McFeely Again

[DIBISON]

McFeely states in his blog: I think NDSU will be fortunate to draw more than 3,000 for any home conference game this season. There might be week nights against some Summit League teams that draw 1,500 to 2,000.

http://www.areavoices.com/mcfeely/?blog=16976

Attendance at the first two Bison home conference games was 2600 and 3600. And that was during the holiday break with no students.

You know that SDSU & ORU will be at least 4-5,000.

I wonder if he will revise his attendance predictions for Bison basketball.

[TheBisonator]

McFeely states in his blog: I think NDSU will be fortunate to draw more than 3,000 for any home conference game this season. There might be week nights against some Summit League teams that draw 1,500 to 2,000.

http://www.areavoices.com/mcfeely/?blog=16976

Attendance at the first two Bison home conference games was 2600 and 3600. And that was during the holiday break with no students.

You know that SDSU & ORU will be at least 4-5,000.

I wonder if he will revise his attendance predictions for Bison basketball.

First off, I will defend the student body in that there were at least 200-300 students in the stands for both the IPFW and Oakland games. Heck, there were probably more than 3 hun in the lower west side tonight. But the student section holds about 850, so generally there are at least 500-600 students in the stands during semesters, so it was a dropoff, but there were students at the games.

And McFooly was dead wrong with his prediction. We're averaging 3,088 for two conference games, and I personally don't see any home game getting less than 2,200 or 2,300, and those would have to be Thursday night games. if tonight's attendance against Oakland was any indicator for Sat. games, we shouldn't expect to get less than 3,500 at any Saturday night conference game.

Here's what I roughly see for the remaining home games:

Jan 17 Southern Utah - 2,500 (Thu.)
Jan 19 UMKC - 3,200 (Sat.)
Jan 25 South Dakota State - 5,500+ (Fri. night with a "Pack The House" promo)
Feb 7 Western Illinois - 2,300 (Thu. crappy opponent)
Feb 9 IUPUI - 3,800 (Sat. better team than Oakland)
Feb 28 Centenary - 2,300 (Thu. crappy opponent)
Mar 1 Oral Roberts - 4,200 (Sat. good opponent, home finale)

That would put us at 3,300-3,400 average for conference games.

Strike #680,845 for McFeely.

[SirHinn]

First off, I will defend the student body in that there were at least 200-300 students in the stands for both the IPFW and Oakland games. Heck, there were probably more than 3 hun in the lower west side tonight. But the student section holds about 850, so generally there are at least 500-600 students in the stands during semesters, so it was a dropoff, but there were students at the games.

And McFooly was dead wrong with his prediction. We're averaging 3,088 for two conference games, and I personally don't see any home game getting less than 2,200 or 2,300, and those would have to be Thursday night games. if tonight's attendance against Oakland was any indicator for Sat. games, we shouldn't expect to get less than 3,500 at any Saturday night conference game.

Here's what I roughly see for the remaining home games:

Jan 17 Southern Utah - 2,500 (Thu.)
Jan 19 UMKC - 3,200 (Sat.)
Jan 25 South Dakota State - 5,500+ (Fri. night with a "Pack The House" promo)
Feb 7 Western Illinois - 2,300 (Thu. crappy opponent)
Feb 9 IUPUI - 3,800 (Sat. better team than Oakland)
Feb 28 Centenary - 2,300 (Thu. crappy opponent)
Mar 1 Oral Roberts - 4,200 (Sat. good opponent, home finale)

That would put us at 3,300-3,400 average for conference games.

Strike #680,845 for McFeely.

I will rip the student section not due to lack of numbers, but lack of intensity and passion. My goodness, what does it take to get them into the game and not continously sit stand sit stand. We should have been standing the whole game going nuts but unless something big happened, it was dead. It's horrible when it takes the players motioning to the crowd to actually get up and get loud for it to actually occur. When is there going to be the same intensity from KSTATE game on a nightly basis?
Another thing to look at with the numbers in the student section is how many were actually students? I saw atleast 50 to 75 people that were clearly not students sitting in the student GA. So much for checking student ID's to get into the student section I guess. I really don't think the conference games are going to draw as big of crowds as people thought but I hope McFeely is wrong and your right.

[HerdBot]

McFeely states in his blog: I think NDSU will be fortunate to draw more than 3,000 for any home conference game this season. There might be week nights against some Summit League teams that draw 1,500 to 2,000.

http://www.areavoices.com/mcfeely/?blog=16976

Attendance at the first two Bison home conference games was 2600 and 3600. And that was during the holiday break with no students.

You know that SDSU & ORU will be at least 4-5,000.

I wonder if he will revise his attendance predictions for Bison basketball.

After seeing how good the competition is, the fans will start to catch on. Oakland aint Minot State. These teams are GOOD! Oakland is a team that wins the confernce and beats nationally ranked teams. We saw how good they are tonight and it was fun to watch even in defeat.

[ndsubison1]

Of course McFeely turns the comments off

[NDSUstudent]

I will rip the student section not due to lack of numbers, but lack of intensity and passion. My goodness, what does it take to get them into the game and not continously sit stand sit stand. We should have been standing the whole game going nuts but unless something big happened, it was dead. It's horrible when it takes the players motioning to the crowd to actually get up and get loud for it to actually occur. When is there going to be the same intensity from KSTATE game on a nightly basis?
Another thing to look at with the numbers in the student section is how many were actually students? I saw atleast 50 to 75 people that were clearly not students sitting in the student GA. So much for checking student ID's to get into the student section I guess. I really don't think the conference games are going to draw as big of crowds as people thought but I hope McFeely is wrong and your right.

You do realize that the students are on break and as a result they probably let a few non-students in the student section. I do agree the students should have been standing that game but all the other games against crappy teams you can't fault them for not getting into the game. Its hard to get up for Mayville State or North Carolina Central.

I won't rip Saul because finding good teams to play at your house isn't easy but next year I hope to see some improvement. I don't care if we can't land some big name team as long as the other games are against decent competition.

[NDSUstudent]

McFeely sees the light......



There's been lots of talk here and elsewhere about attendance at Bison men's basketball games. After making the first road trip to Oral Roberts and seeing the tepid support at that game for Summit League basketball, and then seeing the sub-1,000 attendance at the Centenary game that followed, I thought NDSU would struggle to get 3,000 in the Bison Sports Arena for home games. Instead, they are averaging 2,849 (two crowds 3,000+) for four home games with a 5,000-6,000 crowd expected for South Dakota State on Friday. That is excellent, in my opinion. If the Bison could average 3,000 or more in their first Summit go-around, they're ahead of the curve. Last Saturday against a crummy UMKC team on a 20-below night with the temp INSIDE the BSA hovering around 50 degrees, almost 3,500 showed up. If or when the Fargodome addition is built and the Bison get a proper basketball arena in which to play, men's hoops will become the big show in town in the winter and NDSU could average 4,000+. That would be outstanding.


http://www.areavoices.com/mcfeely/

[roadwarrior]

We also have home games against two of the top teams in the Summit, IUPUI and Oral Roberts, on saturday nights coming up. We should end up averaging around 3500+ for Summit games.

[Bison bison]

i think a 4,000 average with a new arena is low.

i think people will go to games because it will be the place to be, ie more people watching than game watching.

[lakesbison]

I went to green bay game up there, with that new arena, and yes.. people were flocking to that new arena when it started.

Im sure it'll be like Newman Field back in 1997-1998 or every freakin new restuarant that opens in town. PACKED for the first year.ha ha

[onbison09]

Those were the most amazing lines of journalism I have read. McFeely made sense.