Hmmm. What Attendance Do We Announce This Week ?

[MeanGreen61]

From the Muts board. Actual turnstile counts and attendance numbers for UCF.

Chart - UCF attendance numbers

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orl-...ab02_layout#ucf

Edited July 27, 2007 by MeanGreen61

[Eagle1855]

UCF/UAB Announced: 23,755 Turnstile Count: 8,888 Difference: 14,867 Percentage over turnstile count: 167.3%

and you thought SMU was bad...

[MeanGreen61]

and you thought SMU was bad...

smoo's AD came from UCF so stay tuned

[greenminer]

so wrong.

[UNTflyer]

The thing UCF has going for it is that it's the only football team in town.

We have 4 DIV-I programs in the DFW/Waco area all chasing the same nickel.

[Charlie NT 73]

Well, the number difference is easy to explain, all 14,867 fans were in the

parking lot tailgating.

[Daddy Dumpsalot]

Dont be so surprised. UNT does this same thing.

[Quoner]

Dont be so surprised. UNT does this same thing.

SHHHHHHHH, don't let anyone here know that. It will ruin the ability to be condescending....

[ADLER]

Dont be so surprised. UNT does this same thing.

Maybe at basketball games it's possible, but not at football games. Attendance at North Texas football games (like Louisiana-Laffayette which contracts for the same service) is reported accurately. Accurate attendance counting is contracted with CS Services who handle the figures by scanning tickets at all entrances.

I believe that was one of the suggestions by the Neinas group when the program evaluation was performed.

[SouthernMustang]

I always found these types of articles stupid. 14,000 fans, 23,000 fans.. who cares? That sucks. To create some kind of atmosphere, you either need to fill your stadium to capacity every week, or you need to put in 60,000 fans. I don't get how some arbitrary # makes the difference. SMU put in 15,000 fans last year with a crappy home schedule. Rice put in around the same. Tulane put in around the same. UCF and UAB average around 8,000 more... they also have 10,000+ more students and a ton more living alumni. Big whoop. None of these are anything to write home about or hold over another team's head. The problem isn't the fans on the message boards (who I'd imagine all attend their respective school's games) and it's not even the team's fault as many teams (see TCU) fail to put fans in with winning records, it's the apathetic attitude of alumni and students.

I don't buy the "We don't play attractive opponents argument either." I've grown up an Ole Miss fan. Yeah, we have had a few good years here and there. But by and large, the stadium is 85-90% full of Ole Miss fans every week. If there's a sell-out, it's b/c the opponent brings the remaining 4-5k. We average 56,000 per season (60,580 capacity). We are 2 hours from Jackson, 1.5 hours from Memphis. There are 3-5 hotels in Oxford, and none closer than 45 minutes. We suck. Badly. Is it really that much more fun to come to a game when the opponent is attractive when you know they're going to pummel you? Of course not. You go to support your team and hope they can pull off the unthinkable. You go for the tailgating, and the opportunity to hang out with the people you spent 4 amazing years with in college.

The reason SMU, UNT, UCF, UAB, etc. all have second-rate attendance is b/c the alumni and students treat their school's sports teams as such. The AD has to change the attitude of the people within its own family before it can start including others to the table. And that is something that I thought was done poorly at SMU while I was there, so that's by no means a diss on UNT anymore than it is on my own undergrad alma mater.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

It's hard to tell sometimes how much is tickets purchased, both used and unused and how much is a totally fabricated figure.

Perhaps a better way would be the amount of revenue from all sources, including student activity fees. Last year SMU's football revenue was $10.7 million with another almost $7 million in unallocated funds. That would indicate a far larger attendance than the actual count. On the other hand, North Texas revenue from the two combined sources was $14.8 million. We had about the same attendance reported (we were a couple of hundred higher) yet we produced almost $3 million less.

Yes, I know, not all of the student fees apply to football but the amounts should be relative since attendance is the same. So, either SMU is charging much more per ticket than we are or they are counting every ticket sold, regardless of where the buyer attended or not.

Even if they counted BIS, it's possible that some tickets were given away or sold for a dollar or any such enticement to lure fans. So an actual count might not necessarily reflect what was actually received as revenue for the game.

More work is needed to standardize the reporting of attendance and game revenue.

[JayDub]

The reason SMU, UNT, UCF, UAB, etc. all have second-rate attendance is b/c the alumni and students treat their school's sports teams as such. The AD has to change the attitude of the people within its own family before it can start including others to the table. And that is something that I thought was done poorly at SMU while I was there, so that's by no means a diss on UNT anymore than it is on my own undergrad alma mater.

