Cleveland St. at Valpo, Saturday 1/10/2015 7:05 p.m. CST

[a3uge]

Nice suggestion to contact high school coaches to try to get them to bring their teams. The problem with that is, a lot of times the high school games are going on at the same time.
$10 is pretty steep as well for a general admission ticket. No one should have to pay that much, especially for a game like Goshen.

I disagree. For seeing good D-1 basketball where every seat in the Arena is a good view besides ZZ up top is pretty cheap! But I agree For non D-1, and exhibition should be cheaper. Also I think the ARC drives fans away from coming to the games as well.

Sevewral hyave posted about the great, unique atmosphere at the ARC.  So what exactly is it that you feel the ARC lacks that drives fans away?

I would say the lack of basic stadium amenities like a proper concourse cheapens the D1 experience, delegitimizes the program, etc, but clearly there isn't much correlation between having a decent arena and attendance. Milwaukee and Green Bay have somewhat nice arenas, but it doesn't mean much in terms of attendance. UWGB's last home game had only 2800 in attendance, Milwaukee 3700 to an in-state rival on a Friday on TV.

[a3uge]

Speaking of lifeless atmospheres, tune in to GB hosting YSU on ESPN 3.  GB is up by 5 at the half. Listen to the coach's instructions, squeaking tennis shoes as the teams go thru their sets, and be sure to not to miss a male cheerleader yelling "go Phoenix" in a megaphone.  Then again, GB is only 13-3 and are the defending HL regular season champions.  Hard to expect a whole lot under those circumstances.

Packers.

[HC]

No need to name call

[vu84v2]

Having been pretty strongly against building any sort of new stadium for the basketball team (especially off campus), some people who think that big crowds will come because Valpo builds a new arena should consider this...

Loyola is off to a pretty darn good start this season (every bit as good as Valpo). They play in a stadium that was renovated in the last few years and moved to the Missouri Valley, which most any of us would say is a somewhat better  and more prestigious conference than the Horizon League. Loyola has double the enrollment of Valpo and cleary has more people living within easy driving distance than Valparaiso. They had 15th ranked and major recent power Wichita State at home today...at team that also has a marquee player in Fred Van Fleet. What did Loyola draw today?  Their attendance was just a hair over 4,000 (I see that their listed capacity is about 4,500). Most of their seats (to my knowledge) are chairbacks and I would imagine that their ticket prices are similarly priced to Valpo's.

My opinion is that environment and the quality and performance of the home team and then, to a lesser extent, the quality of the opponent are the major drivers of fan interest and attendance.  I can support sinking some money from the university into changing some of the seating and maybe adding a few more "professional looking" concession stands, but I don't think such a plan would cost a lot.  I know that it is on a different scale and there are different histories, but Missouri has a spectacular arena with all chairback seating and ample parking next to the stadium... and does not draw well even when the team is good. Meanwhile, while the legroom at Allen Fieldhouse would make the seating at Valparaiso look like "all lazy-boy seating", they sellout (16,300) for even the most minor opponents. I am not saying that Kansas is the best comparison for Valpo, but wouldn't Butler and Gonzaga  be reasonable comparisons? Hinkle Fieldhouse, while historic, is certainly not comfortable.

[SanityLost17]

Nice suggestion to contact high school coaches to try to get them to bring their teams. The problem with that is, a lot of times the high school games are going on at the same time.
$10 is pretty steep as well for a general admission ticket. No one should have to pay that much, especially for a game like Goshen.

I disagree. For seeing good D-1 basketball where every seat in the Arena is a good view besides ZZ up top is pretty cheap! But I agree For non D-1, and exhibition should be cheaper. Also I think the ARC drives fans away from coming to the games as well.

Sevewral hyave posted about the great, unique atmosphere at the ARC.  So what exactly is it that you feel the ARC lacks that drives fans away?

Oh yes the atmosphere is great. The problem is the tight seating with a big crowd. Peoples knees in your back. Not enough room very uncomfortable. I can put up with it but the "not every day fan" most likely hates it and would rather watch the game at home.

I have probably brought about 15 "guests" to the ARC over the last 5 years.  They are not Valpo fans, but they like college basketball and there are 3-4 of them I have almost converted.  However, they HATE how uncomfortable it is in the bleachers.  They enjoy the games with small crowds more because they can actually move.   

[classof2014]

Keep the mezzanine bleachers, convert the lower bowl into all chairbacks, making it a complete bowl not two sides of seats with a student section. You could easily add more seats if the whole lower bowl was all seating and chairbacks at that.

[VULB#62]

Having been pretty strongly against building any sort of new stadium for the basketball team (especially off campus), some people who think that big crowds will come because Valpo builds a new arena should consider this...

