To the CITY OF DENTON & UNT STUDENTS

Okay. I'm a Junior at UNT, transferred after my freshman year and I've lurked these boards for almost two years now and I have never had the urge to contribute to any conversation or felt I had anything meaningful to say. With that being said, I've made this account to specifically address this attendance issue that grown men are pissing themselves over.

Here are the reasons students did not show up to this game specifically, but all of them for that matter:

1. It is not UNT culture to be highly involved in football (or any other sport). It is not advertised around school. The administration, in my opinion, makes no effort to get the regular student involved with sports. Occasionally they will put up small plastic signs at 4 locations on campus on game week. Great. What an advertising lure! ... Not. UNT needs to make football BIG. There is nothing around campus that shouts, "WE LOVE SPORTS! GO MEAN GREEN!" Zero advertisement.

2. History of losing. Most students see UNT sports as a joke- They don't care. I've had one professor in my 1 and 1/2 years talk about the football team in class. No students cared. Why? Because of losing IN ADDITION with the lack of culture. It's not something for the average student to get excited about because they've been let down for years and don't expect anything. When you don't expect anything, why bother? They don't want to show up to a game to just be let down. Students feel it is embarrassing and are ashamed when the football program has done so bad in recent years. They don't expect anything to change. Even with a new stadium.

When I came here Todd Dodge was at my student orientation, he gave us the sales pitch that UNT will do great this year in football and it's time to turn the program around and it sounds similar to what McCarney has said. Do you think the average student who is only familiar with losing and the lack of football culture and lack of sports knowledge is going to see ANY difference between the same hopeful speech by two different people? No.

Only with this much improved season will students realize "Hey, maybe this is worth checking out now." It takes a season of doing significantly better to gain any recognition and that's what happened this season. Not next season, but the next will UNT be what you ranting immature adults WANT the student fan section to look like.

3. The HISTORY of UNT football or Lance making any accomplishments is NOT known to the average student. NCAA breaking records, what do you expect them to know about it? Again, I put this on the administration and/or the Athletics Department for NOT making it known. One email. Great. 1. Not everyone checks their email. 2.Emails are easily overlooked, we get so much crap emails from the administration already can you expect us to read through every one? No. Most people see the block of text we received and blow past it. NOT to mention it wasn't even from the Athletics Department or have FOOTBALL anywhere in the title. It was sent by freaking MARKETING in the name. We see marketing, we think it's spam. Maybe try titling the letter: "NCAA RECORDS TO BE BROKEN" with football as the email name. Not marketing@randomname.com Try: MEANGREENFOOTBALL@UNT.COM Maybe that might catch more attention.

4. WITH all of the mentioned aspects above, it was raining and cold. And most of you raving alumni are foul mouthing the students as you sit in freaking COVERED club level seats and seem to not think the weather is an issue. We found out at the FAU game we are NOT allowed umbrellas. This is a huge issue. As students, we are not going to sit through bad weather and be rained on terribly and be cold when there is no spirit for football and it really doesn't matter if we win or lose anyways because there is no tradition or culture to care. If I could sit there with an umbrella. I would have gone. But nope, because I knew I would have sat there, gotten wet and cold and gotten sick the week before FINALS (education and health come first). This part, I blame on the staff at the stadium. (which this is not the only issue with a stadium staff, I originally wrote a lot more, but decided to drop it.) This game was the first game I missed and I had to listen to it on the radio. I live in the dorms, I was disappointed and mad that I had to miss it. Yes. Had to. As I'm sure every other student who WOULD have gone if it wasn't raining felt. If you were there during the FAU game, which we won, you would have seen the student section was big, then dwindled down as the weather got worse. Weather is a huge factor. We don't live up north, we do not have full weatherproof clothing. The most winter suitable clothes we have is jeans. Jeans get wet. With no overhead protection we are going to get soaked and be uncomfortable and cold and get sick. End of story.

Yes. Panchos were available to be purchased, but this isn't known to students. We weren't told- how should we know? I sure didn't until I saw a picture on Scrappy's Facebook page. And they cost money. We're college students. Do you think we're going to pay for anything? No, lol.

Now I'll be the final word on the matter of attendance and the voice of the students:

"Shut up. Make us *feel more involved and we will care more. We want to care more. We want to be involved with our university. We want that classic university experience and we want it to be first class so don't blame us for being apathetic and disillusioned. Do you think we want that?"

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The no umbrella rule is common for outdoor stadiums. Nobody wants to sit behind your umbrella and not be able to see and the people sitting under you do not want to be dripped on. Imagine if we allowed umbrellas and it poured for the Houston game....Nobody would be able to see because everyone would have their stupid umbrella up. Also, you can bring your own panchos into the stadium. You are not forced to buy them at the team store. I think if you have this many excuses, you can't really say you're a UNT fan. I've seen PLENTY of marketing on campus for football and McCarney made it to every freshman orientation. Sure, UNT students aren't the most excited bunch for football but that takes time and a winning seasons. Personally, I am really tired of all of these pathetic excuses and complaining. I know many students who toughed it out and went to the game to support their team. Whether you decided to stay home or not is your own issue, not anybody elses or the staff of the stadium for not letting you bring an umbrella that wouldn't really keep you dry from horizontal rain anyways. Good day sir.

