Finebaum - "The LSU passion for baseball is really unmatched anywhere in the SEC"

[Skydawg1]

Hey! We still hold the attendance record!

Game 2 2013 CWS Finals, 27,127. Game 2 tonight, 26,607.

[HSVDawg]

What you are talking about is why MSU wants to centralize the crowd in the grandstand. Our issue is we have a lot of fans in the outfield and the bleachers and we spread our fans out making it look like fewer fans are there.

No that's not what I'm talking about (although I do agree with that).

This is what I'm talking about. Below is the weekend attendance for 3 home series in 2016.

Texas A&M (SBW) - 33,896
Ole Miss - 31,831
Arkansas (playing for the SEC championship for the first time in 25 years) - 22,438

Again, when playing for a historic milestone not seen in a quarter century, we couldn't even fill up to the listed capacity of the stadium. It is very hard to argue that you have the most passionate fan base when said fanbase only truly turns out in droves for a couple of weekends per year at most.

[Todd4State]

No that's not what I'm talking about (although I do agree with that).

This is what I'm talking about. Below is the weekend attendance for 3 home series in 2016.

Texas A&M (SBW) - 33,896
Ole Miss - 31,831
Arkansas (playing for the SEC championship for the first time in 25 years) - 22,438

Again, when playing for a historic milestone not seen in a quarter century, we couldn't even fill up to the listed capacity of the stadium. It is very hard to argue that you have the most passionate fan base when said fanbase only truly turns out in droves for a couple of weekends per year at most.

To be fair Arkansas was a Thursday, Friday, Sat. series.

[HSVDawg]

To be fair Arkansas was a Thursday, Friday, Sat. series.

Thursday attendance was 6822. Friday attendance was 7195. Saturday was 8464. We didn't even come close to pushing 10,000 in any of the 3 games, so that is not a valid excuse. And besides, if the series starting one day earlier causes 10,000+ fans to make alternate weekend plans when we are playing for a conference title, then that only further proves my point.

[dawgs]

LSU has won 7 or 8 national titles in baseball in the past 25 years, plus 2 NC's in football and numerous others in smaller sports. You're comparing their fans attendence in their 8th or 9th trip to the CWS finals to our fans attendence in our very first appearance in any national title game, ever. There are literally thousands if not tens of thousands of LSU fans that probably said "meh, been there done that" after the 3rd or 4th title win under Bertman in the 90's. I'd never in a million years expect their fans to outnumber ours under those circumstances. The points above are valid about percentage of enrollment / population that make up our attendence, but this is a bogus comparison. It's similar to Clemson vs. Alabama in the NC game the past 2 years where Clemson fans outnumbered Alabama fans 60/40 or so each time. Do you really think Clemson football has more fans or more passionate fans than Alabama?

Yeah I think you could argue Clemson fans are more passionate. Bama fans I know are pretty complacent these days. They barely celebrate wins, just get angry when they do lose. Hell, most of them weren't happy to lose the natty to Clemson, but just just tipped their cap to Watson and went about their day. They are spoiled to the point that the passion is dramatically decreased.

[dawgs]

Thursday attendance was 6822. Friday attendance was 7195. Saturday was 8464. We didn't even come close to pushing 10,000 in any of the 3 games, so that is not a valid excuse. And besides, if the series starting one day earlier causes 10,000+ fans to make alternate weekend plans when we are playing for a conference title, then that only further proves my point.

Well that Arkansas series was after finals, so ~20K of our potential attendees were headed home or to the beach/lake to party. Starkville area doesn't have the population to seemlessly replace ~20K students leaving town. As we discussed above, BR does have the population to replace any attendance loss due to students being out of town.

[HSVDawg]

Well that Arkansas series was after finals, so ~20K of our potential attendees were headed home or to the beach/lake to party. Starkville area doesn't have the population to seemlessly replace ~20K students leaving town. As we discussed above, BR does have the population to replace any attendance loss due to students being out of town.

