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MVC First Exhibition Attendance

I'll be honest, I had no idea about the ticket situation at any of the schools. I really didn't look at it that closely. I simply went to the boxscores. I thought it would make for a good discussion. I was surprised BU's was so low compared to the other schools. And now that I know it was not a part of the season ticket package, I am still surprised as it appears others are as well.

It's interesting though that 6-8K BU fans who normally go to games (be it season ticket holders or not) decided not to pay the $10 it would have cost to get to see BU in action for the first time.
 
But didn't ISU have only a single exhibition game last year and it was part of the ticket package, and still barely more than BU's numbers Monday attended.
Trust me, season ticket and individual game ticket requests are as hot as they've ever been, and there simply are NO lower bowl tix to be had for any game this season.
There may yet be more news confirming just that shortly.
 
But didn't ISU have only a single exhibition game last year and it was part of the ticket package, and still barely more than BU's numbers Monday attended.

I don't know, is 1, 600 barely more?

Trust me, season ticket and individual game ticket requests are as hot as they've ever been, and there simply are NO lower bowl tix to be had for any game this season.
There may yet be more news confirming just that shortly.

Well if that is the case, I am even more surprised at the 2, 588 that turned out for the Lewis game. If there is such a fever pitch for this year, I am surprised more people didn't take the opportunity to sit in the lower bowl for $10. Something it sounds like they won't be able to do from here on out.
 
I was actually surprised and disappointed as well to be honest. I didn't think there were 2,500-plus there in the first place, but even if there were, where the heck was everyone? I felt bad for the freshman that for their first game in Carver, exhibition or not, the place was all but empty. I'm sure that the numbers for Sunday will be much better but I was still disappointed in the lack of attendence.

I'm not calling anyone out or anything by any means, I guess I just expected there to be more fans in attendence.
 
I was actually surprised and disappointed as well to be honest. I didn't think there were 2,500-plus there in the first place, but even if there were, where the heck was everyone? I felt bad for the freshman that for their first game in Carver, exhibition or not, the place was all but empty. I'm sure that the numbers for Sunday will be much better but I was still disappointed in the lack of attendence.

I'm not calling anyone out or anything by any means, I guess I just expected there to be more fans in attendence.

I feel the exact opposite. For an exhibition game that is not on the season ticket package, I was impressed with the number of people (non-students, student attendance is a different subject entirely) who were willing to shell out the $10 to see the game.
 
I feel the exact opposite. For an exhibition game that is not on the season ticket package, I was impressed with the number of people (non-students, student attendance is a different subject entirely) who were willing to shell out the $10 to see the game.

I duno, I guess in comparing to past years it wasn't that disappointing, however I think that since the game was played at Carver it should have been part of the season ticket package, that is my biggiest complaint. I know in years past the first exhibition game has been seperate because it was played at the Fieldhouse, but why did it have to be seperate this year?
 
Actually, Bradley's home attendance last season set an all-time record.
They drew 182,392 for the season, thanks to a couple extra home games in the CBI.

That was good enough to finish with the 2nd highest home attendance in the MVC. Here are the final attendance numbers for the top 3 teams in ther MVC--
1) Creighton...276,000 total home attendance
2) Bradley......182,392
3) Wichita......157,170

When I said Bradley should finish 3rd again in attendance, I was referring to the average per game.
 
CPac = Schadenfreude

;)

But after his "drive-by reporting", the story isn't that big of a deal.

WHO CARES?????

This is an exhibition game not part of the season ticket holder's package.

Next up - Double Header in Carver. Women first at 1pm followed by the Men at 4pm. One can buy a ticket now and watch both games.

OOOHHhhhh...... so attendance better be 10k plus!

Give me a break.

IMO, Bradley Basketball is Fever Pitched EVERY season. It goes up/down as the season progresses (depending on success).

To look at this past exhibition game's attendance as an indicator of... I don't know what... forget about it!

This is nothing but a game of "Nit-pick-and-gotchya".
 
Looks like cpacmel accomphished his goal of irritating BU fans. But IMO a fan of a team, with a student population much larger than Bradley, which in the past has been lucky to draw 6000 fans to games except when Bradley comes to town, shouldn't talk about BU's lack of attendance at an exibition game.
 
Looks like cpacmel accomphished his goal of irritating BU fans. But IMO a fan of a team, with a student population much larger than Bradley, which in the past has been lucky to draw 6000 fans to games except when Bradley comes to town, shouldn't talk about BU's lack of attendance at an exibition game.

