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Post by SU DOG on Mar 12, 2024 13:12:25 GMT -5
Interesting combination of Samford love and yet consternation at the pitiful Samford attendance and the $50 fee for what they say should have been free transportation to the tourney. Podcast was invaded by 3 Samford Players LOL! Click on YouTube.
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Post by Smurf on Mar 12, 2024 13:30:24 GMT -5
The Samford crowd was respectable in its size and enthusiasm. The problem is that we played against a team that leads the league in attendance and is four hours closer to Asheville than Birmingham. Half of eastern Tennessee showed up at that game last night. Their sheer numbers, by comparison, made our attendance look worse than it really was.
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Post by Cujo on Mar 12, 2024 13:46:38 GMT -5
Literally 1/6th the drive. Their attendance, enrollment, and alumni in the area should have resulted in 6 to 1 in attendance at the very least. I’d like to see how many of them would trek 6 1/2 hours (with only moderate traffic in Chattanooga or Atlanta) down to Birmingham for a game. I bet 1,000s of Samford faithful and alumni would have made a convenient 1 hour drive if Samford was playing a tournament game that close. Screw the Carolina schools and their talk about fan support. All that fan support and they all got their arses kicked.
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Post by Smurf on Mar 12, 2024 14:17:47 GMT -5
Literally 1/6th the drive. Their attendance, enrollment, and alumni in the area should have resulted in 6 to 1 in attendance at the very least. I’d like to see how many of them would trek 6 1/2 hours (with only moderate traffic in Chattanooga or Atlanta) down to Birmingham for a game. I bet 1,000s of Samford faithful and alumni would have made a convenient 1 hour drive if Samford was playing a tournament game that close. Screw the Carolina schools and their talk about fan support. All that fan support and they all got their arses kicked. Exactly
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Post by 77SU on Mar 12, 2024 15:15:41 GMT -5
What we are also having to deal with is a program that hasn't been competitive in 24 years. Since there's seems to have been a pervasive feeling on most fans' parts that when it comes time to get over the hump, we will all come away disappointed. When students won't walk to a free game in the Pete and the local community won't drive to Lakeshore, how do you expect to have more than a few hundred in Asheville, NC? Maybe we are now in a position to attract a following that would be willing to spend at least a weekend at a SoCon Tournament. At this point it's baby steps and we need to continue in the manner to which some of us have become accustomed in the last three years.
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Post by 77SU on Mar 12, 2024 19:16:40 GMT -5
Another area where Samford is sorely lacking is a presence by the Alumni office to plan and host some type of function associated with the games at the tournament. Most of the schools have a designated facility where they gather before and/or after games, whether it's a local watering hole or a banquet room at the team hotel. Unless I missed someone, there were only two Samford administrators at the game, that work outside of the department of athletics. That would be the President and the VP for Student Affairs. There were multiple advancement officers on hand to press the flesh of donors, but the lack of fan appreciation was especially evident last night when ETSU had alternated placing blue and yellow t-shirts on every seat in their fan area behind the bench. Then they gave all their fans pins and shakers. Someone did come through the Samford area with a few red shakers, but that was it. The announcement for the bus ride said the game was a red out, but that was up to individuals to provide their own red shirt, that is, if they even knew there was an effort to have a red out. As far as the program has come and trying to be one of the big boys, it still has not arrived. At least the band, dance team, and cheerleaders were there for all of the women's and men's games, which is better than a few years ago.
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Post by 77SU on Mar 12, 2024 19:53:02 GMT -5
Looks like there may have been a couple of dozen students who answered the announcements about meeting the championship team when they arrived back on campus.
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Post by bulldogfan on Mar 12, 2024 22:17:34 GMT -5
I had a virtual meeting with some students at 4 pm Monday. None of them knew about the game on tv nor were they aware of the bus offer. Students were just back from spring break, so I give them some grace but still.
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Post by sudog03 on Mar 13, 2024 8:33:53 GMT -5
The interest level, while increased, has hit a plateau. I think that's fairly obvious over the past year. To take another step will require playing (and beating) teams of relevance. Beating sub 150 teams all year (while a huge stel forward) is only going to carry the interest level so far.
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Post by drew0311 on Mar 13, 2024 8:47:17 GMT -5
Part of doing something you have not in a long time, you don’t know how to do it. Next year they can prepare way better if they make the championship. Make the students aware a couple weeks before about the buses. Just stuff you learn along the way.
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