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Any word on whether or not Apogee is still paying for the right for their name to be on our stadium? Are the naming rights up for grabs? Is Apogee even still in business? Seems like a solid NIL play could be made for this as well.

http://dallas.culturemap.com/news/city-life/11-12-19-unt-apogee-worst-college-football-stadiums-moneywise/ I see the SMU loving media is still looking for ways to 💩 on North Texas. Not sure I agree with any of this other than the attendance numbers. Parking has been better than most of the C-USA stadiums I've visited this year and many other P5 stadiums I've been to. Discuss...

Why is our athletic staff so small compared to other CUSA schools? We only have two compliance employees, a relatively small marketing team, only one graphics guy on board and only three people working in the ticket office. Is this something we can expect to change in the near future? I read a post on this forum referencing the $26 million debt our athletic department has but perhaps this is one of those times where you have to spend money to make money. Also, I made arrangements to be in Denton for SMU weekend (some have speculated that game could be the first sellout in Apogee history) and would appreciate some recommendations for good restaurants and some fun activities to do with the wife and kids while we are in town. I'm trying to avoid the cliche places like Rudy's and etc.

This is a repost from another board in this forum to garner more responses. Why is our athletic staff so small compared to other CUSA schools? We only have two compliance employees, a relatively small marketing team, only one graphics guy on board and only three people working in the ticket office. Is this something we can expect to change in the near future? I read a post on this forum referencing the $26 million debt our athletic department has but perhaps this is one of those times where you have to spend money to make money. Also, I made arrangements to be in Denton for SMU weekend (some have speculated that game could be the first sellout in Apogee history) and would appreciate some recommendations for good restaurants and some fun activities to do with the wife and kids while we are in town. I'm trying to avoid the cliche places like Rudy's and etc.

Fast forward to 2014, and the school is sporting one of the premier college football stadiums in the country with Apogee Stadium. But the construction of Apogee and the addition of many amenities, most recently including the sale of beer, is about more than just adapting to a changing collegiate landscape. Villarreal is aiming to provide the ultimate fan experience for anyone who comes to a Mean Green football game, regardless of their affiliation with the university. The addition of beer sales is one of many steps the university is taking to successfully compete with other local sporting venues. “We work in a market where you’ve got the Cowboys, you’ve got the Mavericks, you’ve got the Stars, you’ve got the Rough Riders,” Villarreal said. “So when you’re looking at how you’re going to spend your discretionary dollars, even going to a Rangers game, you can take your son and daughter, and you have a hot dog and beer while they have a Coke. Here, you can have that full entertainment experience.” Read more: http://ntdaily.com/apogee-striving-for-ultimate-fan-experience/

What's the verdict on this? SMU, Houston and UT are in. Why not North Texas?

"I like how unt calls us out for not having our own stadium, well I did a little research and found some interesting things about Apogee Stadium..." "For the spring 2002 student election, UNT Student Government Association (SGA) senators held a referendum on whether to recommend that the University of North Texas SystemBoard of Regents increase the student athletics fee by $4.50 per credit hour, $1 of which would be dedicated to "facility improvements".[9] The referendum was rejected by UNT's voting students, with 1,023 voting for the proposal and 1,265 voting against it. After the vote, however, school administrators lobbied senators to increase the fee as a way to help the university's athletics program achieve Title IXcompliance. The student senators then approved a student fee increase of $3 per credit hour, which the Board of Regents implemented immediately.[10] Consequently, students mounted a recall election campaign, supported by documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, which resulted in the removal of 14 student senators from office.[11][12]" More... http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/...th61067/m1/38/ http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/...h61067/m1/187/ http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/675...th145604/m1/1/ "The Alamodome might not be ours, but at least we didn't steal from students to pay for the cost of using it. Stay classy c-UNT, stay classy." Read more: http://www.rowdytalk.com/showthread.php/4164-Apogee-Stadium-the-dark-story

