Student Section Name Suggestions

[Lobot]

Just a Note: The Black Hole is a trademark of the Oakland Raiders.

 

[psax889906]

Just a Note: The Black Hole is a trademark of the Oakland Raiders.

I think those were intended as jumping off points more so than finished products... do they really have a trademark on that though? lol

 

[Lobot]

I pretty sure they do but I actually sent them a letter and asked just for kicks.

This type of thing worked in reverse once. TAMU has "The 12th man" trademarked and when the Seattle Seahawks tried to use that, TAMU cried foul and made the Seahawks license the name from them.

 

[vielhaber]

First off, sorry I disappeared for a second there and wasn't able to comment on anything that I started this topic about.

First off, we as a committee know damn well that giving the student section a name won't suddenly get an out-pouring of additional fans to games. The branding of the student section is in an attempt to bring a sort of solidarity to the haphazard nature that makes up the SS currently. Nearly every other D1 basketball program has an student section that is in some way organized, be it with everyone wearing the same shirt or just doing the same cheers. Currently, we do not have that. This committee is focused on changing the atmosphere and the way the fans interact at the games, and a new student section name isn't going to do that by itself.

We are going to focus on educating the fans on some traditions that we have. Currently a minority of the students that attend games know what they are supposed to be doing a certain junctures in the game (eg. cheers, motions, etc.) We aim to improve that. After we decide on a name (it's currently looking like the Clifton Cage is the frontrunner) we are going to try to design and print t shirts for the student section to bring everyone together under one like you would see at other schools (Block O, Oakland Zoo etc.)

We're also working with members of the athletic department in this undertaking so that we can hopefully have the most success in implementing these changes.


As for PBS vs. Nippert, I hate playing away from UC and I don't think the environment is even remotely the same, but even so, the student section was amazing for that game. I don't know if it was the opponent or the excitement that still existed after the Sugar Bowl run, but the fans were really into it that night. I'd love to say that every crowd down there will be the same, but that's not the case in all likelyhood. We just have to do our best regardless. We as students, for the most part, don't want the games downtown, but the athletic office has told us that there's nothing that they can do about it. They need the money and they won't budge.

 

[UCalum08]

One of the major problems with the student section when "The Den" formed was, 1.) You had to be a member of the den...like being a student was not good enough. 2.) Even as a member, the way you went about getting your tickets and collecting stickers to show how many games you went to, to give you priority seating was ridiculous and not necessary. 3.) Making "The den" a separate student group looked awful when you had members in the den mixed in with regular students who were not apart of the group.

Those sections behind the basket are called the student sections. Every single student should be there and not two different groups yet they are all students...it has looked horrible. I never understood why the wanted to create a separate cheer/student group. They don't have a special student group for the football games and that works out fine.

With that being said, you should be less focused on forgetting about a special student section name/group and more focused on marketing to the students to just come to the game and making it as easy as possible. So if you want the student section to have a name...sure go ahead. But to make it, its own special group with rules and procedures to get tickets etc. will be an epic fail.

 

[vielhaber]

Right now, we're working with the athletic department to change the ticketing policy to make it general admission seating instead of assigned seating. If you wanted to go to a game last year, you were assigned a section and an individual seat in that section. Therefore, if you didn't go order tickets in a group or pick them up with at the same time as your friends, you wouldn't be sitting together. Students are much more likely to go to a game if they can sit freely like they do at Nippert.

I agree 100% with the fact that students will come to the games once there is an established winner. The cupcake OOC games won't help to boost attendance, but there isn't anything that we can do about that other than try anyway. The marketing will be a big help and is something that we are focused on improving, but also, we want the section to be a stronger voice and a stronger home court advantage than it has been, regardless of whether or not we get more people to games, and that can be accomplished by trying to get students all on the same page as everyone else when it comes to traditions and what is expected of them as a fan.

We are not trying to recreate "The Den" here. I was a part of that my freshman year and "The Den" did a lot of things well, but it also failed in a lot of ways. This is an initiative to try to increase the general spirit at the basketball games for the entire student section, on both sides of the court, and we hope that it will be successful.

 

[psax889906]

Viel,

I think the general admission seating is a very good idea... I hope that occurs.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

David... how would you compare the student section at the Oklahoma game to other UC student sections throughout the past few years? Not being an actual student at UC makes it a little more difficult for me to exactly gauge such a thing, though I was there.

Hard to say, I know they packed it out with something like 10,000 students coming down. Nippert is unique because the noise kind of hovers in the air now that it's enclosed. I don't think the students were necessarily louder or crazier for that game than some other big games but there was a larger turnout, which becomes a wash in a larger stadium. The fourth quarter when we were coming back, that whole stadium got crazy. The only thing I might could compare it to was the Pittsburgh game three seasons ago when we beat them to all but clinch the Orange Bowl berth.

Whatever the case may be, the students do have the ability to bring it when you get their interest up. I think we'll see a rejuvenation in the students next year for basketball, especially by conference season. I was spoiled as a student because my four years at UC were Kenyon's four years. I came in as a freshman with Danny Fortson on the cover of SI and us being #1. I literally took my last exam and got finished within minutes of Kenyon breaking his knee in that conf. tourney game. My senior year, when we were #1 just about all year it was hard to get tickets. This was before online stuff and we had to get in line very early to get seats (and not even the good seats). Hopefully that kind of loyalty comes back. Obviously winning solves most of your problems, but also having a national swagger and players that go out of their way to thank and identify with the students goes a long way. We don't have the national swagger yet, but our players seem more in touch with fellow students than ever before.

 

[Lobot]

Just for kicks I did get a response from the Raiders.

Brent-

Your email below was forwarded to my attention. Yes, The Black Hole is a registered trademark.

Best of luck to you,

Dan Ventrelle
Legal Counsel
Oakland Raiders
1220 Harbor Bay Pkwy
Alameda, CA 94502