Blome

greenminer · January 25, 2012

One more thing to chew on (sorry about all this): try to think about it from the perspective of a tradition you're not tied to.

In my case, here are some bits off my sports wish-list:

Attend Yankees baseball game

Attend KU basketball game

Attend Duke-UNC bball game

Attend ND football game

Do you think KU basketball tickets are hard to find because of decades of chanting Ralk-Chalk? Please. It's a grand tradition of the most monophonic, crappiest vocal projection I've ever heard. I think I might be able to find more excitement and melodic variation in an arrangement of One-Note Samba for middle school dance band.

Don't get me wrong: it might be fun, and I'd probably have some fun in something like Wisconsin's jump around, but I consider these must-sees for the same reason tickets are hard to come by: winning franchises.

People want to be associated with winners. People like the idea that they are winners.

Edited January 25, 2012 by greenminer

SilverEagle · January 25, 2012

One more thing to chew on (sorry about all this): try to think about it from the perspective of a tradition you're not tied to.

In my case, here are some bits off my sports wish-list:

Attend Yankees baseball game
Attend KU basketball game
Attend Duke-UNC bball game
Attend ND football game

Do you think KU basketball tickets are hard to find because of decades of chanting Ralk-Chalk? Please. It's a grand tradition of the most monophonic, crappiest vocal projection I've ever heard.

Don't get me wrong: it might be fun, and I'd probably have some fun in something like Wisconsin's jump around, but I consider these must-sees for the same reason tickets are hard to come by: winning franchises.

People want to be associated with winners. People like the idea that they are winners.

....and why would you want to attend those events rather than watch them on TV/pay-per-view?

Could it be the excitement of the crowd......fueled by...... school spirit/PAGEANTRY?

greenminer · January 25, 2012

....and why would you want to attend those events rather than watch them on TV/pay-per-view?

Could it be the excitement of the crowd......fueled by...... school spirit/PAGEANTRY?

The same reason I would rather attend an NFL game than watch it on TV?

The Fake Lonnie Finch · January 25, 2012

SilverEagle is 164% right on the band thing. The game doesn't begin with the kickoff - it begins with the entrance of the band and players. It's entertainment, giving people something to get whooped up about other than, heads or tails.

The grander, the better.

With as much music reputation as our school has, you'd figure we'd be far and away the leader in this area. Sadly...

As much as it sucks to lose to OU, their band is always great out of the gate, firing up their fans.

SilverEagle · January 25, 2012

SilverEagle is 164% right on the band thing. The game doesn't begin with the kickoff - it begins with the entrance of the band and players. It's entertainment, giving people something to get whooped up about other than, heads or tails.

The grander, the better.

With as much music reputation as our school has, you'd figure we'd be far and away the leader in this area. Sadly...

As much as it sucks to lose to OU, their band is always great out of the gate, firing up their fans.

vs

Edited January 25, 2012 by SilverEagle

SilverEagle · January 25, 2012

In the 80's/90's we used to have a drumline like this that performed at every game....

the drum lines of the 80's also looked like this North Texas drumline.

this is the current group

The Fake Lonnie Finch · January 25, 2012

vs

Yes, it's like our band is doing a halftime show at the beginning of the game.

The thing I like about this, though, is that it gives us something to debate instead of attendance, uniforms, high school coaching staffs, and qui(t)ting players.

untjim1995 · January 25, 2012

In the 80's/90's we used to have a drumline like this that performed at every game....

the drum lines of the 80's also looked like this North Texas drumline.

this is the current group

What was attendance like at Fouts during the 80s and 90s for game days for those drum lines? What is now?

Louisiana-Monroe was a conference opponent for us during that entire period. How many people came to that game each year that we played them in Denton? Seriously, the drum line could have been the best of all-time in any part of that timeframe and added more pagenatry to the day than any other band or drumline in the country and I doubt that Fouts or now Apogee would see 20k people dare show up to watch the Indians/Warhawks play the Eagles/Mean Green.

