A fact that can't be ignored

#1
D

Detective

Member
Joined
May 12, 2008
Messages
6
Likes
14
#1
If you were in attendance last night, a fact that can't be ignored is the number of MTSU fans in attendance vs Lady Vol fans. I get it, this was not a home game but it was a neutral site for both teams. Where were the Lady Vol loyalists who have followed this team from town to town year after year? When the fans lose interest how do we expect the recruits to gain interest?
 
  • Like
Reactions: jaybird_1981, Ratvol, VolBalls33 and 4 others
#2
#2
Detective said:
If you were in attendance last night, a fact that can't be ignored is the number of MTSU fans in attendance vs Lady Vol fans. I get it, this was not a home game but it was a neutral site for both teams. Where were the Lady Vol loyalists who have followed this team from town to town year after year? When the fans lose interest how do we expect the recruits to gain interest?
Click to expand...
To much losing and bad play. The crowds are going to get smaller if this team can't perform better. Could turn out to be one of the worst seasons in Lady Vol history. We need a minimum of 13 and 6 in the final 19 games to have any chance of making the NCAA Tourney this season. Right now I don't see that many wins for us. Maybe if Rickea came back strong, but were certainly in a deep hole to dig out of.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Woodlawn VOL, mcannon1, Ratvol and 8 others
#4
#4
Detective said:
If you were in attendance last night, a fact that can't be ignored is the number of MTSU fans in attendance vs Lady Vol fans. I get it, this was not a home game but it was a neutral site for both teams. Where were the Lady Vol loyalists who have followed this team from town to town year after year? When the fans lose interest how do we expect the recruits to gain interest?
Click to expand...
I love Kellie and she is a VFL, however it’s time to move on from her.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: volcity, Rocky Top T, Dansky and 16 others
#5
#5
I go back to watching Coach Summitt playing days at UTM....and all from then until now. I would not pay money or spend expenses to go see this team do whatever it is they do. It's not a well coached or played ball club and it keeps getting worse....The next hire needs to be right or this program will be forgotten in not too many years....It's getting there now. Hell, instate girls that are much needed don't give this program a thought anymore when not too many years ago would have crawled to Knoxville to play for the LVs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ratvol and Deebowbear
#7
#7
Also, can't ignore what Rick Insell has done at MTSU after years of dominance @ Shelbyville. Dude can coach. Doesn't mean we should ever lose to them though.
  • From 1977 to 2005 as head coach at Shelbyville Central High School, he led his teams to 21 District Championships, 14 Regional Championships, 5 State Runner-ups, 10 State Championships, 2 USA TODAY National Runner-ups, and 2 USA TODAY National Championships
 
  • Like
Reactions: volmanNC, 007Racer, VolBalls33 and 6 others
#8
#8
njvols said:
Also, can't ignore what Rick Insell has done at MTSU after years of dominance @ Shelbyville. Dude can coach. Doesn't mean we should ever lose to them though.
  • From 1977 to 2005 as head coach at Shelbyville Central High School, he led his teams to 21 District Championships, 14 Regional Championships, 5 State Runner-ups, 10 State Championships, 2 USA TODAY National Runner-ups, and 2 USA TODAY National Championships
Click to expand...
Hmmm...maybe we should give him a look.
 
#9
#9
I live in central Alabama and almost drove up to Huntsville for the game. Sorry to say I'm glad I didn't. I would have been sorely disappointed. Bad enough watching it on espn+
 
  • Like
Reactions: FabSmokyVol
#11
#11
Detective said:
If you were in attendance last night, a fact that can't be ignored is the number of MTSU fans in attendance vs Lady Vol fans. I get it, this was not a home game but it was a neutral site for both teams. Where were the Lady Vol loyalists who have followed this team from town to town year after year? When the fans lose interest how do we expect the recruits to gain interest?
Click to expand...
They are getting old and dieing
 
  • Like
Reactions: BruisedOrange
#12
#12
Volfan2012 said:
To much losing and bad play. The crowds are going to get smaller if this team can't perform better. Could turn out to be one of the worst seasons in Lady Vol history. We need a minimum of 13 and 6 in the final 19 games to have any chance of making the NCAA Tourney this season. Right now I don't see that many wins for us. Maybe if Rickea came back strong, but were certainly in a deep hole to dig out of.
Click to expand...
They are not playing with their best player or their best shot blocker. This team will be a contender for the SEC title this year.
 
#14
#14
Detective said:
If you were in attendance last night, a fact that can't be ignored is the number of MTSU fans in attendance vs Lady Vol fans. I get it, this was not a home game but it was a neutral site for both teams. Where were the Lady Vol loyalists who have followed this team from town to town year after year? When the fans lose interest how do we expect the recruits to gain interest?
Click to expand...
They got old and died and because of the mismanagement of the department and the marketing in Pat’s last few years and the entire Holly era, they did not recruit younger fans to replace them.

