Pollard On Student Section

Luth4Cy

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Sep 19, 2012
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1. Cyclone Alley is dumb.
2. A lottery system would probably generate far more excitement for the student section.
3. Pollard is just trying to justify overselling tickets (which is good for business but is ******** for the students).

The students who go to games and like to have the place consistently packed have little problem with overselling.
 

awd4cy

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Dec 29, 2010
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Hilton was extremely flat today and I'm as much to blame as anyone else. Pregame is lacking need a better intro video and better music
Damn, I completely agree with this. The pregame atmosphere is really getting pretty bland. Need to spice it up a bit with new things. Love what KU does.
 

jsb

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I guess I didn't read JP's tweet as a direct slam on the students. It was more a response to the complaining about the practice of overselling the student section. Essentially, if the students want guaranteed seats to big games, they need to attend the lesser games as well. Otherwise you're giving Jamie reason to continue to oversell the student section. As he's pointing out in his tweet.

Also, this must have been a very successful dance !Marathon to have more than 2100 students attend this rather than the game.

Yep, that's the way I read it too. Basically, that's why they over sell.
 

jsb

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I guess I didn't read JP's tweet as a direct slam on the students. It was more a response to the complaining about the practice of overselling the student section. Essentially, if the students want guaranteed seats to big games, they need to attend the lesser games as well. Otherwise you're giving Jamie reason to continue to oversell the student section. As he's pointing out in his tweet.

Also, this must have been a very successful dance !Marathon to have more than 2100 students attend this rather than the game.

Yep, that's the way I read it too. Basically, that's why they over sell. And lesser game? It was two ranked teams. Iowa State is not big enough that this shouldn't have been a HUGE game.
 

CynadoAlley

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Nov 28, 2010
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1. Cyclone Alley is dumb.
2. A lottery system would probably generate far more excitement for the student section.
3. Pollard is just trying to justify overselling tickets (which is good for business but is ******** for the students).

I don't see how a lottery system would generate more excitement. The students that always go and get there early enough for good seats would be ****** that they have to be up top for certain games, and you'd potentially be giving the best seats in the house to kids who don't really care about the game that much. (Imagine like 30 of the curly blonde haired CAC girl sitting up front.. Having nightmares just thinking about it).

Not filling up the upper deck has been a problem since I got here, and we've had great teams on the floor each of those seasons. There's a combination of factors that I'm not sure how to easily fix (the changing of the line system, which makes the line appear longer than it did when we were all crammed on the steps, the freezing temps, whatever..) but I'm intrigued by the idea of having to pick up tickets.

You could designate days (like a Saturday or something, so no class) where students come and claim tickets to the upcoming week of games. The tickets will be first come first serve, so the die hards who get there first can be up front, and the tickets will be for a particular seat so you don't have to wait outside for all that time. Replace waiting outside for hours for uncertain seats, with waiting inside for tickets that will be for a specific seat should increase those that want to go, student happiness, and will fill up the remainder of the seats with people who can buy the unclaimed.
 

Guetterdone1

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Jul 4, 2012
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Our student section is much larger than most colleges. Just because we don't fill it up doesn't mean we have poor support. I don't know another section that is on both sides of the court
 

kingcy

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Our student section is much larger than most colleges. Just because we don't fill it up doesn't mean we have poor support. I don't know another section that is on both sides of the court

If they are not going to fill it they need to give some tickets up to other fans.
 

tm3308

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Jun 13, 2010
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Who is the dumb **** that schedule that thing during an ISU home game?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that maybe Dance Marathon was scheduled before the conference schedule was released, or at least before the TV timeslot was announced.
 

allfourcy

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I couldn't put my finger on it either, but it did seem a little dead. Why? Two ranked teams, a Saturday, and a team needing any crowd help possible to get off the 3-game losing streak. Are some of you saying that we have many students who only come to KU, Iowa, Mich, and only a few others?
 

CyKings

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I couldn't put my finger on it either, but it did seem a little dead. Why? Two ranked teams, a Saturday, and a team needing any crowd help possible to get off the 3-game losing streak. Are some of you saying that we have many students who only come to KU, Iowa, Mich, and only a few others?


