Renew the Glory- Part I

Here's the point of this post- to get ideas for ways to build the Chattanooga basketball program into a bigger brand. These posts will be made throughout the year, and each one will have one suggestion. These will come up mostly during the dead periods of the year. Right now is one of those dead periods. A lot of these things will be costly monetarily- so it is hard to know if these things would ever be considered seriously. But these are just suggestions.

Things that will not be considered at this time as suggestions:

1) A coaching change. Some people are talking about a coaching change. I refuse to mention that as part of that. This is not the time or the place to discuss that.

2) Simple things like "Win" or "Play better." Too simplistic. Can't work.

I'm sure there are more, but we'll stop there for now.

Without further ado- my first suggestion.

What is one of the problems that the Mocs have? Their home court advantage has evaporated. They are not as good at home as they once were. They have three home losses already this year. Their home court has turned into a neutral court.

Why? A big reason is that attendance is down. In an arena that sits around 11,000, it is unusual for more than 4000 to show up for a game. That gives an empty feeling to the arena and may contribute to the team coming out a little flat at times at home.

We have one of the bigger stadiums in all of D1. According to KenPom.com, it ranks at 73rd. That is a big stadium for a team on our level.

So what should the Mocs do about their attendance problem? Well, they certainly can't get more people to come (without the things that I am assuming are off the table, such as "Win"). The marketing department has done a tremendous job.

So what the Mocs need to do is build another arena- a smaller one. Build an arena that holds about 5000. Will we sell fewer tickets when we play Tennessee or Steph Curry? Sure. Will we have a more full arena and create a better atmosphere at home games? Yes. If the same 3000-4000 people show up, that makes it 60% to 80% full, and creates a good atmosphere.

A new arena would cost less in upkeep, though the initial cost would be far more than the Roundhouse. The cost could be big. BUUUUTTT.....

If the Mocs start winning (oops...bringing up wins) at home because of the home court advantage that they could get from having the better atmosphere, the Mocs could sell out the arena, which makes the tickets more valuable, which drives up the cost. (It's Supply and Demand.)

College basketball isn't the same as it was 20 years ago. The Mocs are competing on a nightly basis with Duke, Kentucky, and Tennessee. On Saturday, when the Mocs were playing Murray State at home, they were directly competing with Tennessee's trip to Pittsburgh, and prior to that, Duke was hosting Saint Louis, and right after it, Kentucky hosted Indiana. It is hard to get the average Chattanoogan excited about seeing the Mocs when they are competing with that.

A new arena? Hey- I love the Roundhouse as much as anybody. Some great childhood memories are there. But, it may be time to get a smaller arena, and see where we are going.

And if you wanted to play Tennessee, we could still play in the Roundhouse for that game.

More of these will follow- probably with one next week.

GO MOCS!