Attendance Sucks. What to do about it!!

[El Paso Eagle]

1 minute ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

1. Significantly limit transfer students. Transfers are dopes that have or care to have zero connection to UNT. Why even let them on campus? 

[Venson]

One way to get students in that has been said before is make it easier for them to get in. What I mean, is students are required to download their tickets to their smart phone. Why do that? When I attended in the late 80s to early 90s, all we had to do was show our ID card and we were in. Students should have the option to do both. They are already paying for it, so why make it harder for them by only giving them one option? If I show up at the game and realize I don't have my ID card, then I just log into my UNT account and download it. The other thing is fix the WiFi inside the stadium. It sucks and we know these kids today are not going anywhere without their phones. At least make it easier for them to access it while inside.

Edited February 16, 2023 by Venson

[KeithLee]

1 minute ago, Venson said:

One way to get students in that has been said before is make it easier for them to get in. What I mean, is students are required to download their tickets to their smart phone. Why do that? When I attended in the late 80s to early 90s, all we had to do was show our ID card and we were in. Students should have the option to do both. They are already paying for it, so why make it harder for them by only giving them one option. If I show up at the game and realize I don't have my ID card, I should be able to log into my UNT account and download it. The other thing is fix the WiFi It sucks and we know these kids today are going nowhere without their phones. At least make it easier for them to access it while inside.

Yeah CLee says it is a pain to get other sports tickets. 

[Venson]

I would also add to have pep rallies. I know this is not high school, but these kids are not far removed from high school and we all remember how pep rallies in high school motivated us. They should have pep rallies right in the area between the Willis Library and Student Union. I get it that players may not be able to attend because they are getting ready for the game, but bring athletes who are not in season and coaches who are not in season to hype it up. They should happen every Friday starting around Noon or later and lasting 2-3 hours or longer to allow students who may be in class a chance to get out and attend.

[greenminer]

random thought: is it possible there are plans to do away with physical ID cards?

[KeithLee]

Operation Pack the Wing-Football

Operation Pack the Pit-MBB/WBB

Operation Pack the Diamond-Softball

Operation Pack the Pitch-Soccer

Operation Pack the… needs to include getting local schools involved. Sports teams (or just students) from local high school get free admission into games with a student ID. Dedicate an entire section for these tickets. With Gilbert and Coach O running this operation for football, the wing should be packed every weekend. For the naysayers that say we are losing money from tickets, the wing and most stadiums have a lot of empty sections. If they come, they will buy concessions. Let’s have a concert with local bands after the games or firework show. Bring the community together. Any other ideas. Damn, I love brainstorming!!!

[KeithLee]

8 hours ago, greenminer said:

random thought: is it possible there are plans to do away with physical ID cards?

I sure hope so. It sucks.

[meangreenfaninno]

9 hours ago, Venson said:

I would also add to have pep rallies. I know this is not high school, but these kids are not far removed from high school and we all remember how pep rallies in high school motivated us. They should have pep rallies right in the area between the Willis Library and Student Union. I get it that players may not be able to attend because they are getting ready for the game, but bring athletes who are not in season and coaches who are not in season to hype it up. They should happen every Friday starting around Noon or later and lasting 2-3 hours or longer to allow students who may be in class a chance to get out and attend.

I like the pep rally idea but to make it happen you have to offer free food.  Maybe get a food sponsor that wants to sell on campus.

[DentonLurker]

From a student ticket perspective, I think they should have a way for students to be issued a QR code that they can add to their cell phone wallets that they pull up, scan as they enter, and they're in. I agree about making it as easy as possible. Please, just please... don't go back to physical tickets they have to pickup from a trailer on campus. Nothing says 1980 like a physical ticket and trailer.

Edit:  I'll add... Same QR code every game, every sport, etc.

Edited February 15, 2023 by DentonLurker

[Green Otaku]

I can't remember who in the BB thread was saying they should give out 4 free tickets for any game to every household in the city of Denton. Just get people there and build a connection. Something like that might be a nice thing for football as well. 

[ColoradoEagle]

Don't find myself back in Denton too much these days outside of a random trip or for a game, so maybe this has changed, but...

