Previous Heart Of Dallas Bowl Games, MVP's and Attendance

[meangreenthirteen]

I understand sightlines and stuff but I wish they'd close off the upper bowl until (big if) the lower bowl was spoken for.

[CMJ]

A lot of coats in that pic CMJ -- wonder how cold it was. Sure could use a break on the weather for this day! How about 75 and sunny on Jan 1?

According to what I found the high was 46 degrees with a low of 35. Since the game started at 11AM and ended about 2:30 --- it might have been 46 by the time trophies were handed out.

The furthest forecast I have found for Dallas, doesn't list January 1st yet. December 27th is supposed to be 53 degrees with showers though. Given NYD is several days past that, hopefully the weather improves.

Edited December 18, 2013 by CMJ

[wardly]

I purchased 4 tickets, and my college roommate from the 60's and his wife are spending weekend with us and going to game.While I am excited about playing in the Cotton Bowl on new year's day, I personally would rather be playing Navy in Ft. Worth than UNLV in Dallas.

[Ben Gooding]

It was freezing cold that day last year. It was not 46. It was well under freezing and the wind was piercing. I hope it's 50's this year.

[CMJ]

It was freezing cold that day last year. It was not 46. It was well under freezing and the wind was piercing. I hope it's 50's this year.

Well, the official HIGH was 46. The low was 35, not under freezing (and I must say some of the coldest days I've ever experienced were technically "warmer" than freezing...nothing is worse than 35ish, raining, with a wind...unlike snow and ice the cold rain goes right through you). It's possible the high was at 4AM and it was 35 during the day. That does happen sometimes in winter.

Edited December 18, 2013 by CMJ

[JesseMartin]

Remember wind chill can make the temp seem colder. If it was 35-40 and there was piercing wind like he said, that could easily drop the temp at least 10 degrees.

[CMJ]

Remember wind chill can make the temp seem colder. If it was 35-40 and there was piercing wind like he said, that could easily drop the temp at least 10 degrees.

I thought that's more or less what I said.

[Coffee and TV]

Knowing UH's football history for most my life, I still refuse to believe they would have had more than 25,000 fans even at that game though.

As someone who has frequented the Cotton Bowl maybe more than Fouts/Apogee (and did on that day), they definitely had 25k there, maybe 35k. You have to remember they weren't just making the 3-4 hour drive up the road, there's probably loads of UH alums in DFW the same way there are loads of UNT alums in Houston.

EDIT: Also, the temp was around 45-50 degrees but full-blown sunshine. It was chilly in the shade but not bad out. I would be ok with similar weather in a couple of weeks.

Edited December 18, 2013 by Coffee and TV

[Eagle1855]

As usual, NT has tremendous pressure to turn out the troops.

It's essentially a home game so that seems fair. I keep hearing about all these Dallas-area alum who just can't be bothered to make it to Denton. Well, here's your home game, Dallas. Best season we've had in about a decade and all you have to do is drive to the Cotton Bowl to enjoy the fruits of it.

I'd have preferred a name opponent but I'm going to see UNT. I don't care who they play. Hopefully there are 39,999 other people who feel the same way.

[PlummMeanGreen]

As someone who has frequented the Cotton Bowl maybe more than Fouts/Apogee (and did on that day), they definitely had 25k there, maybe 35k. You have to remember they weren't just making the 3-4 hour drive up the road, there's probably loads of UH alums in DFW the same way there are loads of UNT alums in Houston.

EDIT: Also, the temp was around 45-50 degrees but full-blown sunshine. It was chilly in the shade but not bad out. I would be ok with similar weather in a couple of weeks.

Well, such numbers would be so "un-UH" from the program I've observed most all my life.

And.....................where did all those UH fans which such an apparent fan base as that disappear to last Halloween Night when we had more fans show at Apogee than good ol' Coog' High had at their venue the very same night?

Then to go from your 25K to "maybe" 35K sort of tells the "Show Me" part which would question such a differential of accuracy---like in 10,000 fans?

So what the hell..... I'll just go with your 25K until I can communicate with a UH friend over on CoogFans who would know and not BS me with how many they really had. (Sort of a boring news day some might say)? LOL!

__________________________________

If ...North Texas had had the HOD Bowl's actual contracted Big 10 opponent which some have said would mean a minimum 10K to 15K traveling fans from one of their schools; and if North Texas added "ONLY" 8K to the 17K we traveled to a weeknight bowl game last decade 8-10 hours away from DFW (sorry 'bout that, meangreener).................then doing the math here's what could have been at the turnstiles this 1/1/2014 (minimum)

UNT.......................................................................................................25,000 (minimum versus Big 10 foe)

A Big 10 opponent as it should have been per the HOD agreement....15,000 (minimum Big 10 fans)

Total......................................................................................................40,000 (minimum)

I know--this discussion is just a tad more than a bit silly but.... "if if's and buts were....."

