Backup site - DavidsonCats.com

[davcats92]

[CatDawg]

Most of the student body did not attend their high school games....why go now?

[graveline]

Actually, if we booked atmosphere at belk, the young folk might want to come

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_(music_group)
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If anyone disagrees with anything I say, I am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also to deny under oath that I ever said it

[catborn'bred]

I am not quite as cynical about our students. Most were very active in high school and participated in varsity athletes. Makes it them all the more puzzling why they don't attend games, men's or women's. I will note for BDL that few of us on this Board missed games due to finals. There was a strong culture of attending games. Therein lies the answer, how to cultivate this culture for today's students. I do think there are many marketing ideas for soliciting student attendance-- promotions through residence halls, Greek and eating clubs, t-shirt giveaways (which has been done in the past), etc.

[stevelee]

As I recall I missed one Forty-niner game in Belk because that was the day I was doing the prep for a colonoscopy.
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[BDL]

[DCA06]

Kids need to stop being nerds. Hit the pause button on cherish the learning for two hours and root for Davidson basketball

[raptorcat]

1. Get the fraternities and the freshman halls to come by having incentives contests: largest number of attendees from the halls or the frats win a prize that is actually more than a novelty prize. Award another prize for the group that makes the most noise, etc.

2, Talk to Chris Clunie about the College becoming less prudish; e.g., bring back the speedos and allow humorous, incisive signs.

3. Invite the elementary and even middle school kids and their parents to every game, not just a selected few events.

4. As men's basketball is the flagship sport, publish special editions of The Crier that advertise only the upcoming men's game.

5. Schedule more women's games that play immediately prior to the men.

6. Persuade local restaurants, movie theaters, etc. to give discount price vouchers to students who show up for games.

7. Create an ad hoc committee composed of DCats members to request meetings with Chris Clunie, Jamie Hendricks, and members of the administration who carry some clout, in order to make suggestions for improving attendance. We never really know if any administration member reads this board, so establish a face-to-face connection.
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“Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.” — Jeff Bridges as The Dude in "The Big Lebowski"

[citycat]

Classes end 12/5. 11/27 is a little early to begin studying for exams.

I'm still in the dark about AT and RLO.

[2008wildcat]

I can say that, counting all of the minutes put together, I attended less than 4 games in my four years at Davidson. There were a multitude of other obligations that occurred in the 7-10 range on week nights.

Additionally, as has been pointed out here before, the arena holds more than 2x the number of students. So, even if every single student went, you still have to find another 2000+ people to arrive.

And, echoing others, it's gosh darn difficult to make it to Davidson for a 7:00 tip off. I can only do that if I am in my car, driving down the parking deck of my building, at 6:00 and don't run into traffic on 77. And my office does not take kindly to people leaving before 7:30, much less 6:00. I don't have any friends here in Charlotte (late twenties - early thirties crowd, no kids, plenty of disposable income to spend on things like season tickets and several of whom went to Davidson) who make any sort of plans on weeknights - no one has a job anymore than ends at 5:30 or 6:00.

[stevelee]

Bobmckellar, is it my turn or your turn to do the codger rant this year about how we attended practically every men's basketball game in Charlotte as well as in Johnston Gym over our four years?

(OK, we did attend every women's game back then, too.)
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[MLC67]

King McKillop loves DU and loves to coach the lads, and will do so for the foreseeable future with one caveat of note - I detected just a sense of dissatisfaction in his voice during the post game interview last night, not over the excellent play by our Cats, but I have surmised over the lack of fan support. This was a major rivalry game, afterall.

My sense is that Coach works harder than most at his chosen profession, and he sees how hard the team members work. Accordingly, he must be somewhat frustrated by the quietude during game play, particularly as he has stated repeatedly that crowd noise is vital to give us a home court advantage.

I sincerely hope that frustration in this regard doesn't grow into thoughts of retirement prematurely, like before 2030.
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All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for men of good will to do nothing. Eddie Burke

Esse Quam Videri

[seamac77]

Free cheese or pepperoni ( keep it simple and cheap) pizza and soft drinks for students at men's and women's games.

[PsychoCat]

These threads always seem to end up focusing on student attendance. I thought it was ... alright last night, and if D Block could be encouraged to start up again, the overall student crowd would pack in their lower "SC30" sections just fine.

As 2008 points out above, filling those seats is only a part of the "empty arena" issue. The school needs to figure out how to increase the demand.

I like all of Cobb's suggestions (though I don't know anything about the lights, band or cheerleading), but the school isn't going to threaten long standing ticket holders with relocation unless the demand is there to offset possible losses. I love the idea, but it just doesn't seem like it would happen. I thought someone had said that at least the dept is tracking ticket usage.

I don't have any answers about marketing, but money needs to be spent to reach the north meck/south iredell crowd and convince them to come. Someone has already mentioned the local school students. Any other ticket deals? Strides have been made in concessions, but there is still room for improvement. BBQ would be a great option.

I'm also bummed by graveline's stories about some of our previous supporters being turned off by the perception that the dept was a no-fun-brigade. Was that just due to their attempts at signage making fun of UNC or support for Speedo Guy?

[stevelee]