24/25 MBB Attendance Tracker

[NTXDJ]

On 1/20/2025 at 11:44 AM, Green Otaku said:

It's one of the reasons the AAC added 6. We 6 split 3 full shares, and ESPN gets additional content  of 3 other schools at no extra cost.

When do we go from getting half-shares to full shares? 

[NorthTexasWeLove]

4,029 tonight at the Super Pit. Would've been a really awesome crowd in a 5-6k seat arena. JS. But I am glad we had those 6k empties for our "just in case" fans. 

[CMJ]

Nice that we hit 4K, but disappointed it wasn't much better given the stakes for this game.

[Green Mean]

For a 4K crowd it was pretty lively but would have hoped more students come out since the semester has already started. I don't know why we can't have better attendance for MBB. It's the best product we have and it's a sport and experience you can cater to the masses including the casuals. It's indoors, in-game experience is decent, games are done in about 2 hours and more times than not you're going to see the home team win. I know we have longstanding attendance issues and apathy, but I really think the university should do whatever it takes and latch on to basketball and just pouring all the resources and marketing to it.

[Green Otaku]

4 hours ago, NTXDJ said:

When do we go from getting half-shares to full shares? 

No one knows the specifics of the deal, it's not public knowledge. People are waiting for this year's tax returns so they can see the public data that shows how much each school made, and then see how much it changes over the next few years. So unfortunately all we know is that by the end of the contract everyone will be making the same amount, and that's it.

[Tommy Gadberry]

8 hours ago, Green Mean said:

For a 4K crowd it was pretty lively but would have hoped more students come out since the semester has already started. I don't know why we can't have better attendance for MBB. It's the best product we have and it's a sport and experience you can cater to the masses including the casuals. It's indoors, in-game experience is decent, games are done in about 2 hours and more times than not you're going to see the home team win. I know we have longstanding attendance issues and apathy, but I really think the university should do whatever it takes and latch on to basketball and just pouring all the resources and marketing to it.

Totally basketball Is where we have a chance.

[keith]

With 4,029 in attendance, we pushed our season average above 3K (3,047) after being below that for the last four games.  Baby steps, I guess, but I really hoped we would have been beyond taking baby steps by now.  Unfortunately, we are still down 19.68% or 747 fans (on average) compared to the first 10 home games last season.  

The students came out, but it looked like the community showed up a bit more than usual too (at least looking that the one or two shots on ESPN+ that showed the other side of the Pit).  We had 1,193 more than the Rice game.  Just to make the math simple, if we assume 193 was from the community, then we had 1,000 more students in attendance (is that fair?).  With a total population of around 46,000, that's 2.17%.  It seems student engagement is probably highest for freshman and then diminishes through the sophomore, junior and senior (and graduate) years, so going against total population is probably the wrong denominator.  We should probably be measuring against the population in dorms first and then off-campus student housing.  Not sure what those number are, but hopefully someone in the AD's office does and is using that to set goals and objectives. 

As far as the game, that was fun.  Temple is a good program and team that came in with a 4-1 conference record and a recent win over #18 at the time Memphis.  Lorient is a beast.  I remember him playing for FAU last year and the problems he caused us.  I don't know how we got him, but I'm glad we did.  The press is our Achilles' heel.  We need to figure that out.  Our normally reliable free throw shooting was off last night as well.  Hopefully it turns out to be a one-game anomaly.  We hit some down the stretch, but if we would have hit some of the early ones and the front-end of the one and ones, the game would have been over earlier.  GMG!  

 

Edited 8 hours ago by keith

[NorthTexasWeLove]

9 hours ago, Green Mean said:

For a 4K crowd it was pretty lively but would have hoped more students come out since the semester has already started. I don't know why we can't have better attendance for MBB. It's the best product we have and it's a sport and experience you can cater to the masses including the casuals. It's indoors, in-game experience is decent, games are done in about 2 hours and more times than not you're going to see the home team win. I know we have longstanding attendance issues and apathy, but I really think the university should do whatever it takes and latch on to basketball and just pouring all the resources and marketing to it.

Precisely. It's been 7 years of absolute lost opportunity and the AD clearly feels zero pressure to do anything about it. It's shameful. Maybe Mosley thinks that ACU = UNT? Maybe they're in there high fiving over 3k basketball avg and 17k football avg? I don't know. Whatever it is, he needs to be educated, removed, etc. Whatever fixes the problem, do that. Or... Are we still saying when we win, they will come? 

[NT80]

10 hours ago, Green Mean said:

For a 4K crowd it was pretty lively but would have hoped more students come out since the semester has already started. I don't know why we can't have better attendance for MBB. It's the best product we have and it's a sport and experience you can cater to the masses including the casuals. It's indoors, in-game experience is decent, games are done in about 2 hours and more times than not you're going to see the home team win. I know we have longstanding attendance issues and apathy, but I really think the university should do whatever it takes and latch on to basketball and just pouring all the resources and marketing to it.

