Improving The Game Day Experience

AustinFromUNT · August 16, 2017

If you could choose any 1 (one) thing to change to improve game day what would it be? I'm going to send an email to Wren (as well as a string of tweets) with the best/my favorite ideas for improving game day at Apogee.

Side Note: What do you think about the idea of having the option of choosing a bracelet to get into a game instead of a ticket? Would have the same kind of scannable barcode on it & would help (imo).

NM Green · August 16, 2017

I walk up to the FC Dallas gate - any gate with my FC Dallas lanyard and have them swipe for my tickets. The little swipe machine spits them out in seconds.

If I missed a game FC Dallas lets me reactivate all unused tickets for $10 each. How convenient is that! I can bring people to my Beer Garden section for $10 if I was unable to use those tickets

As a Mean Green Season Ticket holder I would love to reactivate my seats for $10 each - even if it was in the wing zone. I would get takers. There are 6 games and I know I am going to miss 3 to 4 of them. When I am back in November how about letting me reactivate my 2 tickets for 2 wing zone seats. I would get takers and butts in seats.

Make it easy to do business with you and allow me to expose your product at ease.

GMG

untcampbell · August 16, 2017

I will go to an old favorite:

My time with the kids has passed but I would like to see fans get field access again after the game. We did more bonding with fans, those we knew and those we didn't, on the field after the games than anywhere. Football games break out, kids try to kick field goals or play in the ice left on the field by the trainers. There is the chance to meet a player (this is a game changer for a kid), find a chin strap or some other piece of equipment that is the coolest post-game souvenir to a young one. Parents meet and chat (we met the Dunham's that way). Celebrations occasionally occur, fan/player celebrations.

On-field access for the JMG Club before the game and at half would change that experience completely. I don't know if players get anything from it (they should), but an on-field high five between child and fully padded football player before the game gets the kids into the game in a unique way.

It's an old story, but my then 9-year old son interviewed Jamario Thomas on the field after a game for his school newspaper. Same son is now a Senior at North Texas. He is an n of 1 but he never considered another school because of the imprinting experienced on Saturday's at Fouts Field.

Athletics: the most visible opportunity to sell a school to the vast majority of people. ALWAYS BE SELLING.

GMG

oldguystudent · August 16, 2017

49 minutes ago, untcampbell said:

I will go to an old favorite:

My time with the kids has passed but I would like to see fans get field access again after the game. We did more bonding with fans, those we knew and those we didn't, on the field after the games than anywhere. Football games break out, kids try to kick field goals or play in the ice left on the field by the trainers. There is the chance to meet a player (this is a game changer for a kid), find a chin strap or some other piece of equipment that is the coolest post-game souvenir to a young one. Parents meet and chat (we met the Dunham's that way). Celebrations occasionally occur, fan/player celebrations.

On-field access for the JMG Club before the game and at half would change that experience completely. I don't know if players get anything from it (they should), but an on-field high five between child and fully padded football player before the game gets the kids into the game in a unique way.

It's an old story, but my then 9-year old son interviewed Jamario Thomas on the field after a game for his school newspaper. Same son is now a Senior at North Texas. He is an n of 1 but he never considered another school because of the imprinting experienced on Saturday's at Fouts Field.

Athletics: the most visible opportunity to sell a school to the vast majority of people. ALWAYS BE SELLING.

GMG

I agree with this. One of my favorite pictures is of my kid with Casey Fitzgerald on the field after a game. Even though we lost...badly...again, that is a great memory.

I suppose they became much more protective of the playing surface once the move to Apogee happened.

BTG_Fan1 · August 16, 2017

1 hour ago, untcampbell said:

I will go to an old favorite:

My time with the kids has passed but I would like to see fans get field access again after the game. We did more bonding with fans, those we knew and those we didn't, on the field after the games than anywhere. Football games break out, kids try to kick field goals or play in the ice left on the field by the trainers. There is the chance to meet a player (this is a game changer for a kid), find a chin strap or some other piece of equipment that is the coolest post-game souvenir to a young one. Parents meet and chat (we met the Dunham's that way). Celebrations occasionally occur, fan/player celebrations.

