Tennis

vatusay
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I guess this is a losing battle. 200+ people at a tournament? I dont know, doesnt seem like a lot to me. How many people attended the quidditch tournament in macomb? Id be willing to bet it was around the same number, at least.

I tried to find total attendance numbers for the BIG tournament, but couldnt.

Im not trying to insult those who play, played, watch, enjoy, coach, or coached. Im just saying all other sports lack in popularity compared to the "big three" of football, baseball, basketball. (Soccer in any other country trumps ALL)

Oh, i guess hockey is popular if your a HAWKS fan. To me hockey is enjoyable in person but painful on tv lol.

Heres hoping that the state gets thier s*** together and programs can be retained for everyone involved.
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ST_Lawson
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vatusay wrote:I guess this is a losing battle. 200+ people at a tournament? I dont know, doesnt seem like a lot to me. How many people attended the quidditch tournament in macomb? Id be willing to bet it was around the same number, at least.
I put out a request to the convention and visitor's for the numbers for the Quidditch tournament, so I'll let you know if I find out anything with that. I work in the same office as the woman who organized the Kite Festival (was held Sept. 11-13 this last fall) and their very conservative estimate (based on numbers of people that actually "officially" participated in events, not including anyone who just happened to come out to watch) was ~1,700 people (and this was a first-year event). They talked to some of the people involved in other kite festivals as well as some of the professional kite flyers who were there and they though that within ~5 years, they could easily have 10k-15k people attending. Now, this isn't really a "sporting" event in the traditional sense, but it's kinda similar to a multi-day tournament type event.
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vatusay
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That is nuts lol
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brewer2125
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vatusay wrote:I guess this is a losing battle. 200+ people at a tournament? I dont know, doesnt seem like a lot to me. How many people attended the quidditch tournament in macomb? Id be willing to bet it was around the same number, at least.

I tried to find total attendance numbers for the BIG tournament, but couldnt.

Im not trying to insult those who play, played, watch, enjoy, coach, or coached. Im just saying all other sports lack in popularity compared to the "big three" of football, baseball, basketball. (Soccer in any other country trumps ALL)

Oh, i guess hockey is popular if your a HAWKS fan. To me hockey is enjoyable in person but painful on tv lol.

Heres hoping that the state gets thier s*** together and programs can be retained for everyone involved.

I lived in Thompson Hall way back when (closest dorm to the baseball field - I was on baseball) and I recall a balloon event one year and they had swarms of people out for that. The Ag show in Western Hall was also a huge event (and was very cool to me, a Chicago suburbanite), and I recall a big RV show was there to at one time. Men's basketball could also draw big numbers (depending upon the opponent). I recall at some baseball games we could draw really large numbers on a nice Spring day, probably more that people had cabin fever and we were right there by Thompson and Higgins.

I don't think tennis will ever draw a lot of people. More people are playing based on the studies, so more players will be competing for scholarships over time, but I agree that they probably won't see any spike in attendance even if the team ups their record over the next couple of years. I guess it boils down to if Title IX requires having teams, I (and we) want them to all be pretty good. So on that note, I agree with you 100% on your comment about the state and funding. This is getting ridiculous that these politics can't (or won't) get this figured out. Also, sorry, yes I am a Hawks fan, but have been since the 1970s so I just like hockey and I am not one of the Cub-Fan-turned-Hawks-fan-in-the-winter folks who seem to be at every game on their cell phones the whole time. :)
rocki
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I'm still trying to figure out how the student quoted doesn't know about any of the other sports going on on campus.

Seems that The Courier (whenever I have picked up a copy, anyway) is well rounded in it's sports coverage, I know there are sports posters all over town, it's on the radio.....

Like I said, it's been years since I was on campus as a student, but I really am finding it hard to imagine that it is THAT hard to find schedules of sports. If they have internet access, they can log on to GoLeathernecks.com and find out sports schedules, rosters, and the like.

Yes, it might take them doing some actual research, but folks, it's not that difficult. :roll:
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ST_Lawson
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The Macomb Balloon Rally is an annual event that's held every September (this was it's 29th year), so that's probably what you're referring to.

And they do still do the "Ag-Mech" Show (actually called the Farm Expo): http://www.wiu.edu/news/newsrelease.php ... e_id=12250
Here's from last year:
Image
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ST_Lawson
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rocki wrote:I'm still trying to figure out how the student quoted doesn't know about any of the other sports going on on campus.

Seems that The Courier (whenever I have picked up a copy, anyway) is well rounded in it's sports coverage, I know there are sports posters all over town, it's on the radio.....

Like I said, it's been years since I was on campus as a student, but I really am finding it hard to imagine that it is THAT hard to find schedules of sports. If they have internet access, they can log on to GoLeathernecks.com and find out sports schedules, rosters, and the like.

Yes, it might take them doing some actual research, but folks, it's not that difficult. :roll:
Or, you know...the front page of this site (on the right side): http://www.leathernecknation.net/
Or if you're just into football or basketball, ESPN (and nearly every other sports site out there) has all those:
http://espn.go.com/college-football/tea ... /_/id/2710
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketb ... /_/id/2710
http://espn.go.com/womens-college-baske ... /_/id/2710

Yea, if someone doesn't think there's any sporting events going on around campus, they're just not looking (or paying any attention).
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brewer2125
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rocki wrote:I'm still trying to figure out how the student quoted doesn't know about any of the other sports going on on campus.

Seems that The Courier (whenever I have picked up a copy, anyway) is well rounded in it's sports coverage, I know there are sports posters all over town, it's on the radio.....

Like I said, it's been years since I was on campus as a student, but I really am finding it hard to imagine that it is THAT hard to find schedules of sports. If they have internet access, they can log on to GoLeathernecks.com and find out sports schedules, rosters, and the like.

Yes, it might take them doing some actual research, but folks, it's not that difficult. :roll:

I had the same thought when I read that Niche comment too, like, does that kid ever leave their room? The Courier did a great job when I was there too. A nice thing though, a lot of other comments about the school were pretty positive. Hopefully enrollment goes back up. I wish I could go back in time and spend another 4 years there...!
brewer2125
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ST_Lawson wrote:The Macomb Balloon Rally is an annual event that's held every September (this was it's 29th year), so that's probably what you're referring to.

And they do still do the "Ag-Mech" Show (actually called the Farm Expo): http://www.wiu.edu/news/newsrelease.php ... e_id=12250
Here's from last year:
Image

29th year? I am old.....sigh. What I remember about the Ag Mech show was they had combines and other huge tractors in Western Hall and you could climb in them. Like Tonka trucks for adults. I never was on a farm growing up, so I was amazed by the size of that stuff...
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brewer2125 wrote:29th year? I am old.....sigh. What I remember about the Ag Mech show was they had combines and other huge tractors in Western Hall and you could climb in them. Like Tonka trucks for adults. I never was on a farm growing up, so I was amazed by the size of that stuff...
They still do that. Usually they park the big stuff in the east "arena" area. If they're too big they'll stick them outside. Usually there's an area next to Western Hall in q-lot where they have some of the larger equipment if they won't fit in the big garage door on the side.
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