Eastern Carolina U

[Stonewall]

One at a time

[falcoapp]

Not sure how accurate this is (I was at this game too and remember it being more than this), but the ESPN box score has the attendance for Davidson November 26, 2007 as 3,248:

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-baske ... =273302026

Curry had 38 that night with 9 threes, tying a Holmes Center record.

That was the year Davidson went to the Elite 8. It was the following year, after they had become famous from that run, that the crowd was really huge (listed here as 9,313):

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-baske ... =290122026

That says "capacity" of 9,313. However, if you click over to the game recap, it does say it was a Holmes record of 8,350.

You know what, I'm just having an epiphany looking at the box score remembering that Curry was limited in that game (only playing 18 minutes) due to foul trouble. This is definitely the big crowd everyone is thinking of. January 12, 2009.

Your epiphany is correct. Curry played maybe 5 minutes in the first half because of foul trouble.

It was funny because ~85% of the people there were solely in attendance to watch him instead of our own team. It really brought some people out of the woodwork.

[WASU 93]

I know it’s a multipurpose arena but 8,300 is way too big for our school.

I disagree. We used to sell out Varsity (around 7,000) for Marshall and ETSU (who each brought at least 500 fans) and even for bigger games against Charlotte and Southern Miss in the late 80's and early 90's. Back then, students went to games regardless of the opponents and we only had 12,000 students

All we need is a culture change where the students get excited about basketball. With Friday/Sunday conference games, the alumni can come up for a basketball/skiing weekend. There are brighter days ahead for our program.

Times have changed. A culture shift might help but especially on weeknights we aren’t getting anywhere near 8000 in attendance unless all the stars align. I just wish we had something smaller that was more of a basketball specific facility that we could fill out more consistently. Varsity had the advantage of being right in the middle of campus. Attendance was probably helped by this factor alone.

Most teams don't sell out every night. Last night there were plenty of empty seats on TV in Wisconsin and Northwestern. I think the goal would be to get 4K in the Holmes for most nights, but have the ability to pack 8K in for big games down the road. If we keep winning, I bet we have 3500 to 4K in the Holmes before the end of the 2019-2020 season. For the record, Varsity was more multi-purpose than Holmes. There were lines for Volleyball and Intramural on the court for many years and it was a long, rectangle shaped building (4 side by side basketball courts for Intramural games. Many seats in the building were beyond the court and everyone was sitting on wooden bleachers with no backs.

[beav910]

I know it’s a multipurpose arena but 8,300 is way too big for our school.

I disagree. We used to sell out Varsity (around 7,000) for Marshall and ETSU (who each brought at least 500 fans) and even for bigger games against Charlotte and Southern Miss in the late 80's and early 90's. Back then, students went to games regardless of the opponents and we only had 12,000 students

All we need is a culture change where the students get excited about basketball. With Friday/Sunday conference games, the alumni can come up for a basketball/skiing weekend. There are brighter days ahead for our program.

Times have changed. A culture shift might help but especially on weeknights we aren’t getting anywhere near 8000 in attendance unless all the stars align. I just wish we had something smaller that was more of a basketball specific facility that we could fill out more consistently. Varsity had the advantage of being right in the middle of campus. Attendance was probably helped by this factor alone.

Most teams don't sell out every night. Last night there were plenty of empty seats on TV in Wisconsin and Northwestern. I think the goal would be to get 4K in the Holmes for most nights, but have the ability to pack 8K in for big games down the road. If we keep winning, I bet we have 3500 to 4K in the Holmes before the end of the 2019-2020 season. For the record, Varsity was more multi-purpose than Holmes. There were lines for Volleyball and Intramural on the court for many years and it was a long, rectangle shaped building (4 side by side basketball courts for Intramural games. Many seats in the building were beyond the court and everyone was sitting on wooden bleachers with no backs.

I’m going to guess that Varsity felt more like a basketball arena than Holmes ever has. Just a hunch though. Holmes feels void of any character or anything that tells you it’s a basketball arena until you have eyes on the court. And what is the purpose of having 8000 seats to sell it out once every 10 years? We aren’t Wisconsin or even Northwestern. I’d rather have less seats that are more in demand than a cave that fills up once a decade. At our enrollment and with our basketball history we’d be better off with something sized similar to Troy.

[Rekdiver]

I think when it was built we thought they’d come.....

[bigdaddyg]

Maybe that is like Walmart with 37 registers but never more than 5 open.

[VNova]

I think when it was built we thought they’d come.....

I always assumed it was built more for larger events like convocation, graduation, major speakers, etc, where it would fill up. Basketball just seems to be something that appears every so often.

[SayYesToTheRock]

I wish we'd put students on the side of the court visible on TV.

