View from the stands as Loyola’s Milton Doyle beats Bradley with a buzzer-beater on March 6, 2014.
Posted in Video
The first time I attended Arch Madness in March 2009, I was blown away by the atmosphere and the professional way one of the best conference championship tournaments in the country is conducted. I went back in 2011 and 2012, and thought: “My God, if only Loyola could somehow find their way into this conference….”
Arch Madness just about takes over downtown St. Louis every March, just as the weather is starting to break towards spring. Fans from every MVC team and local college basketball nuts converge to watch a four-day festival of college hoops. They fill restaurants, party at local watering holes, and poke good-natured fun at fans decked out in the sweatshirts, caps, and colors of opposing teams.
For Loyola fans that have attended the MCC/Horizon Conference Tournaments before HL Commish Jon LeCrone decided to change the rules to make it into a drawn-out coronation of the regular season top seed, it’s like that– only multiplied by three times and held at a predictable, neutral site. At Arch Madness, anything can happen, and often does.
Posted in Stories
Through the hype, emotions and many adjustments involved in Loyola moving to the Missouri Valley Conference, a key component of competitiveness has obviously been neglected. Home attendance has plummeted. Some of it can be chalked up to some nasty winter weather, and quite a lot to one of the least engaging home non-conference schedules in recent memory. But it’s an embarrassing way to make a debut into a new conference.
Through its first nine home games in the 2013-14 season, Loyola is averaging only 1531 fans per game. That’s down 34% from last year’s average of 2335, and less than half the next lowest team in the MVC. In a league where attendance, game day atmosphere, and energetic rivalries are not only a point of pride, but a real source of strength for recruiting, fiscal stability, and personnel retention, Loyola’s rotten attendance has become a running joke and source of ridicule throughout the conference.
Loyola has always had mediocre or below average attendance. It’s a constant struggle to command attention and get turnout in a large urban market with an abundance of professional and college sports, culture, nightlife, and other distractions. But it has never been this bad. Never.
Posted in Stories
