The Zoo could be coming back
The first Griz basketball I attended was in the fall of '05 against Stanford. Since then I've been obsessed. Like nerds and World of Warcraft obsessed. Everyone else, not so much. The game was unbelievable. It was like playing a basketball game inside a packed Metrodome. You know, like it was when Kirby played. Those who filled Dahlberg that night showed that Griz fans are some of the best in the country -- when they're motivated.
Since then, there hasn't been a game where the crowd -- and the student section especially -- has reached the same excitement level. Outside of a few select games, the '05-'06 season was disappointing from an atmosphere perspective. The team played great but fans didn't come in earnest until the meaningless regular season finale against NAU. I didn't get it. After football season and the Stanford upset, I thought obsessive insane fans were the norm out here. That wasn't the case for hoops.
Turns out it wasn't always this way. Hoops used to be big, real big. Bigger than football. The students used to stand in the courtside seats, not sit in the baseline bleachers. The frenzied pack of undergrads was dubbed "The Zoo." Since then, the students were moved and "The Zoo" disappeared along with the overwhelming enthusiasm for the basketball program.
Well, The Zoo may be on it's way back. This comes from Griz basketball head coach Wayne Tinkle:
We are planning on putting them there for the CSU game, and IF there is a great showing we’ll entertain the idea of putting them there for the MSU game. We really need to make a push for the students to show up in droves in order to influence the administration. I believe the lack of student participation has severely declined since the late 80’s…due to multiple factors. I know that we coach’s are working hard to make it exciting now the fans need to buy in and stir up the frenzy!
It's tough not to look ahead to a time when the students are back where they belong. However, UM Athletic Director Jim O'Day points out some big issues that may prevent a permanent move.
We have many issues to consider first, such as hearing from those who pay higher prices to sit there, and what to do about the media tables … or more importantly, what to do about the signage for the corporate sponsors. Where can we put them? Also, we have to look at court space for adding additional media benches on the west side if such a decision is made… to make sure we have enough room for the teams. We are looking at all avenues --- and may only be able to do it for one game, if at all, this year, as an experiment.
Oh no, not this again, right? Just like all the roadblocks preventing a move to the FBS, there's financial stuff with this too. Well, don't fret too much, O'Day seems to be a bit more enthused about this idea.
As a former member of “The Zoo” while in college, I know how special that was… and if we do it and the students are challenged to fill the seats and create atmosphere, we’d have to look at a permanent situation if it made a difference. If we took such a gamble, I would only hope that the students would respond in force… to demonstrate interest for men’s basketball.
So it's all up to those it benefits the most. Let's do this students.