All good questions to ask the AD.    Their marketing with just "X" notifications isn't working.  Maybe he needs to hire an Attendance Czar instead to figure out how to get students, alums, and citizens to the games?

[MeanGreenGlory]

I can't wrap my head around why the AD and University don't promote these games more around campus...

• Have the President send a mass email for important home games
• Activate the Greek networks
• Activate the dorms and RAs 
• Put larger and more compelling signage up in high-traffic areas around campus
• Work with the NT Daily for better exposure
• Ask the Maniacs to do a post-win parade through Library Mall and the Union the day after a win to celebrate and raise awareness of the program's success
• On and on...

None of these are costly options. They just require someone to develop a plan, support the various stakeholders (President's office, greek networks, RAs, Maniacs, etc.), and execute the plan on a regular basis throughout the season.

The fact that we don't have someone in the AD working on these kinds of things is a big miss. If we do have someone in the AD working on these things, they need to be replaced because they're clearly not effective at what they do.

[NorthTexasWeLove]

5 minutes ago, MeanGreenGlory said:

I can't wrap my head around why the AD and University don't promote these games more around campus...

• Have the President send a mass email for important home games
• Activate the Greek networks
• Activate the dorms and RAs 
• Put larger and more compelling signage up in high-traffic areas around campus
• Work with the NT Daily for better exposure
• Ask the Maniacs to do a post-win parade through Library Mall and the Union the day after a win to celebrate and raise awareness of the program's success
• On and on...

None of these are costly options. They just require someone to develop a plan, support the various stakeholders (President's office, greek networks, RAs, Maniacs, etc.), and execute the plan on a regular basis throughout the season.

The fact that we don't have someone in the AD working on these kinds of things is a big miss. If we do have someone in the AD working on these things, they need to be replaced because they're clearly not effective at what they do.

Exactly. 

Someone good at this, with a dog/chew toy type of personality, would pay for their position 10x over again every season. 

But, you're right, huge miss. And ver the years, it's as if the athletic director/department isn't the one coming up with the idea internally the idea gets shat on and shunned, ignored. It's as if there is a ton of petulance circulating those halls up there. 

Edited 7 hours ago by NorthTexasWeLove

[Matt from A700]

1 hour ago, keith said:

The students came out, but it looked like the community showed up a bit more than usual too (at least looking that the one or two shots on ESPN+ that showed the other side of the Pit).  We had 1,193 more than the Rice game.  Just to make the math simple, if we assume 193 was from the community, then we had 1,000 more students in attendance (is that fair?).  With a total population of around 46,000, that's 2.17%.  It seems student engagement is probably highest for freshman and then diminishes through the sophomore, junior and senior (and graduate) years, so going against total population is probably the wrong denominator.  We should probably be measuring against the population in dorms first and then off-campus student housing.  Not sure what those number are, but hopefully someone in the AD's office does and is using that to set goals and objectives. 

Inside sources indicate 1,310 student tickets were claimed. As of Fall 2021, there were 6,349 beds in 15 dorms across campus.

[ColoradoEagle]

54 minutes ago, MeanGreenGlory said:

I can't wrap my head around why the AD and University don't promote these games more around campus...

Not promoting basketball games is a long standing tradition that goes back to at least 2003 with RV (probably earlier as well, but that was before my time). To this day, the biggest promotion for basketball in the last 20+ years was organized by students for the TCU game in 2004, self funded plus donations by people from this forum to pay for it.

[untjim1995]

1 hour ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

Exactly. 

Someone good at this, with a dog/chew toy type of personality, would pay for their position 10x over again every season. 

But, you're right, huge miss. And ver the years, it's as if the athletic director/department isn't the one coming up with the idea internally the idea gets shat on and shunned, ignored. It's as if there is a ton of petulance circulating those halls up there. 

Just don't blame Denton or the UNT students, whatever you do. Clearly, the only reason they don't show up isn't because they don't care or actively loathe athletics...its got to be something else.

[Tommy Gadberry]

2 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

Just don't blame Denton or the UNT students, whatever you do. Clearly, the only reason they don't show up isn't because they don't care or actively loathe athletics...its got to be something else.

I think you are right but promotion could be better as well.

[Shark84]

We hired a game promotions person last year from Texas Tech. She was in charge of promotions for the women's games there. I wish they would let some of the longtime season ticket holders, student leaders, ect. have some input. Whatever we are doing is obviously NOT working. It would be nice if we could get some answers from someone in the athletic department. It was a fun environment last night with only 4K, just think what it would be like with 8-9K!

