Just a few things:

1. I was disappointed in the fan turnout at the Utah game. There were a lot of empty seats. Do you contribute that to the game being played on a weekday instead of a weekend? The poor turnout of the Ute fans? or both or something else?

2. Why don't we always play Utah on a weekend? It would only make sense. They are our rival. I think it would make the basketball rivalry even better if the games were always played on the weekends and if we always played each other last each time around in conference.

3. How much say does our adminstration have as far as what day we play Utah because in football we always play Utah the last game of the season. Why isn't that the same for basketball?

4. Another thing, why have a whiteout for UNLV but not for the Utah game? It looks awesome and intimidating.


Any thoughts??

I think the weekend thing was a big thing, and it was a little late for some people. I honestly think the biggest problem is that the MTN has killed off a lot of the fair weather fans. They can't watch the games, and so they lose interest. If this DirecTV thing really is true, that can make a big difference.

I think BYU really needs a tourney win. My Dad was telling me they used to fill up the MC every game when he was in school. The difference? They were winning tournament games. Conference championships are great, but they're not good enough if they're not advancing in the NCAA tournament.

Good questions. I think the low turnout was because it was a weekday. Also, it was on the mtn., which as I understand is available along the Wasatch front. I think the rivalry game was weeknight because it does draw a good crowd, better than if it were a non-rival, which draw better on weekends. Although I was surprised it wasn't a sell out. Still, 40+ thousand fans in one week for 2 basketball games is more than the ewetes draw at the RES for one football game.

I saw it was a blue out for this game, but in the future, keep it to white outs, it looks much better on TV.

Short_Changed wrote:

Just a few things:

1. I was disappointed in the fan turnout at the Utah game. There were a lot of empty seats. Do you contribute that to the game being played on a weekday instead of a weekend? The poor turnout of the Ute fans? or both or something else?

2. Why don't we always play Utah on a weekend? It would only make sense. They are our rival. I think it would make the basketball rivalry even better if the games were always played on the weekends and if we always played each other last each time around in conference.

3. How much say does our adminstration have as far as what day we play Utah because in football we always play Utah the last game of the season. Why isn't that the same for basketball?

4. Another thing, why have a whiteout for UNLV but not for the Utah game? It looks awesome and intimidating.


Any thoughts??

I did some more research. Last year's game was on a Saturday and the attendance was 22,812. This year only 19,460 attended (more attended the UNLV and NM games which were both on Saturdays). In 2003-04 we played Utah on a Monday night at 10:00 pm and 22,718 attended. Interesting huh?

Another thing, two years ago we played Utah at home for our 2nd conference game and only 13,000 showed up, mainly due to the fact that BYU was still on break. How stupid was that? I wonder who scheduled that and who agreed to that. Can't we always play Utah last and have that be on a weekend, I think that'd be ideal?

Short_Changed wrote:

I did some more research. Last year's game was on a Saturday and the attendance was 22,812. This year only 19,460 attended (more attended the UNLV and NM games which were both on Saturdays). In 2003-04 we played Utah on a Monday night at 10:00 pm and 22,718 attended. Interesting huh?

Another thing, two years ago we played Utah at home for our 2nd conference game and only 13,000 showed up, mainly due to the fact that BYU was still on break. How stupid was that? I wonder who scheduled that and who agreed to that. Can't we always play Utah last and have that be on a weekend, I think that'd be ideal?

Taking your family to a good 'ol BYU/Utah game for family home evening sounds fun to me.

I think it being on the weekday is probably the biggest factor. Not as many Utes at the game is probably a contributing factor as well. When I was lucky enough to go to the game there would be a significant portion of Ute fans. We beat them on their home court this season so they probably didn't feel so inclined to make the long journey down to Provo. Either that or they got distracted by Cabela's in Lehi and never made it to the game.

BYU should expand the student seating for the games, especially if they will be played on weeknights. College kids can stay up later.