Mon 2/3 BE Game Thread (2 Games, XU-VU, GU-DeP).

[marquette]

DePaul, this is an embarrassment not only to yourself but to the league and to Fox 1. The Big East Commissioner needs to intervene and stop this nonsense. DePaul needs to move back on campus to the McGrath-Sullivan Center. Sure it only holds 2,000, but perhaps you can fill it up and provide some atmosphere. When you can hear the sneakers squeaking on the floor, you have no atmosphere at all.

Is the Big East Commissioner also going to pay the penalty for DePaul breaking it's lease agreement with the Allstate Arena?

Actually that is a good idea. Everyone should help you fix this problem. I'M SERIOUS! That is what organizations are all about.

Piling on DePaul on a message board does nobody any good. We are all painfully aware of DePaul's current predicament. What would you have them do? Round up homeless people and give them a hot dog voucher good only after half time? Dig up stiffs at the graveyard and put in rumble seats to make them look animated? What is your solution? What can the commissioner do? DePaul has expended the resources; they pay their coach millions, are funding a new arena, give free tickets to students, provide buses to games. What more can they do?

[Lavinwood]

1 vote here for corpses in rumble seats!

[BillikensWin]

Piling on DePaul on a message board does nobody any good. We are all painfully aware of DePaul's current predicament. What would you have them do? Round up homeless people and give them a hot dog voucher good only after half time? Dig up stiffs at the graveyard and put in rumble seats to make them look animated? What is your solution? What can the commissioner do? DePaul has expended the resources; they pay their coach millions, are funding a new arena, give free tickets to students, provide buses to games. What more can they do?

Well, the dead do vote in Chicago...

[Demon22]

The only solution is to win more games and move closer to campus.

DePaul is spending millions to do both.

What do you want them to do?

[ivet]

The only solution is to win more games and move closer to campus.

DePaul is spending millions to do both.

What do you want them to do?

He's just complaining to complain. If it's not DePaul it will be whoever is in last place.

[DeltaV]

1 vote here for corpses in rumble seats!

Hell, they're probably voting...might as well bring them to a game too!

[HoosierPal]

[quote="Demon22Piling on DePaul on a message board does nobody any good. We are all painfully aware of DePaul's current predicament. What would you have them do? Round up homeless people and give them a hot dog voucher good only after half time? Dig up stiffs at the graveyard and put in rumble seats to make them look animated? What is your solution? What can the commissioner do? DePaul has expended the resources; they pay their coach millions, are funding a new arena, give free tickets to students, provide buses to games. What more can they do?

Well, what DePaul has done isn't working.

1st step is to quit padding the attendance numbers. Call it what It is. Man Up.
2nd step; I do think moving back to campus has value. Yes break the lease. It is a sunk cost anyway. Playing on campus won't increase costs and with extra ticket revenue, might even be a moneymaker. The DePaul women are averaging 2,656 at McGrath, with a top attendance of 4,000. Likely this exceeds what the men are doing at All-State. Moving back to campus could get people interested in the program again. Doing nothing won't.
3rd step; since giving students tickets and free bus rides isn't working, give those tickets to youth basketball teams in the All-State arena area. And give them those hog dog vouchers you suggested for the homeless. Maybe the youth of the area would use the tickets.
4th step; don't keep saying 'well everyone will come to the new arena, that is the fix'. It may give DePaul a year or two attendance lift, but once the shiny new arena and team has some scratches, then it will be back to the same old story. Fix the problem now.
5th step; promote, promote, promote. I read the Chicago papers, and DePaul gets about the same coverage as Northwestern and Loyola. Gotta get above them. Figure out how Northwestern has sold out all of their Big 10 Conference Games. Do what they are doing.

[marquette]

Well, what DePaul has done isn't working.

