Akron's New 2009 Stadium, Attendance While Losing

NT80 · November 27, 2010

Akron opened a new 30,000 seat football stadium in 2009. I believe RV and/or athletic dept persons toured it in conjuction with designing ours. It even looks a little like ours...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/InfoCision_AmericanFlag.JPG

Opening attendance in 2009 vs Morgan St. was 27,881. Akron finished 2009 3-9 after beating E.Michigan at home before a crowd of 9962.

They opened 2010 at home losing to Syracuse before only 15,969. They finished the 2010 season today 1-11 by beating Buffalo at home for their first win of the season before a crowd of just 5216.

The point is UNT will have a wonderful new stadium, and we have averaged much better attendance than Akron while losing, but new stadiums by themselves are not crowd generators. We must find that coach that will get us winning.

MeanGreenDan · November 27, 2010

Great post. We have the advantage of not only a new stadium to get a bunch of new fans in the seats, but the chance to sign a new coach who could add to the attendance based on the excitement of his signing, and follow it up with the excitement of turning the program around.

This compounds the importance of this hire, in my eyes!

STE · November 27, 2010

Akron opened a new 30,000 seat football stadium in 2009. I believe RV and/or athletic dept persons toured it in conjuction with designing ours. It even looks a little like ours...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/InfoCision_AmericanFlag.JPG

Opening attendance in 2009 vs Morgan St. was 27,881. Akron finished 2009 3-9 after beating E.Michigan at home before a crowd of 9962.

They opened 2010 at home losing to Syracuse before only 15,969. They finished the 2010 season today 1-11 by beating Buffalo at home for their first win of the season before a crowd of just 5216.

The point is UNT will have a wonderful new stadium, and we have averaged much better attendance than Akron while losing, but new stadiums by themselves are not crowd generators. We must find that coach that will get us winning.

Agreed.

Also -- can you imagine having to buyout a losing coach in year 3 of a 5 year contract at 585K a year? I don't think we can do that.

We need a coach that's basically a "sure thing" (or as close as you can get) when it comes to winning. In other words, we need someone with at least a winning record.

That's why Fran and/or Leavitt are a no brainers.

Edited November 27, 2010 by STE

Side Show Joe · November 27, 2010

I don't feel McCarney gives us much of a chance to beat Houston when we open our stadium. After we turn around and lose to Indiana, we will probably be looking at the crowds dwindle. By the end of the season, we will probably see our usual down year crowds of 12,000. How bad will that be? A brand new stadium, 2/3 empty, with a new coach most didn't want and we can't afford to buy out. If this likely cenario plays out, people at the athletic center will be pointing fingers trying to save their jobs.

If McCarney was the best coach Nienas could find us, then he didn't look very hard. Yeah McCarney took Iowa State to a bowl in like 6 of his 12 seasons at Iowa State, but the Big 12 has like 9 bowl ties. That means for half of his time coaching at Iowa State his teams finished in the bottom 3?!

Don't hire McCarney.