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PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2022 7:35 am 
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That support is great. We filled (and sometimes overflowed) our student section all year. I mainly meant that we probably won't have 400 students signing up for a 14 hour bus trip to Brooklyn.

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PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2022 1:37 pm 
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JPSchmack wrote:
ahunte1 wrote:
Bona brought a ton of students, which was cool. Doubt we'll be able to do that unfortunately


I'm a Bonnie. Our fan base has been described as "a cult, but in a good way." We had a lack-luster showing in the A-10 tourney crowd because the expectations for this season were so high and the mid-Dec to mid-Jan injuries and performance just kicked us in the nutz. (I now have this next weekend off from work, because I requested it off in October when I expected to follow the Bonnies around for two weeks, I didn't go to A-10 because I was saving my money).

There are A-10 fan bases who always show (Dayton, VCU) and two fanbases who can match in good times (Bona, Davidson), but it's just really hard for Bona/DC to look impressive when they have such a small alumni base. They are bottom 10 in Division I in enrollment.

I went to the 2018 NCAA Tourney in Dallas (watching you guys beat Miami from an airport bar on my connecting). I got to the arena, and we had 4000 fans in the place going crazy and yelling their faces off. We had a louder and better crowd than Florida; Florida's enrollment (59,000) was far larger than our total living alumni (29,000).

When you see A-10 crowds, remember that St. Bonaventure and Davidson have 2,000 students. We are freaking tiny. But our attendance is double our enrollment. I'm not trying to talk trash at all, I really respect you guys and love that we got you into our league because you help us; I'm just saying, you average 3,200 fans for a campus of 12,000 under, 16,000 total in a market of 9,618,502 people. St. Bonaventure averages just under 4,000 a game, with an enrollment of 1850, and a market of 24,000 people.

But again, I hope you beat Ohio State by 90.


To give you some background on Loyola...while we have strong basketball history, there was about a 25-year period where Loyola basketball was irrelevant even on campus (including when I played). The school was very much a commuter school and was on the verge of bankruptcy in the early 2000s. They got out of the financial issues through a plan of massive enrollment expansion and campus redevelopment. The last phase of that plan was investing more heavily in sports, which began right before we entered the Valley around 10 years ago.

I say all that to say there is a huge missing age bracket in our fan base. The alumni who remember the glory days of the 60s are largely the ones who funded a lot of the new athletic buildings, and many of the current students go to Loyola in part bc of the basketball team's success. However, the alumni from the 90s and 00s did not experience any school pride in athletics during our time there, and a huge percentage were commuters.

The Loyola that the A-10 is getting is a very large private school with an awesome campus and in a great financial situation. Loyola now owns basically the entire thriving neighborhood around campus and some prime real estate downtown. Our athletic facilities are incredible for the mid-major level, and the fan base will grow exponentially (compared to what it has been) as we move forward.


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2022 1:55 pm 
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Mertz2003 wrote:
JPSchmack wrote:
ahunte1 wrote:
Bona brought a ton of students, which was cool. Doubt we'll be able to do that unfortunately


I'm a Bonnie. Our fan base has been described as "a cult, but in a good way." We had a lack-luster showing in the A-10 tourney crowd because the expectations for this season were so high and the mid-Dec to mid-Jan injuries and performance just kicked us in the nutz. (I now have this next weekend off from work, because I requested it off in October when I expected to follow the Bonnies around for two weeks, I didn't go to A-10 because I was saving my money).

There are A-10 fan bases who always show (Dayton, VCU) and two fanbases who can match in good times (Bona, Davidson), but it's just really hard for Bona/DC to look impressive when they have such a small alumni base. They are bottom 10 in Division I in enrollment.

I went to the 2018 NCAA Tourney in Dallas (watching you guys beat Miami from an airport bar on my connecting). I got to the arena, and we had 4000 fans in the place going crazy and yelling their faces off. We had a louder and better crowd than Florida; Florida's enrollment (59,000) was far larger than our total living alumni (29,000).

When you see A-10 crowds, remember that St. Bonaventure and Davidson have 2,000 students. We are freaking tiny. But our attendance is double our enrollment. I'm not trying to talk trash at all, I really respect you guys and love that we got you into our league because you help us; I'm just saying, you average 3,200 fans for a campus of 12,000 under, 16,000 total in a market of 9,618,502 people. St. Bonaventure averages just under 4,000 a game, with an enrollment of 1850, and a market of 24,000 people.

But again, I hope you beat Ohio State by 90.


To give you some background on Loyola...while we have strong basketball history, there was about a 25-year period where Loyola basketball was irrelevant even on campus (including when I played). The school was very much a commuter school and was on the verge of bankruptcy in the early 2000s. They got out of the financial issues through a plan of massive enrollment expansion and campus redevelopment. The last phase of that plan was investing more heavily in sports, which began right before we entered the Valley around 10 years ago.

I say all that to say there is a huge missing age bracket in our fan base. The alumni who remember the glory days of the 60s are largely the ones who funded a lot of the new athletic buildings, and many of the current students go to Loyola in part bc of the basketball team's success. However, the alumni from the 90s and 00s did not experience any school pride in athletics during our time there, and a huge percentage were commuters.

The Loyola that the A-10 is getting is a very large private school with an awesome campus and in a great financial situation. Loyola now owns basically the entire thriving neighborhood around campus and some prime real estate downtown. Our athletic facilities are incredible for the mid-major level, and the fan base will grow exponentially (compared to what it has been) as we move forward.


You managed to win over a few of us 90's grads


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2022 1:56 pm 
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When you come to Gentile you wont be upset about attendance, its a nice arena that fits our needs very well. To me one of the huge pros of leaving the Valley was getting away from attendance based fan shaming. Evansville and Indiana State have massive stadiums (that never get filled) and they were always upset with Gentile and our fan travel etc. etc. etc. all the meanwhile we win games and bring the league money etc while those programs embarrass the league on and off the court.

As far as im concerned who cares if we dont bring 1k people to the A10 tournament of have 10k fans at home games so long as the program is winning games and getting the conference tournament shares?


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2022 4:11 pm 
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I should've added that the fans that did care during the dark ages get extra appreciation :)


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2022 4:58 pm 
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440Rambler wrote:
When you come to Gentile you wont be upset about attendance, its a nice arena that fits our needs very well. To me one of the huge pros of leaving the Valley was getting away from attendance based fan shaming. Evansville and Indiana State have massive stadiums (that never get filled) and they were always upset with Gentile and our fan travel etc. etc. etc. all the meanwhile we win games and bring the league money etc while those programs embarrass the league on and off the court.

As far as im concerned who cares if we dont bring 1k people to the A10 tournament of have 10k fans at home games so long as the program is winning games and getting the conference tournament shares?


I’ve noticed that the fan shaming has been a thing from fans of teams that have had no recent success. As you said the product on the court is more important and will bring more fans in time. Evansville fans throw around their attendance because it’s the only positive thing they have to say about their program. Also their arena looks dead every time I’ve seen them play.


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2022 3:33 pm 
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Richmond does our future conference well with a huge win over Iowa to start off the Dance!


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2022 4:06 pm 
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Let's go MVC!

Let's go A10!

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 12:19 pm 
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As an FYI, the 2023 and 2024 Atlantic Ten Tournaments will once again return to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. This fairly new 19,000 seat arena is the home of the NBA Brooklyn Nets.

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 12:42 pm 
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Oceaneer wrote:
As an FYI, the 2023 and 2024 Atlantic Ten Tournaments will once again return to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. This fairly new 19,000 seat arena is the home of the NBA Brooklyn Nets.

Image


Looks awesome, but the distance is an issue.


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