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**sdman** · 02-02-2005, 05:22 AM

Re: Bringin' it home

I was at the winona game and enjoyed myself. It was good to see that the players haven't written the season off. Too bad based on the lousy attendance that our students HAVE written the season off. Amazing that more of these students can't walk over to Frost for a game.

**MilwaukeeJacksAlum** · 02-02-2005, 07:06 AM

Re: Bringin' it home

Originally posted by sdman

I was at the winona game and enjoyed myself. �It was good to see that the players haven't written the season off. �Too bad based on the lousy attendance that our students HAVE written the season off. �Amazing that more of these students can't walk over to Frost for a game.

That's not something that's unique to this season or sport. For a school with approx. 11,000 students, we don't draw that well from the student body. Especially at the football games. Hopefully it's changing, but most of the SD schools have had the reputation as being suitcase universities. Also, the tendency to pack up and head for the comforts of mom's house is usually more prevalent in the freshman and sophmores who occupy the dorms. I do think with the tailgating area and increased publicity about the games (both football and basketball) are helping, but the attendance by the students is still lower than what it should be.

Go to a NDSU football game and you'll see what student turnout is all about. They come in big numbers and are generally the first fans in the building. And they are into the game from the time the kickers come out for early warmups to the final gun. We need some of that.

**rabbit4life** · 02-02-2005, 07:21 AM

Re: Bringin' it home

Last night at halftime I noticed that there were students coming into the HPER with basketballs. They were not there to cheer the Jacks on but they thought they can come and play. The biggest thing that I see is the student section no matter how small they are do not cheer. They sit there like they are lumps on a log. The year we lost to Metro was a great fan base and the students were having fun, one can say its the lack of wins, but if you notice when the crowd gets into the games or there is a great dunk like last night the team can play. With out the crowd of old Frost arena has become a neutral court. We need to find something to get the students to stay. Like stated in another post this university lives in a suitcase.

**Mike_H** · 02-02-2005, 07:46 AM

Re: Bringin' it home

Have they changed the student seating section over the course of the last couple of years?

**89rabbit** · 02-02-2005, 07:50 AM

Re: Bringin' it home

Gave them new bleachers, but they are in the same place.

Go State! �;D

**JACKGUYII** · 02-02-2005, 07:57 AM

Re: Bringin' it home

Something I noted this year at the games was the cheerleaders when doing a cheer at mid-court with the SDSU chant during a break face the season ticket holders rather than the students which I think is odd. I agree the student attendence has been dismal and when they are there ie (NDSU games) act like they are at a movie rather than a sporting event. I think the administration needs to do some serious marketing on campus to generate interest.

**sdman** · 02-02-2005, 12:55 PM

Re: Bringin' it home

Maybe it is just a sign of the times and it is not cool to be demonstrative at a game for students today. But I would think it would be tougher for coach nagy to bring recruits into such a dead atmosphere when we are going to be competing (hopefully) with mo valley and maybe even big ten and 12 schools for talent. That level of apathy isn't good for recruiting. Our players deserve better from the students.

**91rabbit** · 02-02-2005, 01:15 PM

Re: Bringin' it home

Some thoughts about BB attendance:

SDSU has long been (fairly or unfairly) labeled as a suitcase college. Obviously students have home obligations and other things to attend, but I wonder if more would stay in town if staying were made more attractive. The drinking age cannot be changed (unfortunately) but I do believe that the city of Brookings (namely PD and liquor store) have obligations to facilitate letting kids have fun without burning the town down. Speaking of that, are the draconian keg laws/party rules instituted post 1990 "riot" still in effect? This is my point: if students can have reasonable fun in Brookings, getting them to stay in town (and attend FB and BB games) should be that much easier. Ready, aim, fire...

**rabbit85** · 02-02-2005, 01:29 PM

Re: Bringin' it home

I can't really blame students for not going to games this season. Lets be realistic here, the team is 6-14, playing a mainly NAIA slate at home, no conference championship to look forward to, no post season play, we're using last years first string as starters this season while our freshman redshirt... what do you expect. A crowd of 8000 to watch us play morningside... and lose? I was at the Bellvue game, it was horrible to watch, it was like seeing an inturmural basketball game on campus. And guess what? Morningside wasn't any better, and upper iowa will be the same. You guys need to realize that students have a lot of commitments, and that taking 2 hours out of tuesday night to watch sdsu play an NAIA isn't going to be a big priority for most of them. If you want the big crowds of students there has to be a better product on floor, which there will be next year in both opponets and our own team. I would like to see a marketing campain like NDSU had for Valpo for the first opponet next year that is D-I. I would love to see a sellout for manhatten or whoever comes up first.