On-field access for the JMG Club before the game and at half would change that experience completely. I don't know if players get anything from it (they should), but an on-field high five between child and fully padded football player before the game gets the kids into the game in a unique way.

It's an old story, but my then 9-year old son interviewed Jamario Thomas on the field after a game for his school newspaper. Same son is now a Senior at North Texas. He is an n of 1 but he never considered another school because of the imprinting experienced on Saturday's at Fouts Field.

Athletics: the most visible opportunity to sell a school to the vast majority of people. ALWAYS BE SELLING.

GMG

Miss doing that after the games at Fouts with kicking field goals, and running routes... But i'm guessing it was stop for "insurance" purposes

Also, bring back the Tortillas!!!! The best was to see how far someone could get it from the stands at fouts..

MGNation92 · August 16, 2017

4 minutes ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

Miss doing that after the games at Fouts with kicking field goals, and running routes... But i'm guessing it was stop for "insurance" purposes

Also, bring back the Tortillas!!!! The best was to see how far someone could get it from the stands at fouts..

I think you might have Fouts confused with Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock Texas

Tortillas has always been a tech thing, I think it would be a joke for us to try and copy them on something that is so obviously associated with tech

MeanGreenTexan · August 16, 2017

1 minute ago, MGNation92 said:

I think you might have Fouts confused with Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock Texas

Tortillas has always been a tech thing, I think it would be a joke for us to try and copy them on something that is so obviously associated with tech

forevereagle · August 16, 2017

19 minutes ago, MGNation92 said:

Also, bring back the Tortillas!!!! The best was to see how far someone could get it from the stands at fouts..

No, now that we are closer to the field, it is too easy to land one on the field. Not worth it and while it has some roots here, it is a borrowed tradition.

20 minutes ago, MGNation92 said:

I think you might have Fouts confused with Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock Texas

Tortillas has always been a tech thing, I think it would be a joke for us to try and copy them on something that is so obviously associated with tech

There is a story there, but I am not going to tell it since I wasn't there. I am sure that someone will chime in shortly.

MGNation92 · August 16, 2017

4 minutes ago, forevereagle said:

No, now that we are closer to the field, it is too easy to land one on the field. Not worth it and while it has some roots here, it is a borrowed tradition.

There is a story there, but I am not going to tell it since I wasn't there. I am sure that someone will chime in shortly.

I'm sure there is, but you have to understand the common student at UNT. The ones wearing the TCU/Tech/A&M/UT/Baylor shirts on campus that go to a game, because why not? Even though UNT sucks, football is football and its free for students.

They see us throw a tortilla, all they see is the loser school they were forced to go to trying to copy Texas Tech in being cool. Why is it so hard to have our own traditions? How can we brand out school, our team, by using another school's traditions as our own? It's like we don't have an established culture here, so we try to borrow from others.

If you're gonna throw tortillas, then I'm definitely gonna scream MFin Eagles at the top of my lungs during the fight song. At least that's not borrowed.

Aldo · August 16, 2017

4 minutes ago, MGNation92 said:

If you're gonna throw tortillas, then I'm definitely gonna scream MFin Eagles at the top of my lungs during the fight song. At least that's not borrowed.

forevereagle · August 16, 2017

17 minutes ago, MGNation92 said:

I'm sure there is, but you have to understand the common student at UNT. The ones wearing the TCU/Tech/A&M/UT/Baylor shirts on campus that go to a game, because why not? Even though UNT sucks, football is football and its free for students.

They see us throw a tortilla, all they see is the loser school they were forced to go to trying to copy Texas Tech in being cool. Why is it so hard to have our own traditions? How can we brand out school, our team, by using another school's traditions as our own? It's like we don't have an established culture here, so we try to borrow from others.

If you're gonna throw tortillas, then I'm definitely gonna scream MFin Eagles at the top of my lungs during the fight song. At least that's not borrowed.

I agree and don't think we should do it, I just understand why some like it.

UNTLifer · August 16, 2017

2 hours ago, oldguystudent said:

I agree with this. One of my favorite pictures is of my kid with Casey Fitzgerald on the field after a game. Even though we lost...badly...again, that is a great memory.