[MeanGreenGlory]

34 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

Just don't blame Denton or the UNT students, whatever you do. Clearly, the only reason they don't show up isn't because they don't care or actively loathe athletics...its got to be something else.

You're right—they don't care.

And they'll never start caring unless they're educated on why they should care.

Hence the importance of promotion...

• March Madness Starts HERE! UNT Men's Basketball is fighting for a tournament spot. Your energy = UNT's advantage! Show up in FORCE on Wednesday at 6:00pm! Get your ticket online at meangreensports.com
• Your UNT Men's Basketball team is 10-0 at home this year! We need YOU to keep the streak alive! Join us for a critical conference game this Wednesday at 6:00pm! Get your ticket online at meangreensports.com
• Your UNT Men's Basketball team is 1st in the conference right now and fighting for a March Madness appearance. Join the Mean Green Maniacs at the Super Pit and be loud to help the team get to the Big Dance! Get your ticket online at meangreensports.com
• Denton's Hottest Ticket! Forget Netflix - LIVE basketball drama is happening THIS WEEK at the Super Pit! Saturday's game will be EPIC! Get your ticket online at meangreensports.com

People need a reason to break their weekly habits and explore something new. Promoting the program's success in a timely and exciting way while simultaneously making people feel like they're needed and extending a clear invitation is a great way to start to make more people interested in showing up. 

If you never give people a reason, they'll never break their habits of ignoring the program.

So, the AD has two options:

1. Don't promote. Don't see an increase in community care. Continue to wonder why attendance and revenue are flat.
2. Promote regularly year after year. Generate an increase in community care. Celebrate rising attendance and revenue. 

It's frustrating to see them continually choose #1.

[Hookset]

I’ve had season tickets since the Johnny Jones era. The lower bowl was consistently full with overflow in the upper bowl. Benson’s coach disaster destroyed attendance (silver lining, I now have front row season tickets 😉). Even though the program has recovered, attendance hasn’t responded yet (both student and community). Might be because we can now watch every game on ESPN+. 
Also, after the game I watched channel 8 news and the sports caster never mentioned anything about basketball. UNT arguably has the best men’s basketball program in DFW area but never gets a mention. UNT is the best team nobody ever talks about.

[greenminer]

Anyone recall what attendance average was at the last 1 or 2 seasons of the JJ era?

[NT80]

3 hours ago, Matt from A700 said:

Inside sources indicate 1,310 student tickets were claimed. As of Fall 2021, there were 6,349 beds in 15 dorms across campus.

Probably another 20,000 beds in close-by apartments with students.

[NT80]

1 hour ago, Shark84 said:

We hired a game promotions person last year from Texas Tech. She was in charge of promotions for the women's games there. I wish they would let some of the longtime season ticket holders, student leaders, ect. have some input. Whatever we are doing is obviously NOT working. It would be nice if we could get some answers from someone in the athletic department. It was a fun environment last night with only 4K, just think what it would be like with 8-9K!

Good luck with that...

[UNTLifer]

3 minutes ago, NT80 said:

Good luck with that...

Shouldn't be difficult.  Just ask at the next quarterly meeting.

[Matt from A700]

10 minutes ago, NT80 said:

Probably another 20,000 beds in close-by apartments with students.

For sure. Seems like every time I drive through the neighborhoods off campus there is some new multi-unit complex that has taken the place of a single-family home.

[DeepGreen]

UNT needs a Student Sports Czar, with helpers, that would be responsible for making on-campus students aware of upcoming games.  Make this a paid position within the Athletic Department.

[untjim1995]

Where else would a program that has won a CBI and NIT title in the last decade, while also having a win in the actual NCAA Tournament, plus having a winning record AGAIN, need to even worry about getting an extra boost to come watch the team play a conference game in mid-to-late January? 

The simple answer is nowhere. The Denton excuse that I hate hearing is that there is just too much to do in the Metroplex...no, not on a Wednesday night on a cold night there isn't.

But I've been clearly told it's because our marketing/promotions suck and if people just knew that we were good, the place would double in attendance. Sometimes, the fact is that you can lead the hose to water, but you can't make it drink. 

As for my ideas, it would be to meet the people where they are. Have the College of Music and Arts setup exhibits in the Super Pit's concourse. Have the UNT Drumline perform at halftime and at the end of the game. See if you can get people to come watch them and see if it gets them interested in that athletic thing going on. Now, I realize that the Deans of those Colleges may not want to help nor do anything to help and that would basically cement the argument that nothing will ever work here because of the culture. But it's worth a shot and it would cost nothing. Have a battle of the frats and who can get the best turnout/energy for the game...do the same thing with the sororities, too, at another game.

But whatever you do, don't blame the locals and the students...that's CLEARLY hurtful and mean.