{"id":2084,"date":"2019-03-26T23:58:43","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T04:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/?p=2084"},"modified":"2019-03-26T23:58:43","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T04:58:43","slug":"americas-past-time-but-not-colleges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/2019\/03\/26\/americas-past-time-but-not-colleges\/","title":{"rendered":"America’s past time, but not college’s?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Anthony Guadagnino and Jake Hallstrom<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Attendance for Bradley University\u2019s men\u2019s baseball team has started to raise eyebrows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bradley men\u2019s baseball<\/a> has been slowly improving over the years. After winning 20 and losing 31 games in 2017, the Braves had a bounce back season in 2018 with 32 wins and 19 losses. This year so far early in the season the Braves have a nice 6-3 record all on the road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the team has improved, the attendance has turned into its own issue. The team’s overall home attendance has dropped off from the 2016 season through the 2018 season.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016<\/a> the average home attendance was 318, and this number remained similar in 2017<\/a> with an average of 320. These are modest numbers considering the team only won 20 games out of the 51 they played in 2017. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to 2018<\/a>, and the attendance dropped by almost a hundred attendees to a paltry 240. This drop occurred while the team\u2019s record improved, winning over ten games more than they did in 2017. It would be reasonable to suspect a positive correlation between overall record and attendance, but for the men\u2019s baseball team, this has not proved to be true.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe games are too long and is too much of a hassle to get to at times,\u201d said Jonathan Roth, a Bradley University sophomore, as one of the reasons he feels the attendance is lower. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This statement holds true to the stereotype of this generation of college students, especially with people who aren\u2019t huge fans of baseball. The games are close to three hours long and with all that students are involved in, it may be too long of a commitment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another problem comes from location. The men\u2019s baseball team plays at Dozer Park, which is not a convenient for students who live on Bradley\u2019s campus. Transportation for students who do not have cars is difficult and makes it hard to get to the games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Problems with the baseball attendance are also influenced by their schedule. In March, Peoria is still in the mid 30\u2019s on the thermometer and many students find it too cold to sit in the frigid temps for the entirety of a baseball game. This is why a sport like basketball can hold a higher attendance rate, as basketball is an indoor sport and can draw a better crowd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One other possible reason for low attendance for baseball games is the lack of advertisement for the team. Taylor Saucier, a Bradley Junior, said she has a genuine interest in seeing a baseball game but has no idea even when games are.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBradley doesn\u2019t do the best of effort of promoting the games or the team in general, so I have no idea when games are or even that the season even started.\u201d Saucier said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compare this with the basketball team, who does a much better job promoting the times and location of their games. They started the \u201cStudent Center Rise of the Red\u201d campaign, to help attract more fans. The basketball team even promotes on the Peoria Charter Bus<\/a> that takes students to and from campus to the games every home game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWinning is important to going to the games.\u201d said Emily Fung, a Bradley University sophomore. \u201cI don\u2019t want to go to see a team that is going to lose all the time. What\u2019s the point?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked why she thought attendance dropped even with a winning record Fung replied, \u201cI think just general interest in baseball is going down. When I was a kid I loved baseball and a lot of my friends did too, but as I got older I lost the interest and I think many people especially this generation felt the same.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a lack of promoting, the tiring winters of Peoria and general lack of interest in the sport of baseball among today’s generation, the Bradley men\u2019s baseball team could continue to see attendance to drop, win or lose.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Anthony Guadagnino and Jake Hallstrom Attendance for Bradley University\u2019s men\u2019s baseball team has started to raise eyebrows. Bradley men\u2019s baseball has been slowly improving over the years. After winning 20 and losing 31 games in 2017, the Braves had a bounce back season in 2018 with 32 wins and 19 losses. This year so far early in the season the Braves have a nice 6-3 record all on the road. While the team has improved, the attendance has turned into its own issue. The team’s overall home attendance has dropped off from the 2016 season through the 2018 season.   In 2016 the average home attendance was 318, and this number remained similar in 2017 with an average of 320. These are modest numbers considering the team only won 20 games out of the 51 they played in 2017. Fast forward to 2018, and the attendance dropped by almost a hundred attendees to a paltry 240. This drop occurred while the team\u2019s record improved, winning over ten games more than they did in 2017. It would be reasonable to suspect a positive correlation between overall record and attendance, but for the men\u2019s baseball team, this has not proved to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[137,278,163,72,279],"class_list":["post-2084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-sports","tag-baseball","tag-attendance","tag-bradley-athletics","tag-bradley-university","tag-mens-baseball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2084"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2086,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2084\/revisions\/2086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}