Fw*telegram On New Stadium Status Link

FirefightnRick · July 27, 2007

QUOTE(AnotherEagleFan @ Jul 26 2007, 11:32 AM)
My University is too far away for me to be a season ticket holder. So I try to support UNT athletics (football and basketball). And in doing that I frequent this board. But I have to tell you that all of the constant complaining is driving me crazy.
So, the school is too far away for you to donate as a season ticket holder, therefore you support (football and basketball) by frequenting this board instead, which is full of complainers?

Give the guy a break, he frequents the board and often offers his own opinions from a different perspective. You'd think for a program that is pining for bandwagon fans such as ours, we wouldn't give our "secondary" fans a hard time for offering up their thoughts and would gladly welcome anyone who wishes success for our program.
And yes, 8 pages of bitching about Stadium Status with almost ZERO factual information is quite exhausting- no matter your primary allegiance.

1855, I was asking a simple question(without accusations of any kind) on whether or not this was his/her intention of what he/she meant in the above qoute. Considering he's/she's calling a perfectly good discussion on a subject that has all of us concerned as "constant complaining", I'd think that in the least I reserve the right to ask it. And I'm certain of his/her ability from previous posts, to answer without your help. How about giving him/her a chance to speak for themselves?

Rick

July 27, 2007

I always thought that a great coaching staff was a more effective initial investment than a stadium, and that investing in the right head coach and assistants would also take care of the stadium issue. It remains to be seen whether the investment made was the right one. All we have for now are positive signs.

If you think seating at Fouts is awful, try sitting halfway up the west upper deck at UT's stadium. I'd love for NT to get rid of the track and move the seats closer or build a new stadium. And I don't like anyone making excuses about not building one, when schools are clearly building new things ALL THE TIME. However, it doesn't seem like any of us are going to be able to do anything about it. I don't think any of us went to NT because of the great sports tradition. We're all hoping for this sort of grand transformation. The fact is, there is a lot of inertia that works against it. I think there are some people associated with NT going, 'Now, WHY do we want to be a sports powerhouse?" That's how I interpret the uncertainty on the stadium and frankly also the decision about hiring Coach Dodge. While there are a lot of positive elements supporting that decision, I think you have to admit there is a real element of uncertainty about what the results will be. No question it was a step in the right direction, but how big of a step, we do not presently have any idea. We do know that our facility is not going to help the man in his mission. Is that compelling enough to justify allocating funds or additional fundraising resources?

Baby Arm! · July 27, 2007

This is why I hate for rumors to take off on this board.
1) No one annouces anything official.
2) Something is over heard, told by a friend, read between the lines, etc...
3) Posted.
4) Repeated.
5) Taken as Truth.
6) Furious wrath descends on those who never said anything in the first place.
I really hate to see what this board is going to look like if we stumble out of the gate this season.

Truer words were never spoken... or written in this case

FirefightnRick · July 27, 2007

We do know that our facility is not going to help the man in his mission. Is that compelling enough to justify allocating funds or additional fundraising resources?

Many believe that it's "Talent" that wins games more than any other factor. The first thing TD let those he spoke with while weighing his options of taking this job in the first place was how incredibly impressed he was with the "NEW" facilities in place, and he made it very clear that "we can recruit to this". And I think he's now driven that point home with the unparralleled recruiting taking place. I can't help but imagine how it would be that a new stadium would even further help "the man in his mission". I think that is more than enough to justify the additional resources, but that's just me.

Rick

Edited July 27, 2007 by FirefightnRick

July 27, 2007

I can't help but imagine how it would be that a new stadium would even further help "the man in his mission". I think that is more than enough to justify the additional resources, but that's just me.

Once you conclude that it makes sense for NT to be a sports powerhouse, the stadium is a logical necessity. The NT supporters on this board have already reached that first conclusion. Interestingly, I have never seen or heard anyone actually argue that NT should not be a sports powerhouse. I assume this is only done by UT and SMU supporters behind the scenes.

FirefightnRick · July 27, 2007

Once you conclude that it makes sense for NT to be a sports powerhouse, the stadium is a logical necessity. The NT supporters on this board have already reached that first conclusion. Interestingly, I have never seen or heard anyone actually argue that NT should not be a sports powerhouse. I assume this is only done by UT and SMU supporters behind the scenes.

I don't think you even need that, to conclude to be a sports powerhouse to simply want to upgrade what amounts to the toilet in today's standard football facilities. One with decent sightlines, restroom facilities and better ameneties for concessions.

