Not if you can't watch live or are out of state. I can watch tonight's game next week with a touch of a button and I don't even have cable.
Fran has done well, but Iowa Basketball simply does not occupy where it once did in this State
- Thread starter JRHawk2003
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Some games were on ESPN nationally before the BTN days. Also, the Big 10 had regionally broadcast games on the weekend.
Its bigger to be on statewide in Iowa on free TV than a smaller grouping of expats scattered across the country,
Its bigger to be on statewide in Iowa on free TV than a smaller grouping of expats scattered across the country,
I live in Iowa City and have had ESPNU for 10 years now. I don't even think we get the fancy sports package, but I'm not 100% sure. You're either poor or have shitty cable if you can't watch it.
As to the BTN, it's the primary reason that Iowa can afford to pay the football coach $4 million a year and why we were able to open a brand new $53 million football facility last year. If you'd give all that up (and the Rose Bowls that come with it) so that you can watch our mediocre basketball team play freaking Missouri-KC or Gardner-Webb (games with multiple tickets available, and if you live in the IC area and care so much, get off your ass and get to Carver), well, you might want to re-evaluate your priorities in life.
People always have to bitch and complain about something. Gotta love America.
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Another good thought.
I live local and looked on Hawkeyesports for tickets for each of the last 2, knowing the crowds would be sparse, and 18 bucks just seemed unreasonable to me, especially when I can watch one of them on free TV, and the other on my computer. No real compelling reason to leave the house.
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5 bucks for each of the last two games. Not sure what a conference game runs. Just read an article on how many Power 5 schools that give students free tickets to athletic events also charge mandatory tuition fees in the hundreds of dollars, and there is starting to become some significant blowback around the country over this. I would much rather have Iowa charge the students that want to go rather than screw the rest of the student body that doesn't care about sports in order to recoup that cost. Most of the ticket fees just get charged to U-bills anyway, which a significant percentage of parents end up paying for. It's not like all of these kids are coming out of their own pocket for this expense.
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Except some of these early games aren't available except by Internet streaming. So TV can't be blamed for CHA being 2/3 empty.
And if this discussion is going to devolve into a comparison with ISU, then ticket prices have to be a consideration. One third of the seats in Hilton are below the concourse. The students take up the two floor-level sections behind the baskets. The rest of the seats are $35 each.....BUT you are required to donate $12,500 a year to be eligible to buy them (some longtime ticket holders are grandfathered in at $5,000 a year).
This is a cyclical thing. Iowa State basketball has been on a roll since Fred was hired. Great fun to watch, and they win. Plus there is an effect from the football season; people transfer emotions from a poor program to a good one.
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I agree with most all of the reasons stated so far why there are so many empty seats. To add a little bit more-there is no scarcity to Iowa basketball. If you were a fan in the 70s-90s then you watched games for 2 hours at a time, usually Thursday nights and sometime on Saturday...just like a big chunk of people did throughout the state. Local TV pre-empted the network shows and the Iowa Hawkeyes were kind of like your local high school sports team. Even if you weren't a huge sports fan you ended up paying attention because they were on, people talked about them, and they were usually pretty good. Also, maybe you read about it in the newspaper the next day. If you were like me you and grew up without cable TV you were limited in how much college basketball you could watch and each game that was on whether it was Iowa or a national game on the weekends seemed like a really big deal. Now you can watch practically any game you want anytime you want... on your phone, at home, at work, wherever... There is nothing special about it. If I want to talk Iowa hoops this site is available 24/7 as well as others. I can podcast multiple shows related to Hawkeye sports, recruiting, game analysis, etc. As far as students go, kids grow up with everything available to them all the time. Iowa basketball isn't nearly as unique or special as it was 25-30 years ago. They mostly watch things like Netflix, youtube videos, and whatever else I am unaware of. To them cable TV seems archaic. Its just all way different.
