What’s it gonna take?

[untjim1995]

We just won the CUSA Championship, beat a ranked team in their home state in the NCAA Tournament, kept our coach, and we have still been winning.

And so few care. If I’m Grant McCasland, I hit the door running as soon as any offer comes around. We play in a cavernous arena, in front of a few thousand at most, and we can’t even get 100 people to a game 45 minutes away.

It just boggles my mind at how much apathy and loathing of UNT sports exists in Denton. The HS teams get awesome support. The P5 teams get lots of support. And we can’t get 100 people to a game in the heart of Ft Worth…

[greenminer]

9 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

We just won the CUSA Championship, beat a ranked team in their home state in the NCAA Tournament, kept our coach, and we have still been winning.

And so few care. If I’m Grant McCasland, I hit the door running as soon as any offer comes around. We play in a cavernous arena, in front of a few thousand at most, and we can’t even get 100 people to a game 45 minutes away.

It just boggles my mind at how much apathy and loathing of UNT sports exists in Denton. The HS teams get awesome support. The P5 teams get lots of support. And we can’t get 100 people to a game in the heart of Ft Worth…

I'm pretty patient about the Denton culture, but man! This is still eye-opening.  I still think we can get there, but the mountain we face seems much bigger than I even I had thought.

I can see Grant wanting to run, I can also see him unfazed and happy.  Knows exactly what he is doing and confident in his own path, regardless of Denton culture.  I wish I had some insight into his state.

[Greendylan]

6 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

We just won the CUSA Championship, beat a ranked team in their home state in the NCAA Tournament, kept our coach, and we have still been winning.

And so few care. If I’m Grant McCasland, I hit the door running as soon as any offer comes around. We play in a cavernous arena, in front of a few thousand at most, and we can’t even get 100 people to a game 45 minutes away.

It just boggles my mind at how much apathy and loathing of UNT sports exists in Denton. The HS teams get awesome support. The P5 teams get lots of support. And we can’t get 100 people to a game in the heart of Ft Worth…

I may be splitting hairs here, as the attendance WAS disappointing, but this myth that we had fewer than 100 fans there needs to die.  It's an arena that holds 13,300, and attendees were pretty spread out all over the place, so yeah, we didn't have any single section that was packed.  But, just because we didn't blanket the place in green doesn't mean we only had a few dozen fans. 

 

[MrAlien]

they need to build that fan culture at home first... with that many students on campus, and multiple student organizations, there is no reason for that arena not to be full.  

[drex]

Publicity was terrible for the Ft.Worth event.  I was there...seems like the athletic dept. dropped the ball, too.  No Cheerleaders, no pep band, etc.  Grant will run at some point and I don't blame him.  One of these days the athletic dept. will understand that you have to get out and drum up support in person....emails, Facebook and Twitter won't get the job done.
 

[MeanGreenHoops]

When the team finally got good a pandemic hit. Relax.

That WKU game right before that was pretty rocking. It was on its way back.

[greenjoe]

I think the absence of a daily "hold it in your hands" newspaper hurts also.  I'm pretty good about my BB attendance at the Coliseum, but where, other than here at GMG.com, would I even know that there was a game in Ft. Worth   

WE play Sam Houston tonight at the Coliseum at 7:00.   Let's get a good crowd to welcome home the Mean Green.

[Shark 64]

Crowds will be better for confer3ence games but outside of the true diehards, most fans won't show up unless we are ranked or playing a big name school at home. I agree. The athletic department has been spending all of their time and energy promoting football and the bowl game. Almost no promotion of last Saturday's game. I'm sure the organizers were expecting a lot bigger turnout from a school of 40K only 45 minutes away. This are been going on for a long time so beating a dead horse isn't going to change things. I'll be there as usual tonight. GO Mean Green!

[UNTLifer]

What kind of attendance was there for the other games?

[southsideguy]

we are lacking in the attendance area at all games.  I don't get it, not expensive and very competitive team.  I thought we were building up but after the buffalo the fair weather fans drop off the wagon.

[All About UNT]

You have to bear in mind that his Dad is aging, has early stages of dementia and lives in Weatherford with Grant's Mom.  His whole family (and they are very close) is in DFW.

