Attendance for Wednesday night’s men’s basketball game at Clune Arena was listed at 1,093.
That doesn’t include the players, the refs, the coaches and the writers at courtside. But it seemed like it.
Mid-way through the first half, I glanced around the arena. Seven of the 28 sections in the upper level of Clune were completely empty. Four of the sections had just two people in them. Three of the sections had a lone fan.
And it’s not like it was standing room only in the lower sections.
So what is it?
It wasn’t the weather – the roads were fine. It wasn’t a holiday or holiday weekend. And there wasn’t any killer, must-see football game on television.
Is it residual damage from the debacle that was last season? Is it the next-to-nothing Q rating of the nonconference opponents? Is it the halftime entertainment? (That couldn’t be – I dug the Pikes Peak Jugglers). Is it sports apathy in Colorado Springs?
Maybe the crowds will get bigger once conference play begins. Maybe fans will return if Air Force keeps winning. We’ll see.
-Tough to take too much from tonight’s game considering the Eagles’ ineptitude – in the first half they made 7-of-21 shots from the floor (including just 1-of-8 3-pointers) and turned the ball over nine times.
(I was told the Eagles were better than the 1-6 record they brought into the game. Um, no. They were worse).
But with that said, the Falcons executed the offense as well as I’ve seen this season. Cuts were crisp and decisive and the ball movement was good. The defense was pretty good too.
-Evan Washington dropped a career-high 19 points. His confidence seems to increase every day. More on Evan in Saturday’s paper.
-Five freshmen got a chance to play off the bench tonight, including Michael Lyons, Todd Fletcher and Zach Bohannon, who played 17, 15 and 13 minutes, respectively. Getting the young players time should pay dividends down the road.
Jake,
Great points. As a long time season ticket holder here is my take on the poor attendance.
5 years ago the tickets were $10, team was coming off a 22 and 18 win seasons. Basketball product was getting better. It was fun.
3 years ago the ticket were $15. Just finished a four year run of some of the best win/loss records. Security starting to be a pain, somewhat intrusive. Still fun to watch, no as much for the overall experience.
Last year tickets were $25/30 dollars, but I got to have a cold hot dog, or stale candy bar. Basketball sucked, from coaching, still can’t figure out his substitution pattern (other than he makes a substitution on every time out – and takes out the player that are doing well). There are better players (on paper, taller, larger) than 5 years ago, and a far worse overall experience. I can het a DU courtside seat for under $20 and its a lot of fun. “Commander, wake up. Maybe get there before tip-off and see what goes on.
No matter what people complain….Air Force BBall tickets can be purchased from $7-$30 depending on when, where you want to sit, etc. Comparable to other MWC and actually better. For Example UNLV $18-$36, NM $15-$28, Utah $7-25 and BYU $10-23. Others are less but close as examples.
It’s no different than football. The best bang for the buck is AF sports NO MATTER what the sport is. But Colorado Springs has never been a big sports town….if a team wins, folks support it. If it doesn’t, they won’t. And then you have the fickle ‘fairweather’ I’m an AF Fan who is happy to support the team when things are great and the crowds are large….then fall off the bandwagon during the ‘quiet’ years.
Here’s one Falcon Fan who support our teams every year no matter what! ..Signed by a season ticket holder!
Jake,
3 added reasons for the low attendance:
1. The teams coming in. So far only 1 real D1 team UNC and they lost.
2. Lousy play.
3. Where are the cadets? For most games for the past year there are less than 30 cadets in Section 8 at tip-off.
Frustrating.
The Air Force basketball program has recruited some excellent, talented young players. If this year’s freshmen are developed and retained, excitement should be returning to Clune in the next few years. The key to attracting larger crowds is primarily based on putting a winner on the court. If you want to see large crowds there before the youngsters can mature, play some big name opponents or CU. DU doesn’t have the drawing power, but a game against them would probably bring in more fans than NCCS.
I think it’s pretty easy to figure this out. Put simply, the AFA hoops team stinks! Think back a few years ago when they had an NCAA-tournament-quality team. If I’m not mistaken, they had great crowds that season at Clune. My guess is, if the football team had 3 consecutive 2 win seasons, Falcon Stadium would be less than half full as well. Let’s face it, the Falcons will never have SEC or ACC followings. They’re not UNC hoops, and they never will be. Same goes for the football team, they’ll never consistently be a top-5 team and their following won’t be either. Folks, this is a service academy. When the AFA hoops and football teams do really, really well, there will be butts in the seats. When they stink, there won’t be. Simple as that.