Ohio State Basketball Games -Where Are The Fans?

-Story By Michael Goins.. –With a National Player of the year caliber player and a unbeaten home record, the question being asked these days are where are the fans? Value City Arena has not seen the rafters rockin’ all year as the Buckeyes have yet to have a sellout. Here’s more hype. With a top ten ranked Women’s basketball team loaded with Big Ten Player of the year Jantel Lavendar and a “Earl The Pearl” like Samantha Prahalis, where are the fans?

For the men’s team it could be anything from the economy to maybe the Bucks just aren’t playing interesting teams..

Lets compare some intangibles between Ohio State and say North Carolina..

First, let’s look at the non-conference schedules of Ohio State and North Carolina. North Carolina’s non-conference schedule included Ohio State, Syracuse, Michigan State, Kentucky, Texas. Ohio State’s non-conference schedule included West Virginia, Florida State, North Carolina, Butler. No question North Carolina has the sexier draw, but the interesting thing about these comparisions is that North Carolina only played one of those games at home. Same as Ohio State, playing only Florida State at home. Let’s say in this comparision the teams are even.

Second, lets look at the home schedules. Both teams played Presbyterian. You could easily ask the question as to why Ohio State is playing teams like Alcorn State, Lipscomb, Delaware State, St Francis(PA). Looking at NorthCarolina’s schedule you could ask similar questions playing such teams as FIU, Gardner-Webb, Valparaiso and Albany. Neither team gave the home fans much to come out for. Let’s say in this comparision as in the one above, the teams are even.

Now let’s look at intangible number three.. The conference schedule of North Carolina is sexier and that is probably not worth debating. If Indiana still had Bobby Knight, If Michigan were better, If, If, If. The Big Ten is just not sexy. The names Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa or Northwestern just don’t inspire enthusiasm in football or basketball.  Advantage North Carolina

Intangible number four:  Games played on ESPN  or higher just appear to be better games and the fans come out for those games. Maybe its the Dick Vitale effect or the young, cool appeal ESPN has over all the other networks. All those crappy games we mentioned above usually appear on the Big Ten Network maybe because ESPN wouldn’t touch them with a ten foot pole. I don’t think the network a game appears on has anything to do with attendance. It’s just common knowledge the more competitive games are played on the bigger networks.

Last intangible: The players and the coaches.. Bobby Knight, Dean Smith, Jim Boeheim, Rick Pitino, Michael Jordan, Greg Oden(Yes, Greg Oden).. This is the intangible that could be a key reason why fans are staying home.. Unlike the Ohio State football team with its list of potential superstars, the basketball team just doesn’t have drawing power. You can say all you want about how great a player Evan Turner is.

Turner is NBA material, no question. But the question here is not about his skills but about drawing power. The basketball teams of the last couple of years just don’t have the traditional Ohio State superstar appeal. Greg Oden was the last player that could bring the fans out.. Greg Oden brings me to my key point. Without a star quarterback name, the Ohio State Football team would be ho-hum. Terelle Pryor, Troy Smith, superstar names that have been built Ford Tough and Oh, by the way, are playing the right position(Quarterback) . Jim Tressel(The coach) with the name made of steel. Going to a USC game is as much about going to see Pete Carroll as it was about the game itself.  Going to a Louisville basketball game is also about going to see Rick Pitino.

A guard/forward(Turner)  is just not going to be a big enough draw to pack the arena night after night unless he is a Lebron James like figure with a lot of local appeal which Lebron has. I think the North Carolina example above proves the point that it is not always about the weak home schedule because North Carolina’s non-conference home schedule is just as dismal as Ohio States, but about who your superstars are.

What the Ohio State Mens Basketball team is missing is a star Big Man that can score. There is a reason people flock to see heavyweight title fights. People want to see the “Big Man” in the middle. Greg Oden provided that draw. We can probably ask David Lighty and Kyle Madsen about the differences in having Oden vs Lauderdale at center. The teams before Oden didn’t have the “Big Man” draw either but they were different in that they were teams made up of several local highly touted brand names like Sullinger, Butler, Cook.

This year could just be an anomaly or it could be related to economic conditions. Keep in mind also that Columbus is rapidly becoming a megahub for big name artists. The number of big name concerts that hit the city on a regular basis is growing rapidly and competing for entertainment dollars. Monster Truck, Harlem Globetrotters, Wringling Bros and all the like are on constant rotation at Nationwide Arena, draining money away from already thin pockets.

The Christmas season hits families hard in good times, but are really bad in down economic times. The Christmas season comes right in the middle of the non-conference schedule where families had the choice this year of coming to see Ohio State vs Presbyterian, Delaware State, Cleveland State or spending that hard to come by recession money on Christmas. December should be the time when they are bringing in the best non-conference opponents possible to give families a reason to spend some of that Christmas money on Ohio State Basketball.

My solution for Ohio State Basketball attendance is pretty simple. Focus on the “Big Man”. Every fan likes to see the Big Man in the middle that can score and will come to see them play. If Ohio State had a “Big Man” at center this year that could score paired up with Evan Turner and William Buford, then the question would be “Where are we going to put all of these fans” instead of “Where are the fans?”