are fans do support the program with passion. The Rebounders Club raised ~ 70 grand this year for the program. According to information I was given recently, that is twice what the Diamond Club raises for baseball and there are more Diamond Club members.
That's a great Google search. However, there are several flaws in your theory. First, you are only looking at Lafayette city proper. You aren't looking into the surrounding areas. Second and perhaps your biggest flaw lies with a lumping of ALL households in the city. Not all demographics are the same. The person who will be looking to go to UL sports is not the person who's family's combined income is $50,000. You look at other sectors and the AHI is double or triple that number. For example, in Youngsville the Median Household Income is nearly $100,000. Why? These are younger families who's members have higher paying jobs than some of the other groups you are lumping together in Upper Lafayette for instance.
These are the people that are recent alums and have disposable income that are our targets. So, outside of getting into an economics debate, I completely understand that our economy is "down" from several years ago. However, you have failed to answer my question about the 80's. That time was a true bust time and it wasn't one or two years, it was a decade. However, our basketball attendance in 86 was almost double what it is now even with a smaller population, fleeting home prices, increasing interest rates etc.. How do you explain that?
There are plenty that crossover but there are a lot of people in this area who only support baseball. Every sport has crossover and every sport has people who only support that sport. The clubs have nothing to do with it. How many seats you fill at the rebounders club? Now put those people in the dome or at Russo. Not sure what a handful of boosters financial support has to do with putting thousands of butts in seats at venues. We weren’t putting g this many at baseball in 2013 either. Marlin isn’t in year 4 of some great run, it’s year 1. Will he build on it or will it be the exception. If baseball continues the way they are now i promise you that stadium won’t be sold out next year.
Exactly Mike. That is what I'm trying to get CajunRebel to answer. He says economy but I'm calling BS on that, at least to a degree. Baseball people sure have no problem attending games even though we suck. We can't use the economy as a general answer when it isn't supported for all sports.
Let me throw out another theory about baseball support vs basketball support. Let's throw the economy in there as well. Let's suppose people are forced to choose between baseball and basketball since they have to cut back. Many choose baseball due to recent history. The basketball team has won in recent years but not at the post season level baseball did in 2013-2016. Two Regional Finals and two super regionals in those four years. Now if basketball continues to have seasons like this one (or close to it-unrealistic to expect what this team has done every year) while baseball has a couple of disappointing seasons the nos. may reverse. Also, the new ballpark may be helping baseball. Once the novelty of that wears off, performance will dictate if that support is maintained. I say why can't both sports be excellent and make fans have a real tough decision.
There are currently 3 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 3 guests)