Fireworks show at Apogee Review

greenjoe · July 6, 2015

All 6 of us went to Apogee Saturday night for the Annual Kiwanis Fireworks Show. We got there about 8:15 and there were a few people on the press box side. The band, High School Caesar played blues until the FW show started. The Hub Club was open with a cash bar and free soft drinks. The fireworks show started at 9:45 and lasted until 10:15. As a poor estimator of attendance, I would guess the press box side was about half full. Ditto the Hub Club.

I don't know why it was so hard to get out of the stadium. Maybe all the exits were not open. With fewer people than on a game day, I would have thought we'd be gone quickly. Maybe that's why so many rough it and sit on the Hill or in area parking lots.

One thing that surprised me, despite a video of NT athletes and a pep talk video from Coach MaC, there was no mention of season tickets. Hank asked everybody to come back for the RIce game and to travel to watch NT pummel Southern Meth but no season ticket rah rah. I would have liked to see an athletic dept member at each entrance handing out order forms for season tickets. "Look Edith. We can buy season tickets for as little as $85. My wife says this is a bad idea but if we were to 10 new season ticket holders, yada, yada, yada.

Also, I'm always surprised when people can't pronounce APOGEE. I hear neophytes try to make it French, AP-O-ZAY.

GO MEAN GREEN

Army of Dad · July 6, 2015

Getting out of the area is one of our big concerns so we don't go sit in the stadium. I know there was not a cop at the Bonne Brae/NB frontage road intersection. There usually is someone there to direct traffic and it needed it again this year. If other intersections were also unmanned that might explain your traffic troubles.

UNTFan23 · July 6, 2015

One thing that surprised me, despite a video of NT athletes and a pep talk video from Coach MaC, there was no mention of season tickets. Hank asked everybody to come back for the RIce game and to travel to watch NT pummel Southern Meth but no season ticket rah rah. I would have liked to see an athletic dept member at each entrance handing out order forms for season tickets. "Look Edith. We can buy season tickets for as little as $85. My wife says this is a bad idea but if we were to 10 new season ticket holders, yada, yada, yada.

How often do you sign up for/purchase something when given a pamphlet or brochure at an event for something totally unrelated? You could hand out thousands of brochures and if you're lucky get a few hits but in the end you just wasted a bunch of money on something that returned you hardly anything meaningful.

greenjoe · July 6, 2015

Exactly my wife's position. But, they're there at Apogee. They must be impressed with the stadium. Who wouldn't be. And Hank did ask everyone to come back on September 17 (?) to watch the game. As I stated, it would only take 10 of so new season ticket holders to make it all worthwhile. A couple of cheerleaders or dancers and Scrappy. You've got the perfect photo opportunity and it's only a small step to want to come back and see a game. After all, it IS a football stadium.

But I'm sure you and my wife are correct.

GO MEAN GREEN

UNTFan23 · July 7, 2015

Exactly my wife's position. But, they're there at Apogee. They must be impressed with the stadium. Who wouldn't be. And Hank did ask everyone to come back on September 17 (?) to watch the game. As I stated, it would only take 10 of so new season ticket holders to make it all worthwhile. A couple of cheerleaders or dancers and Scrappy. You've got the perfect photo opportunity and it's only a small step to want to come back and see a game. After all, it IS a football stadium.

But I'm sure you and my wife are correct.

GO MEAN GREEN

Just remember that it's also a holiday and people want to spend time with family/friends/loved ones. It's easy to say we should have cheerleaders, dancers, and AD staffers at the stadium to help promote the football program but I'm not sure its entirely fair to ask them to give time to something like this when they likely aren't being paid extra.

KRAM1 · July 7, 2015

Just remember that it's also a holiday and people want to spend time with family/friends/loved ones. It's easy to say we should have cheerleaders, dancers, and AD staffers at the stadium to help promote the football program but I'm not sure its entirely fair to ask them to give time to something like this when they likely aren't being paid extra.

UNT Athletics and UNT in general give a ton of "free" time to this event each YEAR. It is a major undertaking fort both the Kiwanis volunteers and for the UNT folks. UNT gives time, facilities and manpower to this community event each year. When I hear stuff like "UNT doesn't support the community" from my neighbors and other community folks it just goes all over me. Those dumb rear ends have ZERO idea how many manpower hours, pure cash support and other support UNT gives to the Denton area communities year in and year out. Lots of UNT staffers worked for weeks on this event and were, in fact, at the event...most there working the event.

And...just to be 100% clear here...I am not disagreeing with UNTFan23's comments at all. Just wanted to point out the effort UNT goes top to work with the community on this...and many other events. Ever go to Twilight Tunes on the Square? Big UNT presence in manpower and dollar sponsorships....and staffers, dancers, cheer members and Scrappy often make appearances and often they put up the UNT bounce house for the kids. I could go on and on about this stuff, but I am sure I would still hear the "UNT doesn't support the community" crap-ola because, among other things, UNT built Apogee, bought the piece of crap Sack and Save building and is looking to add a power station near campus.

flyonthewall · July 7, 2015

I really enjoyed that letter on the "opinion" page. I wanted to reach through the screen and say "well let me tell you something". North Texas is the largest employer in Denton by my guess, and the rant about taking away those jobs at Sack And Crap only for the purpose of more profits for the university was a joke. Whatever building we put there is going to employ someone, and my guess would be at the same or possibly a higher wage than was garnered and Sack and Save.

Fireworks show was great as usual, and anyone there that didn't know they were in a football stadium where North Texas plays football isn't coming back for a game anyway. My only complaint would be the lack of traffic control out of the stadium, but hey, it was free, and you can't spend a lot of money for manpower when you are giving away the product. We just waited around for about 30 minutes visiting and we we got right out.

southsideguy · July 7, 2015

best way to get the heck out of apogee, south on bonnie brae left at the end of the road (think it is roselawn) follow to ft worth drive. i do it during the football season and no traffic at all..... forget what i said.

Got5onIt · July 8, 2015

Wife and kids were there. Enjoyed it!

UNT 90 Grad · July 8, 2015

We got there around 7:00 and had a family tailgate in the blue/red parking lot. There was a very diverse crowd, which is good to see. It wasn't packed, which made for more room for frisbee throwing and what not in the parking lot. Cars were generally parked around the fringe for the most part.

Yes, they did have an important exit closed. The section of the blue/red lot by the Hill was blocked off because that is where the fireworks were being launched from. As a result, the exit at the service road / North Texas Blvd. intersection could not be reached. Everyone had to exit to Bonnie Brae. They at least had someone directing traffic where that lot feeds onto Bonnie Brae by the tennis center. (We took the left mentioned earlier.)