FW*Telegram Hunt begins will it be a hard sell

Tramp96 · November 14, 2006

My point has been missed entirely here.

UNT is not the Big 10. The Big 10 has a football tradition unmatched by nearly anyone. You cannot expect to run Big 10 style offenses here at UNT and expect to be successful. They have NFL talent, UNT does not.

Dickey went how many years undefeated in the Sun Belt? Three? Four? What did it produce? Other than when Baylor or TCU came to Fouts, when did we ever go over 20,000? Maybe once or twice? Wins doesn't necessarily generate the excitement needed to put butts in seats in the metroplex. You have to give them more for their dollar.

My point is...boring wins do not entertain the masses. Yes they entertain the diehard fans...but UNT needs more support than that.

Some of you say you would be happy with 22,000. Well, that won't pay the bills folks. You want a new stadium. You want a new conference. Well, average attendance less than 30,000 won't give you what you want, and a boring yet semi-successful offense will be slow to increase attendance in the timeframe you want it increased.

jimmyjames_99 · November 14, 2006

My point has been missed entirely here...You have to give them more for their dollar.
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I see your point... So, more close ups of the UNT dancers on the score board?!?!

Stan R · November 14, 2006

well, we got the largest crowd in Fouts history to the Baylor game running that same boring-ass offense, so I dont see your point.
'Boring wins' (which I am assuming you mean, "wins with a boring offense") dont bring masses to the games? Tell that to the Big 10.
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If you are winning squeakers against the Baylors and SMUs of teh world, people probably wouldn't care what is on the field.

Maybe you missed that part of my post. Ah yes - comparing the Big 10 to the Sun Belt - BRILLIANT!

VideoEagle · November 14, 2006

My point has been missed entirely here.
Some of you say you would be happy with 22,000. Well, that won't pay the bills folks. You want a new stadium. You want a new conference.
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No, averaging 22K will pay the bills. That’s the actual point!

If we average 22K, we are probably have some 28K games and a few 19K games. To average 30000 in a stadium that only seats 30500 is not practical. And a lot of the C-USA schools are averaging LESS than 20K. Most MAC schools average less than 20K. Most WAC schools average less than 20K.

Cowtown · November 14, 2006

When they were CUSA their biggest games were against Louisville, not games of local intrest against SMU, UTEP, etc.

You create your own rivalries. SMU, UH, RICE, dont bring anyone to the game. But a top 20 matchup against UL or SoMiss and you get the local fans.

Sprinkle in one big regional game (Tech, Ark, UT, OU) and you have a sellout.

The Tech game was nuts, TT alumni bought the entire parking field at the Elementary that we had our TCU tailgate, the RV's starting arriving on Trs. On Sat they set up the gigantic flatscreen and had their own private party, no one went to the game because there were no tickets, so they just set up and tailgated for 3 days and watched the game from their lounge chairs on artificial grass insta lawns.

Without a big visiting crowd I do think the Frogs are at maximum density as far as MWC crowds go. But 35 - 40 K isnt that bad.

They hope to keep building the program and get a bigger invite when the conf shake up again in 2010.

What really sucks for them is that unless they win the MWC, they are pretty much going bowling at home.

Now if they start losing...and it is back to the 18K WAC days.

GMG

TCU draws so "badly" because they play in the MWC. Nobody cares about Wyoming, SDSU, etc.
If they played teams that anyone in Texas cared about, they would be drawing 40-45K every game.
They draw what they do now (~35-38K) because they are WINNING. If they ever jump to a bigger conf with regional rivals, their attendance will increase even more, because those teams should travel better than the Utah's of the world.
If Patterson has some down years against the nobodies in the MWC, the Frogs attendance will be in the 25K range quickly.
I agree that an entertaining offense is important, but if UNT could end it's OOC schedule at 3-1 or 4-0 pretty much every year before hitting SBC play, do you think people would give a crap whether they're running the Spread or the Single-Wing?
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LongJim · November 14, 2006

My point has been missed entirely here.
Wins doesn't necessarily generate the excitement needed to put butts in seats in the metroplex. You have to give them more for their dollar.
My point is...boring wins do not entertain the masses.
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I think I understand the point you're trying to make. You believe that UNT needs, first and foremost, to change their offense to a more exciting, wide-open style.

Eagle1855 · November 14, 2006

Maybe you missed that part of my post. Ah yes - comparing the Big 10 to the Sun Belt - BRILLIANT!
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For the guy who calls out everyone else on reading comprehension, I will explain the point of my post since it could not be extrapolated using the context clues.

My point was simply that many people in the Big 10 might think a close, hard fought matchup is in fact an exciting game, and that the fact that a final score was 13-10 doesnt necessarily preclude it being entertaining. That is typically the style of football you see there. I didnt say the tradition, or the fanbase, or the programs, or anything else were in anyway similar.

Stan R · November 14, 2006

For the guy who calls out everyone else on reading comprehension, I will explain the point of my post since it could not be extrapolated using the context clues.
My point was simply that many people in the Big 10 might think a close, hard fought matchup is in fact an exciting game, and that the fact that a final score was 13-10 doesnt necessarily preclude it being entertaining. That is typically the style of football you see there. I didnt say the tradition, or the fanbase, or the programs, or anything else were in anyway similar.
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Am I really that bad in calling out people for reading comprehension?

My point is simply that in the Big10 - every game is entertaining because of the level of talent involved. I've enjoyed our close wins in the conference because I am a diehard and I understand the Sun Belt and our short history with it. But people outside UNT or even semi-interested alums are not. So... What do we need? We unfortunately need a gimmick. The gimmick that has been working for most teams these days is the spread types of offenses.

Bottom line is that most of the on the fence crowd would be enticed back into the stadium with the spread. And that is the most important factor - attendance. All things being equal (wins) please give me the spread team vs. the grind it out teams.

Thanks and goodnight.

Tramp96 · November 14, 2006

Am I really that bad in calling out people for reading comprehension?
My point is simply that in the Big10 - every game is entertaining because of the level of talent involved. I've enjoyed our close wins in the conference because I am a diehard and I understand the Sun Belt and our short history with it. But people outside UNT or even semi-interested alums are not. So... What do we need? We unfortunately need a gimmick. The gimmick that has been working for most teams these days is the spread types of offenses.
Bottom line is that most of the on the fence crowd would be enticed back into the stadium with the spread. And that is the most important factor - attendance. All things being equal (wins) please give me the spread team vs. the grind it out teams.
Thanks and goodnight.
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Well said.

November 14, 2006

There's an old adage that says...offense sells tickets, defense wins games.

What if we could do both? Have an exciting offense that would put points on the board and people in the seats coupled with a staunch enough defense that could allow those points to stand up well enough to win games.

Contrary to what the Indy Star might have said, we did not lose money last year. RV is running a pretty effiicient ship and we actually had over a million surplus in 2005; $14.2 revenue vs. $12.9 expenses. I don't know if that was a year with extraordinary revenue, fewer expenses than usual, or some combination of both. That keeps our head above water but it won't grow the program.

I agree that it will take an average of 22-25k to produce the type of revenue that we need to advance. Better yet, we need about 10,000 in season ticket sales. If we could reach that point on a consistent basis then we could issue bonds to build the new stadium.

FirefightnRick · November 14, 2006

"You have to get your feet in the door somewhere."
Sounds like Patterson is echoing his buddy DD's "bottom of the barrel" sentiments toward North Texas. Good riddance. Can't wait until we get an opportunity to kick TCU's butt and help bring Patterson back down to earth.
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When will our local beat writers report on this with INTERVIEWS of someone other than a close personal friend of DD?

Rick