EverettGriz said:
In theory, I understand the "UND is a hockey school" and Weber is a BB school" arguments to support poor attendance at other sports. But it could be argued that Montana is a football school (with App gone, we'll lead FCS in attendance for the foreseeable future), but we're still able to draw 4,000 for the average men's game and 3500 for women's games. Basically, I think it's a crutch to excuse poor attendance.
Back in UND's DII days, basketball was a much bigger draw. We used to average what Montana does for both men's and women's basketball. Some years basketball averaged what hockey does. When the Ralph was built, that all changed. Hockey attendance doubled or tripled from what it was, because the Ralph became THE place. The Ralph has an event and hotels fill up with out of towners. A smaller Betty was opened, and basketball crowds became smaller, as the Betty can't hold 3200. The atmosphere in the Ralph is often spine tingling, and the younger crowd loves the interactive video boards and music and food. My elderly parents don't like it because its too loud with the crowd and video boards and they are afraid of falling just getting to seats. The Betty just can't compete except among the geriatric crowd who don't like noise or the idea of falling from heights. Most people are not going to two events the same day. The Ralph could host basketball, but the weekends the men are gone the women's hockey team plays there or else there is a concert or like this coming weekend the state hockey tournament. When the Ralph hosts basketball, 8000 is not uncommon, but its been a couple years. The Ralph is a draw, period, and anything else (whether HS hockey, football, basketball or UND basketball and football) has gone down in attendance because people save their money for Ralph tickets.
