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Ideas on getting more people at Griz games.

Okay, I'm a student (albeit a well-seasoned one) and here is my take:

We don't have a student section. We have a few areas where students are allowed/encouraged to sit or stand, but that is the problem right there. The seats behind the basket on the north end are fine (as long as you're not RIGHT behind the basket) and the Univ. could easily sell those to season ticket holders or as general admission. Same with the south end if they put some real seats on those platforms. The problem is that students are told to sit/stand in either of those two areas (or the bleachers on the North 2nd level) and it leaves the students with three places to watch the game, spreading them out across the arena. While I love watching basketball, I know that there won't be a true college bball experience at Dahlberg Arena with the setup currently.

Imagine if students at WA-Griz were broken up around the stadium, I guarantee you that the experience wouldn't be the same and less people would come. So IMO, thats what is going on at Dahlberg.

This isn't an excuse why students aren't showing up, but i'm pretty sure its got something to do with it. We'll never have a place like Duke or Oregon or UNC, but giving students a dedicated section that isn't "leftover goods" might help. Just a thought.
 
Here is the question that faces the athletic department: If the students were given the courtside seats, would there be enough of them in attendance to fill the sections at most games? I always chuckle at our loyal students standing in the south floor section. All four of them.

Will students only settle for seats that are parallel to the flow of the game? Is that the reason for poor their attendance? Nah, at least not in my opinion. Actually, I think we live in an exciting era for Griz basketball that will see a restoration of a great program. It will just take a few years and some good decision making by the administration.

My step-by-step prediction for a serious atmosphere overhaul in Dahlberg is as follows:

1) Give Wayne Hogan the axe, you know, the one he's still carrying for the Seminoles. He crapped up our colors, our arena, fired Don Holst and hired a Pat Kennedy. (CHECK)

2) Keep letting Pat Kennedy recruit and coach clinically retarded juco players at any school but Montana. (CHECK)

3) Fill the coaching vacancy with someone who could find Montana on a map before they got the job. Someone with a pedigree as well as an interest in the state. An ex-griz great would be a perfect fit. (CHECK)

4) Use the resources that are currently available to win a conference championship or two. (CHECK PENDING)

5) Attract the best in-state players via #4 and try to build at least a regional team.

6) Give one lucky student $100 at each game.

7) Give every student $100 at each game.

8) As interest in basketball increases, surround the court on all sides with our most vocal fans, students for the most part. Slowly move season ticketers above the railing. Give the stuborn a small floor section to keep them coming to the games.

9) Charge two or three dollars for the crappy seats in the upper corners of the building.

10) Do the sweet sixteen shuffle.
 
Mung said:
1) Give Wayne Hogan the axe, you know, the one he's still carrying for the Seminoles. He crapped up our colors, our arena, fired Don Holst and hired a Pat Kennedy. (CHECK)
2) Keep letting Pat Kennedy recruit and coach clinically retarded juco players at any school but Montana. (CHECK)
3) Fill the coaching vacancy with someone who could find Montana on a map before they got the job. Someone with a pedigree as well as an interest in the state. An ex-griz great would be a perfect fit. (CHECK)
4) Use the resources that are currently available to win a conference championship or two. (CHECK PENDING)
5) Attract the best in-state players via #4 and try to build at least a regional team.
6) Give one lucky student $100 at each game.
7) Give every student $100 at each game.
8) As interest in basketball increases, surround the court on all sides with our most vocal fans, students for the most part. Slowly move season ticketers above the railing. Give the stuborn a small floor section to keep them coming to the games.
9) Charge two or three dollars for the crappy seats in the upper corners of the building.
10) Do the sweet sixteen shuffle.
Click to expand...


