Does Fouts Keep People Away?

[EagleD]

It's a slow time of year and I thought I'd take a moment to ask a simple question. Does our dilapidated football stadium keep people from attending games?

Let me first say that the atmosphere around games the last 10 years has improved exponentially. That alone has pushed attendance up. But when our team is not winning (the main reason for poor attendance anywhere) how much does it hurt attendance that Fouts sucks?

Personally, I have to say it made me think twice before traveling to Denton. I made one game last year and that was at SMU. It's a three hour drive for me, and I have new obligations that make it much more difficult to find time to travel. But if I knew I was going to a new state of the art stadium with a roaring crowd, I'd make that trek a little more.

Call it a sense of pride. I'm embarrassed by our current stadium, and I hate seeing our team lose. Change one of those factors (preferrably both) and I suspect we will have crowds never before seen in Denton.

Just my two cents. Yours?

GO MEAN GREEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GreenMachine]

It's a slow time of year and I thought I'd take a moment to ask a simple question. Does our dilapidated football stadium keep people from attending games?

Let me first say that the atmosphere around games the last 10 years has improved exponentially. That alone has pushed attendance up. But when our team is not winning (the main reason for poor attendance anywhere) how much does it hurt attendance that Fouts sucks?

Personally, I have to say it made me think twice before traveling to Denton. I made one game last year and that was at SMU. It's a three hour drive for me, and I have new obligations that make it much more difficult to find time to travel. But if I knew I was going to a new state of the art stadium with a roaring crowd, I'd make that trek a little more.

Call it a sense of pride. I'm embarrassed by our current stadium, and I hate seeing our team lose. Change one of those factors (preferrably both) and I suspect we will have crowds never before seen in Denton.

Just my two cents. Yours?

GO MEAN GREEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I personally know 2 alum that don't attend because they can't stand Fouts. Probably wouldn't be huge supporters anyway but they would go to a game every once in awhile.

[filmerj]

i'm sure checkfacts has some info on this....

[Green Mean]

You know, I think winning is the cause of everything for the most part. If a team is consistently winning then I think the attendance will always be a little better and by default the atmosphere will be better since people are more into the games. If you are losing I think it does take away fans going to the games to a certain extent especially with schools like NT which does not have a strong fanbase as your general BCS school and what not. I think with the recent bowl success we have had...I think the games are definitely more fun and lively and more interest has been drawn as a whole. Sure we have lots of work to do in that area but I really dont think that Fouts would be the reason why fans would not come because if NT was winning or if we were winning 7-8 games every year...I think most people would still want to go see the games even at Fouts because they will be a watching a winning product and a fun team to watch.

[Zeke]

Fouts holds 20K as far as I am concerned. Those 20K are bad seats.

The 10K in the endzone? They will NEVER be filled consistently. Prices are just about free to sit in the endzones and that is pretty much what you would have to charge to get a fan to sit there.

[forevereagle]

I don't know about others, but Fouts has never kept me from a game. It isn't quite that bad to keep me from attending. I would love to be able to watch NT Football in a brand new stadium, but that's not reality right now.

[bstnsportsfan3]

being a student...i dont think fouts is all that bad (of corse i havent been to another college football stadium on gameday) the student section is always going to stand the entire game like i did last year, and i acually think having the bleachers is easier to stand on then seats would be....and the sight lines are really good ( being from boston and having gone to fenway i know a thing or 2 about old stadiums and bad sightlines). im sure fouts could use some new updates....and im not saying that we dont need a new stadium soon (cause i have 2 more years till my batchelors degree is done and i would love a new stadium for the comfort and to show that UNT truly cares about athletics) but i think everyone seems to over react about fouts....the games i went to this year were really fun even though we lost most...and that NAVY game was a blast! i say....as long as we have fouts, lets appricate it as its our home. bashing the place does no good. GO UNT!!!!! GO MEAN GREEN!!!!!

Edited May 21, 2008 by bstnsportsfan3

[NT80]

a friend of mine sat on the student panel when UNT was looking to move from 1-aa back to 1-A

he voted against it in the end I believe because he was against the cheap metal bleachers in the end zones

he know they would rarely if ever be needed.....he was right.....his position was move up and do it right or don't do it

The bleachers are needed for appealing opponents, maybe your friend should have voted down Big West or SBC membership (the real problem) instead? But aren't we glad he got outvoted anyway. How foolish to vote down opportunity because of no vision.

