24/25 MBB Attendance Tracker

[NorthTexasWeLove]

9 hours ago, MeanGreenZen said:

The student attendance at the Tulane game was EMBARRASSING.

There is a small group of loud, passionate Maniacs who sit close to the opposing bench, but other than that… I bet there were less than 100 regular students (those not in the band or cheerleaders, etc).

No Greek presence. I’m telling you, if the AD emphasized Greek attendance and could get that going it would make a huge impact. 

It used to be "just win." Now, according to some, it's only a matter of who we win against. Lol. We ain't a bluebood. We aren't annually knocking off legitimate bluebloods. It's a pipe dream. We are 2nd in OUR league. We are probably going to blow by 20 reg season wins vs OUR schedule...

 

Yet...

 

"BuT I WaNt tO seE uS bEaT KeNtUcKy aNd DuKe... mehhhh more self loathing" 

 

Edited 10 hours ago by NorthTexasWeLove

[Matt from A700]

3 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Great.  One of their events during this week should be attending a game.

Shouldn't be hard to make this happen.

[NorthTexasSportsNetwork]

On 2/10/2025 at 10:50 PM, UNTLifer said:

Sorry, but this is a terrible take.

It's almost not even a take at this point; it's the facts. Do you think I like it? Absolutely not. I am always pushing for people to come to games and encouraging other students to come to games. You just have to lower your expectations because you can give away only so much and win so much; it's literally the mindset. The Maniacs leader, Jake, does a great job at attempting to reel students in, and it's honestly a grueling "job". Step foot on campus and try to talk to students about coming to games and why. Beware, you won't have very many positive reactions...

[MeanGreenZen]

21 minutes ago, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

It's almost not even a take at this point; it's the facts. Do you think I like it? Absolutely not. I am always pushing for people to come to games and encouraging other students to come to games. You just have to lower your expectations because you can give away only so much and win so much; it's literally the mindset. The Maniacs leader, Jake, does a great job at attempting to reel students in, and it's honestly a grueling "job". Step foot on campus and try to talk to students about coming to games and why. Beware, you won't have very many positive reactions...

We all went to school here. We know what it is like. I made the rounds drumming up student support for stuff when I was at UNT. It can be done. And you do have to grind. 
Doesn’t Jake get paid to do that? That is what the money is for. 

[NorthTexasSportsNetwork]

I am flat-out stunned by how many overreactions and repeated takes are being said on here. Accept reality. Which is that there will never be consistent student attendance or just regular fan attendance. Y'all act like this is not an issue at about every mid major, and some power conference, schools. FAU made a final four run, yet they had empty seats for several games in 23-24 season, and their arena capacity is 3,100!!!!

UNT has turned more and more into a commuter school, where students come here to get a degree and get to work, and the other portion of students who live on campus aren't always basketball fans. Remember, we are in the state of TEXAS, where football is king. Football attendance is obviously a very different animal here, but there is not a draw that the diehards like many of us on here see, even if there is a lot of winning. Ask 20 random students why they came to this school, maybe 1 of the 20 will even mention wanting to watch our basketball team. You can have all of the success possible; UNT could even make a final four run, yet everyone would be circling back to this topic by February. 

Greeks also don't care much about basketball, and it's not even a priority. Last year I saw a Greek tailgate outside the Pit, being heavily patroled by officers and we also lost that game (either UTSA or USF, I forget). They aren't going to want to come back, especially if you don't win that game. Not to mention some getting kicked out for signs and cussing, which is just their own fault.

You can complain about marketing and promotions all you want, nothing will truly move the needle.  

[NorthTexasSportsNetwork]

3 minutes ago, MeanGreenZen said:

We all went to school here. We know what it is like. I made the rounds drumming up student support for stuff when I was at UNT. It can be done. And you do have to grind. 
Doesn’t Jake get paid to do that? That is what the money is for. 

The key word is "Went". Demographics and interests have changed drastically over the last 5 years, especially from COVID. People don't really care, have jobs or don't even live in Denton. 

And yes, he does. I put the "" because obviously it's for students and they aren't going to be doing this job forever nor under salary by UNT athletics, it's a minimum wage job, but obviously there have been improvements along with the team winning. 

[LittleGreen_Birdie1]

On 2/10/2025 at 10:50 PM, UNTLifer said:

Sorry, but this is a terrible take.

It’s hard for students to get excited about a team that struggles to score more than the football team. They play ugly basketball. Not to mention the Pit is one of the worst arena’s in college basketball. No real history to sell there. It’s ugly, old and outdated. It’s only a brand to the old UNT fans who have lost touch on the new college basketball landscape. Nothing that will bring students in but maybe a more exciting brand of basketball or a new arena. The maniacs have tried but they probably don’t have enough money or resources to get the job done. 

