Average Home Attendance SBC and CUSA

GrayEagle · October 23, 2012

Sun Belt Conference:

25,557 Louisiana

24,226 Arkansas State

23,979 ULM

20,634 WKU

20,379 North Texas

20,194 Troy

18,661 Middle Tennessee

18,434 South Alabama

14,212 FIU

14,199 FAU

Conference USA:

47,326 East Carolina

35,752 UCF

32,594 UTEP

28,647 Marshall

28,017 Houston

26,766 Southern Miss

26,532 Memphis

24,258 SMU

21,995 Rice

21,139 Tulane

20,557 Tulsa

17,606 UAB

30,862 UTSA

21,778 Louisiana Tech

MDH · October 23, 2012

Tulane & UAB's are so inflated

CurveItAround · October 23, 2012

I am not convinced that FIU was a better get for CUSA than ULL, but I suppose they probably had both LA schools voting against them. Those crazy cajuns are good people with some pretty nice facilities and solid support. FIU is so much larger, but South Fla is a tough sports market.

LakeTravis · October 23, 2012

Tulane & UAB's are so inflated

Liar Liar-Jim Carrey

"Weight: 105- Yeah! In your bra!"

kalebschumann · October 23, 2012

We're going to need to start bringing more fans to our games..

Harry · October 23, 2012

I think this list would be more valid if you listed the non conference home games each team had in parenthesis. I'm sorry but ULM getting Baylor at home affects their attendance numbers when compared to TSU bringing 50 to our opener...it just does..

On a side note ..how can ULM get Baylor at home with their budget?

Travis · October 23, 2012

You can expect our attendance to jump at least by an average of 5,000 when we are in that league. i expect solid home numbers against teams like La. Tech, Tulsa, Rice, UTEP, and UTSA.

buff64 · October 23, 2012

It's surprising that Ark. St. is 2nd in the SBC. They are located in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and I doubt that many people from Memphis attend there games, they don't even attend the U. of Memphis games.

Harry · October 23, 2012

It's surprising that Ark. St. is 2nd in the SBC. They are located in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and I doubt that many people from Memphis attend there games, they don't even attend the U. of Memphis games.

Their hire of Gus Malzahn really got their fan base going so I am thinking that had an impact. He is an Arkansas hero having coached at Springdale for many years so he probably brought some new fans.

SilverEagle · October 23, 2012

You can expect our attendance to jump at least by an average of 5,000 when we are in that league. i expect solid home numbers against teams like La. Tech, Tulsa, Rice, UTEP, and UTSA.

I seem to recall some people saying a few years ago that if we get a better venue, and a real D-1 coach, our attendance will go way up. Now we have both and what has been the bump?

Culture change forlks.....culture change.

DeepGreen · October 23, 2012

Winning helps attendance.

wardly · October 23, 2012

Marshall does a lot of recruiting in Florida, and really pushed for FIU. Question:does LA.Tech's average attendance include A&M game in Shreveport?

If so, they are not drawing very well in Ruston.

MeanGreenTexan · October 23, 2012

I seem to recall some people saying a few years ago that if we get a better venue, and a real D-1 coach, our attendance will go way up. Now we have both and what has been the bump?

Culture change forlks.....culture change.

Winning helps attendance.

If you've been around for at least the past 10 years (which I know both of you have), you would know that it's not either/or here. It has to be a combination of all of the above.

4 NO Bowls in 4 years. One of those years, a 9-3 year. Winning alone does not cure attendance woes when you play in a dilapidated, non-excitable venue with a standoffish coach, and have no tailgating festivities.

Fast forward 8 years later... a new, accomplished, like-able coach, a brand-spankin new, state-of-the-art stadium... and a 5-7 team. We need all 3 to work together. I think EVERYONE can agree we have the facility. MOST agree we have the coach. FEW agree we are where we need to be in the winning column... for now.

golfingomez · October 23, 2012

What about Old Dom?

SilverEagle · October 23, 2012

If you've been around for at least the past 10 years (which I know both of you have), you would know that it's not either/or here. It has to be a combination of all of the above.

4 NO Bowls in 4 years. One of those years, a 9-3 year. Winning alone does not cure attendance woes when you play in a dilapidated, non-excitable venue with a standoffish coach, and have no tailgating festivities.

Fast forward 8 years later... a new, accomplished, like-able coach, a brand-spankin new, state-of-the-art stadium... and a 5-7 team. We need all 3 to work together. I think EVERYONE can agree we have the facility. MOST agree we have the coach. FEW agree we are where we need to be in the winning column... for now.

Let me summarize what I was implying above.

You can change the venue and coach, AND you can change the win/loss record. But the biggest change needs to be in us and in our culture.

Last Tuesday's game went very much in the right direction to do that. Most of the people that showed up knew that this was an important game, and that the team needed us to help give them an edge. The crowd got really into it (mostly the student side) and by the time we kicked the extra point after that winning touchdown, they felt very much a PART of that win. Most of those people will want to come back and recreate that feeling as much as possible. Psychologist and child development experts call that bonding. But bonding takes more than one event. What happened Tuesday night WITH BOTH GROUPS (the team and the fans) needs to happen over and over again to make it PART OF OUR CULTURE.

The coaching staff has already made significant changes in the football team's culture. Now it's up to us, promotions, the administration, and the people in charge of the band/cheer/spirit staff to work on permanently changing our part of the culture.

Edited October 23, 2012 by SilverEagle

MeanGreenTexan · October 23, 2012

Let me summarize what I was implying above.

You can change the venue and coach, AND you can change the win/loss record. But the biggest change needs to be in us and in our culture.

