If You Build It They Will (Not) Come Unless You Win Too

GALEN.CROWDThe NCAA released 2015 attendance information for men’s basketball today and not surprisingly, USC is not making much impact with 3,552 fans per game, a decrease from 4,370 in 2014. Maybe worse, the Trojans had the second-worst attendance among the Big 5 Conferences.

Remember when everyone thought building an arena would solve attendance woes? I thought so too. But you need a winner. OK, Enfield?

40 thoughts on “If You Build It They Will (Not) Come Unless You Win Too

  1. Is it true that half the second worse socal basketball attendance is seat filler freebies? No wonder GC can’t fire up the soft serve machine.

    • I got an idea why not have your ‘3rd wheel’ tell us Rod Dadaeiux -(sic) he claimed to have attended USC then again he’s part of you and then there is ‘we’.

      Come on your other ‘Sybill’ claimed to have attended USC – the one who stated he or it saw the stars and bars in the fraternity house.

      • Perhaps it’s time to have your greatest Trojan basketball player coach the squad, Cheryl Miller. There is a nice article on her in SI. Perhaps she can generate some excitement in Galen.

        • No Prob – Cheryl Miller? Well problem is the gals don’t play the same type of ball as the guys – no this is either the year Enfield succeeds or does not – I sense and hope it is the former and I know Enfield does as well or he’ll leave University Park with his resume shredded – doesn’t strike me as the type who wants to see that..

          • Hey genius……Check out who the Head Coach is for the SAN ANTONIO SPURS Summer League Team…..OOPS….I forgot….why would a school with such grand tradition want to emulate one of the best teams in the NBA?
            feet ung!

          • If there is any woman that can coach men, it would be Cheryl Miller, IMO. She grew up with brothers and Reggie turned out pretty well also. I don’t know how recruits would take to it but she does know the game. Can it get any worse than Enfield?

          • Look man I don’t believe JW had a great run for close to a decade before 1964 and UCLA’s program wasn’t in the state that USC’s been for the past 10 years – I will say this you have to give anyone 3 years and if the pattern is still the same then yeah out ya’ go – and that will be what happens.

            I see the trolls are back with their reasoned analysis –

          • It was over a decade for Wooden before 1964, but he fielded winning teams. Certainly Enfield gets this year. There just seems to be little in the way of fundamentals present. Sometimes you can see good coaching even on teams that aren’t winning. SC simply doesn’t look well coached to me. If he wins this year, serve me some crow.

          • Just found out that a childhood friend of mine was named an assistant coach for USC Men’s Volleyball. You got a good one with Gary Sato. Maybe Volleyball can put people into Galen. My loyalties will be tested.

          • Well good – the Expo line stops right @ Jefferson and Figueroa – katty corner to Galen. Parking is an issue if you drive. The only complaint I have with Galen is the upper tier access (stairwells) are a bit cramped

            but man love that cool sterile concrete look of them!

            Shame UCLA failed to put a ‘ice rink’ freezing array under Pauley when they re-modeled it – Galen has that (Ice rink) installed.

            he view looking north at night is beautiful looking straight north to downtown up Fig.

          • I have been to Galen before. Went to a UCLA-SC basketball game. We had 2 Trojans and 2 Bruins. We regularly give each other cr*p to the degree others thing we hate each other! It’s just part of our fun. I certainly know how to get to Galen if I decide or if we get a group of locals for a little reunion. It’s a nice facility.

          • You would if they had built it and if USC hadn’t you’d be bringing that up.

            Could have the beginning of another great contest between hockey teams.

          • Otis, no Wooden team ever won just 5 conference games in at two year period or in the third year had a predicted O/U 2.5 in conference BB competition.

          • No, Enfield will get a fourth year. The roster was empty after his 1st season. This coming year the two most talented bigs will still be freshmen. Shaqquan will be eligible in 2016. *That* will be the make-or-break year.

            Haden is not as dumb as Wolf likes to pretend.

          • That’s Shaquille’s son right?: I saw the offer USC had made this past Spring – you’ve made a very compelling argument.

            I agree about Haden – Hubbs has been a great pick – the new pickup for volleyball looks sharp same with women’s soccer Keidane McAlpine etc..

          • I meant Shaqquan Aaron: 6-7 transfer from Louisville. Had offers from UCLA, Syracuse, UNLV, Arizona and Washington. Three years of eligibility remaining.

  2. If they fail to win 2015-2016 Enfield will be looking for a job – but for you Scott you seem to be intent on destroying any possibility of your being taken as a serious journalist every time you unload on a USC coach you dislike or didn’t respect you.