I know students provide home court advantage by being on the baseline, making noise during opponents free throws, but I'd rather have students down the full length of the court –– making it look/seem more full.

[APPdiesel]

I wish we'd put students on the side of the court visible on TV.

I know students provide home court advantage by being on the baseline, making noise during opponents free throws, but I'd rather have students down the full length of the court –– making it look/seem more full.

If half the students who showed up to football games showed up to basketball games they'd take up the whole lower bowl.

[Yosef84]

I think when it was built we thought they’d come.....

I always assumed it was built more for larger events like convocation, graduation, major speakers, etc, where it would fill up. Basketball just seems to be something that appears every so often.

Exactly right! The reason it is called the Holmes Convocation Center is because it was built for multiple purposes, which allowed us to use public funds to build it. Of course, I do think folks believed we would use more of those seats for basketball but we all know the events that have transpired in the last 10-15 years. I'm hoping we can get some traction and find out how many are actually needed. I don't think we have any idea what the potential is today but it's probably higher than it has ever been simply because of the growth in the school and the athletic program momentum created by football.

[bigdaddyg]

It really is kind of shocking the number of (or lack of) students who attend games. Us old guys have spoken about the days of games in Varsity Gym. I will never forget grabbing some yummy grub at the B.I. either before or after a game. Even though we sat on the bleachers it was still pretty good. Even if 1K of our students attended games that would not look as bad. I guess the deal with the seating is that you can't make the place bigger if you go too small and then need the extra space. They could do like some arenas and drop curtains down on the upper seats.

[ericsaid]

We don't win that game last year (actually didn't), this team looks so much better, and I mean TEAM. So Excited about the direction! How was the crowd, hard to tell on TV?

Some twitter posts make it look a little better than it looked on TV. Box score says about 1,800. Ethan asked the players about the crowd and they said it's the best crowd they've ever played in front of at home....which, given that Holmes is set up for around 8,300, that's still only 20% full.

Has that place ever been packed for a game besides the arena opener against Carolina?

The ‘04/‘05 season had a couple games that were close to full. The Western game at the end of the season stands out in my memory as being a sellout.

Davidson with Steph was a sell out and then some.

[proasu89]

It really is kind of shocking the number of (or lack of) students who attend games. Us old guys have spoken about the days of games in Varsity Gym. I will never forget grabbing some yummy grub at the B.I. either before or after a game. Even though we sat on the bleachers it was still pretty good. Even if 1K of our students attended games that would not look as bad. I guess the deal with the seating is that you can't make the place bigger if you go too small and then need the extra space. They could do like some arenas and drop curtains down on the upper seats.

Have never heard the words “yummy grub” and BI used in the same sentence. Wheel of Death, Mystery Meat, were more like it. I was in school when the BI transitioned into the Food Court. By the end of the BI the only thing I would grab is a corn dog and a Cheerwine.

[Boonegoon]

It really is kind of shocking the number of (or lack of) students who attend games. Us old guys have spoken about the days of games in Varsity Gym. I will never forget grabbing some yummy grub at the B.I. either before or after a game. Even though we sat on the bleachers it was still pretty good. Even if 1K of our students attended games that would not look as bad. I guess the deal with the seating is that you can't make the place bigger if you go too small and then need the extra space. They could do like some arenas and drop curtains down on the upper seats.

Have never heard the words “yummy grub” and BI used in the same sentence. Wheel of Death, Mystery Meat, were more like it. I was in school when the BI transitioned into the Food Court. By the end of the BI the only thing I would grab is a corn dog and a Cheerwine.

Pretty much but if you're talking about The Gold Room...

[Rekdiver]

I think when it was built we thought they’d come.....

I always assumed it was built more for larger events like convocation, graduation, major speakers, etc, where it would fill up. Basketball just seems to be something that appears every so often.

Exactly right! The reason it is called the Holmes Convocation Center is because it was built for multiple purposes, which allowed us to use public funds to build it. Of course, I do think folks believed we would use more of those seats for basketball but we all know the events that have transpired in the last 10-15 years. I'm hoping we can get some traction and find out how many are actually needed. I don't think we have any idea what the potential is today but it's probably higher than it has ever been simply because of the growth in the school and the athletic program momentum created by football.

We had to call it a convocation center in order to get a 8,000 seat basketball arena otherwise the State wouldn’t build the Holmes Basketball Arena.

[Stonewall]

"flush hard , it's a long way to the BI"

[NewApp]

"flush hard , it's a long way to the BI"

It's a long, long way to Statesboro.

[appstate77]

I worked at the BI during my Sr. year.....I resemble those remarks!

[PoplarHillApp]

Only in Statesboro.....

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10339641/ ... le-shower/