|
Post by gorabbits on Mar 8, 2015 10:37:27 GMT -6
Great crowd at the games yesterday, Over 7000 for the women and almost 10,000 for the men. Hope to see a similar turnout tonight. The afternoon crowd will undoubtedly be smaller since neither SDSU or USD is playing but there are still over 5000 tickets sold for the game.
The NCAA director of championships who was here should have been impressed. Only helps our chances of hosting future NCAA championship games in the future in addition to the regional final In 2017. Wouldn't it be great to see one of your teams in the sweet 16 playing for the next round right here in Sioux Falls.
|
|
|
Post by Coyote Fan on Mar 8, 2015 11:23:47 GMT -6
I believe the crowd for the women's game had actually topped 8000. The Coyote fans have been slow to warm up to this tourney but they are making slow progress from year to year and were very supportive of the women in their victory over IPFW. The Jacks fans have taken to this tourney from it's inception. This is truly a gem for South Dakota and something to be proud of and hopefully keep in Sioux Falls for years to come.
|
|
|
Post by Yotes on Mar 8, 2015 21:14:04 GMT -6
The record set for men's attendance last night is sure to fall Monday night as all three Dakota schools play in the same session, including a bonus State-U showdown. I'm especially thankful we have expanded attendance for this year's version of the tournament as the USD fans start to show up. The Arena was a nice host, but the Premier Center really gives this event a big time feel.
We are incredibly lucky to have this event right in our backyard. Who would have ever expected such a thing ten years ago? We all need to support it as much as we can to ensure it does stick around for years to come. The league definitely picked the best location if they were seeking maximum attendance. Having the tournament centrally located between USD, SDSU, NDSU, and UNO (who should have a showing starting next year) is certainly ideal for attendance.
|
|
|
Post by Yotes on Mar 8, 2015 21:31:18 GMT -6
I had said that the men's attendance record is sure to fall and I am seeing now that the section of upper deck that was previously curtained off is now available for sale, while the lower bowl appears to only have six individual seats left for sale. This is going to be a basketball game unlike South Dakota has ever seen before. I can not wait.
|
|
|
Post by Coyote Fan on Mar 8, 2015 22:19:48 GMT -6
I was very impressed the how loud the Coyote fans were tonight. SDSU will have alot of fans tomorrow obviously but fan for fan the Yotes fans aren't getting out cheered by anyone. During the entire last 12:00 or so of the first half it was electric at the Denny. I don't think the Jacks players will know what to do with so many people that will be in attendance that won't be cheering for them. Of course many will as well but they will not have the same type of advantage they do at Frost. They simply aren't the same team away from Frost. On the other hand it appears the Coyotes are a better team in Sioux Falls than they are at home. Will tomorrow night be like it was at Frost or will it be de-ja-vu from last Saturday night. I imagine the Jacks will play better than they did in Vermillion but the Coyotes will also play better than they did in Brookings. The Yotes just figured out how to better deal with Forbes so maybe they will carry that over against Cody Larson. Hunter has really come into his own so far this tourney. He can be the X factor for the Coyotes, something maybe they haven't always had all year long. It's gonna be a great day tomorrow to be at the Summit tourney.
|
|
|
Post by Coyote Fan on Mar 9, 2015 21:09:04 GMT -6
It appears that the attendance for the Monday night session will be around 10,000. We do have to remember that this is a monday night so that does eliminate some people from attending, especially those that have to travel and/or have kids. I thought the Coyote contingent was ok but could still be better. The last 2,000 seats that remained unsold should have been scooped up by Coyote fans. It was about 70/30 in favor of Jacks fans but in the future we should try to cut that deficit to more like 60/40. The good things is that the Yotes really have an advantage in non SDSU games when it comes to fan participation.
|
|
|
Post by Coyote Fan on Mar 12, 2015 19:13:02 GMT -6
So after having a chance to digest the tourney for a couple of days what is the prevailing opinion on the USD fans that showed up at the tourney. Was it not enough, about right or what we should expect as far as the number of fans. I thought it was close to what I expected but it would be nice to add to the total in the future. Maybe a nice goal would be to see the USD fans double over the next 10 years assuming the tourney remains in Sioux Falls. There is enough room in the premier center to add 1,000 USD fans per session that the Coyotes are part of. I was very happy with the fans that were there as they made plenty of noise in support of the Yotes and definately more noise than is apparent at most home games. I think the overall fan base is probably a bit different than attend games in Vermillion. That would probably include many fans that don't normally go to home games. Obviously the Jacks are the standard for fan support but at least USD now has way more fans attend than NDSU does. Of course the advantage of USD being close should give them more fans than NDSU but the Bison have always been known for showing good fan support, at least for football. I think they have a ways to go in supporting their basketball teams.
