This is a ridiculous discussion, why would anyone have high expectations for our attendance at this point? We've been above .500 in conference play once in the last decade.
Recruiting success builds momentum among us, the diehards. But if any other program's record was as putrid as ours you would expect them to have terrible attendance - and we are no different.
Lets make the tournament two years in a row, and if our attendance still sucks then everyone can bitch and whine.
Franchises and programs at all levels struggle to bring fans to games when they have no recent history of sucess.
Anyone who went to a Mets game in September this year knows what I'm talking about.
Mets game is apples to oranges.
How many home games we play versus them? They are outside. Beginning and end of the year is a bear sometimes in terms of attendance with night games and cool nights.
For a school with an enrollment the size of STJ there should be a much higher benchmark # of fans. Bottom line.
Fair enough - there are plenty of games in a baseball season.
But I don't think you can ignore the effect of poor recent play performance. Kids in HS have barely seen any success from ST Johns. Do they remember Artest? Eh, maybe. And we had the tournament berth 2 years ago. But besides that we've been terrible. I don't need to tell you that, you know as well as anyone.
Will winning solve everything? No. But you will get more of both the average NY basketball fan, and more St Johns alums if the team is playing well.
Look at college teams who have struggled lately..
how many people are going to Depaul games? Their student body is as big as ours.
Even Oregon with their brand new facilities can't draw because they haven't been very good lately.
I'd love to know how Villanova did in the early Wright years when they were struggling. And that was only like a 3 year period. Our struggles have been much more severe and for a longer period.
Overall, you are right - our fan support should be better. But I think we need to look at this like building a program from the ground up. One step at a time. And if the team is really performing, like 2010-2011, then the fans will be there.