24/25 MBB Attendance Tracker

[keith]

5,032 came out to attend the 12th home game of the season against UTSA.  So far, the highest attended and first 5K+ of the season.  Through the promotional efforts of the AD, attendance was increased by 1,317 butts in seats compared to the 3,715 that attended the most recent home game against FAU on 1/26.  It's kind of sad, but eclipsing 5K for a UNT basketball game is a significant accomplishment.  Excluding the 2022 game against LaTech (8,522) and the 2024 game against SMU (7,239), we have had only four 5K+ attended games in the last 4 seasons (a stretch of 55 home games with 4 more to go this season).  We are still down (significantly) on the attendance front, down 18.19% and 727, on average, per game compared to last season.  Well done getting the community and students out for the game, but don't let up. 

As for the game....for anyone that's been following Mean Green athletics for any amount of time, the outcome was painfully predictable.  You could see it coming from a mile away.  I don't know what it is, but any time we go out of our way to hype a game (I would not go as far to call this an "opportunity" game), we under perform and lay an egg in front of a nice home crowd.  Here's a hot sports opinion.  It seems when we increase the promotional efforts around a game, it affects our team negatively.  They buy into the hype and it takes them out of their normal routine and playing in front of a noticeably bigger crowd takes them off their game.  That's why I think it's important from a team psyche perspective to have consistency throughout the season in terms of promoting games. Every game is important.  Playing in front of a large crowd should not feel different.  

Not sure what that first half was about (nerves?).  UTSA seemed to play our type of defense and really frustrated us.  We showed some meddle battling back in the second half, but we simply dug ourselves too big of a hole in that first 20 minutes.  We also seemed to pass up good shots trying to set up perfect shots (or go for some Sports Center highlights) that we never got off or turned over with an errant pass.  Frustrating, but our path to a tournament bid really hasn't changed.  Stay healthy and get back on a winning streak so we go into the conference tourney with some momentum and a good seed.

 

 

[MeanGreenGlory]

4 hours ago, keith said:

5,032 came out to attend the 12th home game of the season against UTSA.  So far, the highest attended and first 5K+ of the season.  Through the promotional efforts of the AD, attendance was increased by 1,317 butts in seats compared to the 3,715 that attended the most recent home game against FAU on 1/26.  

You mean promoting games generates a measurable increase in attendance?

Weird how that works, eh?

They should keep doing it!

[untcampbell]

"As for the game....for anyone that's been following Mean Green athletics for any amount of time, the outcome was painfully predictable.  You could see it coming from a mile away.  I don't know what it is, but any time we go out of our way to hype a game (I would not go as far to call this an "opportunity" game), we under perform and lay an egg in front of a nice home crowd."

 

Marketing's fault.

 

GMG

[keith]

21 hours ago, untcampbell said:

"As for the game....for anyone that's been following Mean Green athletics for any amount of time, the outcome was painfully predictable.  You could see it coming from a mile away.  I don't know what it is, but any time we go out of our way to hype a game (I would not go as far to call this an "opportunity" game), we under perform and lay an egg in front of a nice home crowd."

 

Marketing's fault.

 

GMG

Hahaha....not directly.  It meant in a more subtle way than that.  When you have a good thing going and are in a grove, you want to stay in that grove, avoid distractions and not make changes to your routine.  It's anecdotal (however it's been observed over a long period of time), but it seems whenever our teams get into a grove and have a good thing going, we go out of our way to change the atmosphere around the team.  Not always, but more often than not, we don't respond well.  I'm not suggesting that we should not market or promote the team.  I'm saying our timing is often horrible.  We really should be promoting the team consistently all season long so that there isn't a drastic/noticeable change to the atmosphere surrounding a particular game day.  I realize that's not easy to do and there will be some natural changes when students return.   

[untjim1995]

On 2/2/2025 at 8:23 AM, keith said:

5,032 came out to attend the 12th home game of the season against UTSA.  So far, the highest attended and first 5K+ of the season.  Through the promotional efforts of the AD, attendance was increased by 1,317 butts in seats compared to the 3,715 that attended the most recent home game against FAU on 1/26.  It's kind of sad, but eclipsing 5K for a UNT basketball game is a significant accomplishment.  Excluding the 2022 game against LaTech (8,522) and the 2024 game against SMU (7,239), we have had only four 5K+ attended games in the last 4 seasons (a stretch of 55 home games with 4 more to go this season).  We are still down (significantly) on the attendance front, down 18.19% and 727, on average, per game compared to last season.  Well done getting the community and students out for the game, but don't let up. 

