old sioux falls arena...

[MrAugustana]

Re: old sioux falls arena...

Jansen, and to a little lesser degree, Schilling, are fun to watch. Guys like that will draw spectators. Augie is putting out a good product and they've earned the fan support. I haven't watched them live but have watched parts of games on TV.

Agreed. Should be fun to see how Jansen's younger brother, Levi, comes in and makes an impact next year. He's going to be a special player. Definitely has the potential to keep people excited about Augie basketball moving forward after this season--and hopefully keep attendance high, since I'm not sure we'll be quite at our current level again for possibly another year or two.

On a side note (to make sure I keep this thread somewhat on-topic), the Augie/Arena deal was I believe a 5-year commitment, with Augie given the right to reassess the situation after... 3 years maybe? I thought I read something like that. Either way, the Vikes should be there until 2020. We'll see if the relationship continues after that, or if Augie will maybe make some drastic renovations to the Elmen Center and make the on-campus experience more worthwhile than it currently is. But, like I said, seeing as we're 23-0 at the Arena over the past few years, I certainly wouldn't mind if the Vikes stayed there in the future.

[MrAugustana]

Re: old sioux falls arena...

Good discussion. All places do it but I think double headers create such a spread in tickets sold versus attendance. This will be the case this weekend at the SDSU games. People are for the most part counted twice. I bet I can think of one thing Mr. A and I will agree on...........SDSU vs AUGIE. Let's play this game!

Like I said, if I were seeing a mass exodus between the women's and men's games, I might be more inclined to think it's a majorly unfair counting system, but the number of people coming out the doors after women's games is vastly outweighed by the number of people coming in the doors for the men's games. I'm not sure what the problem is with people being counted twice. If they do attend both games, it's not as if they should only be counted once for the whole night--they should be counted once for each game, as it's someone in attendance for each game. Unless I'm misunderstanding you.

Certainly agree on your last point, but that conversation probably needs to get moved to the Smack thread (or just killed entirely, since several fans on here are quick to remind me it will never happen).

[MontanaRabbit]

Re: old sioux falls arena...

Like I said, if I were seeing a mass exodus between the women's and men's games, I might be more inclined to think it's a majorly unfair counting system, but the number of people coming out the doors after women's games is vastly outweighed by the number of people coming in the doors for the men's games. I'm not sure what the problem is with people being counted twice. If they do attend both games, it's not as if they should only be counted once for the whole night--they should be counted once for each game, as it's someone in attendance for each game. Unless I'm misunderstanding you.

Certainly agree on your last point, but that conversation probably needs to get moved to the Smack thread (or just killed entirely, since several fans on here are quick to remind me it will never happen).

I think his point is you get twice as much for the same price. Pay once see two games. Whereas with SDSU you pay to watch either the men or the women...never both. There's value added with the doubleheaders and attendance reflects that.

[MrAugustana]

Re: old sioux falls arena...

I think his point is you get twice as much for the same price. Pay once see two games. Whereas with SDSU you pay to watch either the men or the women...never both. There's value added with the doubleheaders and attendance reflects that.

Maybe. But the language of "doubleheaders creating such a spread in tickets sold versus attendance" inclined me to believe he was saying there was a disparity between the tickets sold and the physical attendance of those ticket buyers in the Arena. In which case, I'm not sure I agree. But if he means more what you're saying, then sure, I would definitely say there's a value add.

[UWMandSDSU]

Re: old sioux falls arena...

Good discussion. All places do it but I think double headers create such a spread in tickets sold versus attendance. This will be the case this weekend at the SDSU games. People are for the most part counted twice. I bet I can think of one thing Mr. A and I will agree on...........SDSU vs AUGIE. Let's play this game!

In years past the Women's attendance was counted until the end of the 3rd quarter (or halfway into the 2nd half) and Men's attendance is the women's attendance plus who shows up after the 3rd quarter of the Women's game. So the men's attendance can be slightly skewed if there is people that leave the Women's game.

[Justwin]

Re: old sioux falls arena...

Like I said, if I were seeing a mass exodus between the women's and men's games, I might be more inclined to think it's a majorly unfair counting system, but the number of people coming out the doors after women's games is vastly outweighed by the number of people coming in the doors for the men's games. I'm not sure what the problem is with people being counted twice. If they do attend both games, it's not as if they should only be counted once for the whole night--they should be counted once for each game, as it's someone in attendance for each game. Unless I'm misunderstanding you.

Certainly agree on your last point, but that conversation probably needs to get moved to the Smack thread (or just killed entirely, since several fans on here are quick to remind me it will never happen).

Oh no all I meant is (for easy figuring we have 2000 people for the women's game then an extra 1000 show up for the men's) the nites total attendance will be listed as 5000 but only 3000 tickets were sold. I wasn't taking a jab at anybody. On the last point no smack intended. I want to see that game as I think it would be a pack house. I'm afraid you might be rite tho......I don't see it happening

[MrAugustana]

Re: old sioux falls arena...

Oh no all I meant is (for easy figuring we have 2000 people for the women's game then an extra 1000 show up for the men's) the nites total attendance will be listed as 5000 but only 3000 tickets were sold. I wasn't taking a jab at anybody. On the last point no smack intended. I want to see that game as I think it would be a pack house. I'm afraid you might be rite tho......I don't see it happening

I guess I'm not following your math, but that might be why I don't do numbery things for a living.

On the latter point, I didn't think you were talking smack at all. I just know the last time the Augie/SDSU discussion came up, filbert or someone moved the conversation to the Smack forum instead of the Men's Basketball forum or wherever it was before. That's what I was referring to. I don't think you're smack-talking. I agree it would be a packed house, but ultimately a packed house probably still isn't worth it for the Jackrabbits.

