Hawks Nest not a draw at Carver

the student section seats arent any better at hilton

the problem is that we have a student body filled with kids that dont care and there is no tailgating to draw them in.
 
LawVHawk said:
All good ideas. I agree with the notion of including some athletics charge in the student activity fee to cover the cost of attending major athletic event (mainly football and men's basketball) and then letting students get in free, but there may be an issue of requiring all students to pay for something that only a fraction of them benefit from. (This was an issue 35 years ago with a student activity fee subsidy of the Daily Iowan.)

CHA, unfortunately, was designed for fat-azz farmers/donors and not a vocal student body. It didn't need to be at the time it was built; years ago, believe it or not, a ticket to men's hoops at CHA was hard to get. I don't know whether a redesign would allow closing off aisles near the floor or putting in bleacher seating behind the benches and in view of the TV cameras for students. I'm not sure Barry Garta would even be interested in exploring that. But the fact is students are not packed in close to the floor; you get little sense from TV that there's even a student body attending other than shouts of "Byrd, you suck!" amid screeches of players' shoes on the hardwood and the occasional shot of the kid wearing the farmer outfit or the teletubbies.

Those would be huge steps forward. But the university also needs to be aggressive in encouraging that sort of effort through marketing, organization, tschotckes, meeting with coaches and players. People in the Hawks Nest need to feel like they are a part of something special, something that gives them a benefit that non-members don't get. Even if it's getting the chance to walk through a special Hawks Nest/boosters ticket entrance with a gold rug at CHA.
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Get it through your head that without those farmers and donors, the tickets for jerks like you would be a lot more expensive.
 
Klondike53226 said:
. . . it is because the current leadership of the Hawk's Nest puts priority on being weird . . . and it turns off many students who want to go and enjoy the event, but instead are asked to act foolishly in a mediocre circus performance.
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Speaking as someone who has never worn a costume, brought/held a head cutout, or has even been associated with Hawk's Nest in anyway, attendance has NOTHING to do with "being weird." That is 100% wrong and has 0 affect on attendance to anyone in the student body. I've gone to plenty of games and have never been talked to, let alone pressured to dress up.

Have you ever watched a game on TV? Literally EVERY other team (especially the teams with packed houses) has people who dress up and bring those cutouts. It's just what happens. It's the culture and though you may find it distasteful, I'd wager every last Viesel I have that 99.9% of students are not going to skip a game because it involves "being weird."


One reason is people/students don't want to go if they're losing. We're just starting to become a fun/winning team again. We're still in transition, hence why attendance numbers have been on the rise lately. Teams that win get attendance. That loss to the powerhouse that is Nebby Basketball a week before didn't do much to raise confidence.

Another is (speaking for myself I guess) CHA is too far away from where I live without a car. Just to get there, I would have to walk 15-20 minutes in the cold. I have a friend with a car and have gotten rides, but even then we have to park a considerable distance away and then have to wait in traffic afterwards. If I lived closer I would go to more games. I realize this isn't the case for everyone as there are some people who live close, but I am not one.

Again speaking for myself, there are games that just aren't worth it go to. Being that quite a few are on weeknights, I usually find myself too busy or tired to go after class, work, and schoolwork. Football games are a ton easier to plan around as they are once per week and they're on weekends. There are what, about 19 home games in bball? About 9 of them against conference teams? Personally, I just can't muster up the will to want to go stand and watch Purdue for 2 hours.

tl;dr - You're so extravagantly wrong that it went past not even being funny to being hilarious again.
 
KirkNOTCharisma said:
One reason is people/students don't want to go if they're losing. We're just starting to become a fun/winning team again. We're still in transition, hence why attendance numbers have been on the rise lately. Teams that win get attendance. That loss to the powerhouse that is Nebby Basketball a week before didn't do much to raise confidence.
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I think you and I are reading the same story, but are just on a different page, because I don't disagree with anything you said here.
 
We need to talk to the administrators of the school about the Iowa professors giving more exams than places like Duke, Indiana, and Ohio State that keep our students from being able to attend the basketball games for a couple of hours.
 
KirkNOTCharisma said:
It's exactly like what T.J. said in the article. "Perfect Storm." I got off work at 6 on Wednesday, then had homework to take care of and a midterm on Friday to study for. I didn't really feel like walking my *** 15 minutes across campus to and from CHA in the cold just to watch Purdue.
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I go to Iowa State (dads an ISU fan and gave the pay at Iowa or get $$ help at ISU ultimatum) and the students here have no problem filling Hilton on cold nights with a test coming up. I wish I had more chances to go to Iowa games but with school and work on top of 3 hours there and back it wasn't in the cards. Your excuse sucks though.
 
Student's have shown up in force tonight and are INTO the game from what I can hear on TV.
 
At the game now, and it's a pretty weak showing from an attendance standpoint. The student's section is the only part of the arena that isn't packed, but yes the ones who are here are very vocal (sorry Klondike).
 
