West Region D2 attendance: It's not good.

[tsull]

My annual look at attendance and nothing has changed, it anything it's gotten worse.

GNAC is not good this year, just this past week's games:

WWU at WOU -- 74 fans. That's the worst I've heard in the history of the school.

On Saturday WWU at SPU drew a respectable 877; NNU at WOU drew 284; CWU at St.Martin's drew an OK 630; SFU at MSUB at 246; and UAF at UAA drew a good 1,642.

Since the CCAA is crushing it this year on the national scene I thought I'd take a look there.

San Bernardino, sporting a No. 6 national ranking and impressive 20-2 record drew 300 fans vs. Humboldt, in a city of more than 200,000.
No. 11 Chico travelled to No. 19 San Marcos in an epic battle between two great teams (Chico won by 63-57) ... 163 fans witnessed it. San Marcos has a population of 63,000 and several cities around it.

I didn't check Pac West attendance, guessing it's similar.

Bottom line, D2 schools need to do something. NNU in a town of 100K marketed their program at a level of ZERO a couple years ago and averaged 1,000 for the season, yes, 1K. What could've they done had they actually done something in the community?

I get it, D2 athletic departments don't have full-time marketing people, so why not hire some Marketing or Sport Management majors to do the work? Do SOMETHING. Want to know why every dink water school wants to go D1? Because D2 schools don't freaking care about their product. If you're going to play scholarship basketball, please care. If you don't care, go D3 where there's no scholarships. It makes no sense to play at the D2 level and not give a damn.

[Anchorage]

My annual look at attendance and nothing has changed, it anything it's gotten worse.

GNAC is not good this year, just this past week's games:

WWU at WOU -- 74 fans. That's the worst I've heard in the history of the school.

On Saturday WWU at SPU drew a respectable 877; NNU at WOU drew 284; CWU at St.Martin's drew an OK 630; SFU at MSUB at 246; and UAF at UAA drew a good 1,642.

Since the CCAA is crushing it this year on the national scene I thought I'd take a look there.

San Bernardino, sporting a No. 6 national ranking and impressive 20-2 ranking drew 300 fans vs. Humboldt, in a city of more than 200,000.
No. 11 Chico travelled to No. 19 San Marcos in an epic battle between two great teams (Chico won by 63-57) ... 163 fans witnessed it. San Marcos has a population of 63,000 and several cities around it.

I didn't check Pac West attendance, guessing it's similar.

Bottom line, D2 schools need to do something? NNU in a town of 100K marketed their program at a level of ZERO a couple years ago and averaged 1,000 for the season, yes, 1K. What could've they done had they actually done something in the community?

I get it, D2 athletic departments don't have full-time marketing people, so why not hire some Marketing or Sport Management majors to do the work? Do SOMETHING. Want to know why every dink water school wants to go D1? Because D2 schools don't freaking care about their product. If you're going to play scholarship basketball, please care. If you don't want to care, go D3 where there's no scholarships. It makes no sense to play at the D2 level and not give a damn.

[tsull]

That's how you do it. Yes, Anchorage is a big city and has some advantages perhaps other GNAC schools don't. They're still trying. Just try, those tickets aren't going to sell themselves. A few years ago when WOU earned a national No. 1 ranking for a couple weeks, little was done in the community to pump that up. No posters downtown, a few blasts on Facebook. Our A.D.'s change, the mantra stays the same and I don't know why other than that they're afraid to change the culture. Are they happy with 74 fans at a game? Just try, hand out tickets to youth, have players go shoot hoops with kids at elementary schools and then hand out tickets, they will definitely go if that happens. Don't be afraid to fail, put yourself out there and let the chips fall as they may. Good job UAA.

[Goods]

CWU vs WWU was probably 60% capacity in Ellensburg and probably 40% capacity in Bellingham. Honestly, the CWU vs. UAF game didn't have as many there as the Western rivalry, I'd guess 900 or so and those fans were way more into it. Sparling/Sparling returning had a lot to do with that and the game was good, came down to the last couple of minutes.

So much focus on virtual now. Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy to much virtual stuff in our lives now.

[tsull]

CWU vs WWU was probably 60% capacity in Ellensburg and probably 40% capacity in Bellingham. Honestly, the CWU vs. UAF game didn't have as many there as the Western rivalry, I'd guess 900 or so and those fans were way more into it. Sparling/Sparling returning had a lot to do with that and the game was good, came down to the last couple of minutes.

So much focus on virtual now. Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy to much virtual stuff in our lives now.

Agree on virtual stuff. It's also a complete lack of creativity from athletic admins. Why not have different local high schools be honored and showcase their bands? That means their parents and siblings show up and buy concessions. Why not have double-headers with local high school teams, that means their parents and siblings show up and again buy concessions. Why not have alumni hoop night (they do this at WOU), bring in former players. They should do this in football, too. The tickets aren't going to sell themselves. Try something, anything besides we have a game tonight, check our website.

