WSU Hosts Northern Iowa - Friday, Oct 26th - Buy 1, Get 1 Free

[1972Shocker]

Lambo wants to know if you are a Record Breaker:

http://www.goshockers.com/SplashPage.dbml?SPLASH_AD_ID=647859

The Lady Shocks currently trail UNI and Creighton by 1 game in the loss column. It looks very doubtful that the Shockers will get any help if they want to make their way back to to top of the MVC VB heap. If that, in fact, is the case then the Shocks probably must win-out in order to win the regular season championship. That would very-likely also secure them a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

This definitely will not be an easy task to complete. They can take a HUGE step toward that goal with a win over the reigning Queens of MVC VB, the UNI Lady Panthers on Friday.

UNI pretty much laid waste to the Shocks in Cedar Falls on September 29th after the Shocks squeeked out a 1st set win. Clearly, the Shocks have to play much better at home on Friday if they are to pull out the win. While the Lady Shocks have been somewhat inconsistent this year they certainly are capable of beating the Panthers. Hopefully, the players come into the match with that belief.

Personally, I doubt that we will come anywhere close to a record crowd on Friday. However, there are times you just have to step-up and be counted. This is one of those times. I would hope that every Shocker fan makes every effort to get out and support what has become one of the true jewels of the Shocker athletic program for this HUGELY IMPORTANT match.

Should be a fun night and, if the Shocks can reach deep for a win it could be a great night.

Go Shocks!

[JayJ79]

should be an exciting match

[WuDrWu]

As a season ticket holder for several years now, let me just say it would in no way, shape or form bother me one iota if they were giving out free tickets to everyone that goes to Shocker Madness on Thursday.

In fact, I would have the programs best foot forward, meaning the team themselves, handing out the tickets.

In addition, there would be several media mentions during Shocker Madness, before, during and after, and perhaps even a plea from Lambo and the team on the court.

If having the team hand out free tickets doesn't get a few extra thousand folks in the stands for Friday, then there is no hope for some of you, on a variety of levels.

[SpanglerFan316]

I urge Shocker fans to attend this match.

[1972Shocker]

As a season ticket holder for several years now, let me just say it would in no way, shape or form bother me one iota if they were giving out free tickets to everyone that goes to Shocker Madness on Thursday.

In fact, I would have the programs best foot forward, meaning the team themselves, handing out the tickets.

In addition, there would be several media mentions during Shocker Madness, before, during and after, and perhaps even a plea from Lambo and the team on the court.

If having the team hand out free tickets doesn't get a few extra thousand folks in the stands for Friday, then there is no hope for some of you, on a variety of levels.

I whole-heartedly agree with that @WuDrWu but they seem to be all-in on this 2 for 1 "Record Breaker" promotion effort and I don't see them changing that up in mid-stream. Although it would be nice to provide a "reward" to those Shocker fans that attend Shocker Madness. And free tickets to the UNI match would be a very nice reward IMHO.

I think we will have a crowd of around 2,500 to 3,000 for the UNI match with the current promotion. Hopefully, they will do some promotion of the match at Shocker Madness although I would only expect that to provide a very moderate boost in attendance at best.

We have two chances of breaking the all-time attendance record. One would be to get K-State or KU on the schedule for a match at Koch which, as the last home match with KSU showed, will draw a good Shocker crowd supplemented (or equaled) by a good KSU/KU crowd.

Now if we could someday host an NCAA sub-regional we would have a great shot at setting the record, especially if we could get a KSU or KU match-up in that setting. Maybe even close to a sell-out in that circumstance.

Maybe if we can win our next 5 matches and be 14-2 in the MVC heading into our November 16th home match with Creighton we can run a promo that would tap into the often stated dislike of Creighton to get a really big crowd out for that match. But that is a big IF at this point in time and probably not worth thinking too much about until we finish our road schedule.

First things first though, defeating UNI will be tough. Personally, I would consider it an upset due to the way UNI handled us in Cedar Falls. Not sure the match-ups are favorable for the Shocks in this one. We will need just about everyone playing well on Friday to win this one. Generally, UNI will not beat themselves. Shocks must play clean, smart, high-quality VB on Friday to get this win.

Go Shocks!

[1972Shocker]

should be an exciting match

I hope so, but the Shocks left Cedar Falls with a wimper a month ago. I hope that proves to be somewhat of an aberration for the Shocks, but this year's team has shown they can be very good at times and not so good at other times.

