I know the fall attendance is always worse than after the new year, but are we thinking that the calendar changing and the SEC slate will get more people to Reed? It feels like it's worse than it's been in the past, for both students and formers, maybe because everyone is still so focused on football which we aren't used to this late in the year.

Just worried basketball has gotten out of top of mind and it will impact attendance for the rest of the season. I've been enjoying this season a ton, even when the ball didn't roll our way, and wish more people were there to enjoy it with me.

I have a little over an hour commute to go to games . Have gone to every one except TSU . Have thoroughly enjoyed it . Hope we get off to a hot start in conference play so maybe the students and more locals will catch on . It's been fun to watch things develop . Jmo but I think Bucky is extremely driven and will do everything he can to make this a top tier program. He made lemonade out of lemons with regard to pulling together a competitive roster this yr and I would bet he fills in the gaps next year . It's not bad but it's pretty clear there are still some holes in roster construction. I expected it but has been better than I thought it would be. To even be thinking a Dance bid is possible is a good thing at this point and I don't feel that's a ridiculous thought albeit not probable at this point.

AozorAg said:

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Wins must come before crowds in basketball. It's always been that way and always will be.

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Doesn't mean we have to like it… but also, 8-3, 6-1 at home. If you want to see wins, the early season games are where it's at!

We don't even need to sell more and get to a sellout, if we could just get a few more students to show up and a bunch of the season ticket holders that have already paid for what they're missing, it would be a great experience.

It would have been nice to play someone with any kind of pulse at home, but this is just how it is.

We'll have a decent crowd for LSU on the 3rd, then we'll have our biggest crowd of the season up to that point against Oklahoma on the 10th.

Then we'll have to figure out some way to not get killed by Tennessee and/or Texas and if we can do that then we'll have our biggest student crowd of the season on the 21st against Mississippi State (first home game after on-campus students are back.)

Then at that point it's all about momentum. Are we winning games or not.

Dr. Horrible said:

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AozorAg said:

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Wins must come before crowds in basketball. It's always been that way and always will be.

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Doesn't mean we have to like it… but also, 8-3, 6-1 at home. If you want to see wins, the early season games are where it's at!

We don't even need to sell more and get to a sellout, if we could just get a few more students to show up and a bunch of the season ticket holders that have already paid for what they're missing, it would be a great experience.

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why does your experience hinge on somebody else showing up? If thats the case you should spend more time trying to bring your friends to the games then

BQ_90 said:

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Dr. Horrible said:

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AozorAg said:

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Wins must come before crowds in basketball. It's always been that way and always will be.

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Doesn't mean we have to like it… but also, 8-3, 6-1 at home. If you want to see wins, the early season games are where it's at!

We don't even need to sell more and get to a sellout, if we could just get a few more students to show up and a bunch of the season ticket holders that have already paid for what they're missing, it would be a great experience.

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why does your experience hinge on somebody else showing up? If thats the case you should spend more time trying to bring your friends to the games then

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Which is a laudable suggestion!

aggie-1997 said:

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Annual basketball attendance thread. Check.

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I almost used that as the title of this post!

hoping I have to come back and eat crow later…

The official "We've made it game" for every coach is the first huge game that everyone knows is a huge game except for apparently the people that run gameday operations around Reed, it will be a giant cluster**** and everyone will complain, but we'll know we've made it back again.

There's a few possibilities for this game on the schedule this year if we can get hot, but by far the most likely is the last game against Kentucky.

If we catch fire this year the Reed operations will catch a rare break because almost all of our big games are on Saturdays which aren't as much of a disaster.

Dr. Horrible said:

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That's funny to think I have friends…
But all seriousness, I bought 2 extra tickets specifically to bring friends or just give away when I don't have anyone else coming with me. But it's been hard to even give the tickets away this year. I'm hoping that changes once we get to conference play, but I'm not positive it will if people aren't in the habit of thinking about basketball as a "thing to do".
You care because it builds on itself. More people in the stands makes for a better atmosphere. A better atmosphere attracts better players. Better players equals more wins. It's circular and you have to enter the loop somewhere.

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And next you or somebody else will come here and complain about how A&M needs to do more "marketing". Its the same tired argument that's been going on for 20 year now.

You really thing ticket holders forget about a game or maybe they chose not to go because they live in Houston or Dallas or have other commitments. Best one is students somehow don't know when games are played. They know, they choose not to come.

Again, don't worry about anyone but yourself. Come to the game and enjoy, don't get triggered because you think more students should show or somebody in Houston didn't come to the game.

My annual reminder - it doesn't matter what our style of play is or how many pizzas our coach orders for the students.

The formula for consistently good attendance in Texas:

Be a consistent Top 25 team playing a Top 15 or "name" (Texas, Kansas, rivals) team on a weekend.
Be a consistent Top 15 team playing a conference opponent on a weekend.
Be a Top 10 team.


Outside of that, anything you do will likely only be the difference between 9k vs 8k.

Quote:

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Outside of that, anything you do will likely only be the difference between 9k vs 8k.

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I also still think that difference is worth fighting for but we've never seemed remotely interested in doing it.

I don't disagree, I just think its more of an uphill battle simple due to the nature of the sport in the state than many people realize.

There's pictures of what Moody Center looks like last week -- that is in a major metro area. Most fans will default to "oh those longhorn fans are terrible fans!" but its simply a reality of the sport in Texas and most of the South/Southwest.

For sure, and in recent years I've talked a lot more about how we should be prepared to make the experience a good one when we do have a big game. Instead it seems like we don't think it's worth it to do that and EVERY time we have our first big game in a while it's an absolutely ****show around Reed Arena.

There's lots of things that are really dumb about how Reed operates that aren't a big deal most of the time but really stand out when we have a huge game. And even if that turns off a few people from coming back the next time we have a big game, that adds up, especially for students.

But as one concrete example, the way the men's restrooms work on the concourse is insane. Even when it's not a big crowd (this has happened this season), the line backs up into the concourse when it doesn't need to because they decided to put up huge signs marking one end as the entrance and the other as the exit. Well that seems like a good idea for crowd control except that half of the urinals on the far side that you can't see when you first walk in. Like 95% of the time there's nobody over there, but the line is backed up into the concourse because nobody knows that. At one game this year a guy even walked out of the other side and yelled over to the line that there was nobody on that side. Absolutely absurd amateur hour stuff.

Agreed - at this point things like parking, concessions availability (for basketball it's insanely easy - popcorn, m&ms, soda and water and then if you can pull off some other stuff, great), restroom access, etc...

I'm not sure how much the game at UTA was handled by the Fanfare (or whatever) promoter and how much was handled by regular UTA staff. I thought fan engagement was solid, though it helps that places isn't near as cavernous as Reed.

My wish for the next realignment is for basketball and other sports to get back to playing Tech, Baylor, Houston and TCU in league play.

The best way I can describe A&M basketball regarding attendance is it is filler between football and baseball. Attendance should be good between when students come back in January until the end of February.

People vastly overrate how into baseball people are here.

I'm thinking there is some seed money out there that could be used to jump start a refurb of Reed but the money is currently designated to fulfilling a very misplaced contract extension to a former employee, maybe $60 million or so. Maybe we could work something out. Rename the building, I don't know.