To Dr. Rawlins/BOR's: A UNT Football Attendance Manifesto

[PlummMeanGreen]

(from an admitted Sunday Morning QB & Spirit of '1976 UNT grad')

What significantly larger crowd we could have had this Thursday might has already most likely been determined months ago. Months ago? Any effective Large Groups Promotions Program would have had to have been planned for every Apogee Game Day this Fall as far back as last Spring. I do like that all kids 14 and under wearing Halloween costumes get in free but that begs the question: How many Denton area kids 14 and under even know about that promotion. I'd wager that most of this 14 and under demographic were not listening to the MGRN last evening so they could have found out about that promo by our most talented radio broadcasting duo team of Dunam & Dickenson. Who knows maybe posters are thumb-tacked at all Denton (County) middle school bulletin boards...we can all only hope and that for the sake of Coach Mac and his fabulous Mean Green football team. This team really does deserve much larger crowds. Heck! They deserve Standing Room Only (SRO) kinds of crowds and I think we'd all be unified with that thought, wouldn't we?

? Yet..............can we realistically expect dramatic attendance results this Thursday evening on national TV with what seems to be (as you read this board) last minute, thrown together "week of" or "1 week before" game promotion ideas? I think the UNT Student Side will be fine this Thursday, but that is just 1/3'rd of what needs to be fine at Apogee Stadium; you know, like we have one entire West Side/Luxury Suites side with many of the same old faces since we (still) don't sell too many season tickets and then...........that ominous Jolly Green Giant of a Wing Zone that has been way too empty too many times for a stadium that still smells new. (Last home game it did look better with more fans in it than usual--Hey! Credit when credit is due here since most of us are more than fair and balanced about being able to do such.

We love our Coach Mac! Many of us did back in his Year 1 and Year 2 and could see success coming, too, but I do wish our Mean Green HFC would understand he is preaching to the wrong group with his periocal calling us out, but rather look inside the very department from which he offices out of and call out a few from that group who can make the real difference at the Apogee turnstiles much quicker than all of us as individual Mean Green fans will ever be able to do. All we can do is load up our cars, but North Texas need bus loads of groups coming to Apogee Stadium........every game. For some reason, I think Coach McCarney would agree.

At some NCAA G5 athletic departments the would-be "Big Difference Makers At The Turnstiles" are even given quotas and standards for turnstiles success to work with. That is a motivator in more ways than one--don't all of us who have been is sales know that? LOL! Still many of us operated under such modus operendis most our professional lives. You work harder when you know someone is looking at your numbers and production, right?

It's just the way of good ol' fashioned American capitalism--you know, when you work your butt off so you can support yourself, your family, drive the best cars and eat at the best restaurants (of course there is much more to all of the American Dream than that but.............I know most in the high information crowd will get my drift. And This for heaven's sake? At some NCAA FBS outposts employees get nice monetary bonuses based on their school's football and basketball attendance increases; of course, a few consecutive winning seasons can go long way, too.

This attendance thing could be fixed, but just by whom still seems to have not been established or identified or maybe it has; maybe its top secret. Many of us think this attendance thing should even be a campus-wide project, Dr. Rawlins (of course I know you are reading all this, right)? For the sake of Coach McCarney, his coaches and theirs/ours...superb Mean Green football team we can only hope that this attendance things will one day seriously be addressed and then solved. For certain, it will be a major campus-wide under-taking but since most all our homes games are being televised now, it would be a project more than worth solving. I can never forget what Ambassador Joe Kennedy told his 2 sons, ie, Jack & Bobby about how perception is what most people base things on---not reality.........well the reality for us at North Texas is that empty seats at Apogee do not help our school's perception by the masses, Dr. Rawlins.

I think many of us as alums/fans actually have much empathy (and even our own personal frustrations) for Coach Mac and our team because it seems at times they are not getting a plan of action from our university to solve our attendance problems. Coach Mac should not have to do that at all....period. I suppose 8 losing seasons in a row has caused some to wave the white flag at North Texas, but isn't it times such as those that you hunker down and quadruple your large groups promotions efforts?

Planning and marketing for much larger attendance that we can all be proud is not a new thing to do for schools like North Texas. We would hardly be pioneers in giving this kind of thing the good ol' college try, either, but the first steps to solve our attendance woes needs to soon take place probably some time this next Spring and help from your office, President Rawlins, would only prove to all that North Texas really does mean bu$ine$$ when it comes to the Apogee Stadium turnstiles.

Lest we forget, we as alums still do need to do our part, too, per Coach Mac's request. We all feel his pain and some of us who've been around a few decades maybe feel it more with this attendance bug-a-boo at North Texas.

Go Mean Green!

Edited October 27, 2013 by PlummMeanGreen

[bstnsportsfan3]

Nice novel

[NT91]

USM had 23K for a 0-7 team We must have 25+ on OCT. 31.

