re: Possible answer to improving atmosphere in PMAC

Winning is the obvious first answer, but I don't think it's as simple as that with hoops. I could give you several examples of pretty substantive success followed by disappointing crowds in 2000-2002, 2005-06 and 2009 as well as our last tournament year a few years back to back up why I think that but for the sake of time will leave it at that mention.

The issue is we lost the core base of basketball fans and the few thousand that remain are aging, have been doing it their whole like out of habit and really most left that are season ticket holders are not passionate and are going through the motions.

I think what hoops does not have that baseball and football do is a tailgating atmosphere. Give Tiger fans a party to go to and you will energize the fan base. You don't have that for basketball.

Win more, but down deep LSU is not really a basketball school!

All the old people that donate to the program would have a heart attack if their seat was used by someone who didn’t pay for it. And Alleva sucks up to them so he’d never allow this to happen

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Do you think this would work for us? It would get fans closer to the court, with more crowd noise and give the players the feeling of a big crowd.
We’ll probably get more fans in seats next season, but there will always be some corporate held season ticket spaces empty

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Stegman Coliseum at Georgia is a lot smaller than the PMAC. Their highest seats are about where the concourse below the PMAC upper level is located. With about 25% fewer seats it gives the impression of being a larger crowd. In reality their attendance is about what LSU gets at most SEC games.

There is nothing wrong with the PMAC. The gymnastics meets sellout and the atmosphere is electric every time. Having a winning team is a big cure all for attendance and enthusiasm.

Beyond that we now have a new generation of basketball "fans" who spend half their time on their phones sending tweets and snapchats , posting on Facebook, getting excited only when some rap song is played at loud decibels during timeouts and paying little attention to the game. They pay more attention to which color car wins the Chevron animated race than the game itself.

If Will Wade and the Tigers begin to have the success the recruiting seems to portend we may once again see basketball become an event like gymnastics with sellout crowds. Hopefully those fans will put their phone down for a couple of hours and get involved in making the PNAC the Deaf Dome once again.

Its easy to compare it with Auburn today but the Auburn atmosphere three and four years ago was not great.

As for comparisons to Kansas remember basketball is all they have. There is no success in football and other sports so all of their support goes to mens basketball.

Sell the student tickets like they did in the ‘80’s. If thy don’t show up, just after tip-off start selling them.