Empty Seats at Michigan Home Bball games
One thing I've always wondered about Michigan basketball is why they can rarely seem to fill every seat in Chrisler Arena/Center. I mean, I could understand it back in the Ellerbe/Amaker years, but they've been a great to elite team for many years now and are the #4 team in the nation, and yet the cameras were showing all these empty seats in the upper bowl and lower bowl. Maybe if we could pack the house every night, we'd have a louder, more hostile home court advantage and would get more calls like other elite teams get when they play at home.
November 16th, 2021 at 11:14 PM ^
The Michigan basketball fanbase is sad
November 17th, 2021 at 12:26 PM ^
Were you at the game last night?
November 16th, 2021 at 11:15 PM ^
Too many damn turnovers. Johns won’t even look at the rim.
November 16th, 2021 at 11:29 PM ^
Johns taking a shot clock violation was bizarre on both ends. Does the crowd not count down from 5 anymore? Or is he completely lost in game 3 of his senior season? It sounded like a library in Crisler until the last minute tonight.
November 16th, 2021 at 11:40 PM ^
The crowd counted, I was 10 feet away, he looks like he’s completely lost his confidence. He doesn’t go up strong, he’s missed a TON of layups that got swatted or missed because of “traffic”. it’s sad to see, I expected him to take a step forward…
But yea it was quiet tonight, everyone expected a win, and we got… that. A piss poor performance from our point guard did us in. Eli needs to have the ball in his hands, maybe Jones is a better shot maker off the ball, but he sure as hell can’t handle it in the B1G.
November 17th, 2021 at 3:52 AM ^
And this is your explanation for why you didn't attend?
November 17th, 2021 at 4:02 AM ^
No, Hall Monitor.
November 16th, 2021 at 11:15 PM ^
I'd be more concerned about Howard's future with less Beilein players on the roster.
November 16th, 2021 at 11:20 PM ^
*fewer
November 16th, 2021 at 11:27 PM ^
Good call.
November 16th, 2021 at 11:42 PM ^
Looks like your MSU degree failed you again.
November 17th, 2021 at 7:15 AM ^
This is what I would call an “OVER REACTION.”
November 17th, 2021 at 9:13 AM ^
Dizzy Enema with another insightful take.
November 17th, 2021 at 9:28 AM ^
he’s gone, but he sure got a lot of mileage out of his slow burning five dollars. Gosh I’ll miss him….
November 17th, 2021 at 10:34 AM ^
Enjoy being banned, sport.
November 16th, 2021 at 11:16 PM ^
I'd be more concerned about Howard's future with less Beilein players on the roster.
November 16th, 2021 at 11:18 PM ^
Agree
pathetic showing tonight
November 16th, 2021 at 11:21 PM ^
Yeah I was cautiously excited about Howard as a coach. He did great with a loaded roster. The 2020 tournament being canceled actually helped because I am not sure Livers and Franz return if that doesn’t happen. We will find out a lot more about his coaching abilities this season than we did his first two seasons.
November 17th, 2021 at 12:18 AM ^
I hear ya
November 17th, 2021 at 12:49 AM ^
Time to take out the trash……
November 16th, 2021 at 11:17 PM ^
The wealthy donors who own the blue seats have better things to do on a Tuesday at 9pm for a meaningless game in November
have the game at a reasonable hour instead of late at night
November 16th, 2021 at 11:43 PM ^
Ehh I actually liked it because I could put the kids to bed then mosey on down… maybe that’s just me living a few blocks away being selfish
go blue!
November 17th, 2021 at 3:55 AM ^
If this was satire Marcus, you forgot the /s
If it wasn't, time to die your hair...
November 17th, 2021 at 7:11 AM ^
Mid-week 9pm tip-offs have always had sparse attendance outside the student section. It’s pretty amazing the athletic department doesn’t mind regularly showcasing the basketball program playing in front of so many empty seats.
When I was a student they played a late night game in the ACC/BigTen challenge, and announced in advance that non-maize rage students would be allowed in free if they showed up. They got upper bowl seats, but it probably drew another 1,000 people into the arena.
Michigan needs to figure out ways to improve attendance. Track season ticket holder attendance and give them worse seats the following season if their tickets go unused too often, or just sell fewer season tickets in the lower bowl. People buying single game tickets are far more likely to show up for the games they have tickets for than season ticket holders are to show up for every game. There are plenty of easy solutions. It’s been a problem for long enough; time to stop worrying if this would upset donors. Prioritize the atmosphere and the people who want to be there.
November 17th, 2021 at 12:09 PM ^
The athletic department doesn’t set the tip-off times. That’s TV.
November 17th, 2021 at 8:45 AM ^
This would be a legitimate comment if the open seats and overall mediocre atmosphere haven’t been a problem since at least when I was in college a decade ago
November 16th, 2021 at 11:19 PM ^
Too much flu risk. Better to stay home.
November 16th, 2021 at 11:19 PM ^
It's a late game on a school night? Mask policy turning some people off? Covid concerns keeping some people away? Too damn cold to leave the house?