I suppose they became much more protective of the playing surface once the move to Apogee happened.

This. I have a great picture from the last game at Fouts of my two boys with Scrappy.

The tortillas: Long story short. We are playing at Tech, they are winning, their students are raining tortillas down on our section like a spring monsoon. We comeback and win one a great game at the end. Our fans turn around and throw the tortillas back at the Tech faithful. Tradition brought back to Fouts where the contest was to see if you could even reach the field. Based on past results, some of our fans would be able to reach the opposing team!

Never a big fan of the tortilla thing, but understand where it came from. Bringing it back would result in a penalty for the ones reaching the field.

Edited August 16, 2017 by UNTLifer

greenjoe · August 16, 2017

If I may....

It's true the tortilla throw is a Texas Tech tradition. However, when we went to Lubbock to play TT, we started the game off poorly. Every time TT would score or make a substantial gain, the TT fans would rain tortillas on our small group. As the score increased, the pile of tortillas under foot grew. This Corky Nelson team led by quarterback Scott Davis whittled and whittled on the score until NT was leading late in the 4th quarter. Tech had an opportunity to take the lead very late in the game. And this is where I don't get nearly the credit I deserve for this win.

As Billy Joe Tolivar got under center to take the snap, I saw, in my mind, a fumbled snap and a North Texas recovery and thereby, a win. I saw this very clearly. Tolivar took the snap and lo and behold, he fumbled the ball and a NT player jumped on it.

Ball game !

At this juncture, the North Texas fans mired in TT tortillas, picked up said tortillas and threw them back at the Texas Tech fans that had thrown them and a new North Texas tradition , if only for a few years, was born.

This tradition got a good bit of traction with NT fans stopping by the grocery store to purchase tortillas before home games. We were even contacted by the owner of a tortilla company in dallas that agreed to supply Mean Green fans with green tortillas for game day use.

Sadly, the athletic department banned the throwing of tortillas showing photos on the "Jumbotron"of a little girl that had allegedly been hit by a flying tortilla. We didn't want children hurt and the tradition died.

My favorite all time Mean Green memory.

GO MEAN GREEN

TIgreen01 · August 16, 2017

Keep tweaking the pre-game. Last year was a good start---though awkward with the band director leading the crowd via microphone, it was at least something. Then tighten up the time between the bands pre-game performance, the new band led cheer/chant and when the team takes the field. The P5s have this down and we need to rectify this problem yesterday. It is such a beating getting all fired up by the fight song, etc, only to have the band and pregame show wrapped up with 7-10 minutes still left on the clock before the game starts.

the green rokemi · August 16, 2017

Stop passing out pom poms. They don't make noise and they put something into people's hands that keep them from clapping. Remember those inflatable banger sticks? Those made noise! Pass out mean green clickers? Do something that's noisy

Then on a personal note, order the band to stop making a crow noise during the fight song. THAT would make my gameday experience better ;)

Cr1028 · August 16, 2017

My two...

Bring back some semblance of the junior Mean Green club where the kids engage the players while in uniform. It will go a long way in earning their loyalty and lifelong fandom.

For the love of everything, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE teach the band, cheerleaders, students, and general fandom NOT to make noise when WE are on offense during a critical down. Maybe a PA announcement or Shh on the Jumbotron? The noise is supposed to be brought when we are on DEFENSE when it is a critical down!

Edited August 16, 2017 by Cr1028

MeanGreenTexan · August 16, 2017

3 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

My two...

Bring back some semblance of the junior Mean Green club where the kids engage the players while in uniform. It will go a long way in earning their loyalty and lifelong fandom.

For the love of everything, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE teach the band, cheerleaders and general fandom NOT to make noise when WE are on offense during a critical down. Maybe a PA announcement or Shh on the Jumbotron?

Yes!
I have 2 that I'm contemplating signing up... I just don't see any kind of reason to do so, outside of a $25 t-shirt.

