• Hi Guest, want to participate in the discussions, keep track of read/unread posts, upgrade to remove ads and more? Create your free account and increase the benefits of your BigSkyFans.com experience today!

Golden Era

P

PURPLEFORLIFE

Active member
What an era we as Weber State Basketball fans are getting to live through!! So many great players have come through the program throughout the past few years. It is just so remarkable. The Dee should be packed and rocking for every home game. This program deserves so much more.

I'm shocked there isn't more coming out of athletics highlighting this program. We all know how bad WSUSA and SAA are. We can't really expect student leaders to support the best program at the school. There is no heart at Weber State and it shows. As for Athletics...this is truly a Golden Era for Weber State basketball and athletics takes a HO-HUM approach towards marketing our program. If you ask me, Athletics needs to redefine their priorities and figure out that their main purpose is to develop and enhance a fan base. Without supporters and fans, what is the worth of a program? It almost seems like athletics treats the basketball program like they are some sort of second rate hack. Marketing has got to improve or I'm calling for Jerry Bovee to resign.
 
Of course, marketing could be better. However, marketing to the public has been OK. It's marketing to the students that has been lacking. If WSU expects students to be future contributors, then they should be investing more into that process right now. The day when students participated in campus activities because they could, is long gone. Now days, money and time are so tight that there needs to be more incentive. To create that incentive the University will need to invest more of it's time and money into the process. Student organizations can help, but the initiative must be taken by the administration. It needs to become a priority or else future contributions are going to be lacking. We need people with, long term, vision to be in our leadership positions. It is not just the AD or President, it's everybody. :coffee:
 
Not to be the eternal optimist here, but even though Weber State basketball is in one of the worst D1 basketball conferences in America and in an area that is saturated with athletics, it still managed to be in the top 70 in attendance with a team that didn't even win 20 games. If I was in the Weber State athletics dept, I would be pretty happy with that. I would be even more happy because the attendance continues to improve every year. Weber State's net only reaches so far when it comes to fans.
 
The Rahe era has been quite the ride for the program. Golden Era? Or "A" Golden Era? Not trying to make trouble, just double checking. Undoubtedly though, the past few years have been quite exciting and fun, and I, for one, am quite happy to have been available enough to have enjoyed the ride. Frankly, that ride isn't over, it is just gaining momentum, and I look forward to continuing watching the program evolve and develop, along with the conference.

As for Athletic Marketing, lets all be honest here; it isn't the best. It isn't even mediocre, it is Weber State. I agree with Olds, this is an issue that needs to be addressed at the highest levels. If the university is interested in development and its future endowment, then it needs to start addressing the student bodies apathy and lack of interest. At Weber State, that is the number 1 issue; student largess and apathy. They just don't care! How many students kick themselves for never attending a game when Damian Lillard was playing in Purple and White? I bet quite a few. Yet, they didn't care enough, at the time, to make the effort to watch a free for them, and live game. Instead, far to many watched a game or paid for a game at another institution. Ridiculous!! I blame student leaders and those who preside over them. No direction, poor planning, and a lack of goal orientation. What and how are these leaders, who receive scholarships and stipends, being measured for their efforts? I can't believe they don't have any sort of standard that must be upheld for them to maintain their financial support. No matter, they issue can be fixed. I don't think this is athletics issue per se, but the university's. I feel that the president and the vice-presidents should be far more interested in developing greater support from the student body. This is the university's future donors, season tickets holders, and supporters.

Now to address athletic marketing. Yes, attendance continues to rise, but purely from the # of free tickets given out for each game and the number of employees who get free season tickets to games. How much $$$ is the program generating from the community, paying season ticket fans, and finally game day sales? Those are numbers I'd be interested in seeing. Utah, BYU, USU, and the Jazz were all around in the early 1980s and yet the Dee was full. Don't give me that crap about TV, Weber's product is just as good or better than the other "Big" 3 DI schools in Utah, but our stadium is usually only half full while the other schools have practically full stadiums. The Jazz have been miserable as of late, but still get fans to their games. I'm not going to give an automatic pass to marketing because attendance is going up each season. I will pat them on the back, but I still expect more. It isn't hard to get schedules and posters out to the nearest businesses in Ogden, yet, for some reason you can't see any. SAD!
 
I root for two athletic depts, both at schools where I received higher education. One has a really good basketball program, Weber State; and one has a mediocre to bad basketball program, Penn State. But when you look at the potential of the two programs, Penn State's is much, much greater. Weber State's fan base is essentially Davis and Weber county while Penn State's is the East. Weber State plays in a state where there are 6 D1 basketball programs and ~3 million people while Penn State play in a state with only 13 D1 basketball programs and ~13 million people (each state also has 1 NBA team, both of which are horrible right now). Penn State plays in one of the best basketball conferences in America while Weber in one of the worst. The casual fan will never get excited to see Weber play No. Colorado or Sac St no matter how much marketing is involved, whereas the worst team Penn State fans will have to see during conference play is Penn State.

