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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2023 23:16:58 GMT -6
I am willing to accept the KC for this year. Next year people and UWM support KC, then UWM can do D2.
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Post by PantherU on Feb 25, 2023 23:22:05 GMT -6
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Post by Pounce Needs Pals on Feb 25, 2023 23:22:16 GMT -6
The amount of people freaking out about this is absurd and proves that we have some grumpy old guys here. They’d rather have 2000 people in a 10000 seat arena than have a wild environment for a home conference tournament game. I am not in favor of a full time move to the K by any means, but absolutely for this game I am in favor. The home court advantage we created on Thursday was insane. I’m confident it will be even louder this upcoming Thursday. Pray for the team we have to play because it’s going to be hell for them to endure… 3300 tonight says your 2000 is way off. People love playoff basketball, thursday at the Arena was the easiest sell ever, and as usual we fumbled the bag. Not for a walk up game that is not part of your season ticket package. We never had a big crowd at the Arena for a opening round game. Yes, it's 2nd round. The UIC game had a nice crowd and that was at the KC under Jeter. |
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Post by Cactus Panther on Feb 25, 2023 23:25:58 GMT -6
The amount of people freaking out about this is absurd and proves that we have some grumpy old guys here. They’d rather have 2000 people in a 10000 seat arena than have a wild environment for a home conference tournament game. I am not in favor of a full time move to the K by any means, but absolutely for this game I am in favor. The home court advantage we created on Thursday was insane. I’m confident it will be even louder this upcoming Thursday. Pray for the team we have to play because it’s going to be hell for them to endure… 3300 tonight says your 2000 is way off. People love playoff basketball, thursday at the Arena was the easiest sell ever, and as usual we fumbled the bag. Way to go everyone tonight! The crowd looked great on TV. I wish the audio would have been set like it was at the K last Thursday, to get a better feel for the crowd's energy. A long-scheduled Saturday night in February with a built-in season ticket base is a much easier sell than a Thursday night without any season ticket base. Generally, these home arena conference tournament games do not draw very well. If the game would have been played at the Arena next Thursday, 2,000 would indeed be a very good crowd. It won't be any better at the K next Thursday unless a lot of additional students somehow get sold on it. The point is to have the game in a building that has more filled than empty seats, especially close to the court. |
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Post by Duct_Tape_Pounce on Feb 25, 2023 23:27:40 GMT -6
I just needed to hear that. |
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Post by Cactus Panther on Feb 25, 2023 23:31:15 GMT -6
Thanks for the message Adam. Hopefully the lesson learned is that there is a lot of distrust of the athletic department regarding the venue issue because of past history. The more transparent you can be at the onset, the better to mitigate the alarmism. |
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Post by TBone on Feb 25, 2023 23:35:14 GMT -6
This is a decision seemingly made, and in many cases supported by, people that have never experienced the Arena rocking. If anyone experienced that, there's no way you'd want the biggest game of the season, (or perhaps the biggest game in the last ten seasons or so?) with what is likely to be the biggest and most-hyped crowd of the season, to be played at the K. This game, played at the arena, would have likely provided every bit, if not more, of a home-court advantage that the K will.
How can you use the Arena as a recruiting tool when you've claimed on twitter that you chose to play in the rinky-dink gym for a conference tournament game instead - a court where I played intramural sports?
Winning the next game does nothing to advance the program. We still need to win the following two games on a neutral court to do anything towards really advancing the program. Losing in the semis or even the finals has the same effect on the advancement of the program as does losing the home conference tournament game, though I'd argue that losing the next game at the Arena would have likely happened at the K as well.
The likelihood of detrimental long-term effects from this decision is far more likely than the supposed short-term gains this decision provides.
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Post by ghostofdylan on Feb 25, 2023 23:38:44 GMT -6
T-Bone's got me thinking. Is this our most important home game since the league championship tilt of 2011?!
