I have never understood why some of the area sports teams (college & pro) like NKU, the Cyclones, the now defunct Arena football & CBA teams don't give away free tickets to at least high school and grade school students. You get fans in the seats and you make money on the already inflated concession.

 

It has to be very disheartening for these athletes to look out into the crowd and see a nearly empty arena.

 

The NKU people say their students get in for free already. I know they always have youth groups in attendance and assumed they got in free as well. Why did they build a 9,000-seat arena for a program that can barely get 1,000 fans a night in my question. Last week they had an OK crowd on Thursday, but Saturday was another so-so attendance day. Some of their own people were complaining about playing at almost the same time as UK that day and I agree with them. That's on who ever does scheduling. Like I said earlier, there seems to be a lack of understanding by the NKU administrators on scheduling game times and even teams. They brought in Clermont College and another school from Ohio Mid-West earlier in the season and never understood that.

Question, how many events do they have that they need to have to retract the bleachers? I know of only one event, but I am guessing for most or all concerts they are retracted?

 

All concerts bleachers pulled back. High school proms, specialty events (roller skating, Circus Solei, Walking with Dinosaurs) also retracted. I think they will begin pulling them back for high school games shortly. They could pull back for NKU games, but there is not enough students there for those games to bother.

Two things, totally off topic.

 

1) That bridge in Tacoma eerily resembles the Mackinac Bridge spanning the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan. Same identical suspension setup. The Big Mac survived the "Edmund Fitzgerald" storm and many, many, other gale force blows before and since then. I'm seriously wondreing if the Tacoma bridge had serious structure flaws to begin with. I;ve driven across the Big Mac (the real Big Mac) probably 30 or 40 times, and it definitely has a bounce about it when you cross, but I have every confidence in it's structural integrity.

 

2) When I was flying out to Miami last Wednesday, the entire NKU Women's team was boarding a plane at a gate across from me. So, not only is the BOKC draining funds from the university by being in Division I and especially in the Atlantic Sun Conference, but their travel expenses must be enormus. Too bad they didn't have some assurances from the OVC that they would be accepted before finalizing plans to go D-I and build the BOKC. I think if they were playing in the OVC, it would be a whole different story, attendence and local interest wise.

 

I consider myself to be a fair-weather NKU fan, who used to attend most home games played at Regents Hall during Ken Shields tenure. I can count on my hand the number of games I've seen NKU play at the BOKC - two - Louisville for the BOKC opener and one as the guest of Andrew Kappas, and I can't begin to tell you who won or the names of any of the players on the team other than Jolly.

 

If I have no interest in NKU games, then something is totally wrong with what's going on over there.

They brought in Clermont College and another school from Ohio Mid-West earlier in the season and never understood that.

 

Nobody wants to watch that crap - which is apparently why almost nobody came.

I am glad they built the area, I am pretty sure that we were the only area of the state that did not have a larger venue. I am also happy that NKU jumped to D1, but as we all know, there will be years of growing pains. I will not give my opinion on personnel with the team or such things as the AD or any other person involved with NKU. But, they have to see that if they have games on the weekdays Vs weekends, that the crowd size will pretty much be the same. I am not saying all of the games need to be during the week, but I would hope that NKU would work with the BOK management to ensure that more weekends are available for events that will draw a lot more people. I am sure NKU controls this and not the BOK, but some people are turned off by a $4 parking fee for a HS game.

Two things, totally off topic.

 

1) That bridge in Tacoma eerily resembles the Mackinac Bridge spanning the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan. Same identical suspension setup. The Big Mac survived the "Edmund Fitzgerald" storm and many, many, other gale force blows before and since then. I'm seriously wondreing if the Tacoma bridge had serious structure flaws to begin with. I;ve driven across the Big Mac (the real Big Mac) probably 30 or 40 times, and it definitely has a bounce about it when you cross, but I have every confidence in it's structural integrity.

 

2) When I was flying out to Miami last Wednesday, the entire NKU Women's team was boarding a plane at a gate across from me. So, not only is the BOKC draining funds from the university by being in Division I and especially in the Atlantic Sun Conference, but their travel expenses must be enormus. Too bad they didn't have some assurances from the OVC that they would be accepted before finalizing plans to go D-I and build the BOKC. I think if they were playing in the OVC, it would be a whole different story, attendence and local interest wise.

 

I consider myself to be a fair-weather NKU fan, who used to attend most home games played at Regents Hall during Ken Shields tenure. I can count on my hand the number of games I've seen NKU play at the BOKC - two - Louisville for the BOKC opener and one as the guest of Andrew Kappas, and I can't begin to tell you who won or the names of any of the players on the team other than Jolly.

