This would be embarrassing for a Chicagoland High School.
How many of those 1824 are away fans? When I was at the Mu/Depaul game I counted maybe 50 Depaul students in the student section.
Basketball attendance sinking as DePaul heads downtown
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20170303/BLOGS04/170309946/basketball-attendance-sinking-as-depaul-heads-downtown?AllowView=VDl3UXlKTzZDdmVCa0IvREEvSHlmMXlvaUV3WEN1OVVIUnc9#utm_medium=email&utm_source=ccb-on-sports&utm_campaign=ccb-on-sports-20170303
The once-great college basketball program that debuted at Allstate Arena with a roar 37 years ago is saying goodbye with a whimper. And the timing is bad for Illinois taxpayers.
Attendance at DePaul University men's basketball games this season is on track to finish at one of its lowest marks in nearly four decades playing at the Rosemont venue.
With tomorrow's finale against Xavier University still to be played (the school expects a strong turnout for that game), 14 Blue Demons home games this year have drawn an average of 1,824 people. That's down 24 percent from last season's final average and on pace to mark the first attendance dip for the program in three years.
This year saw more sparsely-attended games than normal, according to Allstate Arena ticket records obtained by Crain's. Seven DePaul games saw attendance of less than 1,000 people, including two games attended by fewer than 600 people.
Paid attendance has totaled 75,316 so far this year, or an average of 5,380 people per game. That figure includes free tickets given to charities and at least a couple thousand seats the school buys to block out space for students, regardless of whether they actually go.
But the actual number of people who walked through the Allstate Arena turnstiles was a third of that total, arena ticket records show.
Yep. Depaul. yep.
At least they track butts in seats. I don't think MU does that. The only number I ever see is paid attendance.
Unless they had a long term contract with Rosemont, they would have been better off financially to have played in the on the McGrath on campus arena for this last season. Seats 3,000. The games would have been sold out and loud most of the time No rent and no cost of transporting out to Rosemont. More chance for student interest etc.
That is just pathetic. But don't worry a new arena will solve all the problems!
I sincerely hope Depaul figures it out.
#sleepinggiant
::)
Quote from: Coleman on March 03, 2017, 01:05:22 PM
At least they track butts in seats. I don't think MU does that. The only number I ever see is paid attendance.
Its pretty easy to do when the number is this low....
DePaul averaged 9,100 and 9,700 the two years Quentin Richardson played there. But keep telling yourself the issue is the arena. Good work JLP.
My goodness, those figures are just horrible and embarrassing.
That info doesn't usually get leaked. Someone wants JLPs head.
Quote from: TAMU Eagle on March 03, 2017, 01:52:55 PM
Its pretty easy to do when the number is this low....
Just spend a TV timeout asking everyone to count off.
Quote from: ChitownSpaceForRent on March 03, 2017, 02:36:18 PM
That info doesn't usually get leaked. Someone wants JLPs head.
Bingo. Every school knows this number, but they don't make it public.
Quote from: Coleman on March 03, 2017, 01:05:22 PM
At least they track butts in seats. I don't think MU does that. The only number I ever see is paid attendance.
Everyone tracks butts in the seats. Only DePaul is stupid enough to release that info to the public. All attendance numbers pro and college, is paid attendance. Which it should be!
Quote from: ChitownSpaceForRent on March 03, 2017, 02:36:18 PM
That info doesn't usually get leaked. Someone wants JLPs head.
Correct. It's been two years in a row this has happened to DePaul.
Quote from: mupanther on March 03, 2017, 03:04:01 PM
Everyone tracks butts in the seats. Only DePaul is stupid enough to release that info to the public. All attendance numbers pro and college, is paid attendance. Which it should be!
Fair enough.
Quote from: Marquette Fan In NY on March 03, 2017, 01:12:49 PM
Unless they had a long term contract with Rosemont, they would have been better off financially to have played in the on the McGrath on campus arena for this last season. Seats 3,000. The games would have been sold out and loud most of the time No rent and no cost of transporting out to Rosemont. More chance for student interest etc.
They played a game against UIC in McGrath this year. Paid attendance was listed at 2,099.
