(10-11-2013 12:17 PM)CougarRed Wrote:  At UH, Art Briles went to 4 bowls in 5 years, and won a conference title. But he was 28-3 against teams with losing records, and 6-25 against teams with winning records. He was 0-fer in bowl games. And 0-fer against ranked teams. As a result, average UH crowds topped out at about 22K in the Briles era.

When Sumlin came, he beat two ranked CUSA teams in 2008, went on the road and beat #5 Okla St in 2009 and followed it up with wins against Texas Tech and Miss St. By 2010, we were selling out.

ALL of that is VERY true and good job seeing it/pointing it out.

Promise a meal and bus in the homeless.

For Memphis the equation is very easy.

Winning=40k and above
Losing=20k and below

Free beer to go along with ass and titties will do wonders. In SMU's case maybe free cocaine.

(10-11-2013 10:06 AM)Carolina Stang Wrote:  I came down to SMU for the Rutgers game - and I was absolutely shocked at the level of disinterest in SMU football from fans, alums, and even players. Granted, it was drizzling and 11am and family weekend - but those are hardly excuses worth noting.

Announced attendance was 19,436. Actual attendance was more like 16K, and once RU went up 21-0, I would say there were about 6000 people there to watch the comeback and 3OTs.

I was handed free tickets by one of the greatest SMU qbs ever (lance mcilhenny) and my friend and I literally walked down to the front row at kickoff and watched from behind the SMU bench. If I wanted those seats for a Clemson or UNC game, I'd have to pay big money. But at SMU, there were plenty open for all. We stayed until the bitter end, as real fans should do.

I'd like to offer real suggestions to our administration and AD office on ideas for increased attendance (other than the obvious answer, which is to WIN games!) - and was hoping some folks from other schools might be able to help. If you've found certain promotions/ideas to work, what has not worked, why your attendance is better or worse than you think your program deserves, etc, please let me know.

We need to do something here to increase fan support. It is very, very bad. Ticket prices are not the problem- many free seats if you want them.

Personally, I think we need a new energetic coach to sell SMU to the local Dallas community, recruit high level local kids and start from there. Get rid of the rich, snobby ads and go hard to be "Dallas' Team" - we need your help to rep Dallas over Ft worth, Houston, etc. We may need to cheat a little and sign a Manziel/RG3 type player that transcends cfb and that we can build a program around.

Thanks.

How were the crowds back in the old days? I really don't see why you can't get 25-30k avg in a huge city like Dallas. If you win more 30k should be a minimum avg.

I never understood the weak crowds at Houston and SMU being located in such large cities. Like some other posters have mentioned getting the community involved with the program is a must. People need to feel it is the "hometown" team. You've got to get non alums who live in the area to come out.

(10-11-2013 03:42 PM)First Mate Wrote:  How were the crowds back in the old days? I really don't see why you can't get 25-30k avg in a huge city like Dallas. If you win more 30k should be a minimum avg.

I never understood the weak crowds at Houston and SMU being located in such large cities. Like some other posters have mentioned getting the community involved with the program is a must. People need to feel it is the "hometown" team. You've got to get non alums who live in the area to come out.

The problem is that we have WAY more things to do other than college football. There's just so many other things to do that if you don't care for the school or their team then why would you go.

I'd like to offer real suggestions to our administration and AD office on ideas for increased attendance (other than the obvious answer, which is to WIN games!) - and was hoping some folks from other schools might be able to help. If you've found certain promotions/ideas to work, what has not worked, why your attendance is better or worse than you think your program deserves, etc, please let me know.

thanks.
[/quote]

Carolina Stang, I see a simple solution to your team. One sure fire way to get better attendance is to have as many possible local kids from local high schools on your team. Develop a special walk on program on top of that. The local press loves to gush on the players from the area, some of these guys have been talked about since they were freshman or sophomores in high school! Imagine how well known they are by the time they've become 5th yr seniors. When you have local kids on your team, you have local fans in the stands following them. The kids parents, friends, cousins, former high school teammates will be there to support him. One guy alone can be responsible for hundreds of fans. In a city the size of yours, there is no reason why you can't have 100% of your players from the metro area, despite the strict academic requirements. The problem with your school in particular I believe is that it's filled with east coast people with no generation ties to the community. There's no emotional attachment. Also, get coaches from the area. If not your head coach have most of your staff from the metro area. There's a million reasons why that is crucial.......Avoid transfers and Junior College guys. You want guys that are around for the full 5 years so that you can get that emotional attachment. Growing up in Iowa, I was a Hawkeye fan because my cousin was on the team at first, he graduated but I developed an emotional attachment and loyalty to Iowa. 70,000 fans at every single game and Iowa City has 50,000 people. Always sold out at Kinnick and it's an intense event. NO one sits down, there's joy, laughter, sadness crying etc. everything at those games. If you go to Iowa over half the people you run into will be wearing the colors. Just like they do in Nebraska, Alabama, Oklahoma etc. I've been to all those places and I've been to Dallas and watched SMU play. Words cant describe the difference in atmosphere. The good news: SMU had a moment in the sun years ago in the Doak Walker days when Dallas fans were packing the Cotton Bowl to watch your team. (I won't bring up the 80's and what happened etc.) I'll end this post by asking you what road games you've gone to? Just want to get an idea of what you've seen when it relates to fans/support/tradition/rivalries/tailgates etc.

(10-11-2013 02:49 PM)NYCTUFan Wrote:  

(10-11-2013 02:40 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  Focus on the students first, not the alumni. If they didn't care when they were in school, chances are they're not going to care when they get out.