[greenminer]

17 minutes ago, LittleGreen_Birdie1 said:

It’s hard for students to get excited about a team that struggles to score more than the football team. They play ugly basketball. Not to mention the Pit is one of the worst arena’s in college basketball. No real history to sell there. It’s ugly, old and outdated. It’s only a brand to the old UNT fans who have lost touch on the new college basketball landscape. Nothing that will bring students in but maybe a more exciting brand of basketball or a new arena. The maniacs have tried but they probably don’t have enough money or resources to get the job done. 

People like to watch their team win.  If they can win pretty, great! But winning ugly isn't a deal breaker.

Random thought about our facilities: if we are trying to appeal to a student that typically doesn't know or follow sports, would they even know that the Pit is an old or average facility? They could probably nit-pick about lightling but, other than that, I can see them coming in and not really thinking about it.

[CMJ]

Granted, I haven't attended a game in Denton in a few years so I guess it could be falling apart now, but I have been in several other college arenas.  From my experience there are way worse ones than the Super Pit.

[NorthTexasWeLove]

2 hours ago, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

I am flat-out stunned by how many overreactions and repeated takes are being said on here. Accept reality. Which is that there will never be consistent student attendance or just regular fan attendance. Y'all act like this is not an issue at about every mid major, and some power conference, schools. FAU made a final four run, yet they had empty seats for several games in 23-24 season, and their arena capacity is 3,100!!!!

UNT has turned more and more into a commuter school, where students come here to get a degree and get to work, and the other portion of students who live on campus aren't always basketball fans. Remember, we are in the state of TEXAS, where football is king. Football attendance is obviously a very different animal here, but there is not a draw that the diehards like many of us on here see, even if there is a lot of winning. Ask 20 random students why they came to this school, maybe 1 of the 20 will even mention wanting to watch our basketball team. You can have all of the success possible; UNT could even make a final four run, yet everyone would be circling back to this topic by February. 

Greeks also don't care much about basketball, and it's not even a priority. Last year I saw a Greek tailgate outside the Pit, being heavily patroled by officers and we also lost that game (either UTSA or USF, I forget). They aren't going to want to come back, especially if you don't win that game. Not to mention some getting kicked out for signs and cussing, which is just their own fault.

You can complain about marketing and promotions all you want, nothing will truly move the needle.  

Horrible take. Accept it? My man, I hope prison isn't in your future. 

 

And NOTHING will move the needle? Alright, guys, pack it up and burn it all to the ground. 

[Green Lantern]

2 hours ago, LittleGreen_Birdie1 said:

It’s only a brand to the old UNT fans who have lost touch on the new college basketball landscape. 

I’d like to hear more about this “new college basketball landscape”.

[NorthTexasSportsNetwork]

1 hour ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

Horrible take. Accept it? My man, I hope prison isn't in your future. 

 

And NOTHING will move the needle? Alright, guys, pack it up and burn it all to the ground. 

I’ve been saying burn everything to the ground for a while, so I agree.

What would you do to get fans to the Pit, is a better question. You have the success, you have the current success from the current team, you have students and fans in the area. Tell me what you would do that would change this trend and not make it to where everyone should accept we will never have good fans? 

A new arena? Well we don’t have money to do that, we can’t even start on the athletic complex.

Pay students with cash to come to games? Give away Mercedes’ and Tesla’s as promotions? Free tuition for 100 students? Hold people at gunpoint? 
Haha I just don’t possibly know what could change it, which is why I say nothing will move the needle and people need to accept it.

EDIT: I say this in a very non threatening way lol, just posing a question. 

Edited 4 hours ago by NorthTexasSportsNetwork

[NorthTexasWeLove]

20 minutes ago, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

I’ve been saying burn everything to the ground for a while, so I agree.

What would you do to get fans to the Pit, is a better question. You have the success, you have the current success from the current team, you have students and fans in the area. Tell me what you would do that would change this trend and not make it to where everyone should accept we will never have good fans? 

A new arena? Well we don’t have money to do that, we can’t even start on the athletic complex.

Pay students with cash to come to games? Give away Mercedes’ and Tesla’s as promotions? Free tuition for 100 students? Hold people at gunpoint? 
Haha I just don’t possibly know what could change it, which is why I say nothing will move the needle and people need to accept it.

EDIT: I say this in a very non threatening way lol, just posing a question. 

There is a lot I would do, but I'm on a phone and I don't really have the bandwidth to type it all out. 

I know people have met the man in passing once so they'll be pro JM, but I'd start by firing him. He isn't doing a good job. He's not doing an awful job, but he didn't get promoted to come on board and not do an awful job. I just think he's not a good fit here with our needs and the demands of trying to make UNT excellent. He directs as if he's at Alabama or Notre Dame, a full shark. 

