How to Improve GameDay Experience at UNT

[UNTLifer]

Why do we have this discussion every year?  Pay me my current salary and I will take charge of the Game Day experience. 
 

1. Let Rally House run the gift store or hire some folks and let the AD do it. Voertman’s has failed. 
2.  Fix the PA and also the ref mics. 
3. Provide the concession workers with official T-shirts and caps. Train how to treat the customer. 
4.  More band less DJ. 
5. Put the televisions back in the concession area. 
6. Pregame concerts on the hill. Family friendly. 
7. Scrappy Squad adopt a player. Match the kids to a player and have a meet and greet with them prior to the first game  

Sorry, but it is as simple as just paying attention and delivering  These surveys after every game are ridiculous  Does anyone in that department plan in advance?

 

Edited October 18, 2022 by UNTLifer

[Tom McKrackin]

8 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Why do we have this discussion every year?  Pay me my current salary and I will take charge of the Game Day experience. 
 

1. Let Rally House run the gift store or hire some folks and let the AD do it. Voertman’s has failed. 
2.  Fix the PA and also the red mics. 
3. Provide the concession workers with official T-shirts and caps. Train how to treat the customer. 
4.  More band less DJ. 
5. Put the televisions back in the concession area. 
6. Pregame concerts on the hill. Family friendly. 
7. Scrappy Squad adopt a player. Match the kids to a player and have a meet and greet with them prior to the first game  

 

[meaniegreenie]

Having a T-shirt cannon that can barely shoot past the first 10 rows (4 games into the season) pretty much sums up our athletic department's ability regarding gameday experience.

[Glory to the Green]

10 minutes ago, meaniegreenie said:

Having a T-shirt cannon that can barely shoot past the first 10 rows (4 games into the season) pretty much sums up our athletic department's ability regarding gameday experience.

Did you see the first time they used it?  I’m not sure how the cannon actually works, but the pressure seemed to be turned up too high and it rocketed towards the first few rows. A few fans around us commented, “Maybe we don’t want the cannon in our section?”  No one seemed to get hurt. Man, it was funny. 

[TheColonyEagle]

Be ranked in the top 25

I’ll get there early and bring my own food 

[NT93]

1 hour ago, meaniegreenie said:

Having a T-shirt cannon that can barely shoot past the first 10 rows (4 games into the season) pretty much sums up our athletic department's ability regarding gameday experience.

My wife and I both got a shirt at the SMU game. We were sitting in the 2nd row in the upper section.  I did notice on Saturday, the last time they gave away shirts I bet 5-6 didn’t even make it into the bleachers.

Some really good, simple suggestions to make the game day experience better have been given.  

[NorthTexasWeLove]

Win. 

[SteaminWillieBeamin]

10 hours ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

Win. 

When. 

[zenhuddy]

Some good thinkers here. 
I might suggest we do like TCU with the kids running out with the players at the beginning of the game - do like the old McDonalds happy meals - “Snag the young ones early so they become fans”.   To me it’s a great community rally type deal! JMO 

[UNTLifer]

14 minutes ago, zenhuddy said:

Some good thinkers here. 
I might suggest we do like TCU with the kids running out with the players at the beginning of the game - do like the old McDonalds happy meals - “Snag the young ones early so they become fans”.   To me it’s a great community rally type deal! JMO 

I agree 100%.  This or go back to the days when the Scrappy Squad kids were allowed to line up and the players ran through them.  The crazy thing is that many of these suggestions from us fans have been recommended year after year after year and nothing happens or it get worse because something is taken away.

[NorthTexasWeLove]

There's so much that could be accomplished with so little happening. 

[Old Denton]

13 hours ago, TheColonyEagle said:

Be ranked in the top 25

I’ll get there early and bring my own food 

Anyone can be a front-runner/fair-weather fan

[TheColonyEagle]

29 minutes ago, Old Denton said:

Anyone can be a front-runner/fair-weather fan

Yes and we have NONE of them. We need them 

[greenminer]

45 minutes ago, Old Denton said:

Anyone can be a front-runner/fair-weather fan

We could use some of those.

[Big Z]

This is the athletic department way of gameday atmosphere thinking...