Mung -

1. Yeah, Wayne Hogan was a complete failure..I mean what was he thinking in hiring Joe Glenn, expanding the football stadium, & having some hopes that our BB team would eventually become a sweet 16 team.. etc etc....BTW, i'm being sarcastic. As for the colors? I don't go to the Griz games to see a fashion show...I liked the copper & gold, and I like the maroon & silver..not a big deal really. Holst needed to be replaced in my opinion. I know of quite a few other fans who attended the BB games regularly who thought the same thing. In my opinion one of the mistakes Hogan made was keeping Holst on as the head coach when Taylor left... Hiring someone like Pat Kennedy who has been good at rebuilding other programs, and is a great recruiter was a good idea. Unfortunately it didn't work out as well as a lot of us had hoped. Kennedy did however leave this years team with some very good talent & the future looks bright for Griz BB.

2. Yeah, we don't want any of those JUCO players, like Kevin Kearny, Delvon Anderson, Matt Williams, Kamarr Davis, etc... Give me a break... That comment you made about Kennedy's JUCO recruits being 'clinically retarded' was low and Very uncalled for. First off Kennedy brought in some very highly recruited & talented juco recruits to Montana. Kamarr Davis was one of the top JUCO players. Roy Booker was listed in the top #3 in the country for JUCO shooting guards. Farr, Horne & Mansell also contributed a ton to the Griz BB program. Yes Mansell had grade troubles his first year here, as did Booker last year and Davis this year. Quite a few 4 year kids have also been in the same boat at one time or another.. I guess they were all 'clinically retarded' as well right Professor Mung?

3. I'm assuming this is just another shot at Kennedy. I'm glad Krysko is now the HC, and I'm very glad he kept Tinkle around as a assistant. I do however think that had Kennedy stuck around a little longer, we would've been pretty happy with the direction this program was going. Either way, I'm happy right now with Krysko as the coach & think the program is going in the right direction with him as a coach too.

4. Obviously they should use whatever resources are available to try to rebuild this team. This of course would INCLUDE getting any and all talent available outside of the state of Montana & the occasional Juco recruit. Or would using the resources available not include those available resources?

5. The Griz did get the best talent in Montana last year (Hasquet) & in my opinion have done a pretty good job over the years getting some very talented players from Montana. The fact is, there isn't enough talent in Montana to build a good Division 1 program. That small amount of division 1 talent gets split between the Griz & MSU for the most part. MSU, unlike in Football, competes with the Griz on a fairly even level for this talent. The Griz will have to go out of state, and obviously will not always be able to just keep their recruiting in the Northwest. If the coaches have a talented player in the southeast in mind that they think they can convince to come to Montana, Great! Does it really matter that much where they went to high school/JC if they are going to the U of M? Once they are with the Griz, they are a Montanan. I'm sure a few of the players we got who weren't in the originally from the northwest still live in Montana after they graduated from the U of M. I'm pretty sure I've seen Eric Bowie at quite a few of the Griz games over the past few years (Originally from Missouri?).

6 & 7. No comment

8. At the beginning of your post you basically say that you don't think that the students stopped coming to the game due to being forced to sit in other sections, but you want to mainly fill the lower sections with students? Unfortunately at this time not enough students are attending the games to make this work. In fact over in the section that was supposed to be standing room, I usually only see a few students there. Its usually the same group of students heckling the refs & opposing players. We need about 1000+ more students like those guys to show up. I do think the 8 minute thing they have going on at each home game is a good idea & will get more people down courtside...and I do wish they'd come up with some way to get more students interested in the games, but moving season ticket holders out of their seats may piss off a good chunk of those season ticket holders.

9. If it'd get more people in the seats, then I'd be all for that. Those same people paying $2 or $3 for the cheap seats would also most likely be paying a few bucks for food & drink too.

10. Do the sweet 16 shuffle? Haven't you learned that having goals like that is considered a bad thing when talking about Griz Basketball & could lead to many people wanting to run you out of town? I of course wouldn't be one of the ones running you out of town for that.. I like the idea of the Griz BB team possibly being the next Gonzaga and making some noise in the NCAA tournament..

Anyway, I probably wouldn't have posted a reply but I thought someone had to post about #2 on your list and how inappropriate & downright mean your comments were about the Griz JUCO BB players.
 