It’s the season of college football, tailgating and game day drinking. Schools like the University of Louisiana-Monroe began allowing the sale of alcohol inside their football stadium this year, but purchasing and consuming alcohol inside Apogee Stadium is still prohibited. “We know that in the past four or five years a lot of schools have been allowing alcohol sales inside their stadiums,” Senior Associate Athletic Director Eric Capper said. “There is sort of a national trend to start allowing that. We are in constant consultation with university lawyers, the university president and board of regents members to determine if it’s a good situation for us.” Capper said that any institution or athletic venue that allows alcohol sales inside their venue has shown an increase in revenue. “The thing that we have to weigh is at what cost does that revenue line then impact negatively our fans, our students and the people that come to our game,” Capper said. “It would bring in more revenue, but we have to balance that with making sure that it’s a friendly and safe environment for our people to watch games.” Capper said the obvious safety concerns associated with the sale of alcohol inside the stadium include underage drinking and overconsumption. “Binge drinking is a huge issue on college campuses, and we want to make sure we are doing our part to avoid that,” Capper said. Vice President of Pi Kappa Phi and converged broadcast media junior Taylor Lindholm said that if alcohol were sold inside the stadium it would not only increase revenue but also attendance. “If you go to an UNT football game, you see a lot of empty seats,” Lindholm said. “The games are always exciting, and they are free for students, but this doesn’t seem to fill the stands. I wish it wasn’t this way, but selling alcohol at the games might significantly boost attendance and support for the Mean Green.” Alcohol can currently be consumed at The Hill, where student organizations tailgate before the football games, next to Apogee stadium. Lindholm said his fraternity tailgates before every game. “Members who are over 21 sometimes choose to drink. Too often people see the passed out, ‘frat guy’ stereotype, which I despise,” Lindholm said. “Football is like a religion in Texas, and tailgating is a significant part of our culture that UNT has thankfully embraced.” Alpha Tau Omega member and dance junior Christopher Lafuente said he thinks tailgating is important because it gives everyone a chance to get together and get excited before the games. Read more: http://ntdaily.com/university-weighing-options-on-apogee-alcohol/

So a post in the "100 days till UGA" thread took me back to something I've thought about before. We've got the Alumni/ticket season/club level stuff, the student section, and usually an area for the visiting team's fans, and then the general admission area, right? Well, what if there was a small segment reserved for "mixed parties"? Think about it for a minute. It's your home team, so you don't want to sit with the other team's fans...and though we're pretty nice (compared to certain other places one might play football), do a lot of people want to sit in home-heavy areas with their friends even if they're "for" the visiting team? And that's not a rhetorical question, because I haven't been in the situation thus far. So how is it, usually? If your friend or dad or brother went to the other school, do you just kind of say, "I'll go to my section, you go to yours, and I'll see you at halftime"? Or "hey, put on a UNT shirt so you can sit with me and nobody says anything"? If this might actually be something worth pursuing, I wouldn't imagine there would be a huge need for it, maybe just a couple dozen seats or so. But I thought it might be interesting enough to try...a reserved area where friends and family from opposing schools can sit together without being surrounded by fans of the other team. It might even make a few people more likely to come to the game if they know there's an area where they can cheer for their team AND spend time with their friend who attends/attended/cheers for the other school. Thoughts?

OK so we agree that there will be thousands at the Apogee fireworks show and it is a big chunk of UNT's target audience as Vito stated in his article... The video is fantastic and will leave an impression to some. But will it be enough? It got me to thinking what else could be done at this and other large events being held in and around Denton? Could you have a one page flyer to put on the cars? Perhaps a table with a few cheerleaders or players who happen to be in town? I realize this is last minute but I think that there will be other large events where these types of strategies could be used. Plus it's the middle of summer and things are fairly slow! Any other ideas or thoughts outside the box on this?

:thumbsd: The opening of the pedestrian bridge connecting UNT’s main campus to Apogee Stadium has been delayed until at least October. The bridge, originally scheduled to open Sept. 8, will likely still be under construction during UNT football’s two home games in September, said Helen Bailey, director of facilities management and construction. “We do not have a definitive opening date at this time,” Bailey said. The $2.5 million project, which straddles the highway between North Texas Boulevard and Bonnie Brae Street, began Feb. 29. The university paid $1 million of the bill and donated the adjacent land to the state – the Texas Department of Transportation covered the rest through toll revenue from throughout the region. TxDOT is responsible for the construction of the bridge itself. UNT is responsible for installing lighting and sidewalks, which must be completed before the bridge can officially open to the public. TxDOT shut down Interstate 35E overnight to install the main structure in July but still has to build railings and complete additional welding, Bailey said. “Once TxDOT finishes the bridge, we have to build sidewalks to connect it,” she said. “We plan to start immediately after the bridge is completed, which will hopefully be in the latter half of September.” Read more: http://www.ntdaily.com/?p=67581

