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Post by geddyleeridesagain on Nov 1, 2014 12:36:14 GMT -5
People chose not to attend a volleyball match on the biggest party night of the year?
Shocking! We need an investigation immediately!
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Post by volleyfan24 on Nov 1, 2014 13:03:05 GMT -5
People chose not to attend a volleyball match on the biggest party night of the year? Shocking! We need an investigation immediately! You brought up an interesting point is it the biggest party night of the year, I thought that was NYE.
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Post by volleyguy on Nov 1, 2014 13:03:18 GMT -5
If I lived in Southern California, I'd never go anywhere. Murderous freeways. Here in Northern California, I don't really drive anywhere more than 35 minutes (each way) unless I absolutely positively have no choice. For example, I had to drive to Marin County (95+ minutes) for a wedding a couple of weekends ago. I rarely visit San Francisco because of the traffic. I drove tons last night. 30 minutes to Costco, 20 minutes to drop off Redbox movies, another 25 to Gamestop and 40 minutes for sushi. Driving to the match is not the biggest deterrent to attending a volleyball match for most Southern Californians. It's the thought of finding parking at the venue and having to walk more than 40 feet to get into the arena.
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Post by geddyleeridesagain on Nov 1, 2014 13:06:11 GMT -5
People chose not to attend a volleyball match on the biggest party night of the year? Shocking! We need an investigation immediately! You brought up an interesting point is it the biggest party night of the year, I thought that was NYE. I say Halloween because not only is it a party night for adults, it's also a big night for kids (costumes, trick or treating etc). So the question last night in my neighborhood (which is filled with volleyball players, ex-players, coaches, parents etc - the local high school has better attendance than any Pac 12 school other than maybe UW) was "Do I drive up to Westwood, or do I take the kids trick or treating and then go to the costume party John and Jane down the street are throwing?" That's a pretty easy call.
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Post by redbeard2008 on Nov 1, 2014 13:09:44 GMT -5
People chose not to attend a volleyball match on the biggest party night of the year? Shocking! We need an investigation immediately! Starting at 6 (during rush hour), with rain in the forecast. Based on 2012 attendance (the most recent year on the NCAA site), the L.A. schools are fourth and fifth in Pac-12 attendance (behind Washington, Oregon, and Stanford). Mid-week and Sunday scheduling, rush hour and morning start-times, and abundant live TV coverage are undoubtedly holding attendance down. On the other hand, Washington, Oregon, and Stanford all actively promote the sport, while at other schools it is more of an after-thought.
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Post by GoUCLA on Nov 1, 2014 13:12:12 GMT -5
If I lived in Southern California, I'd never go anywhere. Murderous freeways. Here in Northern California, I don't really drive anywhere more than 35 minutes (each way) unless I absolutely positively have no choice. For example, I had to drive to Marin County (95+ minutes) for a wedding a couple of weekends ago. I rarely visit San Francisco because of the traffic. I drove tons last night. 30 minutes to Costco, 20 minutes to drop off Redbox movies, another 25 to Gamestop. Driving to the match is not the biggest deterrent to attending a volleyball match for most Southern Californians. It's finding parking at the venue and having to walk more than 40 feet to get into the arena. There've been threads discussing this in the past. What I also think hurts Southern California specifically is that there are several teams in one area so you have all of the fans dispersed among those teams. You have what...UCLA, USC, LMU, CSUN, CSULB, Pepperdine. I wouldn't say that's the biggest reason for the low attendance, but it's something to consider.
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Post by volleyfan24 on Nov 1, 2014 13:19:08 GMT -5
You brought up an interesting point is it the biggest party night of the year, I thought that was NYE. I say Halloween because not only is it a party night for adults, it's also a big night for kids (costumes, trick or treating etc). So the question last night in my neighborhood (which is filled with volleyball players, ex-players, coaches, parents etc - the local high school has better attendance than any Pac 12 school other than maybe UW) was "Do I drive up to Westwood, or do I take the kids trick or treating and then go to the costume party John and Jane down the street are throwing?" That's a pretty easy call. True but kids celebrate NYE too to an extent you just brought back memories of me drinking Sparkling grape which I should have had last night considering the hangover I am nursing now.
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Post by MTC on Nov 1, 2014 13:19:56 GMT -5
It seems obvious that the PAC-12 schools are content with the situation, so what's the problem?
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Post by bigfan on Nov 1, 2014 13:30:46 GMT -5
But it seems to me there's a real problem with Pac-12 Volleyball and attendance. This is a great sport, the conference is having a remarkable year. It's a great product that is very family friendly and, now, has more exposure than ever before. So why does attendance for Pac-12 volleyball absolutely, positively, stink to high heavan. Why fight traffic, parking, gang activity, when you can watch the matches on the Pac-12 network? The numbers are really high right now. Within 5 years Southern Cal and UCLA will avg 200-300 people per match.