Last Tuesday's game went very much in the right direction to do that. Most of the people that showed up knew that this was an important game, and that the team needed us to help give them an edge. The crowd got really into it (mostly the student side) and by the time we kicked the extra point after that winning touchdown, they felt very much a PART of that win. Most of those people will want to come back and recreate that feeling as much as possible. Psychologist and child development experts call that bonding. But bonding takes more than one event. What happened Tuesday night WITH BOTH GROUPS (the team and the fans) needs to happen over and over again to make it PART OF OUR CULTURE.

The coaching staff has already made significant changes in the football team's culture. Now it's up to us, promotions, the administration, and the people in charge of the band/cheer/spirit staff to work on permanently changing our part of the culture.

You're right. But for the past few seasons, we've seen our beloved program take 1 step forward, followed by 2 steps back. It's hard for general population to jump on board without consistency.

Macrocosm: In 2007, we bring in Todd Dodge and tons of people around DFW get excited about the Mean Green. Little did we know the catastrophe awaiting.

Microcosm: This year, we play LSU & K-State to somewhat respectable losses (if there is such a thing), and smash little TXSouthern at home, allowing us to drum up a little support. We then crap the bed when Troy comes to town, followed up by a gut punch in Houston, and the general population starts saying, "Same ol' North Texas..." again. Those of us who are on GMG.com will ALWAYS show up. We're the core. The football program needs to get some consistency going so the general population (re: disconnected UNT alumns and Denton area residents) will jump on board.

I don't think promotions, band/cheer/spirit, etc... can help, yet.

UNTLifer · October 23, 2012

Unfortunately, FIU was picked over ULL because of media market and location not fan or school support. Cristobal may regret not leaving when he had the chance. Just look at U or Miami and see what support looks like in South Florida. They don't care down there unless you are winning national championships. Even their pro sports teams draw poorly.

SilverEagle · October 23, 2012

You're right. But for the past few seasons, we've seen our beloved program take 1 step forward, followed by 2 steps back. It's hard for general population to jump on board without consistency.

Macrocosm: In 2007, we bring in Todd Dodge and tons of people around DFW get excited about the Mean Green. Little did we know the catastrophe awaiting.
Microcosm: This year, we play LSU & K-State to somewhat respectable losses (if there is such a thing), and smash little TXSouthern at home, allowing us to drum up a little support. We then crap the bed when Troy comes to town, followed up by a gut punch in Houston, and the general population starts saying, "Same ol' North Texas..." again. Those of us who are on GMG.com will ALWAYS show up. We're the core. The football program needs to get some consistency going so the general population (re: disconnected UNT alumns and Denton area residents) will jump on board.
I don't think promotions, band/cheer/spirit, etc... can help, yet.

It's promotions job to get people to show up. The band/cheer/spirit people need to be ready to do their job with the people who show up. Although they need to be doing promotions (on-campus cheer/band events) as well.

Cerebus · October 23, 2012

I am not convinced that FIU was a better get for CUSA than ULL, but I suppose they probably had both LA schools voting against them. Those crazy cajuns are good people with some pretty nice facilities and solid support. FIU is so much larger, but South Fla is a tough sports market.

Miami is the 16th DMA. Lafayette is 124th and Jonesboro is 180th. Both of them fell in the rankings in last years market ratings.

Before you roll your eyes at that, remember that our 5th ranked market is one of the reasons we will have different conference patches on the uni's next season.... and will be cashing a TV rights check that is about 11 times bigger than the one we did before.

Cerebus · October 23, 2012

I think this list would be more valid if you listed the non conference home games each team had in parenthesis. I'm sorry but ULM getting Baylor at home affects their attendance numbers when compared to TSU bringing 50 to our opener...it just does..

100% true.

However, there is no question there are some LEGIT big time crowds in CUSA. ECU is not a fluke, USM is way down this year but still easily outdrawing everyone in the SBC, UTEP is drawing well and if they ever start winning they can bring in more than ECU does.

I can't wait until we play @ECU. 50k fans at a conference game? Yes, please.

MEANGREENCOACH · October 23, 2012

100% true. However, there is no question there are some LEGIT big time crowds in CUSA. ECU is not a fluke, USM is way down this year but still easily outdrawing everyone in the SBC, UTEP is drawing well and if they ever start winning they can bring in more than ECU does. I can't wait until we play @ECU. 50k fans at a conference game? Yes, please.

Being a part of UNT before the Dodge days has made the comparison from this years team to those teams leaps and bounds. I truly think we are recruiting better kids and by the time this team becomes fully recruited by McCarney's staff, we will be making noise in the CUSA.

The game against the Cajuns was fantastic until students started leaving at the half im very proud for the ones that stayed and got treated to an awesome win

GrayEagle · October 23, 2012

Marshall does a lot of recruiting in Florida, and really pushed for FIU. Question:does LA.Tech's average attendance include A&M game in Shreveport?
If so, they are not drawing very well in Ruston.

No, these figures do not include neutral sites even though it may be designated as a home game. LaTech did draw over 40,000 in Shreveport. They have drawn more than 20,000 for each of their three home games. That's more than we can say (although I still believe that we had 20K for the ULaLa game).

aztecskin · October 23, 2012

UTSA's 30,862 that you have listed there was the attendance figure for the San Jose State game only. CFBStats and others only have that one game listed.

Wikipedia has them averaging 29,006.

meangreener · October 24, 2012

It drives me nuts that we count so conservatively. Can't we just lie like EVERY OTHER NCAA school? With SMU numbers, the TSU game would have been 24K and the Troy game 26K, the ULL game 22K. It's annoying.

forevereagle · October 24, 2012

It drives me nuts that we count so conservatively. Can't we just lie like EVERY OTHER NCAA school? With SMU numbers, the TSU game would have been 24K and the Troy game 26K, the ULL game 22K. It's annoying.

With SMU counting all would have been sellouts.