They have 5 sections with front row seating now that they don't occupy. Not sure better seats would matter at all. They have pretty good seats now.
This, growing up pretty much every game was on the local NBC channel in the Quad Cities. Now virtually all the games are on, but they are on non basic cable channels. Eventually went to Mediacom 22 which you could barely make out what was going on, then BTN which is great especially for BTN2GO which I personally use the Hell out of.
How many seats have a 12,500 donation requirement. You are infamous for being a chronic liar on here. I am calling B.S. on there being a significant number of seats that require that large of yearly donation.
No, its not. However you are using the simple supply and demand curve that will increase demand when you move the price point down.
Also, its not about watching the games on TV, its about exposure to the biggest amount of households possible and I would say that Iowa Basketball has less exposure now than it did in 1990.
I don't lie, here or anyplace else.
Call the ticket office (515) 294-1816.
I think there are about 5,000 seats below the concourse. I don't know how many are reserved for students or official parties. And I don't know how many are grandfathered. Mine are (I only give $5K a year). I was told by the ticket office that there are people giving at the $12,500 level who were seated in the balcony this year.
The balcony $12500 doesn't tell the story..there are some people who would prefer to sit there..the first rows in the balcony in Hilton are some of the best & easy out.
Im just going to say ISU Mens BB has had terrific success under Hoiberg...McDermott not so much..The student section at ISU is better than Iowa's...its good for ISU as at least your basketball program gives your students something to be proud of...
Out of 12000 season tics at Iowa...Im not all that concerned about how many students, staff or public show up for Western Illinois or even Missouri-KC...I was surprised for Fla State. BTN TV does matter...the games shown on the computer are pretty decent.
I'm only concerned about the B1G games...Carver will be pretty much full.
Hilton is a terrific home court...but in typical ISU fan form...every ISU person I know has to make it a point..who gives a crap what the attendance was last night???? Iowa has bigger things to concern themselves with ...like a football team, a wrestling team, a womens BB team, a mens BB team...all while ranking one of the highest attendance in the country...all while pretty much being self sustained..
ISU has a terrific Mens BB..you better hope your new guy can maintain it...C U Thursday.
There are people at the $12,500 level that want lower level tickets and can't get them.
Yep. And on Sat BIG 10 games. We got screwed. That is the easiest time for people that travel to go. You never know on a weeknight what the weather will do. At least on Sat you have more time to plan.
did I say there wasn't? what I said was there are people at that level that like front row balcony ...mid court..great seats & view
I also donate thousands a year and can't get our 12,500 seats either. In fact, my tickets are about 3 rows from the top. Lone clone, like usual, is full of excrement. Feel free to call the Iowa ticket office and try getting the 5 year 12,500 dollar seats. None are available.
They didn't play their first games until after Thanksgiving back then.
Student's bought more tickets. My first year I could only get a split season ticket. When the CHA first opened the student section was at least one full section.
Games were 99% Thursday nights at 7 and Saturdays at 1, you could bank on it. To me, that's probably the biggest thing. People won't buy season tickets if the schedule is all over the place. And with TV money, the schools don't care.
Student's bought more tickets. My first year I could only get a split season ticket. When the CHA first opened the student section was at least one full section.
Games were 99% Thursday nights at 7 and Saturdays at 1, you could bank on it. To me, that's probably the biggest thing. People won't buy season tickets if the schedule is all over the place. And with TV money, the schools don't care.
It is true that some of the balcony seats at Hilton are indeed excellent.
Actually, front row balcony are horrible seats. You need to be up 3 or 4 rows or your view will be blocked by people walking along the concourse
WTF are you talking about?
Biggest problem? A generation of kids grew up with Iowa BBall being mediocre or worse. Think about it, between the 1999 sweet sixteen and now, we've had one great year(2006). 2001 was shaping up to be great until Luke Recker hurt his knee. Even the recent successful seasons that we've had ended up around the average Tom Davis season level. The current college freshmen were 1 the last time we made the sweet sixteen. Since that time we've won a grand total of two NCAA tourney games.
