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Topic: "Youth is Wasted on the Wrong People"

Topic: "Youth is Wasted on the Wrong People"

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OhioStunter
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Member Since: 2/18/2005
Location: Chicago
Post Count: 2,516

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"Youth is Wasted on the Wrong People"

Posted: 2/27/2018 4:49:25 PM

This was a line in "It's a Wonderful Life" when an eavesdropping neighbor thought that a young George Bailey was wasting his opportunity with Mary. After reading this article about DePaul's $82 million, shiny new basketball arena in downtown Chicago, I felt the same way.

This venue is wasted on the wrong fans.

DePaul has everything you'd want: new arena, downtown location, high-profile opponents, corporate sponsors, city support. But even that doesn't guarantee fans. This for a school without a football team that puts most of its athletic budget toward basketball.

Meanwhile, schools like Ohio fight hard to get a hanging scoreboard even though they have more fans attending games than DePaul (under 3,000 per game in downtown Chicago?). Imagine what we'd do with an $82 million arena. Think of the hand dryers and the extra security we could add.

All in all, maybe it is a wonderful life at the Convo.

http://depauliaonline.com/33219/sports/that-empty-feeling... /

bornacatfan
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Member Since: 8/3/2006
Post Count: 5,716

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RE: "Youth is Wasted on the Wrong People"

Posted: 2/27/2018 9:40:49 PM

I lived in CHicago starting in 1975. IN 79 my bro in law moved into the apts behind the Horizon (now Allstate). During those years DePaul had no problem selling out most nights. They used to play a few still in old Alumni Gym but when Dayton, ND, UCLA and similar came to town Rosemont was rocking. It was much further from campus as the El did not go clear out there yet. Student section was filled and the town really supported DePaul. Recruiting select athletes from Chicago they were the hottest ticket in town...even overshadowing the long time love affair with the Illini.

After Joey and the succession of coaches killed the program they are left without a fanbase. I thought that was going to be a crappy place to put that. When I was living there I tried to avoid that area. Bad planning, bad execution and the taxpayers got stuck with a portion of it. Loyola is clawing their way back to legitimacy and rebuilding their base. Northwestern is trying to win back BIG fans and wean them off of the Illini. Wisky has far north fans on their bandwagon. Those same fans i know that are sporting W gear because of Kaminski were diehard Corzine, Agguire and DePaul fans.

GOod post. Thanks

never argue with idiots, they bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.

Winter comes and asks how you spent your summer.....

The game loves and rewards those who love and reward the game

bornacatfan
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Member Since: 8/3/2006
Post Count: 5,716

Status: Offline

RE: "Youth is Wasted on the Wrong People"

Posted: 2/27/2018 9:45:09 PM

Reading the article is funny.

�We have a game-by-game projection that we are looking at because we know that we are going to get a different number for Villanova than we would for Miami of Ohio,� Ponsetto said. �I would say in almost every circumstance, even in a good number of our non-conference games we exceeded the number we thought we were gonna get.�

seems apros po or fate that Miami should come up...not that they would know anything about attendance woes. Ironic. An article about a team that can't draw in a big city blaming low attendance numbers on a team that can't draw in their own arena.

GIven the number of Miami alums in the Chgo burbs and the recruiting they do there you would think they would have a decent turn out....but then I could never imagine a Miami grad OR a Naperville native in the South Loop. So stupid....

Last Edited: 2/27/2018 9:53:41 PM by bornacatfan

greencat
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Member Since: 3/12/2005
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RE: "Youth is Wasted on the Wrong People"

Posted: 2/28/2018 2:05:03 PM

Here's the thing about downtown private schools in big cities and basketball attendance. If the grads stay in the area, eventually they are going to get married and have kids and move out to the suburbs where the schools are good and the yards are big enough for a fence and a dog. Driving back in for how many home basketball games per season when traffic could be crappy, the weather could be crappy, early in the season the opponent could be crappy, or the actual team you bought season tickets for could also be crappy. And the games are on t.v. in high def. And if the game sucks you can change the channel to a different game which you can't in person. And these big city private schools are having to compete in the winter with the NBA and NHL when they don't have the number of alums (not close) of a big state school, don't pick up too many local "sidewalk alums" who cop out and pull for the big state school by default plus the big state schools are usually in places with no pro competition: Champaign-Urbana, Madison, Lansing, Morgantown, Lexington, Charlottesville, Blacksburg, State College PA, College Station TX, Fayetteville Ark., Tuscaloosa AL, Auburn AL, Wichita, etc etc etc

Another example: If Vandy signs Romeo Langford and moves up from the #7 to the #2 recruiting class in American only behind Duke...the attendance will increase from around 9500 to around 11,000. But the gym holds over 14,000 and was reduced from over 15,000 back in the day and used to be full EVERY game before the Titans and Preds and high def t.v. with most games on. And that was without the #2 recruiting class in the nation.

Butler reduced the capacity of Hinkle from 15,000 at one time to 9,000. I know a couple of years ago the attendance was around 7k average with a reduced capacity of 9k... that ranked around #65 in the nation even though they are really good in hoops... but they have an NBA team to compete with and a "state" team lots of people automatically will pull for instead. It's just not that easy being the small in-town private school in a big city these days for college hoops.

giacomo
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Member Since: 11/20/2007
Post Count: 2,734

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RE: "Youth is Wasted on the Wrong People"

Posted: 2/28/2018 9:38:04 PM

The ROI is just not there. Where did they get the money? I heard through the grapevine that Duquesne will spend 50M on upgrading facilities. I don't see it. They barely draw 1000 in a 4000 seat arena.

Buckeye to Bobcat
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Member Since: 9/10/2013
Post Count: 1,811

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RE: "Youth is Wasted on the Wrong People"

Posted: 3/1/2018 8:42:25 AM

It's why I didn't buy tickets at DePaul. The market made zero sense to get into even though they had everything going for them. Sorry to say it, but the Big East has been more damning to DePaul than people give credit to them for.

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