Dex summed things up pretty well. The "clinically retarded" comment should get "mung" kicked off of this board. These are UM athletes mr. mung-take your childish insults elsewhere! :mad: The program along with attendance under Holst was steadily declining. It was long past time for a change. Remember, the GRIZ record against Div 1 competition was under .500 during his 4 years.
 
heres an idea, give free tickets to elementary kids, their parents will come to the game with them and pay for their seats, and more than likely some concessions.
 
What is the one and only thing that has been CONSISTANTLY missing and ultimately jump-started the steady decline in Griz Men's Basketball Attendance.........THE STUDENT SECTION. It's as SIMPLE as that. Where is Montana States student section? Where is 99% of all college student sections? This is a simple solution to a seemingly complex problem. I have faith in Don Read and Krystco to fix this over time. and YES, it was ultimately Wayne Hogan's high-falughtin', big money, outtastate attitude that took this away from deserving, paying students. No, I'm not saying Hogan didn't do a lot of great things here, but that was a HUGE mistake. You can blame it on Holst, You can blame it on Kennedy, You can blame it on burnt popcorn, but sit back and think for a minute. This is a SIMPLE issue. VERY SIMPLE!
 
but, do you think students dont go to games for the only reason that they are behind the hoop, i just cant see it being that. I think students are more about watching a good team, which is starting to happen.
 
Yes, you're right, it is starting to happen. Yeah, you can give money away, you can be entertaining, you can have a lovable Montanan coach, you can be at or near the top, and yeah, you can sell the place out. But what originally fueled this attendance problem years ago, and what happens on a down year? During down periods, it's a lot easier for the boosters to stay home and leave their primo seats empty, than it would be for a "Go Griz" student who knew he could raise some ruckus along the sidelines.

The Griz shouldn't need a Marketing Team to get things back to the way they were for so long.
 
Just a little clarification:

I believe that students should only have one place to stand/sit, instead of allowing them to spread all over the arena. If its behind the hoop, then put them all there. If its mid-court, even better. If its up in the rafters, that might draw some complaints haha. Do I think that students should have some courtside seats? you betcha, but if not put them all in one spot. Power in numbers.
 
Unless we get rid of the intersession what good does it do to give the students better seats. They were ine school for only 5 games due to the breaks.
 
Here is another idea - why not open up the sky box to the general public as a beer garden? Let anyone over 21 in to buy a drink, instead of the membership deal it is today.

The other thing I want to say is that I am impressed with how responsive the athletic department has been in trying to do new things. I doubt they read these message boards, but some of the things that people have mentioned are being addressed, such as the 8 minute open seating, better traffic control at the game last week, the ticket office seems more organized with shorter lines, etc. I don't know if this change is a result of the administration listening to people or just observing what is going on and trying to fix it, but either way the changes are nice to see and encouraging for the future.
 
Of course winning will bring people to see the game but a single, unified student section right behind the visiting team's bench would be nice. UW reconfigured their seating to such an arrangement and it's made the building a lot more interesting on game night.

Here's an interesting article on crowd behavior in the Pac-10 and Hec-Ed pavillion at UW.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskies/2002175883_blai10.html



It is clear the Huskies won't separate benches and students until the Pac-10 tells them to.

"As long as our students exhibit good sportsmanship — and the safety of visitors is protected — I don't think that there is a thing in the world wrong with the way it is set up now," said Huskies athletic director Todd Turner.

Turner has vast ACC and SEC experience, including way too many times at Duke's Cameron Indoor with, as he says, "the knees of students in my back."

"There were times when I felt threatened, but that's changed at Duke," he said. "They've worked hard to develop a more positive atmosphere."

Turner said UW coach Lorenzo Romar has talked to the students.

"We've urged them to be loud and creative in their support," he said. "I like the fact they've urged the other fans in the building to 'stand up.' I've never heard that before, and I think it helps us."

When Romar played at UW, the benches were in front of the general public, not the students. Bob Bender, who played and coached at Duke, wanted students involved.

There are places in the league where the bands are so close that Romar said he can't be heard during a timeout. Does that call for league legislation?

"That's just the way it is on the road," Romar said.

And the way it ought to be.
 
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