My thoughts exactly! I believe isu has an enrollment approx. three times greater than Bradley, yet Bradley was able to draw 3,000+ more fans on average last season. Not to mention that was a successful season for the isu team.
 
Maybe we should cut isured a little slack. It's not like their fans get to see any good non conference teams at home.
 
Looks like cpacmel accomphished his goal of irritating BU fans. But IMO a fan of a team, with a student population much larger than Bradley, which in the past has been lucky to draw 6000 fans to games except when Bradley comes to town, shouldn't talk about BU's lack of attendance at an exibition game.

My thoughts exactly! I believe isu has an enrollment approx. three times greater than Bradley, yet Bradley was able to draw 3,000+ more fans on average last season. Not to mention that was a successful season for the isu team.

Enrollment of students has little to do with overall attendance at games. Bradley doesn't draw more students to their games than ISU does. They draw more folks from Peoria and the area than ISU does from the B-N area. Creighton is the same way. The Jays have something like an enrollment of 7K per year. Their attendance is huge because Omaha is a big metro area.
 
Enrollment of students has little to do with overall attendance at games. Bradley doesn't draw more students to their games than ISU does. They draw more folks from Peoria and the area than ISU does from the B-N area. Creighton is the same way. The Jays have something like an enrollment of 7K per year. Their attendance is huge because Omaha is a big metro area.

The B-N area and the isu student population, accompanied with the success that team had last season, should be enough to ensure more than the 6,500 isu averaged. I'd be terribly disappointed if Bradley was in the same situation.
 
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but isn't there upwards of 375K people in the Peoria area compared to around 150K or so for the B-N area.

Plus no beer at Redbird Arena. ;)
 
375K is quite a stretch, but the extra farmers we have in places like Toulon are irrelevant, because surely you know ISU graduates 5-6 times as many people yearly as Bradley does, and has at least that much greater of a local fan base in and around B-N than BU does in Peoria.
 
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but isn't there upwards of 375K people in the Peoria area compared to around 150K or so for the B-N area.

Plus no beer at Redbird Arena. ;)

That's correct.

July 2007 metropolitan area census figures:

371,206 - Peoria

164,209 - B-N

However, I still stand by my previous post: The B-N area and the isu student population, accompanied with the success that team had last season, should be enough to ensure more than the 6,500 isu averaged. I'd be terribly disappointed if Bradley was in the same situation.
 
Peoria proper had nearly 114k inhabitants in July 2007...
http://www.city-data.com/city/Peoria-Illinois.html

Depending on how you slice up the surrounding area yes the population is in the 370k range.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Peoria_Township,_Peoria_County,_Illinois#Township_of_the_City_of_Peoria

But B/N have over 120k within their city limits.
http://www.city-data.com/city/Normal-Illinois.html

http://www.city-data.com/city/Bloomington-Illinois.html



Say what you want to but if BU had an on campus arena there would be more students in attendance. The fact that ISU has that many SHOULD-BE fans in such a close proximity to their arena and still can't pull in large crowds is very pitiful.
 
according to the US 2000 census-
Normal, IL - 45,386 (updated in 2005 - 50,519)
Bloomington, IL - 64,808 (updated in 2006 - 74,975)
Peoria, IL - 112,936

OK...now as for the "metropolitan area, that's where it gets tough, because where do you draw the line?? It gets pretty arbitrary.
I know a lot of people who go to Bradley games come from Pekin and Morton, but probably a bunch who are ISU fans come from as far away as El Paso, Lexington, and out towards Champaign.
Hey-- I even know quite a few who drive all the way from Peoria to see every ISU home game, so actually, given the spread out fan base, ISU may actually be drawing from as large a "metropolitan area"?
 
Say what you want to but if BU had an on campus arena there would be more students in attendance. The fact that ISU has that many SHOULD-BE fans in such a close proximity to their arena and still can't pull in large crowds is very pitiful.

It just maybe a different priority from their students. At Bradley there is a lot of emphasis and social gatherings around our basketball team. Our President attends these games and participates at a high level. We are a private school, our cost are higher and so we have to use our program in order to market our school.

ISU on the other hand is a public school which costs less to attend so the administration does not have to fight to keep a steady enrollment, I'm sure the women at this point out number the men (pure guess), women tend to not follow sports as rabid as men and BN probably does not have as many ISU alumnus as Peoria has Bradley alumnus. Two total different cultures in central Illinois and that is why I'm glad to be on the BU's side of the fence.
 
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