Congrats on getting 7200 and 2600 students. It was a great college basketball atmosphere. All the promos added to it. The only thing missing was a stickback bucket to win the game and the students storming the court. The department gets a lot of criticism here, so I just wanted to say thanks for creating such a great atmosphere. I hope we can have some big MAC games and some big crowds late in the year when the students return from J-term.
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DICK…no doubt and I agree with everything you said. Obviously having a marquee name come to Millet Hall was a big part of the attendance. Promos and hard work certainly added to the attendance. Last night was an example of how basketball can be a success. Imagine if Miami’s administration devoted resources to this program?!
Kudos also to Coach Owens and his staff for putting together a team that is able to compete and go toe-to-toe with “bigger” programs.
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It was as close as we’ve come in a long time to being a big time major college venue event. Congratulations are on order for the Athletics Department and kudos to our student body on bringing back some traditional Miami spirit!
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If I was a cynic, I would say they did what any major sports dept. would/should do to leverage a big game into the most spectators they can. I’ll be more impressed when they build on this and find a way to keep it going. When Owens thanks the students for coming. When he and the team do some campus outreach to develop interest in the program. When some creative minds on campus develop a relevant marketing campaign. And of course if the team wins.
But it WAS nice to see people sitting in the upper deck.
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Were the ticket booths/concessions well run? I remember when we got a decent crowd against Dayton in 2014 that they were pretty understaffed.
Regardless, kudos to the department for doing a great job for this game. We need to rebuild the season ticket base going forward so our attendance floor rises and crowds like last night become common again.
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Was Gate 2 open?
Getting them to attend once is half the battle. Getting them to come back is the other half. Let’s hope they keep it rolling.
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Man, if they didn’t have fun up until the last few seconds last night then I don’t know what to tell them.
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Unfortunately, the students are leaving town soon and most will not be back until late January. They will miss the next 7 home games.
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He (Owens) did that on Twitter today.
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This x 1 million
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My first visit to Millett in about 3 years. Best student crowd I’ve ever seen (by far) and great job giving students prime real estate and putting them all together. I was getting a little emotional seeing that crowd and thinking how great it was after years of no crowds. Really sucks we lost, but otherwise a great night.
As for the Millett experience:
The Good
-No line to get in the building
-BEER! When did that happen?
-Minimal restroom lines
The Bad
-Concession lines were very long. Could they have added stand alone beer carts?
-Need a TV with the game feed at each concession stand. Or at least pump the radio feed out on the concourse.
-Quit trotting out athletes from other sports out onto the floor during every media timeout in the 1st half. It kills the rowdy crowd and you can’t hear anything anyways because of the terrible sound system.
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Despite the outcome, Wednesday was so much fun. I couldn’t help but be kind of sad, though, knowing that the next home game that students will be on campus for will be a conference game, and no one (student-wise) will care. Even if we had won, if feels like a losing battle. How can we get even 1,000 students to show up for a February game against CMU?
It has to be an institutional culture. There has to be relevance. Excitement. A reason for alumni and students to care.
The great news is there’s an in-house blueprint. We saw it with Miami hockey. Miami has built a program. It’s a matter of if they have the heart and desire to do it with basketball.
It starts with winning and then properly utilizing our marketing channels to highlight it. Have done a solid job at both thus far this season, but it has to continue all through March; ideally we’re sitting at 20+ wins with some postseason tourney and then can make a big push for season tickets next year.
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