Attendance Avg.

[GangGreen]

With the Poontangs and La. Tech coming to town, what will we average this year?

2003- 18,694

2004 - 15,184

2005 - 16,446

[Stan R]

I'll say 2006 - 19,512

[ntmeangreen11]

Looking at our schedule, I'll say we break 20K this year.

20,643

We would have been way over that had we beaten Tulsa last season.

[adman]

Looking at our schedule, I'll say we break 20K this year.

20,643

We would have been way over that had we beaten Tulsa last season.

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Play Texas close and beat SMU resoundingly and I think you are right. Get blown out at Texas and whipped by SMU and this years numbers will be awful. Beat Texas and clobber SMU and our second home game will be a sell out.

[SilverEagle]

Play Texas close and beat SMU resoundingly and I think you are right.  Get blown out at Texas and whipped by SMU and this years numbers will be awful.  Beat Texas and clobber SMU and our second home game will be a sell out.

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Beat Texas and our FIRST home game will be a sell-out......SRO as a matter of fact.

Edited July 21, 2006 by SilverEagle

[adman]

Beat Texas and our FIRST home game will be a sell-out......SRO as a matter of fact.

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I was working on the assumption that it already would be or at least be close. Part of it has to do with how SMU does in their opener.

[NT91]

SMU will sellout. La Tech will have 25k or more.

2006-21K

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

What adman said.

I would expect our first home game to be a sellout.

[Harry]

See I think the UT performance is really not a factor I mean let's be real they are the national freaking champions. SMU is huge. It's a lot like Tulsa last year. We will have a LOT of people in the metroplex hungry for football coming to that game. There will be a lot of fence sitters much like Tulsa last year. I wouldn't be surprised to see it sell out although the endzone seating is so god awful at Fouts I think it would be hard to get a devout Big 12 team fan to sit out there.

It's a huge game and the coaches and adminstrators know that.

If we play well and win, I think you will get a rollover effect for the rest of the season especially from the student population which in our situation is key. Every year it seems we are building more dorms and there are more students staying on campus.

I predict this to be a 20+K attendance year because of 2 reasons, 1). the SMU game is so early for both teams that losses against Big 12 teams won't matter and 2). the La Tech game. The Techsters have a pretty big population in the DFW and they will come out to support their team.

It is imperative that we play well against SMU. An ugly loss would be distaterous attendance wise. If you look at our history we haven't faired well in our openers, particularly as a D-I program.

Last year (2005) we lost our home opener against a very good Tulsa team. In 2004 we lost our home opener to Florida Atlantic (ouch). In 2003 we had a HUGE win against Baylor that led to one of our best seasons ever (9-4). In 2002 we beat a pretty salty Nichols State team in a game no one really cared about. In 2001 we lost a hard fought opening game against TCU. In 2000 we lost our home opener to Baylor. In 1999 we lost our opener to UNLV and John Robinson. In 1998 we lost our home opener (at Texas Stadium thank you) to Texas Tech. In 1997 we beat IAA Indiana State in our home opener, another game like Nichols State that noone cared about. In the 1996 home opener we beat non I-A Illinois State in another game noone cared about. In 1995 as an independent we lost our opener to Kansas (at Texas Stadium) in a game we should have won. In 1994 we were IAA.

Here's my point: Since our return to I-A (1995) we have had a total home opening record of 4-7. Only 1 of those 4 wins came against a I-A opponent (Baylor). The other three wins came against IAA's Illinois State, Nichols State and Indiana State. The 7 losses came against Tulsa, Florida Atlantic, TCU, Baylor, UNLV, Texas Tech and Kansas. I think we had an opportunity to win all of those 7 games with the possible exception of Tech in 1998. We didn't and we still to this day are paying the price from an attendance perspective.

It was essentially 7-years of lost opportunities. In a market that is dominated by pro sports it is imperative that you win games especially at the start of the season in front of your home crowd.

Let's hope we fare better in our home openers starting this year against SMU.

