FanPost

Boston College Basketball: Recapping' Brad Bates Hoops Town Hall

Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

[Ed. note -- Front Page'd]

First words after thanking us for coming was to say we’re not here to talk about the team, the coach, the players, the recruits etc etc. Which was a stark contrast to the football townhall when he brought in Addazio and allowed him to speak for ~30 minutes. Addazio hit on coaching philosophies, recruiting, coaching staff, etc, etc. But it was instantly off the table for basketball.

Lot of talk about student attendance. Why they don’t come, where they sit, etc etc.

To me all that talk is fruitless, it goes back to winning. Basketball at BC is in a different spot as it is no question the 3rd sport at BC. Add to it the last time this program won an NCAA tourney game GWB had more than a year and a half left in office. From that time the program has ranged from mediocre to terrible. You could put the students on the court and they still wouldn’t show until the product is entertaining & successful.

I brought up the OOC, how the other 14 ACC programs averaged >8 home OOC games, we had 4. Including a Sunday night game against Florida Atlantic & a game against a D2 team. Having a couple of home OOC games in the first 2 months of the college basketball season, isn’t how you get your fans excited.

The topic moved to how the marketing for the neutral site OOC games has been terrible, which I 110% agree. Whenever Duke goes to MSG there are emails alerting, how to get tickets, etc etc. There was no such thing for BC for any of the neutral games. I responded to that asking what’s the point of moving games downtown for UMass when up until this year both teams have huge issues filling their own courts. Someone responded that it was easier for alums downtown to get to games at the Garden over BC which I don’t disagree. But why were there what 50-100? BC fans there that afternoon?

There was a lot of bitching about DBS which isn’t surprising and they’re right. The price point is way off. I have seats in the upper deck center court, haven’t sat in them once all year. I just move down and find an empty row. I suspect for Duke/Cuse I won’t be able to but for every other one I shouldn’t have a problem.

Someone talked about the food option, how it would serve Conte to upgrade beyond low quality stadium food.

The STRAT CAPEX PLAN OF 20134 was brought up and Bates had the canned answer. Part of it is underway, still waiting on approval, etc etc.

Not to say it was a waste of time but…. Once they took Donahue & the team off the table the gameday staff do such a good job and the basketball topics are inherently different than football (no parking, tailgate, etc issues) what was there really to talk about?