Looking at the picture of the crowd: there are five sections of seats on each side of the court. Three larger sections in the middle and smaller sections on either end. One of the end sections had three people and the section on the other end had 11. The three middle sections maybe 50 in each. No way that side of the court had over 300 in the seats.
Quote from: BagpipingBoxer on March 03, 2017, 04:23:33 PM
#deadgiant
(https://edex.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/montypython.gif)
Quote from: Marquette Fan In NY on March 03, 2017, 01:12:49 PM
Unless they had a long term contract with Rosemont, they would have been better off financially to have played in the on the McGrath on campus arena for this last season. Seats 3,000. The games would have been sold out and loud most of the time No rent and no cost of transporting out to Rosemont. More chance for student interest etc.
Playing in a 3,000 seat arena could very well be against Big East requirements. I don't see how anyone could fault your logic for playing there for a financial standpoint, though.
Quote from: drewm88 on March 03, 2017, 02:38:06 PM
Just spend a TV timeout asking everyone to count off.
I truly laughed out loud....
Quote from: Marquette Fan In NY on March 03, 2017, 01:12:49 PM
Unless they had a long term contract with Rosemont, they would have been better off financially to have played in the on the McGrath on campus arena for this last season. Seats 3,000. The games would have been sold out and loud most of the time No rent and no cost of transporting out to Rosemont. More chance for student interest etc.
They would have been better off simply keeping Alumni Hall. On campus, 5,300 seats, and a total deathtrap for opponents. I get the desire to always look for bigger and better, but bigger only mattered for a few seasons, and Rosemont was certainly not better by most measures. Alumni Hall was a nightmare for opponents; Rosemont was a nightmare for DePaul's own fans.
They should have done something like SJU did - keeping Carnesecca Arena for games where they expect smaller crowds, and using a larger, existing arena for the few marquee games. Carnesecca is about the same age and size as Alumni Hall was.
Quote from: GooooMarquette on March 03, 2017, 05:47:32 PM
They would have been better off simply keeping Alumni Hall. On campus, 5,300 seats, and a total deathtrap for opponents. I get the desire to always look for bigger and better, but bigger only mattered for a few seasons, and Rosemont was certainly not better by most measures. Alumni Hall was a nightmare for opponents; Rosemont was a nightmare for DePaul's own fans.
They should have done something like SJU did - keeping Carnesecca Arena for games where they expect smaller crowds, and using a larger, existing arena for the few marquee games. Carnesecca is about the same age and size as Alumni Hall was.
Here is a story on Alumni Hall. They were originially going to build it for 10,000 but they spoke with Northwestern who convinced them to make it smaller, big mistake.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999-11-19/sports/9911210141_1_alumni-hall-blue-demons-ray-meyer/2
I do think the new on campus facility could have been made larger and given them more flexibility.
The Johnnies updated Carnesecca a few years back so it is has a good long future viability.
Quote from: ChitownSpaceForRent on March 03, 2017, 02:36:18 PM
That info doesn't usually get leaked. Someone wants JLPs head.
That person has a clue. The rest are busy giving her another award.
Something is incredibly wrong at DePaul. Either the leadership of the university has it in for the basketball program or JLP is a walking zombie. I'm not sure my cocker spaniel could screw things up worse that DePaul is now. And he'd work for a good quality dog food and occasional table scraps.
They need a top to bottom scrub of the program. JLP needs to go be some ambassador to the women's program or something and the good fathers who run the place need to think about how they almost won an NCAA back in the early 1980s.
Otherwise, find a replacement program for the Big East!
I don't understand their low attendance. What student could resist being part of the ping pong egg race with willy wonka.
The DePaul "program" has been so bad over the past few years it is almost as if they were trying to be bad. If this were the case a tip of the hat to JLP you did very well. These numbers are an absolute embarrassment, the rest of the BEast should start trolling the DU boards to get them to do something. This assumes their boards are better attendened than their games.
I honestly don't understand why any big-time Chicago kid would want to go to DePaul. If they really just want to stay home and play in a power conference, they'd be better off at Northwestern. If they want to be nearby, you have MU, UW@Madison, Illinois, and Indiana.
Or you could go to DePaul, play in front of high school sized crowds, and pray for at least one season as high as 8th or 9th in the BE.