Thats a challenge at a school like SMU. With just over 6,000 students enrolled it will take over a decade to develop any meaningful base.

Not really. Now granted you have to have efficiency on a whole new scale. But using natural attrition I assume that means about 2,000 new undergrads per year. Assuming they don't all come alone, that is 4,000 new potential new attendees per game. In addition if you probably lose 1,000 or so per year to graduation, which gives you a potential of 2,000 or so people to retain to come to games. Now, given that your student population is about 20% the size of the larger schools, you have less room for error. On the flip side, as a smaller school, there is a better chance to make each student feel a part of the program.

(10-13-2013 09:18 PM)billybobby777 Wrote:  Carolina Stang, I see a simple solution to your team. One sure fire way to get better attendance is to have as many possible local kids from local high schools on your team. Develop a special walk on program on top of that. The local press loves to gush on the players from the area, some of these guys have been talked about since they were freshman or sophomores in high school! Imagine how well known they are by the time they've become 5th yr seniors.

I mentioned this above, but I don't think that would work in a place like Houston or Dallas. Simply put, those two areas probably put out 75-100 D1 players in a season. That means at any given time, there are upwards of 300-500 players (depending on attrition and redshirting)
from those two cities playing D1 football around the country. Given those numbers, I am not sure how big of a deal the lower rung of those players will be in the local papers (if you are talking about walk-ons, they would be the lower rung by definition).

That method would work in some places. But I can't see it working all that much in Houston, Dallas, Orlando, New Orleans, or Tampa, unless the local players are superstars. Maybe Memphis or Cincinnati, but those places put a lot of D1 talent out there too.


That said, if any one of those schools got a coach who could pull what Howard Schnellenberger did in Miami, where he more or less put a blanket around the city and grabbed nearly all of the local talent, then not only would what you suggest work, it would work BIG TIME. However the blue print he laid, has now been copied to the point that big schools are not afraid to go into those cities and take talent like they were in the early 80's.

(10-11-2013 10:06 AM)Carolina Stang Wrote:  I came down to SMU for the Rutgers game - and I was absolutely shocked at the level of disinterest in SMU football from fans, alums, and even players. Granted, it was drizzling and 11am and family weekend - but those are hardly excuses worth noting.

Announced attendance was 19,436. Actual attendance was more like 16K, and once RU went up 21-0, I would say there were about 6000 people there to watch the comeback and 3OTs.

I was handed free tickets by one of the greatest SMU qbs ever (lance mcilhenny) and my friend and I literally walked down to the front row at kickoff and watched from behind the SMU bench. If I wanted those seats for a Clemson or UNC game, I'd have to pay big money. But at SMU, there were plenty open for all. We stayed until the bitter end, as real fans should do.

I'd like to offer real suggestions to our administration and AD office on ideas for increased attendance (other than the obvious answer, which is to WIN games!) - and was hoping some folks from other schools might be able to help. If you've found certain promotions/ideas to work, what has not worked, why your attendance is better or worse than you think your program deserves, etc, please let me know.

We need to do something here to increase fan support. It is very, very bad. Ticket prices are not the problem- many free seats if you want them.

Personally, I think we need a new energetic coach to sell SMU to the local Dallas community, recruit high level local kids and start from there. Get rid of the rich, snobby ads and go hard to be "Dallas' Team" - we need your help to rep Dallas over Ft worth, Houston, etc. We may need to cheat a little and sign a Manziel/RG3 type player that transcends cfb and that we can build a program around.

Thanks.

What??? You mean people aren't coming out to see your undwear-model QB recruit???

On a serious note, I think the real thing SMU needs to do is play to it's strengths, vis-à-vis minor-league baseball. Don't try to be "Dallas' Team"... Dallas already has a "team"-- the Cowboys. Instead, use what makes SMU distinctive...
---Yeah, have a "Craig James" bobble-head night. Why not have a whole season of "Pony-Express" bobble-heads that would be/could be collectors items? A different one every game, first 5k in the gates get one free?
---Have a "Biff-Buffy" Yuppie-Preppie night where people are encouraged to come out dressed like the stereotype (a Halloween thing???) and sip chardonnay? Clips on the jumbotron of the 80's stereotypes from movies, etc...
---No to the "Quarter/.50 cent/Dollar-Beer" idea. This is SMU... Chardonnay... Let the Bubbas down at A&M do the dollar-beer thing. Offer cheap Chardonnay I plastic glasses...

Play it up. Do not deny what makes SMU distinctive... Play it up.

SMU will start selling beer at games in 2014. That may help, a little.

My brother came down from Connecticut for the SMU-Rutgers game. He's a season ticket holder for the Patriots & UConn FB. He was impressed with the campus and the Boulevard (tailgating). He was disappointed in the crowd. And I was really embarrassed to show him the student section ... there were probably 20 kids there. It must be "uncool" on campus to be seen at a football game.

1) Student & alumni attitudes about football must change. Good grief - all I have from SMU is a Master of Liberal Arts degree, and I support the FB program by occasionally buying season tickets and joining the Mustang Club. The students & local alumni need to step up.
2) Logistics must get better for local fans without any direct connection to SMU; parking has to be made easy.
3) Marketing must begin (I haven't seen any). And it must have a clear, simple message to cut through the media haze.

I think the students are an easy target - but in reality, even if every undergrad student showed up for the game - that would only be about 6k people. I bet as a %, we actually have higher student attendance than most other schools with 40-60k students.

Reality is - we need the causal dallas sports/cfb fan to attend our games in order to fill the stadium. And that only happens when the team is good.