Perspective from a Student

[bullfrog]

The students aren’t for local areas anymore. The vast majority of students are out of state at this point. It costs a ridiculous amount of money to even attend Richmond.

That's irrelevant...there was plenty of passion for spiders athletics when I was in school and very few of the people I knew were from VA..the school can help generate passion..they just choose not to....

 

[SFspidur]

This year's entering class was 13% from Virginia, exactly the same as my entering class 30 years ago.

 

[KE Spider]

I've long (as the folks know on the board) been a defender of Monney

Will, I'm a little slow, but how would we know that given you joined the Board December 29, 2025?

 

[*23*]

Will, I'm a little slow, but how would we know that given you joined the Board December 29, 2025?

When your board job is defending monney, that seems like a freaking eternity.

 

[MrTbone]

Thanks for the perspective 28, good stuff. Hope you can have a good mens team to cheer for before you graduate, but not looking good.

I saw the Nevada coach bitching about student support. And the writer of the article said guess what, if you win they will come. I dont blame the students one bit in this case. And Mooney is such a poor poor spokesman for the team and program it doesn't help.

CM could be Abe Lincoln and still not be able to pitch this program. People want to watch winners, it’s really not that complicated.

I’ve long said that you can’t solve what ails us through fan engagement, game experience, or $5 cheap seats.

Fix the product, specifically, the teams gotta win more and play meaningful games.

 

[Urmite]

This year's entering class was 13% from Virginia, exactly the same as my entering class 30 years ago.

Well I feel like it was 21% in 1982. I feel like demographics changed with Cooper.

 

[Fatherspider]

Hey all! I’ve been lurking on this forum for a quite a bit but figured I would make a post given the current affairs in the program.

For context, I’m currently a sophomore at UR and am very into collegiate sports. When I was first applying here, my general idea was that the program was really good at knocking off high majors in the tournament.

However, the current season and the last one have been consistently disappointing to say the least. During my first year, I made an effort to attend almost every single game at the Robins Center. At the beginning of the season, there was a lot of enthusiasm from not only me but my friends and the general student population. However, I was quickly taken aback by how we lost to programs like Maine and Marist, who are historically bad.

As the season went on, it became more and more disappointing and I had less motivation to go to the games. Ultimately, after our awful 10 win finish, I decided that I wasn’t going to go to any games unless they miraculously improved next season.

I think one of the biggest questions I see in this forum is why students don’t attend the games anymore. First and foremost, we just don’t know when it’s going on. The university does an AWFUL job of advertising it to students (it’s usually a slide in a PowerPoint in d hall or a screen). The only game I’ve really seen advertised was the Code Red game, which was absolutely amazing and had the best student section in a very long time. I can confidently say that I didn’t have to drag or be my friends to go; many had got tickets before I’d even brought it up.

Next, the program is just in a bad state. Within the student body, CM and the players don’t necessarily have the best reputation. I would say I’m in the minority of my friends who want CM gone, but there is a general disdain for the lack of consistency and output (ESPECIALLY against VCU).

Finally, there is just no pizazz or draw for us to go. Given we’re at a very rigorous school, there are so many better things we could be doing with our time. I may take for granted how nice the Robins Center is, but there is no draw for me to go to the venue. The food is mediocre, the atmosphere is stale, and the product on the court is usually bad.

Now, all of this is said out of love for the program. I am a huge supporter of our women’s team and have consistently gone to their games as opposed to the men’s. I think Roussell is perceived incredibly well in our student body and Doogan is sort of our own campus celebrity. Despite this, I think change needs to happen to bring students back and it needs to happen soon.

Overall, I’d say I’m pretty unimpressed with the state of the program. Even when I had somewhat of a glimmer of hope going into the Davidson game (the first men’s game I attended this year), we played horribly. Anyways, if it hasn’t been said enough, this program needs a major overhaul to keep students like me engaged and a fan.

Great post. Did you say you are in the minority with your disdain for Mooney? The students still want to keep CM? Or is it the opposite?

 

[Eight Legger]

Honestly I'm surprised that any students have an opinion one way or another in the men's basketball team at this point. It's impressive if they know we have one.

 

[SFspidur]

Well I feel like it was 21% in 1982. I feel like demographics changed with Cooper.

Student body geographic composition had definitely already changed by the time he arrived, which was while I was there. But going from Morrill to Cooper certainly changed the overall vibe of the administration. And the 30% tuition increase in 2005 before he got the boot was another big shift in perception and atmosphere to further align with elite liberal arts colleges.

 

[Gkiller]

I honestly don’t think I can think of a school with more poor marketing for its athletic program than Richmond. I’m on Twitter so I see all sorts of other programs and even places smaller than Richmond do a better job. Just seems like no one there has a clue. I still go back to the comment from Bob Black “that’s fine we’ll find new fans”. Who are those fans gonna be Bob? More old people getting bussed in from the Lakewood retirement home? I can’t tell you how mad that comment made me, just felt like a slap in the face. It’s actually shocking how tone deaf that comment was and the sad thing is I doubt anyone in the athletic department even said as much as “hey Bob that comment might not have been the best thing to say”. Id like to think Greg Beckwith (God rest his soul) maybe said something to him about it. Greg seemed like the type of guy that would have our backs on stuff like this.

Lol bus in from Lakewood retirement home. Bravo. Really well done from a rookie.

 

[Gkiller]

Great post. Did you say you are in the minority with your disdain for Mooney? The students still want to keep CM? Or is it the opposite?

I know a freshman at UR. Son of friend of mine. Normal kid. Saw him over Xmas break. I asked him how many games he’s gone to.

One.

 

[MrTbone]

One thing I’ll say is, the schedule is not that hard to figure out. Go to www.richmondspiders.com and look at the “Schedule” tab under Sports/Mens Basketball.

As a general rule, there is a game pretty much every Wednesday and Saturday. Occasionally a different day.

This is so far removed from when as a pledge I had to go to the RC an hour early for games and reserve a row for my Theta Chi brethren. Times have changed, not for the better in this case.