How to Get a Consistently Sold-Out Ryan Center Crowd
When trying to fill the Ryan Center for men's basketball games, the biggest issue has been with getting a large enough student crowd (not necessarily with the adult crowd). In terms of incentives for students, going to basketball games to support their school's sports teams is not as appealing to them as the general public may think. The creation of the Rhody Ruckus, the official student fan club of URI athletics has helped to stimulate the attendance of URI students but the problem is not yet solved. When URI students attend games, they are often attracted to the "free stuff" that is given out. I appreciate the effort that the Ryan Center and other organizations put forth to create free handouts but there are some fatal flaws to them.
Look in the picture below because the following image is an accurate representation of some of the promotional activities that they do. The Rhody Nation t-shirts that were given out at the URI vs. Dayton game on February 12, 2017 were magnificent. Moving on, take a close look at all of those masks. The students at the very bottom of the first section were wearing masks that had some real comparability to the mask that Jarvis Garrett had to wear after his jaw injury. All of the other students that got masks were given plastic masks that were put on with a string... a literal, paper-thin string. If the second set of masks lasted the duration of the game, that was considered an accomplishment. On top of everything, look in the top left corner of the picture and you can see a guy with a mask made from a paper plate and tape. Every student in the first section should have had the sturdy hard, plastic masks and not paper-thin knockoffs or handmade paper plates on their faces.
At the 2016 Rhody Madness, the prizes and giveaways were the best that there has been in the era of the "Rhody Ruckus". Starting out the night with a "Fanfest" portion that began 2 hours before the Madness began was a brilliant idea. An enormous number of students showed up at least an hour before the big event for the free food, dunk tank, inflatables, and the rock wall. Opening up the opportunity for a $10,000 half court shot will attract to any Rhode Islander to come to the Ryan Center. Next, the other valued prizes that were given out on the night were Beats by Dre headphones, concert tickets, and gift cards. With all of this said, not having a musical artist was a terrible decision.
In the 2014-2015 season, having Ace Hood on hand was better than nothing. Next, in the 2015-2016 season, Rae Sremmurd's appearance had a full capacity student crowd for the room allotted for Rhody Madness. Needless to say, Rhody Madness has had inconsistent performances in recent years and they need to mesh all of the quality aspects together and make a well-balanced, interesting Rhody Madness for the senior season of E.C. Matthews, Jared Terrell, Stanford Robinson, Jarvis Garrett, and Andre Berry.
Do not get me wrong, I have seen tremendous improvement within the 2016-2017 season with the giveaways. In this particular season, the best products I received were two rally towels and a free URI basketball t-shirt from the home game vs. VCU. The most evident similarity between all three items were that they are all still usable. In the home game vs. George Washington this season, they gave out well-designed foam fingers that were too small to fit many people's hands. In addition, in the home game vs. Old Dominion, the Santa hats that were given out were paper-thin and I could literally see dried up glue within the seams of the hat. Needless to say, I never put that Santa hat directly on my head. While the Ryan Center and promoters need to continuously give out free products to encourage people to attend the URI basketball games, the products need to be QUALITY.
I have said it before and I will say it again, "enormous home crowds equal wins in college basketball." I am not the first individual in the college basketball world to make this declaration and I know that I will not be the last. Sometimes, an obvious statement needs to be repeated so that it finally hits home.
