PonyFans.com

Hey, Boston Pony. Mustang Mania is for young whippersnappers! Back in my day, we had Excitement 68! It's so long ago, I don't remember what we did for promotions. But I do remember Chuck Hixson throwing the football to Jerry Levias, and Mike Richardson running the ball. Beat OU in the Bluebonnet Bowl, by gum! You know, maybe that's what we need again. Where the gosh darn are those guys now? Gotta go. Bed time.

You can come up with whatever marketing scheme you want to, but what puts fans in the seats is a good team. It doesnt matter how much money you spend on advertising, or how many high school bands you bring in, the bottom line is that until the team improves to at least a .500 team that has a chance to win each week, the stands will stay empty. Marketing may help, but talented players and a winning team is what people come to see, not high school bands.

Baloney Pony is right. However, all these marketing efforts in no way hurt the cause. Face it, attendance can't get much worse.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Baloney Pony:
<B> Marketing may help, but talented players and a winning team is what people come to see, not high school bands.</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I don't think it was anyone's idea that this was how to fill the stands, i.e., with high school band kid's parents and friends, but rather a way to get people to the games that might otherwise not have thought about attending a SMU game. They just might become long term fans ... yeah, you still have to give them a good exciting game to watch, but first you have to get them into the stadium. A lot of these people may have never been to a college game before and don't know how much fun it can be. Even a winning program needs some marketing.

No question fans aren't showing up. Winning and fan support go hand and hand. I did not go to S.M.U. but I am a fan. My only suggestion to increase fan support is maybe have someone like the president of the university or the head football coach, go on some sort of crusade to the frat & sor. houses and personally ask for their support. This is asking a lot from our leaders, but long term, increase fan support also means an increase in revenues which doesn't justify nor hurt the cause. just random thinking

Hey guys, it's been a while since I've been on this board and it's great to see all the new members on here.

You guys have posted a lot of good ideas about attendance here. I especially liked the post by H-E-B Mustang. He and I must have a lot in common, both living in Bedford and remembering the 1968 Bluebonnet Bowl so well. It was a great game.

Thanks allen4a for your support. It's nice to know that we have fans beyond just the alums and a few students. I hope we can soon give you and the rest of us something to really be proud of.

Maybe its because I'm in Sales, but one thing I remember Russ Potts said. Paraphrasing him, "you can build a house with promotion but winning is the roof". In the first year of Mustang Mania, SMU set the record for increase in attendance. I think it was from around 35000 to over 65000. This was with a team that was 4-6-1. It was an exciting team with Mike Ford passing the ball all over the place, however we still lost games. We can get the folks into the stadium, produce a fun team to watch, then look at building the program at the same time. It can be done and done quickly with a plan and support of everyone at the school. I am hopeful that with some early promotion, then success on the field attendance will stay up. Remember it's only a 32000 seat house. That's a rounding error at UT. By the way, if we win this weekend, do you think the crowds will be large at Moody?

If we beat both Hawaii and San Jose I think we will see another 5500 at Moody for Fresno and depending on what TCU does, we could see as many as 7000 for that game.