**rabbit4life** · 02-02-2005, 03:04 PM

Re: Bringin' it home

Students do have a lot of commitments but is playing PS2, watching TV, goofing around with friends somewhere else, card, etc... Quality time. Lets put it this way the AVERAGE college student has 30 hours of free time in a week. An hour or two for church a few basketball games is not much to ask for no matter how they play. I also remember the game against bellvue, we stunk, but the crowd never stood up and cheer, and tried to pump these guys up. I know each player individually and they are lacking a lot of confidence they have had a rough season and played some hard games, but they get no respect at home. You can look at it both ways bad play equals less fans, but loud crowds can equal big plays and sometimes a win. example NDSU. I guess we have a bunch of student bandwagon jumpers, the ones that love the game and school are there as often as possible.

**OK_Jackrabbit** · 02-02-2005, 06:37 PM

Re: Bringin' it home

Iowa, Purdue, and Oklahoma have had the same problem of dwindling student attendance. Many places have put together a special package of incentives (a t-shirt students wear to the game, the best of the student seats, opportunities to meet the team and the coaches, a newsletter, contests, etc.) and have organized student cheering sections. Iowa has the Hawk's Nest, Purdue has the Gene Pool, Michigan State has the Izzone.

Maybe it would be possible to do some sort of special student section with student organizers to get things going. When it works (Michigan State) it works great. When your players constantly commit crimes (Iowa finally kicked Pierre Pierce off the team today) it doesn't work so well. I think it could work great at SDSU, with a little organization.

**rabbit4life** · 02-02-2005, 07:21 PM

Re: Bringin' it home

You have some great ideas and I know college kids love FREE stuff.

**SDsportsFan** · 02-02-2005, 08:00 PM

Re: Bringin' it home

Originally posted by OK_Jackrabbit

Iowa, Purdue, and Oklahoma have had the same problem of dwindling student attendance. Many places have put together a special package of incentives (a t-shirt students wear to the game, the best of the student seats, opportunities to meet the team and the coaches, a newsletter, contests, etc.) and have organized student cheering sections. Iowa has the Hawk's Nest, Purdue has the Gene Pool, Michigan State has the Izzone.

Maybe it would be possible to do some sort of special student section with student organizers to get things going. When it works (Michigan State) it works great. When your players constantly commit crimes (Iowa finally kicked Pierre Pierce off the team today) it doesn't work so well. I think it could work great at SDSU, with a little organization.

These are the kind of ideas I like to hear. Having a good student section is so important for home court advantage, and I agree that having a special student section would help. Could you imagine if we have 5,000 Rabbit Rowdies at each home game, that would be a big advantage for our teams and would also be a good recruiting tool. And you aint kidding rabbit4life, college students love free stuff. Hopefully somebody will get this done.

**SDSUFAN** · 02-02-2005, 10:41 PM

Re: Bringin' it home

I like OK Jack ideas and maybe that is what is needed.

I have traveled 250 miles for many Jack games in the last 20 years. Its fun when they are winning and the kids are playing great. This year the product is down and not much fun.

If I lived in Brookings or Volga, venturing to Frost no matter what the schedule is like would not be chore. �For me this year it has been a chore, and after the Morningside game, I gave my tickets to relatives who are close by so they are being used, but its been painful even for me. I dont like to be non-supportive, but at the same time, its not fun to watch.

As much as I respect Coach Nagy, this year his product is very much sub-standard, and I feel sympathy for him. I dont know what else he could have done that he has not already done. �He could not forsee Matt Jones' or Andy Moeller's departures nor could he control their reasons.

It can only get better and I think the HPER department is paying attention to attendence, and adjustments should and will be made. I hope they read OK's ideas. They are very good and appropriate if we are now D1 and have a growing student population.

Our cheer squads have changed a great deal from the old days in the Barn. Back then they had maybe no more than six, and now it seems like they got 20 who often forget that they are part of the cheer squad. �In the Barn these people did make good cheers and they were directed towards the students. �They have enough people now to face both the students and the reserve sections. They really need some fine tuning in the future.

Next year better team, better schedule and better crowds and we hope a better cheer squad. ;D

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