He won't just jump ship if just any P5 job comes offering (at least IMHO).  He can continue to build here and while obviously the attendance woes continue I also agree that the buck needs to be passed to the lack of spirit groups mobilizing students to attend games.  Maybe the team needs to get out and promote in public or even call out their fellow students in class.  I don't have the answer but I feel like an organic push ON CAMPUS would pay great dividends. 

[emmitt01]

1 hour ago, drex said:

Publicity was terrible for the Ft.Worth event.  I was there...seems like the athletic dept. dropped the ball, too.  No Cheerleaders, no pep band, etc.  Grant will run at some point and I don't blame him.  One of these days the athletic dept. will understand that you have to get out and drum up support in person....emails, Facebook and Twitter won't get the job done.
 

There was a time when people would get decked out in green and walk around to Denton businesses to put up schedule posters in their windows so patrons could see them as they walked by or stopped in.  These same people would talk up the teams and educate people as they went.  
 

 

 

 

Of course, after a while @DCB and I got tired of giving up our weekends to do the athletic department’s promotions.  

[Andrew]

3 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

We just won the CUSA Championship, beat a ranked team in their home state in the NCAA Tournament, kept our coach, and we have still been winning.

And so few care. If I’m Grant McCasland, I hit the door running as soon as any offer comes around. We play in a cavernous arena, in front of a few thousand at most, and we can’t even get 100 people to a game 45 minutes away.

It just boggles my mind at how much apathy and loathing of UNT sports exists in Denton. The HS teams get awesome support. The P5 teams get lots of support. And we can’t get 100 people to a game in the heart of Ft Worth…

It would start with getting the high school athletes on board with staying. They don’t see UNT as a big name for sports sadly. Plus I don’t think Mcasland has been to Guyer and a like. Benford was at least around all the time and at the local games and had a decent relationship with local coaches (even though we didn’t land guys). I mean guys like Shaka Smart and Bill Self came by Guyer along Benford but Mac hasn’t (to the best of you knowledge). I would start there and get those athletes to believe UNT is a viable contender.

Wilson and Harmon both opted out of state and have since transfer again without a thought for UNT. That’s the first step. 

[jdennis82]

Not disagreeing that it would be great to have a rowdy and devoted crowd at the Super Pit but for comparison, I just glanced at a few recent CUSA home games to see how announced attendance stacked up...

• December 8, 2021 - Bluefield College at Marshall - Attendance: 3,738
• December 4, 2021 - LSU Shreveport at North Texas - Attendance: 2,740
• December 8, 2021 - Buffalo at WKU - Attendance: 2,689
• December 11, 2021 - Louisiana at La Tech - Attendance: 2,603
• December 12, 2021 - Millsaps Majors at UAB - Attendance: 2,578
• December 8, 2021 - Palm Beach at FAU - Attendance: 1,045
• December 1, 2021 - Florida Gulf Coast at FIU - Attendance: 446

Obviously, a tiny sample size and who knows how accurate these figures from ESPN are but it's more information that I had 10 mins ago.

[MeanGreenPatriot]

4 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

We just won the CUSA Championship, beat a ranked team in their home state in the NCAA Tournament, kept our coach, and we have still been winning.

And so few care. If I’m Grant McCasland, I hit the door running as soon as any offer comes around. We play in a cavernous arena, in front of a few thousand at most, and we can’t even get 100 people to a game 45 minutes away.

It just boggles my mind at how much apathy and loathing of UNT sports exists in Denton. The HS teams get awesome support. The P5 teams get lots of support. And we can’t get 100 people to a game in the heart of Ft Worth…

Its not just sports, its just about everything. I have gone to performances in the Murchinson center and its practically empty. People on this board have complained about the cost of events which are super cheap compared to other universities or the weather or the commute or the start time etc. The Denton culture is very strange but its not limited to sports. 

[ADLER]

5 hours ago, MrAlien said:

there is no reason for that arena not to be full.  

Yes there is. Please compare the two listed photos:

Super Pit at night when there is absolutely nothing going on...

Super Pit on a night when a huge rivalry game is being played.

There is absolutely no difference other than possibly the amount of cars that are parked across the street. It needs to appear from the outside that an exciting event is taking place inside for that event to draw people inside.

 

.

Edited December 14, 2021 by ADLER

[DeepGreen]

Looking at those to pics it’s hard to tell how many were in attendance.

