KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

According to Go Rhody there will be an event this Thursday at 5pm to celebrate the team and the A10 title. This is a great opportunity for Rhody Nation to show up for Dan and this team and give them one last ovation. Let's get a great crowd to the Ryan.

http://gorhody.com/sports/m-baskbl/2016 ... 0321y0k020

Would absolutely love to, but flight doesn't get back until 630. Haven't checked the other threads, but really hoping there might be one more coaches show? Heard that next year they may not do them the same way (live)...which would be a shame...really liked going to those and thought it wa a great way for the team to connect with the community, but especially liked the opportunity to connect with some of the long time Rhody faithful...

.....yes, heard from good source the shows would mostly be live studio, then pod cast type, with only one a month in a live on the road venue.....

Well that sucks. Hopefully they will do a preseason event anyway......

section(105) wrote:.....yes, heard from good source the shows would mostly be live studio, then pod cast type, with only one a month in a live on the road venue.....

This feels like the complete wrong way of doing things, unless there's other plans we don't know about. The team should capitalize on their success and be more visible to the public, not turtle and go into hiding. We've got a spark, let's turn it into a fire, don't smother it

Wish I could go tonight, but the wife works late today and someone has to watch our 15 month old. Would be nice to grab an A10 Tourney Champ shirt and a new Rhody onesie for my daughter. In the vein of RI Red, let's call her "little steviep" lol.

RhowdyRam02 wrote:

section(105) wrote:.....yes, heard from good source the shows would mostly be live studio, then pod cast type, with only one a month in a live on the road venue.....

This feels like the complete wrong way of doing things, unless there's other plans we don't know about. The team should capitalize on their success and be more visible to the public, not turtle and go into hiding. We've got a spark, let's turn it into a fire, don't smother it

I couldn't agree more with RR02

steviep123 wrote:Wish I could go tonight, but the wife works late today and someone has to watch our 15 month old. Would be nice to grab an A10 Tourney Champ shirt and a new Rhody onesie for my daughter. In the vein of RI Red, let's call her "little steviep" lol.

What about tomorrow?

Wonder what the reasoning behind this is.....some of the shows weren't that well attended, but that could be attributed to either weather or bad losses just before them....

You might think they would get more people next season after the run we just had.....

.....maybe this will change, but heard this weeks ago.....before the run at winning...

steviep123 wrote:Wish I could go tonight, but the wife works late today and someone has to watch our 15 month old. Would be nice to grab an A10 Tourney Champ shirt and a new Rhody onesie for my daughter. In the vein of RI Red, let's call her "little steviep" lol.

It's Thursday, Stevie!

RhowdyRam02 wrote:

section(105) wrote:.....yes, heard from good source the shows would mostly be live studio, then pod cast type, with only one a month in a live on the road venue.....

This feels like the complete wrong way of doing things, unless there's other plans we don't know about. The team should capitalize on their success and be more visible to the public, not turtle and go into hiding. We've got a spark, let's turn it into a fire, don't smother it

If the events aren't well attended and it is more convenient for them to do it in another format then I don't have a big issue. The idea of doing a live show in a bar with fans is awesome, but if the return doesn't justify the investment of time and energy and resources, then what can you do? As someone that has listened to every coach's show but has never attended or heard one live due to geography and work obligations, it will make no material difference to me - not saying that should be the deciding factor - - just pointing out that if I am representative of a large percentage of the people that consume this type of media then changing to a studio/podcast formula won't impact most of their audience.

That said, I am going to try like hell to get down there tomorrow. Have to come up with some way to sell it to my wife and hope no late meetings pop up in the next 24 hours, though.

I will try to get there. Always tricky with the little ones.

Who's going?

What time should I get there for a good seat and parking?

Any plans for drinks/dinner with you mooks after?

Are these enough questions????

TruePoint wrote:

RhowdyRam02 wrote:

section(105) wrote:.....yes, heard from good source the shows would mostly be live studio, then pod cast type, with only one a month in a live on the road venue.....

This feels like the complete wrong way of doing things, unless there's other plans we don't know about. The team should capitalize on their success and be more visible to the public, not turtle and go into hiding. We've got a spark, let's turn it into a fire, don't smother it

If the events aren't well attended and it is more convenient for them to do it in another format then I don't have a big issue. The idea of doing a live show in a bar with fans is awesome, but if the return doesn't justify the investment of time and energy and resources, then what can you do? As someone that has listened to every coach's show but has never attended or heard one live due to geography and work obligations, it will make no material difference to me - not saying that should be the deciding factor - - just pointing out that if I am representative of a large percentage of the people that consume this type of media then changing to a studio/podcast formula won't impact most of their audience.