Winning will fix most problems, but it isn't a quick fix. To get to the point where we actually have 13,000+ butts in the seats for the bad non-con games will require several years of sustained success and NCAA tourney wins. It also requires building up the fan base where BBall is in their blood like it used to be. As mentioned, back in the day that was easier because you knew what nights the games were on and what channel they were being broadcast on. Now, good luck without using google.
Alford famously remarked about how difficult it was at Iowa because we were a football school. He was dead wrong about that, until he made us a football school with so many years of average or under performing results. And then Todd came in and turned the lights off on the program.
Something else that doesn't help is our PC, no fun allowed, university and athletic department. Students won't come if they aren't allowed to have fun.
Winning will fix most problems, but it isn't a quick fix. To get to the point where we actually have 13,000+ butts in the seats for the bad non-con games will require several years of sustained success and NCAA tourney wins. It also requires building up the fan base where BBall is in their blood like it used to be. As mentioned, back in the day that was easier because you knew what nights the games were on and what channel they were being broadcast on. Now, good luck without using google.
Alford famously remarked about how difficult it was at Iowa because we were a football school. He was dead wrong about that, until he made us a football school with so many years of average or under performing results. And then Todd came in and turned the lights off on the program.
Something else that doesn't help is our PC, no fun allowed, university and athletic department. Students won't come if they aren't allowed to have fun.
The same for Carver. So even your only good program is comparable to Iowa's basketball program.
I don't think you will ever see 13,000+ for so called bad non-conference games. Its a different fan today then it was even back in Tom Davis years'. A number of season tic holders I know...don't & wont attend these games... Add the student body (or better said the lack of student attendance) 13,000 is just not going to happen.
The fact Iowa was on the BTN last night...some people who have a hour + drive just were not interested.
The staff/public sections for the Florida St game did surpise me..considering the opponent.
Come B1G time the place will be close to capacity.
Fran has done an amazing job and we continue to show improvement every year. The guys on the gridiron have hijacked Iowa fans imagination and I'm extremely confident Iowa fans will strongly support the cagers with enthusiasm.
You ladies are over here pounding your chests and bragging that $12,000 donors can't get courtside seats. Like that is some accomplishment that Iowa can't match. I was merely educating you that Iowa fans that donate 12.5 k can't get the 12.5k seats either.
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To see a crappy team that I've never heared of before in what is likely to be a 30 point blowout, when I can just as easily flip on my TV and never leave the house, you bet it is.
And thousands of other people apparently agree with me, or this thread wouldn't exist.
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There are more than 1,000 seats still left for MSU, and that is easily the biggest game of the year in IC. For the remainder of the season in Ames, 10 games are sold out, and there 20 single seats left for Ark-PineBluff, and 29 singles left for Texas Tech. On the resale market, OU tickets go for up to $750, and for KU they are as high as $1500.
How do you even know how many tickets are left for specific games in Iowa City?
That is a borderline stalker level of obsessive, paranoiac insecurity.
Also take a look at what Rose Bowl tickets are going for and what people were paying for Big Ten Championship football tickets, both games taking place hundreds of miles from our campus and with thousands of more seats available than any basketball game, and then get back to us with how great your shitty fanbase is.
Simple go to the Iowa Ticket web site and look. It is not hard information to get.
so lets see...Hilton capacity 14,356...Carver 15,400 (less 1,000 unsold as you say) puts us at 14,400...thats' pretty close don't you think? Now you can say if Hilton was 15,400 then you would have the same amount sold but since it is not you can't say it. Further the MSU game is not done selling. I know some Iowa fans who do not have BB season tics who held off buying single seats for MSU until the bowl game was determined. With the Rose Bowl on the agenda now..I;m sure there will be some FB people already headed to Pasadena at the time the MSU game is played.
