Our basketball fan base back in the mid 80s was incredibly strong and not fair-weather. And frankly, FB attendance was pretty strong back in the mid 80s as well! Unfortunately, It looks as though things have changed some since I left Iowa State.
It concerns me that the place is not regularly packed and that the fans can only muster up some "Magic" for conference games and games against "big" opponents or games on TV. And weather as an excuse? Oh yeah, it just started snowing during basketball season in the past 10 years. Come on, I've trudged through blizzards and ice storms to games "back in the day".
I looked up the attendance numbers and we have not averaged 13,000 fans since the 92-93 season. In fact, the average attendance has not topped 12,000 in the last 4 seasons.
Back when I was in school (83-87), we didn't have a name for "Hilton Magic"...we just showed up for every game, regardless of the opponent, and screamed for our Cyclones and at our opponents, regardless of how the Clones were playing. It was the birth of Hilton Magic (even though it had not been named). Frankly, we were happy to have a great coach, some great players, and exciting basketball to watch.
I was concerned that I might be looking at this from my 40+ year old perspective with too much nostalgia. So, again I checked the attendance numbers. In 83-84 we averaged 12,675 (the highest since Hilton's 2nd season of 72-73), in 84-85 - 13,259, in 85-86 - 14,024, in 86-87 - 13,449, and in 87-88 - 14,238. Pretty good average attendance numbers for an arena with max capacity back then of 14,025 for basketball (although I see the max capacity is now listed at 14,100).
From 88-89 through 92-93 the average attendance was in excess of 13,000 four of five years. After that, as I said before, it has not been above 13,000.
I hope we can get back to the days when the place was packed regularly and the "magic" was always there! I expect nothing less from those of you currently in school and those of you that live in relative proximity to Ames!
GO CYCLONES!!