The Denton ISD AD told channel 5 news 2 years ago when interviewed about their new sports complex prior to Ryans' nationally televised game with SLC that they(Denton ISD) justified it's construction with the advent that it hosted over 50 different events(not counting football) that previous year and helped the district return over $75,000 in revenue by hosting those other events. I see a new stadium with it's amenities and suites giving us the same opportunities to raise money, garner future contracts as well as a venue for continued promotions for the university.

Rick

Edited July 27, 2007 by FirefightnRick

NT80 · July 27, 2007

Fouts is a 55-year-old pig that we have put makeup on and into a dress, but it's still a pig. It was designed and built in an era of track and field and not suites, modern toilets, and up-close-seating.

Let's say we get that new 30,000 seat stadium, then what? Do we call CUSA and tell them we're now ready? Not so fast. New posh seats and concrete is nice, but warm bodies in them is what CUSA Presidents look at. I'm sure we'll have a blip up in attendance that first season as many will want to come see the new digs. But sustaining and growing the crowds is what we will need to open up CUSA eyes. A quality football team is a lure also, both to fans and conference commissioners. A stadium is only part of the process, but a very important part!

Fouts Trivia: Which opponent has not played at Fouts??

Louisville

Texas Tech

Arizona State

Parsons College

Florida State

Oregon State

UNLV

North Dakota

Weber State

Houston

Memphis

Baylor

TCU

SMUt

Akron

Southern Mississippi

UTEP

Oklahoma State

Pacific

Cincinnati

BYU

Bowling Green

San Diego State

Colorado State

CMJ · July 27, 2007

I'm gonna guess Brigham Young.

UNT_playmaker · July 27, 2007

Fouts is a 55-year-old pig that we have put makeup on and into a dress, but it's still a pig. It was designed and built in an era of track and field and not suites, modern toilets, and up-close-seating.
Let's say we get that new 30,000 seat stadium, then what? Do we call CUSA and tell them we're now ready? Not so fast. New posh seats and concrete is nice, but warm bodies in them is what CUSA Presidents look at. I'm sure we'll have a blip up in attendance that first season as many will want to come see the new digs. But sustaining and growing the crowds is what we will need to open up CUSA eyes. A quality football team is a lure also, both to fans and conference commissioners. A stadium is only part of the process, but a very important part!
Fouts Trivia: Which opponent has not played at Fouts??
Louisville
Texas Tech
Arizona State
Parsons College
Florida State
Oregon State
UNLV
North Dakota
Weber State
Houston
Memphis
Baylor
TCU
SMUt
Akron
Southern Mississippi
UTEP
Oklahoma State
Pacific
Cincinnati
BYU
Bowling Green
San Diego State
Colorado State

Tech???????

Anyone of the rest of the teams will have played their last game at Fouts, since the stadium is older than dirt

Also with a new stadium we would get the host the likes of Texas Tech, Oklahoma St. and A&M, wow those schools are only a few miles down the road from us, if we arent careful we could easily start a regular rivalry. New Stadium= New fans

and their fans will come in to fill up our stadium to increase attendance

Edited July 27, 2007 by UNT_playmaker

russell360 · July 27, 2007

Visiting schools come to play because they are given a guarantee payout.

Hosting schools have to have enough ticket revenue(attendance) to make the payout.

The condition of the stadium is irrelevant.

NT currently can't afford to attract the bigger schools. Why would Tech come to Fouts and accept what NT will pay when they can play in Lubbock to a sell-out?

The "exposure" factor better be high enough to offset the major loss of revenue for big schols to come.

SilverEagle · July 27, 2007

I'm gonna guess Brigham Young.

I believe that this is correct. BYU played us at the Cotton Bowl in 1971. We lost 13-41. BYU was helped along by a great night of return yardage by none other than Golden Richards....who later transfered to Hawaii, and then was drafted by the Cowboys.

PlummMeanGreen · July 27, 2007

Visiting schools come to play because they are given a guarantee payout.
Hosting schools have to have enough ticket revenue(attendance) to make the payout.
The condition of the stadium is irrelevant.
NT currently can't afford to attract the bigger schools. Why would Tech come to Fouts and accept what NT will pay when they can play in Lubbock to a sell-out?
The "exposure" factor better be high enough to offset the major loss of revenue for big schols to come.

This is why UNT doesn't want to paint itself into a never-ending corner with a 30,000 seat stadium. Sure we could expand it, but in what century would that be? You build a 40,000 seater at the Mean Green Village and then you can get the University of Texas Longhorns (a la UCF) into Denton for more than just one Grand Opening game for a new stadium.

