Fan flyer for distribution at Shocker games.

[ABC]

He didn't say don't do it either.

I was part of the group of students that brought our instruments to HLA in 1988 and played the "hell" cheer. I can assure you the athletic administration didn't like it but the crowd did.

BTW, this was done as a suggestion by then Athletic Director Lew Perkins in 1985 or 86.

[RoyalShock]

He didn't say don't do it either.

Correct.

[aShock4life]

Not that my opinion matters...but his response to me seems to be his professional way of saying not to do it without offending anyone in the process

[The Mad Hatter]

Not that my opinion matters...but his response to me seems to be his professional way of saying not to do it without offending anyone in the process

That is my read as well.

[shockerfan]

Truthfully I kinda get the vibe as:

Not quite yet as I'm still hopeful that as the quality of teams increase so will the energy. But if that doesn't do it, then we'll revisit this again.

Obviously I'm reading alot into it, but since he didn't directly say 'no' I'm taking as more of a 'maybe, but not just yet'.

Thanks for the effort though Royal, and I would keep this around just in case...;)

[BOBB]

Your heart's definitely in the right place. We don't have the same buy in from the average fan for a few reasons:

1. In the past few years we had the same core group of players that had worked, with Coach Turgeon, to turn the program around-Randy, Jamar, Paul, Rob Kampman. If by their Junior years you didn't feel like you OWED these guys to cheer your guts for the work they put in then you didn't bleed Shocker <cue Dennis> Gold. Other than PJ and Matt, none of our current team, or staff, have "put in work." In PJ and Matt's case they came in to a pretty good situation, not like the aforementioned crew. It will be a long time before anyone gets the love like those guys did. Maybe JT, Ellis, Gal and Coach Marshall can get there.

2. We have not played anyone yet that would grab the casual fan by the short and curlies. Say what you will about UMBC or Wyoming, but there's no history like with Creighton or SIU. The Wyoming game coinciding with the KU football game did not help. I was at the basketball game, but you can't blame the casual fan, that makes up the lion's share of the fan base, for skipping a matchup of two mediocre teams in favor of seeing a once in a generation type game from KU football.

3. Finally, the early losses certainly took some wind out of the sails of the average fan. If you remember many Shockernetters were damn near suicidal. Who can forget Aargh's "Bench Cooz and Brauer" thread?

What does this all mean? Nothing. Except that I think the crowd will pick up steam when the games mean more against higher quality opponents or conferences foes not named Evansville or Drake. I expect full tilt against LSU. The crowd will be there this year.

[martymoose]

I typed this before reading BOBB's post above, but basically adding to what he said....

I think Schaus is right, the fans will come around... The level of excitement is dictated by several things and they are all going against us right now.

1. Current level of the team. The 2 loses in the Virgin Islands didn't help, if we were undefeated right now, I think the level of excitement at the games would be much higher.

2. Opponent quality. While those of us on Shockernet who follow college basketball closely know that UMBC was a pretty good team and Texas Arlington is pretty good, the casual fan asks if they are even D1 and can't really get into the excitement of the game. Wait until LSU comes to town, they carry a name everyone will recognize.

3. Fans at the game. I'm not sure why the students aren't filling up their section but that has a big factor on the noise level. Right now we have about 300 noisy students at the games. The student section the last few years has consisted of 900 - 1000 noisy fans. A 1000 people yelling and screaming can get the other 9000 going. Plus take into account that the corporate seats aren't filling up to add a little extra noise.

[RipEmUpShox]

This is awesome guys.
you know what would be really awesome...was if they took a mic up to coach marshalls wife in the stands and had her say a few things. lol.

some people would throw a fit but thatd be for the good.
the moments tongiht when the crowd was in it, was unbeleivable.

and the team played so much better when everyone was up.

[bloodgold]

Schaus Reply

Honestly, it looked as though he pulled the response from a folder on his computer entitled "responsetoconcernsaboutcrowdnoise.doc"

I guarantee you that he has template responses and then tries to customize them a tiny bit at the beginning and end.

My suggestion would be to reduce the font so that you could get about 4 complete flyers out of one sheet of paper and print off about 250 sheets. Add a line of text to the bottom that says, "whether you agree with this or not, please pass it to the person on your left." Start the thing on rows top to bottom every 4 sections or whatever. The thing would circulate in 10 minutes.