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Cal Basketball

The Pac-12’s Basketball Fan Apathy Problem

April 4, 2019
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March and April are the most entertaining months for college hoops — both for on-court and off-court drama. And if your team isn’t experiencing the on-court antics, it’s easy to get caught up in the off-court carousel of coaching changes and transfers.

Barring any last-minute heroics from UCLA, when this year’s grades coaching changes comes out. the Pac-12 won’t be at the top of the curve compared to their power conference peers.

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Discussion from...

The Pac-12’s Basketball Fan Apathy Problem

4,591 Views | 7 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by BeachedBear
Bobodeluxe
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Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices. Lower the prices.

Repeat.
bearchamp
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Cancel the TV contracts and people will go to games.
Tedhead94
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Crappy on the floor product.

Lets face it. Its awful. MBB in the PAC12 is close to unwatchable.
GMP
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I don't think the title is fair (the body of the post is good, though). The product is so bad right now. That's not apathy. Just a refusal to invest time and money in a bad product.


I gotta say - some of this was stunning. It's way worse than I thought.
bearchamp
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What makes a good product in your estimation? Cal was bad, agreed. Was the entire conference bad? Oregon, Utah and Colorado were pretty decent. ASU was very good sometimes. UCLA had some very good games. What is the criteria? Competitiveness? Dunks per game? What?
parentswerebears
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The Pac 12 needs a couple of teams that can compete with the best of the other conferences on a regular basis and not get BDW'd like Washington did this year. We need UCLA to step back up and we need (unfortunately) Oregon to be awesome and we need at least 2-3 other programs to be on the bubble consistently. I could care less if Miller or anyone else ever does something good with Arizona, but you could argue that we need them to be good too.
BeachedBear
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bearchamp said:

What makes a good product in your estimation? Cal was bad, agreed. Was the entire conference bad? Oregon, Utah and Colorado were pretty decent. ASU was very good sometimes. UCLA had some very good games. What is the criteria? Competitiveness? Dunks per game? What?
Everyone has their own criteria, but for me a good product includes:

  • Quality Basketball (well played. Doesn't need to be 5 stars, but can't be walk ons, either)
  • Good Competition (P12, but also OOC which includes local rivals and bigger names)
  • Game experience. Everything that is going on in and around Haas, OTHER than on the court. For me, MBB is a major social activity for friends. The commercial stoppages and circus atmosphere are big detractors. Concessions and facilities are fine, but not great - but that is not important to me.

I think the P12 overall has declined both in competition and product (which generally, but not always go hand in hand). Nathan's numbers support it (although I'm not sure Final Fours is the best indicator). The quality of coaches in the P12 has deteriorated over the last decade. The most successful are under a cloud of suspicion.

I think there are some general social and regional forces that are supporting the apathy. Prices, better alternatives, weather, every game is on tv, etc. More than half the P12 teams are located near metro areas that have a lot to offer. Durham/Chapel Hill/Raleigh is very nice, but it is not comparable to Bay Area, LA, Seattle or even Phoenix.

I think the fan experience at Haas has deteriorated enough to exacerbate the problem. Probably happening in other P12 programs (at least the ones I've seen). Haven't been to ACC or Big10 games in years, so don't know if their fan experience has deteriorated as well.

Obviously, Cal is at an all time low.

Sort of a perfect storm.
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