Attendance & Attendance Comparisons

MeanGreen61 · December 6, 2005

NCAA site season attendance averages for Sun Belt teams. Last year's average are in parenthesis and attendance plus or minus to right.

19,425 Troy (21,228) -1803

17,591 UL-Lafayette (21,401) -3,810

16,446 North Texas (15,184) +1,262

15,477 Florida International (7,366) +8,111

15,476 Arkansas State (15,327) +149

14,617 UL-Monroe (14,717) -100

14,526 Middle Tennessee (13,388) +1,138

11,476 Florida Atlantic (10,784) +1,830

Eagle1855 · December 6, 2005

what about other regional teams, such as UH, La Tech, Rice, UTEP, TCU or SMU? Im curious how they are doing in comparison.

VideoEagle · December 6, 2005

I'm impressed we had an increase with the terrible year we had. Sooo much better than that last game a few years back when everyone could have watched from the Deck and easily fit!

MeanGreen61 · December 6, 2005

what about other regional teams, such as UH, La Tech, Rice, UTEP, TCU or SMU? Im curious how they are doing in comparison.
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Interesting question.......here's some figures

31,254 TCU (29,413) +1,841

22,826 Tulsa (16,906) +5,920

18.,630 SMU (17,706) +924

16,417 La Tech (17,548) -1,131

15,054 Houston (21,167) -6,113

10,072 Rice (15,785) -5,713

Eagle1855 · December 6, 2005

I think we are on the right track, though Id like us up there around Troy or Tulsa next year... it would be interesting to see how well sun belt teams travel compared to C-USA teams. That could be part of the reason SMU is higher than us (assuming we all report attendance the same way ). Having a home game like Baylor or other regional rivals probably helps out attendance numbers more than say a tuesday night game against Troy or a Thanksgiving weekend game against Ark State (no offense to Arkie State or Troy), as we likely have more visiting fans as well as benefit from the increased interest from our own home fans.

Thanks for posting MG61!

WeatherfordMeanGreen · December 6, 2005

Incredible...with the year we had, we increased attendance?

We tend to slam the athletic department on this board, but hats off to marketing for bringing people out to see a bad football team.

I expect an increase again next year...

Green92 · December 6, 2005

I was real pleased with the attendance. Other than the last game the crowd was very nice size. Of course lots of room for improvement. Hopefully next year will be even better. The AD has made the football games more of an event. If we can challenge for the conference next year and not have a game after TG it should be even better.

untgirl04 · December 6, 2005

I think the "free game ticket with purchase of North Texas hat" promotion at Lids was a brilliant marketing move. Not only can we push the new logo and merchandise, we get people going to the games. I'd be interested to know how well it actually panned out.

Overall, I'm pleased with the attendance numbers. Although we definitely need to continue improving our average, we're getting there.

ipEAGLE · December 6, 2005

Not bad...

If we could have BEAT Tulsa and played Kstate close I believe we could have averaged 20,000 this yr.

I hope all of those people that showed up to the Tulsa game come back for the SMU game next season.

Arkstfan · December 6, 2005

I was suprised with ASU's numbers.

We didn't have any really well attended games like last year's sellout against Memphis but then we didn't have two Thursday night games in the November rain either.

Thanksgiving weekend is just lousy for football unless you are a mega-school with a tradition of playing on Thanksgiving weekend. I would have come down for the UNT game with my family but it meant leaving my sister-in-law's house at 8:00 pm on Friday and driving 450 miles, much of it two-lane to get to Denton.

NT80 · December 6, 2005

18.,630 SMU (17,706) +924
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*** BOGUS *** BOGUS *** BOGUS ***

C&S · December 6, 2005

Considering the Tuesday night game with Troy was our highest attendance of the year

ipEAGLE · December 6, 2005

Considering the Tuesday night game with Troy was our highest attendance of the year
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Tulsa game... we had 23,000.

greenjoe · December 6, 2005

Had it not been for the last game with Arkansas State on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, with all the students gone, we'd averaged around 20K.

I think this shows that for North Texas, evening games are best for attendance.

Hook 'em Horns

MeanGreen61 · December 6, 2005

The Arkansas State game dropped our attendance average by 2,190 from 18,636 to 16446.