Yet magically we cram 10,000 per game mimimum in there even later in the spring when hosting regionals and super regionals. This argument also doesn't hold water. The fans are out there. They just choose to do other things at some inopportune occasions. I still think LSU and MSU are probably 1a / 1b in any order you want to place them in terms of fan dedication, but acting like Finebaum's statement was completely outlandish is ridiculous. It had some basis in fact when you look at actual numbers.

[confucius say]

Yet magically we cram 10,000 per game mimimum in there even later in the spring when hosting regionals and super regionals. This argument also doesn't hold water. The fans are out there. They just choose to do other things at some inopportune occasions. I still think LSU and MSU are probably 1a / 1b in any order you want to place them in terms of fan dedication, but acting like Finebaum's statement was completely outlandish is ridiculous. It had some basis in fact when you look at actual numbers.

The flaw in your argument is attendance doesn't = passion. Nobody disagrees that Lsu has more fans than state. Probably twice as many. That has nothing to do with passion.

But if you want to argue attendance, the attendance numbers relative to total number of fans shows a much larger percentage of our fans attend games than theirs.

[HSVDawg]

Yeah I think you could argue Clemson fans are more passionate. Bama fans I know are pretty complacent these days. They barely celebrate wins, just get angry when they do lose. Hell, most of them weren't happy to lose the natty to Clemson, but just just tipped their cap to Watson and went about their day. They are spoiled to the point that the passion is dramatically decreased.

An Alabama fan was once murdered in cold blood by another Alabama fan because she wasn't "upset enough" about losing the Iron Bowl in 2013. Alabama fans have a psychotic passion for Alabama football that is unmatched by any other school's passion for any other sport. To suggest otherwise is lunacy.

[TUSK]

An Alabama fan was once murdered in cold blood by another Alabama fan because she wasn't "upset enough" about losing the Iron Bowl in 2013. Alabama fans have a psychotic passion for Alabama football that is unmatched by any other school's passion for any other sport. To suggest otherwise is lunacy.

Did you just infer that I'm a "lunatic"????

Keep that shit up, asshole!... I'll 17in' kill every oak in your MFeffin yard...!!!!!!!

*

[HSVDawg]

The flaw in your argument is attendance doesn't = passion. Nobody disagrees that Lsu has more fans than state. Probably twice as many. That has nothing to do with passion.

But if you want to argue attendance, the attendance numbers relative to total number of fans shows a much larger percentage of our fans attend games than theirs.

Well then who's to say Vandy doesn't have the most passionate fans in the SEC? They have a loyal base of 500 fans or so that show up to every game. Nobody questions that our fans are passionate. But no one should question that about LSU fans either. And going back to the Vandy example, Nashville is the largest metro area in the SEC yet Vandy has the smallest stadium and smallest attendance in the conference. Gainesville, Auburn-Opelika, and Tuscaloosa are also very large metro areas (200,000+) with huge schools and fanbases that, just like LSU, double us in number of alumni, fans, etc, and yet they struggle to draw more than 4000-5000 fans per game on SEC weekends. It takes more than a big city and large fanbase to create what both State and LSU currently have, so saying that is the only reason LSU is where they are wouldn't be accurate.

[TUSK]

HSV does solid work, regardless iffins ya agree w him or not...

[MCsMGs]

For a group with unmatched passion, there sure was a boat load of fans bailing out of the stadium at the end of the 8th in Omaha last night...

[Todd4State]

Well then who's to say Vandy doesn't have the most passionate fans in the SEC? They have a loyal base of 500 fans or so that show up to every game. Nobody questions that our fans are passionate. But no one should question that about LSU fans either. And going back to the Vandy example, Nashville is the largest metro area in the SEC yet Vandy has the smallest stadium and smallest attendance in the conference. Gainesville, Auburn-Opelika, and Tuscaloosa are also very large metro areas (200,000+) with huge schools and fanbases that, just like LSU, double us in number of alumni, fans, etc, and yet they struggle to draw more than 4000-5000 fans per game on SEC weekends. It takes more than a big city and large fanbase to create what both State and LSU currently have, so saying that is the only reason LSU is where they are wouldn't be accurate.

