(7-18) VMI @ (21-5) Furman Feb. 16th

[purplehorse]

I think we have come a long way the last few seasons. I have lived in Greenville my entire life and grew up going to all football and basketball games. My son did the same. Yet, when he went to Furman he rarely attended either. But certainly the 95% plus of Furman students not from Greenville are not interested in many Furman sports.

Winning certainly helps but there are some things beyond the team’s (and our) control.

[FU03times]

Where are the 2000+ students who are not on any athletic team. It would seem that at least 20% of them (at least 400+) would be interested in and available for being there. I cannot understand why at least that number are not there without even counting student-athletes. Are they all studying, working a job, playing golf, going home, or doing social media?

LMAO “doing social media”...it’s not drugs and you definitely don’t need to be in a place that’s not the basketball game to be on social media

[Fuonetime]

I have moved to the Washington DC area and have met a couple of guys who live and work in Richmond VA who have become Richmond Spider fans and season ticket holders. They are not Alumni and seem to be blue collar workers and yet they embrace the Spiders athletic teams as their own. We need to reach the community and develop non Alumni fans. Clemson might be a default option for many but the quality, value and proximity of Furman could be very attractive to these potential fans. Furthermore, we need to reach groups from basketball leagues, churches, recreation departments etc. Additionally, as UFFers,Paladin club members, basketball hard liners, we need to do our part to market the team to our contacts, attend games and be as loud and as proud as possible. Perhaps, we seem to be a little too occupied with our student body attendance.. it seems we are trying to motive them and hope they show up in increasing numbers. We have a great team that has brought a lot of joy and excitement to us all. And we hope more is on the way! Go Paladins!

[DungeonRealm]

We know the potential is there, we have seen it, 400-600 students attended WCU, Charleston Southern and UNCW games when we were on our undefeated run, maybe some are right and it will take an NCAA run to galvanize those kids long term, whatever its going to take hopefully we can make it happen!

[gman]

I have moved to the Washington DC area and have met a couple of guys who live and work in Richmond VA who have become Richmond Spider fans and season ticket holders. They are not Alumni and seem to be blue collar workers and yet they embrace the Spiders athletic teams as their own. We need to reach the community and develop non Alumni fans. Clemson might be a default option for many but the quality, value and proximity of Furman could be very attractive to these potential fans. Furthermore, we need to reach groups from basketball leagues, churches, recreation departments etc. Additionally, as UFFers,Paladin club members, basketball hard liners, we need to do our part to market the team to our contacts, attend games and be as loud and as proud as possible. Perhaps, we seem to be a little too occupied with our student body attendance.. it seems we are trying to motive them and hope they show up in increasing numbers. We have a great team that has brought a lot of joy and excitement to us all. And we hope more is on the way! Go Paladins!

We have a good number of non alumni attending the games. I’m one of them. I’ve been a season ticket holder and a Paladin Club member for a long time. I am also in the Roundball Club. There are a lot of fans that live in the retirement community near Furman that make it to the games. I have to admit that I cringe when I hear a few of the Furman elite make fun of the Clemson fans that have never set foot in a classroom there. I hear that stupid statement too often.

[soconjohn]

The way I see it, a Furman win over Wofford certainly would put the Paladins back in the fold for an at-large bid or at least in the conversation...Whether Wofford comes to Greenville or not, that would be a Quad 1 win...Furman has Quad 2 wins over ETSU and UNCG last week...A win over Villanova in its back pocket already...If Furman wins Saturday, it would have to be considered on-par with Wofford for an at-large...There's no way to advocate Wofford's case over Furman if Furman wins Saturday...But that requires Furman wins its final two games of the regular-season and makes at least the championship game of the tournament.

[Affirm]

I have moved to the Washington DC area and have met a couple of guys who live and work in Richmond VA who have become Richmond Spider fans and season ticket holders. They are not Alumni and seem to be blue collar workers and yet they embrace the Spiders athletic teams as their own. We need to reach the community and develop non Alumni fans. Clemson might be a default option for many but the quality, value and proximity of Furman could be very attractive to these potential fans. Furthermore, we need to reach groups from basketball leagues, churches, recreation departments etc. Additionally, as UFFers,Paladin club members, basketball hard liners, we need to do our part to market the team to our contacts, attend games and be as loud and as proud as possible. Perhaps, we seem to be a little too occupied with our student body attendance.. it seems we are trying to motive them and hope they show up in increasing numbers. We have a great team that has brought a lot of joy and excitement to us all. And we hope more is on the way! Go Paladins!

