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Terrific crowd at the Joel tonight!

mercurydime said:
Is the renovation to slim down the size of the modular nature, wherein those former seating areas can be reclaimed to host larger events, like NCAA tourney games?
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Good god let’s hope not. Giant sound sucking space isn’t good. Let’s play basketball and quit subsidizing Winston.
 
donaldross said:
I have answered this question directly many many times. It isn't worth engaging you. No one can rationally maintain that a recruit who sits behind our bench for this week's game and then sits in Cameron Indoor Stadium isn't influenced. Sure we can convince some, but a great home atmosphere impacts recruiting overall. If you disagree with that, we just disagree.
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Hey I agree with you. I also agree that it wouldn't hurt to downsize the arena. But you are comparing Wake basketball to Duke basketball. Duke has had the fortune of having one of the best coaches in college basketball history run that program for the last 30+ years. Credit to them for hiring Coach K. There's a reason why people at my work and around the triad pull for Carolina and Duke and not Wake. They fucking win, and they have won for a long time. That's what gets asses in the seats big or small arena.

My biggest beef about this argument coming up is that right now Wake is experiencing a terrible run with it's basketball program (sans last year) and what little momentum the program had going last year was shit right down the toilet with a fucking terrible start. Who's going to spend the time and money to go watch a team that can't beat Ga. Southern or Drake? That's why the Joel is like a morgue. Add to the fact that the students do not consistently support the team, and for the ones who do come (God bless them), they don't have enough numbers to make the place loud and intimidating. I pick on them because they are the ones who bring the energy to the Joel and vital to the atmosphere at the Joel and other Wake venues.

You bring some good points DR and again I argree with you on some things, but comparing the atmosphere of one the most elite programs in college basketball who play in a small arena, to a program that is having to pull itself from the ashes of the last coach is crazy. Sure it makes an impact on a kid who is choosing between Wake or Duke, but coaching and winning matter. Would it matter if Wake played in a 9,000 seat arena right now or during the previous coaching regime? Nope because nobody was fucking there. I went to a few ACC games during the last regime and was able to move very close to the bench during those games. I wanted to fucking cry as I looked around and could sit wherever the hell I wanted to. You know why it happened? Wasn't because we played in an oversized venue, it was because Wake sucked.
 
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Think Wake's attendance is bad? On Nov 14th, Sacred Heart played at Boston College and there were 643 people (8,606 capacity) in attendance.
 
Wakefan77 — I’m not just raising this now. I’ve raised it when we were good and our atmosphere was horrible as well. Good point on BC. Not a big fan base. They are fools for playing in such a big place as well. 600 is pretty rough. I’d like to see a picture of that. They reported 600 for our game against Houston in Lynchburg—I actually counted everyone there and it was like 130.
 
The atmosphere of a packed 1,000 seat arena would be pretty tight. Like Hoosiers!
 
donaldross said:
Wakefan77 — I’m not just raising this now. I’ve raised it when we were good and our atmosphere was horrible as well. Good point on BC. Not a big fan base. They are fools for playing in such a big place as well. 600 is pretty rough. I’d like to see a picture of that. They reported 600 for our game against Houston in Lynchburg—I actually counted everyone there and it was like 130.
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Blatantly wrong. I've heard hundreds of broadcasters, opposing coaches/players/fans, and unbiased observers comment on how awesome the Joel's atmosphere was when I was consistently going to games from 1995-2010. Not just talking about top 10 matchups either. Referring to games against State, Maryland, GT, even games like Marquette and Cincinnati over Christmas break with the students gone.

Your argument does have a little more merit now, I will admit, but it's hilarious that you expected it to fall on anything other than deaf ears throughout the 90s or 00s.
 
i think the bottom line is that DR could be right but it's probably one of the worst answers to the question "how do we make WF bb more successful"
 
tigerswood said:
Blatantly wrong. I've heard hundreds of broadcasters, opposing coaches/players/fans, and unbiased observers comment on how awesome the Joel's atmosphere was when I was consistently going to games from 1995-2010. Not just talking about top 10 matchups either. Referring to games against State, Maryland, GT, even games like Marquette and Cincinnati over Christmas break with the students gone.

Your argument does have a little more merit now, I will admit, but it's hilarious that you expected it to fall on anything other than deaf ears throughout the 90s or 00s.
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In donaldross' mind, the only good atmosphere for college hoops is a small cramped stadium with students on the sidelines hopping up and down.
 
LilburnDeac said:
In donaldross' mind, the only good atmosphere for college hoops is a small cramped stadium with students on the sidelines hopping up and down.
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For a big time matchup, I'd rather be at just about any other stadium in the country than that shithole Cameron Indoor. I've been a couple times, and am glad I went for the history, pageantry, or whatever, but it's cramped, hot, smells like BO/feet/garbage, and you can get some horrendous sight lines if you are sitting near the rafters. Just an awful place with even worse people. Makes sense how much DR cherishes it.
 
I don't think a smaller arena changes the atmosphere at all. Instead of 50% of the crowd being overdressed old people golf clapping, it would become 80%. (No offense to the older folks. Your khakis look great)
 
Asked this question earlier, didn't see an answer: other schools get students to games by rewarding them in some way (ie preference in registration, housing, etc...). It's effective. Does Wake currently do this? Olds might find this ridiculous, but if everyone else is doing it, why shouldn't we?
 
siff said:
Asked this question earlier, didn't see an answer: other schools get students to games by rewarding them in some way (ie preference in registration, housing, etc...). It's effective. Does Wake currently do this? Olds might find this ridiculous, but if everyone else is doing it, why shouldn't we?
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really? who does this?

would be beyond pissed if after paying exorbitant tuition, kid could not get into a class needed for major because he/she failed to go to a Thursday night basketball game
 
thatguy2016 said:
really? who does this?

would be beyond pissed if after paying exorbitant tuition, kid could not get into a class needed for major because he/she failed to go to a Thursday night basketball game
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this is the delusional world fanatics live in
 
FWIW skip prosser gave me a slice of pizza once; that was a pretty cool incentive
 
tigerswood said:
Blatantly wrong. I've heard hundreds of broadcasters, opposing coaches/players/fans, and unbiased observers comment on how awesome the Joel's atmosphere was when I was consistently going to games from 1995-2010. Not just talking about top 10 matchups either. Referring to games against State, Maryland, GT, even games like Marquette and Cincinnati over Christmas break with the students gone.

Your argument does have a little more merit now, I will admit, but it's hilarious that you expected it to fall on anything other than deaf ears throughout the 90s or 00s.
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Growing up going to Wake games form like 98 to 05 or so and I agree with TW here, it's just blatantly wrong to say the atmosphere was bad. The atmosphere during those years was fantastic.
 
tau06 said:
Growing up going to Wake games form like 98 to 05 or so and I agree with TW here, it's just blatantly wrong to say the atmosphere was bad. The atmosphere during those years was fantastic.
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It's not blatantly wrong--it's correct. I was saying it was bad at the time. It was 70%-80% full with students off in the corner and old people sitting on their hands in the relevant seats like they do now. Even when we sold out, there were 2-3K empty seats and they were painfully obvious.
 
donaldross said:
It's not blatantly wrong--it's correct. I was saying it was bad at the time. It was 70%-80% full with students off in the corner and old people sitting on their hands in the relevant seats like they do now. Even when we sold out, there were 2-3K empty seats and they were painfully obvious.
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You're either trolling (in which case, it's working so congrats), can't see, or are just a moron. #worsethanBKF
 
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