November 16th, 2021 at 11:25 PM ^
Woke team
November 17th, 2021 at 9:25 AM ^
These were some of my potential thoughts. I'd say the usual caveats apply too though. Cost of attendance(stubhub fees are stupid), convenience of parking and getting to the arena(especially on cold MI days), the late start time definitely kills us. If you leave when the clock hits 0, you'll be lucky to be home by midnight. I am not in town though and haven't been to a game at Crisler in a long time so I don't know how convenient it is to go. The location of the stadium and big house gets congested so easily that it really is a factor though.
November 16th, 2021 at 11:22 PM ^
Season tickets holders only show up for conference games…
November 16th, 2021 at 11:26 PM ^
Weekday 9pm November Games have had this “problem” in the past. On top of that, many ann arborites are still not ok being indoors with other people.
it is what it is
November 16th, 2021 at 11:30 PM ^
Yeah there's a whole pandemic going on Bra.
Additionally there's a flu outbreak in Ann Arbor specifically.
Funny, you clearly didn't go to the game either. LOL
November 17th, 2021 at 12:26 AM ^
Spider senses sayin They’ve left Ann Arbor
November 16th, 2021 at 11:36 PM ^
Speaking for myself, I have two school age kids and I can only leave my wife to deal with them alone so many times. Posted the tickets on StubHub for $12 (lower bowl) and they sold.
OP, if you're local, why weren't you there? Plenty of $6 tickets were available.
November 16th, 2021 at 11:47 PM ^
Hit me up at [email protected] with games you don’t plan on going to, Im local and scour Stubhub within a few hours of the game for cheap tix. I’d rather pay you without the fees… If you know your aren’t going let me know. Thanks go blue
November 16th, 2021 at 11:56 PM ^
Cool, I'll keep that in mind. No one wins with the ridiculous StubHub fees.
November 17th, 2021 at 7:11 AM ^
At least you sold your tickets. I think the problem is there are a lot of long time season ticket holders in the blue seats who don't bother selling their tickets for many games. So they just go wasted.
November 17th, 2021 at 12:50 AM ^
This is such a tired take.
The first few games this year have been much better attended than any others in the ten years I’ve been regularly attending games.
The game was a 9pm start. Do you really fucking think that a 9pm game on a Tuesday night would be completely full?
I find it comical that so many people complain about the “rich” folks not attending the games. If you care so much, why don’t you put your money where your mouth is and buy tickets? And then let’s see you get to 20 games between November and March…with many weekday games starting at very early or late times.
November 17th, 2021 at 9:02 AM ^
From what I saw, next year, basketball goes to all digital tickets. We'll see how the technologically challenged fossils react to that.
But I'm with you. Ticketholders tend to show up for football partly because start times are predictable and games are on a non-work day. Mess around with the start times on games that are on work nights and people aren't going to show up.
November 17th, 2021 at 10:05 AM ^
Tickets are already digital...football still has paper tickets available for season ticket holders and that ends next year. Everyone seems to be handling it just fine.
November 17th, 2021 at 8:34 AM ^
I would love to take my family to a game but there's massive pricing gauging on StubHub even for upper bowl seats. I miss the days when you could buy single game tickets off MGoBlue for a reasonable price...
November 17th, 2021 at 9:49 AM ^
For the game last night, there were at least 12 tix within 10 rows of the floor for $30 or less. I thought that was pretty reasonable for a quality opponent.
November 17th, 2021 at 10:15 AM ^
Ah, thanks! Maybe they come down in price closer to the game day? I'll keep looking then.
November 17th, 2021 at 11:52 AM ^
I highly recommend this. Pick a weeknight game (weekends are less predictable) you want to go to and wait it out. It definitely gets uncomfortable, but most of the time you can get in for less than $10 a ticket (with fees) within an hour of the game. Obviously it varies based on the desirability of the opponent but I bet if you waited until 30 minutes before game time for the Tartelton State, Maryland, or Northwestern game you'd get in super cheap.
November 17th, 2021 at 12:53 PM ^
Is someone gauging the gouging or gouging the gauging?
November 17th, 2021 at 9:08 AM ^
TV had a shot of the NC banner in the rafters, and you could see swaths of empty seats in the upper bowl. I was hoping the footage was taken before the game, but I don't think it was.
Interestingly, I believe this game was shown as sold out on the M Tickets site (i.e., no single game tickets available through the ticket office, so the link took you to StubHub).
November 17th, 2021 at 9:19 AM ^
Frank2 Jr. has season tickets but he has exams this week...so he isnt going to any games until they are over.
November 17th, 2021 at 9:25 AM ^
For me, it's the cost of tix. I have had football season tix since the first year of Harbaugh's tenure. We come up from Columbus. It's an "event" to come up, but it's 8x/fall. I've been to 1 basketball game at Crisler, RR's first year as FB coach. I actually go to all the UM/OSU games in Columbus because it's cheaper and less driving.
Are there that many people, in the surrounding AA area, who will pay $200/seat to watch UM play an out of conference, unranked team? Because I can't justify it, especially during the week.
Have a competitive price point, and you're going to get it full.