The Slow Death of Gameday Atmosphere at CKA

[shocker43]

Again, promotions CAN work!

They just have to be done more effectively and not in the boner-killing fashion they are done right now.

I think the shirt toss could be an example of a promo that could keep the crowd hyped. Everyone goes crazy to get a shirt. I think the problem, though, is that they do this specific promo at times where the crowd was already dead. The crowd goes from being dead because of the game, to going crazy for a shirt, back to being dead.

[AndShock]

Having the Dunkin‘ Donuts mascot running out there waving a Dunkin’ Donuts flag while the PA blasts Seven Nation Army is probably a more effective advertisement than having 3 toddlers dunk the ball with the winner getting whatever it is they get.

No one cares about the stupid af promotional games, just stick your company’s name in my face and I will notice it just as well, if not more.

[Stickboy46]

This ... at some point having your name attached to something that people hate ... becomes a negative marketing potential. They paid for a time slot. Give it to them and get the crowd pumped up.

[ShockerFever]

1. There is just a difference in what people want when they go to CKA.

Personally, I really enjoy the sitting down part.
The person in front of me, preferred to sit down, but pop up like a bunny every time there was a cool play. I missed a lot of plays because of this bunny rabbit. She wasn't alone.
The people behind me also preferred to sit down the whole game, expect to stand when "everyone else was"

Hasn't it been tradition to sit down after the team scores? That's what I do.

2. Either way, the sounds and visuals could improve to help train the crowd on when to stand. A simple "Stand up" or "Get loud" would probably be good enough (maybe?).

3. Shockers could help keep the crowd awake by playing a little more exciting defense. You hear how loud that place gets when we gets a stop and a defensive rebound? How about a little more of that?

4. Put lids on the d*** booz. My family had it spilled on them against SMU. It's a f**** disgrace.

Your first point is a pretty horrible take. I don’t expect people to stand the entire game if that’s what you think anyone is implying. But to complain about people standing up during exciting plays pretty much shows your level of fandom. Your fanbase in Lawrence wouldn’t approve of that way of thinking either.

[ShockerPhi]

1. There is just a difference in what people want when they go to CKA.

Personally, I really enjoy the sitting down part.
The person in front of me, preferred to sit down, but pop up like a bunny every time there was a cool play. I missed a lot of plays because of this bunny rabbit. She wasn't alone.
The people behind me also preferred to sit down the whole game, expect to stand when "everyone else was"

Hasn't it been tradition to sit down after the team scores? That's what I do.

2. Either way, the sounds and visuals could improve to help train the crowd on when to stand. A simple "Stand up" or "Get loud" would probably be good enough (maybe?).

I feel like our crowd is traditionally pretty smart on when to get loud and stand up when a pivotal point in the game comes along. Our crowd seems to have a pretty high basketball IQ overall.

Also, I'm the type of person to be a "bunny" sometimes and stand up after a really awesome play. I do sometimes feel bad for blocking view, so I make sure I sit back down after a few seconds. I don't think there's anything wrong with being loud and rowdy and standing every once in a while as long as you don't just stand the whole game. Stand when everyone else does, or sit back down after a few seconds. Unless of course you're in the student section, you better be on your feet all game.

[Topshock]

The day you can't jump after an exciting play or at an important time of the game when the team needs the crowd to get loud is the day I'm no longer interested in going to games.

[Shock Top]

I think the shirt toss could be an example of a promo that could keep the crowd hyped. Everyone goes crazy to get a shirt. I think the problem, though, is that they do this specific promo at times where the crowd was already dead. The crowd goes from being dead because of the game, to going crazy for a shirt, back to being dead.

Even then, they suck at that.

the gun RARELY works and when they throw shirts they never get past the first five rows.

ive been to games where they have a gatling gun looking deal that actually distributs T-shirts evenly (and looks badass). of some company had their name on that, they should be happy.

[Shaqness]

I feel like our crowd is traditionally pretty smart on when to get loud and stand up when a pivotal point in the game comes along. Our crowd seems to have a pretty high basketball IQ overall.

Also, I'm the type of person to be a "bunny" sometimes and stand up after a really awesome play.

Your bunny technique is probably different than the lady in front of me. She literally jumped up every time the play was starting. Couldn't' tell you how many plays I missed vs. SMU. Given that I was on the SMU side at the second half, I probably didn't want to see what was happening anyway.

[ShauXTyme]

Didn’t want to start a new thread, so will ask here...what was with the green shirts during warm-ups at the SMU game? Couldn’t read what was printed from the uppers.

[WstateU]

Didn’t want to start a new thread, so will ask here...what was with the green shirts during warm-ups at the SMU game? Couldn’t read what was printed from the uppers.

AAC Mental Health Awareness Campaign

https://www.instagram.com/p/BeCD1E9FYDi/

[WheatShock]

Even then, they suck at that.

the gun RARELY works and when they throw shirts they never get past the first five rows.

ive been to games where they have a gatling gun looking deal that actually distributs T-shirts evenly (and looks badass). of some company had their name on that, they should be happy.

OSU had one of those T-shirt gatling gun things. I could have a pile of fun with one of those.

[Shocker-maniac]

Just a few random thoughts:

1. I dislike the promotions just as much as everyone else. But I'm not sure what can be done in place of promotions to keep the crowd fired up. With all of our games being televised most timeouts have a duration of several minutes. The band can play or they can pipe in pump you up music, but with the longer timeouts the crowd is usually going to lose its steam before play resumes. This actually happened a couple of times during the SMU game, where the crowd was on its feet cheering as we headed into the timeout, instead of promotions they played music and most of the crowd stayed on their feet clapping during the timeout, and as the team broke from their huddles and play resumed both times the crowd sat back down in their seats and were quiet.

