Why don't you go to men's basketball games?

Because you touch yourself at night

Out of curiosity I just went to MGoBlue to check out availability of tickets for tonight's game. According to the site, there are no tickets available at all, not even singles.

I very much doubt there's a capacity crowd, so there are many hundreds, if not a thousand or two, who purchase but don't attend. 

Even so, I would guess that Crisler crowds are far more livelier today than they were pre-Beilein. I still laugh about the game I attended during the late Amaker era. I don't recall who the opponent was, but the arena wasn't even half-filled. The cushy, sound-absorbing seats made for an acoustic atmosphere that was more like a semi-busy library than an athletic arena.

My seat was in the lower reaches of the upper bowl, and I basically had the row to myself. A couple of rows further down and just across the aisle was a pair of elderly women. One of them was knitting during the entire game, and neither of them audibly cheered at any point. The only obvious demonstration of enthusiasm was when the lady in the end seat would stomp her rubber-tipped cane on the concrete floor when something good happened.

They decided to schedule the game at the same time as a date night with my wife.

I missed the Nebraska game because it was 9pm, they suck and the storm was coming. I went to all the other home games 2 road games so far and the tournament in Vegas. I believe this year in particular the smaller crowds have a lot to do with the vaccine policy as well as the mask mandates.  I have multiple friends and family that usually go to a few games a year that just aren't going or are going less because they either don't want to get the vaccine or don't want to sit there with a mask on for 2.5hrs.

As others have noted, COVID with a young one that can’t be vaccinated yet. Late night, weekday games is not really appealing to me at this age. Weekend games eat up too much valuable free time. 

Also, similarly to baseball, pro hockey, etc, there are just too many games, where each one has little bearing on the outcome as a whole, so it is a lot more difficult for me to invest my time, money, etc into those activities now.

It’s hard to image I’d be at this place/position, looking back at my college-aged self, but here I am. 

9:00 starts.  They are terrible and totally unwarranted.  

covid

Why are you going to only 90% of the games?

Because they started at 9pm on a Tuesday night. ?

I don't care the reason why someone who has tickets may not go, just sell them or give them to somebody else. Empty seats are the worst, especially in the lower level. Maybe they could get some type of system to give returned seats to students or something.

Honestly, I can't remember the last live sporting event I attended, though I'm pretty sure it was a Michigan vs. Minnesota volleyball match, maybe 2018?

Most venues in the Twin Cities are great atmospheres and reasonable prices, but driving downtown and dealing with traffic and parking, especially on a weeknight, is just too much hassle. Besides, everything's televised, and I don't have to wait in line for the bathroom.

I'm in the bay area but when I do come to visit, it's for reunions which are always around football weekends and the basketball season hasn't really started then. 

It was very disappointing to have the #3 ranked team in the country come to Crisler only to have only 2/3 (at best) of the arena full by tip-off.   On rewatching the game the announcers commented on this during the 2nd half saying something like "there sure are a few empty seats here".
 

yeah no shit. This is what happens when you have weekday games that tip-off at 9pm. Some people have jobs that require getting up relatively early and can’t be out watching basketball games until 11 at night and then battling a half hour+ drive home afterwards. 
 

On top of that being a rescheduled game, meaning it wasn’t scheduled on this date at the beginning of the year. So people only had a short time to make any necessary plans to attend. 

I post this as a 20+ year season ticket holder who drives 45 miles each way to Crisler for probably 90% of the games.   
 

I think you are part of the problem! If everyone skipped 10% of the games  wouldn’t that explain it? Surely the 10% you skip are twice as likely to be weeknights. So at best we’re looking at 20% of the seats being empty for those games. And that’s if everyone was such a loyal fan as you seem to think you are!

YOU are the problem!

It's kind of a weird way of phrasing the question given the majority of people on this forum don't live in Ann Arbor, and perhaps not even the state of Michigan. I guess that's the downside of the college town vs big city university, people don't tend to stick around these smaller cities after graduation.