 

[MeanGreenDan]

22 hours ago, Matt from A700 said:

The band seemed less active, especially when it mattered on defense.

This whole season has been way more DJ playing music and less band playing music.

Not sure if this is an edict from the band or the AD, but seeing them sit there through a whole drive while DJ Question Mark plays the hits will never stop being strange to me.

[MeanGreenDan]

18 hours ago, Glory to the Green said:

Did you see the first time they used it?  I’m not sure how the cannon actually works, but the pressure seemed to be turned up too high and it rocketed towards the first few rows. A few fans around us commented, “Maybe we don’t want the cannon in our section?”  No one seemed to get hurt. Man, it was funny. 

RIP Maude Flanders

[shaft]

1. Parking.  Let people cash park at the Stadium.  Families don't want to haul their kids over the Interstate.  Build a parking garage at the stadium and across from the Super Pit.

2. Reshape the hill into several tiered slopes.  Give organizations a place to tailgate, but keep a flow to it so people can actually pass and walk by an area.  Required cutoff 15 minutes before kickoff to get people into the game.

3. Pre-game tailgate contest like best BBQ, decorations, game, most beer drank, etc.  Have some sort of traveling Mean Green tail gating championship recognized at the game with some sort of prize.

4. Multiple long range t-shirt cannons.  Put a multi-shot t-shirt cannon on a golf cart and let Scrappy light up a different section.

5. Free beer.

[MrAlien]

Parking needs to be better, pay where you park with cash or card, that way if I decide to bring friends then they can tailgate next to me. 

The alumni pavilion needs to be better, better food and drinks add some TVs, and lets not take 30 min to check people in. 

 

[Mean Green Eagle]

More kid-friendly pre-game activities outside.  

Inside bring back more bounce houses, basketball, football, soccer inflatables under the wing. 
 

A few more TVs near the concessions wouldn’t hurt. 

Better merchandise choices in the store. 

Hire a new replay person that will actually show replays. 

[UNTcrazy727]

On 10/16/2022 at 7:44 PM, SteaminWillieBeamin said:

I think the pressure to upsell parking and the counting all pennies mentality has killed game day. You want to charge people hundreds of dollars to park an RV or limit where blue lot people can congregate -when no one is even there? Truly kills the desire. I haven't tailgated in years at UNT because i hated the unknowns every week. I used to love setting up early morning or the night before - but under Wren they constantly applied more pressure and took all the fun out. I notice all the people that used to be out no longer show. There's barely any presence of a real game day - outside of @flyonthewall setup with RV - it's really a downer.. That's all on Wren. The concept of tailgating on a hill far from your car is stupid BTW.

I'd open up tailgating by the stadium - pay lots only in the dirt across the streets or by be fouts. As many buses as possible to bring people from the tennis/softball lots. 

Have a crap ton of bounce houses and be slides for kids - not the ones that require some BS junior mean green membership.

Have a relevant sounding band - modern folk? Or hell, some frat party wedding cover band.. ben e keith free drinks. 

How about a party bus that picks up people on the square or by fry - for the sole purpose of getting butts NEAR the stadium. 

Let people bring RVs FREE - a line of RVs makes it feel like a real game day. One sad ass RV amongst the "reserve not sold" spots away from everything - is sad as AF.

Without people NEAR the stadium, you can't get them IN the stadium.

Edit: oh yeah - I'd fix the damn ingress/egress situation. It's absurd. If someone does that once, they don't want to come back. 

Another, side note, to tailgating - prior to electronic tickets with no cell phone data, high ass daily RV fees and the unknowns of parking, I used to buy up to a dozen extra tickets to the game and would always have the pitch "come and tailgate - yeh, yeh, I know you don't have a ticket, I have an extra don't worry." I would personally get butts, into the stadium from my pride of wanting my friend to enjoy what I enjoy. Now, I really just only worry about me getting into the game. I don't see that changing with this AD. 