2. Most likely, more than ever WSU needs the money that the promotions generate. There were huge expenditures to join the AAC. If I recall correctly the joining fee was somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.5 million. Throw in the huge increase in travel expenditures for all athletic teams, and the fact that we forfeited a large amount of $$$ in future NCAA tournament shares that were earned while we were part of the MVC. That adds up to a substantial financial hit the Athletic Department is taking. So yeah, I see many more promotions in our future. Maybe they can be creative and find ways that it doesn't sap the energy from the crowd???

3. For the reasons stated in #2, my guess is that there was a smaller budget and that is why the intro hype video is not to the quality and standards that we've grown accustomed to in previous seasons.

[WuShock16]

Point 2. Yes, WSU needs promotion money. You know what WSU needs more than that? NCAA money. When you do stupid stuff with promotions that plays a part in the team losing, you cost your team future seeding, which could eventually cost the team a game in the NCAA Tournament.

[Shocker-maniac]

The thought that promotions were in any way a factor in our loss to SMU is ludicrous. At this point, our problems go way beyond promotions.

[WuShock Reaper]

"Pflugradt: In-game promos are crowd killers, detrimental to Shockers’ home success" - The Sunflower (WSU Student Newspaper)

Evan Pflugradt, Opinion Editor
Posted: January 22, 2018

https://thesunflower.com/23784/opini...-home-success/
-

"At Koch Arena, an unpredictable game like basketball was rather predictable — Shocker win after Shocker win. For years, WSU’s athletic department has been able to prepare for soft promotions and schedule them for various points of the game; and in games where the Shockers lead by more than 10 points, the promotions did little harm. Blowout games like that are a thing of the past, and there needs to be more consideration to from the promotion’s staff on how to build crowd energy.

Wednesday night I witnessed something quite rare: Wichita State losing at Koch Arena. In fact, it was only the second time in my three years at the university such a thing has happened. Before the Shockers dropped to Northern Iowa in 2015, they had won 43 home games consecutively; and that streak was back up to 27 before Southern Methodist stormed into victory on Devlin Court earlier this week.

Losses at Koch Arena are unpredictable. Yet, losses can somewhat be expected when you upgrade competition to include teams like SMU, Houston and Cincinnati.

I’d be lying if I thought the Shockers — who have the 68th best strength of schedule in the country — would get through the season without losing at Koch Arena, and I’d be lying if I said I was confident it won’t happen again this year.

What should have been recognized this season, was the number of 20- and 30-point blowouts would be traded for single-digit victories, and in some cases loses. But what strikes me as odd, is the unpreparedness of the athletic department to realize what challenges it might be to keep the crowd energized when the beloved Shockers faced adversity.

Wednesday night, WSU struggled earlier and fell into a hole against American Athletic Conference Preseason Player of the Year, Shake Milton. Milton scored with ease as he wowed with a career best 33 points.

After trailing the Mustangs by 13 points in the second half, WSU miraculously pulled the game to within three points — forcing SMU coach Tim Jankovich to call a timeout to settle Koch Arena’s 10,000-plus person crowd.

Instead of bumping up the noise and playing hype videos on the big screen, WSU did Jankovich the honors cut to the next promotion — a kiss cam — and settled the crowd all their own. And in that instant, the energy was dead.


Zach Bush
@ZTBush5
I’m not endorsing the language, but...... BRUTAL. The energy is killed EVERY time there is a TO cause we go to announcements and slow lethargic promos. Crowd killers. No shade but it’s really tough to keep it rocking with the band playing slow jazz

Former fifth-year Shocker Zach Bush took to Twitter to chime in. “BRUTAL,” he tweeted. “The energy is killed EVERY time there is a TO cause we go to announcements and slow lethargic promos.

“Crowd killers.”

He’s right. By the time the two teams came out of the timeout, the crowd was mostly silent, and SMU capitalized.

At Koch Arena in recent years, an unpredictable game like basketball was rather predictable. For years, WSU’s athletic department has been able to prepare for soft promotions and schedule them for various points of the game; and in games where the Shockers lead by more than 10 points, the promotions did little harm. Blowout games like that are a thing of the past, and there needs to be more consideration to from the promotion’s staff on how to build crowd energy.

One fan called the attention of Athletic Director Darron Boatright, and Boatright replied, “I feel your pain. We would prefer to not have promos at all.”

Promotions aren’t the problem — they’re a piece of every sporting event — but the timing and production could be altered, and the way it looks ideas haven’t been explored in a long time.

To succeed in the AAC, WSU — now two games back out of first place — is going to have to defend home court, and that might not come easy without some help. There’s a demand for change, and the athletic department should not be afraid to discuss new alternatives to how they handle in-game promotions."

[Shock Top]

Hopefully, THIS is the time they finally listen to fans and turn their stuff around.

Is it REALLY that hard to look around at other big time schools and programs and see what works for them? Or here’s an idea, come up with a great idea yourself?

They could have solved this problem years ago, when WSU’s star was assessing, but choose to go with the status quo instead.

[pie n eye]

You are dead on about the security people in the pregame lines.

[Shock Top]

You are dead on about the security people in the pregame lines.

“JACKETS OPEN PURSES OPEN!!!!!”

Bro, I’m two feet in front of you.

[Stickboy46]

You are dead on about the security people in the pregame lines.

Also the fact that it takes longer for the scanner people to scan tickets than to get through security is a problem.