Why no one goes to SMU games

mgfan · December 11, 2017

Parking there is terrible. I went for a high school playoff game and parking is a joke. Getting in and out of that place is a nightmare. Everyone there was not happy with the situation. There may have only been 3000 ppl. ( obviously more then any SMU game.)

RiseUNT · December 11, 2017

37 minutes ago, mgfan said:

Parking there is terrible. I went for a high school playoff game and parking is a joke. Getting in and out of that place is a nightmare. Everyone there was not happy with the situation. There may have only been 3000 ppl. ( obviously more then any SMU game.)

Obviously?

Rudy · December 11, 2017

It's always been a joke to park down there, even when I lived in the Village (God, I miss that place). Your best bet to any event down there is to ride the rail to Mockingbird Station and then walk over. If you MUST drive, then park at Mockingbird Station and walk over. We really are lucky to be able to park and tailgate right outside our stadium. That seems to be a rarity in FBS stadiums.

Edited December 11, 2017 by Rudy

mgfan · December 11, 2017

21 minutes ago, Rudy said:

It's always been a joke to park down there, even when I lived in the Village (God, I miss that place). Your best bet to any event down there is to ride the rail to Mockingbird Station and then walk over. If you MUST drive, then park at Mockingbird Station and walk over. We really are lucky to be able to park and tailgate right outside our stadium. That seems to be a rarity in FBS stadiums.

I didn't even think of the tailgate scene, or lack of. Are parking situation isn't perfect, but leaps and bounds better then SMU. UH and UT are better then SMU. Actually I'm not sure of a stadium that is worse.

ADLER · December 11, 2017

Wrigley Field in Chicago has no parking lot at all, and it's very difficult to find somewhere to park even on days without a game. As for colleges, Folsom Field at Colorado (seats 53,600), and Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech (seats 55,000) have significantly less available parking than many tiny, neighborhood schools like Tulane, SMU, and Tulsa.

THOR · December 11, 2017

ok....yet people still show up to those places, not smu

SilverEagle · December 11, 2017

I have said this many times through the years, how could anyone in the Dallas area, not a graduate of SMU, feel any sort of connection to SMU?

TCU is just as much of an elite school as $MU, but they have managed to connect with the community much better than SMU........or even us for that matter.

Edited December 11, 2017 by SilverEagle

Got5onIt · December 11, 2017

3 hours ago, SilverEagle said:

I have said this many times through the years, how could anyone in the Dallas area, not a graduate of SMU, feel any sort of connection to SMU?

TCU is just as much of an elite school as $MU, but they have managed to connect with the community much better than SMU........or even us for that matter.

Winning.

It’s the same problem we have. Think of all the alumni that graduated at TCU the last decade that saw their school perform at the highest level. They’re most likely lifelong fans of the program. Decades of being a doormat with a blip of winning here and there hasn’t helped NT.

SilverEagle · December 11, 2017

39 minutes ago, Got5onIt said:

Winning.

It’s the same problem we have. Think of all the alumni that graduated at TCU the last decade that saw their school perform at the highest level. They’re most likely lifelong fans of the program. Decades of being a doormat with a blip of winning here and there hasn’t helped NT.

Winning and follow up and outreach with the North Texas and Denton community. i remember seeing TCU billboards and banners in downtown Fort Worth when I used to take my wife to work there. The message was something along the lines of TCU, your hometown team.

We've had two occasions in recent history (the 2001-04 bowl run and the first HOD bowl) where outreach was either non- existent, or so minor as to not be very noticeable. North Texas doesn't (sports wise) own Denton, nor have we made an attempt to own Denton.........like TCU did with Fort Worth.

LongJim · December 11, 2017

TCU has only begun drawing well at home since they went "back" to the Big 12--roughly 2012.

They are now playing teams people care about, and that travel well. And more importantly, they are winning.

Before they joined the Big 12, their home attendance was anemic---even when they were going 11-0--and despite the FW ST pounding "hometown team" themes.