Nashville also has a lot more entertainment options than Baton Rouge and they have a AAA team in a newly renovated stadium. If you are a casual baseball fan and you want to take the family out for an evening and watch a game- would you expect fans to choose a modern state of the art stadium with pro baseball players most of whom have at least played in MLB before. Or a small ballpark with some asshole constantly whistling the entire game?

If you are in Baton Rouge and you want to take the family out for an evening and go to a game your options are LSU, driving several hours to Houston, or driving an hour and a half to NOLA for AAA baseball.

[Todd4State]

For a group with unmatched passion, there sure was a boat load of fans bailing out of the stadium at the end of the 8th in Omaha last night...

I think if the roles were reversed our fans would have stayed. Or at least would have been more likely to stay.

[msbulldog]

I think if the roles were reversed our fans would have stayed. Or at least would have been more likely to stay.

Yea, you've got to stay till the end and show your team how much you appreciate their effort and play that season.

[basedog]

Yea, you've got to stay till the end and show your team how much you appreciate their effort and play that season.

Yep except watching the loser at the Egg Bowl, been on both sides, hard to watch TSUN celebrating the EGG!

[HSVDawg]

Nashville also has a lot more entertainment options than Baton Rouge and they have a AAA team in a newly renovated stadium. If you are a casual baseball fan and you want to take the family out for an evening and watch a game- would you expect fans to choose a modern state of the art stadium with pro baseball players most of whom have at least played in MLB before. Or a small ballpark with some asshole constantly whistling the entire game?

If you are in Baton Rouge and you want to take the family out for an evening and go to a game your options are LSU, driving several hours to Houston, or driving an hour and a half to NOLA for AAA baseball.

First, Nashville and the surrounding area has enough people to fill up 3 AAA stadiums, all the bars / restaurants, every westen karaoke bar on Broadway, Bridgestone Arena for a Preds game or concert, and a 6000-7000 seat SEC college baseball stadium (if such a stadium existed for Vandy) every Friday and Saturday night and still have plenty of folks left over. There is not a limiting factor of population in that area for any activity.

Secondly, whether or not a AAA team with a "nice stadium and atmosphere" exists for the casual baseball fan is totally irrelevant to this discussion. If we are talking about most passionate fans, then why would it need to even be addressed if there are other options for casual fans? Fact is that Vandy has been a Top 5 program for probably 15 years now with a natty to boot, and have been either the best SEC team or second best SEC team (behind only USC) over that period depending on the metrics that you use. They play in the middle of a huge city within walking distance to everything in the Broadway / West End area. They have every reason to be able to pull a minimum of 7-8k per game if their stadium held that many people. Yet, they play in a cracker box and are lucky to even fill it up with 1500-2000 fans for an SEC Fri / Sat game. Nobody cares.

The whole overall point is you can't create a large passionate fanbase with a big city, you can't create it just by winning (looking at you, Vandy and UF), you can't create it by building a nice shiny new stadium, and you can't even create it by combining all of those things. It takes something extra. State, LSU, and probably USC all have it. The rest of the SEC is playing catch up.

[BuckyIsAB****]

Variables:

Population Density
Size of Enrollment/Alumni
Lack of success in other Sports
Sum of Ancillary Distractions (shit to do + other sports stuff)
Success (ie: national championships, conference championships, winning %, etc)
et al......

All being said, I'd say MSU baseball is a pretty big deal... it's not KY B-ball, Bammer football... and some others.... but it's kinda a "passionate" deal...


Where's Boom when we need the numbers run?

Bamas baseball crowds tho

[dawgs]

Yet magically we cram 10,000 per game mimimum in there even later in the spring when hosting regionals and super regionals. This argument also doesn't hold water. The fans are out there. They just choose to do other things at some inopportune occasions. I still think LSU and MSU are probably 1a / 1b in any order you want to place them in terms of fan dedication, but acting like Finebaum's statement was completely outlandish is ridiculous. It had some basis in fact when you look at actual numbers.

So what you are saying is that lsu's passion isn't "unmatched"? It's fine to say lsu has some of the best, most passionate fans in the country and no one would say anything. But when you objectively state their subjective passion is unmatched, well then some people are gonna call bullshit, especially with all the attendance records we hold. It's at least debatable, which means it isn't "unmatched".