Student Section

[AlCyJim]

This was a good student section. I think people in earlier generations were less self conscious and were there to let loose.

do you remember when the student section was behind the visitors bench? it was loud then and used to pizz off Norm. Team was not real good but fun to watch

 

[SolarGarlic]

Every game I've seen at AFH they fill it up. I don't know it intimately though like Hilton. Just know it from TV. They also seem to bounce around more often and frequently and it's hard to find our fans doing this. Nobody jumps up and down like this at Hilton anymore:



Would love to see this return more to Hilton. This happens consistently at KU conference games I've watched on TV at least.

Again, don't know Allen Fieldhouse intimately like Hilton, but Hilton is not what it once was.

KU has more history and tradition baked into their game experience. But they also absolutely crank the loudest rap music you've ever heard. It's also a very old barn that packs 18,000 people into a small space designed for a different time. It is a level above Hilton in terms of volume and consistency. I hate KU, but it's one of the coolest things I've ever experienced.

It's one of the main attractions to students on campus. For lack of a better term, it's "cool" to go to the game. I'm not sure that's the case at ISU.

 

[TitanClone]

You're not old enough to remember, but you can make a definitive statement on it?

I've been to both. The Hoiberg era was very loud. I think the Orr era had more chaotic energy in the building.

I was a student all 5 of Hoibergs years (victory lap), it was loud but had ups and downs with student attendance. Anecdotal but i missed every game before Christmas in 2013 because i had a co-op in Minneapolis.

That era also started the tradition of lining up/camping out for big games. Walking over with a grocery bag full of natty lights to stand in line was great.

 

[AlaCyclone]

do you remember when the student section was behind the visitors bench? it was loud then and used to pizz off Norm. Team was not real good but fun to watch

Sit Down, Norm!
Never gets old.
Let's Go State!

 

[Al_4_State]

Only if we win.

I just think our fans have been bored with the conference slate thus far.

 

[AlCyJim]

Sit Down, Norm!
Never gets old.
Let's Go State!

exactly right then he just kept walking down to the water cooler

 

[Big_Sill]

Half the crowd raced for the exits with over a minute left in game yesterday. We all need to be better vs KU

You aren't wrong so let me first say I agree with you.

Offering some perspective: for 20 ish years I would have said its unacceptable to leave early.

Having 3 kids in sports / activities that requires us to do about 7 different things on gameday / night. For us, we quite literally don't have the time to spend sitting in line in the parking lot for 45 minutes post game.

As a person who previously would have scowled at someone leaving early, I realize now there can be actual reasons this might be reasonable, but not ideal.

 

[Al_4_State]

I'm not sure how much things have changed, but wonder how much Cyclone Alley has contributed to it. I was a student from 2002-2006, and continued with season tickets through the 2014-2015 season before I moved down to KC.

I believe Cyclone Alley started in 2004ish? I know for the group of people we had that went to games, we were instantly turned off by it because it took what was a natural home court advantage to trying to manufacture one. I believe the first year of Cyclone Alley it was only one end of the lower bowl, so we stayed on the other end. It eventually went to the entire lower end so those who didn't want to join were pushed to the upper deck. By that time I was graduating and had season tickets in the upper deck, so it was no big deal.

Again, I'm not saying Cyclone Alley is why everything has changed, but I still wonder to this day if having an official club for a student section was ever really necessary.

We’re roughly the same age, and my friend group was proudly anti-CA until we were forced into it.

I think the biggest issue with the student section, is that those kids don’t really know bad times. Other than the last 2 Prohm seasons, ISU has been nationally relevant and competitive their whole damn lives. They get up for big games, but as we separate from 2/3rds of the conference as a program, there’s just fewer of them.

I’d predict Saturday is an elite environment.

 

[intrepid27]

I was at the game. I thought the crowd noise was great today.

Looked full on TV. Noise about average for Hilton. 7/10

 

[BCClone]

The ones not there today will be ******** about being turned away next week.

This is what is causing some of it. My daughter got turned away for the big games and then had to miss a couple for class/schoolwork so she didn’t get tickets her last year. Said what is the point if you can’t get into the games that you can and want to really go to.

 

[ClonesFTW]

We could debate on the handful of reasons why but Hilton is not as loud as it was in the early/mid 2010’s, that is for certain.

This year mostly because we’ve been up 20+ points opposed to a tight game which is great. Kansas game will be a good test, hopefully students pack it to the brim with full energy.

 

[BCClone]

Yes, you are absolutely correct.

Kind of the point I am making is that if you own season tickets (which is great), you should have an easy way to make sure people are in your seats if you can't attend. I try to sell mine, then I give them away, but my friend base is not huge and the people I work with apparently have lives and love their kids and their activities more than I did (ha!). I'm pretty sure I could give my tickets away, and would gladly do so, if I knew 10,000 people. I don't, but ISU and their fan base sure do.

The Cyclone Ticket Exchange and CF's board is the beginning of a nice model, but there are improvements to the process that might drive incrementally more money into the pot and fill the coliseum from the bottom up. Killing Ticketmaster at the same time would be a nice added benefit.

1) I propose that we have a system that makes it easy for people to take the next step to get tickets into people's hands that would appreciate them. At Ticketmaster, logically they set the bottom price for a ticket for a consumer at $15. Not because that is what it is worth, or because they care about filling seats and making our home court advantage better. It's because of some base rule and/or it is not worth it to them from a profit perspective. I also know that you can already give tickets away in other methods, but directly connected to that system should be a way to fill the higher-level empty seats with low-cost or free attendance, "sponsored" by those that want people to have a nice experience. Once we get down to $5 per ticket or something, I'd rather sponsor someone and hope that they have a nice experience. Let ISU do that after I press a button that says "give away" if they are going unused. Is it complicated? Yes. But optimizing certain factors of a system often is. Couple this with #2 and #3 below and you may have a system that could work.