Quote

I haven't tailgated in years at UNT because i hated the unknowns every week. I used to love setting up early morning or the night before - but under Wren they constantly applied more pressure and took all the fun out. I notice all the people that used to be out no longer show

What are these "unknowns" you reference? For the past decade my group has tailgated 2-3 games every year in the blue lot and we've never run into major issues. As long as you get there a few hours before kick you can tailgate wherever you want in the blue lot. I also don't know what you mean by Wren "applying more pressure" and "taking the fun out" of tailgating. He hasn't done anything to hurt my tailgate experiences. Though I can't speak to your frustrations with the RV situation.

And who actually tailgates on the hill besides student organizations and sponsors? Everyone is allowed to tailgate by their car in the blue lot or in the old Fouts lot. 

Edited October 19, 2022 by UNTcrazy727

[GrayEagle]

On 10/16/2022 at 5:22 PM, GMG_Dallas said:

I like the idea with one exception. If we want current students and recent alums to get rowdy, playing only the Eagles, Orbison, Meatloaf and others from prior generations doesn't do much. Mix it up. Give everybody some music to be excited about. Doesn't matter if they're not UNT alum. If you want the next generation of alums to have favorable memories, all you have to do is make it a fun experience and win some games.

The old songs are from past students.  If there are songs from the new generation it should follow the same criterion.  I'm not sure how many artists are popular now but if you can find some by all means play them.

[GMG_Dallas]

On 10/16/2022 at 7:44 PM, SteaminWillieBeamin said:

I think the pressure to upsell parking and the counting all pennies mentality has killed game day. You want to charge people hundreds of dollars to park an RV or limit where blue lot people can congregate -when no one is even there? Truly kills the desire. I haven't tailgated in years at UNT because i hated the unknowns every week. I used to love setting up early morning or the night before - but under Wren they constantly applied more pressure and took all the fun out. I notice all the people that used to be out no longer show. There's barely any presence of a real game day - outside of @flyonthewall setup with RV - it's really a downer.. That's all on Wren. The concept of tailgating on a hill far from your car is stupid BTW.

I'd open up tailgating by the stadium - pay lots only in the dirt across the streets or by be fouts. As many buses as possible to bring people from the tennis/softball lots. 

Have a crap ton of bounce houses and be slides for kids - not the ones that require some BS junior mean green membership.

Have a relevant sounding band - modern folk? Or hell, some frat party wedding cover band.. ben e keith free drinks. 

How about a party bus that picks up people on the square or by fry - for the sole purpose of getting butts NEAR the stadium. 

Let people bring RVs FREE - a line of RVs makes it feel like a real game day. One sad ass RV amongst the "reserve not sold" spots away from everything - is sad as AF.

Without people NEAR the stadium, you can't get them IN the stadium.

Edit: oh yeah - I'd fix the damn ingress/egress situation. It's absurd. If someone does that once, they don't want to come back. 

Another, side note, to tailgating - prior to electronic tickets with no cell phone data, high ass daily RV fees and the unknowns of parking, I used to buy up to a dozen extra tickets to the game and would always have the pitch "come and tailgate - yeh, yeh, I know you don't have a ticket, I have an extra don't worry." I would personally get butts, into the stadium from my pride of wanting my friend to enjoy what I enjoy. Now, I really just only worry about me getting into the game. I don't see that changing with this AD. 

I should not have read this lol. I was just working on getting work commitments handled that Saturday and buying tickets for my family. Second guessing myself. Doesn't sound like the game day experience I enjoyed as a student.

In case I decide to go, can we park by Fouts and walk across the bridge? Why is Apogee still a cell phone dead zone?

[GMG_Dallas]

5 minutes ago, GrayEagle said:

The old songs are from past students.  If there are songs from the new generation it should follow the same criterion.  I'm not sure how many artists are popular now but if you can find some by all means play them.

I'm saying who cares if the songs are by UNT alum. The goal is to make the experience more fun so people keep wanting to show up, not to showcase music solely made by former students. I guarantee you the house parties around campus don't care if their playlists are composed only of UNT related music.

[Glory to the Green]

42 minutes ago, GMG_Dallas said:

I'm saying who cares if the songs are by UNT alum. The goal is to make the experience more fun so people keep wanting to show up, not to showcase music solely made by former students. I guarantee you the house parties around campus don't care if their playlists are composed only of UNT related music.

I see your points. I was just throwing different ideas out. Whatever gets the fans out, I’m for it.