If roundball is your blood, this is the place to discuss the Flames as they move into the Ritchie McKay era for the 2nd time.

Moderators: jcmanson, Sly Fox, BuryYourDuke

By tyndal23
Posts
#651285
Humble_Opinion wrote: January 27th, 2023, 1:17 pm
tyndal23 wrote:All I saw tonight was a beautiful arena with constant view of empty seats directly behind opposing team and announcers - I counted 35 on first 3 rows ( and they stood out like a sore thumb ). Other angles showed decent crowd and other than the band - still not sure where students were except for one quick glance, a few actually standing and in to the game under the goal. Ticket Sales don’t equate to atmosphere - seating arrangement does - trying to squeeze a few dollars more out of a sport by that bleeds $ is ridiculous. Reduce the season tickets - triple the cost and make on campus students compete for tv time via dorm competition, Joker tryouts, Firebirds with paint and Mohawks - student council reps to seat according to best costumes first 5 rows - any empty ticket holder seats on south side go to student overflow 5 minutes after tip-off - this stuff isn’t rocket science.
The attendance was 3,591, which is a little better than a "decent crowd". Watching from home, I get what you're saying re: empty seats right behind the announcers. That probably has something more to do with people not wanting to be on camera and the fact that the view right behind the announcers table sucks compared to just a few rows up. According to the ticket office - all season tickets are sold out, including Club level. MBB does not bleed money, as it's one of the few that comes close to paying its own way. The other two are football and men's baseball. I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but I know because I worked in finance for LU and dealt directly with Athletics on numerous efforts. The students sit behind the goals and last night it was mostly full on both sides - it was a great crowd.

What you're saying regarding a reduction of season tickets and then tripling the price makes 0 sense to me. I could get behind an effort to have students fill in some of the empty seats, especially right behind the announcers, but I also don't think you want a bunch of students moving seats and disrupting the other paying spectators right in the middle of the game. If you're going to do that it has to be before the game starts.
Your are right. I don’t want any season ticket holders period on the South Side except a club seats. I want this.

User avatar
By LU 57
Posts
#651302
tyndal23 wrote: January 27th, 2023, 4:28 pm
Humble_Opinion wrote: January 27th, 2023, 1:17 pm
tyndal23 wrote:All I saw tonight was a beautiful arena with constant view of empty seats directly behind opposing team and announcers - I counted 35 on first 3 rows ( and they stood out like a sore thumb ). Other angles showed decent crowd and other than the band - still not sure where students were except for one quick glance, a few actually standing and in to the game under the goal. Ticket Sales don’t equate to atmosphere - seating arrangement does - trying to squeeze a few dollars more out of a sport by that bleeds $ is ridiculous. Reduce the season tickets - triple the cost and make on campus students compete for tv time via dorm competition, Joker tryouts, Firebirds with paint and Mohawks - student council reps to seat according to best costumes first 5 rows - any empty ticket holder seats on south side go to student overflow 5 minutes after tip-off - this stuff isn’t rocket science.
The attendance was 3,591, which is a little better than a "decent crowd". Watching from home, I get what you're saying re: empty seats right behind the announcers. That probably has something more to do with people not wanting to be on camera and the fact that the view right behind the announcers table sucks compared to just a few rows up. According to the ticket office - all season tickets are sold out, including Club level. MBB does not bleed money, as it's one of the few that comes close to paying its own way. The other two are football and men's baseball. I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but I know because I worked in finance for LU and dealt directly with Athletics on numerous efforts. The students sit behind the goals and last night it was mostly full on both sides - it was a great crowd.

What you're saying regarding a reduction of season tickets and then tripling the price makes 0 sense to me. I could get behind an effort to have students fill in some of the empty seats, especially right behind the announcers, but I also don't think you want a bunch of students moving seats and disrupting the other paying spectators right in the middle of the game. If you're going to do that it has to be before the game starts.
Your are right. I don’t want any season ticket holders period on the South Side except a club seats. I want this.