Edited December 11, 2017 by LongJim

UNTLifer · December 11, 2017

1 hour ago, Got5onIt said:

Winning.

It’s the same problem we have. Think of all the alumni that graduated at TCU the last decade that saw their school perform at the highest level. They’re most likely lifelong fans of the program. Decades of being a doormat with a blip of winning here and there hasn’t helped NT.

True, but as Silver noted, they also made a concerted effort to reach out to the Fort Worth community and clearly communicated that they were Fort Worth's hometown team. When this all began, the push to the Big XII and commitment to having a successful athletic's program, TCU's history was not winning, so they connected with the Fort Worth community, got Fort Worth and some of its "old money" citizens to buy in and support the program. That is when the program really started to take off.

It is easy now. As you state above, the alums of the last decade only know winning, are proud of their school and will continue to support the program to keep it at that level.

Cerebus · December 11, 2017

11 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

True, but as Silver noted, they also made a concerted effort to reach out to the Fort Worth community and clearly communicated that they were Fort Worth's hometown team.

Ft Worth's population is about 8 times that of Denton. Add to that the fact that most North Texas alumni leave Denton after college and have no real tie it to the city anymore.

It makes sense for TCU to become Ft Worth's team because that is a pretty decent size to draw from. North Texas is going to have to go after more than just Denton. Denton also has this terrible attitude of not wanting to hurt TWU's feeling by backing NT too strongly, even though we are more than twice their size and they don't even have a football team. It's a lazy excuse.

NTXCoog · December 11, 2017

16 hours ago, mgfan said:

Parking there is terrible. I went for a high school playoff game and parking is a joke. Getting in and out of that place is a nightmare. Everyone there was not happy with the situation. There may have only been 3000 ppl. ( obviously more then any SMU game.)

Parking is not the problem. They have nice remote lots just a couple blocks away with free shuttles. I take the shuttle in when the people movement is more spread out. I walk back when everyone leaves at the same time. Very convenient. That might not be available for a HS game at the stadium though

Their tailgating isn't traditional where you hang out at your car/truck, but The Boulevard is a pretty nice pre game party scene

KingDL1 · December 11, 2017

2 minutes ago, NTXCoog said:

Parking is not the problem. They have nice remote lots just a couple blocks away with free shuttles. I take the shuttle in when the people movement is more spread out. I walk back when everyone leaves at the same time. Very convenient. That might not be available for a HS game at the stadium though

Their tailgating isn't traditional where you hang out at your car/truck, but The Boulevard is a pretty nice pre game party scene

I have never had an issue parking there, as easy as anywhere else. Not sure what that is about but I agree parking is far from the problem at SMU. Most the time the visitors have more folks there than SMU does in the stands.

Harry · December 11, 2017

2 minutes ago, KingDL1 said:

I have never had an issue parking there illegally, as easy as anywhere else. Not sure what that is about but I agree parking is far from the problem at SMU. Most the time the visitors have more folks there than SMU does in the stands.

Fixed that for you. :boom:

Arkstfan · December 11, 2017

The median ACT and SAT of incoming freshmen at TCU is lower than SMU and TCU has about a third more undergrads, so TCU doesn't quite ooze elitist like TCU.

Green Mean · December 11, 2017

If I ever need to go to that area I think Uber is a great option. Pretty convenient an inexpensive. In fact with Uber/Lyft etc I just think commuting to a lot of places just got that much convenient and easier.

ColoradoEagle · December 11, 2017

Went this year with my girlfriend and my mom. Parked in their parking garage, and walked a mile or whatever to the stadium. Get to the gate and we're told that normal sized purses are not allowed, so I trek all the way back to the car to leave two purses in the trunk and then back to the game. I hear the first half was better than the second.

KingDL1 · December 12, 2017

12 hours ago, Harry said:

Fixed that for you.