[DallasGreen]

See I think the UT performance is really not a factor I mean let's be real they are the national freaking champions.  SMU is huge.  It's a lot like Tulsa last year.  We will have a LOT of people in the metroplex hungry for football coming to that game.  There will be a lot of fence sitters much like Tulsa last year.  I wouldn't be surprised to see it sell out although the endzone seating is so god awful at Fouts I think it would be hard to get a devout Big 12 team fan to sit out there.

It's a huge game and the coaches and adminstrators know that. 

If we play well and win, I think you will get a rollover effect for the rest of the season especially from the student population which in our situation is key.  Every year it seems we are building more dorms and there are more students staying on campus. 

I predict this to be a 20+K attendance year because of 2 reasons, 1).  the SMU game is so early for both teams that losses against Big 12 teams won't matter and 2).  the La Tech game.  The Techsters have a pretty big population in the DFW and they will come out to support their team.

Starting Richard Bridges rather than Scott Hall in 1998 against TT lost the game for us on Monday, the actual Sat. contest just proved it was a DD forfeit despite Scott's herioic effort in the second half to try and salvage what I believe would have been a great win for the program had we had Scott as a starter. That has to be one of the more bone headed moves of the DD era. The fact that DD left Texas Division 5-A player of the year and state champion Spencer Stack on the bench to start Bridges is yet another issue in a game truly butchered by a stubborn coaching staff, particularly RM & DD.  

It is imperative that we play well against SMU.  An ugly loss would be distaterous attendance wise.   If you look at our history we haven't faired well in our openers, particularly as a D-I program. 

Last year (2005) we lost our home opener against a very good Tulsa team.  In 2004 we lost our home opener to Florida Atlantic (ouch).  In 2003 we had a HUGE win against Baylor that led to one of our best seasons ever (9-4).  In 2002 we beat a pretty salty Nichols State team in a game no one really cared about.   In 2001 we lost a hard fought opening game against TCU.   In 2000 we lost our home opener to Baylor.   In 1999 we lost our opener to UNLV and John Robinson.  In 1998 we lost our home opener (at Texas Stadium thank you) to Texas Tech.  In 1997 we beat IAA Indiana State in our home opener, another game like Nichols State that noone cared about.    In the 1996 home opener we beat non I-A Illinois State in another game noone cared about.   In 1995 as an independent we lost our opener to Kansas (at Texas Stadium) in a game we should have won.  In 1994 we were IAA.

Here's my point: Since our return to I-A (1995) we have had a total home opening record of 4-7.  Only 1 of those  4 wins came against a I-A opponent (Baylor).  The other three wins came against IAA's Illinois State, Nichols State and Indiana State.   The 7 losses came against Tulsa, Florida Atlantic, TCU, Baylor, UNLV, Texas Tech and Kansas.  I think we had an opportunity to win all of those 7 games with the possible exception of Tech in 1998.  We didn't and we still to this day are paying the price from an attendance perspective.

It was essentially 7-years of lost opportunities.  In a market that is dominated by pro sports it is imperative that you win games especially at the start of the season in front of your home crowd.

Let's hope we fare better in our home openers starting this year against SMU.

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DISCLAIMER: Above insert about 1998 TT game is insert by me and NOT part of Harry's original post Edited July 22, 2006 by DallasGreen

[badgerwolf]

SMU will sellout. La Tech will have 25k or more.

2006-21K

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No matter how many turn out for the La Tech game the Techies will claim about 10K were traveling Tech fans . . . LOL!

[fan19740]

16,500

[DallasGreen]

16,500

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19,000 for SMU

14,500 season aveage

Unless we get SMU ticket counters then increase each of the above by 25%

[Baby Arm!]

No matter how many turn out for the La Tech game the Techies will claim about 10K were traveling Tech fans . . . LOL!

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Ain't it the truth!. During the summer on the LaTech board some of their posters were predicting they'd outdraw the North Texas home crowd for this game. They seem to ignore the fact that even with our 2-9 team and woeful attendance last year, we still had a larger home attendance average then they did!