Edited May 21, 2008 by NT80

[UNTflyer]

People don't come to Fouts because they don't give a crap that we're playing Louisiana-Lafayette.

The Navy game proved this. When we play the big boys at home, we sure do have great attendance.

[foutsrouts]

If we were playing regional "name" teams and winning in front of nice crowds, I don't think most people would notice the difference. Sure a few are always going to gripe about ugly toilets and pesky crickets, but I couldn't care less about things like that. It's the opponent, the crowd and the outcome that matter to me. Of course I want a new stadium and can't stand the fact that you need a telescope to see from side to side, but I could live with Fouts if we could just find a way to pack it with boisterous fans and win. I admit that's a lot to ask for based on our history and conference affiliation, but we are only talking about 5-6 games a year in the old lipstick painted pig.

[Green Mean]

well when your vision is wasting money on bleachers instead of doing something right and then cobbling things together after that so you can be the whipping boy for other teams at their field.....some would prefer something else

The goal was to move from 1AA to 1A and it got done. I do not see anything wrong with that. Now what we have done after the move can all be questionable but the fact that we wanted back in 1A football and we got it done is the good thing and there was vision and perseverence there in my opinion.

[Ibleedgreen]

No.

[untphd]

It's a slow time of year and I thought I'd take a moment to ask a simple question. Does our dilapidated football stadium keep people from attending games?

Let me first say that the atmosphere around games the last 10 years has improved exponentially. That alone has pushed attendance up. But when our team is not winning (the main reason for poor attendance anywhere) how much does it hurt attendance that Fouts sucks?

Personally, I have to say it made me think twice before traveling to Denton. I made one game last year and that was at SMU. It's a three hour drive for me, and I have new obligations that make it much more difficult to find time to travel. But if I knew I was going to a new state of the art stadium with a roaring crowd, I'd make that trek a little more.

Call it a sense of pride. I'm embarrassed by our current stadium, and I hate seeing our team lose. Change one of those factors (preferrably both) and I suspect we will have crowds never before seen in Denton.

Just my two cents. Yours?

GO MEAN GREEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you guys remember this kind of stuff?

PerryGreen

Future football stadium

We might not be up to the standards of the other current new members of C-USA or even some of the other prospective candidates YET. But I tell you what, by the time any of this is seriously an issue again and realignment does occur...we'll be ready.

Wow, it looks like UNT is going to have a really nice stadium up there in Denton.. now the real question is, will UNT fans be able to fill up that new 35,000 to 40,000 seat "state of the art" stadium regularly?

We draw well when we play Big 12 or similar schools. We don't draw as well when we play SBC schools. UNT is a work in progress. Denton is a population explosion in progress. No, they all want come to Mean Green games, but many will give us new fans/new faces at Fouts Field.

We spent 12 "LONG" years in D1-AA that cost us many fans many of whom threw up their hands when they perceived all the dream that Hayden Fry had begun back in the 70's was being flittered away to (basically) the minor league college football that 1-AA was to us (and it not being attractive to a school like NT who is located in a major league sports market to boot). I think those schools from the SWC who did not make the Big 12 cut can relate to some of this as I think they lost many of their own fans, too.

To respond to an above poster about our attendance I would only agree that it is accurate. I will also say that NT athletic officials don't turn into the NCAA officials another 5-10,000 phantom fans to our home football game averages, either, and never have since USM alum Rick Villarreal has been our AD.

Now we can all kid ourselves about the accuracy of attendance numbers among the non BCS because some of you would know that there are those in NCAA D1-A that turn into the NCAA officices figures that would probably not even come close to 15K per game averages (if truth be told) and I believe some of you will see that first hand as you visit a few CUSA football locales this Fall who seem to have that reputation of being quite creative with their attendance figures.

NT has had some weeknight games on ESPN each of the last few years with those starting at 6 PM. Many of our NT alums who work in Dallas don't get off till 5pm or 6pm during the week. Such things as that have played a huge part in keeping our numbers low because (firstly) it keeps our state-wide alums from being able to come up to Denton and (secondly) it takes an NT alum who lives in Dallas over 2 hours to drive the 40 miles from Dallas to Denton on any weeknight due to horrendous "going home" traffic. I won't say NORTH TEXAS has ever had the attendance disaster such as the FW Bowl had last December, but week-night televised games at Fouts Field each Fall have hurt us and probably kept us from getting into the 20,000 plus real butts in seats range with our annual attendance.

