Smu Coach Confident Opener Will Be A Sellout

[gangrene]

SMU coach confident opener will be a sellout

"We're going to sell out the first game," Jones said Thursday during a Conference USA media event. "You watch. It's going to be exciting." SMU won't make an official announcement until next week, but Jones dropped hints about an initiative to sell out 32,000-seat Ford Stadium for the Stephen F. Austin season-opener Sept. 5.

UNT and RV, I hope you're taking notes. I have no idea exactly what "initiative" SMU has planned, nor if will be successful at completely selling out Ford Stadium, but I'm quite confident it will come close and I'm sure it will include several elements of marketing, advertising and promotions, along with PR. Sit back and watch what an actual marketing campaign can do for ticket sales, even for a 1-11 team. Relying solely on live-game TV and/or radio broadcasts and Brett Vito press coverage will not get us there.

[UNTflyer]

I have no idea exactly what "initiative" SMU has planned, nor if will be successful at completely selling out Ford Stadium, but I'm quite confident it will come close...

Why?

BTW, we DID "come close" last year for our home opener. With 22,785, we were at 76% capacity.

We drew 500 more than they did to their home opener against Texas State.

Edited July 31, 2009 by UNTflyer

[ForneyGreen]

SMU coach confident opener will be a sellout

"We're going to sell out the first game," Jones said Thursday during a Conference USA media event. "You watch. It's going to be exciting." SMU won't make an official announcement until next week, but Jones dropped hints about an initiative to sell out 32,000-seat Ford Stadium for the Stephen F. Austin season-opener Sept. 5.

A sold-out Ford stadium on hand to watch SFA upset the ponies - now *that* would be cool!

[emmitt01]

The point is that their coach came out and said in the media, for all to see, that he expects to see a sell-out. Any guesses as to whether we will see a similar prediction come Saturday?

Besides, anything above 20,000 will be announced as a sell-out for SMU.

[untjim1995]

The point is that their coach came out and said in the media, for all to see, that he expects to see a sell-out. Any guesses as to whether we will see a similar prediction come Saturday?

Besides, anything above 20,000 will be announced as a sell-out for SMU.

If 32,000 people come out to watch 1-11 SMU play SFA, the economy is doing much better than I thought...

[UNT_playmaker]

SMU is a crappy football program, June Jones will not be succesful in turning it around, he would have better luck with UNT and turning our program around than he would with SMU.

Ponies Down, biatch.

[greenminer]

SMU is a crappy football program, June Jones will not be succesful in turning it around, he would have better luck with UNT and turning our program around than he would with SMU.

Ponies Down, biatch.

Prove it.

[emmitt01]

Prove it.

Prove that SMU is a crappy football program? Should I make a mix tape of their level of play since they stopped with the payments?

[NT03]

Prove that SMU is a crappy football program? Should I make a mix tape of their level of play since they stopped with the payments?

Do u have that much spare time ?

Edited July 31, 2009 by NT03

[MeanGreen61]

If 32,000 people come out to watch 1-11 SMU play SFA, the economy is doing much better than I thought...

If that many show up SFA has a bigger following than I thought !

[UNT Mean Green]

SMU has had 1 winning season since the death penalty. I'd say June Jones took on a significant challenge...

[NT03]

I may go just because we will not be playing and I love me sum college football. Now if we can pull off the upset thursday night I will b able to wear Green to the game.

[NT80]

A Smut sellout against SFA with purchased tickets won't happen. Back in the day when Smut had the snake-oil salesman Russ Potts and MustangMania was in full gear they could give away enough tickets to declare a virtual sellout. That's the only way it will happen again...give away tickets.

[GoMeanGreen1999]

A Smut sellout against SFA with purchased tickets won't happen. Back in the day when Smut had the snake-oil salesman Russ Potts and MustangMania was in full gear they could give away enough tickets to declare a virtual sellout. That's the only way it will happen again...give away tickets.

