What I want to see on September 3...

DeepGreen · August 23, 2016

Fans and Dentonites have been numbed by bad management and bad results far too long to suddenly embrace UNT football. Do I expect more? Certainly. I have $kin in the game. But Dentonites and others will wait for positive results before embracing sports at NT.

Cerebus · August 23, 2016

16 hours ago, SilverEagle said:

If winning was the main thing, then we should have seen a significant bump in attendance during/after the four straight NO bowl trips

I agree with fixing the culture.

But the attendance did bump after the NO bowls. We went being afraid of not drawing 15k and possibly being kicked back down to 1AA and at the end of that run averaged about 20K.

25% increase in a few years is huge. If we had been able to keep that growth we'd outdraw UT by now.

UNT90 · August 23, 2016

12 minutes ago, DeepGreen said:

Fans and Dentonites have been numbed by bad management and bad results far too long to suddenly embrace UNT football. Do I expect more? Certainly. I have $kin in the game. But Dentonites and others will wait for positive results before embracing sports at NT.

On this we agree.

But when/if they DO embrace it, wouldn't it be nice if they walked into a great gameday experience on day one? An experience that confirms to them that UNT is a major college football program?

You have to build a program into a winner. You also have to build the gameday experience by trial and error. That process needs to start 9/3 so it can be ready and effect when/if this thing turns around.

Please think big picture.

DeepGreen · August 23, 2016

I can agree on that. I've said it before, we need a Game Day Czar that has complete authority over the Green Brigade and everything they do and what they wear and what they play.

SilverEagle · August 23, 2016

2 hours ago, UNT90 said:

On this we agree.

But when/if they DO embrace it, wouldn't it be nice if they walked into a great gameday experience on day one? An experience that confirms to them that UNT is a major college football program?

You have to build a program into a winner. You also have to build the gameday experience by trial and error. That process needs to start 9/3 so it can be ready and effect when/if this thing turns around.

Please think big picture.

Well said.

I think of it this way. The "game day" celebration is what we as alumni/fans do to celebrate our connection/bond with our alma mater. It also gives energy to the team. We can no longer be the passive fans that show up (often late) and reward the team with tennis applause when they make great plays and win big games.

Your comment about changing the culture by multi-tasking (coaches win, administrators promote, spirit organizations up their game.....significantly... all at the same time) is spot on.

TIgreen01 · August 23, 2016

I'd like to see EXACTLY what we saw 2 years ago---an absolutely, positively dominating win by the Mean Green that forced their coach's resignation. Anything less than that and I will be disappointed.

Put another way, I want us to embarrass that fraud of an athletic program every time they have the misfortune of taking the field against us. Winning is not enough. Total destruction of their AD and school is success. Suck on that @UNT90 and your non-hatred of those dirtbags!

How's that for spirit and fan support? :)

Edited August 23, 2016 by TIgreen01

untjim1995 · August 23, 2016

The only thing that I truly give Rick Villareal credit for doing here to change the culture in a positive fashion was get the university to allow tailgating--and, yes, that changed the culture, as more people started coming out to the stadium parking lot on gameday. But that was it--literally nothing else they did at Fouts or Apogee made it a special day for he casual fan, of which most UNT students and alumni are easily categorized.

I think these things need to happen for this place to ever create a gameday that attracts more than the 13k diehards:

1.) Win

2.) Continue to focus on the tailgate scene around the stadium

3.) Find ways to spend money on promotions that bring out students and keeps them at the game.

4.) Never schedule a FCS game ever again at Apogee beyond the last one RV scheduled--and try to buy out as many of them as you can. Absolutely nobody cares about watching us play a FCS team, except for SFA or SHSU.

5.) Ask the Green Brigade's Leadership what they want their performance to look like for entering a game, performing during the game, and at halftime. But also maintain that the football game experience needs to be treated much higher than it ever has been before. If you get answers from their leadership that people are at Apogee to see them, not the football team, immediately make that public. If that is the case, I'm not sure what can be done, but it needs to be publically discussed so that everyone associated with UNT knows if there are problems in how this experience is being viewed.

6.) Give away tickets to the Eagles Wing to local elementary and middle schools--that creates noise and it creates buyers of concessions. An empty seat does nothing for you, except deflate the team and the other fans that see empty seats around them and begin to question why they are still here and over half the stadium's seats don't have a butt in them.

7.) Have a special alum of the school, no matter if athletic or not, come to each game as the captain for the home game--before each game, interview the special captain about their experience at UNT and how much it means to them. This is where you can get all kinds of folks to be treated royally by the university--actors, musicians, CEOs, athletes, professors, journalists, etc...How cool would it be to have Norah Jones take the field to deliver the coin flip? Or to have Lance Dunbar do the same thing? Have them interviewed the day before about their time here and have it play on the jumbotron and on the website. Here's a crazy thing that might just happen--one or two of those special guests might just feel compelled to stay connected and fund the program more.

emmitt01 · August 23, 2016

8 hours ago, UNT90 said:

Why does there have to be a first and second? Coaches and players are responsible for winning. The AD is responsible for game day. Both can be changed simultaneously.

It is always surprising to me when fans think things can only be changed one at a time. Hopefully, that was the old way of doing things.

It's a new day. I wish fans would embrace it and EXPECT MORE.

FINALLY a UNT90 post I don't have to downvote. It is entirely possible, and should be demanded, to have a game day experience that leaves fans saying "we lost and that sucks, but my family had a blast! We'll come back because we felt valued as customers".

SilverEagle · August 23, 2016

10 minutes ago, emmitt01 said:

FINALLY a UNT90 post I don't have to downvote. It is entirely possible, and should be demanded, to have a game day experience that leaves fans saying "we lost and that sucks, but my family had a blast! We'll come back because we felt valued as customers".

.....and connected as alumni/fans.

Why do you think so many businesses that advertise on TV/Radio these days use the word or phrase "family or part of the family" in their advertising. Market research has told them that the general public reacts positively to that.

Edited August 23, 2016 by SilverEagle