As for the game....for anyone that's been following Mean Green athletics for any amount of time, the outcome was painfully predictable.  You could see it coming from a mile away.  I don't know what it is, but any time we go out of our way to hype a game (I would not go as far to call this an "opportunity" game), we under perform and lay an egg in front of a nice home crowd.  Here's a hot sports opinion.  It seems when we increase the promotional efforts around a game, it affects our team negatively.  They buy into the hype and it takes them out of their normal routine and playing in front of a noticeably bigger crowd takes them off their game.  That's why I think it's important from a team psyche perspective to have consistency throughout the season in terms of promoting games. Every game is important.  Playing in front of a large crowd should not feel different.  

Not sure what that first half was about (nerves?).  UTSA seemed to play our type of defense and really frustrated us.  We showed some meddle battling back in the second half, but we simply dug ourselves too big of a hole in that first 20 minutes.  We also seemed to pass up good shots trying to set up perfect shots (or go for some Sports Center highlights) that we never got off or turned over with an errant pass.  Frustrating, but our path to a tournament bid really hasn't changed.  Stay healthy and get back on a winning streak so we go into the conference tourney with some momentum and a good seed.

 

 

Everyone is dead-on about marketing and promotion being terrible here, but think about what the locals are saying to you about how much they care about UNT hoops.

2019-2020--First in CUSA, season ends due to COVID

2020-2021--Win CUSA Tournament, beat Purdue in First Round of NCAA Tournament for first victory ever in that tournament.

2021-2022--Win CUSA Regular Season title, win first round game in NIT over Texas State, lose second round game at home to UVa by two points

2022-2023--finish behind Final Four Florida Atlantic for 2nd place, win the NIT

2023-2024--first year of Ross Hodge and in the American, still finish with a winning record and qualify for NIT, where you win at LSU, then lose at eventual NIT champion Seton Hall

2024-2025--surprise season where we are in 2nd place in the AAC, behind only ranked Memphis

And we are thrilled to no end because a crowd of just over 5000 show up for a game against an in-state rival in your 10k seat arena...posters here call it baby steps and this is because we don't let people know about the games at the Super Pit. My question is why doesn't the winning and the accomplishment do that heavy lifting on its own, to the point that marketing and promotions SHOULD be simple? I mean, seriously, what else does it take to get those students to care enough to show up? What else does it take to get local Denton and Denton County folks to show up? I'm not even counting alumni in the DFW counties that would (gasp) have to drive between 45-60 minutes to the game at the Super Pit? To me, that's the problem that I just don't see ever being overcome--I've been around since 1990 and this is what its basically been since then.

[untcampbell]

1 hour ago, keith said:

Hahaha....not directly.  It meant in a more subtle way than that.  When you have a good thing going and are in a grove, you want to stay in that grove, avoid distractions and not make changes to your routine.  It's anecdotal (however it's been observed over a long period of time), but it seems whenever our teams get into a grove and have a good thing going, we go out of our way to change the atmosphere around the team.  Not always, but more often than not, we don't respond well.  I'm not suggesting that we should not market or promote the team.  I'm saying our timing is often horrible.  We really should be promoting the team consistently all season long so that there isn't a drastic/noticeable change to the atmosphere surrounding a particular game day.  I realize that's not easy to do and there will be some natural changes when students return.   

It is easy to visualize those big crowd losses because there are a lot of them, but the truth is we lose a lot of games in front of small crowds also. I do think many of our most memorable games (football) happened in front of our smallest crowds. Lance Dunbar vs MTSU always comes to mind but maybe it is just the spirit of camaraderie when there are only a few of us standing in the rain, freezing our arses off or even decent weather games played by a really bad football team. I am a yeller and it is kind of fun to see someone in a distant section of the stadium laughing or clapping at something you say....because every fan that speaks in anything louder than normal conversation can be heard anywhere else in the stadium. And when there are only a few people watching and your team gives you (relative) football gold, you feel like each and every one of those with you is a friend and shares your passion and commitment to the team.