2) Figure out an upgrade path for existing season ticket holders who want the option to upgrade to empty individual game seats during the season. Make a kind of ticket that allows you to look around and bid on upgrades and use the "relative value" of your ticket as part of that upgrade cost. Then ISU collects that additional fee and shares some of it with the absent ticket holder. Better than eating the ticket all the way around. This could get quite complex, but I am fairly certain we are smart enough to improve the market on these tickets and provide the exact experience that every fan is looking for. Our marketing department does a very good job, in my opinion, but if you really want to stand out in a crowd, you need to be innovative in your business model value proposition, not just promotion.

3) I get it that students need to have a certain threshold of a game to attend or be interested. They are completely overstimulated and have way too many options for their time nowadays. They can be an asset to Hilton and prove it on occasion. I don't want them to lose their position, but we have to figure out a way to allow eager ISU fans into Hilton that would have an option at those seats a reasonable amount of time before tipoff. We can't have hundreds of seats going completely unused because the Baylor game on a Saturday at 1:00, in unusually nice February weather, is not interesting enough for them. I'm not sure what motivates a present-day college student. In my day, student tickets were hard to get and you coveted the spot. But I am absolutely sure there are ways to get them to cooperate with a system that allows others to use those tickets if they don't intend to.

One possible solution is to create some kind of priority seating system for students based on attendance. In other words, you prove your “fanaticity” (a play on tenacity) by actually showing up. The more games you attend, the more benefits you earn, whether that means earlier entry, better seat selection, or access to prime student seating locations. Other smart schools do this well by putting students in the lowest bowl, along the sideline, and especially in sections that show up well on TV. If those premium student spots were reserved for the students who consistently attend, it would incentivize them to show up (even for games that do not meet their high "requirements" for attendance). It may not guarantee every student is loud, but it would absolutely put more butts in seats and help eliminate the situation where large chunks of the student section sit empty for big games.

Just a note. Some variation on this theme could be used for non-students as well. If your goal is a better environment and real Hilton Magic resurrection, then people might be interested in joining the effort to do it and being a part of the system. Join in to get your seats filled consistently, earn "rewards". If not, you can "pay their way out" of it.

I am sure there are gaps in my thinking here. I would be interested in the systems that others who have issues with empty seats have produced. I'm sure there are better ones than I have not articulated, and I would be interested in discussing them.

Would your solution also pertain to non-student season ticket holders? Good for the goose is good for the gander, amiright?

 

[thisISnextyear]

We’re roughly the same age, and my friend group was proudly anti-CA until we were forced into it.

I think the biggest issue with the student section, is that those kids don’t really know bad times. Other than the last 2 Prohm seasons, ISU has been nationally relevant and competitive their whole damn lives. They get up for big games, but as we separate from 2/3rds of the conference as a program, there’s just fewer of them.

I’d predict Saturday is an elite environment.

We could debate on the handful of reasons why but Hilton is not as loud as it was in the early/mid 2010’s, that is for certain.

This year mostly because we’ve been up 20+ points opposed to a tight game which is great. Kansas game will be a good test, hopefully students pack it to the brim with full energy.

Are we really saying that it’s not loud in Hilton because we’re blowing people out? AFH was loud this year when we were getting blown out.

Let’s stop making excuses why Hilton can’t get absolutely bonkers. This applies to Cyclone Alley and the rest of us(including the large contingent of early departures and concourse standers who use the school night, work night, kids, etc.)

 

[NWICY]

do you remember when the student section was behind the visitors bench? it was loud then and used to pizz off Norm. Team was not real good but fun to watch

LOL OU came to town one yr brought their own foam fingers and everything, it got heated that night, students were giving it right back to them they threw some cups of water at the students, maybe some ice got thrown back, luckily it all calmed down no technicals nobody got tossed. but it did get crazy for a little bit. Stewart Tubbs Sutton Orr(maybe Roy was at KU then?) those coaches loved rowdy enviroments and they all gave as good as they got. The Antlers down at Mizzou were a brutal student section back in the day. The ISU student section bringing cap guns when Stipanovich (?) accidently shot himself was top notch.

 

[BCClone]

LOL OU came to town one yr brought their own foam fingers and everything, it got heated that night, students were giving it right back to them they threw some cups of water at the students, maybe some ice got thrown back, luckily it all calmed down no technicals nobody got tossed. but it did get crazy for a little bit. Stewart Tubbs Sutton Orr(maybe Roy was at KU then?) those coaches loved rowdy enviroments and they all gave as good as they got. The Antlers down at Mizzou were a brutal student section back in the day. The ISU student section bringing cap guns when Stipanovich (?) accidently shot himself was top notch.

Think brown was at KU then

 

[NWICY]

Think brown was at KU then

I was too lazy to check, but that was a great coaching group in that era.

 

[NWICY]

One last comment the Christmas Break crowds are surprisingly good for the quality of opponent we are playing. Students are gone and families buy those lower level seats for their one game a yr Christmas present, those families show up and are glad to be in Hilton and have fun cheering. Is it the same as a full student section when a big game comes to town no, but do those families have fun and make for a good environment on a so-so game yes they do. Plus never hurts to ingrain Cyclone fandom onto the young ones.

 

[CYDJ]

Would your solution also pertain to non-student season ticket holders? Good for the goose is good for the gander, amiright?

Maybe read to the end?

 

[CyDegen]

It could be worse

 

[BCClone]

Maybe read to the end?

Maybe not write a book?