Agree with others that the location is terrible and that more needs to be done to appeal to students. I also agree that free or very modest ticket prices may help. It has always amazed me that for women's basketball (something few care about), tickets are always a buck or there is some crazy promotion to get 4 tickets for ten bucks with popcorn etc. I am fine with discounted ticket prices for women's basketball, but apply the same logic to men's for the students and for mid-week games with early or late start times. The athletics department seems totally out of touch with marketing other than billboards on 380.
 
CHA is not a good basketball arena. It would be nice if the Athletic Department looked into building a dedicated basketball/practice facility apart from CHA. Smaller, more intimate and much louder.
 
hawkinn3 said:
CHA is not a good basketball arena. It would be nice if the Athletic Department looked into building a dedicated basketball/practice facility apart from CHA. Smaller, more intimate and much louder.
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I agree. Architecturally speaking, you don't see many other facilities mirror the aesthetic of Carver-Hawkeye Arena. That is not without cause.
 
yeah ajk nailed it. rest of the arena was packed and the student section had it half filled. and that's a generous estimate. dirt cheap tickets and free pizza for a team on or around the bubble and that's the turnout. pretty sad. I ended up putting off buying tickets and wound up in the second to last row. still not a bad seat in the place.
 
trizo said:
yeah ajk nailed it. rest of the arena was packed and the student section had it half filled. and that's a generous estimate. dirt cheap tickets and free pizza for a team on or around the bubble and that's the turnout. pretty sad. I ended up putting off buying tickets and wound up in the second to last row. still not a bad seat in the place.
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Yeah pretty disappointing. Especially since a good chunk of the student body is from Illinois. I feel like a sizable portion of students don't know that we are a decent to good basketball team yet which is too bad.
 
hawkinn3 said:
CHA is not a good basketball arena. It would be nice if the Athletic Department looked into building a dedicated basketball/practice facility apart from CHA. Smaller, more intimate and much louder.
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Fail. You must not be old enough to remember games there in the late 80's. Loud as hell and a ton of fun. It's the people in the arena that are the problem. As bad as Iowa basketball has been for some time it is going to take more than just a few decent wins and average seasons to clear out the blue hairs and bring the energy back. The foundation is there and things have improved a ton in the few short years since Fran has arrived and as long as they continue to keep winning and playing entertaining basketball ball they will come they most definitely will come.
 
hoffahawk said:
Fail. You must not be old enough to remember games there in the late 80's. Loud as hell and a ton of fun. It's the people in the arena that are the problem. As bad as Iowa basketball has been for some time it is going to take more than just a few decent wins and average seasons to clear out the blue hairs and bring the energy back. The foundation is there and things have improved a ton in the few short years since Fran has arrived and as long as they continue to keep winning and playing entertaining basketball ball they will come they most definitely will come.
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The architectural design of Carver-Hawkeye Arena does, in my viewpoint, harm the basketball environment. While it certainly doesn't dissuade a raucous environment, it does very little to promote one. You complain about "blue hairs" keeping the energy away, but the best seats in the house, those closest to the court, are those most expensive, and thus more likely to be purchased and/or retained by wealthier fans with seniority. Carver-Hawkeye has fewer seats around the court in comparison to most facilities, based on it's unique ocular "giant pit" design, and since those seats are primarily occupied with low energy fans, the result is the area immediately around the court is less enthusiastic.
 
Klondike53226 said:
The architectural design of Carver-Hawkeye Arena does, in my viewpoint, harm the basketball environment. While it certainly doesn't dissuade a raucous environment, it does very little to promote one. You complain about "blue hairs" keeping the energy away, but the best seats in the house, those closest to the court, are those most expensive, and thus more likely to be purchased and/or retained by wealthier fans with seniority. Carver-Hawkeye has fewer seats around the court in comparison to most facilities, based on it's unique ocular "giant pit" design, and since those seats are primarily occupied with low energy fans, the result is the area immediately around the court is less enthusiastic.
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CHA looks ridiculous from TV as well, with so many aisles running from the pavilion all the way down to the floor. By the time they get to the last five or six rows, there are only a handful of seats in each row. In the bottom two or three rows, it appears as if nearly as much square footage is devoted to aisles as it is to seating. Not conducive to images of loud, wildly cheering students or fans wearing team colors. If possible from an ADA and fire regulation standpoint, it would be great if every other row near the floor chould be closed off and seats installed. Better yet, install bleachers, not chairs, for the students so they can squeeze more fannies into the rows and be more inclined to stand and cheer.
 
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And for the big donors who come here and wonder how dare anyone suggest moving them a bit off the floor since they paid for those seats in order to make room for the students, how do storied programs like Michigan State, North Carolina, Duke, etc., get away with it? You'll still get good seats -- behind students who are making CHA a more attractive and supportive place for Iowa teams to play.
 
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