I do agree with greenminer a lot in this thread. His point is that this stuff is the icing to the cake. But if the cake is rotten or if the cake is a flavor that very few people like, they will avoid the cake and eat other desserts. You want to know why UNT alums and students are so apathetic? We have given the following conference mates for football in the last 30 years:

NE Louisiana/Louisiana-Monroe'

Arkansas State

Western Kentucky

Louisiana-Lafayette

Florida Atlantic

Florida International

South Alabama

Troy

Stephen F. Austin

Southwest Texas State

Nicholls State

McNeese State

Northwestern (La) State

Sam Houston State

Nevada

New Mexico State

Boise State--pre big time Boise

Utah State

Idaho

What is even worse that that is that we have had 3 winning seasons since 1995 when we came back from the 1-aa purgatory while playing in two of these conferences. Heck, we have had 6 seasons where we won 5 games or more. All the rest have been bad to god-awful bad.

I will say this until I die, but if we cannot get in a conference with teams that people in Texas care about, our product will always be deemed inferior, by the Texas media, by casual area fans, and especially by our UNT community, all of whom want to be associated with some (any?) of the other well-known Texas schools. Its those schools alumni with whom we work and attend church with, with whom we are often related to and get to hear how awesome it was to be at a school where big-time games got played year in and year out. We can get 20-30k every game by playing other Texas schools that are currently FBS. We can't do that against the teams we play now--unless we do something gigantic, like beating a ranked opponent like LSU, KSU, or UH this upcoming season. And, to me, that would be the equivalent of winning a lottery ticket--because it would set us up to move upward and beyond the quagmire we are stuck in now.

Edited January 25, 2012 by untjim1995

Green Mean · January 25, 2012

Well, actually people always list the "pageantry" and the connection to their school, as the reason that they like College FB over Pro Football.

If you have a tradition rich winning program I may be able to give you that. But what stadium is going to be more full. A really good team with a crappy band and very little not pageantry or a really bad team with a hell of a band and a ton of pageantry?

If you win and create a winning tradition and atmosphere for some decades then by default that pageantry will probably develop but until then EVERYTHING hinges on winning winning winning.

SilverEagle · January 25, 2012

Yes, it's like our band is doing a halftime show at the beginning of the game.

The thing I like about this, though, is that it gives us something to debate instead of attendance, uniforms, high school coaching staffs, and qui(t)ting players.

Well, to be fair, the North Texas example IS a half-time show entrance (I couldn't find a 2011 pre-game entrance video). But their pre-game entrance is equally.....bland.

SilverEagle · January 25, 2012

If you have a tradition rich winning program I may be able to give you that. But what stadium is going to be more full. A really good team with a crappy band and very little not pageantry or a really bad team with a hell of a band and a ton of pageantry?

If you win and create a winning tradition and atmosphere for some decades then by default that pageantry will probably develop but until then EVERYTHING hinges on winning winning winning.

We won the conference in 2001,2002,2003,and 2004. We went to four bowl games during that stretch. We set a conference winning record during that era. As a result of this winning, what was the average attendance?

2001 14,769

2002 15,260

2003 18,694

2004 15,184

AND our traditions/game time pageantry STILL SUCKS.

My point? Winning, in and of itself, will not magically produce something like this........

IT HAS TO BE PLANNED AND PRACTICED. THE PLANNING TAKES PLACE THIS TIME OF YEAR, AND IF THE PAGEANTRY IS GOING TO IMPROVE, IT HAS TO HAPPEN NOW!

MeanGreenDan · January 25, 2012

vs

Nothing says pageantry and school pride like mismatched khaki shorts!

forevereagle · January 25, 2012

Well, actually people always list the "pageantry" and the connection to their school, as the reason that they like College FB over Pro Football.

This sounds scientific. Is there a study that backs this up?