Maybe a fairer question would then be - why do *people* not go to games?

Crisler seats 12,000. Michigan has 30,000 undergrads, the University has about as many employees. While many of those will  not be on site at all times, it's fair to say there were likely many more than 12,000 people in Ann Arbor and immediate surroundings with a direct connection to the university at any point this past week.

Of course, factors like day of the week and the start time play into it. And it's always been true that mid-week game tickets are easier to get than weekend game tickets. But as someone who's spent a lot of time on sports ticketing websites trying to score bargain tickets, I can say that an even bigger predictor than the scheduling is whether the game means something. If there's a 'hook' that attracts people, people will make the time to drive there on a weeknight. If not then even a Saturday afternoon game seems too much effort.

The simple and obvious reality is that Michigan basketball 2021/22 is a massive disappointment that generates no excitement or buzz with anyone. I'm paying more attention to hockey at this point by a significant margin even though college hockey is really quite difficult to follow especially when you're out of state.

1. 9 pm tip offs are stupid

2. The prices are way more than they should be

3. A lot of the lower seats seem to have been bought by rich people or businesses that don't use them. That's on the athletic department for allowing it to happen. It's the same thing with the club seats at Yost (which are fantastic by the way if you've never sat up there).  

I live in Mexico and every year when I'm home for Christmas I make the effort to go to at least one game (even though my family lives in Grand Rapids, which is two hours away from Ann Arbor).

With that said, I have found prices in recent years to be CRAZY expensive.  My wife and I have had to pay like $60 a ticket to see Michigan play teams that aren't expected to be remotely competitive.  The most recent game we made it to was Michigan vs UMass Lowell in 2020.  UMass Lowell finished the year #275 on kenpom and we still paid in the $50-60 dollar range on stubhub (before the extra charges, if I'm remembering right) for mediocre seats.  The year before that, it was the same deal to see Michigan play WMU The prices on stubhub are nuts.  I can't imagine what it's like for games against a decent team. 

Things have sure changed a lot since I was in the Maize Rage in college and tickets were literally free for Maize Rage members for my first year or two and were really cheap after that.

Even if I lived in Michigan, it would be too expensive to go to more than a game or two per year.  It's a shame.

I've been giving my tickets away.

For me it's the ridiculous mask mandate. I'm a Physician. I've cared for over 1,000 Covid patients. I was infected in late February 2020. I've read all of the scientific studies published on masks (Not that there are al a lot).  Some quite shocking results in some of them.  For example, a UK study looked at mask effectiveness in the OR .One group had surgery where the surgeons wore no masks. The other group masked. There were significantly more infections in the masked group, than unmasked. Only one study and never repeated, but interesting just the same.

Nothing irritates me more than seeing people wearing masks incorrectly, constantly touching them, and their face, and not realizing they are wearing a dirty air filter on their face. That's the real science. How many people have been infected, and taken it into their home, because the mask is a vector? No one wants to talk about that, just like no one wants to talk about the literal elephant in the room: Obesity as a risk factor for morbidity and mortality.

Even if someone could show some science that mask mandates do anything beneficial, (Dr Fauci was 100% correct when he said that they are theater, and probably do more harm than good) I'd still watch from home. If there was a significant public health threat from such gatherings, they shouldn't be allowed. They are allowed, because no such threat exists. 

In my leisure time, the last thing I want to do is wear a mask. I'm done wearing masks with the exception of air travel, and I've almost eliminated that as well for the same reason.

My question is why, with a #3 ranking, Purdue fans didn't snap up the seats. It's not like it's long road trip. 

When I was in my 20s and the team was terrible, I was very disappointed that as a non-student, the place was half full at best and I was making efforts to go to games. I think the school has always had the mentality that football is first and basketball is second, which does make sense. 

