|
|
Post by VolleyballMag on May 3, 2016 18:28:37 GMT -5
Hard to imagine an NCAA championship event in a more empty arena.
Maybe Ohio State or Mason will have a few more supporters for the second match.
|
|
|
|
Post by VB48 on May 3, 2016 18:31:14 GMT -5
Hard to imagine an NCAA championship event in a more empty arena. Maybe Ohio State or Mason will have a few more supporters for the second match. They could have played the match with an hours notice in a random arena and had more fans. Complete joke. |
|
|
|
Post by 5280volleyball on May 3, 2016 18:59:57 GMT -5
Let's look at this differently. What can we as fans do to grow the sport so that we don't have such a small crowd for an NCAA match? Our sport is easy to follow with rally scoring, very television friendly, and boasts great athletes. So how can we make it so we don;t get this situation again?
To be fair, this match is being played on a Tuesday and it's 2.5 hours from the nearest major city. That will keep crowds down a bit, but we can still do better. I am certainly not immune to this....I have family that lives 81 miles from the arena, and a free Southwest plane ticket. But instead of being at the match, I'm sitting in my living room watching the stream.
As I write this, the match thread has 6 posts and 307 views. That's poor....for a women's match, they'd have 6 posts before first serve and 307 views before the match was 5-3. So we as a community that loves men's volleyball need to step up across the board.
The women's game has only gotten to the point where they could host their event at a neutral site for the Elite 8 and Final 4 in the past 5-7 years. Even for them, I've seen some bad crowds. The Stanford/Michigan Elite 8 match a few years back was at Cal, which is in the Bay Area. Stanford should have gotten a great crowd, but didn't.
My point is let's not bash the small crowds. Instead, let's find a way to encourage more people to watch the game we all love.
|
|
|
|
Post by VB48 on May 3, 2016 19:14:57 GMT -5
Let's look at this differently. What can we as fans do to grow the sport so that we don't have such a small crowd for an NCAA match? Our sport is easy to follow with rally scoring, very television friendly, and boasts great athletes. So how can we make it so we don;t get this situation again? To be fair, this match is being played on a Tuesday and it's 2.5 hours from the nearest major city. That will keep crowds down a bit, but we can still do better. I am certainly not immune to this....I have family that lives 81 miles from the arena, and a free Southwest plane ticket. But instead of being at the match, I'm sitting in my living room watching the stream. As I write this, the match thread has 6 posts and 307 views. That's poor....for a women's match, they'd have 6 posts before first serve and 307 views before the match was 5-3. So we as a community that loves men's volleyball need to step up across the board. The women's game has only gotten to the point where they could host their event at a neutral site for the Elite 8 and Final 4 in the past 5-7 years. Even for them, I've seen some bad crowds. The Stanford/Michigan Elite 8 match a few years back was at Cal, which is in the Bay Area. Stanford should have gotten a great crowd, but didn't. My point is let's not bash the small crowds. Instead, let's find a way to encourage more people to watch the game we all love. Obviously, whoever was making the decisions does not have any interest in growing the Men's game. So, maybe that should be the first change. Once they allow the decisions to be made by someone that has actually seen a men's volleyball match, that person should never schedule NCAA matches 2.5 hours from the nearest city during graduation week with hotel rooms running over $700 a night! |
|
|
|
Post by sakhr on May 3, 2016 19:35:13 GMT -5
Let's look at this differently. What can we as fans do to grow the sport so that we don't have such a small crowd for an NCAA match? Our sport is easy to follow with rally scoring, very television friendly, and boasts great athletes. So how can we make it so we don;t get this situation again? To be fair, this match is being played on a Tuesday and it's 2.5 hours from the nearest major city. That will keep crowds down a bit, but we can still do better. I am certainly not immune to this....I have family that lives 81 miles from the arena, and a free Southwest plane ticket. But instead of being at the match, I'm sitting in my living room watching the stream. As I write this, the match thread has 6 posts and 307 views. That's poor....for a women's match, they'd have 6 posts before first serve and 307 views before the match was 5-3. So we as a community that loves men's volleyball need to step up across the board. The women's game has only gotten to the point where they could host their event at a neutral site for the Elite 8 and Final 4 in the past 5-7 years. Even for them, I've seen some bad crowds. The Stanford/Michigan Elite 8 match a few years back was at Cal, which is in the Bay Area. Stanford should have gotten a great crowd, but didn't. My point is let's not bash the small crowds. Instead, let's find a way to encourage more people to watch the game we all love.