NT will add about 3-4 more dorms to its main campus in the next few years. We are already the largest residential campus this side of UT-Austin so we feel the more students we have living on campus that that translates to increased attendance. I am not unsatisfied with NT student support as it is now. NT will problaby have another record freshmen class this Fall and we've had this annual increase the last 5 years in a row according to another alum I spoke to.

In closing NT has put a string of winning seasons together so our campus officials feel we will benefit from that the most is because many of those NT students who graduated in that span of time saw the Mean Green on TV more than ever and in several bowl games. From that group, we expect more alums coming back to campus and our attendance base to grow as a result. Many feel a state of the art football stadium with all the lates ammenities will also bring others out of the woodwork as well. Denton County (560,000 pop.) has many northern transplants and some feel the new football stadium will create an initial interest from that large constituency as well.

As most of you, we are still a work in progress.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

08-25-2005 12:02 PM

[eulessismore]

People don't come to Fouts because they don't give a crap that we're playing Louisiana-Lafayette.

The Navy game proved this. When we play the big boys at home, we sure do have great attendance.

I agree with you on this one; play exciting ball and bring in name opponents and they will come.

[Green P1]

No.

Agreed

[Mean'n'Green07]

People don't come to Fouts because they don't give a crap that we're playing Louisiana-Lafayette.

The Navy game proved this. When we play the big boys at home, we sure do have great attendance.

Very true. I know a good alumus should never be a fair weathered fan, but it's very hard to get excited about seeing our 2-10 team play high profile teams like Florida International (is this the name of a university or airport?).

Fouts/UNT in general has a lousy college football atmosphere when compared to the big boys. Most of the people tailgating don't go even into the games. Instead, they tune into the UT or OU game during our game! I feel very fortunate that we do have some die hard fans that will always be in the stadium cheering for the mean green. Until we are able to raise some serious capital, this is as good as it's going to get.

Edited May 22, 2008 by Mean'n'Green07

[Eagle1855]

losing keeps people away.

[GoMeanGreen1999]

losing keeps people away.

Exactly. With 2 wins last year, and 5 the two before that, it is amazing we had the crowd we did for the Navy game. Put a winning record with teams that people have heard of, and we might just fix our problem.

[eulesseagle]

EagleD.....you are absolutely right.......this is a useless post.

[Green P1]

EagleD.....you are absolutely right.......this is a useless post.

No...... this one is.

[FirefightnRick]

Replying to Does Fouts Keep People Away? No, not by itself, but a dilapidated old horribly designed stadium still existing is certainly a symptom of the reason that people keep away.

North Texas has always suffered from poor leadership, and continues to do so.

The whole problem could start getting corrected if a certain lady on campus would admit that it actually is her responsibility to assume a position of leadership with this issue.

The stadium is not the problem, it's a symptom of the problem.

Once again, dead on! A SYMPTOM of the problem that keeps people away and from donating.

FIX THE PROBLEM, PLEASE!!! Before it's too late.

Rick

Edited May 22, 2008 by FirefightnRick

[LoveMG]

The whole problem could start getting corrected if a certain lady on campus would admit that it actually is her responsibility to assume a position of leadership with this issue.

Mandy?

[emmitt01]

Does Fouts keep people away? Yes, and no.

Yes it does stand as a "30,000" seat symbol to all who drive by it or walk into it that we are 1A in name only. I say this because Fouts practically screams that we aren't really serious about being a player at the highest level. It's nothing more than an image thing...but it's a HUGE part of the image we portray. Would you buy a house from a realtor in ripped jeans, a t-shirt and flip flops? Me neither. And if you're a potential seaon ticket holder, alum, or Denton resident would you buy the "we are committed to competing at the highest level of college football" song and dance if you knew you'd be watching games in Fouts? Me neither.

Of course, if you are already a die hard like pretty much every one of us on this board you'll brave Fouts just to see the Mean Green.

[EagleMBA]

I agree with most of the posts in this thread. In your hearts, though, you must admit that (on the Awshit Suckiness Scale ("ASS"), where 1 is "Ghastly" and 10 is "Semi-Pleasant") Fouts has advanced from about a 3 to somewhere around an 8 over the last three years or so. No free beer and a losing season were setbacks to the overall experience but the physical stool specimen that is Fouts has become a little less aromatic.

[LongJim]

the physical stool specimen that is Fouts

"Mmm...Bendy"(?)