McFeely's DRIVE FOR FIVE at Upcoming UND/BISON Matchup

[SomeBeach]

In today's FORUM, Mike McFeely puts out a challenge (?) for more fans to show up for the UND/BISON women's and men's games on FEB 24. I'll be there because the UND/NDSU rivalry still means something to me, but I have only attended a handful of other games this season. I also agree with McFeely's take on the lack of effort from both the Marketing department to promote and generate excitement, and to the Athletic Department in total (YES, YOU Larsen) for not doing better to create a watchable product worthy of out time and money. I talk almost entirely about the Men's team; I think the Women's team is showing nice progress and really deserve better than they get in terms of fan support.

So, your reaction to McFeely's efforts? Does it get you out of your chair, or just make you roll your eyes?

[HerdBot]

In today's FORUM, Mike McFeely puts out a challenge (?) for more fans to show up for the UND/BISON women's and men's games on Jan 24. I'll be there because the UND/NDSU rivalry still means something to me, but I have only attended a handful of other games this season. I also agree with McFeely's take on the lack of effort from both the Marketing department to promote and generate excitement, and to the Athletic Department in total (YES, YOU Larsen) for not doing better to create a watchable product worthy of out time and money. I talk almost entirely about the Men's team; I think the Women's team is showing nice progress and really deserve better than they get in terms of fan support.

So, your reaction to McFeely's efforts? Does it get you out of your chair, or just make you roll your eyes?

January 24th of 2025? It's February bro

[SomeBeach]

NO WONDER no one is ever at the games when I show up.

Fixed my mistake. Thanks for the heads up.

[SomeBeach]

Hey GOOD NEWS EVERYBODY! Sam/Lakes/ElChapo is BACK!

Despite his threat to take his ball and go home after calling us a bunch of nerds, he managed to post this in my Feedback section Just This Morning! (And Lakes still knows how to give Neg Rep, even though that button seems to be gone for anyone else.) As you can see, he remains amazingly tolerant and open to others having opinions.


02-08-2024 11:52 AM
El_Chapo

Thread: McFeely's DRIVE FOR FIVE at Upcoming UND/BISON Matchup

DELETE THIS FUCKING STUPID AND MCFEELY IS FUCKING STUPID NDSU fans have seen so many big games, we dont give a F about und

[roadwarrior]

As moderator, I received an email requesting the thread be deleted. Fat chance!

I am flying up from Florida for the games that week, so McFeely can tally one extra towards the 5,000.

I thought the column was great. Called out NDSU for a lack of effort on marketing. Most people might not be aware, but McFeely attends almost all Bison men's games as a paying fan.

[KSBisonFan]

In today's FORUM, Mike McFeely puts out a challenge (?) for more fans to show up for the UND/BISON women's and men's games on FEB 24. I'll be there because the UND/NDSU rivalry still means something to me, but I have only attended a handful of other games this season. I also agree with McFeely's take on the lack of effort from both the Marketing department to promote and generate excitement, and to the Athletic Department in total (YES, YOU Larsen) for not doing better to create a watchable product worthy of out time and money. I talk almost entirely about the Men's team; I think the Women's team is showing nice progress and really deserve better than they get in terms of fan support.

So, your reaction to McFeely's efforts? Does it get you out of your chair, or just make you roll your eyes?

I haven't read the article, but if he's calling out the athletic department and Larsen, good for McFeely. Somebody needs to speak up. Anybody wanting movement to FBS football should be voicing their concern too, because a strong basketball program with a financial commitment to winning would go a long way to helping us get to a better conference.

This administration has done a really poor job of showing that they want basketball to be a higher priority. We've had a chance to take advantage of some tournament success, but have completely dropped the ball. Complacency reigns.

[Bison Bridge Guy]

McFeeley's calling out portion "We have no idea what NDSU is doing to promote the games (although given recent history, it's likely not much). We're not working with NDSU in any way. We don't even know if the honchos want us to try to fill the arena. The don't really seem to care, honestly."

[TAILG8R]

McFeeley's calling out portion "We have no idea what NDSU is doing to promote the games (although given recent history, it's likely not much). We're not working with NDSU in any way. We don't even know if the honchos want us to try to fill the arena. The don't really seem to care, honestly."

I wonder if those inside the offices at NDSU are intelligent and secure enough to not take this as a personal attack or find ways internally to point out how he's wrong and instead realize they have been given the opportunity of insight and perception from an outside source.

My money is on ML being a thin skinned turd who has found a way to mention to at least one person in the office how each of those sentences from McFeely is "way off base".

[scottietohottie]

I wonder if those inside the offices at NDSU are intelligent and secure enough to not take this as a personal attack or find ways internally to point out how he's wrong and instead realize they have been given the opportunity of insight and perception from an outside source.

My money is on ML being a thin skinned turd who has found a way to mention to at least one person in the office how each of those sentences from McFeely is "way off base".

Careful. He might hire a und coach and put us all in our place.

[Strommer10]

McFeeley's calling out portion "We have no idea what NDSU is doing to promote the games (although given recent history, it's likely not much). We're not working with NDSU in any way. We don't even know if the honchos want us to try to fill the arena. The don't really seem to care, honestly."

This is exactly why there has been so much fan apathy in the past 4+ years. Ever since covid, the buzz/marketing around NDSU basketball has completely died.
Look back at the average attendance per game going back to the BSA days:

Home Attendance Per Game
2023-2024: 1,562 (7-13) (3 Non-D1 games)
2022-2023: 1,953 (14-17)
2021-2022: 1,913 (21-10)
2020-2021: 1,519 (15-12) (Covid restrictions)
2019-2020: 2,676 (23-8)
2018-2019: 2,231 (17-16)
2017-2018: 2,757 (12-17) (3 Non-D1 games)
2016-2017: 3,833 (17-11) (First year at the SHAC)
2015-2016: 2,779 (18-13)
2014-2015: 2,512 (21-10)
2013-2014: 3,308 (23-7) (3 Non-D1 games) (Last year at the BSA)
2012-2013: 2,906 (22-10)
2011-2012: 3,156 (15-14)
2010-2011: 3,305 (12-15)
2009-2010: 2,792 (9-18)
2008-2009: 3,596 (24-7)
2007-2008: 3,034 (14-13)

NDSU's record against D1 teams each year are in (bold).

It isn't hard to find when the attendance starting falling off.
- Average attendance Pre-Covid was around 2,870 per game.
- Average attendance Post-Covid has been around 1,730 per game.

Over 1,100 less per game is a huge drop off, yet NDSU's administration seems to have done nothing about this for over 4 YEARS...
There is no way that they haven't noticed this, so the only other answer is what McFeely said in his article: "They don't really seem to care, honestly."
And that is a very damning indictment of the NDSU athletics department under Matt Larsen..