Quote from: GooooMarquette on March 04, 2017, 09:20:50 PM
I honestly don't understand why any big-time Chicago kid would want to go to DePaul. If they really just want to stay home and play in a power conference, they'd be better off at Northwestern. If they want to be nearby, you have MU, UW@Madison, Illinois, and Indiana.
Or you could go to DePaul, play in front of high school sized crowds, and pray for at least one season as high as 8th or 9th in the BE.
They need to build the program with transfers and jucos. Became a viable team first and then they have an improved shot at 4 year talent .
Quote from: GooooMarquette on March 04, 2017, 09:20:50 PM
I honestly don't understand why any big-time Chicago kid would want to go to DePaul. If they really just want to stay home and play in a power conference, they'd be better off at Northwestern. If they want to be nearby, you have MU, UW@Madison, Illinois, and Indiana.
Or you could go to DePaul, play in front of high school sized crowds, and pray for at least one season as high as 8th or 9th in the BE.
That is why they need to clean house and start all over with a young assistant as the new HC, new stadium, new approach and attitude.
And when I mean start over, from the AD down to the graduate assistants in basketball.
Quote from: Dread Pirate Roberts on March 05, 2017, 07:08:16 AM
That is why they need to clean house and start all over with a young assistant as the new HC, new stadium, new approach and attitude.
And when I mean start over, from the AD President of the University down to the graduate assistants in basketball.
FIFY.
The magnitude of DePaul's ineptitude is dwarfed by the willingness and ability of the city and state democrats to piss away taxpayer money.
Quote from: GooooMarquette on March 04, 2017, 09:20:50 PM
I honestly don't understand why any big-time Chicago kid would want to go to DePaul. If they really just want to stay home and play in a power conference, they'd be better off at Northwestern.
There might be a slight difference between DePaul's and NU's academics.
Quote from: dgies9156 on March 05, 2017, 12:24:28 PM
Quote from: Dread Pirate Roberts on March 05, 2017, 07:08:16 AM
That is why they need to clean house and start all over with a young assistant as the new HC, new stadium, new approach and attitude.
And when I mean start over, from the AD President of the University down to the graduate assistants in basketball.
FIFY.
They just named a new University President a few weeks ago .. so this has already been done.
DePaul names first lay president in its 119-year history
February 16, 2017
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20170216/NEWS13/170219914/depaul-names-first-lay-president-in-its-119-year-history#utm_medium=email&utm_source=ccb-breakingnews&utm_campaign=ccb-breakingnews-20170216
DePaul University has named A. Gabriel Esteban as the first lay president in its 119-year history, a break with tradition that follows Loyola University Chicago's move and spotlights again the budgetary and fundraising demands of academic leadership.
Esteban comes from being president of Seton Hall University, a job he's had at the South Orange, N.J., school since 2011.
DePaul, the nation's largest Catholic university, with 23,100 students, will add to the share of Catholic colleges and universities--more than 70 percent--headed by lay presidents. Last May, Loyola chose Jo Ann Rooney, as its first lay president.
One other thing that people have touched on is that the new stadium is absolutely not the cure all. I am not sure it is even a positive for the program. Just so bad.....
Quote from: manny31 on March 05, 2017, 06:53:57 PM
One other thing that people have touched on is that the new stadium is absolutely not the cure all. I am not sure it is even a positive for the program. Just so bad.....
I'll agree it's not a cure all and not a quick fix for a program with a plethora of issues, but it's a positive. That's how bad Allstate is. If you showed any sort of commitment or improvement as Depaul, you could get a bump from the new arena in addition. Not to mention if you live in the city or near burb, it will be magnitudes less of a pain to get to.
Quote from: JWags85 on March 05, 2017, 08:30:39 PM
I'll agree it's not a cure all and not a quick fix for a program with a plethora of issues, but it's a positive. That's how bad Allstate is. If you showed any sort of commitment or improvement as Depaul, you could get a bump from the new arena in addition. Not to mention if you live in the city or near burb, it will be magnitudes less of a pain to get to.
This.
New arena won't magically solve all of DePaul's problems, but it will improve one of them.
Quote from: Coleman on March 05, 2017, 10:15:54 PM
This.
