Why didn't the Big 4 Classic work?

[bluestarcyclone]

I'm not even sure what that means. When an event is held at a venue, if all tickets are sold, it is successful (by most people's measures)>

"This is a good event because it sold out".

Nah.

****, given that this event has occurred during the best collective years of ISU and Iowa over the last 20 years, the fact that it didnt sell out every year is frankly embarrassing for the event and says something about the quality of the event. There should be plenty of demand for ISU and Iowa basketball, but it manages to not sell out every year.

 

[capitalcityguy]

Don't know. Don't care.

It is the premise (albeit incorrect) of @ChrisMWilliams original post. Why are you on the thread then?

In any other event, ticket sales are the indicator of success. That was not a problem with this event so people need to quit pretending that it wasn't successful from that measure.

 

[HardcoreClone]

I disagree with that poster as well in that I think DSM is a great college sports town and an emerging college hoops town.

I don't think much of WFA, the locker rooms are average at best and I have been in them all. The media facilities are awful and the event center wireless is worse than being at Jack Trice and awful is being kind.
That said, WFA is in a great location, the skywalk and hotels are awesome, the seating does not suck except that it should have better floor seating beind the basket similar to Sprint Center. The basketball floor sitting in a hockey cutout of an arena with no seating is such a 1980's thing. Spend some money and add some slow rising seats that integrate with the lower bowl.

It is what it is tho- there are worse facilities hosting for sure

It would help if there are more bar/restaurant options right next to WFA, similar to Power & Light/Sprint Center. Just not much atmosphere in and around the arena.

Related problem is how poor attendance has been for Boys State BB Tourney. That place is a dead zone. Nothing innovative or new to try to make it a better experience. Just the same old guys in Boone thinking it's business as usual.

 

[capitalcityguy]

"This is a good event because it sold out".

Nah.

****, given that this event has occurred during the best collective years of ISU and Iowa over the last 20 years, the fact that it didnt sell out every year is frankly embarrassing for the event and says something about the quality of the event. There should be plenty of demand for ISU and Iowa basketball, but it manages to not sell out every year.

Look at the thread title again.

Why didn't it work? (it wasn't, "did you personally like it" ...which is what people are instead focusing on.

It did succeed by any normal measure of an event such as this. Just look at the numbers.

 

[capitalcityguy]

It would help if there are more bar/restaurant options right next to WFA, similar to Power & Light/Sprint Center. Just not much atmosphere in and around the arena.

Related problem is how poor attendance has been for Boys State BB Tourney. That place is a dead zone. Nothing innovative or new to try to make it a better experience. Just the same old guys in Boone thinking it's business as usual.

Good grief, the Court Ave entertainment district is 3-4 blocks away. It take 5 minutes to walk to outside. You can get to it by skywalk if needed will cost you 10 mins.

Would it be nice if there were options across the street? Sure, but plenty of arenas across the country don't have that setup.

 

[Cycsk]

Attendance was good when the games were meaningful (more than one ranked team playing) and lots of us gave it a chance hoping it would be something special ("state champ"), but it turned out to be not-so-special. The incredible drop off in attendance this year is very telling.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

I’m curious for people that want to complain about Wells Fargo for basketball have you been to a non Big 4 Classic game? It isn’t a great spot but it isn’t bad. The Big 4 classic was just a horrible event though.

I have. For several G-league games, for the NCAA's and for a Harlem Globetrotters "game/performance". The line of site is not that great, and the sound is fairly dead, swallowed up by the space. The NCAA's were fun despite paying a lot for seats back in the corner, because we were able to sort of see a variety of teams we don't normally get to see play live. And the fan atmosphere was heightened due to the big names and traveling fan-bases.

I just don't think the venue, physically, is well designed for basketball.

 

[heitclone]

"This is a good event because it sold out".

Nah.