Loyola is off to a pretty darn good start this season (every bit as good as Valpo). They play in a stadium that was renovated in the last few years and moved to the Missouri Valley, which most any of us would say is a somewhat better  and more prestigious conference than the Horizon League. Loyola has double the enrollment of Valpo and cleary has more people living within easy driving distance than Valparaiso. They had 15th ranked and major recent power Wichita State at home today...at team that also has a marquee player in Fred Van Fleet. What did Loyola draw today?  Their attendance was just a hair over 4,000 (I see that their listed capacity is about 4,500). Most of their seats (to my knowledge) are chairbacks and I would imagine that their ticket prices are similarly priced to Valpo's.

My opinion is that environment and the quality and performance of the home team and then, to a lesser extent, the quality of the opponent are the major drivers of fan interest and attendance.  I can support sinking some money from the university into changing some of the seating and maybe adding a few more "professional looking" concession stands, but I don't think such a plan would cost a lot.  I know that it is on a different scale and there are different histories, but Missouri has a spectacular arena with all chairback seating and ample parking next to the stadium... and does not draw well even when the team is good. Meanwhile, while the legroom at Allen Fieldhouse would make the seating at Valparaiso look like "all lazy-boy seating", they sellout (16,300) for even the most minor opponents. I am not saying that Kansas is the best comparison for Valpo, but wouldn't Butler and Gonzaga  be reasonable comparisons? Hinkle Fieldhouse, while historic, is certainly not comfortable.

No, no no.  Not bigger, not off campus. Just expand and renovate to provide a nice, comfortable chair-back lower bowl (north and south sides actually), two full baseline student sections and appropriate concessions and restroom facilities.  Do that, in IMO, and you'd have the intimidating environment we can leverage AND the amenities that fans can enjoy.  A bigger vestibule would be an asset as well.  And..... for consistent 4-5K attendance we need to fill the bleacher seats above the chair-backs though.  Gotta make those seats (and prices) more attractive.

[valpospartan]

I just don't get the criticism of the concession stands.  Ours has a nice variety of food and drinks at great prices.  What more  do you want?

[valpopal]

I have posted a gallery of photos from the game at the following link for all to enjoy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157650237277852/

[valpotx]

Also rewatched that over-and-back and still think it was a terrible call. It was tipped out of Jubril's hands - 95% of balls like that (out of bounds, etc) the offense keeps possession. Calling an over and back on that was complete bush league.

Great snapshot from the broadcast!  It goes to prove our assertion that it was called at least 0.5 seconds too early (probably a full 0.8 seconds too early).  With all of these facility discussions, in the immediate future, let's get clocks that show the tenths of a second left, to help these refs make accurate calls in at least one area.

I also fully support your assertion that CSU touched that ball last.  It sounds like the individual arguing against us was at the game, so we had the benefit of replays.  They clearly show the CSU defender knocking the ball away from Valpo into the backcourt.

[Valpo2010]

Hinkle Fieldhouse, while historic, is certainly not comfortable.

Actually, I was just at Hinkle the other night for a volleyball match.  It was extremely comfortable, after what I assume was a multi-million dollar renovation.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

[valpopal]

Attendance: As I remind students all the time, sometimes we forget to notice the most obvious factor in a situation because it seems so apparent. However, looking at the attendance figures and Valpo's schedule, there is a clear correlation with good attendance and the day of the week on which the game is played. Our two home games with attendance over 4,000 were the only two games that took place on Saturday while classes were in session. The third Saturday game, which happened after fall semester ended, still drew over 3,100. (Our lone Friday night game so far, against ETSU, almost attracted 3,000 as well, with 2,912.) Unfortunately, only one Friday night home game and one Saturday home game remain on the schedule. I am willing to bet those will be the two best-attended games of the year, though the Sunday afternoon game against Oakland should draw a big crowd as well. Playing games on weeknights in Valparaiso, usually in very poor winter weather, will almost guarantee low attendance, especially from families with young children. If I remember correctly, there was a time in the past when most home stands were Thursday and Saturday, which seemed a more fan friendly schedule.

[valpo4life]

I just don't get the criticism of the concession stands.  Ours has a nice variety of food and drinks at great prices.  What more  do you want?