New arena won't magically solve all of DePaul's problems, but it will improve one of them.
The new arena will be nicer, but harder to get to for most DePaul alums. I am sure there are far more of them in the north, Northwest, and west suburbs than there are on the South side. Very few are going to make the effort in order to watch a crappy team.
So if you take out the Marquette game - 8392 attendance, you have 1459 per game. I guess people were not excited by bringing in star power with Dave Leitao.
Quote from: warriorchick on March 06, 2017, 07:18:21 AM
The new arena will be nicer, but harder to get to for most DePaul alums. I am sure there are far more of them in the north, Northwest, and west suburbs than there are on the South side. Very few are going to make the effort in order to watch a crappy team.
This thread makes clear that hardly anyone was going anyway. It literally can't get worse than what it was at the Allstate. DePaul has over 22,000 students, including 15,000+ undergraduates. If this gets just 20% of them to attend their first game, it will be a huge improvement.
Not to mention, the new location is way more convenient if you are an alum working downtown (for the weekday evening games), even if you live in the burbs. So I don't really buy the premise. The Allstate is only convenient for people living and working near I-90 and I-294
Quote from: Coleman on March 06, 2017, 01:14:05 PM
This thread makes clear that hardly anyone was going anyway. It literally can't get worse than what it was at the Allstate. DePaul has over 22,000 students, including 15,000+ undergraduates. If this gets just 20% of them to attend their first game, it will be a huge improvement.
Not to mention, the new location is way more convenient if you are an alum working downtown (for the weekday evening games), even if you live in the burbs. So I don't really buy the premise. The Allstate is only convenient for people living and working near I-90 and I-294
"People living and working near I-90 and I-294" describes at least 75% of middle- and upper-class folks in Chicago.
And if you work downtown, but live in the burbs, you are tied to the train schedule. No one is going to want to take public transportation to the game, take it back downtown afterwards, and hop a milk run train that departs once an hour. God forbid you go to the 8:00 game and miss the 10:40 train.
But if you want to disagree with me, that's okay (no sarcasm). But I am telling you right now that two years from now, the attendance will not be any better than it is now unless DePaul puts something worth watching on the floor.
Quote from: warriorchick on March 06, 2017, 02:14:58 PM
But I am telling you right now that two years from now, the attendance will not be any better than it is now unless DePaul puts something worth watching on the floor.
I think we agree that is the most important aspect. I never claimed a new arena was a silver bullet.
But I would put money that there will be more than an average of 1,824 butts in seats when they finally move out of the dump in Rosemont. How many more? We'll find out. I'm not expecting sellouts.
Quote from: warriorchick on March 06, 2017, 02:14:58 PM
"People living and working near I-90 and I-294" describes at least 75% of middle- and upper-class folks in Chicago.
And if you work downtown, but live in the burbs, you are tied to the train schedule. No one is going to want to take public transportation to the game, take it back downtown afterwards, and hop a milk run train that departs once an hour. God forbid you go to the 8:00 game and miss the 10:40 train.
But if you want to disagree with me, that's okay (no sarcasm). But I am telling you right now that two years from now, the attendance will not be any better than it is now unless DePaul puts something worth watching on the floor.
I guess that is the difference between DePaul and MU. You and Glow will travel up to Milwaukee and back because you love our basketball team. My family and I take the 1 hour train to Newark every year and on occasion will go to Philly or the Garden to see them play regardless if they are good or not. You see we know the program will come back, not so at DePaul.
Quote from: muwarrior69 on March 06, 2017, 05:59:06 PM
I guess that is the difference between DePaul and MU. You and Glow will travel up to Milwaukee and back because you love our basketball team. My family and I take the 1 hour train to Newark every year and on occasion will go to Philly or the Garden to see them play regardless if they are good or not. You see we know the program will come back, not so at DePaul.
I am not exaggerating when I say that door to door, it is easier to get to the BC from our house than it would be to get the new DePaul arena.
Quote from: warriorchick on March 06, 2017, 06:58:00 PM
I am not exaggerating when I say that door to door, it is easier to get to the BC from our house than it would be to get the new DePaul arena.
You should get a 2nd house. Or a helicopter. Problem solved.