Re: Serious Question about Siena & the Capital Region -- America East Forum

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Date Posted: 19:16:07 02/28/03 Fri
Author: UAalum72
Subject: Re: Serious Question about Siena & the Capital Region
In reply to: UNH_Alum_In_CT 's message, "Serious Question about Siena & the Capital Region" on 18:41:09 02/28/03 Fri

>
>I'm not trying to get all you Great Danes fans in a
>lather (I know just mentioning them does that!), but
>I'd like to know more about the Albany region and
>Siena. From a distance, I see Siena as a small,
>private school which probably doesn't have a large
>percentage of students from Greater Albany. Yet, they
>play at Pepsi Arena and have impressive attendance
>figures from what I see posted on the forum. MAAC
>basketball isn't exactly the Big East or the ACC! I
>acknowledge that there are good rivalries with other
>parochial universites in NY and the Northeast, but....
>
>How did they attract such a following? Are the Siena
>fans "died in the wool" or just basketball fans? I
>know they had D-1 hoop before the Danes, but you'd
>think there are more SUNY-Albany alumni in the Capital
>region. How realistic is it to think that a
>percentage could be "won over" by the Great Danes?
>
>LSBAL and I have talked about U of H's demographics
>and how they don't have a large percentage of Greater
>Hartford kids within their student body and a large
>percentage of the alumni go outside Greater Hartford
>for work. This makes the Hawks #3 in town after UConn
>and Central Conn. State (the ultimate "safety school"
>-- almost 10% of my HS class went to Central!!!). It
>is an uphill battle for U of H to fight, especially
>when you add in the immense popularity of the UConn
>Women's Basketball Program. Logically, you'd think
>Siena would have similar struggles in Albany. Your
>thoughts?
>

Siena was founded in the 1930's and into the 1970's was mainly a commuter school. In the early 50s the Indians were nationally ranked; much of their community support and rep dated to then. (the siena board has commented on the greying of their fan base) Altho Siena deemphasized hoops for a while, since they went back to D-I in '77 they've gotten 90% of the media coverage, leaving UA nearly invisible in the winter until lately.The strength of the parochial school system relative to the public also builds loyalty to the Catholic college.

UAlbany was a teacher's college until 1962, didn't really expand until the late 60s. Over half the students are from NYC and Long Island, and they don't hang around the area after graduation. For that matter, they don't stick around on the weekends either, which hurts attendance. We'll get more fans if we get a 15-game winning streak or get to the NCAAs, especially if Siena has a 3-4 year slump like during the Bob Beyer years, but barring that it'll be a long haul to get near parity in this market.

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Replies:

[> [> Re: Serious Question about Siena & the Capital Region -- Dane Pound, 10:23:10 03/01/03 Sat

I have to disagre with UAlum72 to some extent. I've heard $iena fans complain that Albany gets too much coverage now and I don't think any fan believes their team is covered by the media as much as they would like. $iena draws unbelievably well for a MAAC team, I think most of those fans however are not alum but basketball fans. For the most part hard-core $iena fans are terrified of the day when Albany starts putting together some winning seasons, witnessed by the fact they we drew almost 4,000 to a game to see a team that had a 5-15 record. Some of their anxiety stems from football, that's 2 months of the year the Danes are covered by local media where $iena football is usually ignored. Should we build a new football stadium they would probably be beside themselves.
I think alot of $iena fans would love to see them upgrade to a stronger conference like the A-10 for basketball. More so now that we have gone D1. There's not that big of a difference between the AE and the MAAC and I think $iena would like to increase the gap between themselves and Albany. I don't know that they could afford the extra costs associated with going A-10 and their basketball record would almost certainly suffer.
I don't know the partucular numbers but I'm sure there are a ton of Albany alum in the Albany area. Over the years alot of them became $iena fans just because they were the only game in town and their was no real rivalry in basketball. I would hope as our program builds this will change and Albany grads will be Albany fans. When I was a student the only sport Albany and $iena played each other in was hockey which believe me is small potatos in a town where RPI hockey is king. Small potatos or not these were some ferocious games. I remember one in partuclar at the Albany County Ice Rink where the some $iena fans and the Albany coach actually had a fight betwen periods. The state troopers were called in and there were cops everywhere for the final period which I was happy about since there were only about 25 Albany fans there at the time. I can only imagine what the Albany-Siena basketball games were like in the 60's and 70's.
For the most part thought we really don't hate $iena fans and except for a few weeks in November (when the two teams play) most of the $iena fans I know at least follow what's going on at Albany and vice-versa although I'm not sure anyone would admit it.

>>
>>I'm not trying to get all you Great Danes fans in a
>>lather (I know just mentioning them does that!), but
>>I'd like to know more about the Albany region and
>>Siena. From a distance, I see Siena as a small,
>>private school which probably doesn't have a large
>>percentage of students from Greater Albany. Yet, they
>>play at Pepsi Arena and have impressive attendance
>>figures from what I see posted on the forum. MAAC
>>basketball isn't exactly the Big East or the ACC! I
>>acknowledge that there are good rivalries with other
>>parochial universites in NY and the Northeast, but....
>>
>>How did they attract such a following? Are the Siena
>>fans "died in the wool" or just basketball fans? I
>>know they had D-1 hoop before the Danes, but you'd
>>think there are more SUNY-Albany alumni in the Capital
>>region. How realistic is it to think that a
>>percentage could be "won over" by the Great Danes?
>>
>>LSBAL and I have talked about U of H's demographics
>>and how they don't have a large percentage of Greater
>>Hartford kids within their student body and a large
>>percentage of the alumni go outside Greater Hartford
>>for work. This makes the Hawks #3 in town after UConn
>>and Central Conn. State (the ultimate "safety school"
>>-- almost 10% of my HS class went to Central!!!). It
>>is an uphill battle for U of H to fight, especially
>>when you add in the immense popularity of the UConn
>>Women's Basketball Program. Logically, you'd think
>>Siena would have similar struggles in Albany. Your
>>thoughts?
>>
>
>Siena was founded in the 1930's and into the 1970's
>was mainly a commuter school. In the early 50s the
>Indians were nationally ranked; much of their
>community support and rep dated to then. (the siena
>board has commented on the greying of their fan base)
>Altho Siena deemphasized hoops for a while, since they
>went back to D-I in '77 they've gotten 90% of the
>media coverage, leaving UA nearly invisible in the
>winter until lately.The strength of the parochial
>school system relative to the public also builds
>loyalty to the Catholic college.
>
>UAlbany was a teacher's college until 1962, didn't
>really expand until the late 60s. Over half the
>students are from NYC and Long Island, and they don't
>hang around the area after graduation. For that
>matter, they don't stick around on the weekends
>either, which hurts attendance. We'll get more fans if
>we get a 15-game winning streak or get to the NCAAs,
>especially if Siena has a 3-4 year slump like during
>the Bob Beyer years, but barring that it'll be a long
>haul to get near parity in this market.

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[> [> [> Re: Serious Question about Siena & the Capital Region -- UAalum72, 18:38:25 03/01/03 Sat

Of course $iena fans are complaining about the coverage NOW, this is the first time in 25 years they've had to share the basketball news. Especially with the top-rated TV sports anchor hosting and plugging the coaches' show and doing our radio.

As for hating (or at least being annoyed by) $iena fans only in November, speak for yourself.

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