Come on now the SUV was not towed.

dmaxel · December 12, 2017

On 12/10/2017 at 10:01 PM, ADLER said:

Wrigley Field in Chicago has no parking lot at all, and it's very difficult to find somewhere to park even on days without a game. As for colleges, Folsom Field at Colorado (seats 53,600), and Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech (seats 55,000) have significantly less available parking than many tiny, neighborhood schools like Tulane, SMU, and Tulsa.

I walked by one side of Folsom Field during a day trip to Boulder back in August. Can confirm that there was barely any parking specific to the stadium. And from the side that I was walking on, the stadium almost looked like it was just another building on the block -- just a rather large one. Would've have even been able to tell it was a stadium if there weren't a few gaps that let you look at the innards of the stadium (press box, etc). Not sure if it would've looked better from one of its other sides.

Arkstfan · December 12, 2017

On ‎12‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 10:01 PM, ADLER said:

Wrigley Field in Chicago has no parking lot at all, and it's very difficult to find somewhere to park even on days without a game. As for colleges, Folsom Field at Colorado (seats 53,600), and Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech (seats 55,000) have significantly less available parking than many tiny, neighborhood schools like Tulane, SMU, and Tulsa.

I can get to Wrigley on the El or a bus or Uber no sweat. But that's not the real secret.

The Cubs are one of the very elite brands in sports in the US, people want to go to games there.

As Wimp Sanderson noted when he was coaching UALR and they were playing at ancient Barton Coliseum, all the people who didn't like coming to games because of where they were had no problems making their way to Barton when their favorite singer was there.

We can talk wifi, concessions, timeout entertainment but it always comes down to whether the people want to come see the product.

MrAlien · December 12, 2017

I actually went to both UNT (undergrad) and SMU (masters)... I actually think that SMU does a better job of organizing the tailgating (boulevarding) and parking. SMU has a lot of parking north of the stadium, though it might be a 10 min walk.... The parking for a UNT game is so unorganized, I have convinced many other alums to finally come back to a game, only to hear them complain that it took them an hour to figure out parking, they need a cash lot right next to the stadium (the empty space next to the alumni center would be perfect).

SilverEagle · December 12, 2017

2 hours ago, Arkstfan said:

I can get to Wrigley on the El or a bus or Uber no sweat. But that's not the real secret.

The Cubs are one of the very elite brands in sports in the US, people want to go to games there.

As Wimp Sanderson noted when he was coaching UALR and they were playing at ancient Barton Coliseum, all the people who didn't like coming to games because of where they were had no problems making their way to Barton when their favorite singer was there.

We can talk wifi, concessions, timeout entertainment but it always comes down to whether the people want to come see the product.

...and maybe in the future, we'll have more than one product......and a reason to get into the stadium early...

untjim1995 · December 12, 2017

1 hour ago, SilverEagle said:

...and maybe in the future, we'll have more than one product......and a reason to get into the stadium early...

I agree on this, completely. We all know that the GB is very popular and gets many people to games to just watch them perform. The football game is secondary to them.

But the bigger issue is that the GB seems like they’d rather be in traffic than performing at a football game. That’s your harder challenge to fix. It’s hard to make people care and perform their best at something they either don’t care a lick about or flat out loathe its existence...

UNTLifer · December 12, 2017

1 hour ago, MrAlien said:

I actually went to both UNT (undergrad) and SMU (masters)... I actually think that SMU does a better job of organizing the tailgating (boulevarding) and parking. SMU has a lot of parking north of the stadium, though it might be a 10 min walk.... The parking for a UNT game is so unorganized, I have convinced many other alums to finally come back to a game, only to hear them complain that it took them an hour to figure out parking, they need a cash lot right next to the stadium (the empty space next to the alumni center would be perfect).

Interesting. I felt like parking was well organized, but I also went online when Apogee opened and did a little research so I wasn't driving in blindly. The cash lot is by Fouts. The spot on top of the hill is planned for future development.