 

GMG

[NorthTexasWeLove]

7 hours ago, untcampbell said:

It is easy to visualize those big crowd losses because there are a lot of them, but the truth is we lose a lot of games in front of small crowds also. I do think many of our most memorable games (football) happened in front of our smallest crowds. Lance Dunbar vs MTSU always comes to mind but maybe it is just the spirit of camaraderie when there are only a few of us standing in the rain, freezing our arses off or even decent weather games played by a really bad football team. I am a yeller and it is kind of fun to see someone in a distant section of the stadium laughing or clapping at something you say....because every fan that speaks in anything louder than normal conversation can be heard anywhere else in the stadium. And when there are only a few people watching and your team gives you (relative) football gold, you feel like each and every one of those with you is a friend and shares your passion and commitment to the team.

 

GMG

I feel like this is a pathetically well put dig at UNT athletics. Fans sitting middle end zone seats having a slight raise of the voice conversation with fans sitting 50 yard line. 

[keith]

4,156 attended a Saturday afternoon game against Tulane and witnessed an almost wire-to-wire 10 point victory by the Mean Green.  That number is just north of our season average last year.  Our season average is creeping back up, but we are still in a considerable hole down 755 per game or 18.45% compared to last season.  We have 3 home games left.  Hopefully we can keep the upward trajectory going.  Is a 3,500 average out of reach?  We'd need a little over 4,200 for each of the next three games which would be 3 of the top 4 attended games of the season....I dunno.  

I was only able to catch pieces of the game, but it looked like the student turnout was light.  How did the Maniac crowd look?  If the student turnout was down, then the community and alumni made up the difference, which would be good.

 

[UNTLifer]

Maniacs/student turnout was light, embarrassingly light. 

[NorthTexasWeLove]

11 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Maniacs/student turnout was light, embarrassingly light. 

What has the AD done to stir legitimate student interest? 

[meangreenfaninno]

56 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

What has the AD done to stir legitimate student interest? 

AD's are usually running the business not marketing for tickets.

[wardly]

UNT students have demonstrated over the years that they have little if any interest in their athletic programs. The 10's of $ millions we have put into bricks and sticks over the last 20+years has been wasted on them as will be future capital improvements. I have no idea as to how to change the culture but looking at the success of our men's basketball program the past 5 years evidently its not by winning games.

[Matt from A700]

The next home game is "Dallas Mavericks night." We would sell more tickets if we marketed it as a Fire Nico protest.

[meangreenfaninno]

6 minutes ago, wardly said:

UNT students have demonstrated over the years that they have little if any interest in their athletic programs. The 10's of $ millions we have put into bricks and sticks over the last 20+years has been wasted on them as will be future capital improvements. I have no idea as to how to change the culture but looking at the success of our men's basketball program the past 5 years evidently its not by winning games.

We have had about 5 years of sustained success in basketball with Mac and Boss Hodge.   We have had a basketball program for a hundred years b4 that or whatnot.  How can you say in 5 years of SUSTAINED success we can overcome the past century of mediocrity? 

[meangreenfaninno]

29 minutes ago, Matt from A700 said:

The next home game is "Dallas Mavericks night." We would sell more tickets if we marketed it as a Fire Nico protest.

That may have been the worst trade in the history of mankind!

[Shark84]

28 minutes ago, meangreenfaninno said:

We have had about 5 years of sustained success in basketball with Mac and Boss Hodge.   We have had a basketball program for a hundred years b4 that or whatnot.  How can you say in 5 years of SUSTAINED success we can overcome the past century of mediocrity? 

The Johnny Jones era was great and Jimmy Gales led team was the first to make it to the NCAA tournament. We also had some really good teams under Blakely in the late 70's so this success is not the first in a century. 

[NorthTexasWeLove]

1 hour ago, meangreenfaninno said:

We have had about 5 years of sustained success in basketball with Mac and Boss Hodge.   We have had a basketball program for a hundred years b4 that or whatnot.  How can you say in 5 years of SUSTAINED success we can overcome the past century of mediocrity? 

8. 

Anything over .500 ball is success and getting to 20 wins is a standard barometer of measuring success. 

[BigChiefGMG]

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, there was literally 0 marketing on the basketball team until 5 home games left and that’s just dumb. We get 5K+ out to that game and shit the bed 🥲 it’s no surprise that we go back to 3-4K after that. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. It sucks, trust me I would love to see a consistent crowd and AD push - that this is the best program on campus, but it doesn’t get advertised as such. Mean green basketball has given us so much joy over the past decade. Maybe it’s just for us diehards and that’s okay. We all love the pit, but in Hodge’s postgame it struck me how he said he loved the small venues and he highlighted how Texas and SMU downsized their gyms lately to be a more compact environment. Idk, all we can do is drum up as much attention to our friends, family, and peers. Sometimes I feel like I could run the social media teams better than we do lol. There’s no engagement or anything just a hey we play at 8pm on Wednesday vs Tulsa, bring your Mavs gear. The minor league baseball events and advertisements needs to be studied like someone mentioned. 

