[teejers1]

The sad truth about Stanford WBB is that the average age of its fans is very high and the fan base is shrinking as we oldsters pass on.  The showbiz and hoopla are probably intended to appeal to a younger crowd, although it fails miserably on me.  But I do think that Stanford fans are very different in general (for all sports) than classic fans at big name sports schools, and so many of the overall trends in college sports go down poorly with us.

But it is a good question, what SHOULD Stanford be doing to increase its WBB fan base?  They can't keep relying on the once-young crowd who jumped on the bandwagon in 1990 and 1992.  Will we get a surge of younger fans now that we have won another national championship?  Why can't we draw as well as Arizona, as Oregon State, as Oregon, or even as well as Washington during the Plum years?  We used to lead the Pac 12 in attendance, and we have sagged far behind several other schools.  I never see students at the WBB games outside of the band and the Dollies.  I rarely see anyone under 60 unless they were brought by someone over 60--except for the hoards of school kids who get bused in to a few games.

I am proud of our fans, but we as fans may need to help spread the word and do some recruiting of our own--not of players but of fans.  Loud videos and fumigation tunnels are not apt to do the job we could do.

On the men's side, Haase has made it a priority to get the 6th Man up and running.  In opener, against Tarleton, the secion was packed and the ushers were directing surplus students to upper end zones.  Haase also expressly thanked student section at beginning of his post-game presser.

I don't know if Tara thinks this is beneath her or that she shouldn't have to plea to the student body, but if I were her I'd have an underling be in charge of bolstering the student section for WBB.  Right now, is some portion of that sideline section reserved seating?  If so, that's a problem.  There is no reason the Stanford student body would not support WBB as it would MBB, even if changing demographics might (partially) explain why football is less attractive to the students.

That's my take, anyway.

[teejers1]

The sad truth about Stanford WBB is that the average age of its fans is very high and the fan base is shrinking as we oldsters pass on.  The showbiz and hoopla are probably intended to appeal to a younger crowd, although it fails miserably on me.  But I do think that Stanford fans are very different in general (for all sports) than classic fans at big name sports schools, and so many of the overall trends in college sports go down poorly with us.

But it is a good question, what SHOULD Stanford be doing to increase its WBB fan base?  They can't keep relying on the once-young crowd who jumped on the bandwagon in 1990 and 1992.  Will we get a surge of younger fans now that we have won another national championship?  Why can't we draw as well as Arizona, as Oregon State, as Oregon, or even as well as Washington during the Plum years?  We used to lead the Pac 12 in attendance, and we have sagged far behind several other schools.  I never see students at the WBB games outside of the band and the Dollies.  I rarely see anyone under 60 unless they were brought by someone over 60--except for the hoards of school kids who get bused in to a few games.

I am proud of our fans, but we as fans may need to help spread the word and do some recruiting of our own--not of players but of fans.  Loud videos and fumigation tunnels are not apt to do the job we could do.

On the men's side, Haase has made it a priority to get the 6th Man up and running.  In opener, against Tarleton, the secion was packed and the ushers were directing surplus students to upper end zones.  Haase also expressly thanked student section at beginning of his post-game presser.

I don't know if Tara thinks this is beneath her or that she shouldn't have to plea to the student body, but if I were her I'd have an underling be in charge of bolstering the student section for WBB.  Right now, is some portion of that sideline section reserved seating?  If so, that's a problem.  There is no reason the Stanford student body would not support WBB as it would MBB, even if changing demographics might (partially) explain why football is less attractive to the students.

That's my take, anyway.