Home attendance

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Straight from the UA website.

 

 

Home games-Avg/Game.... 9-2092

 

 

Is 3,000 next season unrealistic??????

 

Hopefully we can schedule some Home Games when school is in session.

[GreatDanes06]

Thats the two things they need to do:

 

1)Try and sched more home games while school is in session. Alot of home games were played over the winter break for us.

 

2) Try and get bigger name opponents in. Your not gonna get us students out with St. Francis, Long Island, and Army coming every year.

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2) Try and get bigger name opponents in. Your not gonna get us students out with St. Francis, Long Island, and Army coming every year. - GreatDanes84

 

You have to crawl before you walk.

 

Remember we are a work in progress.

 

We have to win some games and then attract more name recognizable teams.

 

A 5 win team isn't going to draw anyone to see them lose by thirty.

 

Also a team like Albany is going to find it very difficult to get name recognizable teams to give us a home game. They'll gladly pay us to visit them.

[UAalum72]

Josh on the AE board posted the league's attendance so far:

Vermont 3,266

Binghamton 2,879

Albany 2,092

Maine 1,721

Northeastern 1,545

UMBC 1,517

Hartford 1,213

Boston 1,097

Stony Brook 1,087

New Hampshire 1,040

 

Boston U only had 159 last night, and their average includes 5,700 last week at the opening of Agganis Arena. Means their real average is about 600.

 

It'll be tough to get much over 2,500 avg. at the RACC without opponents' fans who will travel. Our average would go up if we could count the $iena game as a home game every other year.

 

Games over intersession is a problem with most colleges, tough to solve without redoing the academic calendar to have a much shorter January break.

[GreatDanes06]

ooo no no i understand that. But im just saying students and fans dont jump when they see St. Francis coming to the RACC for a OOC game you know?

[Patch]

It'll be tough to get much over 2,500 avg. at the RACC without opponents' fans who will travel. Our average would go up if we could count the $iena game as a home game every other year. -UAalum72

 

I'd love to see a Siena game at the RACC and people scrambling for tickets.

 

There really is no reason why we can't alternate Home sites with Siena.

 

5,000 in the RACC would be an awesome environment.

[GreatDanes06]

i tell you what...if we can get UCLA next year, and if its at UCLA im going. I figure the game would be played over the christmas vacation. My dad lives out in Phoenix and i usually visit him. I dont think he would mind traveling about 3 hrs to go see UCLA vs Albany...HAHAHAHA

[AlbanyObserver]

You will see the Siena-UAlbany rivalry end before the game is ever played at the RACC. I support UAlbany, but this suggestion makes no sense to me. Let's play in front of 14,000 at the Pepsi before 4,400 at the RACC. There is no reason why the UAlbany-Siena game can't be a sellout next season downtown. UAlbany (a strong contender to win the AE) and Siena (optimistic with a new head coach)

[GreatDanes06]

well the thing that hurt attendence at the Siena game this year was that the sched the day when classes were getting out for Thanksgiving break, and everyone wanted to get home from both Siena and Albany. I was dieing to go to the game, but they sched that day, and i needed to get home to catch a flight...thats what killed attendence this year at that game.

[Patch]

AlbanyObserver

 

Let's play in front of 14,000 at the Pepsi before 4,400 at the RACC. -AO

 

Basically, I believe you're right but the time is coming when UA should benefit from the game.

 

Why can't it be Siena's home game one year and UA's the next.

 

Right now they get all the benefits and we get nothing, not even the attendance figure. Meanwhile Siena benefits greatly financially and on their fictitious attendance figures.

 

There is no reason we can't host the game at the Pepsi.

[UAalum72]

I wasn't suggesting $iena at the RACC, just that we should be the actual HOME team at the Pepsi Arena, just as we were when we hosted Syracuse. Lots of colleges play most of their home games on campus and selected big games at a larger arena.

[DaneFan2k3]

Two things:

 

1.) By NCAA rule, to be counted as a "home" game for attendance purposes you must play in the arena regularly, or at least a few times on a regularly-scheduled basis during the season.

 

If you play there just one time (Pepsi), it wouldn't matter on the attendance who was wearing home and away jerseys and controlling the tickets. It would go down as Siena's home game since that is their regular arena, or at best a neutral site game.

 

The difference is that if you played at a "neutral" site, then we could count it because it would be a one-time deal for both schools, i.e. at HVCC or something.

 

2.) Financially, yes, it would be nice to sell the tickets, have our season ticket holders there, and theirs paying.

 

However, what leverage is there for it? If we want to play at "their" arena, we have to play at their arena. That's where they play all their home games.

 

Siena has no incentive to stop the arrangement: we are going to play them regardless, so saying we would back out of the series wouldn't work. We have no leverage over the Pepsi to have them grease the wheels for us, for the same reason.

 

It should have been written into the contract that we would get an allotment of tickets to sell out of the UAlbany box office, or at least UA sections that fans could ask for specifically (and we advertise this), and whatever we sold there we keep the profits. If it wasn't, then that is our own fault.

 

It's their "home" arena.

[AlbanyObserver]

Well, discussing the financials of the Siena-UAlbany game is a totally different issue here. Let's beat Siena one more time before we have a legitimate gripe about our profit from this game. The financials shouldn't end this series. Bottom line, Siena will have to admit sometime soon that UAlbany plays on a comparable or a higher level as them.

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see the Great Danes schedule a 2-for-1 or 1-for-1 deal (the one game being at the Pepsi) against one of the following teams over the next couple of seasons:

 

Villanova

Georgetown

Rutgers

Providence

Seton Hall

St. John's

Cincinnati

Marquette

DePaul

Xavier

George Washington

 

I think any one of those teams would be willing to play UAlbany at the Pepsi after next season. None of these teams would ever play us at the RACC.

[DaneMan]

I think you could get GW or Xavier possibly to play at the RACC. They are used to playing in small arenas in conference play, so it may not be that big of a difference to them. Someone can look it up, but Fordham's Gym may be the same size as the RACC and they are an A-10 school.

 

As far as the other teams go, those would be great gets but if we can only get 3800 for a huge game against Vermont, which may have featured a bunch of Catamount fans, the Pepsi could create a "visiting" team like atmosphere. Those Big East schools travel well and the casual fans that show up would probably sit on their hands instead of cheering for the home team.

 

Maybe someone can find out how much it would cost to rent the Pepsi, to figure out how the school could make money on hosting a game like that.

[GreatDanes06]

lets not also forget that the home opener against Long Island was played at St. Rose this year because the RACC was not ready. That hurts this years numbers as well.