Going forward this Summit Tourney is really good exposure for USD in general. It will be nice to see the tourney continue to grow from a USD perspective.
|
|
|
Post by yote14 on Mar 13, 2015 10:41:08 GMT -6
USD fans did do a really good job at the tourney. Evan in the men's semis when we were getting tourched. I hope that we learned a few things about how we should be cheering all game from other teams at the tourney that were as loud as us with less people. We need to change the culture of USD fans showing up for games and sitting on their hands all night.
You can tell the cheerleaders have given up on leading cheers with the fans because no one ever gets up except for the school song and the last 30 seconds of the game. I dont know how to fix it but it needs to be changed.
I will never expect to match the number of blue fans. from a numbers standpoint they are going to have twice the fans as us. Brookings and the surrounding area is almost twice the size of Verm. their student body is significantly bigger and the number of alumni they have is significantly larger. If we had 100% of usd people show up it would only take 50% of the blue to show up and it would still be a 50/50 crowd.
We need to focus less on the number of people and change the culture and attitude of the people who are showing up to not sit there all game and never cheer. It's not a movie.
|
|
|
Post by golfingyote on Mar 13, 2015 12:57:55 GMT -6
For home games in the dome, I agree that our fans are not so great...to put it nicely. The fans that show up to the summit games are the best of the best as far as our fans go. Other than the sdsu game in the dome, the summit games were loudest our fans have been and most they have stood. The problem at the tournament is quantity. Are we going to have as many fans as state? absolutely not. But I think its pathetic we can only fill up ONE section of that arena.
Maybe I am out of line here but the excuses seem like bs to me. we all piss and moan about how its a home tourney for sdsu and how we can never match their fans. It is BS! I overheard a convo at work Tuesday that put it into perspective. 3 USD grads in my office all aged 25-30 talking about the game and how they wouldnt have even gone if we werent playing state Monday night. Talking about how they had to sit in the upper deck and they couldnt believe how many sdsu fans were there compared to usd fans. It blew my mind. Our casual fans show up to one tourney game. Come for the whole tourney and all usd games and you will be surprised how loud our fans can be and how great of tournament we have here in SF.
USD fans, both of our teams should be in the top half of the conference next year. Buy your passes EARLY. Every fan we put in the lower bowl is literally one less sdsu fan in there.
|
|
|
Post by gorabbits on Mar 13, 2015 14:38:33 GMT -6
I thought your fans made a lot of noise for the number present and the numbers have increased for you over the last three years. Stu Whitney in his write up guessed that the crowd was about 30% red and 70% blue for the men's semis. Maybe a difference I see is that the blue crowd may be bigger basketball fans in general than the red crowd. There was a lot of blue in every session not just in the sessions and games where SDSU was playing. IN addition, the opponent makes less difference to the SDSU fans than it does to the USD fans. There were probably at least 7000 Blue fans at all three games when the men were playing with probably 8000 for the finals whereas the USD fan number was seemed much higher at the game with SDSU than the first round game for example. To my untrained eye with respect to the attendance, a similar case seemed to exist for the women's games.
But overall, we should both be celebrating the support our teams get at the Summit League. The last numbers I saw indicated there were more in attendance at Summit Women's championship game than at the corresponding championship games forsome of the major conferences and overall, the attendance at the Summit league tournament is one of the highest of any of the mid-major tournaments.
So I say well done to both fan bases.
|
|
|
Post by Coyote Fan on Mar 13, 2015 16:59:15 GMT -6
I agree with the argument that USD fans get up much more for the SDSU games in Vermillion vs the other games. USD fans didn't really show up in Brookings so the opponent being the Jacks wasn't a big deal then. I disagree with the fans at the tourney and their tendencies. The fans were every bit as loud or louder against IPFW than they were against SDSU but alot of that had to do with how each game played out. I didn't think there was a big difference in general attendance when it came to each game but the student section was louder and larger for the SDSU game. The general USD fan at the tourney was there first and foremost to see USD try to get to the NCAA tourney. I really doubt there were many fans at all sitting in red at the Summit Tourney that would tell you that it is more important for them for the Coyotes to win a regular season game against the Jacks than it is for the Coyotes to win the Summit Tourney. A Coyote fan isn't a true Coyote fan if they think beating SDSU is more important than winning that tourney.
I wanted SDSU to lose so USD wouldn't have to play them making the task easier to get to the NCAA tourney. Some people may have been cheering for SDSU to win to create the State U matchup but that was not my train of thought at all. Before the tourney started I really hoped that USD would have been in the opposite bracket as SDSU to give them a better chance. Eventhough SDSU crushed USD and NDSU edged SDSU I still believe that the Coyotes would have had a real good chance to take out the Bison.
|
|