Michigan Fans, Maize Rage, and Athletic Department Frustration

If our team was as good as Purdue I'd be going to tons of away games around Chicago if I could.  I've been to Rosemont to see us against NW and to Evanston against NW when we were good.  I'd go to Purdue or IU or Illinois if we were top 5.  Guess what, we aren't, and Purdue is, so it's gonna happen.

Going to away games when your team is good and "taking over their stadium" is fun.

Sometimes you're the folks having fun (Michigan football road trips to Rutgers, Indiana, MSU when they're bad, et cetera).  Sometimes you're the other folks.

Is what it is.  There will likely be some future day where a Top 5 Michigan basketball team beats a mediocre Purdue team in a Mackey Arena filled with lots of U-M fans.  This era, too, will pass.

You put out a crap product you won’t get peoples money. Having opposing fans take over a stadium used to be nail in the coffin for a coach 

No offense to the OP but this is a terrible take. The arena was packed with Purdue fans because no Michigan fan in their right mind wants to waste 2.5 hours (not including travel time) to watch this absolute joke of a team. It’s not fickle fans - Michigan fans stuck with some very mediocre teams over the past 2 decades. It’s that this team gives you literally nothing at all to root for. A large number of the players show zero hustle on defense and rebounding, they make the same mistakes game in and game out, there is zero intensity and the turnovers are just insane. This is just a terrible team with players who almost entirely have not established a connection with the fanbase. Watching them is unpleasant and frustrating for those of us that love Michigan basketball. How can you blame fans for not wanting to devote hours of their precious time to watching what is almost guaranteed to be a meaningless loss?

Team sucks, fans suck.  Team sucks year over year? Find a new coach. Oh, sorry - can't do that because our AD feels the best plan of action is to do nothing.

Was a FR in 1981-82 when a young UM team under Freider (2nd year) started 0-13. Went to a few games (it was about $5 per ticket at walk-up window). Word was that Freider, after a long winless start, went into Canham's office and offered to resign but was told no (carry on with the team). The team was at least competitive later in the season, even finishing 6-7 with a win over ranked Iowa. The difference is that team was very young and had a future (won NIT two years later, followed by back-to-back outright B1G titles). I was at a game where we gave defending champs IU a genuine scare. Big fan support that day.

After the 7-20 1981-82 season, we were not worse until JB's 1st season (08-09) with a depleted roster (10-22) left by Amaker when he realized he was going to be let go about mid-season. 

This team will end up 8-24 (sorry nope we don't beat a surging Nebraska that can't afford to slip up). TWill may not like it, but this season is the worst in the last 50 years and only the third such 20+ loss in school history. Sure, the team played hard yesterday. Why wouldn't people play for pride? 

I fully expect Warde will give JH another year but better be prepared for a lot of giveaways to season ticket holders, especially things like a free soda and hot dog voucher for certain games that are not transferrable. 

Fire Warde!

Seriously- what does he bring to the table?  He's overseen an abusive Hockey coach, failed to help right the ship in basketball, hated Harbaugh who is now IMHO the GOAT Michigan football coach.

With NIL becoming legal to use to recruit players openly (thank you Tenessee!), we need a more forward looking AD who doesn't have damaging friendships such as Jim Singleton.

President Santa-  please make a change soon!

Last time I looked for men's BBall tickets (maybe 3 weeks ago) through the university and on the open market, they were still going for an arm and a leg. It's not a hot ticket in town, so I'm not going to pay 50 bucks a ticket to take my family to sit in the nose bleeds and spend $300-$500 for an afternoon. Factor in gas, lunch or dinner while you're in AA for 5, any concessions, plus the cost of tickets, and you're already there. Attending live sports or concerts is getting increasingly cost prohibitive. Hell, almost everything is. I just canceled all my cable and streaming accounts except for Amazon prime, which I'll always have because of the Prime membership we keep for shipping. I'll get something for football season, but I'm overall done. Netflix just shot up for no reason. YTTV keeps going up and getting into pissing contests with sports providers. I can catch most Wings/Pistons highlights the next morning for free. Hulu is the same. WTF is a Paramount and why does it have its own streaming platform? 

I've been reading a lot more and my life is a lot more enjoyable. 

