I hear a lot of talk about how lack of ticket revenue is going to force us to change coaches. Well I ask you....
We had two instate games going on at the same time last night. One team was a top 25 team playing a conference game, one was perhaps the worst team in the big ten playing a meaningless out of conference game against a lesser opponent.
Which team sold the most tickets? I can assure you it was the Hawkeyes, by a margin of probably 3000. Things are not always what they seem.
Let's don't overreact to this crummy season.
Sorry Hooper, but you are comparing Iowa's basketball program and support to that of Northern Iowa, who plays in the Missouri Valley Conference...up until about three or four years ago, Iowa's men's basketball attendance was Top 25 every single year..like one of only ten schools to be able to say that in the entire sport.
It's not any more.
You have been a season ticket holder for a good time now...I know right where you sit, or at least I used to. You have been there during the 15,500 days. You cannot possibly compare Iowa and UNI basketball with a straight face, from an historical sense?
The basketball program this ten seconds, is as in bad of shape as it has been in my nearly 39 years on the planet.
Dick Schultz, author of the previous low point, had a combined winning percentage of .414 in his years at Iowa from 1970-1974. Right now, Lick is at .437...and if Iowa goes 3-12 the rest of the way, and I think I am being generous by giving them three wins, his three year 'winning' percentage is .385
Attendance continues to drop at a consistent rate and each year we are seeing levels that are unprecedented in the modern era.
This is not an over reaction to a crummy season. the coaches are good people. I have no doubt they work hard. But those are typically things that you say about people when the truth about the job that is being done requires less positive adjectives.
The civil war took place in the fanbase during the Alford era. It's really not that any more. People have spoken with the number of empty seats. That's just the unfortunate reality Iowa finds itself in right now.
That being said, the new facilities are going to help make things better, just as they contributed to the demise of the program. Lickliter inherited a rough situation, and you can't lay a lot of what has gone on at his feet. But in the end, he's the man at the helm, and the lack of attendance is going to be a big factor at some point in time. Thank goodness the football team did what it did this year.