That is awesome. Any idea what they are doing different to get the students there?
User avatar
By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#651305
Imagine if all the effort put into getting students to attend and participate at football games were directed at basketball instead. Imagine there were no football at all and EVERYTHING was directed at basketball. That will give you an idea
thepostman, Baybird, LU 57 liked this
By Humble_Opinion
Registration Days Posts
#651332
There were 4,000+ people in LA last night. Sold out crowd. Students were on tap… and snarky. Great atmosphere as Coach McKay confirmed postgame. GCU arena literally looks like all students. When we did comparisons vs GCU we weren’t looking at athletics.. it was online enrollment, tuition/fees and net price. GCU started building a residential campus bc they wanted to be like us and not the U of Phoenix. We’re still better in all respects.
Purple Haize liked this
User avatar
By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#651333
Humble_Opinion wrote: January 29th, 2023, 10:06 am There were 4,000+ people in LA last night. Sold out crowd. Students were on tap… and snarky. Great atmosphere as Coach McKay confirmed postgame. GCU arena literally looks like all students. When we did comparisons vs GCU we weren’t looking at athletics.. it was online enrollment, tuition/fees and net price. GCU started building a residential campus bc they wanted to be like us and not the U of Phoenix. We’re still better in all respects.
It was ‘sold out’ but still empty seats
By Humble_Opinion
Registration Days Posts
#651335
Yeah. You can’t force season ticket holders to show up. One way they could fix that is to have a lottery before the game for students. Encourage season ticket holders to put their tickets up by giving them loyalty points or something.
User avatar
By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#651338
Humble_Opinion wrote: January 29th, 2023, 10:48 am Yeah. You can’t force season ticket holders to show up. One way they could fix that is to have a lottery before the game for students. Encourage season ticket holders to put their tickets up by giving them loyalty points or something.
The ticket office does a good job sending out emails when it’s a ‘sellout’ encouraging folks to attend. They also make it SUPER easy to put the tickets up for sale on StubHub. I mean like STUPID easy. How easy? Even I can do it! :D
By AATL
Posts
#651342
Humble_Opinion wrote: January 29th, 2023, 10:48 am Yeah. You can’t force season ticket holders to show up. One way they could fix that is to have a lottery before the game for students. Encourage season ticket holders to put their tickets up by giving them loyalty points or something.
Does LU have any kind of points system in place for season ticket holders? I know some of the larger P5s put something similar in effect for football; if your tickets went unused too many times, you didn't get to renew. Given the size of Liberty arena and average attendance, I wonder if that could be beneficial.
By Humble_Opinion
Registration Days Posts
#651343
Yeah there’s a new loyalty points system that determines order for seat/parking choice. They could build off of that and offer merchandise, or autographs or something along those lines for putting your tickets up on a student portal. I think most people don’t realize how easy stubhub is and feel it’s a hassle. To try and sell especially if it’s a last minute thing.
By Tothehoopyall1
Posts
#651344
I agree that the current seating setup is probably the way to go for now. I do have one thought though and feel free to shoot it down. I wonder if there is a way that season ticket holders tickets cannot go up for sale 10 minutes after a game starts if that season ticket holder does not plan to attend the game. This would of course need to be something that the ticket holder agreed to. I think some students may not bother even trying to attend a game because they don’t think they can gain entrance (due to the announced of a sellout that’s not really an attendance sellout). This is a shame but for right now is what it is. I have 4 season tickets on the second row and my four seats are the only ones used each game.
User avatar
By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#651345
AATL wrote: January 29th, 2023, 1:35 pm
Humble_Opinion wrote: January 29th, 2023, 10:48 am Yeah. You can’t force season ticket holders to show up. One way they could fix that is to have a lottery before the game for students. Encourage season ticket holders to put their tickets up by giving them loyalty points or something.
Does LU have any kind of points system in place for season ticket holders? I know some of the larger P5s put something similar in effect for football; if your tickets went unused too many times, you didn't get to renew. Given the size of Liberty arena and average attendance, I wonder if that could be beneficial.
Yes. You get points for buying season tickets to FB MBB WBB etc plus the amount you contribute to the Flames Club.
Not sure you can penalize someone for not using something they purchased. If someone wants to drop money on a season ticket and never go that’s their business. Sure it hurts concessions and maybe TV visuals but the Athletic Department gets their money and is able to count it as Attendance whether they show up or not.