.................but North Texas just got plain screwed with who our opponent will be on New Years Day and it seems we are now expected to all but make up the difference for what a Big 10 school would have traveled to Dallas?

"1" winning season in a decade does not give us much bargaining capital for now, but give Coach Mac 4 or 5 winning seasons in a row and lets then tell some of these bowls who we want to play....starting with what said bowls have contracted for CUSA opponents in the first place. (No Big 10 schools available)? Then why the hell didn't HOD jump on one of these 3 schools who 10 days before we were invited were said to be highly interested in coming to Big D such as..........Boston College, Syracuse or Pitt?

Edited December 18, 2013 by PlummMeanGreen

[FirefightnRick]

It's amazing to think that every year, other than the year we play in it there is a Big 10 team available.

The attendance pressure we are facing - when you factor in our opponent - is more than any other team in the history of this bowl.

Tech, Penn State, Oklahoma State and Purdue all have HUGE fan bases with very established, winning programs in BCS conferences. We have had one winning season in the past 10.

Sorry -- but to expect us to hold up attendance wise to those teams who had name opponents is a tall order.

Heck even Houston had a Heisman candidate, played in the conference championship and was a hair away from a BCS bowl the year they played in it I believe.

Agree. And it begs the question why officials then went around talking 25-30k? Now I see where one of our news anchor alums have tweeted that expectation as well, and we know where she got that from.

Rick

[pastorgrant]

As best I can tell, about 17K plus whatever UNLV sold of their allotment, plus third party sales have already been purchased.

We sold our 10k allotment and are working on a second. HOD had sold 5k yesterday according to some reports I have heard.

My guess is 20k already sold or more and we have a couple of weeks left.

[Green Mean]

According to my accuweather app on my phone it is projecting the high to be 45 and low of 33 with possible light flurries on Jan 1. But then again it's Texas weather so anything is possible.

[PlummMeanGreen]

As best I can tell, about 17K plus whatever UNLV sold of their allotment, plus third party sales have already been purchased.

We sold our 10k allotment and are working on a second. HOD had sold 5k yesterday according to some reports I have heard.

My guess is 20k already sold or more and we have a couple of weeks left.

pastorgrant, now that gives all the various groups (including City of Dallas, UNVL, more UNT student sales, walk up sales) a very nice base on which to build.

Call me crazy but I think the overall attendance will be fine even though we didn't get a Big 10 or P5 opponent.

GMG!

PS:

Ran into a Green Brigade flag corp member at the Hudson Oaks Walmart last night. She was with her father doing some Christmas shopping. They saw my Mean Green shirt, we started talking and this from her dad: "My wife and I are going to bring 6 friends of ours to the HOD Bowl game." (Then he added it will be the first Mean Green football game for 5 of those 6).

[JesseMartin]

To Plumm and whoever else wonders why we didn't get Cuse, Pitt, BC...didn't somebody say Smatresk has some pull in the MWC? If he's heavily influential then maybe he threw a little, "Hey, I'd like to have both of my schools play as my final bridge to pass over" sort of comment to the bowl committee. I mean, who knows, there has to be some reason for doing it but whatever...2 weeks left and I agree, it looks good, we should hopefully see at least 40K there. Guess I'll have to see how it looks on TV

[Chief Rising Eagle]

We will hit 40k. There are tons of people who have not purchased their tickets yet for various reasons. And if we have a near 70 degree day like the ones we have been experiencing this week, we may even hit 45k.

[meangreenthirteen]

We will hit 40k. There are tons of people who have not purchased their tickets yet for various reasons. And if we have a near 70 degree day like the ones we have been experiencing this week, we may even hit 45k.

I believe this.

[meangreener]

We will hit 40k. There are tons of people who have not purchased their tickets yet for various reasons. And if we have a near 70 degree day like the ones we have been experiencing this week, we may even hit 45k.

I, as well, think we could hit 40-45K because, yes, it does look like 20K is sold already. There will be a lot of walkups as well. Very big game for us, this is a must-win. Can only imagine what would've happened had we played a bigger school. I think we could've broken 60 had we played a team with a traveling fanbase.

Edited December 19, 2013 by meangreener

[UNT90]

You'll be lucky to have 25,000 UNT and UNLV fans combined in the HOD Bowl.

Nobody wants to go to Birmingham nor Legion Field.