[BigChiefGMG]

Instead of 85 t shirt tosses at every timeout, maybe promote the other athletic programs/upcoming games. And stop scheduling Texas weselyn and Wayland Baptist cmon now we ain’t trying to see all that 😂 It’s really not that hard. Okay end rant back to getting our attendance up 

Edited 9 hours ago by BigChiefGMG

[greenminer]

6 hours ago, meangreenfaninno said:

We have had about 5 years of sustained success in basketball with Mac and Boss Hodge.   We have had a basketball program for a hundred years b4 that or whatnot.  How can you say in 5 years of SUSTAINED success we can overcome the past century of mediocrity? 

Every year thousands of kids graduate from DFW high schools with zero insight into our history, and with them potential partners/immediate family.

I think we have an uphill battle, but I don't really buy into the cultural/historical excuses, maybe a little bit, but much moreso is a battle with technology and connectivity..  People, young and old, have hundreds of options to be entertained each and every weekend, nearly any hour of the day.  In cafes, in air-conditioned mancaves with 4 flatscreens hanging on the walls.  Over at their friend's Overwatch lan party with drinks of choice.

I dream of a S16 appearance.  It's sooo. hard, but we are one or two possible recruits away from making that leap.  And I know it would give our fanbase a jolt that is desperately needed.  Still need our AD to figure things out, too.

A S16 appearance, IMO, would change the culture of our school.  I can't overstate the media frenzy that surrounds a community that has a basketball team in it.  It is wild.  It would be bigger than any postseason win our football program has ever seen, and maybe we'd actually be a basketball school, and @NorthTexasWeLove could move on to his next bit.  Maybe #TripleOptionFootball

Edited 4 hours ago by greenminer

[wardly]

2 hours ago, meangreenfaninno said:

We have had about 5 years of sustained success in basketball with Mac and Boss Hodge.   We have had a basketball program for a hundred years b4 that or whatnot.  How can you say in 5 years of SUSTAINED success we can overcome the past century of mediocrity? 

        Five years is , in my opinion, ample time for the students to develop an interest in UNT basketball in particular and our sports in general. They don't support anything, and have not for decades.

[NorthTexasWeLove]

2 hours ago, meangreenfaninno said:

AD's are usually running the business not marketing for tickets.

I just assumed marketing and ticket sales fell under the responsibility of the athletic director? Is it a separate department or entity at UNT? If so, what department does this fall under and who oversees it? 

[Shark84]

2 hours ago, greenminer said:

Every year thousands of kids graduate from DFW high schools with zero insight into our history, and with them potential partners/immediate family.

Do I think there is something to be said about DFW history and our liberal arts culture vs Mean Green fandom? Yes.  Do I still believe we should expect reasonable crowds if we find our audience and connect with them? Yes.

I think we have an uphill battle, but I don't really buy into the cultural/historical excuses, maybe a little bit, but much moreso is a battle with technology and connectivity..  People, young and old, have hundreds of options to be entertained each and every weekend, nearly any hour of the day.  In cafes, in air-conditioned mancaves with 4 flatscreens hanging on the walls.  Over at their friend's Overwatch lan party with drinks of choice.

This is a complex issue, with no simple answer.  But I think it can be solved. We only need a fraction of the actual Mean Green alumni to buy in.  I choose to believe it can be done.

I dream of a S16 appearance.  It's sooo. hard, but we are one or two possible recruits away from making that leap.  And I know it would give our fanbase a jolt that is desperately needed.  Still need our AD to figure things out, too.

The problem is to get those one or two recruits, we will need a rich alum or local business to cough up the NIL money to get them. We are having success in both men's and women's basketball because of the head coaches we have in place and their ability to identify players that will fit into their systems and recruit ones that will come to UNT for what we can offer. Lorient is a great example. 

[UNTLifer]

4 hours ago, meangreenfaninno said:

That may have been the worst trade in the history of mankind!

May?

[NorthTexasSportsNetwork]

You can't POSSIBLY expect a huge student turnout after the diasterclass that was put on against UTSA, biggest saturday student turnout in at least 2 years and they see a flop of a performance. Who cares about past success, you have to lower the expectations.