I have very little doubt UNI will show up ready to play. Hard to believe the same won't be true for the Lady Shocks, but I am not totally confident that will be the case. The match in UNI was a little odd for the Lady Shocks in that they usually start slowly and then get better as the match progresses. Just the opposite was true in Cedar Falls. Obviously, UNI will have the Shock's full attention this week. Just playing well won't help the Shocks. They need to win this match.

[JayJ79]

haven't some WSU fans griped about the methods that UNI has used to boost attendance? I wonder if those people are upset about talks of such promotions for Shocker matches

(personally, I think anything that gets people out to watch volleyball is a good thing)

[WuDrWu]

haven't some WSU fans griped about the methods that UNI has used to boost attendance? I wonder if those people are upset about talks of such promotions for Shocker matches

(personally, I think anything that gets people out to watch volleyball is a good thing)

Huge difference between offering a $20 all access pass for the entire season, THEN changing the time for a Saturday evening match to attempt to garner the football crowd and a program that's been in the top 10 in attendance for 5 years offering a 1 time promotion.

If we changed the match to Thursday before Shocker Madness, I'd be upset and claim unfairness.

[1972Shocker]

haven't some WSU fans griped about the methods that UNI has used to boost attendance? I wonder if those people are upset about talks of such promotions for Shocker matches

(personally, I think anything that gets people out to watch volleyball is a good thing)

I think it boils down to what the goal is. Butts in the seats or dollars supporting the program. Unfortunately, that seems to be somewhat of a trade-off with women's sports generally. If ticket give-aways can be converted into future paying customers than it is probably well worth it. WSU's attendance seems to have hit a plateau and ticket give-aways have not seemed to change that much over time. From what I understand WSU's VB revenue pretty much equals that of the other 9 MVC teams combined so, at least for now, WSU seems to have struck a decent balance between those opposing goals.

We do have some work to do with our Women's basketball attendance.

[ShockerFever]

haven't some WSU fans griped about the methods that UNI has used to boost attendance? I wonder if those people are upset about talks of such promotions for Shocker matches

(personally, I think anything that gets people out to watch volleyball is a good thing)

Not even CLOSE to the same thing.

I'd be interested to see your reasons why you made such a comparison.

[1972Shocker]

Huge difference between offering a $20 all access pass for the entire season.

Actually Doc, that $20 was for an Combo season tickete to both women's VB and women's BB. I assume UNI must be struggling with attendance at women's BB (as IMO are the Shocks) and wanted to try to use their VB together with sub $1 ticket prices to boost the butts in the seats.

As I said if that boosts long-term attendance at regular prices tham it my a prove to have been a successful campaign. Time will tell on that.

[1972Shocker]

haven't some WSU fans griped about the methods that UNI has used to boost attendance? I wonder if those people are upset about talks of such promotions for Shocker matches

(personally, I think anything that gets people out to watch volleyball is a good thing)

Actually, I think the surprise on the part of Shocker fans was that UNI, with the extremely high quality of their VB program, would have to go to such extreme measures to attract fans. That is why I suspect the UNI AD is attempting to leverage the VB program together with pretty much give-away ticket prices to boost future paying attendance at VB matches and especially for WBB games. If it proves successful in the long-run in doing that it will be proven as a successful promotion.

[JayJ79]

the ticket deal didn't make sense to me financially either. Although in the big scheme of things, the difference in revenue between getting more casual fans to fork out $20 for season tickets vs. getting the core group of fans (or at least the core group who aren't already getting comped tickets) probably isn't all that significant compared to the costs of scholarships, coaches salaries, etc.

I'll let the bureaucrats worry about that. I'm just enjoying the atmosphere created by bigger crowds at matches.

[JayJ79]

Huge difference between offering a $20 all access pass for the entire season, THEN changing the time for a Saturday evening match to attempt to garner the football crowd and a program that's been in the top 10 in attendance for 5 years offering a 1 time promotion.

If we changed the match to Thursday before Shocker Madness, I'd be upset and claim unfairness.

So WSU would never adjust the start time of a volleyball match in order to accomodate a mens basketball game?

[WuDrWu]

Again, apples and oranges. Our men's basketball team plays on the same floor as volleyball. The only reason to change the time was to attempt gin up the crowd, somewhat at the expense of our team. It was a stark inconvenience for our team.