I've always said ISU basketball has had a terrific in house fan support. One of the toughest places to play. ISU student section is more supportive than Iowa's. I also can see how basketball for ISU fans is huge because really its all you got...assuming supporting a winning program is important. Just like my ISU friends said after Iowa's win in Ames this year.."well at least we got basketball & we will beat you in Ames".
The ISU vs. Iowa game tomorrow is going to be fun. For you I hope you don't get too disappointed if a miracle takes place
. I'm sure Fran & the guys would love nothing more than beating a highly ranked Non-B1G team on their floor. If not...then the better team won on their floor.
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You actually stalk another team's ticket website to check on availability for games that you have absolutely no intention of attending?
Pathetic.
Good question. But it happens. And it happens everywhere. It's like the people who leave with a minute to play and the score tied so they can get to their car before the crowd does. Seen it happen in Hilton. Seen in happen in Carver.
When your fanbase just spent thousands on historic wrestling meets, trips to Indy for a Big Ten championship and even more to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl, it's somewhat justifiable that a good, but not yet great basketball program may take a backseat for a while.
Meanwhile, your football program is pathetic as always, so naturally ISU fans will sink their teeth into the one high energy uplifting program you have. Hilton is a great place no doubt. However, it's had some empty seats when mediocrity set in during the McDermott and Morgan years. Wait til next year when everyone graduates sans Morris.
As long as you guys all admit it's a miracle, that will helpso lets see...Hilton capacity 14,356...Carver 15,400 (less 1,000 unsold as you say) puts us at 14,400...thats' pretty close don't you think? Now you can say if Hilton was 15,400 then you would have the same amount sold but since it is not you can't say it. Further the MSU game is not done selling. I know some Iowa fans who do not have BB season tics who held off buying single seats for MSU until the bowl game was determined. With the Rose Bowl on the agenda now..I;m sure there will be some FB people already headed to Pasadena at the time the MSU game is played.
I've always said ISU basketball has had a terrific in house fan support. One of the toughest places to play. ISU student section is more supportive than Iowa's. I also can see how basketball for ISU fans is huge because really its all you got...assuming supporting a winning program is important. Just like my ISU friends said after Iowa's win in Ames this year.."well at least we got basketball & we will beat you in Ames".
The ISU vs. Iowa game tomorrow is going to be fun. For you I hope you don't get too disappointed if a miracle takes place
You are confusing apples with donuts.
1. The $12,500 seats at Hilton aren't courtside. They are in what used to be called the Parquet and Arena Circle areas. There are a few -- maybe 30, I dunno -- actual courtside seats, basically folding chairs on the court, and they cost a lot more than that, so I didn't mention them.
2. Iowa has 500 seats available at the $12,500 level; ISU has several thousand.
3. The schools calculate eligibility differently. At ISU, a $12,500 contribution allows the donor to purchase 2 tickets. At Iowa, seats are $12,500 each. However, ISU requires the contribution every year, while Iowa allows it to be spread over 5 years. In other words, if an Iowa fan gives $5,000 a year for five years, a total of $25,000, he can buy 2 premium seats each of those 5 years. For an ISU fan to have 2 premium seats for five years, he must donate $72,500 over that period.
4. Looking at it overall, a guy who had never had season tickets at ISU before would have to pony up $12,500 a year, plus the cost of the tickets, to sit in any of the best 30% of the arena seats.
As long as you guys all admit it's a miracle, that will help
Hey when we win (ok if we win)...I'll be more than happy to call it a miracle. Forced to talk to ISU fans close to Ames my reference to miracle comes from their comments. "It will take a miracle for you guys to beat us". I'm confident we can win the game but ISU is a really good team. Hopefully Iowa plays a good game & ISU doesn't...that will help as well.
not everyone sitting in premium seats in Carver are paying $12500. thank heavens there is some loyalty for those that have been attending games & supporting the BB program for multiple decades...and not at 12 grand a year.
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