Hey everybody, let me introduce myself as I am new to gomeangreen.com. My name is Chris, I'm going to be starting my sophomore year at UNT this fall. I am originally from Rhode Island, and a relocated family member allowed me the opportunity to open a new chapter in my life in our fine state of Texas. I am a Geography major, and, as you can guess from my presence on this site, an avid UNT sports fan. I may be new to Mean Green Nation, but that doesn't mean I'm not every bit as passionate a fan as the rest of you, young and old a like. I was there for the opening of Apogee, I was there in Hot Springs this year, and I'll make damn sure I am front row at the 50 in the student section for all the football games for the rest of my time as a student here, and I'll attending every home basketball game and traveling with my fellow students up to Hot Springs this year and El Paso (providing there is a student bus, which is iffy given the distance) the following year for our conference tournaments. I'm currently parading myself around Rhode Island this summer sporting my Mean Green gear proudly, as I see others wearing bandwagon clothing (UCONN, Boston College, even occasionally Texas...). Anyways, enough mindless ego stroking, I have a point to make. While I am very new to gomeangreen.com, I have spent the last couple weeks reading through this site's forums as a guest, and I've noticed an interesting trend. No matter what the original topic, a large amount of the threads result in stupid bickering; people here seem to hold grudges against each other and it results in unnecessary arguments. I may be new to being a part of this wonderful school and fan base, and may not know the history of our sports teams like a lot of you do, but there is one thing I absolutely know. This is a special, special time to be a part of this university, both athletically and academically. I want everyone I know to be a part of this great time. I am incredibly excited for the upcoming football and basketball seasons, I truly feel that both are going to be incredible this year. But, as a fan base, instead of bickering over pointless things, why can't we join together, and be one? Of course, people have differing opinions over things, and this is the internet, so having arguments or disputes over things are inevitable, but there is a difference between having a constructive disagreement with a fellow fan and having a stupid, petty argument that gets nobody anywhere. Just to clarify, it isn't just this website that I see this trend on. On facebook, there is a page called "Fill Apogee"; the point of the group is to try to get the word out to as many people as humanly possible to try to sell out the home opener. The link of the group will be listed below, for those who are interested in joining. But, even on that group, which is filled with mostly students, petty arguments broke out over whether Texas Southern was a weak team to have for our home opener (not necessarily referring to the team's talent level, but more of weak on our end that that is the best we can schedule), and whether or not FCS is considered D1 or not. This is not only stupid, and irrelevant, but it's also counterproductive. Even if that logic applied (which obviously it doesn't, as anyone who follows college football will understand), the point isn't who we are playing, it is that we are playing. We should go out and support our team 100%, no matter the opponent, and pointless bickering over stupid stuff isn't going to accomplish that goal. Anyways, what ended up happening was a couple players stepped in and commented, Mason Y'Barbo, and none other than Derek Thompson. And I will post what they said. Y'Barbo: All I ask is yalls support. This is going to be a monumental season for us and i want you all to experience it with us. No need for the back and forth name calling and arguing ( though it is amusing). Just please be behind us 100% as one. Thompson: Yall dont really understand how much we feed off of our fans when we step on the field at Apogee. We need this place rockin every time we hit the field! I promise we will put a team out there that will do special things this year. All we ask is that when a home game comes around, that teams never forget the atmosphere at Apogee. Its such a psychological advantage! Hope to see everyone out there this year. Go Mean Green! After these guys commented, the bickering stopped, which is not surprising. And they're right. This is a special team, and it's going to be a special year. If we all put ourselves 100% behind these guys, and believe in them even when times are tough, I really think we can make a bowl game this year. We're going to shock some people in conference play, much like WKU did last year. Same thing with the basketball team, it's really going to be a special year. Especially now with TJ Taylor apparently added, this is really a team that can be top 25, or higher. Who knows, maybe this can be our Butler year? Anything is possible. We have a star. We have a returning supporting cast. We have a new very talented addition. And most of all, they believe they can do it. Just look at the twitter feed from these guys, they believe that they can be the best. Chris Jones seems to think he'll be in the NBA Draft next year. While that is probably silly and not going to happen, these guys have confidence coming into this year. And they have us to back them. So, this is my plea. My plea to North Texas fans everywhere, but starting with you guys. We are one, we stand for the same thing, root for the same team. We are on the same team. Let's fill Apogee. Let's get to a bowl game. Hell, let's win the damn conference, in both sports. Let's make a run in the NCAA Tournament. Let's help Tony win National Player of the Year, and be drafted Top 5. Let's do this, together. We are North Texas, Go Mean Green.