Question about this idea of basically giving tickets away: Why not sell our endzone tickets for $1-2 dollars with the notion that those who only have to pay that for those seats will most likely spend money through refreshments - will that not work in the favor of 1)getting more people out to the games and 2) still making some money that we might have made?

[NT80]

Question about this idea of basically giving tickets away: Why not sell our endzone tickets for $1-2 dollars with the notion that those who only have to pay that for those seats will most likely spend money through refreshments - will that not work in the favor of 1)getting more people out to the games and 2) still making some money that we might have made?

I agree that more fans create more noise and buy more food, programs, etc. The negatives I've heard why it isn't done is it's hard to enforce the endzone ticket holder to stay in endzone seats if empty seats exist other places and they want to make a ticket have a value; saying $1-2 isn't enough value for the product.?.

[NT80]

Speaking of Smut...here is an aerial photo I found of Smut and old Ownby Stadium and Moody circa 1958....looks like they had baseball then too....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatguyinalitt...066754/sizes/o/

Edited August 1, 2009 by NT80

[GrandGreen]

A Smut sellout against SFA with purchased tickets won't happen. Back in the day when Smut had the snake-oil salesman Russ Potts and MustangMania was in full gear they could give away enough tickets to declare a virtual sellout. That's the only way it will happen again...give away tickets.

Still remember SMU's Potts or Thomas complaining about lack of tickets purchased by NT at a SMU hosted Texas Stadium game. They failed to mention that tickets brought through NT were full price and far from prime, when you could get better seats much cheaper through SMU or for free from many of their sponsors who had bought thousands of cheap tickets.

[FirefightnRick]

Speaking of Smut...here is an aerial photo I found of Smut and old Ownby Stadium and Moody circa 1958....looks like they had baseball then too....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatguyinalitt...066754/sizes/o/

It's interesting to notice in this photo how small the trees were in 1958 on the grove and the surrounding campus. All of them are now good size casting a lot of shade. Gives a good perspective on how long it takes to grow a good size Live Oak.

Rick

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

The point is that their coach came out and said in the media, for all to see, that he expects to see a sell-out. Any guesses as to whether we will see a similar prediction come Saturday?

Besides, anything above 20,000 will be announced as a sell-out for SMU.

---SMU is a no-count college.

They will estimate a sell out after looking at 5 seats. Besides that have a history of not being exactly honest... remember the death penalty??

"Sell out" .... which definition??

Besides --look at the word "expect" . I am sure the the Cowboys "expect" to go undefeated and win the Super Bowl ... the reality... probably not.

[TheTastyGreek]

Our ticket sales are grading out in the high 80's. You never like to see lapses at critical times, but overall it's important to recognize that our ticket sales performance has been quite strong. We've got a young sales department and they're naturally going to have some growing pains, but I'm still optimistic that we'll start getting the pieces put together this season. I definitely think the potential and the talent is there that we should be in contention for a sellout every single week.

[gangrene]

I agree that more fans create more noise and buy more food, programs, etc.

Another hope it that the low-price fans will have a great time and want to come back, possibly converting some of them to loyal fans. I doubt many of us would complain much if discounted tickets led to a packed stadium week in and week out. Plus, NCAA attendance stats never include the price of a ticket. If we start averaging 29-30K a year, we might get more interest when conference realignment time comes around again. But, hopefully, we'll get it right once the new stadium opens. I think the worst thing that can happen is for us to continue to win 1-3 games a year and average only 15K in our new stadium...

Our ticket sales are grading out in the high 80's. You never like to see lapses at critical times, but overall it's important to recognize that our ticket sales performance has been quite strong. We've got a young sales department and they're naturally going to have some growing pains, but I'm still optimistic that we'll start getting the pieces put together this season. I definitely think the potential and the talent is there that we should be in contention for a sellout every single week.

I hope you're right...that would be a great accomplishment. I certainly won't shun the fair-weather fan, but we need a loyal fan base that will support us in the down times too.