[MontanaRabbit]

Re: old sioux falls arena...

Oh no all I meant is (for easy figuring we have 2000 people for the women's game then an extra 1000 show up for the men's) the nites total attendance will be listed as 5000 but only 3000 tickets were sold. I wasn't taking a jab at anybody. On the last point no smack intended. I want to see that game as I think it would be a pack house. I'm afraid you might be rite tho......I don't see it happening

This makes no sense.

The women's attendance would be reported as 2000 and the men's would be reported as 3000. Only at ORU would this be considered 5000 people in attendance.

[Justwin]

Re: old sioux falls arena...

I guess I'm not following your math, but that might be why I don't do numbery things for a living.

On the latter point, I didn't think you were talking smack at all. I just know the last time the Augie/SDSU discussion came up, filbert or someone moved the conversation to the Smack forum instead of the Men's Basketball forum or wherever it was before. That's what I was referring to. I don't think you're smack-talking. I agree it would be a packed house, but ultimately a packed house probably still isn't worth it for the Jackrabbits.

its all good!

[RabbitObsessed]

Re: old sioux falls arena...

This makes no sense.

The women's attendance would be reported as 2000 and the men's would be reported as 3000. Only at ORU would this be considered 5000 people in attendance.

5000? You might be short a zero.

[Mr_Tibbs]

Re: old sioux falls arena...

With regards to the Augie/SF arena attendence compared to Frost and SDSU (for men), it should be worth pointing out that the jacks have yet to hist two of their biggest rivals, plus the pork classic, and the regular season finale against ORU. There was talk on the live chat yesterday about Augie's attendance exceeding the jacks to this point, but no one seemed to take into account that two of the jacks highest attended games have yet to occur, which will presumably bump the attendance up significantly.

[JACKGUYII]

Re: old sioux falls arena...

With regards to the Augie/SF arena attendence compared to Frost and SDSU (for men), it should be worth pointing out that the jacks have yet to hist two of their biggest rivals, plus the pork classic, and the regular season finale against ORU. There was talk on the live chat yesterday about Augie's attendance exceeding the jacks to this point, but no one seemed to take into account that two of the jacks highest attended games have yet to occur, which will presumably bump the attendance up significantly.

Perhaps, but with the team the Jacks have should it really be that close?

[Mr_Tibbs]

Re: old sioux falls arena...

Perhaps, but with the team the Jacks have should it really be that close?

Completely agree that it shouldn't be that way. Just stating that the numbers may change.

I think beyond the obvious advantages such as SF's population and proximity to Augie vs a drive to Brookings, there seems to be a lingering mentality of apathy towards college sports in South Dakota. Whenever I drive through other areas of the state, whether SF, Rapid, Pierre, Watertown, I always try to take notice of Jacks gear (and USD) and flags that are being worn or displayed in an area. When you compare that to what you see throughout Montana and North Dakota, there does seem to be a large difference in how the general state resident approaches loyalties to the various public schools in the state.
For example, Billings MT is a similar distance from Missoula as RC is to Brookings. Yet there is clearly more attention placed upon the Cats or Griz in Billings than there is on the Jacks or Yotes in Rapid. Some of that (maybe all?) is a byproduct of being 1 AA since 1978, and perhaps if SDSU and USD had made that jump then, we would see more statewide support and following for both schools.
Those differences cannot be only based on the results of each team on the field. MSU hasn't made it past quarterfinals since 1984 when they beat LA Tech for the 1 AA championship.


The point of all that rambling above is that SDSU (and certainly USD) do not have the pull and support from the Eastern SD population outside of Clay and Brookings county that is necessary to see average attendance at basketball games that is significantly higher than Augie or Northern.

This is pure speculation at this point, but I would guess that if you were to poll the 2000+ attendees at an average home men's game, more than 75% would be from within a 25 mile drive of Brookings.

[MrAugustana]

Re: old sioux falls arena...

With regards to the Augie/SF arena attendence compared to Frost and SDSU (for men), it should be worth pointing out that the jacks have yet to hist two of their biggest rivals, plus the pork classic, and the regular season finale against ORU. There was talk on the live chat yesterday about Augie's attendance exceeding the jacks to this point, but no one seemed to take into account that two of the jacks highest attended games have yet to occur, which will presumably bump the attendance up significantly.

A very good point. At the same time, Augie's two highest-drawing home games last season, Northern and Moorhead (3,715 and 3,867, respectively, with both drawing more than the 3,687 we drew for USF at home last year), will both be on the road this season. So that will actually hurt our final attendance count as well.

That being said, the games you mentioned should definitely kick your numbers up a bit. I'll definitely be curious to see how the final numbers shake out at the end of the season.

[jacksfan29]

Re: old sioux falls arena...

This makes no sense.

The women's attendance would be reported as 2000 and the men's would be reported as 3000. Only at ORU would this be considered 5000 people in attendance.

Well if we are talking ORU, that would be 200 at the women's and 300 at the men's for a total attendance of 5000

I also think our numbers will change pretty fast coming up. We have yet to play a Saturday night conference game at Frost. The remaining home conference games, Pork Classic (Saturday), USD (Saturday), NDSU (Thursday), ORU (Saturday). You can't bank on the ORU attendance being well in excess of 3K but you can the other 3. I would expect USD, NDSU and likely the Pork Classic against IUPUI to all be in excess of 5K in attendance.

As for double headers. If our Women and Men were still playing doubleheaders on Friday/Saturday as they did in the old NCC I would expect our attendance average to jump pretty quickly. For most schools a women's game will not draw, ours would. I could see a lot more SF fans making the trip for a Saturday night doubleheader. Right now they are forced to choose. It is one of the things the Summit does that I really do not understand.