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Post by Cactus Panther on Feb 25, 2023 23:58:22 GMT -6
This is a decision seemingly made, and in many cases supported by, people that have never experienced the Arena rocking. If anyone experienced that, there's no way you'd want the biggest game of the season, (or perhaps the biggest game in the last ten seasons or so?) with what is likely to be the biggest and most-hyped crowd of the season, to be played at the K. This game, played at the arena, would have likely provided every bit, if not more, of a home-court advantage that the K will. How can you use the Arena as a recruiting tool when you've claimed on twitter that you chose to play in the rinky-dink gym for a conference tournament game instead - a court where I played intramural sports? Winning the next game does nothing to advance the program. We still need to win the following two games on a neutral court to do anything towards really advancing the program. Losing in the semis or even the finals has the same effect on the advancement of the program as does losing the home conference tournament game, though I'd argue that losing the next game at the Arena would have likely happened at the K as well. The likelihood of detrimental long-term effects from this decision is far more likely than the supposed short-term gains this decision provides. I've been to all of the big games at the Arena before this season. It absolutely rocks when the crowds are relatively big. I have had some of my best sports attendance memories there, along with NCAA trips to Indy, Cleveland, Rosemont and Jacksonville. I just don't think the crowd would have been all that big at the Arena this Thursday. I can't think of any quarterfinals games that come close to those I referenced above. I would have been thrilled with an attendance 2,000, which would have been in the top half of crowds this season. I'll be surprised if it is more than that at the K, unless it unexpectedly catches on with students. These early conference tournament games just don't draw well for reasons stated elsewhere on this forum. If the coach, who I have the utmost respect for, believes he would have a more intimate setting in the K to create a sixth-man atmosphere, I'm good with that. I like the idea of the crowd at the K, whatever size it will be, to be entirely down low and in the face of the opponent - one that most likely is the only one we have lost both games against this season. Also, the deeper the run in the HLT, the sooner the rise to relevancy happens. Getting to Indy may help get a few more seats filled in the Arena next year. |
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Post by reginaldkdwight on Feb 26, 2023 11:12:48 GMT -6
3300 tonight says your 2000 is way off. People love playoff basketball, thursday at the Arena was the easiest sell ever, and as usual we fumbled the bag. Way to go everyone tonight! The crowd looked great on TV. I wish the audio would have been set like it was at the K last Thursday, to get a better feel for the crowd's energy. A long-scheduled Saturday night in February with a built-in season ticket base is a much easier sell than a Thursday night without any season ticket base. Generally, these home arena conference tournament games do not draw very well. If the game would have been played at the Arena next Thursday, 2,000 would indeed be a very good crowd. It won't be any better at the K next Thursday unless a lot of additional students somehow get sold on it. The point is to have the game in a building that has more filled than empty seats, especially close to the court. Typically we had a PBS or Rob Jeter coached team that put people to sleep this team is not that. FWIW if they lose on thursday now they look like a bunch of f***ing clowns, so way to go by putting even more pressure on this team. |
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Post by spiritofthearena on Feb 26, 2023 18:34:55 GMT -6
Way to go everyone tonight! The crowd looked great on TV. I wish the audio would have been set like it was at the K last Thursday, to get a better feel for the crowd's energy. A long-scheduled Saturday night in February with a built-in season ticket base is a much easier sell than a Thursday night without any season ticket base. Generally, these home arena conference tournament games do not draw very well. If the game would have been played at the Arena next Thursday, 2,000 would indeed be a very good crowd. It won't be any better at the K next Thursday unless a lot of additional students somehow get sold on it. The point is to have the game in a building that has more filled than empty seats, especially close to the court. Typically we had a PBS or Rob Jeter coached team that put people to sleep this team is not that. FWIW if they lose on thursday now they look like a bunch of f***ing clowns, so way to go by putting even more pressure on this team. I agree. If we lose (which I hope we don't), this decision is going to look even worse for Lundy and the athletic department. The decision to play at the K just seems to show they are out of touch with the people who have supported this program through thick and thin for the last 10+ years. |
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Post by ghostofdylan on Feb 26, 2023 18:43:51 GMT -6
Typically we had a PBS or Rob Jeter coached team that put people to sleep this team is not that. FWIW if they lose on Thursday now they look like a bunch of f***ing clowns, so way to go by putting even more pressure on this team. I agree. If we lose (which I hope we don't), this decision is going to look even worse for Lundy and the athletic department. The decision to play at the K just seems to show they are out of touch with the people who have supported this program through thick and thin for the last 10+ years. There's just no denying that this is a gamble. The stakes in this game were already plenty high. |
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Post by milwsport on Feb 26, 2023 19:41:51 GMT -6
If the game sells out and lots of fans are left without tickets, will people still think this was a good idea? Will the images of a second rate D-2 venue on ESPNU help us to recruit the players we're targeting?
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Post by milwsport on Feb 26, 2023 19:56:18 GMT -6
The idea of playing at several different venues in the same season is ludicrous. Fans will get confused as to where the game is. I led the effort to get the K built back in the 70's. It was NEVER meant for D-1 Men's basketball. Not to mention the HL requirement of 5,000 seat venues. The K has at most 3,500. You led the effort to get the K built? Now we know who to blame.😉 You have no idea how hard it was. You think the deck is stacked against Milwaukee now, you should've seen it back then. We had less than 1 square foot of rec space per student vs other campuses with their 10 and more. We literally had the only Basketball game in NCAA history rained out. The roof at Baker Fieldhouse leaked creating big puddles. We wound up playing then 5th ranked Oral Roberts the next night at the Arena and nearly won before a large cheering crowd. Even that still didn't move enough votes on the State Building Commission but it did help us get one more. I went up to Madison lobbying so often that I should've gotten credit for it as part of the Political Science course. Once we got it, I was done. I had nothing to do with the design. I did however suggest the name. Ernie Spaights told me that's a no go because you can't name a building after someone who's still alive. My response was "Why wait til their dead and won't know it." To me it made sense. It was last piece in the campus that Klotsche built. Besides I promised him we'd do something to make sure he was remembered after that 75 year old man beat me and another 20 something year old at Blow Pong in the Kenwood Inn at the retirement party we threw for him. (Blow Pong involves blowing a ping pong ball off your opponent's side of a ping pong table. If you succeed they have to take a drink. We got a table moved up from the Rec Center for the game. The Chancellor was undefeated in five matches that night. His partner basically stood there and let him do all the work.) I was gone from school when it opened but I did get an invite to the grand opening. Spaights wrote in it, something like "We took your suggestion so I hope you can come." That was special for me. |
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Post by Cactus Panther on Feb 26, 2023 20:05:41 GMT -6
Very interesting Milwsport. Thanks for all you did back then and sharing your story.
I wouldn't worry about the game selling out. That would be a good problem to have. Highlights will likely never be seen on ESPNU. Even if they would be, the Klotche on video looks like a lot of other mid and low major venues.
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