That's what I thought, but there are STILL tickets available for Big Ten games at Mackey this year. There are STILL tickets available to the f'ing M$U game!! How can a team with so much hype around it not sell out those games? That's why Burke and the BOT don't care about all of the "I'm not buying another ticket blah blah blah" from fans. Most of them aren't buying tickets anyway (not to offend those of you who are. I get the frustration). Call me out if you want, but I offered my tickets for today's game to 5 Purdue grads at the office and no one took them - for FREE. They all had some BS story about crap they had to do today. One guy even asked me if I had heard anything about Swanigan getting cleared yet. These are our fans. Sports are not a priority to the BOT because they are not a priority for us alumni.
There's a lot more to it than just black and white ticket sales. First off, trying to give away tickets for a football game to see this team is one thing. Secondly, I wouldn't say Purdue's fans don't care because someone thought Swanigan hasn't been cleared. That was a rather recent thing and quite frankly, with the internet there's a lot of mis-informed people out there. Hell, this board is full of misinformation half the time and this is supposed to be the die-hards.
For basketball, there's a lot of factors. First off, consumers in general are not as apt to buy tickets way in advance for events knowing the secondary market exists (and often can be cheaper than buying from the source). This is happening everywhere, not just Purdue. Michigan State's tickets aren't flying off the shelves either. Second, this is also happening everywhere, but weekday games are a tougher sell more and more. With so much going on, plus the ease of watching games online/TV, weekday games are just not popular to go to. For example, Purdue's sold more tickets for their Saturday game vs. Nebraska than their weeknight game against Ohio State. Again, this is not a Purdue thing - this is happening across the board.
Now, don't get me wrong, I think Purdue's done a terrible job at marketing and taking advantage of what they have. Purdue's had one of the largest student sections in the country for the last 10+ years. And yes, do a lot of them stay in Lafayette after graduating? No. But do you think most of Michigan State's grads stay in East Lansing? No. When Purdue's had games in Indianapolis and Chicago, they've done a terrible job at turning them out. The Boilermaker Blockbuster used to sell out - now it's impressive if Purdue can get 5,000 fans at a game in Indianapolis. And it's not like our alumni base has shrunk 60% in that time.
This goes back to my major beef with Burke. He's not a marketing guy and that's a-ok. He doesn't have to be. But he has someone overseeing marketing that has an accounting/finance background. They've completely churned out marketing staff and the product has shown no consistency.
When Purdue wants to market/brand itself as a major player, then Purdue will be fine. Purdue's AD will not brag, take chances, be bold, etc. Until Purdue wants to brand itself as better than others, we will continue to have our tail between our leg.