[untjim1995]

5 hours ago, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

It's almost not even a take at this point; it's the facts. Do you think I like it? Absolutely not. I am always pushing for people to come to games and encouraging other students to come to games. You just have to lower your expectations because you can give away only so much and win so much; it's literally the mindset. The Maniacs leader, Jake, does a great job at attempting to reel students in, and it's honestly a grueling "job". Step foot on campus and try to talk to students about coming to games and why. Beware, you won't have very many positive reactions...

But we were clearly told that the students just don’t know about the games being played on campus so that’s why they aren’t coming…but your pointing to a conclusion that the apathy here is so profound that even winning won’t bring fans to the Pit, only the opponent we are playing. I’ve been told by many posters that this just can’t be the reason, though, for non-attendance.

[UNTLifer]

5 hours ago, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

. Step foot on campus and try to talk to students about coming to games and why. Beware, you won't have very many positive reactions...

What are the reactions?  What do students say?

[UNTLifer]

4 hours ago, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

 

You can complain about marketing and promotions all you want, nothing will truly move the needle.  

How do we know when there are little to none in terms of marketing and promotions. They did it for one game, one. This isn’t a one and done effort. 

[UNTLifer]

2 hours ago, Green Lantern said:

I’d like to hear more about this “new college basketball landscape”.

I would as well. What is the new landscape?

I call bullshit on this take. I see the stands full at other universities in Texas and around the country. As others have mentioned, nothing is done to attract the students, nothing. North Texas has done a horrible job of making students proud to be students here. I went to both Tulane games this weekend. Walking to enter the SP I passed two college aged males, one in a UT shirt and the other in an OU shirt. Walked into the game and passed a girl in a Baylor shirt. That is ridiculous and should be the exception not the rule. Be proud of your school and that starts at the top and filters down. 
The take on the SP being old and outdated is also a cop out. It is a great arena to watch a game with very few, if any, bad seats. Like everything else at NT, change the culture. A perfect example is what Cuban did when he bought the Mavs. Nobody wanted to go to games and tickets were easy to come by. It didn’t take long to change that mindset, but it takes effort. 

[UNTLifer]

4 hours ago, LittleGreen_Birdie1 said:

It’s hard for students to get excited about a team that struggles to score more than the football team. They play ugly basketball. Not to mention the Pit is one of the worst arena’s in college basketball. No real history to sell there. It’s ugly, old and outdated. It’s only a brand to the old UNT fans who have lost touch on the new college basketball landscape. Nothing that will bring students in but maybe a more exciting brand of basketball or a new arena. The maniacs have tried but they probably don’t have enough money or resources to get the job done. 

Interesting. Joined the board six months ago and this is your fourth post. 

[NorthTexasSportsNetwork]

1 hour ago, UNTLifer said:

What are the reactions?  What do students say?

Many do not care. I have tried to pull people from my classes to games, but they're either disinterested or have other things to do. You can't force people to come to games, and unfortunately, there isn't much of an appeal for many students. I honestly do not know what you can do to get more interested by coming to games. Doesn't help that game times are awful in the AAC. 

I will keep saying this until I'm blue in the face, UNT is a commuter school where people come here to study, go to class, graduate and move on. People don't come to UNT for the sports, especially basketball.

[NorthTexasSportsNetwork]

1 hour ago, untjim1995 said:

But we were clearly told that the students just don’t know about the games being played on campus so that’s why they aren’t coming…but your pointing to a conclusion that the apathy here is so profound that even winning won’t bring fans to the Pit, only the opponent we are playing. I’ve been told by many posters that this just can’t be the reason, though, for non-attendance.

Wait who said any of that? I sure didn't. They promoted the SMU game for weeks and got 2,000+ students to show up because it's a big game. Everyone knows who smu is. Many people on here are oblivious to the realization that people will only show up for big games, no matter how good the team is. Always been like that and almost always will be. 

[UNTLifer]

Out of 47,000 I’m betting you could find 8%~10% initially.   Like football, make it part of freshman orientation and start with the new kids. 

[greenminer]

7 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Like football, make it part of freshman orientation and start with the new kids. 

I think I read on this board one or two years ago that they aren't doing that anymore? Hope I am wrong.  I thought that was an incredible first step by Seth and Co.

[NorthTexasSportsNetwork]

7 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Out of 47,000 I’m betting you could find 8%~10% initially.   Like football, make it part of freshman orientation and start with the new kids. 

They do orientation events inside the Super Pit and promote basketball and the Maniacs, but once again, there is an extreme lack of interest.