godanesgo99

Back on the board with 1 whole point in the poll. This was before last night's win. On a side note, Vermont got 5 points, Stony Brook fell off (again before last night's game)

Thread won

My thoughts are with Peter and his family. The greedy part of me wants to ignore Will Brown's comment saying that he doesn't know if he will be back. The family part of me (the part with a wife going through breast cancer treatment) hopes he does what's best for his mind and his family. Peter, if you ever happen to read this: all of Albany is with you. Good luck to you and your family. On a different, less serious and more amusing note: I watched most of the game on ESPN3, but missed the last 5 minutes of the first half and various other times with family stuff. Any mention of the mascot fight from last season? Any rematches? Gotta balance the serious with humor.

The thing I am most looking forward to in watching tonight's game? THE REMATCH!!!!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buvy2fsUZRI Damien needs to kick some butt!

LOL. Wow. Just wow.

Well I just bought courtside for the Stony Brook Game. Used the directory on uasports page to contact the sports department ticket manager. Apparently they don't sell them on-line because they are so limited. $28 each and going to be mailed to me. 442-DANE is the box office direct. I couldn't find that number anywhere - so now I have it.

I've never sat up there, and I posted in the LCC thread about how badly I wanted to win seats in the courtside leather couches back in the mid 90's but never could win the spot. Would love to try and get courtside for a game like SB if I could, but would even settle for another game.

Speaking of going to games and buying tickets. Anyone know how to order the courtside tickets, or are they all sold out for the season? When I go to Ualbanysports.com and try to click on that section it says it can't find the section. Would love to get front row seats for when we beat Stony Brook in February.

Outside of Syracuse and the TUC - I think we actually have better attendance than most if not all of those schools as well. It is a walk to the TUC from wherever you park, but it is on city streets with bars and restaurants and structures to block the brutal winds. Then you walk up to a huge welcoming entrance and enter into an arena with dozens of places to grab a bite or a tasty beverage. Getting students to go is one topic. Getting people with decent incomes, possibly kids, say the 25-55 crowd to go to the games is another. I fall in the second category, and some of the suggestions I made would get me to go more often. I brought the whole family to the Maine game - and my wife asked me if we could go to a Siena game next because she likes going to the TUC better. We didn't talk for the rest of the half LOL

Thanks for making a new thread on this topic. This will be my last post in the thread unless the topic gets back to LCC, the Albany Cup, and how much I wish that UA would just walk away if they don't get 100% parity - if not a kicker because it has been so bad for so long. Any more suggestions on how to make attendance better and how to improve SEFCU will be in the new thread.

Like my comment above RE: the doors in the back by the parking lot that don't have handles or signs that you can enter that way - do not go off of people for saying there is no beer. I was at the Maine game and I was thirsty. Would have loved a cold beer. I went to the concession stand just before halftime. I grabbed a poweraid, or whatever it was, and then joked about wanting to buy a beer - but they didn't have any - with the cashier. Halftime was going to start in just a few minutes. Did the cashier tell me I could go to a special room and buy a beer to correct my assumption that I couldn't get one? Are there signs or advertisements for a beer friendly room? Not that I have seen. If the school and program wants more attendance - they need to think like a service industry. How do I let people know about the great amenities and how do I make people's time as comfortable as possible? It's a business, and if they want to grow the program they need to treat it as such or they will fail. And to your other question - I have never spoken with Mr Benson, but I did meet the previous regime. I have sent several e-mails on various topics to the current regime - and never received a single response. Not even an acknowledgment.

With all due respect, if you park in the SEFCU lot why on earth would you walk around the building unless you needed to buy tickets? Well, before earlier this year, I had no idea you could enter from those doors in the back. They are always closed and there are no signs saying you can go in that way. I went to the school, I live less than a mile from campus, and I attend a half dozen or so games a season - and I did not know you were allowed to enter there. So you are right 'Why on earth would anyone walk around?' is a great question. The answer is because most people don't know they can enter that way. The doors don't even have handles on the outside! This is my biggest complaint - the SEFCU is not very welcoming - especially for a casual fan that only goes a few times a year. I think this topic started to move into the how we get more attendance, and my suggestion was merely contributing to what would make me and people like me go more often.

When I was in school, we had just gone d2. I went to a bunch of games, but once the weather was cold - I stopped. Making the walk from Colonial Quad to the RAAC was not happening in Jan/February. Maybe if the added a shuttle across campus and advertised it heavily more would go (they probably do this today, but I have no idea). I remember after every 3 pointer hit by UA they gave away a free Mild Wally's Pizza to a random seat. At the beginning of each game, a random seat was chosen for an upgrade to a courtside leather couch seat for up to 4 fans, and they delivered food and beverages to your couch for free during the game. I always wanted to sit there, but never had the chance. I was always so disappointed when my seat wasnt drawn. I will echo what everyone else is saying about the lack of quality concessions being one of the reasons why I don't go to more home games (along with the fact that they schedule so many on Wednesday nights and I can't go then due to another commitment). My biggest complaint about SEFCU is access to the building in the winter. Even if you pay for parking, you still have to walk a real long way around the building to get to the main entrance - in an area known for harsh blowing winds and a fairly poor lit pass. Sometimes they open the doors in the back by the lot and allow you in with your tickets there (dropping you off on the floor level) but not many people know you can enter that way - and it just feels wrong, so I only use that entrance on the coldest/windiest of games. From a renovation perspective - I would love for them to build out a good 50-100 feet towards the parking lot/stadium entrance - and build a nice entrance to the facility on that side of the building. It would make the place more appealing, have room for concessions on both sides of the arena - and also be a nice showcase of the arena for when people are at football games. Then once you have entrances on both sides of the building, concessions on both sides of the arena - make all of the seats chairback. Fill in the corners to make it be more of a 'bowl' feel. This would probably end up keeping the seating capacity at around 5,000 but it would be more comfortable, a video scoreboard would also help. I know I would make it to more games.