I was at the Final Four when it was at BYU in 2009. BYU didn't make it that year, school was not in session, and yet there were still at least 2000 people in the stands every game (it was probably more like 2500). Let's face it, there are some places where it is just a bad idea to hold a championship. The NCAA needs to do a better job. |
|
|
|
Post by akbar on May 3, 2016 19:54:38 GMT -5
Let's look at this differently. What can we as fans do to grow the sport so that we don't have such a small crowd for an NCAA match? Our sport is easy to follow with rally scoring, very television friendly, and boasts great athletes. So how can we make it so we don;t get this situation again? To be fair, this match is being played on a Tuesday and it's 2.5 hours from the nearest major city. That will keep crowds down a bit, but we can still do better. I am certainly not immune to this....I have family that lives 81 miles from the arena, and a free Southwest plane ticket. But instead of being at the match, I'm sitting in my living room watching the stream. As I write this, the match thread has 6 posts and 307 views. That's poor....for a women's match, they'd have 6 posts before first serve and 307 views before the match was 5-3. So we as a community that loves men's volleyball need to step up across the board. The women's game has only gotten to the point where they could host their event at a neutral site for the Elite 8 and Final 4 in the past 5-7 years. Even for them, I've seen some bad crowds. The Stanford/Michigan Elite 8 match a few years back was at Cal, which is in the Bay Area. Stanford should have gotten a great crowd, but didn't. My point is let's not bash the small crowds. Instead, let's find a way to encourage more people to watch the game we all love.
I was at the Final Four when it was at BYU in 2009. BYU didn't make it that year, school was not in session, and yet there were still at least 2000 people in the stands every game (it was probably more like 2500). Let's face it, there are some places where it is just a bad idea to hold a championship. The NCAA needs to do a better job. Was that a play-in match? No. So your point falls flat. Let's see on Thursday and Saturday. ....then we can discuss. |
|
|
|
Post by VB48 on May 3, 2016 20:01:03 GMT -5
I was at the Final Four when it was at BYU in 2009. BYU didn't make it that year, school was not in session, and yet there were still at least 2000 people in the stands every game (it was probably more like 2500). Let's face it, there are some places where it is just a bad idea to hold a championship. The NCAA needs to do a better job. Was that a play-in match? No. So your point falls flat. Let's see on Thursday and Saturday. ....then we can discuss. Sorry, there is no defense for having 35 people in the stands. There would be a bigger crowd if this were being held at 2:00 am at the North Pole. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on May 3, 2016 20:13:08 GMT -5
And people thought Stanford was bad last year. Haha
|
|
|
|
Post by sakhr on May 3, 2016 20:13:17 GMT -5
I was at the Final Four when it was at BYU in 2009. BYU didn't make it that year, school was not in session, and yet there were still at least 2000 people in the stands every game (it was probably more like 2500). Let's face it, there are some places where it is just a bad idea to hold a championship. The NCAA needs to do a better job. Was that a play-in match? No. So your point falls flat. Let's see on Thursday and Saturday. ....then we can discuss. Right now Ohio State and George Mason are playing, probably the two schools closest to Penn State in the championships, and yet the attendance still looks atrocious. (Probably around 100.) Do you honestly think attendance is going to jump up by 1,900 people on Thursday and Saturday? BYU could bring more fans, but I don't think there are a lot of Mormons in the Happy Valley area. Sorry, but this is a massive fail. |
|
|
|
Post by utoolity on May 4, 2016 0:06:42 GMT -5
Volleyball in the northeast is a sham. Support, talent, interest, aside from penn state women name a nationally competitive program?
Ryan Anderson aside...he was the whole team and some decades were lost on either side of him. Half decade so far I suppose in the back half.
|
|
|
|
Post by larry on May 4, 2016 0:40:32 GMT -5
The play-in games never will be well-attended because they are, well, "play-in" games. I saw some first-round games in the NCAA women's basketbal tournament at neutral sites that, given the fans in the stands, might as well have been played on Mars.
I went to the play-in games on Tuesday when the NCAA tournament was held at Loyola in 2014. Lewis, from nearby Romeoville, was playing and cozy Gentile Arena was maybe one-fifth filled for the Flyers' match.
The neutral-site play-in games are simply an awful idea. Expand the tournament to 8 teams, hold "regional finals" with the four higher-seeded teams hosting, then go to a Final 4, Thursday and Saturday.
