Disappointing opening game crowd

It is so disappointing to see such a small crowd at the opening game of Coach Steele’s debut. How can a city the size of Oxford, around 25000 people, and a university the size of Miami, around 15000, can not fill Millett Hall with at least 7500 fans each game is beyond me.

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Game starting at 8:30pm doesn’t help

A university and nearby alumni community that is now highly apathetic about Miami athletics. That’s the bottom line. UNC started at 9 pm last night in Chapel Hill and the 20 k seat Dean Dome was full to the rafters for a game with UNCW.

Most weather and start time excuses are obfuscation for a much deeper issue.

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Interesting.

Last year vs UC

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Not a reflection of Coach Steele, but attendance over the last two decades has generally mirrored the University’s attitude towards its athletics. At least in the big 3 sports.

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The Knolls’ “tuck in time” is around 8 P.M.

The reality is that Miami has no fan base beyond a very, very, very small number of loyal supporters.

Field Hockey wins their (what was it?) 5th consecutive MAC championship in Oxford. Reported attendance 153…you get the picture. The core group in hoops is probably 300-500, FB it’s maybe 1,000-2,000.

If you can scrounge up season ticket sales figures, that will tell you a lot.

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To be clear, Oxford’s total population of 25,000 is inclusive of the student population. Without students, Oxford’s population is around 10,000. So are you saying that, in order to be respectable attendance-wise, at least 50% of the student body or at least 30% of the total community population needs to go to every basketball game? When the largest attendance EVER at a Miami MBB game is about 10,000? Seems a tad unrealistic to me. If Miami could average 5,000 or so over the course of a season, that would be exceptional, IMO! Especially when you throw in games that occur over holidays and J-term.

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This isn’t a gotcha because I don’t know the answers:

  1. Did you go to the game last night?
  2. Where do you live?

I remember several seasons ago under Cooper the Miami home opener was against Wilmington. Bates was not there. Hodge was not there. The pep band was not there. I found that indicative of the attitude towards MBB. Hopefully it’s beginning to change.

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Averaged over 6000 a game (6300 I think) at home in Wally’s last season.

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Miami’s enrollment is over 19k now…so I assume your numbers have changed overall too

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OK. Apathetic and almost non existent fan base, then. That’s us in 2022.

Yes, Springboro

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And, true to our 50 year long tradition, per pretend 100,000 people located 15-20 miles away in Hamilton don’t exist.

1999?

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The PRODUCT on the floor, field, rink, etc. is the primary determinant of fan “interest” and, eventually financial support. If you cannot sustain the PRODUCT, you cannot create a fan base and you will lose your fans and your donors.

The second component is that there simply has to be an ICA-led “full court press” (for lack of a better term) to engage fans. I say it’s a second component because if the PRODUCT cannot be sustained at an acceptable high level of winning (try 65% for openers), it becomes an impossibility to ever be successful.

Finally, the third component is administrative support—meaning the admin./ Trustees have to pony up the cash to support paying the 21st Century wage scale to attract and retain great coaches. (Solich was a deal). An aggressive AD also needs to be aboard. DS is a nice guy but he does not have the financial means to reach higher that what you usually see at Miami.

Look at who Boise attracted as their FB coaches over a 10-15 year stretch and you’ll get the picture. (The downside is was Boise went “all-in” on FB and basically said “screw the non-money-making sports.” It was a gamble…and they hit the jackpot. Maybe, James Madison, Coastal Carolina, App State and UCF are following the Boise model…

Wally brought the fans, Harp brought the fans…Both graduated and the sinkhole quickly reappeared. Al McGuire, when he coached Marquette BB, used to say that he “needed” to sign at least one stud a year to keep the product relevant.

My oldest son and I attended at least 90+% of every game Harp and Wally played at Miami at home plus a decent handful of games on the road…and we donated generously.

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There’s a lot of revisionist history concerning crowds during the Wally/Harper years. Overall, students have always been a tough sell at Miami. But they aren’t from Mars and they’ll show up for consistent winning or standout talents.

I was pretty pleased with the crowd last night. The staff sure tried to promote it, something the last three staffs haven’t done. The roar from the crowd when Anderson hit his late three is something I haven’t heard in Millett for a long time. Maybe they won’t pack the arena for Goshen, but I’m optimistic down the road.

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  1. So not quite 7500 per this game recap. But close.
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2,000 vs. Evansville for a late start on a Monday? I’m actually surprised we had they many. And those who showed up were pretty loud. Give them a reason to show up, and they will.

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Responsible fan base that needs to work on Wednesday morning and support their families. Not all of us on here are inherently wealthy or have high 6 figure salaries.