User avatar
By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#651346
Humble_Opinion wrote: January 29th, 2023, 2:49 pm Yeah there’s a new loyalty points system that determines order for seat/parking choice. They could build off of that and offer merchandise, or autographs or something along those lines for putting your tickets up on a student portal. I think most people don’t realize how easy stubhub is and feel it’s a hassle. To try and sell especially if it’s a last minute thing.
I think the sticking point for some old folks (looking at you @Cider Jim ) is the fact you have to have a Stub Hub account Not sure why that’s a big hassle for folks to just create one but it is what it is. Again I have found it stupid easy to list and sell tickets I don’t give away
User avatar
By Ill flame
Posts
#651348
We don't seem to have an issue selling out season tickets in the new arena and I imagine demand will grow in C-USA. If a person doesn't even make it to half the games I don't see why the school doesn't put that person at the end of the wait list for the next season instead of letting them automatically renew. Once they've bought the ticket there's not really much you can do though.
AATL liked this
User avatar
By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#651350
Ill flame wrote: January 29th, 2023, 3:25 pm We don't seem to have an issue selling out season tickets in the new arena and I imagine demand will grow in C-USA. If a person doesn't even make it to half the games I don't see why the school doesn't put that person at the end of the wait list for the next season instead of letting them automatically renew. Once they've bought the ticket there's not really much you can do though.
Because that person is donating a certain amount of money to buy tickets. We won’t make half the games and never really intended to. But we bought tickets and secured seats we are more than happy with. We give away or sell tickets to the games we don’t attend. Why should we have to go to the back of the line in favor of someone who donates $0 and only been around for a year or two?
Just John liked this
User avatar
By Ill flame
Posts
#651351
Purple Haize wrote: January 29th, 2023, 3:44 pm
Ill flame wrote: January 29th, 2023, 3:25 pm We don't seem to have an issue selling out season tickets in the new arena and I imagine demand will grow in C-USA. If a person doesn't even make it to half the games I don't see why the school doesn't put that person at the end of the wait list for the next season instead of letting them automatically renew. Once they've bought the ticket there's not really much you can do though.
Because that person is donating a certain amount of money to buy tickets. We won’t make half the games and never really intended to. But we bought tickets and secured seats we are more than happy with. We give away or sell tickets to the games we don’t attend. Why should we have to go to the back of the line in favor of someone who donates $0 and only been around for a year or two?
This is key. The tickets are still being used most games which is what really matters. If something like that were to be implemented no one that gives tickets away or resells them should be punished. Correct me if I'm wrong but it's only the better tickets that require a donation.
User avatar
By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#651353
Ill flame wrote: January 29th, 2023, 4:14 pm
Purple Haize wrote: January 29th, 2023, 3:44 pm
Ill flame wrote: January 29th, 2023, 3:25 pm We don't seem to have an issue selling out season tickets in the new arena and I imagine demand will grow in C-USA. If a person doesn't even make it to half the games I don't see why the school doesn't put that person at the end of the wait list for the next season instead of letting them automatically renew. Once they've bought the ticket there's not really much you can do though.
Because that person is donating a certain amount of money to buy tickets. We won’t make half the games and never really intended to. But we bought tickets and secured seats we are more than happy with. We give away or sell tickets to the games we don’t attend. Why should we have to go to the back of the line in favor of someone who donates $0 and only been around for a year or two?
This is key. The tickets are still being used most games which is what really matters. If something like that were to be implemented no one that gives tickets away or resells them should be punished. Correct me if I'm wrong but it's only the better tickets that require a donation.
‘Better’ is subjective. All tickets go on sale. You can buy them without a membership I believe if any are still available. When we told the ticket folks where we wanted to sit there were plenty of seats available. Club seats go really quick but we have no interest in them.
But again, if you buy season tickets I’m not sure there should be an attendance requirement like you are still in school or something
Dondi Costin - LU President

The recent statements by Costin on moving away […]

NCAA Realignment Megathread

Duke Gonzaga B12? https://larrybrownsports.com/co[…]

FlameFans Fantasy Baseball

We are on!!! Hope to see everyone tonight at 9:30[…]

Another player that most people who post on here[…]