FAU Official Attendance

[KingDL1]

A couple of comments:

1) There was not anywhere close to 13k people at that game. My estimate is 5k tops.

2) I agree that there were many big games going on yesterday that would have kept the people away (Rangers, OU/TX). I am sure that many people started drinking before noon yesterday. But to be honest I think one of the biggest reasons was because of who we were playing. I predict that the attendance for the rest of the home games will be around 14k or about triple what we saw last night.

3) We pulled out a win and everyone is happy about that but I think there is still some frustration about what happens to our defense in the 4th quarter. It would have felt great to shut out FAU and Indiana and continue to rack up the score...but instead what happens is you move to the edge of your seat because they are scoring in about 2 minutes with ease and in trying to run the ball we end up with back to back 3 and outs.

With all that said we are now 2-4 and its feeling good.

I think once you see what 5K looks like you would know that 13K was about right last night.

I am happy about the win, great win!

[El Paso Eagle]

I realize there is a lot of hate/dislike for any talk of having Texas State or UTSA in our conference – But we MUST find a way to build rivalries that we can easily travel to, and they to Denton.

[Army of Dad]

5K estimate is absurd. I may give you it was closer to 10K but 5K is just not even realistic. I was at the game. Don't let your emotions cloud your judgement here.

What is the max attendance at Apogee, 31K? So that stadium looked 1/3 full to you? It didn't look like it to me...

[UNTflyer]

I hate to rub salt in the wound, but...

Attendance of previous Texas-OU weekends:

2010 vs. ULALA - 17,015 (won previous week)

2009 vs FAU - 23,319 (four straight previous losses)

2008 vs ULALA - 17,106 (0-5 going into this game)

2007 - Road game

2006 - FIU - 15,123 (the famous 7 OT game, 1-4 record)

2005 - Did not play

2004 - Road game

2003 - Road game

2002 - Did not play

[UNTflyer]

Really, what leads you to believe that? I hope you are 100% correct, but i see no signs from our students or alumns that conference affiliation would make any difference.

I do. Attendance is always, ALWAYS better for our home OOC games.

[UNTflyer]

Denton has a "Sports Commission", but you would never know it from the lack of any activity supporting local teams/universities, etc. I think the Commission is pretty much a "clique" of folks who really see it as their own little universe to do with as they please, and could really care less about actually promoting sports in and around Denton.

I give the Denton Sports Commission a BIG FAT "F" FOR "FAIL BIG TIME". Seems to be a pure waste of energy, time and money.

Anyone know any members of this esteemed Commission?

It's a paid membership. I suggest a hostile takeover.

[UNTflyer]

A couple of comments:

1) There was not anywhere close to 13k people at that game. My estimate is 5k tops.

Keep your day job. Crowd estimations are not your strong suit.

[Green P1]

13k may have been the number of people who at one point or another had their tickets scanned and walked into the stadium, but at no point were there more than 10K at the most in the seats. Even at 6:00 when we walked into the stadium there were already a steady stream of people trying out Apogee's stupid no re-entry policy.

The club and suite levels did look pretty full from my vantage point.

[Mean Green Matt]

Winning in front of 13k > Losing in front of 13k.

[rcade]

I realize there is a lot of hate/dislike for any talk of having Texas State or UTSA in our conference – But we MUST find a way to build rivalries that we can easily travel to, and they to Denton.

How easy does the travel have to be? Big 10 and SEC rivals often have to drive eight hours or more and thousands of fans make the trek.

[MeanGreenGlory]

Out of curiosity, what is the AD doing to get students to the games? Free tickets, coache's letter, and a Friday night pep rally are all great but is there anything else?

I'm always surprised how little most UNT students know about the football team. I think if the AD were a little more creative and aggressive about their student attendance campaign they would see a big ROI.

[foutsrouts]

I'm old enough to remember the last time we tried it so I'm really not going to advocate it, but attendance like that makes the thought of independence not sound like such a bad thing. At least it would stop many from looking down on us because of the company we keep. All we can really do at this point is keep winning football games and hope that takes care of fan support issues all by itself. Beating both Louisiana schools would be a great start.

[greenminer]

Out of curiosity, what is the AD doing to get students to the games? Free tickets, coache's letter, and a Friday night pep rally are all great but is there anything else?

I'm always surprised how little most UNT students know about the football team. I think if the AD were a little more creative and aggressive about their student attendance campaign they would see a big ROI.

Were you here during the pre-Dodge era?

I think RV should hand-write a letter, scan to the UNT community and include an invitation to gather on The Hill while he throws green Jolly Ranchers at the crowd.

What they're doing should be expected, but I am not so sure anything more would make that much difference. We really need to get some winning ways under our belt.

[Aquila_Viridis]

Certainly not happy that attendance was low, but I could see on the radar that front coming and as we approached from Frisco the sky was not promising. Given the weather, last week's blowout, the previous blowouts this season and how far down in the hole the program is from the last several years, I did not expect to see many people. I decided to take a chance with the weather and brought 5 other people out there (one FAU alum included), and fortunately it worked out. But it is enough a haul up or over to Denton for a lot of people that with all these other factors/possible factors (Okies going back north on 35?), that nobody should have had any great expectations about attendance. Of course, it WAS worth the trip after all (I came from Austin by the way) just to see those back-to-back pick 6s and anyone who didn't come out should be kicking themselves!