That said, I am going to try like hell to get down there tomorrow. Have to come up with some way to sell it to my wife and hope no late meetings pop up in the next 24 hours, though.

My belief is that they're valuable almost no matter what the attendance. Everyone is freaking out about billboards and ads at the airport. What do you think is more likely to keep and generate new fans? A billboard you speed past on 95, an ad when you're standing at baggage claim when you just hope your luggage isn't lost, or shaking hands with the head coach? What do you think is more valuable to our corporate partners? Having extra customers and the extra advertising because they're hosting the coach's show or being the proud sponsor of the jumping jack cam during the under 8 timeout in the first half? How does someone like me try and attract more fans, the people who were texting me during this whole run because they know I'm obsessed with URI and were clearly excited by what was taking place? By telling them to check out this podcast the head coach is on or by telling them come down and have a couple beers with me at the show? Every fan wants more access to the team, but how are the fans that are probably already spending too much of their budget on season tickets supposed to get access? They're already giving as much as they can, not everyone can be a big booster. The coach's show is a great outlet for that.

If having these shows in multiple locations hurts us competitively, by all means a change should be made. That said, if that was the case, why have we been doing them like this for so long? If it's just for convenience or some attendance threshold isn't being met, then I hate this.

RhowdyRam02 wrote:

steviep123 wrote:Wish I could go tonight, but the wife works late today and someone has to watch our 15 month old. Would be nice to grab an A10 Tourney Champ shirt and a new Rhody onesie for my daughter. In the vein of RI Red, let's call her "little steviep" lol.

What about tomorrow?

Oops...thanks RR02 and ATP for pointing that out. I'll see what I can do for tomorrow. It's more promising than tonight.

One thing that would be cool is if they took this party on the road one Saturday coming up shortly. Have stops in like Warwick, Woonsocket, Providence, and Portsmouth of an hour-hour and a half each. Try to coordinate it with youth basketball in the area. It would be a nice way of bringing a celebration close to most of the state and extending our brand.

RhowdyRam02 wrote:

TruePoint wrote:

RhowdyRam02 wrote:
This feels like the complete wrong way of doing things, unless there's other plans we don't know about. The team should capitalize on their success and be more visible to the public, not turtle and go into hiding. We've got a spark, let's turn it into a fire, don't smother it

If the events aren't well attended and it is more convenient for them to do it in another format then I don't have a big issue. The idea of doing a live show in a bar with fans is awesome, but if the return doesn't justify the investment of time and energy and resources, then what can you do? As someone that has listened to every coach's show but has never attended or heard one live due to geography and work obligations, it will make no material difference to me - not saying that should be the deciding factor - - just pointing out that if I am representative of a large percentage of the people that consume this type of media then changing to a studio/podcast formula won't impact most of their audience.

That said, I am going to try like hell to get down there tomorrow. Have to come up with some way to sell it to my wife and hope no late meetings pop up in the next 24 hours, though.

My belief is that they're valuable almost no matter what the attendance. Everyone is freaking out about billboards and ads at the airport. What do you think is more likely to keep and generate new fans? A billboard you speed past on 95, an ad when you're standing at baggage claim when you just hope your luggage isn't lost, or shaking hands with the head coach? What do you think is more valuable to our corporate partners? Having extra customers and the extra advertising because they're hosting the coach's show or being the proud sponsor of the jumping jack cam during the under 8 timeout in the first half? How does someone like me try and attract more fans, the people who were texting me during this whole run because they know I'm obsessed with URI and were clearly excited by what was taking place? By telling them to check out this podcast the head coach is on or by telling them come down and have a couple beers with me at the show? Every fan wants more access to the team, but how are the fans that are probably already spending too much of their budget on season tickets supposed to get access? They're already giving as much as they can, not everyone can be a big booster. The coach's show is a great outlet for that.

If having these shows in multiple locations hurts us competitively, by all means a change should be made. That said, if that was the case, why have we been doing them like this for so long? If it's just for convenience or some attendance threshold isn't being met, then I hate this.