Regarding Richmond Spiders, we should be able to similarly attract fans from the Greenville community. Keep in mind that Richmond Spiders can do it while being in the same city as VCU and being within 1 hour of both UVA and W&M. Richmond is not that much bigger than Greenville, is it?
Regarding our ability to not attract students who for some reason are perhaps more interested in following top 10 or top 25 college teams - I just do not understand that.

[gman]

Just for fun I looked at the Richmond fan forum site (https://richmond.forums.rivals.com/thre ... 76/page-12). There is a thread on attendance. The most complaints are toward the old folks and lack of student attendance. It sounds like we have more students attending our games. I am thankful for our students that show up and make a lot of noise.

[Affirm]

Just for fun I looked at the Richmond fan forum site (https://richmond.forums.rivals.com/thre ... 76/page-12). There is a thread on attendance. The most complaints are toward the old folks and lack of student attendance. It sounds like we have more students attending our games. I am thankful for our students that show up and make a lot of noise.

U of R has 3052 FT undergrads, not many more than we do. Their arena is 7200 capacity.

[fufanatic]

I have spoken to two students in the past couple of weeks and asked about basketball games. One just wasn't into sports, and besides had to work at a campus job during the games. The other, a senior, attended her first basketball game of her Furman career (VMI). She also just into sports. Despite her dad being a Furman grad, she didn't grow up as a Furman fan, a condition that is probably true of 99% of our students. Am I disappointed in student attendance? Yes, but it is what it is. I'm invested in Furman sports: Paladin Club, season tickets in football, and basketball (men and women). I could ask why many of you don't attend the women's games. (Best ticket deal around, with men's season tix.)They actually have a better conference record than the men. Currently 2nd. I guess some just aren't into Furman women's sports. Our women's team works just as hard as the men and get hardly any support from our fan base or the students. How do you think they feel? The men get great support from us old folks and a dedicated and enthusiastic group of students.

You're right. The women's teams do work just as hard as the men's teams. But as a society we generally just don't get that excited about women's sports. I'm sure there are some deep seeded roots to that, but probably not worth having that debate on this board. It's the same way at every school, Furman is no different. The Notre Dame women sell out almost every game because they win 30-plus games a year and have connected with the older crowd in the South Bend area. I bet 15 students each game are in attendance. The men's team that isn't as good .... couple of hundred students.

As for Furman students, it's important to keep in mind the size of the school when offering a critique. It's incredibly frustrating, I was annoyed that no one cared when I was there, and it's still crazy to hear someone say they don't really follow sports because it's such a big part of my life. But, I bet percentage wise, we really aren't that far off from the student base that attends a Clemson or USC game. If we get 200 of 2600, that's pretty similar to Clemson getting 1,500 students out of 20,000, and I'm guessing they don't get 1,500 students for basketball games. I'm guessing if we doubled our enrollment, the student attendance would almost double too. Not happening though. Probably unrealistic to expect anymore than 20% of the student base to be interested and active in Furman sports, and even that's high.

[CharlieFU]

The good thing is that we don't have to have a lot of students to make a difference. Those 200, if engaged, can have a big impact. If we get more, then that's just icing on the cake.

[apaladin]

I have moved to the Washington DC area and have met a couple of guys who live and work in Richmond VA who have become Richmond Spider fans and season ticket holders. They are not Alumni and seem to be blue collar workers and yet they embrace the Spiders athletic teams as their own. We need to reach the community and develop non Alumni fans. Clemson might be a default option for many but the quality, value and proximity of Furman could be very attractive to these potential fans. Furthermore, we need to reach groups from basketball leagues, churches, recreation departments etc. Additionally, as UFFers,Paladin club members, basketball hard liners, we need to do our part to market the team to our contacts, attend games and be as loud and as proud as possible. Perhaps, we seem to be a little too occupied with our student body attendance.. it seems we are trying to motive them and hope they show up in increasing numbers. We have a great team that has brought a lot of joy and excitement to us all. And we hope more is on the way! Go Paladins!

We have a good number of non alumni attending the games. I’m one of them. I’ve been a season ticket holder and a Paladin Club member for a long time. I am also in the Roundball Club. There are a lot of fans that live in the retirement community near Furman that make it to the games. I have to admit that I cringe when I hear a few of the Furman elite make fun of the Clemson fans that have never set foot in a classroom there. I hear that stupid statement too often.

Ditto!!