The AD has never, ever seriously advertised in the city of Denton. Outside of stores here and there having a schedule in the window (and probably one they had to go out of the way to get themselves) you'd rarely ever know that one of the largest universities in the state is located there. Forget any advertising in Hickory Creek, Corinth, Lewisville, Flower Mound, Highland Village, etc.

There's always been a "We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas" mentality at our AD. Even when good things happen organically like the Pit Crew, they let it die off and replace it with the "Mean Green Maniacs" ...

[UNTLifer]

"Free" is tough because the consumer has "zero skin in the game" meaning they just look at it as free and might go if nothing else is going on.  I would prefer a buy one get one or steeply discounted seats for the upper wing and seats that aren't normally bought.  Once you get them in, you show them such a good time that they want the better seat that costs more.

[Green Crazy]

10 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

"Free" is tough because the consumer has "zero skin in the game" meaning they just look at it as free and might go if nothing else is going on.  I would prefer a buy one get one or steeply discounted seats for the upper wing and seats that aren't normally bought.  Once you get them in, you show them such a good time that they want the better seat that costs more.

I like the bogo and discounted idea, but for the upper wing? Realistically it should be any seat in the north endzone. If we just did that for upper wing then there would be 40 rows of empty in between them and the next occupied seats. Baby steps. 🙂

[DentonLurker]

I like the idea of discounted tickets in the wing. Heck, I would make them $5-$10 per game as the normal price. I think that is such a great section to be the "get 'em in the door" section.

[DentonStang]

Try moving to a P5 conference. It should boost attendance 

[UNTcrazy727]

I'm not really concerned with football attendance. History has shown if we're winning the crowds will follow. Basketball on the other hand is extremely concerning. There's no reason attendance should be as low as it is considering the success we've had on the court. I think the AD has to reach out to the Denton community more to help. We can't depend on our DFW alumni base to drive to Denton in rush hour traffic to make week night games. 

[SilverEagle]

1 hour ago, NT80 said:

Students will love the party and free food, but they won't go to the game.   It's like tailgating on the hill, the majority never went inside Apogee.   You can't keep trying to bribe them, you have to find out why greeks and students won't go to the games.

Well, now there is a concept.  

Sarcasm aside, the same basic issue was being looked at after Hayden Fry arrived. He started out having a town meeting to discuss his "vision" for the athletic department. He invited everyone on campus to attend....but especially the student organization leaders, University 
Staff (teaching and non-teaching) and any community leaders from Denton. After discussing his assessment of North Texas and their "image", as well as what he planned to do to promote the program, he opened it up for comments/suggestions from the people attending. 

I was working for the University at that time (moving truck) whilst attending school part-time. One of the things Fry did was go out to the local communities (Sanger, Valley View etc) and went to the local businesses and let them know that he wanted UNT to be "their university sports team".  He even put on an "impromptu" pep rally on the town square at Sanger.

Back in December of 1990 I was invited to participate in a focus group regarding the athletic department and it's future. Dr. Peter Lane ran the show. During the discussion and question session, it was clear to me that the department was making plans to move back up into D-1 football. It was also clear to me that Corkey Nelson was about to be fired. I took the opportunity to verbalize my main issue/concern about the program.  I said to the group and Dr. Lane that I never came away from games feeling that there was anything approaching traditions at NT. I told him/them that a North Texas football game looked and felt like a contracted event. It felt like the administration contacted various representatives of the game day players and negotiated what looked like a minimum standards game day experience.  The team showed up, the band showed up, the cheer staff showed up and the talons showed up. They all showed up wearing the school colors, did what their contract called for, and then left at the end of the game. They just all showed up in their NT gear and did what they thought they were supposed to do.......and then left. And there didn't appear to be any sort of connection to (or with) one another.

Question: Why does tailgating shut down at the beginning of the game? Why don't people go back to their tailgating sites to do more drinking and discussion about the game?

Edited February 15, 2023 by SilverEagle

[UNTcrazy727]

9 minutes ago, DentonStang said:

Try moving to a P5 conference. It should boost attendance 

Can't wait to see those 15K crowds when the Pac-12 forces y'all to kick at 11 am all the time. 