Thank you for pointing this out. Every time that I have gone to the concession stand, I'm very satisfied with whatever I purchase as well as the speed in which I am able to get in and out and back to my seat.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

at this point there will be more posts in this thread about concessions than about the opponent, leading future generations to believe that the thread title describes an argument in which "CSU" is for "concession stand umbrage" and that "CST" denotes "concession stand terrific"

[mvandersee]

Loyola is off to a pretty darn good start this season (every bit as good as Valpo). They play in a stadium that was renovated in the last few years and moved to the Missouri Valley, which most any of us would say is a somewhat better  and more prestigious conference than the Horizon League. Loyola has double the enrollment of Valpo and cleary has more people living within easy driving distance than Valparaiso. They had 15th ranked and major recent power Wichita State at home today...at team that also has a marquee player in Fred Van Fleet. What did Loyola draw today?  Their attendance was just a hair over 4,000 (I see that their listed capacity is about 4,500). Most of their seats (to my knowledge) are chairbacks and I would imagine that their ticket prices are similarly priced to Valpo's.

While I agree with you that Loyola should've easily sold out that game, they did jack the ticket prices way up. Main level sideline seats were $35, upper level sideline seats were $30, and general admission tickets for the non-student section side were $25. Compare that to their normal prices of $27/$24/$15 and it would appear that they essentially priced themselves out of a sellout, much like many around here have said Valpo has done in the past with their tiered pricing for "premium games"

[valporun]

In terms of yesterday's Wichita State-Loyola game, a lot of the attendance was due to a ranked opponent in the house, but a lot of that attendance also came over from the Rockford, IL area to watch hometown boy Fred Van Vleet. He has a lot of followers here, and with the game being on a Sunday when football didn't matter, a lot of people from here made the drive to Rogers Park for what started out a great game, but quickly became a WSU blowout. I'm sure Loyola intended to jack up the prices for this game, as they should, being a conference game against a ranked/name opponent. I mean it wasn't like it was jacked up for UIC, Drake, Missouri St., or Illinois State.

[StlVUFan]

In my opinion, the worst call of the night was the missed travelling on Lee when CSU tied it up at 47.  I swear he took 5 steps through the lane before he passed the ball off to his teammate.

As for CSU, I've been saying all these things about them for 5 years now.  I'm still pissed about Kevin Van Wyck being flattened by Kamczyk at the Wolstein Center in 2012, essentially costing us the auto-bid.

[StlVUFan]

1. The ESPN announcers are horrible.

Andy Maser (sp?) was mediocre, I agree.  Couldn't be bothered to learn how to pronounce names.

I thought Tim Doyel was decent.

[a3uge]

In my opinion, the worst call of the night was the missed travelling on Lee when CSU tied it up at 47.  I swear he took 5 steps through the lane before he passed the ball off to his teammate.

As for CSU, I've been saying all these things about them for 5 years now.  I'm still pissed about Kevin Van Wyck being flattened by Kamczyk at the Wolstein Center in 2012, essentially costing us the auto-bid.

Don't get that logic - we still won the regular season and played at home with a healthy Van Wijk. We just choked in the championship game.

[Kyle321n]

In my opinion, the worst call of the night was the missed travelling on Lee when CSU tied it up at 47.  I swear he took 5 steps through the lane before he passed the ball off to his teammate.

As for CSU, I've been saying all these things about them for 5 years now.  I'm still pissed about Kevin Van Wyck being flattened by Kamczyk at the Wolstein Center in 2012, essentially costing us the auto-bid.

Don't get that logic - we still won the regular season and played at home with a healthy Van Wijk. We just choked in the championship game second half of the championship game.

FTFY

[bbtds]

1. The ESPN announcers are horrible.

Andy Maser (sp?) was mediocre, I agree.  Couldn't be bothered to learn how to pronounce names.

I thought Tim Doyel was decent.

Actually Andy Masur moved to San Diego in 2007 and does USD (PFL member) basketball games and Padres radio on a Tijuana station. He subs for Dick Enberg on the Padres TV broadcasts when the veteran broadcaster needs a break.

[valpo64]

Wasn't Andy Mazur at WGN in Chicago until recently ??

[valporun]

Andy Mazur was at WGN, until he became a radio producer for Padres broadcasts. I believe the Padres let him go after his contract ran out there. He's plausible, but does need to do some quality research about the game he's covering. If I recall, before they closed up, Mazur was a producer/host for The Game 87.7 in Chicago, the WGN sports talk radio station. It officially closed January 1st due to low ratings in a saturated market because of loyal ESPN 1000 and WSCR 670 The Score fans.

[a3uge]

Andy Mazur was at WGN, until he became a radio producer for Padres broadcasts. I believe the Padres let him go after his contract ran out there. He's plausible, but does need to do some quality research about the game he's covering. If I recall, before they closed up, Mazur was a producer/host for The Game 87.7 in Chicago, the WGN sports talk radio station. It officially closed January 1st due to low ratings in a saturated market because of loyal ESPN 1000 and WSCR 670 The Score fans.

Related: http://deadspin.com/the-moment-chicago-radio-hosts-found-out-on-the-air-tha-1661673605

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