[Christopher Walker]

I'm starting to like Plumm more and more, but someone needs to write a bot script that forms a TL;DR version of his novella posts. Or better yet, a Taiwanese Animation synopsis.

[bstnsportsfan3]

i like him, but im not going to read that entire thing

[PlummMeanGreen]

Of course this was addressed to Dr. Rawlins and his BOR's but for you who choose to labor thru the read of this manifesto (and let me remind all that manifestos of any kind are usually not message board short) but simply consider doing this:

(1) Step back from your computer

(2) go to the kitchen and get that 2'nd cup of coffee

(3) come back to your computer with coffee in hand and then

(4) act is though all the above wordage is actually (only) the first 2 or 3 pages of the 1'st chapter of an actual composition (written on paper)

while at the same time removing all cyber aspects which seem to make a few a tad tense.

I really hope someone will consider forwarding this to Dr. Rawlin's Executive Secretary, ie, his gate-keeper and screener of emails and that she or he will actually forward it to his "Must Read" column. I have no idea if Dr. Rawlins Executive Secretary will really know just how many of us are concerned with this most enormous perception creator of a problem at our alma mater. Coach Mac for damn sure does as he should. It is he and his team under the microscope and most times now on "live" TV most every Game Day. We need to do something to make them proud of us and that must begin at the Apogee Stadium turnstiles. What crowd we have this Thursday was determined last Spring or Summer with what plans were (or were not) put into action. (With that in mind.....we really do need a bunch more UNT students at this Thursday night game, folks, we really do).

W/O any melodrama here I (like others I know) just don't have as many Mean Green rodeos left because of health concerns, but the greatest thing North Texas could accomplish before this alum exits stage right (wing--but not a Nazi, uh, Nancy) would be for us all to see SRO crowds at Apogee Stadium for each game no matter who the opponent or our W/L record. That accomplishment alone would send me off into the sweet by and by with a smile as well as a great sense of satisfaction as I know it would others. Our attendance woes are our last mountain to climb or challenge at North Texas as we see all the other prior mountains become mole hills with all that beginning this Fall--thank the Lord.

Out of 8 million living in our northern Texas region (of which most live less than 1 hour from the Denton city limits) we "only" need 31,000 souls to fill Apogee. I think most of us would all agree that that is most do-able, but only if our entire university takes this on as a campus wide project of which its eventual success by doing such would then spill into Denton, then over into Denton County, then the Metroplex and then.....all the utter parts of the earth. All of this first has to begin on campus, though. The Plan of Action has to begin on campus--few of us are capable or have the resources even if we were. This thing can be fixed, folks. Don't you feel that?

Edited October 27, 2013 by PlummMeanGreen

[PlummMeanGreen]

I'm starting to like Plumm more and more, but someone needs to write a bot script that forms a TL;DR version of his novella posts. Or better yet, a Taiwanese Animation synopsis.

Oh hellsbells, CW, to know me is to love me.

You just have to learn how to sift thru all the BS that comes from me (many times tongue in cheek) and my occasional Irish outburst of temper, but otherwise, I am as harmless as a Texas rattle snack with all its fangs removed.

Heck, even my own late, sainted mother once told me...... "Jimmy, you could make the Pope curse on Easter Sunday." She was the only person who could really put me in my place and make me stay there as long as "she" wanted me to stay there. Gol' darn it how I miss my mother.

Edited October 27, 2013 by PlummMeanGreen

[oldguystudent]

Jesus. I'm thinking of building a new house. Can I borrow a few walls of text from you?

I have zero idea what you just wrote. Brevity is your friend.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Jesus. I'm thinking of building a new house. Can I borrow a few walls of text from you?

I have zero idea what you just wrote. Brevity is your friend.

Brevity may be my friend but is is not the friend of most manifestos or epistles.

Did you ever read the Reagan Manifesto or any of the Epistles of St Paul? Jeez................

GMG!

I'm running a sale on dry wall texts in November, oldguystudent. You must have a 6'th sense. (insert Twilight Zone theme song)

GMG!

Edited October 27, 2013 by PlummMeanGreen

[TheTastyGreek]

Of course this was addressed to Dr. Rawlins and his BOR's but for you who choose to labor thru the read of this manifesto (and let me remind all that manifestos of any kind are usually not message board short) but simply consider doing this:

Plumm, I can see where you got mixed up and thought this was your email outbox instead of a discussion forum where people are not only welcome, but ENCOURAGED to discuss the thoughts and statements posted by other community members.

Simple error. Happens all the time.

Here's the contact page for Lane Rawlins: http://www.unt.edu/president/contact.htm

If this is really meant for him, then by all means go ahead and get your message to him directly. I'll go ahead and lock this thread, since you didn't mean for it to be a conversation with the GMG community, but only a missive intended for a select few that must have accidentally wound up on this public discussion forum instead.