Support

[Cerebus]

I am going to try and keep this short and sweet.

I am dismayed at the talk by some fans that they will not buy season tickets or give to the MGC next year. Please, please re-think this. This will only be counter productive to North Texas athletics at a very critical time.

Let me allay some of the things I have heard from posters:

If you continue to contribute, Coach Dickey will be here next year; If you don't continue to contribute, Coach Dickey will still be the coach here next year.  The difference is North Texas will lose numbers in the the season ticket and booster club totals, numbers that will be very very important to us in the next realignment round.

You will not effect whether or not coaching changes are made next year, you will hurt the total package we can show to other conferences.

The conference game is all about money.  Cash money money.  SMU and UTEP didn't get intp CUSA with thier records.  They got in with the amount of money commitment they could bring to the table.  Our attendence this year, in light of our record, is out standing.  We need to continue to build on that.

Well, like I said before, Coach Dickey will be here next year.  If there is another sub par year, then you may get your wish.  However, don't lose your voice in the matter.    And if you stop contributing, that is what will happen. You will have no weight in the matter because your are no longer a booster.  You really want your words to carry weight?  Double your contribution next year.  Then if the season is a failure, the powers that would not only be ready for a change, but your opinion would be that much more valued.

Enough ranting. To summarize: Nothing positive will happen if you withdrawl your support of the program next year.

[Green92]

Agreed 100%. I had two people get upset with me Saturday for yelling at the coaches??? I will continue to be in my seats yelling at the coaches again next year.

[Cerebus]

Shameless Bump.

[Guest JohnDenver]

Shameless Bump.

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I call it shamefully bumping.

[MeanMag]

It deserves to be said.

[meangreanmick]

I am going to try and keep this short and sweet. 

I am dismayed at the talk by some fans that they will not buy season tickets or give to the MGC next year.  Please, please re-think this.  This will only be counter productive to North Texas athletics at a very critical time. 

Let me allay some of the things I have heard from posters:

Enough ranting. To summarize: Nothing positive will happen if you withdrawl your support of the program next year.

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COULDNT AGREE MORE.

[LoveMG]

Enough ranting.  To summarize: Nothing positive will happen if you withdrawl your support of the program next year. 

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you have to consider WHY fans threaten to pull their financial support or leave the board etc. it is the only voice in the process they have to show displeasure. RV needs to give fans a token firing - show he won't condone this past season's failure. not only failure but complete failure at home, ie 54-2 to tulsa was a major setback to the program building fans.

[Cerebus]

it is the only voice in the process they have to show displeasure. 

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They can write RV. They can call RV. I am sure RV would be happy to come and speak with any university related group.

If by "voice in the process" they mean "have Dickey removed immediately" then no, they don't have a voice.

If by "voice in the process" give feed back to people in authority who are very concerned about what they think, then yes, they do have a voice.

[TIgreen01]

A token firing?? You didn't even see a token suspension for RF's actions....

[GMoney]

There is a way to show displeasure and a way not to. If this was a pro team, then by all means, don't buy tickets, don't show up and hurt the owner in his pockets.

However, with a college team that is the worst thing you can possibly do! No fans, means no athletic budget, no good recruits, a program that can't sell anything to anyone (community, nationally, students and recruits), lack of student support for the student's entire time at school (and all the years after they leave), a program you can't sell to another decent Coach, it'll put an end to all the new developments currently in process and it will punish the players.

If you are unhappy write the athletic director, write the President, boo at the games, heck write the head coach, but don't punish the entire athletic program in all the ways stated above because the product on the field was bad this year.

[MeanGreenSig]

Cerebus

I agree 100%. Thanks for saying that, the fair weather fans can get packing.

Do you think Bobby Ray became so influential by withdrawing his financial support during all those bad years? THINK ABOUT IT.

GMG!!!!

[ipEAGLE]

Thanks for saying that, the fair weather fans can get packing.

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We aren't Texas or OU... we need fair weather fans.

[Cerebus]

We aren't Texas or OU... we need fair weather fans.

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I agree. We need them to stick it out and contribute next year. We are going to lose some of them no matter what, I hope the die hards ride it out.

[MeanGreenSig]

No we need fair weather fans to become season ticket holders

GMG

[SilverEagle]

By threatening to boycott the program, either financially or by your absence, you put the program in danger of going back to the 1-AA days. Or worse, we could go back to the days right after Joe Green and company left, and right before Hayden Fry arrived.

Right before Fry arrived there was a student referendum to drop football. It barely failed.

Having said all that, I'm somewhat ambivalent about the "threatening to withhold financial support issue". I know that it's a terrible idea, especially for North Texas. But continuing financial support or increasing it at this time, sends a "confidence" message, when that might not be how you're really feeling.

I agree with GMoney that writing the AD and President is probably the best idea. I would also "cc" the appropriate BOR people when I wrote.

E-mails and letters can often claimed to be "not received" by people in power. Having an extensive "cc" list on your correspondence tends to take that "ignoring technique" away from those people.

[CorinthEagle]

Hey Silver, was your selection as "fan of the game" or whatever it was during the 2nd half happen completely randomly or was this a "kiss and make up" gesture after the Flanigan fiasco? I could only imagine the look on Ramon's face when he looked up and saw you on the video screen.

[MeanGreen61]

There is a way to show displeasure and a way not to.  If this was a pro team, then by all means, don't buy tickets, don't show up and hurt the owner in his pockets.

