SMU AD Begs Fans To Buy Tickets

MeanGreen61 · August 18, 2011

Off the Froggie board. Interesting with their recent success. Guess Dallas is just ignoring the Ponies. Will we put more butts in seats this year than the Ponies ? More than possible, probably !

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/college-sports/smu-mustangs/20110817-smu-athletic-director-steve-orsini-pleads-for-more-ticket-sales.ece

ColoradoEagle · August 18, 2011

SMU is running into the same problem that we did a few years ago. They won some games and got to bowls, but they haven't beaten anyone that's going to make your average fan stand up and notice. For them, it's compounded by their small alumni base. If you take away the TCU game last year, their attendance was 18,500. That program has peaked until they start taking down higher profile schools.

Edited August 18, 2011 by ColoradoEagle

SilverEagle · August 18, 2011

I have always felt that SMU, even when they were winning big (right before the downfall) they didn't really appeal to the "joe six-packs" of the Dallas area. I wasn't surprised when SMU got caught cheating, because, after all, how many of their football players came there because they really thought that they "fit in" with the SMU student/alumni base? The only ones I can think of were the ones that they recruited from Highland Park and/or Richardson.

Joe six-pack not only wants a program that can win, but a program where he can buy a t-shirt and realistically pretend that he is one of them. That's certainly how UT makes a good bit of it's money.

Edited August 18, 2011 by SilverEagle

adman · August 18, 2011

Will we put more butts in seats this year than the Ponies ? More than possible, probably !

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/college-sports/smu-mustangs/20110817-smu-athletic-director-steve-orsini-pleads-for-more-ticket-sales.ece

Will we? We already do.

The Fake Lonnie Finch · August 18, 2011

Will we? We already do.

Can't wait for 9/10/11!

MeanGreenHoops · August 18, 2011

Sorry but we shouldn't talk on this issue. Pot meet kettle.

Baby Arm! · August 18, 2011

SMU has a small alumni/fan base and they have a reputation of a school for rich white kids. They actually embrace the image with the country club atmosphere of the Boulevard. Outside of the Park Cities that just doesn't lend itself to becoming "Dallas' team" They don't market themselves and their reputation hurts them from being embraced by the rest of the demographic inside th3 635 loop

El Paso Eagle · August 18, 2011

Not to worry .... when the "official" results come out, somehow they will average around :ninja: 22K to 25K :ninja:

Pony Math - The don't ask, don't tell in attendance taking

:bangin: :stupid:

Dr. Seuss · August 18, 2011

RV and Mac are doing the same thing....

El Paso Eagle · August 18, 2011

RV and Mac are doing the same thing....

There you go, letting the fact that this is something everybody does get in the way of a good opportunity to go after SMU

Edited August 18, 2011 by El Paso Eagle

UNTLifer · August 18, 2011

How can they include the Armed Forces Bowl in their attendance figures for the season?

Baby Arm! · August 18, 2011

RV and Mac are doing the same thing....

How DARE you sir! Never introduce logic into a GMG.com discussion involving SMU!

NTXCoog · August 18, 2011

How can they include the Armed Forces Bowl in their attendance figures for the season?

That is odd. Since UH and Houston were the basketball Final Four hosts, can we count the games at Reliant in our attendance?

meangreendork · August 19, 2011

I have always felt that SMU, even when they were winning big (right before the downfall) they didn't really appeal to the "joe six-packs" of the Dallas area. I wasn't surprised when SMU got caught cheating, because, after all, how many of their football players came there because they really thought that they "fit in" with the SMU student/alumni base? The only ones I can think of were the ones that they recruited from Highland Park and/or Richardson.

Joe six-pack not only wants a program that can win, but a program where he can buy a t-shirt and realistically pretend that he is one of them. That's certainly how UT makes a good bit of it's money.

That's a big part of many fan-bases. SMU will probably never get the average-guy-fan because too much of its existing fan-base is anything but, and the university has the same reputation. If I'm average guy from Richardson with a $25,000 car, I might feel a bit out of place when a kid half my age has a car worth 3x as much and an outfit on worth 1/2 that.

MeanGreenHoops · August 19, 2011

Sorry I don't think "average fan" cares at all about who goes to the school. Average fan will show up only if something big time is going on. Like what has happened at TCU recently. That's why they've started coming close to filling their place. The problem with both TCU and SMU on the college football landscape is they are small private schools, so they just don't have a lot of alumnus to begin with.

