BigEast Quest Evaluation
This is a work in process! Having been to 8 of the 9 'home' games for Big East on my son+my Big East Quest, we thought we'd provide our comparison of the experience. I would love to get a sense of how many other fans may have done the same thing but I may ask for that feedback via Twitter or some place else.
As a reminder, the Big East Quest was our father/son desire to visit an away Marquette men's basketball game at every game in the Big East. When my son decided to attend Marquette in 2013, we wanted to do something together to experience his time at MU. So far we've had a lot of fun.
My son and I have begun to compare the experiences on
Venue/facilities (** Based upon coolness factor)
St. Johns- Madison Square Garden
Butler - Hinkle Field
Creighton - Century Link Center
Fan Experience
Xavier - Cintas Center
Butler - Hinkle Field
Seton Hall - Prudential Center
Student / Fan enthusiasm (during the game)
Xavier - the pre-game program for season ticket holders was fantastic
Butler - Fun environment, great student section
Seton Hall (we certainly enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean videos)
We did attend both Seton Hall and Georgetown over a winter break which likely impacts student attendance and thus fan experience. Georgetown is such a distance (and subway ride) away from the school that we suspect we may have experienced something closer to their 'norm'.
We attended DePaul in their old venue which was also quite a distance from the school and likley impacted student attendance. The DePaul game was not on winter break but was on a weekend which seemed to impact the entire experience. Maybe the new arena is closer to campus and would improve the experience but we think a new arena would certainly improve the experience.
To be transparent, we have an asterisk in the St. John's visit. We had tickets, (yes, bought and paid for) but could never get to the game due to the huge snow storm. The asterisk is because 1) we purchased tickets to the game which was supposed to be held at Madison Square Garden, 2) got to watch the game on TV as it was postponed to the next day and held at Carnesecca Arena on-campus at St. Johns, and 3) we toured Madison Square Garden while we were at the Seton Hall Game on January 1st in 2017. Perhaps when we have this whole journey completed, we will have to remove the 'asterisk' by:
a. attending a St. John's game at Madison Square Garden
b. attending a St. John's game at Carnesecca Arena on campus
c. attending a DePaul game at the new WinTrust Arena, and
d. cap it off with seeing a game at FiServ Forum (which Tim hasn't been to yet..as of March 2019).