[southsideguy]

Maybe something like this with the sow?

 

[denton_days]

I feel like having events at these games would be great… if we got all the RA’s/housing staff to organize inviting freshman on campus to just 1 game and packing the pit for even just one game, that could bleed well into other games during the season. There’s no one trying to build a culture here on campus. It’s really down on the administration for building it.

[Green Otaku]

1 hour ago, denton_days said:

I feel like having events at these games would be great… if we got all the RA’s/housing staff to organize inviting freshman on campus to just 1 game and packing the pit for even just one game, that could bleed well into other games during the season. There’s no one trying to build a culture here on campus. It’s really down on the administration for building it.

 

This is a great idea, when I was a student me and my gf went to the football games, and said, "why don't we go to a basketball game? It might be fun." We go and we have a blast and decided we should go to every game. We just went on a whim, and without that random choice we likely never become basketball fans. Most students don't realize how fun the games are, so just get them there and we will see a major shift in attitude. 

[Matt from A700]

12 hours ago, NT80 said:

Ticket prices for this FTW 3-game event were poorly communicated.  I saw prices listed at $44 (nose bleed seats) to $185 for the session.  Could you even buy a single game ticket?  

Like I mentioned in another thread, attendance overall for the program should get an uptick when we join the AAC.  Better known opponents and in a closer regional division plus state rivals.

I think the AAC opponents won't do anything except for the alumni that still attend games. Most of the students that go to games now -- the ones that are sitting -- probably don't even know what conference we're in now, just that we're not in the SEC.

The only games I could see intentional increased student attendance at because of opponent is SMU and UTSA, or a Big XII nonconference game.

[Matt from A700]

5 hours ago, denton_days said:

I feel like having events at these games would be great… if we got all the RA’s/housing staff to organize inviting freshman on campus to just 1 game and packing the pit for even just one game, that could bleed well into other games during the season. There’s no one trying to build a culture here on campus. It’s really down on the administration for building it.

Unfortunately there needs to be a reward involved to get a larger number of students to attend. Free T-shirts or hats don't move the needle much anymore. The free semester of tuition giveaway always seemed to help.

There's always Greek Week or whatever and every frat and sorority wants to score more "points" for their organization. They need to do more competitions like that throughout the semester.

And I do agree if it could start with the RA's and all the freshmen in the dorm, it could start a big trickle down effect; not just into the rest of the season, but many of these students should keep going to games when they're upperclassmen and women.

[ADLER]

6 hours ago, southsideguy said:

Maybe something like this with the sow?

 

So close... so very close.

What if Skytracker spotlight sets were placed ground level at each corner of the Super Pit? 

The dancing lighting would illuminate the sides of the Pit and create a show on the skys above Denton. There's not a student on campus or a resident of Denton that wouldn't know some type of major event was taking place. 

And the trailer mounted searchlights could also be moved to Apogee stadium for football games.

 

[untjim1995]

I don’t live in Denton and have a young family, so driving 45 minutes isn’t easy. But I just don’t get how a university of our size and a city the size of Denton just flat out doesn’t care about UNT sports. I mean, you’d think Benford was still here and we were terrible. 
 

I don’t know what the attendance was last night, but a home game against SHSU ought to get 4000 or more people to be there. Just sad.

[UNTLifer]

11 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

I don’t live in Denton and have a young family, so driving 45 minutes isn’t easy. But I just don’t get how a university of our size and a city the size of Denton just flat out doesn’t care about UNT sports. I mean, you’d think Benford was still here and we were terrible. 
 

I don’t know what the attendance was last night, but a home game against SHSU ought to get 4000 or more people to be there. Just sad.

This is so true.  It was mentioned above that the same holds true for events at the Murchison.  We have a Grammy winning student band and a world renown Music School.  How many events are you aware of that take place at the Murchison?  I am not a huge Mark Cuban fan, but I worked at the facility where the Mav's practiced back when he purchased the team.  Prior to his purchase, nobody cared.  Three reporters showed up at practice and just stood around.  Cuban buys the team and within a year we are having to keep people out of the facility, he made the games "events" to attend, engaged fans and marketed the heck out of the team.  It is night and day compared to what it used to be.  North Texas has never grasped this concept.