****, given that this event has occurred during the best collective years of ISU and Iowa over the last 20 years, the fact that it didnt sell out every year is frankly embarrassing for the event and says something about the quality of the event. There should be plenty of demand for ISU and Iowa basketball, but it manages to not sell out every year.

Which says more about the fans than the event.

 

[Cyched]

It would help if there are more bar/restaurant options right next to WFA, similar to Power & Light/Sprint Center. Just not much atmosphere in and around the arena.

Related problem is how poor attendance has been for Boys State BB Tourney. That place is a dead zone. Nothing innovative or new to try to make it a better experience. Just the same old guys in Boone thinking it's business as usual.

Shutting down Buzzard Billy’s is part of the fun!

 

[capitalcityguy]

Attendance was good when the games were meaningful (more than one ranked team playing) and lots of us gave it a chance hoping it would be something special ("state champ"), but it turned out to be not-so-special. The incredible drop off in attendance this year is very telling.

This year hasn't been happened yet, so we don't know the attendance for this year.

When you cancelling something I don't think that it is surprising if that causes interest to wane.

 

[NickTheGreat]

This.

I also think making it a multi-day event where each school played two games might have been better as well. We use to play both UNI and Drake every year. Have a Friday night game, and a Saturday game for all schools with separate tickets for each game.

Schedule something like this:
Friday - 6PM Iowa/Drake; 8:30 ISU/UNI
Saturday - 2:30PM Drake/ISU; 6:00PM Iowa/UNI

For me it was this. I remember before it was started being excited for it. Kinda a mini Big 12 tournament vibe. Court Ave being full of all four fanbases, smack talking, looking forward to your next game against the team playing now.

But it's not a "Big 4 Classic" event. It's two neutral site games that you have to buy tickets to both for.

 

[intrepid27]

I know mediacom is covering the Drake-ISU game is it on Cyclones.tv as well?

 

[NetflixAndClone]

What is it good for...? Hockey?

Hell yeah go Wild!

 

[MartyFine]

So a double header with all 4 in state teams having less thans in attendance than a normal ISU homegame "isnt bad"?

What is a normal ISU home game? Like last Sunday against Southern? How many people do you think were actually in Hilton that evening?

But the attendance is DSM was definitely not bad for purposes of DSM hosting NCAA tournament games.

 

[Gunnerclone]

It is the premise (albeit incorrect) of @ChrisMWilliams original post. Why are you on the thread then?

In any other event, ticket sales are the indicator of success. That was not a problem with this event so people need to quit pretending that it wasn't successful from that measure.

Can I get a mod to make this guys week and change his username to “hyveeclassicguy”?

 

[usedcarguy]

We should go to a home and WF against Drake and a home and Cedar Rapids against UNI. That resolves the $$ issue of ISU not wanting to lose home game revenue and allows us to play both of them every year.

Oh, and f*** Iowa.

 

[capitalcityguy]

Can I get a mod to make this guys week and change his username to “hyveeclassicguy”?

Do I count more than the other 14k+ that bought tickets on average for this event?

My obvious annoyance on this thread is its premise.

It would be like going to UNI and asking, "why did the Iowa State vs UNI home and home fail?"

huh? It didn't. ISU just said they wouldn't come any longer.

Thi Classic isn't dying due to lack of interest. it is dying because Iowa said they wouldn't come any longer .

 

[theshadow]

Then how did it sell out 2 years ago...and nearly the year before?

I wouldn't trumpet 15,000 and change as a "sellout" for WFA when the NCAA games were all 16,600 or higher.

Last year's was <14,000.

 

[capitalcityguy]

I wouldn't trumpet 15,000 and change as a "sellout" for WFA when the NCAA games were all 16,600 or higher.

Last year's was <14,000.

The configuration for the NCAA allows for more seating. Nice try though.

 

[theshadow]

The configuration for the NCAA allows for more seating. Nice try though.

Moving the goalposts -- er, seats -- in order to declare a sellout does not make it so.