I want to be totally clear that I have zero insight into why they would make this change or even if the change is something that is actually being considered. I was just speculating about the potential rationale. And I agree that I prefer the concept of a live show and I have to assume that any decision made about potential changes to the format would have taken into account the considerations you outlined, which are all valid. The focus of my response was more the impact it would have on my experience consuming the shows and the experience of similarly situated people, and not the meta-marketing impacts and community outreach aspects. Those are certainly things that should be considered - hopefully they will be considered in any decision like this and will be weighed against the cost/benefit of deploying whatever resources would be saved in other ways.

Anyone know if the Ram Zone will be open? Would be a great time to sell some merch!

TruePoint wrote:

RhowdyRam02 wrote:

TruePoint wrote:
If the events aren't well attended and it is more convenient for them to do it in another format then I don't have a big issue. The idea of doing a live show in a bar with fans is awesome, but if the return doesn't justify the investment of time and energy and resources, then what can you do? As someone that has listened to every coach's show but has never attended or heard one live due to geography and work obligations, it will make no material difference to me - not saying that should be the deciding factor - - just pointing out that if I am representative of a large percentage of the people that consume this type of media then changing to a studio/podcast formula won't impact most of their audience.

That said, I am going to try like hell to get down there tomorrow. Have to come up with some way to sell it to my wife and hope no late meetings pop up in the next 24 hours, though.

My belief is that they're valuable almost no matter what the attendance. Everyone is freaking out about billboards and ads at the airport. What do you think is more likely to keep and generate new fans? A billboard you speed past on 95, an ad when you're standing at baggage claim when you just hope your luggage isn't lost, or shaking hands with the head coach? What do you think is more valuable to our corporate partners? Having extra customers and the extra advertising because they're hosting the coach's show or being the proud sponsor of the jumping jack cam during the under 8 timeout in the first half? How does someone like me try and attract more fans, the people who were texting me during this whole run because they know I'm obsessed with URI and were clearly excited by what was taking place? By telling them to check out this podcast the head coach is on or by telling them come down and have a couple beers with me at the show? Every fan wants more access to the team, but how are the fans that are probably already spending too much of their budget on season tickets supposed to get access? They're already giving as much as they can, not everyone can be a big booster. The coach's show is a great outlet for that.

If having these shows in multiple locations hurts us competitively, by all means a change should be made. That said, if that was the case, why have we been doing them like this for so long? If it's just for convenience or some attendance threshold isn't being met, then I hate this.

I want to be totally clear that I have zero insight into why they would make this change or even if the change is something that is actually being considered. I was just speculating about the potential rationale. And I agree that I prefer the concept of a live show and I have to assume that any decision made about potential changes to the format would have taken into account the considerations you outlined, which are all valid. The focus of my response was more the impact it would have on my experience consuming the shows and the experience of similarly situated people, and not the meta-marketing impacts and community outreach aspects. Those are certainly things that should be considered - hopefully they will be considered in any decision like this and will be weighed against the cost/benefit of deploying whatever resources would be saved in other ways.

Oh I know, I just thought your post was a proper jumping off point.

steviep123 wrote:Anyone know if the Ram Zone will be open? Would be a great time to sell some merch!

I imagine it would be. At first I though they might have closed it down for the season and moved the merchandise up the hill, but I know they have some events coming up there for incoming freshman and I'm sure they'd like to have the store open and merchandise available for those events.

Sad that a thread about Celebrating this great season gets hijacked by complaints on next year's coach's show format change.

Some detail on the celebration - doors open at 5:30, it is free, you can have your picture taken with the A10 trophy, the players will be signing posters for the fans.

This is our chance to thank the players and coaches. A time to show Dan why this is a great place to stay. To show the returning players what they have to look forward to next year. Maybe even for Rhody to share on recruiting trips. We ask and expect a lot from our team. It is time for us to pay them back. I hope there is a great crowd. Anything less is weak.

Hoping tons of students show up for this too.

Some detail on the 5:00 (revised) celebration it is free, you can have your picture taken with the A10 trophy, the players will be signing posters for the fans.

This is our chance to thank the players and coaches. A time to show Dan why this is a great place to stay. To show the returning players what they have to look forward to next year. Maybe even for Rhody to share on recruiting trips. We ask and expect a lot from our team. It is time for us to pay them back. I hope there is a great crowd. Anything less is weak.