If we started giving a flip about athletics before RV got here we could have been a South Florida or Central Florida. We have the built in advantage of having a lot of students. Now we have administration commitment.

Our problem is that's is much more difficult to overcome years of apathy whereas if we were just starting this year as a new program with what we have, we'd probably have 15K season ticket holders. It will take a long time to get the stink off of what past administrations did to the program.

Winning will help and was never more important than it is with the new stadium to go with it

GreenStreet · August 19, 2011

Sorry I don't think "average fan" cares at all about who goes to the school. Average fan will show up only if something big time is going on. Like what has happened at TCU recently. That's why they've started coming close to filling their place. The problem with both TCU and SMU on the college football landscape is they are small private schools, so they just don't have a lot of alumnus to begin with.

If we started giving a flip about athletics before RV got here we could have been a South Florida or Central Florida. We have the built in advantage of having a lot of students. Now we have administration commitment.

Our problem is that's is much more difficult to overcome years of apathy whereas if we were just starting this year as a new program with what we have, we'd probably have 15K season ticket holders. It will take a long time to get the stink off of what past administrations did to the program.

Winning will help and was never more important than it is with the new stadium to go with it

The fans I talked to at TCU games last year are increasing to be majority parents. The TCU average fan always attended TCU games but now that they gotten bigger and better parents are also taking part in athletics and not just enjoying the academic aspects of their child's education.

SMU has an older fan base, point being with every passing year the older crowed dwindles and the younger students are not filling the seats.

North Texas is the only DFW school left to truly increase season tickets, we can bring in the parents and older alumni with the new stadium.

UNT90 · August 19, 2011

I had to heed the Orsini call.

I bought 20 endzone seats...

for UH vs. UNT

UNTflyer · August 19, 2011

How can they include the Armed Forces Bowl in their attendance figures for the season?

Because they played in it. And hosted it.

NT80 · August 19, 2011

Because they played in it. And hosted it.

The only way they could get into a Bowl was to buy one. Similar to the way they recruited player$ in the 80's.

untjim1995 · August 19, 2011

Sorry I don't think "average fan" cares at all about who goes to the school. Average fan will show up only if something big time is going on. Like what has happened at TCU recently. That's why they've started coming close to filling their place. The problem with both TCU and SMU on the college football landscape is they are small private schools, so they just don't have a lot of alumnus to begin with.

If we started giving a flip about athletics before RV got here we could have been a South Florida or Central Florida. We have the built in advantage of having a lot of students. Now we have administration commitment.

Our problem is that's is much more difficult to overcome years of apathy whereas if we were just starting this year as a new program with what we have, we'd probably have 15K season ticket holders. It will take a long time to get the stink off of what past administrations did to the program.

Winning will help and was never more important than it is with the new stadium to go with it

I will start off by saying where my viewpoints on this have come from. I grew up in Ft. Worth, rooted for the Frogs, watched lots of old SWC games at Amon Carter Stadium, and never liked SMU. I had absolutely no idea about North Texas until 1988 when they beat Tech, Texas*, and Rice--its how I learned what i-aa vs i-a meant. The TCU vs. SMU vs. UNT argument on who has more potential is one that is tied up into many topics (conference affilitation, alumni, media, enrollment, history, location, and facilities).

To me, this is TCU's main advantage on the other two schools. When TCU wins, they have a big town to draw from, a city that basically adopted TCU as the hometown team. Ft. Worth has always viewed itself as very different from Dallas, which has always been a professional winner's city. Ft. Worth roots hard for the pro teams, too, but they have taken great pride in having a great university as its own to help show off the city. Even with the fact that TCU has a small enrollment, wealthy private students, and a small alum base, the school has always had a strong endowment for athletics. Couple all of this with the fact that they are in the heart of the metroplex, the media covers them very well, especially when they started beating people that fans have actually heard of. When TCU beat USC in the Sun Bowl in Coach Fran's first year, it started a wildfire that has only gotten stronger over the years. They basically have what SMU and UNT don't have--a big metroplitan area that the city has embraced as its own. Of course, it always helps to be a winner!!