The present format is so bad that ESPNU won't even televise the NCAA semifinals. The NCAA.com website website didn't even stream the play-in games. I won't even go to why ESPN3, which streams regular-season men's volleyball matches, didn't want to touch the semifinals or the play-in games, even though ESPN2 (part of the ESPN family of networks) will broadcast the NCAA final.
Will say that the entire dynamic of the tournament was dealt a huge slap upside the head when Penn State, normally reliable EIVA champion and thus an NCAA tournament staple, was ousted during the conference tournament. Ouch!
|
|
|
|
Post by akbar on May 4, 2016 5:07:25 GMT -5
The play-in games never will be well-attended because they are, well, "play-in" games. I saw some first-round games in the NCAA women's basketbal tournament at neutral sites that, given the fans in the stands, might as well have been played on Mars. I went to the play-in games on Tuesday when the NCAA tournament was held at Loyola in 2014. Lewis, from nearby Romeoville, was playing and cozy Gentile Arena was maybe one-fifth filled for the Flyers' match. The neutral-site play-in games are simply an awful idea. Expand the tournament to 8 teams, hold "regional finals" with the four higher-seeded teams hosting, then go to a Final 4, Thursday and Saturday. The present format is so bad that ESPNU won't even televise the NCAA semifinals. The NCAA.com website website didn't even stream the play-in games. I won't even go to why ESPN3, which streams regular-season men's volleyball matches, didn't want to touch the semifinals or the play-in games, even though ESPN2 (part of the ESPN family of networks) will broadcast the NCAA final. Will say that the entire dynamic of the tournament was dealt a huge slap upside the head when Penn State, normally reliable EIVA champion and thus an NCAA tournament staple, was ousted during the conference tournament. Ouch! Well thought and worded post. Spot on. If there isnt too many weekend tourneys I would expect quite a number of Pennsylvania HS teams and their coach to attend this weekend, especially Saturday. The situation is indeed less than ideal. |
|
rva7
Sophomore
Posts: 124 
|
Post by rva7 on May 4, 2016 6:38:59 GMT -5
The play-in games never will be well-attended because they are, well, "play-in" games. I saw some first-round games in the NCAA women's basketbal tournament at neutral sites that, given the fans in the stands, might as well have been played on Mars. I went to the play-in games on Tuesday when the NCAA tournament was held at Loyola in 2014. Lewis, from nearby Romeoville, was playing and cozy Gentile Arena was maybe one-fifth filled for the Flyers' match. The neutral-site play-in games are simply an awful idea. Expand the tournament to 8 teams, hold "regional finals" with the four higher-seeded teams hosting, then go to a Final 4, Thursday and Saturday. The present format is so bad that ESPNU won't even televise the NCAA semifinals. The NCAA.com website website didn't even stream the play-in games. I won't even go to why ESPN3, which streams regular-season men's volleyball matches, didn't want to touch the semifinals or the play-in games, even though ESPN2 (part of the ESPN family of networks) will broadcast the NCAA final. Will say that the entire dynamic of the tournament was dealt a huge slap upside the head when Penn State, normally reliable EIVA champion and thus an NCAA tournament staple, was ousted during the conference tournament. Ouch! Well thought and worded post. Spot on. If there isnt too many weekend tourneys I would expect quite a number of Pennsylvania HS teams and their coach to attend this weekend, especially Saturday. The situation is indeed less than ideal. When Penn State hosted back in 2006, State College High School hosted a huge tournament that weekend. The NCAA's were packed with people because of it. Does anyone know if they still have it? |
|
|
|
Post by brownbox on May 4, 2016 8:32:37 GMT -5
It needs to be hosted by volleyball cities - Provo, Chicago, most places in California, if you want a big turnout of disinterested fans whose teams did not qualify. That's the only way. Men's volleyball is not popular enough yet to fill arenas otherwise.
The non Ohio State semifinal next year will have a similar empty feel at St. John's arena. Even the final will feel empty given the size of that arena. Venues need to be the appropriate capacity and proximity to large volleyball cities to create a strong atmosphere.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on May 4, 2016 9:04:35 GMT -5
The NCAA set themselves up for a couple of home matches for the play-ins and decided against it. I wonder if the money saved was worth the lack of attendance. And people thought Stanford was bad last year. Haha We'll see if it will be worse tomorrow night and Saturday night compared to last year. I'll be there with a first hand look. Guaranteed attendance, 1. Hopefully BYU travels well. |
|