If I WAS a student, I'd be at every game I could possibly make. But at the same time, I also understand that when the product sucks, its hard to make it enjoyable. I went to CMU, and I did not go to every football game because I had other things I wanted to do and not sit outside in 25 degree weather to watch an average MAC team. But, when they were good after I graduated, I traveled quite a bit to watch them.

I think in general, there are two big factors that really work hand in hand. One, it's just hard to grab interest when the team sucks. Two, the home experience is so much more enjoyable than 10-15 years ago. Back then, not every game was on TV, the quality sucked, etc. It's nice to wake up, grab a beer and kick back and not worry about driving 40 minutes, getting stuck in traffic, walking 20 minutes, spending 200 bucks.

Outside of the fact that I live in Austin now, I still wouldn't go to many (if any) basketball games. I simply don't have the tolerance level for all the stoppages in play as I do for football. With all the fouls and TV timeouts, it's almost gotten to the point where a college bball game is on the same level as a baseball game, where I need to be doing something else and have the game on in the background because it simply doesn't do enough to keep me occupied on its own.

That being said, I do watch as many games as possible even though this current team is hard to watch at times. Being in person though... man, it just doesn't look overly enjoyable in the least.

Hockey games though... almost no stoppages. I feel like if I look at my phone for 10 seconds, I'm going to miss something. 

I went Thursday and boy was that a fun game but, 9pm games on a school night aren’t very appealing. 

The problem is that a majority of Michigan alums (and fans) don’t live in SE Michigan. Compared to an MSU or Purdue or IU where more fans and alums live local. 
 

Michigan also has a very old fan base. The young fans are in NYC, Chicago, SF etc. Look at MSU. Their major donors are guys in their 30s and 40s running companies in SE Michigan. Michigans biggest doners are all 70+. 

Not enough nudity.

Way too many “fouls”. Unbearable to watch basketball these days. 

I go to every home game, but as folks pointed out below many people are appropriately concerned about Covid, especially if they have vulnerable people in their homes.  Do we know if other schools have similar issues? I'm sure basketball schools like Kentucky or Duke don't have empty seats, but what about Iowa, Wisconsin etc.?

As an east coaster, I always attended the games Michigan played in Brooklyn or New York City .. I really loved when they scheduled that for us alums out here. It’s literally a home game for Michigan, more so than some games I’ve been to crisler 

So while I'm no longer in Ann Arbor, even when I was a student I didn't go to many basketball games (that was Amaker-era, so not great teams, but not the main reason). 

The main thing is the flow of the game is so choppy with all the fouls and timeouts. When I watch on TV, I always start watching about 30-40 minutes after tip so I can zip through all the commercials, timeouts, and even foul shots. I can watch the whole game in a tight hour or so that way and I find it much more engaging.

I do come back for football games but I can tolerate the timeouts because I'm enjoying the Big House atmosphere even when that includes booing the red hat TV commercial guy. Being stuck inside a fairly soul-less indoor arena like Crisler through all the timeouts makes me feel like life is just passing me by.

I have to believe the team being 13-9 has something to do with it. And the fact that the game was at 9pm on a work night didn't help unless you are a student or don't have work the next day. 

This feels and looks very much like a "not to brag but hey look at me" kind of post. A lot of us have extenuating circumstances. 

I live over two hours away, try to get to a few. It’s just not the same as football, where the day long experience is well worth season tickets. This year we bought 4 of the 6 pack hoops packages, and wasted a lot of $. To get the few good ones (MSU, Seton Hall, Iowa?) forced to buy dog tickets worth nothing to resell. Like Maryland = $6. Now I get to arrive home at 1:00am on a Wednesday just to make my MSU tickets worth buying. Next year I’ll just stubhub the few I want. Lesson learned. 

More or less 16 home games a season. Go to a couple. Have a life that doesn’t revolve around attending every live college sporting event 

42-27

We are a football school now.

I already have football and hockey tickets and I only have so much money to give to the AD.

The last basketball game I went to when I was a student I got scolded by an old guy for standing and cheering.  He said "You make a better door than a window"