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Post by volleyguy on Nov 1, 2014 13:33:51 GMT -5
I drove tons last night. 30 minutes to Costco, 20 minutes to drop off Redbox movies, another 25 to Gamestop. Driving to the match is not the biggest deterrent to attending a volleyball match for most Southern Californians. It's finding parking at the venue and having to walk more than 40 feet to get into the arena. There've been threads discussing this in the past. What I also think hurts Southern California specifically is that there are several teams in one area so you have all of the fans dispersed among those teams. You have what...UCLA, USC, LMU, CSUN, CSULB, Pepperdine. I wouldn't say that's the biggest reason for the low attendance, but it's something to consider. I'm being somewhat facetious, but the abundance of schools and geography of So Cal has something, but not everything, to do with it. I don't believe UCLA has ever drawn well. USC's Galen Center always has references made to the neighborhood it's in, but it's much more convenient than UCLA for most in terms of access. Long Beach used to have great attendance figures when they were consistently Top 10 (and still might have the best attendance figures among So Cal schools) even though they don't have a huge on campus residential student population. Convenience plays some part. Or maybe, to paraphrase Edith Wharton, it's simply that Americans desire to get away from entertainment even more quickly than they want to get to it.
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Post by GoUCLA on Nov 1, 2014 13:46:48 GMT -5
There've been threads discussing this in the past. What I also think hurts Southern California specifically is that there are several teams in one area so you have all of the fans dispersed among those teams. You have what...UCLA, USC, LMU, CSUN, CSULB, Pepperdine. I wouldn't say that's the biggest reason for the low attendance, but it's something to consider. I'm being somewhat facetious, but the abundance of schools and geography of So Cal has something, but not everything, to do with it. I don't believe UCLA has ever drawn well. USC's Galen Center always has references made to the neighborhood it's in, but it's much more convenient than UCLA for most in terms of access. Long Beach used to have great attendance figures when they were consistently Top 10 (and still might have the best attendance figures among So Cal schools) even though they don't have a huge on campus residential student population. Convenience plays some part. Or maybe, to paraphrase Edith Wharton, it's simply that Americans desire to get away from entertainment even more quickly than they want to get to it. Right, I agree. It has something to do with it, but I wouldn't say it's the biggest reason why.
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Post by azvb on Nov 1, 2014 14:07:18 GMT -5
Traffic, weather, parking. Not an issue in Arizona, but attendance still stunk. Unless is the AZ schools playing each other, volleyball is not a big draw here.
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Post by blastingsand on Nov 1, 2014 14:58:36 GMT -5
Another reason like someone else mentioned is thy everyone seems content with the attendance numbers. Athletic departments don't make a lot of effort for volleyball (unless the the program is very relative and elite). To them there's virtually no difference in volleyball or golf attendance.
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Post by Cruz'n on Nov 1, 2014 15:09:16 GMT -5
5,052. That was the attendance last night. 5,052 for six (6) Pac-12 Volleyball matches! Sure, there's the laundry list of excuses: It was halloween night; California schools don't draw well; TV scheduling has created weird start times; blah, blah, blah. But it seems to me there's a real problem with Pac-12 Volleyball and attendance. This is a great sport, the conference is having a remarkable year. It's a great product that is very family friendly and, now, has more exposure than ever before. So why does attendance for Pac-12 volleyball absolutely, positively, stink to high heavan. These numbers from the 10/31 matches are, frankly, embarrassing: Cal at Oregon: 1,297 Colorado at UA: 989 Stanford at OSU: 818 UW at UCLA: 710 WSU at USC: 594 Utah at ASU: 644 I don't think a rainy Halloween is a very good day to conduct your attendance study. I picked a random Friday (not Halloween) from this same month (Oct 3), and attendance was over 11,000.
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Post by tomclen on Nov 1, 2014 15:15:20 GMT -5
5,052. That was the attendance last night. 5,052 for six (6) Pac-12 Volleyball matches! Sure, there's the laundry list of excuses: It was halloween night; California schools don't draw well; TV scheduling has created weird start times; blah, blah, blah. But it seems to me there's a real problem with Pac-12 Volleyball and attendance. This is a great sport, the conference is having a remarkable year. It's a great product that is very family friendly and, now, has more exposure than ever before. So why does attendance for Pac-12 volleyball absolutely, positively, stink to high heavan. These numbers from the 10/31 matches are, frankly, embarrassing: Cal at Oregon: 1,297 Colorado at UA: 989 Stanford at OSU: 818 UW at UCLA: 710 WSU at USC: 594 Utah at ASU: 644 I don't think a rainy Halloween is a very good day to conduct your attendance study. I picked a random Friday (not Halloween) from this same month (Oct 3), and attendance was over 11,000. No attendance study was conducted. I simply pointed out that there were 6 Pac-12 volleyball matches on a Friday night, and except for Eugene, not a single match could put 1,000 people in the arena. We can all find other examples of better attendance...and probably some that are worse...I'm just suggesting that Pac-12 schools have a major problem and an excellent opportunity. But there's clearly a problem.
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