Iowa offering free tickets for the MSU game
- Thread starter CyTwins
- Start date
Most important game in years and tickets are free, LOL!
Well they arent attempting to break the law, like their football idea would have....
...yet
That's a pretty conservative estimate. The five sections behind the one basket (EE-II) alone hit that 750-1,000 number.
Yes, let's compare our attendance at a meaningless game played in conditions that no one in their right mind would sit through against a FBS opponent to an indoor game matching up a ranked team against a top 5 team. By way of reminder, this is what it looks like when our football team plays Top 5 teams, and we didn't have to give away tickets:
And so we are really talking apples to apples, here's a shot of what it looks like when we play a Top 5 team at home in basketball. Again, we didn't have to invite people in off the streets to accomplish this:
Not saying Iowa doesn't have room for improvement, but their paid attendance isn't near as bad as you guys are making it out to be. Wish they could sell the place out for every game and especially big games, but it hasn't been that way in a while. Yet, they still get about 12,000 per game in paid attendance for the year. That isn't that bad considering.
Insurance companies and law firms buying tickets and not being able to give them away.
My 2 cents here, I think it has to do with location and during the week. That is my excuse. Lets face it, ISU is in the center of the state, a 2-3 hour drive will get you there from most of the bigger cities. Iowa City is pretty far for a drive on a week night for the western side of the state. Des Moines metro is closer or a 30 minute drive to Ames than Iowa City is at about 1 and a half hours. Boone, Jefferson, Fort Dodge, Carroll all within good driving distance. Easy to get off work at 5 and still get to the game. Des Moines you can not do that for a 6 game to get to IC. And even the eastern population has about a 2 hr or less drive to get to Ames. Sioux City and CB locations are not terribly far either, maybe 3 hours.
I also think some of it has to do with losing by 30 to them earlier in the year, and the thread of another Fran collapse that no one wants to be a part of again.
I live 2ish hours from Ames, but 4ish hours from IC.
It is also about 1200 bigger than Hilton and not as good as an atmosphere. Free tickets or not. The students need to go to games but are stuffed in the corner away from the court. I know those are excuses, but I am trying to rationalize it. I can not go to the game due to other obligations. I will have to miss it on TV too.
I also think some of it has to do with losing by 30 to them earlier in the year, and the thread of another Fran collapse that no one wants to be a part of again.
I live 2ish hours from Ames, but 4ish hours from IC.
It is also about 1200 bigger than Hilton and not as good as an atmosphere. Free tickets or not. The students need to go to games but are stuffed in the corner away from the court. I know those are excuses, but I am trying to rationalize it. I can not go to the game due to other obligations. I will have to miss it on TV too.
Gary Barta said this 11 years ago:
"Attendance has been an issue that's on the table," Iowa athletic director Gary Barta said. "This isn't an issue that just emerged this year. It's been a deterioration over the last five years."
That same quote could be used today.
I didn't realize a) students didn't live on campus and b) how rural Eastern Iowa is
ISU benefits from DM being close for game attendance. That is a fact. Students do not go because they have to sit off in a corner.
It’s funny that he uses your hometown, Carroll, to help rationalize how easy it is to drive to ISU games but he doesn’t use Davenport (same distance) or Cedar Rapids to compare to Iowa.
A quarter million people also live in Cedar Rapids, geneous.