The Big Sky is bloated with bad basketball teams. It may be the best fit for Weber geographically and as an institution, but it is a terrible fit as a basketball first athletic dept. In reality, the amount of marketing done by Weber State is probably on the lower end of the attendance issues.
 
A better home schedule would certainly help the situation. However, our pool is big enough, considering the student body and community. to fill an 11,000 seat venue with the product we have been producing. Yes, there are bigger markets, but ours is big enough to fill the Dee. Yes, the BSC is not the ACC, but it still has regional and competitive appeal. It is not the worst league in the country and as mid-major leagues go, it is one of the better ones. are we at the level of the MWC? No, but we are close. With the exception of Gonzaga, we are on par or better with the WCC. We beat the crap out of the WAC. Depending on what happens with these non-power 5 FBS leagues, like the MWC, there could be opportunities for movement for BSC schools or the league as a whole. :twocents:
 
I agree, given the right competition, that the Dee could be filled near or to capacity every game. We see that with the home games vs BYU, Utah State, and the CIT championship. I do respectfully disagree; however, that the Big Sky is a good mid major basketball conference. Last year the conference finished with an RPI of 25 out of 32 (excluding the independent teams) which was the worst RPI in the west. It went 4 and 8 vs the depleted WAC (including Weber's loss to UVU), 5 and 12 vs the Big West, 2 and 8 vs the WCC (including Weber's loss to BYU), and 1 and 11 vs the MWC (including Weber's embarrassing loss to Colorado St. and loss to Utah St.). Maybe when the MWC was formed, the big sky was relatively close to the same level, but now, even with the MWC being depleted, the leagues are in different stratospheres. The WCC is not just Gonzaga anymore, with BYU and St. Mary's being potential top 25 teams every year. Even if you exclude those three teams I still think it is a better conference top to bottom than the Big Sky. The one that kills me though is the WAC. I fully expect that conference to get worse, but to beat the big sky 2 games to 1 last year is just sad.

The worse part about this is that it was the Big Sky's best RPI in several years. The Big Sky is not a mid major basketball conference, it is a low major basketball conference. If you increase the competition and still fair well, it will increase the attendance. I guess the one silver lining is that the big sky was 20 and 0 vs non D1 teams.
 
oldrunner said:
A better home schedule would certainly help the situation. However, our pool is big enough, considering the student body and community. to fill an 11,000 seat venue with the product we have been producing. Yes, there are bigger markets, but ours is big enough to fill the Dee. Yes, the BSC is not the ACC, but it still has regional and competitive appeal. It is not the worst league in the country and as mid-major leagues go, it is one of the better ones. are we at the level of the MWC? No, but we are close. With the exception of Gonzaga, we are on par or better with the WCC. We beat the crap out of the WAC. Depending on what happens with these non-power 5 FBS leagues, like the MWC, there could be opportunities for movement for BSC schools or the league as a whole. :twocents:
Click to expand...

Nope. We are not better than a Gonzaga-less WCC. Last year we were worse as a league than the Big West and Wac. The simple fact that we were regular season and tournament champs and were still a 16 seed is proof of our weak conference. Tinkle leaving Montana hurts us.

But there is hope. Sac state and Eastern are on the upswing. Weber is getting more athletic every year.
 
Olds, you know I have a great deal of respect for you, so please don't take this the wrong way, but the Sky has been absolutely terrible lately. Last year was abysmal. Losing to UVU was the absolute low-point of our season last year, but then not even showing up and competing with CSU wasn't much better. Each year, I hope that the Sky will improve, but it just doesn't happen. UNCO's win over Kansas State in a game that was gift wrapped to KSU by the refs was definitely the high-point and that was the first game of the year in the Sky (Weber's close and competitive loss to UA was a close second, in my opinion). With that being said, the Sky has a LOOOOOONNNNGG way to go to be on par with the Big West, not to mention the WCC or MWC. I do like your optimism though. I hope too.
 
I get everybody's point about us being 20th out of 27 mid-major leagues. That would certainly put us below average, but not the worst. As a league, we have really been dragged down lately by some of our members struggling mightily. We have watered ourselves down a bit with some of the newer additions and some of our charter members hitting big slumps. I'm hoping that the last few years have been an anomaly and that the laggards will start improving. ISU, UNC, PSU, Sac, and NAU seem to be getting better. SUU may still be a ball and chain around our necks. :coffee:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top