    • That’s pretty good, BORIS….you figuring out ‘ if they fail to win’…… What’s your insightful prediction on the sun coming up in the morning?
      That’s why they call em’ ‘da brain surgeons”! I don’t make em’ up paly!
      feiyght ung!

      • You truly are to be pitied = you are such a fool. There is never anything insightful from you save bile.

  3. Well, no sh**! This is not Denver. You have to be at least building toward a winner for people to choose a mid-week, DTLA hoops game over hundreds of other options. Trojan football? They’re building…. Hoops? We’ll see.

    • DTLA <– haha. usc is far from it (literally), buddy. I have an office in DTLA…usc is miles from Pershing Square.

      *StopKiddingYourself*

      South of the 10 is South Central…and that's not meant with any offense or negative connotation–I've got a lot of love for the South Central community.

      • It’s called South L.A. now and USC isn’t really considered part of that starts south of King Blvd.

  4. Funny, I never thought the Galen Center would solve all of USC’s attendance woes without a good product. That’s idiotic.

    People come to see excitement, winning and excellence. As long as USC offers none of those attractions, Galen will be empty. As soon as USC offers any of those things, Galen will become crowded. Not rocket science.

    • Exactly….. Galen Center was simply supposed to be a recruiting tool, since it was considered to be a state-of-the-art facility, with a Scott Wolf approved soft serve machine….

  5. The kid’s choice award was selling em’ out… too bad they left…the donors are asking for their money back and Louis Galen wants the name off the building! Maybe southern cal can squeeze few more million dollars from the Galens to remove their name from the buildings!

  6. Even if USC wins, it isn’t going to become Cameron Indoor overnight.

    Except for the OJ Mayo year, I don’t remember Galen ever averaging much 5,000 per game. USC Men’s BBall has been irrelevant for the past 40 years, don’t expect habits to change overnight.

    That said, Enfield seems caught in a death spiral. Bad teams begets poor attendance, which begets inadequate recruiting, which begets bad teams, which begets poor attendance…

    • Well said. Time to pull the plug on a mens hoops program that hasn’t sniffed a NCAA title since Ike’s first term, poddle skirts and hula hoops.

  7. where’s the Link, wolfman????

    since when are YOU so shy about disseminating embarrassing info about Southern Cal???

    the Pac 12 is no place for One Trick Ponys, if Southern Cal continues to stink in the major sports, they should move to the Mountain West!! and to top it off, the BRUINS kick their butts every year in the one sport they LIVE for!!!

    at least Enfield showed up for the “Seal Training” huh, wolfman??? i hear the Seals served them bottles of Perrier in between the “drills”…(chortle) at least i can sleep better at night now knowing we have trained seals at southern cal!!! watch out ISIS!!!!

    #GiveEmASardine

    • Going independent like BYU makes the most sense. Then we can drop these non-revenue generating sports like Mens basketball.

  8. SECOND worse among the big 5 conferences? There’s gotta be some way you boneheads can use this as a recruiting tool. Consider something catchy like…..
    Don’t be a part of the masses, come join the asse** at LIMBO U….where there’s always room to go just a little LOWER!
    OR
    Come join the fun and help us be #1. fighyt UNG (rhymes with DUNG).
    love you guy’s

  9. Galen was to be a recruiting tool, a very nice one at that, but nothing more.

    I guess the problem is that the really good players want to be on a really good team, so they go to Duke, Kentucky and Arizona. After they’re gone the pickings start thinning.

    • Sounds like USC football and the fate of the rest of the programs after the other Top 10 (OH St., AL, OK, Notre Dame, Auburn, OR, FL St., etc.) have grabbed their pick.

      Basketball players are no different than football players – they want to get to the ‘game’ and they know there is a top tier of programs (CT, NC, Duke, Vanderbilt, NC St., UCLA, AZ, Georgetown, etc.) whose players will always be looked at more often than the historic also rans.

  10. As much as I love USC, this is a complete embarrassment to the Trojan Family to create this stunning $70 Million state of the art venue and so few of the Trojan Family have ever set foot in it. SHAME on US Trojans! Support your USC Basketball and Volleyball Men’s and Women’s team strong or weak. This is a better venue than the updated Paulie Pavilion my ucla alumni friends tell me, yet where is the team support? Step Up and Show Up!

    • No, wise up and make it an indoor football practice facility. It’s been a half a century since USC has been to a Mens Basketball Final Four.

  11. To be frank, USC fans (and maybe LA fans in general) really have not supported any sport other than football. Even during Rod Dedaeux’s run our baseball crowds were not massive like the SEC schools.

    As for the Galen Center, I also think it is going to take more than 1 winning season to start packing them in . We may gets some big crowds near the end I’d an initial good season however.

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