 

If I have no interest in NKU games, then something is totally wrong with what's going on over there.

 

Were the games with Ken Shields in Regents Hall attended well? I never saw a game over there until 2006.

I am glad they built the area, I am pretty sure that we were the only area of the state that did not have a larger venue. I am also happy that NKU jumped to D1, but as we all know, there will be years of growing pains. I will not give my opinion on personnel with the team or such things as the AD or any other person involved with NKU. But, they have to see that if they have games on the weekdays Vs weekends, that the crowd size will pretty much be the same. I am not saying all of the games need to be during the week, but I would hope that NKU would work with the BOK management to ensure that more weekends are available for events that will draw a lot more people. I am sure NKU controls this and not the BOK, but some people are turned off by a $4 parking fee for a HS game.

 

In the first year NKU made a deal to have the circus in the BOKC and forced their own basketball teams to play in Regents Hall near the end of the season. I worked the circus 3 or 4 straight days and NKU was in Regents Hall. Not sure of the particulars, but Les Crooks was the GM of the BOKC who made that deal for the circus. There was lots of controversy about it and he left the BOKC for a reason I wasn't privy to. James Votruba was the NKU President at the time and said he knew nothing about the circus taking priority over the NKU basketball, but that's hard to believe. The lady athletic director at the time said they were given a choice of weekends to play at the BOKC and they chose a tournament week because of the women's team. I remember the women's team did host a tournament after that in March. All of us were told by the SMG brass to refer any circus questions to Kevin Contardo, who was the SMG PR person then.

This thread went from utterly worthless to quite informative pretty quickly.

Still there for events on a part time basis. I was there for Carrie Underwood working the first event, Walking With Dinosaurs, Louisville vs. NKU basketball exhibition, you name it!

 

As was I.

Were the games with Ken Shields in Regents Hall attended well? I never saw a game over there until 2006.

 

Yes....They had decent attendance..

I am glad they built the area, I am pretty sure that we were the only area of the state that did not have a larger venue. I am also happy that NKU jumped to D1, but as we all know, there will be years of growing pains. I will not give my opinion on personnel with the team or such things as the AD or any other person involved with NKU. But, they have to see that if they have games on the weekdays Vs weekends, that the crowd size will pretty much be the same. I am not saying all of the games need to be during the week, but I would hope that NKU would work with the BOK management to ensure that more weekends are available for events that will draw a lot more people. I am sure NKU controls this and not the BOK, but some people are turned off by a $4 parking fee for a HS game.

4 dollar parking and expensive concessions,,,what a joke..

4 dollar parking and expensive concessions,,,what a joke..

 

Agree with you one hundred pct! SMG and the BOKC has NOTHING AT ALL to do with the parking, that is all on NKU. Their public safety has no idea how to control traffic for big events. Parking is all NKU. Concessions, well, no comment! lol.

"If it's free, it's for me" :banana:

 

That's my line.

That's my line.

 

You and Lawnboy should be best pals then.

I'll add this in to the conversation:

 

I think I can pretty safely say that I'm about as proud of the Cov Cath student section as anyone. However, I've also been saying for years now that watching the Colonel Crazies perform some of their cheers scares the living crap out of me. It's only a matter of time before something really bad happens during one of those games. Bleachers only need be designed to withstand a uniform live load of 100 pounds per square foot (so says the International Code Council's Standard On Bleachers, Folding And Telescoping Seating, And Grandstands...which is what the Kentucky state building code looks to for its code). The footprint of an average adult male's physical foot is somewhere between 1/3 ft² and 1/2 ft², meaning ALL of their weight is being spread out over only about 1 ft². That being said, what happens when you have a 220 pound high school senior jumping up and down in unison with 150+ other high schoolers? I'll tell you this, it's not good....and it's a lot more than 100 pounds per square foot. Even if the bleachers at Cov Cath are sturdy enough to hold the Crazies when they're at their craziest, they still have no idea what all the other bleachers are designed for.

 

The first 20 seconds of this video (filmed at the BOKC) makes me cringe just to watch. Everyone repeatedly jumping in unison creates something called harmonic vibration...and harmonic vibration does terrible things to even the strongest of structures.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmYxTTOpBy0

 

CWB God love ya but you got way to much time are your hands.

My son is in that mass of kids and I have no worries or concerns with what the crazies are doing in fact I think Rowe & Co. seat on the boys a little to much.