Edited October 9, 2011 by Aquila_Viridis

[Rudy]

Don't forget Taylor Swift concert. I know 3 students that went to the concert. Sad there was only 13K thought.

If they were guys, you need to yank their man cards. Taylor Swift is talented, and I like some of her music, but you don't pass up a football game for a concert.

[meangreen]

one word to fix all this. one word: WIN

[All About UNT]

I hate to rub salt in the wound, but...

Attendance of previous Texas-OU weekends:

2010 vs. ULALA - 17,015 (won previous week)

2009 vs FAU - 23,319 (four straight previous losses)

2008 vs ULALA - 17,106 (0-5 going into this game)

2007 - Road game

2006 - FIU - 15,123 (the famous 7 OT game, 1-4 record)

2005 - Did not play

2004 - Road game

2003 - Road game

2002 - Did not play

While valid stats..........you MUST combine the ALCS and weather factors in as well. While we are at it... most students don't know FAU or any other Sunbelt school very well. The fact is that our defense played it's best game and we won...in front of that few of people.

[EagleGreen]

Sell beer inside the stadium and win 75% of the games and it will be packed no matter who we play. A move to a conference with more well known teams would help but isn't going to happen anytime soon. Beer + Wins = Packed rowdy crowd!

[UNT Mean Green]

Should we devise a plan similar to SMU, and reach out to alumni and boosters to buy up the alottments of single game tickets (reserved and GA seats) and pass them out like candy around town? I know there was a lot working against us last night, but to have less than 50% of the crowd from the first game and almost 10K less than the second game is downright ridiculous. I'm glad we have 10,000 to 13,000 diehards (thank goodness) but good grief... still think that winning will cure so much of this.

Edited October 9, 2011 by UNT Mean Green

[bleedgreen4ever]

I agree. Most of my friends bailed out on me due to the Ranger's game. There was no way I wasn't going to go the UNT game, but was really disappointing to see the lack of current students (I'm an alumni) in the stadium. New students have a very bad image of NT football in general and that draws a huge lack of care. Win, win, win, move to a better conference, generate more revenue, and include the city's support...and you'll see a beautiful stadium packed every weekend until it needs to be expanded. And, it will happen if we keep coach Mac and his supporting staff and just do OUR part in convincing other people to become die-hard Mean Green fans. I'm doing my best and I know we'll have a nice attendance number during our homecoming game. Let us win that game and it'll be another step in the right direction.

[STE]

While valid stats..........you MUST combine the ALCS and weather factors in as well. While we are at it... most students don't know FAU or any other Sunbelt school very well. The fact is that our defense played it's best game and we won...in front of that few of people.

Baylor had over 35K last night for ISU. Yes, the are ranked (25) but they were playing ISU, were coming off a loss, with the same weather/ALCS issues as our fan base. They are also a lot smaller in terms of alumni/student base. If we can't at least draw half of what Baylor draws (regardless of opponent/record) were in bigger trouble than we realize. As said above - it's time to start giving away tickets . . . .holding high school band nights etc

[CMJ]

I really didn't think the new stadium was gonna be a cure all for attendance. There is no cure all panacea....it's gonna take a lot of work and probably more than a few years.

[michagb]

Out of curiosity, what is the AD doing to get students to the games? Free tickets, coache's letter, and a Friday night pep rally are all great but is there anything else?

I'm always surprised how little most UNT students know about the football team. I think if the AD were a little more creative and aggressive about their student attendance campaign they would see a big ROI.

Something different I've seen this year is that the Athletics staff has been setting up tables to hand out tickets all over campus. They're in the Rec Center and Union during the week. They also tried to entice students with free t-shirts this past week if they picked up tickets. Maybe some sort of campaign showcasing current students who love North Texas football? I feel like students will listen more to their peers than athletics staff.

Edited October 9, 2011 by michagb

[normack9]

I watched the game on ESPN3 while listening to George & Hank on kntu.com because I don't live anywhere near Denton. Let's be real... and it's been repeated in this thread: the only thing that will get people in the stands is a winning football program. You can't demand loyalty from students or alumni... you have to earn it. The way you earn people's loyalty in college football is by winning.

Why should we be surprised that there were so many empty seats on a weekend when Texas & O.U. played and the Rangers are in the ALCS (and bad weather to boot)? How can we criticize those who chose not to attend a game featuring Florida Atlantic? Furthermore, why is the athletic department scheduling home games on Texas/O.U. weekend? We can beg everybody to attend through letters and other gimmicks all we want... but why try to fight that tradition head-to-head? It didn't work for the USFL trying to beat the NFL... it's not going to work for North Texas at this stage of the game.

People will start being more than mildly interested once the program starts winning consistently... and last night's win over FAU gives us hope that the winning program is a lot closer than it's been in recent years.

[3XNTGRAD]

I hate to rub salt in the wound, but...

Attendance of previous Texas-OU weekends:

2010 vs. ULALA - 17,015 (won previous week)

2009 vs FAU - 23,319 (four straight previous losses)

2008 vs ULALA - 17,106 (0-5 going into this game)

2007 - Road game

2006 - FIU - 15,123 (the famous 7 OT game, 1-4 record)

2005 - Did not play

2004 - Road game

2003 - Road game

2002 - Did not play

How many of those games were also homecoming? I seem to remember that several of those were, and we always draw well for the homecoming game.