Withers940 · August 16, 2017

For the love of all that is HOLY, Please fix the Audio in that dang stadium. It is so bad, I feel that my ears are going to start bleeding at any second

I wish they would reinvigorate The Junior Mean Green Club. It has been a very sad sight as far as organization goes. Yes they have blow ups prior to the games but what else is there besides the $25 T-shirt like @MeanGreenTexan said. Getting the kids onto the field at Half-time or before the game would be awesome. My 3 year old girl absolutely loves UNT (brain washed by me) and would get the biggest kick out of that.

Maybe pull the leashes back on the people helping with seating. The first several home games, they are worst than the GESTAPO. We dont have sold out crowds so just wait until someone complains about someone being in their seat.

I personally love the pom pom deal mostly due to my little one but I would love noise makers as well. Those clappers are great or maybe the Vuvuzela would be hilarious. Any kind of give aways to the fans are great!

oldguystudent · August 16, 2017

4 minutes ago, Withers940 said:

Maybe pull the leashes back on the people helping with seating. The first several home games, they are worst than the GESTAPO. We dont have sold out crowds so just wait until someone complains about someone being in their seat.

Yeah, those guys are really something else. I've had some real entertaining moment just trying to go say hi to friends at halftime with them.

Withers940 · August 16, 2017

1 minute ago, oldguystudent said:

Yeah, those guys are really something else. I've had some real entertaining moment just trying to go say hi to friends at halftime with them.

Yeah, I just ignore them and blaze on past them as if they were not there.

MeanGreenTexan · August 16, 2017

1 minute ago, oldguystudent said:

Yeah, those guys are really something else. I've had some real entertaining moment just trying to go say hi to friends at halftime with them.

Agree there. Don't make me get my tickets out when I'm holding 4 drinks, some nachos/hot dogs, and a 4-yr-old's hand... I obviously know where I'm going.

Withers940 · August 16, 2017

The more I think about it, the more I love the idea of handing out Vuvuzela's. Like at one of our games against one of our "Rivals"? I'm sure if you order in bulk they could get one hell of a deal. Amazon has em for $25 for a pack of 6.

Talk about a deafening noise when the opposing offense is on the field

Edited August 16, 2017 by Withers940

Cerebus · August 16, 2017

1 hour ago, Withers940 said:

The more I think about it, the more I love the idea of handing out Vuvuzela's.

From the CUSA Football Regulations:

Quote

Artificial Noisemakers. The NCAA Football Rule Book shall be followed regarding artificial noisemakers. An official may
penalize a team if the following rule is interpreted to be violated: “Persons subject to the rules, including bands, shall not create
any noise that prohibits a team from hearing its signals.”

The #1 thing I want to be fixed is already part of the strategic plan, but FIX WIFI. Asking young people to go without WIFI access for 3 hours is like asking them to go without air for three hours.

Young alumni signups are going to lag until that is fixed.

Ben Gooding · August 16, 2017

Winning. Winning will fix the game day experience.

Also, shuttles to and from parking lots throughout campus...Even if it's just 7 or 8 of the 6 or 8 person seaters.

More tailgaters.

Tailgating concerts.

The team bus thing someone brought up some time back.

An actual fan crawl to the tower to light it after wins.

Letting kids onto field entry for team entry.

Letting season tix holders onto the field 1 hour leading into the 2 hr pregame team rituals.

No more awkwardness from band director or PA announcer.

New PA announcer.

Fans shutting up when our O is on the field, as previously said.

An infusion of energy into the crowd on all downs when D is on the field.

100x75 foot bamner unrolled over Student sectiom beginning of the 4th Q.

MeanGreen_MBA · August 16, 2017

3 hours ago, Cr1028 said:

My two...

Bring back some semblance of the junior Mean Green club where the kids engage the players while in uniform. It will go a long way in earning their loyalty and lifelong fandom.

For the love of everything, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE teach the band, cheerleaders, students, and general fandom NOT to make noise when WE are on offense during a critical down. Maybe a PA announcement or Shh on the Jumbotron? The noise is supposed to be brought when we are on DEFENSE when it is a critical down!

I don't know about the Shhh when we have the ball. Back in my "Glory" days......yes, I had a few.....I would get stoked when the crowd went crazy......even on offense....