(04-17-2015 11:56 PM)Noodles Wrote: What set of circumstances would it take for your school's fanbase to be the next East Carolina (gag) or Louisville, i.e. sellouts for most every game?
At Southern Miss, I almost believe that just returning to our former ways would mean much bigger crowds, because we've learned not to take winning for granted. In the past, we'd only get the really big crowds in years where we beat a "big" school, such as Alabama, Auburn, Nebraska, etc. And it could very well be that way now; we are in uncharted waters with this hellish 3 seasons just past.
I really, really believe we were on the verge of taking it up a notch back in '11.
Obviously, this conversation doesn't really apply to Old Dominion, since you guys sell out your stadium before breakfast every day. But what's it going to take at Middle TN to pack the stadium? How many can Rice bring in with continued success? What will it take at the Florida schools? Can it happen at Marshall, where even a year like 2014 saw empty seats? Will North Texas fans support their team if they go on a run? Can Louisiana Tech fill Aillet Stadium against conference opponents?
What do you think?
1. North Texas has to do better in recruiting. We focus on the Dallas area because we have tons of talent here and it's cheaper to recruit locally. The problem is most of the better recruits still don't commit to UNT. We need to allocate more funds to the recruiting budget and spend more time focusing on top out of state talent. We need to sell our facilities and the Dallas area to those recruits. Should North Texas start getting serious looks from higher profile out-of-state prospects, our local recruiting issues will take care of itself.
2. North Texas has to win more games. Our HOD bowl season was nice, but we were not able to build on it last season. Like every team that hopes to improve attendance, stringing together multiple bowl winning seasons would certainly help.
3. Schedule Home and Home series with P5 programs. North Texas only has 5 home games this season. I believe we will not run into this problem again, but unfortunately, I don't believe UNT has any future Home and Home series scheduled with P5 programs. That sends the wrong message to fans and recruits, and doesn't help attendance. I don't mind us buying an annual win over an FCS team if we were also bringing P5's to Apogee.
4. C-USA needs to quit scheduling us to play every Texas programs either home or away every season. This actually helps attendance in when Rice, UTEP, and UTSA all visit UNT, but when we play them all on the road it is terrible for attendance. Rice, UTEP, and UTSA don't have to do this.
5. Promote! Promote!! Promote!!! The Game-Day experience at UNT is the best weekend value in DFW. Tailgating is great fun. There can't be too many other stadiums actually on a golf course. We tailgate on over a hundred acres of rolling hills with great shade trees. North Texas needs to advertize (T.V., radio, billboards, social media, local schools). UNT should be hosting the local sportscasters' weekend shows live from Apogee's Club Level after every home game. Apogee hosts high school games on Friday nights. Those teams and coaches, should be getting comp tickets for the Mean Green games on Saturday. North Texas has a great Battle Flag. We should be inviting notable alums (Don Henley, Nora Jones, Dr. Phil, Meat Loaf,....) to carry it and lead the team on to the field at every home game. "Beyond the Green" is a great show on the Fox networks, but North Texas needs to see about also having it air on a local broadcast network, and every season they should have an episode that focuses on the recruits that signed with UNT.
With well over 100,000 alums living within 75 miles of the stadium, North Texas has the ability to grow into something special. But to grow our attendance, I believe we need to focus more resources on the areas I listed.