Like many have said in these forums... It was Dance Marathon day. A large quantity of students who typically have free saturdays to go to these basketball games, was likely in attendance. As I recall DM was particularly large among frat houses, which tend to usually have a good student attendance at sporting events... hence the missing students. I thought it was still a very well attended game otherwise, and it was still plenty loud, especially during the Technical free-throws.
 

ISUagger

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Like many have said in these forums... It was Dance Marathon day. A large quantity of students who typically have free saturdays to go to these basketball games, was likely in attendance. As I recall DM was particularly large among frat houses, which tend to usually have a good student attendance at sporting events... hence the missing students. I thought it was still a very well attended game otherwise, and it was still plenty loud, especially during the Technical free-throws.
I agree with that, although I would say it is popular for involved students in general. The kind of people who are involved on campus are the kind of people who buy tickets and go to most games.
 

cycloneworld

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JP testy lately....... I think it is a combination of Social Media and Frustration........

Seems like he takes to twitter to complain. First it was paying athletes, then the Bubu deal, now complaining about student attendance.

I love JP but I don't see how good can come of some of his tweets.
 
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CycloneNorth

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Mar 29, 2010
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I guess I didn't read JP's tweet as a direct slam on the students. It was more a response to the complaining about the practice of overselling the student section. Essentially, if the students want guaranteed seats to big games, they need to attend the lesser games as well. Otherwise you're giving Jamie reason to continue to oversell the student section. As he's pointing out in his tweet.

Also, this must have been a very successful dance !Marathon to have more than 2100 students attend this rather than the game.

I think they raised close to a half million dollars for the University of Iowa Children's Hospital, so I would say it was pretty successful.
 

MeanDean

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I still don't read JP's tweet as "complaining". Just a statement of fact.

I didn't know about the waiting outside in super cold weather and not knowing if you will be getting in. That would definitely be a factor in deciding to go or not go.

Can't some kind of inside waiting area be set-up with a line with a predetermined quantity of people waiting who are guaranteed to get in?
 

clonedude

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Apr 16, 2006
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I still don't read JP's tweet as "complaining". Just a statement of fact.

I didn't know about the waiting outside in super cold weather and not knowing if you will be getting in. That would definitely be a factor in deciding to go or not go.

Can't some kind of inside waiting area be set-up with a line with a predetermined quantity of people waiting who are guaranteed to get in?

Yeah, I'm not sure if I'd want to stand outside in bitter cold wind chills if I wasn't sure I'd even get in?

Back when I was at ISU, students had reserved seats. Granted they had to have a lottery every year because more students wanted tickets than they had seats, but if you were fortunate enough to get tickets, you had a reserved seat. And your seat would change for every game. You were always guaranteed a game or two with seats right down near the court, and then the rest of the games you were likely in the balcony somewhere I believe.
 

CyAg

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May 22, 2006
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I think if you see it as a complaint or not (I am not arguing whether he should do post it) probably depends on your filter (student or non-student etc).

I think the line might be playing a big part in it (esp after the losses).

It really is a challenging problemt to solve if you are trying to keep the students at the game and let them do what helps makes Hildont great, vs filling empty seats.

I do not think you can wait till 15 minutes prior to open up to the public because not many would draff out kids to wait and see. (I am guessing this would be targeted and sold similar to the corners.

The AD has tried overselling, it does seem to have helped but it only truely fills for a few key games, but is so often empty.

I do think something needs to be done on a latter, points system, ticket draw whatever to make the system work better. I do not know what would work so I leave that to those that might have better suggestions.

However, on the average of the empty seats perhaps a compromise (or trial for a year) is partial to season tickets or general public and hten release them to the students for open seats as the game starts.

For example, lets say the average amount of empy seats /game is 1,000, so as a compromise and say 500 are going to public this year (or even 250 whatever), and we will still let students set there as long as no one is in the seat at tip (but they might have to move).

Again, no easy answer, and this idea would have its own set of problems. It is just one concept.
 

iowast8fan

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Aug 3, 2006
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Open seating for students just isn't working. It causes students to camp out just to get a good seat. They really should go back to a lottery system, and use rotating seat section assignments. They don't need to have specific assigned seats, but could have assigned sections.