1st step is to quit padding the attendance numbers. Call it what It is. Man Up.
2nd step; I do think moving back to campus has value. Yes break the lease. It is a sunk cost anyway. Playing on campus won't increase costs and with extra ticket revenue, might even be a moneymaker. The DePaul women are averaging 2,656 at McGrath, with a top attendance of 4,000. Likely this exceeds what the men are doing at All-State. Moving back to campus could get people interested in the program again. Doing nothing won't.
3rd step; since giving students tickets and free bus rides isn't working, give those tickets to youth basketball teams in the All-State arena area. And give them those hog dog vouchers you suggested for the homeless. Maybe the youth of the area would use the tickets.
4th step; don't keep saying 'well everyone will come to the new arena, that is the fix'. It may give DePaul a year or two attendance lift, but once the shiny new arena and team has some scratches, then it will be back to the same old story. Fix the problem now.
5th step; promote, promote, promote. I read the Chicago papers, and DePaul gets about the same coverage as Northwestern and Loyola. Gotta get above them. Figure out how Northwestern has sold out all of their Big 10 Conference Games. Do what they are doing.

Now this post I can generally get behind. Decent suggestions. I do have 1 argument: returning to campus is a hell of a gamble.

Allow me to give an analogy (sorry, law student). Over the river and up the way from Marquette is a large state school (30,000 students) called UW-Milwaukee. Two years ago they played in the US Cellular arena (10,000 seats) downtown, right by where Marquette plays. Problem was, Milwaukee was only selling 3,000 tickets per game in a bad season. They decided to move to the 3,000 seat on-campus arena which they had recently updated. This will get more students to games, save on costs, and bring alumni back to campus, and make the team a hot ticket. They advertised on the local channels, they put up posters and billboards. The season came around and, much to the surprise of the administration, they averaged just over 2,000 fans and almost no students. The alumni said it felt like a high school gym, the students complained of the poor amenities, parking was atrocious, the team stank, and the local media was not kind. The athletic director lost his job and Milwaukee moved back to the Cell.

I'm not saying this will happen to DePaul, but they have to be looking North and thinking "that's not going to be us!"

[Demon22]

Well, what DePaul has done isn't working.

Because Purnell isn't doing a very good job. The Allstate Arena isn't a huge drawback if the team is good:



The problem is the Allstate is AWFUL if the team is mediocre/bad.

1st step is to quit padding the attendance numbers. Call it what It is. Man Up.

This is a solution?

2nd step; I do think moving back to campus has value. Yes break the lease. It is a sunk cost anyway. Playing on campus won't increase costs and with extra ticket revenue, might even be a moneymaker. The DePaul women are averaging 2,656 at McGrath, with a top attendance of 4,000. Likely this exceeds what the men are doing at All-State. Moving back to campus could get people interested in the program again. Doing nothing won't.

You're wrong. It's not a sunk cost. DePaul doesn't pay rent to play at the Allstate Arena. They would pay a very large penalty should they break their lease too early, though.

And for what reason? It's an eyesore for another two seasons, and then they move into the best building in the conference, bar none.

3rd step; since giving students tickets and free bus rides isn't working, give those tickets to youth basketball teams in the All-State arena area. And give them those hog dog vouchers you suggested for the homeless. Maybe the youth of the area would use the tickets.

You're not paying attention if you think they don't already do this. However, this wouldn't have helped on a school night.

4th step; don't keep saying 'well everyone will come to the new arena, that is the fix'. It may give DePaul a year or two attendance lift, but once the shiny new arena and team has some scratches, then it will be back to the same old story. Fix the problem now.

In other words, get a better team.

5th step; promote, promote, promote. I read the Chicago papers, and DePaul gets about the same coverage as Northwestern and Loyola. Gotta get above them. Figure out how Northwestern has sold out all of their Big 10 Conference Games. Do what they are doing.

You mean build an on-campus arena? Working on the next-best thing.

[RDinNY]

I'm not sure about the new Big East but the old BE required a higher seating capacity than the on campus arena would provide. I know even St. John's had to play a certain number of games at MSG in order to make sure that their average number was above what was required by the league.

It just seems nonsensical for a school that is located inside of a large city would choose to play their games so far outside of town. That was a bad decision.