Game by game

23,112 Tulsa

17,644 Troy (Tuesday)

14,153 ULL

19,632 ULM (Homecoming)

7,691 Arkansas State

Coffee and TV · December 6, 2005

Not bad...
If we could have BEAT Tulsa and played Kstate close I believe we could have averaged 20,000 this yr.
I hope all of those people that showed up to the Tulsa game come back for the SMU game next season.
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If we can get 23k for Tulsa then 30k for SMUt will be no problem. I say we even bring in some more temp bleachers.

greensteve · December 6, 2005

I am very encouraged about these figures. I especially am impressed with the Homecoming attendance, just because at this time it was obvious that we were going to struggle... as for the AkSt game, I think it is crazy to schedule a game this late in the season, everyone had gone home...most of the attendance was on the home side, hardly any students attended. We need to end our season the week before thanksgiving.

Looking ahead for next year...with the exception of Latech we have 3 unimportant, non-drawing teams. Correct me if i am wrong, but dont we play both the fl schools, muts and latech...that doesnt really do anything for me. i know we are going to the ponys, but as far a home game are concerned, next years schedule blows!

Coffee and TV · December 6, 2005

Looking ahead for next year...with the exception of Latech we have 3 unimportant, non-drawing teams. Correct me if i am wrong, but dont we play both the fl schools, muts and latech...that doesnt really do anything for me. i know we are going to the ponys, but as far a home game are concerned, next years schedule blows!
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Since I've been here we've never really had a good home schedule, so I'd like to know your definition of one. Certainly you're not comparing next year's to 2005 where we had a CUSA team blow us out & 4 SBC teams.

And don't forget we lost NMags to a new comference so MUTS is the new team to hate, so hate well.

UNTSIG · December 7, 2005

yeah where is the marketing department praise? you guys sure are quick to bash them the rest of the time

risinggreen · December 7, 2005

The Arkansas State game dropped our attendance average by 2,190 from 18,636 to 16446.
Game by game
23,112 Tulsa
17,644 Troy (Tuesday)
14,153 ULL
19,632 ULM (Homecoming)
7,691 Arkansas State
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Those numbers "basically" show that we are getting 20K+ for any Saturday game that has any significant meaning at all. I certainly noticed the difference at the Tulsa and ULM games. Certainly making progress in convincing the fickle fans to come out. If we start out better than terribly next year, I'm hoping for an SMU sellout.

ipEAGLE · December 7, 2005

3,000 or 4,000 of that 23,000 for the Tulsa game came out to see Patrick and Jmo in the same backfield.... after seeing the terrible performance a lot of them won't be back.

Winning will only bring them back. And I'm not talking about Sun Belt wins.

Edited December 7, 2005 by ipEAGLE

SouthernMustang · December 7, 2005

*** BOGUS *** BOGUS *** BOGUS ***
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SMU in the past has bogusly reported attendance figures. But I went to nearly all the games this year, and I'd say the reports were very accurate.

Baylor: 29,000 ... I figured they would've announced around 32k. The stadium was for the most part, full.

TCU: 23,000 ... Very accurate. I was figuring they'd announce around 25k. No question in either of these games.

Tulane: 15,500 ... Family Weekend. Student side was about 1/2 full, alumni side 3/4 full. And of course -- behind the glass was very full as usual haha.

ECU: 10,000 ... Didn't make it.

Rice: 15,300 ... Homecoming. Alumni side of the stadium was packed. Actually had to sit in your assigned seats on that side. Student section was packed for the 2nd quarter and half-time Coronation ceremony.

UTEP: 17,000 ... UTEP brought 8,000 fans. SMU alumni side was fairly full, behind the glass was full as usual. I was very very surprised at how well that game was attended. Of course, thanks in large part to UTEP fans.

NT80 · December 7, 2005

SMU in the past has bogusly reported attendance figures. But I went to nearly all the games this year, and I'd say the reports were very accurate.
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Nothing personal but I had to start the SMU smack early for next season, no time to waste to stir some interest in our game. Speaking of which, who does SMU open with next year before coming to Denton? Since the 'Stangs ended the season on a good winning stretch are fans more behind Bennett and the program now, enough to travel to Denton?