5:00 Now

5 makes it a student event.

spookydog wrote:5:00 Now

We really are the absolute WORST at all things marketing and promotion related. If you want to do things like have this event whenever it is most convenient to you rather than when the most people could get there, fine. But I don't want to hear complaining about how many people show up. 5PM is a non-starter for anyone with a job, even if they work in town. I have a meeting south of Boston that will get out around 5 and was thinking about trying to shoot down to the Ryan, but a 5PM event is not even worth trying for.

That kind of kills it for me. I get out of work at 4:30 in the Dedham area. 6pm, I would have made it. But 5pm isn't happening.

Yeah, that's definitely tough for anyone working.

steviep123 wrote:Anyone know if the Ram Zone will be open? Would be a great time to sell some merch!

Latest email shows the Ram Zone will be open

I may be able to go and just bring my boys with me before bringing them home from school.

I have no problem if this makes it easier for students. That's where we need to grow the fan base.

Give them more experiences to get hooked and we all win.

Blue Man wrote:I have no problem if this makes it easier for students. That's where we need to grow the fan base.

Give them more experiences to get hooked and we all win.

That is true, if more students show up its a win.

Yup I don't disagree with that, either, but not sure I understand how moving it to 5pm helps with that? If it does, so be it.

It was moved because of a scheduling conflict. Who is using the RC tomorrow night? BB event needs to be the priority. They screwed up. Pick another night that all your fans have a chance to make. Too bad.

I looked at the Ryan Center calendar of events and the next event after tomorrow is a cheerleader competition Saturday. I can't imagine that would necessitate moving up tomorrow's event an hour

Maybe it's a conflict with Dan's interview with Indiana......kidding!!! But it could be a conflict with someone's schedule, someone who is an important figure in the celebration. It doesn't necessarily have to be a conflict with the RC.

RhowdyRam02 wrote:

steviep123 wrote:Anyone know if the Ram Zone will be open? Would be a great time to sell some merch!

Latest email shows the Ram Zone will be open

Per the mass email:


Celebrate with the Champs on Thursday night!

Rhode Island Basketball invites you to join us TOMORROW at 5:00 PM at The Ryan Center to celebrate the 2016-17 season! Hear from players and coaches, collect autographs on a commemorative poster (while supplies last) and take your picture with the A-10 trophy! Doors open at 4:30 PM. Admission is open to the public and is FREE! Select concession stands will be open and postseason merchandise will be available for purchase at The Rams Zone. For more information about the event, click here (http://gorhody.com/sports/m-baskbl/2016 ... 0321y0k020).

5 p.m.? Who the hell thought THAT would be a good time for this?

Just saw on the Rhody Facebook page that they had to move up tonights celebration up to 5 PM due to a scheduling conflict.

I was able to leave work early enough to beat the Boston rush hour traffic but tough time change for people getting out of work any later.

Happy I can attend with my boys, 5 and 1.

How was the event?

I had a great time with my two young boys. After a great video yearbook kind of thing played and Coach Hurley, Stan & EC, and Thor all said a few words the fans were able to line up to get autographs and chat with each player at a long table. After that was the trophy and Rhody there for photos.

Then a separate line to meet/thank Coach Hurley.

I was able to also congratulate coach Cox for his great contributions to this program and game planning.

When I saw ARD I joked that he's responsible for most of those banners up there.

The highlight was getting a few minutes with each player. Kuran said he wished he was here all four years. Hass was especially gracious and kind to my kids and insisted on holding my 1 yr old for a minute to give him high fives.

EC chatted with my kindergartener who was proudly wearing his jersey.

Coach Hurley only had a minute for each fan in line. While he was signing my championship team poster he said those players are so special any anyone here could do great things with them. He also said imagine if Hass was healthy all season. He said November is right around the corner.

I was there.....good times!!! Picked up nice Rhody NCAA t-shirt!!

..... I cannot give an estimate of attendance, but I can say we were filled sections of 104, 105, 106 filled Couple of rows in the 200 behind the 100' ....great job by EZ Buckets handling the MC duties....wonderful cap on the great season....

Dan got Will to come out and do a couple of his celebrations, as it seems Will has become a bit of a celebrity. By the time I got to the end of the line for meeting the guys, it was out to the lobby, so I didn't stay for that. Short (about 50 minutes), but fun.

http://wpri.com/2017/03/23/fans-gather- ... is-season/