SMU has the money, the history, and the metroplex media as advantages, but Dallas covers the professional teams first, the big Texas schools next, then SMU and high school stuff. Their wealth fits in well in the Dallas mindset, but unlike TCU, the city of Dallas never has made SMU their hometown team. If June Jones keeps building the program up, they have the same problem that UNT has--they mostly play teams that have about zero interest to their fans. Sure, UH, UTEP, Rice, Southern Miss, and Tulsa are teams that we love to play and would die to be in a conference with, but to SMU's older alumni and the Dallas citizenry, they hate not being in a conference with Texas, A&M, Arky, Baylor, etc.. Getting to play them in non-conference games (except TCU) is all they can hope for now. In Dallas, if you aren't the best, you might as well be the worst--hence the Pay for Play mess that they got caught up in back in the 80s. Couple this all with the snob factor that SMU ramps up about 25x more than any other private school in the state, you get the fact that SMUs days of being included in an AQ-league/new 1-a order in the future are nil.

To me, UNT really has to hope a few things align to make a big jump up in the future. Obviously, winning is the big thing, although wins against SBC teams only won't do it. That has been proven. We are going to have to get our "USC" win, that gets followed by big seasons, ala TCU in the late 90s. We have to hope that we can start winning fast and that it makes a MWC/CUSA invitation even possible. Denton has proven that they don't view UNT as its hometown team--poor support, constant bad-mouthing of athletics, and a true lack of media have all been factors. But, to me, the biggest reason that Denton has never cared about UNTs athletic teams is because we have never been able to align ourselves with a conference that people care about. If you get the big signature OOC win and combine it with an SBC championship/bowl berth, you could very well get that jumpstart to get into the MWC/CUSA that I believe is the only way to get alums, students, and Denton to solidly support the program ALWAYS!!

I personally think that the MWC berth is the only chance UNT has to ever be included in the future separation that will occur. If it occurs, TCU and UNT will be in great shape, but I truly believe SMU won't ever get that chance. But, if we don't get an invite there, I think TCU will be the only DFW university that will be in the new 1-a/AQ down the road. If it plays out this way, maybe we will finally get that new SWC we always talk about--it will probably just be a non-AQ/1-aa league, though.

MeanGreenHoops · August 19, 2011

To me, UNT really has to hope a few things align to make a big jump up in the future. Obviously, winning is the big thing, although wins against SBC teams only won't do it. That has been proven. We are going to have to get our "USC" win, that gets followed by big seasons, ala TCU in the late 90s.

Yeah, RV said it best on the podcast with Harry and Evan. He talked about Boise. First you have to dominate your league, but no one really bought into it until they beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. But what made them legit is since that win they've been good and doesn't matter who they play now it's a game.

We have a parallel with our basketball team. We are starting to win the league all the time. If we can knock of a big team, and then sustain it we'd have something. This is what we need football to do. We're a ways from that but that's the road map.

Dr. Seuss · August 19, 2011

There you go, letting the fact that this is something everybody does get in the way of a good opportunity to go after SMU

Its just stupid to laugh at someone else when youre doing the same thing, even if it is SMU

It would make more sense to say "It looks like SMU is getting a little jealous of our season ticket sales this year, now the AD is stepping in."

Edited August 19, 2011 by Dr. Seuss

LongJim · August 19, 2011

I will start off by saying where my viewpoints on this have come from...

First off, I think you had a great post. However, I'd like to add a couple of things. And I'm saying this based on my experience as a FW resident for the last 12 years.

TCU, while they have slowly and surely risen like Peter North in his prime from their (IMO) self-inflicted purgatory--and kudos to their program and its supporters--they only VERY recently began enjoying more-than-good attendance at their games.

And I'm talking about the FWST virtually begging/scolding the FW public to attend Frogs football via Lebreton and Little Ball of Pat Verbeek's Nickname. This has happened constantly over the last few years as TCU struggled to sell-out home games not populated with Big 12 foes.

What I'm getting at is that there are many more alums of UNT in DFW than TCU alumni. FW's grasp on TCU fandom is tenuous at best, and FW is definitely fickle towards the Frogs. All that means for UNT is that there's no reason that the fan base that is beginning to wake up (hopefully) in the metroplex can't finally take its place at the trough.

I personally don't think SMU--barring some major shakeup--is ever going to be a major factor in the metroplex sports-thought process again. Dallas doesn't really care about them, their own students don't really either, and FW for sure doesn't.

Now, UNT is obviously in the same boat as TCU, and at a much earlier stage of development, but if UNT can get their program rolling, there's no reason that it can't out-draw any program in the Metroplex by a large margin, and therefore deliver TV to whatever conference that comes calling. Keep building, donating, and attending. That's the process. It's self-sustaining if those things are done.

Edited August 19, 2011 by LongJim