Although the whole department didn’t consolidate until Dave Hart took over in 2012, the marketing, ticketing and development departments consolidated in 2008–09. The new combined department got rid of the general admission tickets and low-cost family options that had built so many young fans and families into full-time season ticket holders in the 90s and early 2000s and replaced them with full-price season tickets that went mostly unsold. Average attendance started to fall in 2009, the year after Pat’s last title, and never has reached those levels again.

The fanbase for women’s basketball has always been older. The positive of that is that they have more disposable income, are more willing to travel to away and postseason events and more willing to make gifts to the department. The negative is that they’re always aging out of being able to attend/spend/donate. My grandparents and probably 40 people from their church used to go to every home game (usually after church) and then traveled to every SEC Tournament and NCAA games. They’re all dead now.

What UT did very well from the 1980s through 2008 was recruit families to come to games at a low cost, many of them became season ticket holders and then donors/travelers as their kids left home. What UT stopped doing in the 2009-19 time frame was developing that family base into season ticket holders. And we’re seeing the effects of that now.

Team performance is absolutely a part of it, but a 10-year run of poor long-term marketing did real damage as well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: StorrsCentral, Chipperbones, jeebie and 21 others
#15
#15
There was a time you could go into a store in the Knoxville area and there would be a handful of tickets for the taking on the counter.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chuckiepoo
#18
#18
VOLINVONORE said:
They are not playing with their best player or their best shot blocker. This team will be a contender for the SEC title this year.
Click to expand...
You need to wake up or change your medication. She has had Very Good Players for 5 years and what has she done, no one is getting. She can't prepare a team for the competition, make in game adjustments, and she certainly can't recruit. Everyone we play has a career night scoring with WIDE OPEN shots. What part of this do you not understand, were at the bottom of the pack, and it's only going to get worse.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dansky and Ratvol
#19
#19
Volfan2012 said:
To much losing and bad play. The crowds are going to get smaller if this team can't perform better. Could turn out to be one of the worst seasons in Lady Vol history. We need a minimum of 13 and 6 in the final 19 games to have any chance of making the NCAA Tourney this season. Right now I don't see that many wins for us. Maybe if Rickea came back strong, but were certainly in a deep hole to dig out of.
Click to expand...
OH, I see your logic. SO if the ladies do turn it around and make the NCAA's then the greater fanbase will need to purge the element calling for our coaches head at this point of the season. Sounds fair. Logic is logic I guess. Weak minded fans who can justify attendance or lack thereof on the record of a team with the current injuries logically need to be dismissed. Makes as much sense as players justifying bad play due to lack of attendance.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chuckiepoo and Volfan2012
#20
#20
GUNTERSVOL said:
OH, I see your logic. SO if the ladies do turn it around and make the NCAA's then the greater fanbase will need to purge the element calling for our coaches head at this point of the season. Sounds fair. Logic is logic I guess. Weak minded fans who can justify attendance or lack thereof on the record of a team with the current injuries logically need to be dismissed. Makes as much sense as players justifying bad play due to lack of attendance.
Click to expand...
This is true if they can turn it around. This is what White will be looking at and what he will base his decision on. If they can't make the NCAA then I would expect Kellie will be gone. We have never missed making the NCAA.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dansky and chuckiepoo
#21
#21
Volfan2012 said:
This is true if they can turn it around. This is what White will be looking at and what he will base his decision on. If they can't make the NCAA then I would expect Kellie will be gone. We have never missed making the NCAA.
Click to expand...
I don't have a clue how our AD is weighting the injury issues in his CONSTANT evaluation of Coach. I don't know how anyone can make declarative statements without that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chuckiepoo
#23
#23
Detective said:
If you were in attendance last night, a fact that can't be ignored is the number of MTSU fans in attendance vs Lady Vol fans. I get it, this was not a home game but it was a neutral site for both teams. Where were the Lady Vol loyalists who have followed this team from town to town year after year? When the fans lose interest how do we expect the recruits to gain interest?
Click to expand...

Yep I was there and thought the same thing. Really surprising and disappointing.
 
#25
#25
Detective said:
If you were in attendance last night, a fact that can't be ignored is the number of MTSU fans in attendance vs Lady Vol fans. I get it, this was not a home game but it was a neutral site for both teams. Where were the Lady Vol loyalists who have followed this team from town to town year after year? When the fans lose interest how do we expect the recruits to gain interest?
Click to expand...
The fans you speak of are probably in nursing homes...JS.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Go aeiou and chuckiepoo
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top