I've been harping on this for years, for the life of me I don't get the lack of effort. When WOU went D2 some 20+ years ago, I was told time and time again it was a game-changer on many fronts, including fan support and media awareness. They got 74 people to their last hoop game. Try something different.

[Goods]

100% agree. FWIW, CWU bball games include quick games/trivia/etc that highlights 1-4 fans to come on the floor and do something or answer trivia, usually that comes with a sponsor logo or a name announced. But yes, Kittitas County has five high schools, 3 of which could bring teams to play 3 on 3 or 5 on 5 during halftime. We're like every other area that has too many club and AAU teams - they could play in a college arena in front of their friends/family. When that happens 75% of those families leave after halftime, but I'm pretty sure not all tix were free and I'm pretty sure someone got hungry/thirsty for concessions, and I'm pretty sure you created a repeat customer that will come back and bring a friend.

I took stock in my interaction with CWU and I think guys like you Tim and me are a bit different. For instance, I would assume most alums don't donate, most alums probably don't follow sports and activities on campus as much if any anymore. I do, but where I once never missed a game for football, men's/women's bball and I would take in a baseball/softball game here and there, that has significantly dropped as my kids are both in HS and that (rightfully so) dominates my free time.............what's free time? We still try and go to a speaker series event, music events, etc on campus.

Another thing is that when I graduated I was so broke and I wish there was a cheap way to be an alumni association/Wildcat Club member without a cost. I know they're trying to make it more affordable, but CWU and schools in general need to figure out cheap interactive ways to keep their claws in alums who have no money, but want to stay in the loop. it took a while for me to donate time/money and even then, it's nowhere near as much as the millionaires like Runnin' Cat and IronOre. LOL

[Pounder]

[tsull]

Not sure if Pounder is addressing me or Goods. I'm not talking about spending money, I'm talking about building local community support, which costs next to nothing. It can be done, but not if nobody does anything.

For example, I've always thought WOU's first home game of the season should be football alum day. All former players get in free and are introduced at halftime. I've seen many former players at games, which is cool. Guess what? I also see them with their kids, wives, and in the concession line and at the bookstore buying gear. What a concept.

D2/small college is a different breed than D1, don't try to be that. Try and set up a cool community event, but make it fun and the place to be. I know UO, OSU, and others, have priced many, many families out. Make small college the cheaper option. It's worth trying ... or again, one could be happy with 74 people at a men's hoop game.

[Pounder]

Not sure if Pounder is addressing me or Goods. I'm not talking about spending money, I'm talking about building local community support, which costs next to nothing. It can be done, but not if nobody does anything.

For example, I've always thought WOU's first home game of the season should be football alum day. All former players get in free and are introduced at halftime. I've seen many former players at games, which is cool. Guess what? I also see them with their kids, wives, and in the concession line and at the bookstore buying gear. What a concept.

D2/small college is a different breed than D1, don't try to be that. Try and set up a cool community event, but make it fun and the place to be. I know UO, OSU, and others, have priced many, many families out. Make small college the cheaper option. It's worth trying ... or again, one could be happy with 74 people at a men's hoop game.

[tsull]

There's already excellent streaming content, I can watch all basketball games online as well as football, that's pretty good for D2. The issue is a complete lack of wanting to do anything to promote the program, and I'd say this goes for most of D2 on the West Coast. There's stuff they can do to just try, being afraid to fail doesn't work, or the aw shucks, we're just Western Oregon, San Marcos, NNU, St. Martin's, etc., doesn't work either. For WOU, they pack a lot of their football games WITHOUT trying. What if they tried?

In my experience as an alum and long time fan I see the fan base as some pretty die hard former football and basketball players who want to win as well as a small group of local, loyal fans. I see them at all the games, which is great. There are things they can do, like handing out tickets to local schools, inviting school bands to play, bringing in alumni players, etc. Those cost next to nothing.

The local D2 school where I live is no different other than that they're in a much bigger town. I work in the schools, I once asked a parent who was a higher up at nearby D2 school if they could have a women's and men's hoopster come over and shoot hoops with our kids. He thought it was a great idea. They never showed up ... of course. It would take a drive of a mile and an hour out of their day.

Not sure what's worse, not trying or excusing not trying and just accepting where they're at. Why have an A.D. if this is the case? Have one of the head coaches serve dual roles. It makes no sense to not try. It would take extra work without extra pay, I've learned in any profession that's often a non-starter.

* I'm confused about challenging my different breed comment. Do you really think UO's ultra-rich athletic dept. and huge marketing dept. resembles D2 in any form? No way, never, ever in a million years. The problem is most athletic directors study sports management at the graduate level at a big university. They are taught the ways of a big time Power 5 sports department and then get the gig at a smaller school where the entire world is different and honestly, the Power 5 metrics don't work at a lower level.

[Pounder]

https://youtu.be/lqcsmUZU5ic

[tsull]

Western Oregon has a beer garden in the North end zone. It's pretty nice.