No...you shut up...you future doped up dropout! The longtime supporters of this program are more important than you!!1! WE ARE IMPORTNAT DAMMIT!!!! We've earned our right to bitch through our millions of hours of tailgating at games no one else gave a shit about and the millions of dollars we've spent on accepting mediocrity, not demanding better marketing, and refusing to pony up money to student organizations that actually want the classic university experience in favor of trying to keep the one crappy little "spirit" organization that died years ago on life support despite their blatant lack of give-a-damn!!! We're better fans than you because we've wasted more money on this than you ever will you hippie loser!!! We're ashamed to be associated with you apathetic blood sucking dope smoking, weirded out students!!1!

/sarcasm

Sir, you have emotional problems - it is time to get a check-up.....or check-in.

Any relevance your earlier posting had has now been lost with the continual vile name-calling.

If you have a point, post it. There is certainly no need for the stereotyping name-calling you have used.

And sir: For what it is worth, I will put my "UNT Support Credentials" up against yours any day of any week. But my history of support, like yours, does not give one the right to post to another person on this board the way you have chosen to post in this thread.

A couple of observations:

1. Most of the people I saw on the alumni side were at least my age and enjoying the hell out of the game.

2. You young people will find out that water makes wood swell, which is another good reason for a 66-year-old man to attend a game.

LOVE IT! My laugh for the day.

Count me as another, EagleMBA!

Edited December 5, 2011 by tylermeangreen

Can you imagine the stadium if UNT were to take out LSU next year? The second UNT beats a team that EVERYONE (not just a bunch of football fanatics on a message board) knows, the stadium will be full and all of this talk will probably go the other way... "Where did all these fair-weather fans come from? I hate all of these UNT douches!", "I tried to park in the red/blue lot this weekend, but it was fuller than normal and I had to park very far away from the stadium. I'm cancelling my MGC membership because there's nothing in it for me!" "I tried to have a beer before the game at the Alumni Pavillion, but it was too full, so I'm never going back there again!"

This is going to happen at some point. I promise. Just wait...

Don't worry, there will ALWAYS be something to complain about!

You older guys that are arguing with students... chill. out.

After reading all 6 pages of this thread, God help us, it will be a long off season.

My problem with the direction this thread has taken is this: if you didn't want to go just say so. Don't give me a list of reasons blaming the school, weather, or anything else that kept you from going. You didn't go because you didn't want/care to. Simple as that.

Sir, you have emotional problems - it is time to get a check-up.....or check-in.

Any relevance your earlier posting had has now been lost with the continual vile name-calling.

If you have a point, post it. There is certainly no need for the stereotyping name-calling you have used.

And sir: For what it is worth, I will put my "UNT Support Credentials" up against yours any day of any week. But my history of support, like yours, does not give one the right to post to another person on this board the way you have chosen to post in this thread.

Ironic since the whole reason this thread has exploded is because of the ridiculous post that DallasGreen originally wrote.

After reading all 6 pages of this thread, God help us, it will be a long off season.

And just think, this year we actually improved significanly on the field, but this nonsense is what the board chooses to focus on.

What's ya'lls take on the WAC?

Sir, you have emotional problems - it is time to get a check-up.....or check-in.

Any relevance your earlier posting had has now been lost with the continual vile name-calling.

If you have a point, post it. There is certainly no need for the stereotyping name-calling you have used.

And sir: For what it is worth, I will put my "UNT Support Credentials" up against yours any day of any week. But my history of support, like yours, does not give one the right to post to another person on this board the way you have chosen to post in this thread.

And just think, this year we actually improved significanly on the field, but this nonsense is what the board chooses to focus on.

What's ya'lls take on the WAC?

Board not capable of discussing sports ever. No one here understands it.

Quoner's fault.

JayDub needs to quit using sarcasm and marking as such. Dangerous stuff when people read in F-shapes.

The students don't come (as a whole) to games like this because the benefits don't outweigh the costs. Economics, gentlemen.

I worry that the lack of attendance at UNT games is a problem that may never be solved. It has been an issue as long as I can remember. There is certainly more that the administration could do to promote the program. However, I wonder if the lack of effort might have some relation to the continued failure of previous attempts to promote the team. I can't imagine the administration would want to spend much money to promote a product if they don't believe in it, and don't have confidence that the promotions would have much impact.

Perhaps the greater issue with UNT attendance springs from the flooded football market of the metroplex. Denton and the surrounding areas have high quality high school football, and the Dallas Cowboys dominate the market. SMU and TCU (until recently) have struggled with the same attendance problems, and both programs have a successful history. Many of the football programs that have outstanding attendance, also benefit from not sharing a market with a professional team (or pre-date the dominance of the NFL).

It seems like UNT will struggle with attendance until we have a team that wins consistently. Hopefully, we are well on our way after this season.