OP, your OP comes off as though you don't understand that an aspect of fandom, insofar as it pertains to event attendance, is a market transaction, and as such, market forces apply (to varying degrees, based on the individual).

If you want to knock the Athletic Department for selling tickets on the open market as opposed to giving them to specific people/groups, ok, fine (though remember that the Athletic Department, for most intents and purposes, is also a for-profit enterprise).  But to criticize the fans who decide that the cost:benefit analysis doesn't work out in favor of going to these games is just kind of silly.

UM has always struggled to get a real homecourt advantage especially when the students aren't around.  I swear people forget there were stretches during the best of Beilein seasons where Crisler would struggle to sell out unless it was MSU or the like.  

Yes, it sucks when opposing fans take over a stadium, and this team is bad so you're not going to get a ton of people excited to walk up.  But when you're good (like Purdue is) you tend to get your fans motivated as well as casuals who just root for the winners.  Michigan has certainly benefitted from this in the past in football and basketball when they're good.

Michigan basketball needs to get better but UM's basketball fans have always been "fickle" to an extent.  

I think you should not place any demand on other fans.  Go and watch for yourself if you'd like, but don't blindly expect everyone else to be like you.  This team is nearly unwatchable, and Purdue is really good.  Is anyone surprised their fans would actually drive to watch them play?  Also, college is very stressful this time of year, so burning 4-5 hours that may have value to actual grades that go on a permanent transcript to watch this mess has to be considered extremely voluntary.

Who runs the Maize Rage X account and what kind of control do they have over anything?

The team is terrible. Even before we knew they were terrible, they weren’t an especially fun team to watch. It’s not even worth the time to watch them on TV… I sure as hell wouldn’t expect fans to go to games. 

Put a good product on the court and fans will come back. Its really as simple as that. 

The team is bad, they're not even fun to watch, and there really isn't much hope that they'll get any better next year. Its not like you can sit there and say "Well this is Howard's first year so the team is bad, but they're clearly building towards something, they're getting better on a week to week basis, etc." They're just....bad.

You can't expect people to sit through that just because. Especially when you're also charging them $6 for a bottle of water, $8 for a hot dog, $10 for ice cream, etc. 

Its the same reason Michigan fans take up half the attendance at College Park, Bloomington, or Evanston anytime the football team comes to town. Especially these last few years. Michigan is really good. Those teams are not. Maryland, IU and Northwestern fans don't want to watch their team's collective teeth get kicked in by a far superior team and product. Its not a fun experience, so I'm going to go spend my money somewhere else. 

Add in the fact that Manuel has given a lot of indication that he has no intention of firing Howard, and you leave a lot of fans feeling hopeless about the direction of the team. Not just this year, but in the years to come. 

I've never understood OP's argument.

Facts: I have money. All the things that I need or want to do in life take money (at least on some level). My supply of money is not endless.

Ergo: I must prioritize how I spend my money so that it maximizes the enjoyment of my life. I can think of literally hundreds of things that are more fun/fulfilling/compelling to do with my money right now than to watch one of the worst basketball teams in my alma mater's history.

Why is the Michigan basketball program entitled to my investment in time and money when they are objectively less worth it than most of my other entertainment options?

I was there.  It was bad.  You could tell it was going to be walking the concourse before the game.

It is like when we travel to Maryland, Rutgers or Northwestern for football.  We take over their stadiums.  I realize it was break but a lot of our basketball fans are fair weather and have been for years.

If it is any consolation there are plenty of tickets available for the game in Columbus on Sunday.

I'm a season ticket holder, and my wife and I go to all the games. The atmosphere was awful despite the team's gritty performance. I understand some of the responses to the OP along the lines of "The team sucks -- what do you expect?" That said, I also think that there are some things the Athletic Department could do. What about contacting BB coaches from the 3 Ann Arbor high  schools plus neighboring schools like Ypsi, Saline etc and offering discounted tickets if the players would come fill the Maize Rage? What about reaching out to alumni groups (UM Clubs of Northville, Flint, etc.) and trying to get them to come down as an event (again maybe with a discount or some other incentives)? None of this would keep Purdue fans away completely but it might have made things a bit less like an away game.

I think it’s more than just a bad team.  This team seems to lack effort, direction, etc.   Why spend your time on that?