Miners have Really improved their PR campaign
- Thread starter groundrounds
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There’s plenty of seats available. Only a true diehard cheerleader fan would be excited about this game.
Why not? It's not like that many more people will be in The Don to see Sul Ross.
I can understand wanting to see a game played outside of The Don, especially against a lesser quality opponent like Sul Ross. But think about this. UTEP isn’t going to make a whole lot of revenue from this home game, after you factor staff, security, utility usage, etc. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if UTEP ends up losing money. So why would UTEP consider adding the added expense of RENTING the Coliseum or a school district gym? Neither the county nor the local school districts are going to provide their facilities to UTEP free of charge. Yes, you could play in Memorial Gym as sort of a nostalgic experience. However, the gym is very antiquated, and with The Don right next door, why bother to begin with?
UTEP had a practice at Eastwood. Why not play a game there?
Because it’s trying something different and UTEP doesn’t need an 11,900 seat arena for D2 games. They don’t need it when they’re mediocre on top of that.
If UTEP played Sul Ross at a 5,000 seat arena, the atmosphere would be different and quite possibly more fun. Instead UTEP will play 3 non-D1 teams in front of a 1/3 full arena. Oh boy.
You can't honestly say that anybody is excited about seeing Sul Ross? I love going to UTEP games like most of us on here, but sorry I just can't get excited about seeing a DII program.
As a long time fan, excited is not the word. Curious, hopeful, and maybe supportive of the team is more descriptive. Always enjoy the UTEP basketball experience. Looking forward to the games in the MWC for sure. If we make a run this year, any game is "exciting!"
This could be the first good point I've seen from Vegas. I agree with this. Call me a cheerleader fan or whatever but a new season always brings a clean slate of hope.
These first two to four games every season are just tune up games so coaches can put in all kinds of lineups to get a feel for what works for the team. I don't think they're designed to be great revenue generators. If fans want to hang out at a game at a time when they're not doing anything and shoot the breeze and watch what's really a glorified scrimmage that's fine. I wouldn't fret over that. But once the team gets several games into the season, we should start seeing noticeably better competition that looks good on our RPI. That's where we should be paying attention to fan turn out and how strong our competition is. Joining the MWC should be a serious step up in the level of Conference play. It'll be interesting if the Mountain West can bring in Grand Canyon U. to the Conference. That should be a step up, too. With all the realignment, the MWC may be taking a step down in football, but should be about the same in basketball, especially if they do get Grand Canyon. What do you think?
Sul Ross and UTPB are not tune ups, they are glorified scrimmages. D2 teams should not be giving UTEP a competitive game.
Utah Valley is no joke and UCSB is not either, then UTEP plays in the Ball Dawgs tournament, meaning 5 of their first 7 games are away from home. Beating up on 2 bad teams doesn’t help the team much outside of a guaranteed win.
The “RPI” is irrelevant for UTEP. This schedule wasn’t built to earn an At-large bid, therefore making that discussion dead. UTEP hasn’t been considered for a NCAA appearance since they last made it in 2010.
MWC basketball will be better than what we’re used to, but it definitely won’t be “about the same”. San Diego St is irreplaceable and “replacing” them with Grand Canyon is hardly a replacement.
Speaking of GCU, that’s a program that knows how to build an attractive and competitive ooc schedule.
This poll is a bit misleading. It lists the top 60 ‘non power conference’ teams, however negates AAC and MWC teams. Sorry, but those two are not power conferences and if considered would put another 10-14 schools ahead of us.
I don't expect them to think outside the box. It will be exciting to see Sul Ross in an empty arena on Monday.
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