Speaking only for myself, there are four primary things that come into play in my decision making on the scaling back. Now, I'll admit my scaling back isn't on the level taht others have mentioned here, and I don't forsee a day when I ditch tickets altogether.


Factor 1: The whole switch to GA seats in the upper level. Say what you want, but this truly pissed me off. For seven years, I sat in the same seats, next to the same people in section 229. Those people were local to Athens. We shared tickets with them when they had family in, they did the same for me. I always looked forward to coming to sit down next to them and talk about local high school hoops, and hear about the grand-kids in middle school basketball and volleyball. You go to know people at games, and it felt like a community around you. The GA situation changed that.

So NOW, in 2018-19, the Athletic Department is treating seven year season ticket holders with 6 seats (now 4) essentially the same on a game day as a Marshall fan who shows up 15 minutes before tip for one game a year. Forgive me, but that's total bullshit, and it's not the way to treat your own fanbase. It's not about the dollars, because those seats are cheap, and I know it. I'd have give 25-50% more to just keep the same assigned seats. The low cost of the seats was the reason that I started to give to the OBC, because I essentially felt guilty. In retrospect, I shouldn't have, because it's not my fault that Ohio Athletics has no idea how to create a price structure that everyone can afford across a broad range of seating areas across their whole building to have a RESERVED seat as a season ticket holder.

Factor 2: The feeling of practically being interrogated by the yellow shirts about every other, or every third game as I try to simply walk around the building during a game. And the stupid barriers all over the outside of the building. It's a bad look, and a not a good vibe as you approach a game. While I get that much of this is related to decisions made by Gung Ho Charlie at OUPD or APD -- as a fan, I don't care. It's a negative on the gameday experience, and complete overkill. For the record, I didn't get this feeling at all when I went to BG, Dayton, Butler, Duquesne, or Pitt arenas over the last three years. I'll be at UC next weekend to offer a report on that if someone wants it.

Factor 3: For basketball, it's the product on the court the last two years. I've often been the guy who used a couple hours of vaca/personal time to come down from Columbus for a weeknight game about 2-3 games a year. Forget the winning or losing, but the fact that the games haven't been as entertaining plays a big part for me on those weeknight/non Saturday or Sunday games.

Factor 4: The TV schedule changing game times. Case in point, tonight's game. As mentioned, I had a plan with my BG Buddy and wives to spend the whole today tomorrow in Athens. That got tossed out the window. Of the four of us, I'm now the only one who could get out of work early. Clearly this isn't the first time. Obviously, it doesn't leave a good taste in anyone's mouth when it happens. While I'm well aware that there's almost nothing Ohio Athletics can do about this, it plays a part in my frustrations. I'd go back to just listening to games on the radio in exchange for having a game and time on the schedule being firm once it's on the schedule.

Sorry, rant over. You asked and I thought I'd share my reasons. I'm still TBD on this idea, but I'm thinking pretty hard on looking for a mini-pack of games at Cincinnati, OSU, or Dayton. I love college hoops, and want to spend a game day having fun. Ohio got the Alma Mater bias from me for nearly 20 years. Factor number 1 above, and the fact that when I'm able to be here, the gameday itself isn't as fun, plays the part in that decision. If the whole building is GA next year, I'll probably just get two tickets. I used to get 6 and give OBC money to bring friends and other alumni down to Athens every gameday I could. If it's all GA, there's no incentive to be a season ticket holder other than saving a few bucks, so who really cares?

Excellent point. The timing was a bad thing for those using it as a tax write off on the "donation". Tax law combined with bad basketball happened at about the same time.

OU Country, here's a, perhaps, constructive suggestion. You are not the first person on here to express frustration with the change to all GA seating in the upper bowl. I wonder if it might have some effect in bringing back that reserve seating area in the the upper bowl if you and others on here who were impacted by this decision drew up a petition to the AD requesting bringing that section back. I know the AD is notorious for not listening, but maybe, just maybe, a petition with several signatures from long-time fans would get his attention. Might be worth a try. What da ya think?

and I wonder how angry we'd be if we were winning. It's amazing how willing we would be to overlook some of these issues if we were in first place in the MAC.

People are harping on the lost ticket revenue but can you imagine the lost revenue experienced at a place of business like Larry's Dawg House where BobcatAttackers with deep wallets aren't making it rain?

In all seriousness, the Post has been killing it with sports journalism. Arkley has been a Frankoholic and a Saulcoholic for some time now. I am happy to see people finally paying attention to his horrid beat writing as well as his embarrassing tweets.

I think another thing that people don't even take into account is the lost potential revenue from future fans. If we've alienated this much of the fan base, with some of them bringing younger potential targets to games (or current student targets for that matter), then you're missing out on opportunities to attract those same kids when they're older. First impressions mean everything, and currently our basketball program and the surrounding atmosphere isn't making a great one.

I know for one thing I wouldn't be a fan of Ohio basketball if it weren't for how fun the games were when I was a student. The first game I ever went to I didn't sit in the O Zone, but the energy there made me think "oh yeah I want to be part of that." And once I got in there the games mattered more. Ohio Athletics turned me into a fan and they didn't even have to try hard. Just gave me a t-shirt and some free pizza every once in a while. The atmosphere made it fun. It hasn't been that way for a while, and I don't think it's 100% on the Saul regime. It's a combination of factors.

+1

I've only been to two games this season, but from what I've read on BA, attendance from OU students this year has been less than stellar.

I was at the Akron game, and there was a pretty good student-section turnout on sibs weekend for that game. But then the Bobcats get their doors blown and they leave with that taste in their mouths.

Football-game student attendance wasn't all that hot either.

So is there any reason to think that 5-10 years from now, this OU student base will be fired up to contribute to the OBC or come back to Athens for games? If they aren't excited now, why will they be excited later?

Sad and scary to think about.

Tax law change? Not sure what you mean.

I'm a graduate of the undergrad Sports Ad program, but that was back in 2006 when the issues weren't as glaring. Back then we as undergrads were encouraged and invited to volunteer within the department to gain experience. You will notice that some of the folks in the Grad Program are GAs in the athletic department. But that doesn't really mean much if your boss (the AD and others) are not affiliated with the Sports Ad program. Plus I'm not sure how much input or pull those GAs or the Sports Ad program have.

Seems to me that both the academic program and the Athletic department should WANT to have vested interests in each other doing well and helping each other. The AD gets cheap labor of people who want to gain experience in the field, and the sports administration program gets what could be a proving ground for their future graduates. The AD gets an opportunity to get great candidates for their department who are ready to go from the start when they come in full time. Seems like opportunities missed to me.

If you did a polll of the ages of people who care and post on this board, my guess is the 40+ age is the vast majority. The 18-25 market is probably almost non existent around here. So if they’re beginning to lose the support of us more die hard fans that is pretty scary for the future of the program.

I'm pretty certain that these ventures are not as cut and dry and easy to put together as people think. Otherwise, they would have already been occurring from the creation of the Sports Admin program.