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Duke selling student tickets because of low attendance

Steels said:
College basketball is a sport that continues to decline in popularity. Young people aren't going to go crazy about a sport not in the mind of the general public.
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+1

The general public will always fill out brackets in March and follow the tournament to see if they can win their office pools. But I don't think the general public cares about regular season college basketball as much as it used to. With college football, you aren't watching the best football players in America, but at least you're watching the best 18-21 year old football players. With college basketball, you don't even get that - you're watching second-tier basketball players in the 18-21 year old age group.

I'm sure even at Duke there is less interest among the student body now than there was in previous years. 10 years ago, they had a team with 5 future NBA starters (Duhon, Williams, Dunleavey, Battier, and Boozer). Is anyone on this year's Duke team an NBA starter besides Rivers?
 
Interesting. I noticed last Thursday that there were not as many tents in Kville as in years past. Also, I noticed that the ends of the Crazies bleachers were not completely full. Finally, I commented during the game that the crowd was not as loud as in years past. I also figured it was because our matchup did not excite them as much as it did previously. Didnt know it was because interest in the entire experience had declined. Sad, really.

BTW, during the 70's we did camp out in Reynolds gym for a few of the bigger conference games. It was definitely to get the best seats. Back then, the students could sit midcourt right next to the action.
 
My friends and I camped out for multiple days for nearly every conference game for our four years at wake.

We did it just because we were townies and lifelong fans and wanted the best seats...it was far from necessary.
 
Coach K has been powerful enough to block any moronic attempt to build a new "Durham Civic Center."

I wish we had been so smart.
 
Wakeforest22890 said:
I thought the whole point of camping out was to get tickets to the UNC game not just to camp out.
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There are camp out games (UNC and another big game) and then just the line for games. Two separate things although there is overlap.
 
We had camp-out situations for the big games in 08-09. A bunch of students slept in their cars the night of the Carolina game, and it was freezing cold. I remember having to go to the Joel at midnight or something crazy to make sure my name was on the list, and we made snow angels in front of the new Deacon statue. Anyways, the point is that our students will show up in droves.....when we are good again.
 
Duke students didn't fill their allotment of the UVA, Wake, or FSU games. Obviously Duke sold the student tix to the public for the winter break games too. Penn & UNC-G I think.
 
donaldross said:
Coach K has been powerful enough to block any moronic attempt to build a new "Durham Civic Center."

I wish we had been so smart.
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Yeah, if only we could still be playing our home games in a half-empty arena thirty miles from campus. What a recruiting tool that would be.

The Joel was a very wise move for WF. Is it the best long-term option for our men's hoops team. Maybe not. But it was the best WF was going to do at the time and we have TKH to thank for making it happen in large part.
 
weve only put 400 million in facilitiea since then. clearly we couldnt afford it. in any event, the past is the past. glad you agree its not the answer.
 
I notice the Asian tags. Maybe with the pressure a lot of these kids are under to get into a top school and do well they feel like they don't have time for bball- they have a much more serious attitude towards their education, and that doesn't include time to spend on bball? Or perhaps they're under the impression they have to get involved with the Kville nonsense and camping out to get tickets. Maybe something similar is going on at Wake- the students Wake now admits are much more serious about their education. The costs are so much higher now and getting into these schools is so much more competitive.
According to statistics released by the admissions office, Asians, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders constitute 28.4 percent of the student body. Black students made up 9.3 percent, Hispanic students 5.9 percent and other minority students 0.2 percent.
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http://dukechronicle.com/article/only-asians-see-bump-percentage-11
By the way, in California Asians make up around 40% of the students in universities. I heard a story on the news about how a lot of Asian students are no longer putting down their ethnicity- because they suspect they won't get in if the admissions officer knows they're Asian.
Asian-Americans are the single largest ethnic group among UC's 173,000 undergraduates. In 2008, they accounted for 40 percent at UCLA and 43 percent at UC Berkeley — the two most selective campuses in the UC system — as well as 50 percent at UC San Diego and 54 percent at UC Irvine.

Asian-Americans are about 12 percent of California's population and 4 percent of the U.S. population overall.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30393117/ns/us_news-life/t/asian-americans-blast-uc-admissions-policy/
 
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timthedeac said:
+1

The general public will always fill out brackets in March and follow the tournament to see if they can win their office pools. But I don't think the general public cares about regular season college basketball as much as it used to. With college football, you aren't watching the best football players in America, but at least you're watching the best 18-21 year old football players. With college basketball, you don't even get that - you're watching second-tier basketball players in the 18-21 year old age group.

I'm sure even at Duke there is less interest among the student body now than there was in previous years. 10 years ago, they had a team with 5 future NBA starters (Duhon, Williams, Dunleavey, Battier, and Boozer). Is anyone on this year's Duke team an NBA starter besides Rivers?
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Plus you don't have 3-4 years to really get to know opposing players and create hate. It's hard to remember who starts for who with the revolving door of one and/or two and dones...
 
wsc8521s said:
I think it's less this and more the continual drain of talent to the NBA. And as far as Duke goes, the ACC's decline and the leveling of the playing field across conferences certainly makes major-conference regular-season play less interesting
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The ACC has been on the decline for a while now. It's become a two team league ie UNC and Duke with occasionally an FSU, MD, or UVA being in the top 3. Wake, State, and Ga Tech aren't as relevant as they were in the 90's.
 
College basketball needs to go the college baseball system. Either you go to the NBA out of high school, or you play for 3 years.

The "one and done" system they came up with was probably the worst solution to the problem.
 
PhDeac said:
Agreed. I doubt many students come into college as hyped about college hoops as I did in the mid-90s. There's so much more to do than go to basketball games nowadays.
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What a shame that the students today have to look for an alternative.
 
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