You build a stadium smaller than the one you have now and we might well become a laughing-stock; and do we really need that at North Texas anymore than we have in the past in some areas we are known to be not so adept? The UNT Law School failure created a few grins around the Lone Star State and please don't be naive' and believe other-wise. We are in the competition business folks whether some of those old guard teacher's college left-overs in Denton want to admit this or not. Many of that group have done their job well, but they've also been part of our problem of keeping things small time in Denton. For certain they helped train some of the best public school administrators and teachers in the USA, but they don't know a damn thing about American business and how it works in a non-academic setting (for the most part) because they don't have to know a damn thing about it since they work in the safe confines of a large public university in the state of Texas. Too many time, they do know about the business of tenureship, though. :rolleyes:

I know I sound like ol' Green Neck/narrow-minded PMG here, but it just pisses me off how we will have a bunch of non-Texans come into Denton, tell "US" Texans what we need in Denton at "OUR" school, then screw it up for a few years on our payroll until some newly hired Einstein figures out they can't do the job and then we will let these same employees deliver to us what the rest of us will have to live with for the next 50 years as far as whatever the hell size stadium we finally end up with at the Mean Green Village.

I realzie Rick V is from Mississippi, not too well known among the other 49 to be one of the most progressive U.S. states on the block (especially in the area of race relations albeit they've come a long ways in the last 2 decades); yet much of Rick V's heart is still (understandably) with U of Southern Mississippi and he would 99.9% for sure leave UNT in a New York minute if he were offered something that paid close to what he made at UNT and FWIW.................none of that makes him a bad guy at all. I honestly feel Rick V wants to do the right thing with this on all this new stadium business, but (irony of ironies) it may very well be a bunch of native Texans (BOR's for starters?) who are (quite frankly) slowing him down in some areas (a la Bobby Ray did with Rick V concerning Dickey), so then at UNT we have a continuation of the old Abbott & Costello comedic monolugue of "Who's on 1'st, What's on 2'nd, etc, etc, etc" still playing in Denton? This seems to be a recurring theme at UNT and has in past years, too, for those who've stuck around to see it.

If we don't build this new stadium with the idea that UNT will one day be the 2'nd largest university in the Lone Star State, then I say don't build it at all at this moment in time, especially if its going to cause our alma mater to continue to be a laughing-stock in the very state many of us reside, and specifically where many of us live & work, ie, the North Texas Metroplex.

We (still) and always have needed a Big Donor with all this and that part still has not changed and will not change. What talents do we have on our campus at present who have the moxy and savvy to get such monies from a potential Big Donor? That may be the source of our main problem at UNT, folks, but I know we all hope it's not since our next 50 years will be decided by those who do or who don't have the talents to raise the Big Money to build the right-sized/seating capacity stadium that will befit the future "2'nd Largest University in the Lone Star State." Hey, folks, what better time for us to start acting like that bright future for our alma mater than now?

Edited July 27, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

UNTflyer · July 27, 2007

If we don't build this new stadium with the idea that UNT will one day be the 2'nd largest university in the Lone Star State, I say don't build it at all at this moment, especially if its going to cause our alma mater to continue to be (in some areas) the laughing-stock of Texas, specifically where we live--the North Texas Metroplex.

Plumm, the size of our campus really has nothing to do with football attendance... that is quite evident! What would make us more of a laughing stock would be building a 45,000 seat stadium while we're still averaging only 15,000 in attendance. Now, if we can consistently put 25,000 butts in the seats on gameday, then you have an argument to build bigger.

Let's stop beating this dead horse. Rick posted what WE as fans need to do... convince people that the best deal in town is season tickets for UNT football. Fill Fouts.

I have purchased extra tickets to Navy and MTSU and will give them away to co-workers. Imagine if just half of all season ticket holders did this...

Cerebus · July 27, 2007

Let's stop beating this dead horse. Rick posted what WE as fans need to do... convince people that the best deal in town is season tickets for UNT football. Fill Fouts.
I have purchased extra tickets to Navy and MTSU and will give them away to co-workers. Imagine if just half of all season ticket holders did this...

Good advice. There probably isn't a knight in shining armor out there. That doesn't mean the AD has to stop looking for one, but we as fans better take things into our own hands if we want this to happen.

Otherwise, make sure you like the seats you have at Fouts, because we'll be there for a while.

GreenBat · July 27, 2007

= GMG.com fun

Eagle1855 · July 27, 2007

1855, I was asking a simple question(without accusations of any kind) on whether or not this was his/her intention of what he/she meant in the above qoute.

It looked like the beginning of a "what have you done for UNT" tirade... if that was not the intent, I offer my apologies. I'm of the opinion anyone offering their thoughts on our situation with positive intent is GOOD for the Green.

