Ok a thought- - - comment
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Just sittin here on a cloudy day waitin for the boys to come on later, checkin out some games. Got a thought,/Question/statement.- - -I’m sitting here watching Oklahoma-Oral,Roberts and wondering, thinking out loud to myself, Guys here you have the 7th ranked team in the nation, playing at home and the arena is maybe half full. So Quiet you could hear a pin drop. I just don’t get it, I just can’t get it to sink in thru my head. Other programs fans want their teams to be good, want to challenge, but yet at the same time they won’t come out and support those players. Ya I get it, its Oral Roberts, but I’m not accepting that, that is THEIR though mode, that’s not acceptable. You want a top notch program, you wanna get to a point where you can compete regularly, but yet your a no-show to support the team. Oh sure they will come for Name games, like with us, Iowa State and such, but other times is just like today- - petty pathetic. Here is what I have yo say on this, if you want your program to actually take that next step, if your want to move up to where you can get that really big time recruit on a pretty regular bases, then as a fan you have to do your part and show that recruit that your there to back the team, make it a lunatic atmosphere, Like the Kansas, Like the Duke, Seriously, I mean if your trying to pull big time recruits and they are on campus or watching your game and they see a half full arena and like a morgue, you REALLY think that’s going to help- - -going to impress? I realize that’s only part of what goes into it, but it plays a part, and your sure not helping the programs cause. I gues that’s the difference between a team, a wanna be elite and then a true elite. You NEVER see a half full arena at the phog no matter who we play, and it’s not like Oklahoma is just so ,so ,they got a really good program but if they ever want to continue to rise, and possibly challenge then they need all aspects to continue to grow. It’s not just them though I’ve seen other programs the same way I just don’t get it- - -OK guys I’m done. ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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@jayballer54 Living here in Baton Rouge I see the same thing. Obviously gulag football is the answer to why. Once you cross that parallel into the South, football rules. I see the same thing here in Baton Rouge with the nations top freshman, whom I’ve written about, and I walk up to the PMAC 5 minutes before game time, buy a ticket, walk down to a row where I know season ticket holders never come to, 5 rows behind the basket and watch some pretty good basketball.
Oh but 100,000 of these same ignorant fans will sit in 90 degree weather and watch them beat up Appalachian state!
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@jayballer54 Pretty wild… I just got home, was watching a little of that game and just thought the same thing. If they can’t draw a full house (or close) for a reasonably good game, then OU doesn’t deserve a good team. Goes to show you that there is no place like the Phog…thanks to the fans.
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Living in Austin, I’ve been able to get tickets to even the KU game very easily every year. I’ve seen the place full maybe 3 times ever.
The worst/best was probably the second year I lived here. Both UT and KU were ranked (pretty sure both top five). I forgot to buy tickets early so figure I’d go buy some from a scalper. Instead I walked up to the box office and bought a $15 gen admin ticket and set in the front row of the upper section at not quite half court. I just shook my head.
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@benshawks08 See. that’s exactly what I’m talking about. Then when they don’t win the league title, OR win that NCCAA championship or unable to lure that bit time recruit on a some what consistent basis they wonder why? always quick to blame the Coach, fans as well as the team to represent the program> You get constant sellouts create that atmosphere recruits see that. I tell you what though 9 times out of 10 these teams playing before half full arena for the year BUT when KU comes its always packed. That’s why I have always said, to a lot of programs playing KU IS THEIR NCAA championship game
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Lot of empty seat the OU-Oral Roberts game; the end zones were almost empty…and OU is a top 6 team…go figure.
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I agree with what all of you are saying, I think the same thing when I see the “historic” Gallagher-Iba arena with about 4,000 so called fans in it - even when they have been ranked highly over the years.
I realize the football is a different situation for US, but how long has it been since 20,000 fans have been in the stands at the start of the fourth quarter? Unless they were fans of the opposition…
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From an administrative standpoint, OU is very serious about Men’s Basketball. They want a return to the success of the Billy Tubbs era. They now have a Top10 team.
Maybe some of their problem is a lot like KU’s with football. We want to return to the recent success of the Mangino years (even if that was a perfect-storm happenstance), and KU Admin has been very serious about it, as it is very easy to see if conf realignment comes up again, we NEED a marketable football program…or off to the west-coast time zones we go…
But KU admin learned, and hopefully the KU alums learned you cannot force-feed the football developmental timeline. Cant keep changing coaches, each of whom brings a different system, and kids never get to “high level” reliability of execution.
Look at OU basketball: Kruger been there enough years that his upperclassmen have experience in system, they play hard-nosed ball, and it is paying dividends.
I don’t know how you “fix” the OU basketball fan, or the KU football fan attendances other than by consistently being competitive and winning. What the KU football fans have proved is that they (the ones that leave at half) are fair-weather or casual fans.
And it makes me wonder about how well NFL fans translate into college football fans, as there are many Chiefs fans in the geographic area, and we know many KU fans are also Chiefs fans (…and the home…of the…(Cheeeefs)…) --> enough to audibly “alter” the national anthem.
My gut feeling, including after years of interacting with fellow KU fans on a couple of KU websites…is that KU fans are just impatient. It is clear not everybody has the “stomach” for a grind, or the long haul. One can say that also reflects the national psyche nowadays.
Frankly, I’d like to see Noble Center (OU) a rockin place. That environment would be good proving grounds for KU to have to face. Not just the stoopids up in Ames or in Manlesshattan.
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The attendance for the game is listed as 5,475 at the 11,560 Noble Arena, or less than half full; any way you see it is pretty embarrassing.
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@JayHawkFanToo Totally agree. My point is exactly that, with OU fans not respecting their own top10 team–that their own admin made changes to try to build, by bringing in Kruger. And the difference is that while KU football cannot point to a contender team (yet), OU Basketball can…yet the fans still aren’t showing up. Agree that is an embarrassment on Sooner Nation.
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I think some of it can be attributed to not following up on the success that Blake Griffin brought and those teams that had a lot of talent and were nationally known. Griffin is well-known star but I bet a lot of fans don’t even realize he went to Oklahoma.
The lean years that followed after him are probably the reason that OU, even with a very good team has a hard time filling the arena consistently. Not to mention they are a football juggernaut so I get why nobody wanted to watch a home game against Oral Roberts.
I’m sure the arena will be filled for KU and a few others over the course of the season. KU & ISU are the only teams that will fill their gym’s consistently because the fan-base has established that home-court advantage. Oklahoma St is another team that reminds me of OU, a great home venue when the teams are good but when the teams are average Gallagher Iba is average.
I get what your saying about the flock mentality- if the team is good fans will show up, you see that everywhere. I’m sure if KU football went from a zero win season to a 6 game season next year that you would see a lot more fans at games. And you would see a lot of Media attention to the coach and his turn-around of a cellar dwelling program.
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It might surprise you but KSU is almost always pretty close if not sold out…
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@BeddieKU23 I think the thing that hurt OU the most after Blake was the fact that he had such drama with Willie Warren, Tiny Gallon and Mason-Griffin.
After that year (i think 2008 or 2009) Oklahoma wasn’t as appealing to recruits. They had 3 McD’s AA and had a losing record.