However, with a college team that is the worst thing you can possibly do!  No fans, means no athletic budget, no good recruits, a program that can't sell anything to anyone (community, nationally, students and recruits), lack of student support for the student's entire time at school (and all the years after they leave), a program you can't sell to another decent Coach, it'll put an end to all the new developments currently in process and it will punish the players.

If you are unhappy write the athletic director, write the President, boo at the games, heck write the head coach, but don't punish the entire athletic program in all the ways stated above because the product on the field was bad this year.

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Excellent post GMoney.

[SilverEagle]

Hey Silver, was your selection as "fan of the game" or whatever it was during the 2nd half happen completely randomly or was this a "kiss and make up" gesture after the Flanigan fiasco?  I could only imagine the look on Ramon's face when he looked up and saw you on the video screen.   

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They told me that they liked the Joe Greene jersey that I was wearing. I offered to loan them the jersey for the rest of the game, if they would leave me alone.

It was only through shaming by Rick that I agreed to go out there.

What everyone didn't know was that I wasn't yelling "go mean green" or "We're #!" I was yelling "we're getting outcoached again!"

Seriously, I really did enjoy walking the sidelines and visiting with the very friendly and pleasant young lady that was in charge of coordinating the video sideline camera. I told her that by getting me down on the sideline, I was able to be more "effectively obnoxious".

It also made it easier for me to harass Cerebus.

[KingDL1]

I think it is fairly clear that I don't like the direction that DD is taking us and I believe we needed to fire him yesterday for the better of the Football program.

But I will be there next year season tickets in hand, but if DD is there I just won't be happy. I will have to look to tailgating and seeing old friends.

[UNTFan23]

I'm going to renew my season Tix as always and maybe join the MGC (depending on my financial status) at the $250 level.

I do however, expect improvement or else ... I'll ... post ... funny pictures of DD ... when ... he is ... on the sidelines.

[Rudy]

I agree, but here is my problem. Some of us have very little extra money. If we are going to spend what little, hard-earned money we have to support this program and spend our entire Saturdays in Denton instead of having a second job, then we need to be garaunteed that we are going to continue to see improvement. If we have to sit through another season like this, I can see why some won't want to spend $350 to watch this again. They can spend $8 and sit in the cheap seats if they are die hard fans, or if they aren't, then they can spend the Saturday elsewhere and save money.

To top that off, we have Athletic Department employees treating fans like crap (yes, Mr Clean is an employee of NT, not CSC) and we have hired stadium people starting fights with students, and trying to throw out some of our program's biggest supporters. Then we have assistant coaches threating fans.

I plan to renew my season tickets, and I expect the die hards to as well. However, I can see some of those that don't bleed green like us not renewing, and I don't necessarily blame them.

[NT91]

NT football needs all of us now more than ever.

[GangGreen]

Pissed at the results, but I will still buy two season tickets and make the drive from New Braunfels as many times as possible.

I think lower section C has a better time when I'm not there. But, oh well.

[Cowtown]

I agree.

Next year looks like our best home schedule in years.

Time to move forward.

[PlummMeanGreen]

By threatening to boycott the program, either financially or by your absence, you put the program in danger of going back to the 1-AA days. Or worse, we could go back to the days right after Joe Green and company left, and right before Hayden Fry arrived.

Right before Fry arrived there was a student referendum to drop football. It barely failed.

Having said all that, I'm somewhat ambivalent about the "threatening to withhold financial support issue". I know that it's a terrible idea, especially for North Texas. But continuing financial support or increasing it at this time, sends a "confidence" message, when that might not be how you're really feeling.

I agree with GMoney that writing the AD and President is probably the best idea. I would also "cc" the appropriate BOR people when I wrote.

E-mails and letters can often claimed to be "not received" by people in power. Having an extensive "cc" list on your correspondence tends to take that "ignoring technique" away from those people.

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There is only one man on the NT campus responsible for all this DD-support and he is not even on the payroll. You all know who that one BOR is and what he says gets rubber-stamped by the other Regents.

TO ANY REGENT OR NT OFFICIAL READING THIS THREAD: Find 1,000 NT students (out of 32,000) who know anything about college football who think Dickey Ball is the wave of the future at UNT and "IF" they fully suport it and enjoy watching it in light of his 8 year way under .500 W/L record and I'll stop this embarrassing (even to me) tirade of posts that express my own dire, deep concern that there is no "above" SBC/Bottom 10 future with a Dickey-led football program.

I swear to it, any unbiased outsider or paid consultant would look at this 8 year situation with Darrell Dickey and ask why he's getting so much time to hang around after they would take a much closer look at the NT Media Guide to just see who we had to beat (with even many of those close scores) to back into 4 bowl games and get this: Just how many transitional D1-AA schools or schools just recently removed from 1-AA status who are in the SBC/Bottom 10 that Dickey-led footbal teams have lost to in the last 4 years and beyond.

Our NT Board of Regents are living in a "Bobby in Wonderland" influenced co-existence with the completely veiled and disguised success of one of the strangest coaching tenures (especially with how a head football coach feels toward his employer's fans and alums) that I have ever witnessed in 40 plus years of being a pretty damn close follower of NCAA D1 football. I only wish all this were happening somewhere else other than Denton, Texas.

GOD BLESS TEXAS!

Edited November 29, 2005 by PlummMeanGreen