[TripleGrad]

The place was packed when we were going for 5-0 against LA Tech  (and damn, that blocked FG still hurts).  There was finally a buzz in the local media about North Texas.

People want to be associated with winners.  UNT has never had a tradition of winning in football.  MBB is a bit better, but there's so many games that it's easy to see why people don't necessarily make it a highlight of the week.  The rest of the sports listed by the OP will always struggle with attendance in Texas.  Frankly, the average college student (or alumni, or town resident) doesn't and will never care about soccer, softball, WBB, track, etc.  Those sports are required to exist but shouldn't be a consideration when it comes to major sports marketing.

3 college sports matter:  football, men's basketball, and baseball.  We've never been great in the first two (Purdue not withstanding) and the third doesn't exist.

Just WIN, baby.

[eulessismore]

15 hours ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

1. Significantly limit transfer students. Transfers are dopes that have or care to have zero connection to UNT. Why even let them on campus? 

2. Cap art/film/music applicants. No explanation needed. 

3. Increase attendance at the business school. No explanation needed. 

And to be frank, our athletic department does a lousy job in promoting their own product. Mass emailing people in your already existing pool of fans that clearly have a vested interest in the product moves the needle none. 

Three of the stupidest ideas since not locking the SMU obsession threads early on. Last paragraph is about right, but has no ideas that would improve the situation.

[UNTcrazy727]

22 minutes ago, TripleGrad said:

The place was packed when we were going for 5-0 against LA Tech  (and damn, that blocked FG still hurts).  There was finally a buzz in the local media about North Texas.

People want to be associated with winners.  UNT has never had a tradition of winning in football.  MBB is a bit better, but there's so many games that it's easy to see why people don't necessarily make it a highlight of the week.  The rest of the sports listed by the OP will always struggle with attendance in Texas.  Frankly, the average college student (or alumni, or town resident) doesn't and will never care about soccer, softball, WBB, track, etc.  Those sports are required to exist but shouldn't be a consideration when it comes to major sports marketing.

3 college sports matter:  football, men's basketball, and baseball.  We've never been great in the first two (Purdue not withstanding) and the third doesn't exist.

Just WIN, baby.

I would argue women's basketball matters just as much as baseball. Its just hard for us to realize that since our women's basketball team hasn't had any success in decades. 

[NT80]

1 hour ago, DentonStang said:

Try moving to a P5 conference. It should boost attendance 

How would you know?

[TIgreen01]

All of these are great ideas but basketball attendance this year has flushed all my previously held laws about college sports attendance down the toilet.  We've won 3 consecutive conference championships and another 20 games already this season.  We should be averaging 5k.  We were close to that when JJ was here and we didn't have close to the same level of success then as we are now.  It makes no sense.

What I do know is that attendance was trending up in football and basketball until COVID hit.  Since COVID we have not come close to returning to previous norms.

This may be an especially HSO, but from my extremely unscientific research, I think our student body contains a whole lot more of the kinds of folks who are overly cautious about observing all the social distancing rules (read hipsters) than those who are not (read rednecks).  A rebalancing of the student body may be required...or just the general passage of time to allow said hipster group to return to pre-COVID social distancing norms.

In all seriousness, getting the Greeks to be as involved at UNT sporting events as they are at some of these power 5 schools would make a huge difference IMPO.

Edited February 15, 2023 by TIgreen01

[eulessismore]

Why not try one of the concepts that was, iirc, used as part of the sales pitch to build the stadium which will be formerly known as Apogee? Have concerts after the game with bands that students would want to hear, with no admission of those not already in the stadium at the end of the game.

Of course I guess it would mean more music being performed, which might upset some here.

 

[El Paso Eagle]

35 minutes ago, eulessismore said:

Why not try one of the concepts that was, iirc, used as part of the sales pitch to build the stadium which will be formerly known as Apogee? Have concerts after the game with bands that students would want to hear, with no admission of those not already in the stadium at the end of the game.

Of course I guess it would mean more music being performed, which might upset some here.

 

Have Gameday activities before and after the game and make the day an event they can enjoy. Have tailgates, concerts, and activities for families. We need someone in the AD working full-time on the Gameday experience for all games on campus and student involvement.