Well put...especially for a guy with "Mustang" in his username. Those of us on this board are the exception...90% of NT students and grads look at NT sports like they are not worth watching.

Edited July 28, 2007 by JayDub

[GrandGreen]

Most if not all the "have nots" of the NCAA post inflated attendance numbers including NT. While NT reported football numbers are probably a lot closer than most, basketball is not even close based on actual people in seats. At most NT basketball games you can literally count the people in the stands, as poor as the announced numbers are they are substantially overstated. However, there maybe many seats sold that are never used in basketball. I know I have tried to get extra tickets in the section were I have season tickets, and been told there are none available. This despite the section not being 40% full.

[PlummMeanGreen]

The thing UCF has going for it is that it's the only football team in town.

We have 4 DIV-I programs in the DFW/Waco area all chasing the same nickel.

UNTflyer, but what UCF does not have are almost 6 million citizens within 1 hour (give or take) of their new (aluminum) football palace such as UNT has with Fouts (and our future new stadium).

IMHO, Waco is a far enough distance from the DFW Metroplex that I don't see them as competition for us at all; that is, as far as the entertaiment dollar is concerned.

I think "ANY" major metropolitan NCAA D1-A football school should accept the reality of their situation as to what they are up against (although we never seem to address this at UNT) with all the entertaiment options and merely budget to overcome as much of that entertaiment dollar competition that they can (and for UNT, that would mean more in the promotions staff and a larger promotions budget).

In fact, if said metropolitan school does not budget to fight for the entertaiment dollar, they may be setting themselves up to average only about 15,000 per home game most any football season, even when they go to bowl games. We all hope Dodge Ball has caught the attention of more than those registered on GoMeanGreen.com, but UNT athletic officials should not base their promotions for the 2007 Mean Green football season based on one new, bright energetic hire.

SMU and TCU have almost 100 years of an SWC membership to have built their fan base. UNT has had a hodge-podge of whatever you want to call it to build ours. Another reason we need a sizable football stadium to bring in the kind of OOC schools that will help us have the kind of turnstile count to increasae future athletic budgets in Denton, too, and I just don't think a 30K-seater at the Mean Green Village would begin to serve that purpose. Granted, we ain't going to need a 40,000 seat stadium for SBC competition, but we will not increase our future athletic budget based on SBC home games in Denton, either.

A newly completed 30K-seater in Mean Green Country would for sure look good on numerous resume's for several on our present payroll, but it will keep those who remain for the next decade or 2 or 3 from scheduling the caliber of schools in Denton that would eventually help us become a Top 25 school (and I do hope that is our objective in Denton although I've yet to see that in any mission statement).

We are not going to impress many Top 25 pollsters by merely beating perennially lower ranked BCS schools (Baylor, Air Force, Rice, etc, etc, etc) in Denton, Texas, America, and I think most of you would agree for those who care (and dare) to look down the road with all this.

For certain any sized new stadium would look good in Denton, but such as most having an excitement after the purchase of a new car, you better have a vehicle that functions to fit your immediate and longterm needs after all the excitement (and new'ness) has worn off.

With no intent of being melo-dramatic here, but if UNT builds a 30,000 seat (only) stadium, we will be making a very large statement that we really don't have much higher aspirations for a future in an ever-changing NCAA D1-A that will help us stay out of the Bottom 25 most years along with the other schools with 30-32K sized stadiums who will (themselves) be a part of or near Bottom 25 for the next 25 years. Yes, there will be exceptions to the rule here, but the very few of that group will not be in a state such as Texas that has 9 other NCAA D1-A football schools or...............................2 other D1-A schools within a 40 mile radius of their own backyards.

TO UNT OFFICIALS: Build it as though we are going to one day be the 2'nd largest university in the sovereign state of Texas............

................understanding the ramifications of building it too small which would (undoubtedly) produce for our school state-wide horse laughs among Texas D1-A schools concerning any Texas university that would build a new football stadium (in this new millenium) smaller than its enrollment and much, much smaller than its 50 mile radius population base.

Edited July 28, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[ADLER]

We are not going to impress many Top 25 pollsters by merely beating perennially lower ranked BCS schools (Baylor, Air Force, Rice, etc, etc, etc) in Denton, Texas, America, and I think most of you would agree for those who care (and dare) to look down the road with all this.

Would someone please inform Air Force and Rice that they have been added to the BCS. After all, it must be official since he stressed it with BOLD lettering.