Not very many and even less from UNLV.

Queeny sounds a little butt hurt because his current/temporary favorite team can't sell bowl tickets.

It's OK, Queeny. Just the price you pay for swinging and missing on a big 6 conference.

[meangreener]

Queeny sounds a little butt hurt because his current/temporary favorite team can't sell bowl tickets.

It's OK, Queeny. Just the price you pay for swinging and missing on a big 6 conference.

If we were, what, 5-0 at one time, I feel like the stadium here would be nearly sold out. UH did beat us on attendance because of a rivalry game and a team with a big traveling fanbase. We need a rivalry game and schedule someone like BYU. Take out the BYU game and the Rice game they averaged 22,484 a game. Not much different than us. Must be rough to have fallen that far from the days of selling out Robertson every week. We didn't play a team with a big traveling fanbase. UTSA was our biggest and they probably brought maybe 1,000.

Edited December 19, 2013 by meangreener

[Cougar King]

If we were, what, 5-0 at one time, I feel like the stadium here would be nearly sold out. UH did beat us on attendance because of a rivalry game and a team with a big traveling fanbase. We need a rivalry game and schedule someone like BYU. Take out the BYU game and the Rice game they averaged 22,484 a game. Not much different than us. Must be rough to have fallen that far from the days of selling out Robertson every week. We didn't play a team with a big traveling fanbase. UTSA was our biggest and they probably brought maybe 1,000.

We played at multiple stadiums off-campus this year you genius and still outdrew you. Do your research Brian, Dylan or whatever your name is. We'll be back on campus in our new stadium in 2014.

[Harry]

If we were, what, 5-0 at one time, I feel like the stadium here would be nearly sold out. UH did beat us on attendance because of a rivalry game and a team with a big traveling fanbase. We need a rivalry game and schedule someone like BYU. Take out the BYU game and the Rice game they averaged 22,484 a game. Not much different than us. Must be rough to have fallen that far from the days of selling out Robertson every week. We didn't play a team with a big traveling fanbase. UTSA was our biggest and they probably brought maybe 1,000.

That UTSA crowd was lighter than usual due to the weather and they still FAR outnumbered the Belt crowds we were seeing. Let's face the facts, we really haven't had the luxury of a big crowd from an opponent since we opened Apogee. And it won't get any easier since TCU is now in the Big 12, SMU schedules Big 12 in their home non conference and Jerry World is attracting other name opponents every other weekend it seems.

[meangreener]

We played at multiple stadiums off-campus this year you genius and still outdrew you. Do your research Brian, Dylan or whatever your name is. We'll be back on campus in our new stadium in 2014.

Sorry, we don't adhere to the SMU standard of counting.

[redallover]

Since I was there but don't have any official figures, my somewhat informed guess on the 1/1/12 game attendance is 20K for UH, 15K general attendance/locals and 12K from Penn State. I think UH may have sold 15K through the school and 5K otherwise. There was a very large group in the official section.

Purdue has a pretty weak Texas presence and isn't into football. They have alums all over the country due to their great engineering program but I'd put them at 5K tops. OK State would have been huge.

That TX Tech attendance was a disappointment but it was VERY cold (if I remember correctly) and Northwestern may travel less than Purdue due to school size.

[untjim1995]

That Tech game didn't have 25k in attendance, I promise. That shot holes in every single Tech fan that loves to spout off about their huge presence in DFW. The UH-Penn State game did well for a combo of reasons, that UH was good and didn't have to travel very far, that Penn State has a large and loyal fanbase all over the country, and DFW residents wanted to see Penn State play here. The OSU-Purdue game really impressed me in how many Okie States fan showed up for a game that didn't get that much press (sound familiar)? Purdue was not good (6-6), but OSU really showed up.

Look, I doubt very seriously that we get to 40k. Its just not an attractive opponent to the locals, its not a close opponent for a traveling fanbase that isn't big to begin with, and the games starts at 11am. The problem is that your SMU-TCU and SWC media are gonna play this as a way to say that we don't belong at this same level, that SMU and TCU would've drawn bigger crowds, even with their current losing teams. And if we lose, it will be even louder from the local sports rags...Just remember, though, if this happens that it will be complete Bull$hit that no one should buy. No way that SMU or TCU, given UNLV as the opponent, would draw a REAL attendance of anywhere close to 30k. Hell, Baylor and Tech wouldn't draw any better than we will for this game with this opponent either. Anyone can brag about their attendance in games against SEC, Big Ten, or Big XII teams--show me what you got when you have to play a non-AQ team. That should tell you what you need to know about that garbage argument that will be thrown out on January 2nd...