NT80 · July 27, 2007

Fouts Trivia: Which opponent has not played at Fouts??
Louisville
Texas Tech
Arizona State
Parsons College
Florida State
Oregon State
UNLV
North Dakota
Weber State
Houston
Memphis
Baylor
TCU
SMUt
Akron
Southern Mississippi
UTEP
Oklahoma State
Pacific
Cincinnati
BYU
Bowling Green
San Diego State
Colorado State

According to last year's media guide UNT has played all those teams at Fouts... except ........ Pacific.

It says we beat BYU at Fouts 41-30 in 1961. Know any other SBC schools that have beat BYU, Arizona St., and Tennessee?

greenjoe · July 27, 2007

I'm glad we don't have Parson's College on the schedule this year.

Censored by Laurie · July 27, 2007

I thought I remember that the New Orleans bowl was the first and only time we've played Cincinati and Colorado St.

Eagle1855 · July 27, 2007

I thought I remember that the New Orleans bowl was the first and only time we've played Cincinati and Colorado St.

It was the only time we ever LOST to CSU...we have winning records against both programs

2-1 vs CSU

9-7 vs Cincy

Censored by Laurie · July 27, 2007

It was the only time we ever LOST to CSU...we have winning records against both programs
2-1 vs CSU
9-7 vs Cincy

I must've been drunk...yeah...that seems like a logical explination

MeanGreen61 · July 27, 2007

I must've been drunk...yeah...that seems like a logical explination

We were in the same conference (Missouri Valley) with Cincy for a number of years.

PlummMeanGreen · July 28, 2007

Plumm, the size of our campus really has nothing to do with football attendance... that is quite evident! What would make us more of a laughing stock would be building a 45,000 seat stadium while we're still averaging only 15,000 in attendance. Now, if we can consistently put 25,000 butts in the seats on gameday, then you have an argument to build bigger.
Let's stop beating this dead horse. Rick posted what WE as fans need to do... convince people that the best deal in town is season tickets for UNT football. Fill Fouts.
I have purchased extra tickets to Navy and MTSU and will give them away to co-workers. Imagine if just half of all season ticket holders did this...

UNTflyer, I hear what you are saying with this but..................at some point in time, we are going to have to start taking advangtage of the fact that unlike when I was an NT student when we had 17,000 (compareed to 35,000 this Fall?); compared to when I was an NT student when Denton has 39,000 population (compared to about 110,000 now); and compared to when I was an NT student when Denton County had 99,000 citizens (compared to almost 600,000 today)...................

But to reiterate where I was going with this...............at some point UNT is going to have to get creative with its marketing and act like that we don't have to sit on 15,000 per home football turnstile averages.

ANYONE HEARD THE STORY OF THE FLEAS? (OK, then hear it just one more time). :rolleyes:

There was this empty coffee can with a plastic lid cover sealing the can of coffee. Odly enough, this particular coffee can was full of fleas and fleas that kept trying to hop high enough to reach the sealed lid area with would be the top of the coffee can.

Well..............all this jumping continued until each of the fleas reached the top level part of the can where the plastic lid was..................THEN................one day someone took the plastic lid off the can giving all the fleas a way out; all they had to do was jump just a tad higher to jump out of the coffee can, but instead..................they just kept on jumping at the same height where the lid had been never making that extra effort to go any higher so they could get out of the coffee can--a golden opportunity lost for the fleas who all felt that the height they were jumping would be suffice (although sadly enough, they would eventually all succumb because they kept themselves stuck in a coffee can jumping at the same height over and over and over again. SO THAT WAS, MY FELLOW ALUMS...............THE STORY OF THE FLEAS.

Edited July 28, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

UNTflyer · July 28, 2007

Plumm, would you by chance happen to be a lawyer? You know attorneys have this mindset... why use 5 words when 55 work just as well?

But yes, our goals SHOULD be high. And the way to do that is to get butts in the seats. I think that with just 2-3 years of hardcore marketing (TV ads, billboards, radio) we can consistently get 20-25,000 in Fouts. And THAT will generate the money to build us the stadium we need to get to the next level in D-I football.

July 28, 2007

I don't think you even need that, to conclude to be a sports powerhouse to simply want to upgrade what amounts to the toilet in today's standard football facilities. One with decent sightlines, restroom facilities and better ameneties for concessions.

You are right. The present facility says 'We don't care if anyone comes or not.' In contrast, I think of some of the nice minor league baseball parks I have seen like in Memphis and Round Rock. They give off a sense of class, certainly as compared to Fouts.