Huh. Complained about an official and the conference schedule in the post-game for Iona. No action by the MAAC. CB did only one of those things a couple of years ago and got a suspension from the AE honchos. Well apparently he is now complaining about the ages of sophomores and juco transfers (after he complained about not convincing Singletary to join Siena instead of UA (according to the TimesUseless blog). The comment was written like a complaint against Iona and their transfers but it felt like a complaint against UA. Hopefully the series ends for a while. We don't need Siena on the schedule. It's just another game to bring down UA RPI rating.

I'm curious if anyone has any updates on what some of the best UA players from the D1 era are today and what they are up to? I started thinking about Gerardo Suero the other day and his failed bid at the NBA draft. Last I knew he was playing for the Dominican National Team: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/gerardo-suero-of-the-dominican-republic-national-team-news-photo/453878532 What are some of the others doing? Evans/Johnson/Puk Tim Ambrose Will Harris Brian Lillis Jamar Wilson Jason Siggers Lucious Jordan Kirsten Zoellner Any others? Anyone outside of Suero still playing internationally? Always interesting to see how the Danes are doing after school

Mens Basketball fell off the rankings again yesterday, but Stony Brook rejoined the rankings at #29 with 33 points. That is what a big win will do for you.

Move the bubble and build up and out. $20 mil is a lot of dough

Well with as terrible a team that Siena is become, I almost feel that the UA inferiority complex is starting to hit me. Kind of like when I was a fan of the Yankees as kid in the 80's and early 90's in High School. I started to honestly believe that my team was going to find a way to blow it every day. It's how a Mets fan must feel today. I think it is time to stop worrying about $iena. They have become the second class team in the area and not worth the time any of us spend fretting about contract status or how they do. Maybe they will regain some power with some good recruiting, but their ceiling was already hit. We are just starting to walk - the sprint is coming. Let the series die. They will be begging for it to return in a few years.

Albany listed again with others receiving votes ... 2 points this week.

Interesting that commenters on their board mentioned that UA would be near the top of the MAAC if it played in that league. Compare that to what Siena's board says about UA...

Anyone know how to watch this game without paying?

I thought they were the next Gonzaga?! hahahahaaa!! Sucks for the players and students but happy their arrogant fans are having a rough time. They deserve it. This. As a college basketball fan, and someone who wants to root for both programs, I truely feel bad and hope $iena can find a way to right the ship and play some competitive ball. Thanks to the arrogance of their fans, and the TU writing staff, I find myself being overjoyed at their freefall.I shouldn't get so much satisfaction out of it, but it just makes me smile.

Ain'ters gonna Ain't (click the link to ebay) LOL

Lets say the game is played at SEFU, sells out, no free or reduced tickets for students, and they charge $20 per ticket (which is more than they charge now - $18 for chairback and $3-$12 for non chairback), and do not include the game in season ticket packages (for max revenue) I am not suggesting they do this, I am only trying to look at best case scenario for $$$ 4,500 seating capacity X $20 = $90,000 in ticket revenue Add to that any sponsorship dollars, TV revenue, concessions, etc. I would say that $150k wouldn't be out of the question. I am not sure how many season ticket holders there are - but with some more realistic math: Lets say there are 1500 season ticket holders, and the game DOES count for part of the season ticket pass The game sells out They give Siena 500 tickets for students/donors/to sell They increase the ticket price as a 'premium event' They sell 500 'premium seats' at $30 each = $15,000 They sell 500 'Good Seats' at $20 each = $10,000 They sell 1000 'Cheap Seats' at $10 = $10,000 They give away 500 seats to Students = $0.00 This is $35,000 in ticket revenue plus whatever amortization of season ticket holders you want to apply to the revenue They give $iena a 50/50 split of the non-season ticket gate revenue on top of the 500 tickets $17,500 With TV, sponsorship, advertising, naming rights etc. You add another $50k to the revenue (not a stretch because of the profile, and may be an underestimate) Siena gets basically the same money UAlbany gets when the game is played at TUC UAlbany makes around $75,000 (not to mention any potential parking revenue) What is getting a home game that sells out and adds profile to your home court and capital region presence worth? If you look at it that way - I think Siena needs to PONY up at least $75,000 minimum to keep it at TUC every year, or make it a home and home. Anything less than that equals UA walks away from the game. End of story.

in the new Poll, NJIT still got 2 points. They are a mediocre team that got hot at the right time vs a major program that took them lightly. Looking ahead, the next match against Yale will be a tough one. They are currently #15 in mid-major poll with 336 points. For comparison sake Holy Cross got 6 points. This will be a real test. I guess we will see if the team that beat Siena shows up, or the team that lost to SFU makes an appearance...