Tulane attendance

[StallionsModelT]

1984-SMU playing for share of SWC Championship at home against Arkansas on last week of Season after the best record in College Football over previous 5 years. SMU drew 28,000 and a lot of those fans were Arkansas fans

Stadium not on campus.

No Boulevard.

No College GameDay.

No ESPN sports shows hyping us as #1 team in the country all week leading up to the game.

Tired and stupid argument. College football and the media presence surrounding it now is literally immeasurably larger today than in the mid 80's. Have some common sense. Right now college football is the number two sport in the country. In the 80's freaking baseball was ahead of college football. Dynamics change. Citing attendance figures from 30 plus years ago is, well.....STUPID.

[Stallion]

Baseball was never more important than SWC Football in the 1980s-are you crazy

Texas Stadium was the place to be in the 1980s-it was cool. Texas Stadium was an essential part of Ron Meyer's plan to build a powerhouse. It gave us a national profile. You think Eric Dickerson wanted to play at a 32,000 seat on campus facility. Texas Stadium is how we drew the fans we had because the quality of recruits that wanted to play at Texas Stadium made the program stronger. The Boulevard has really not substantially increased attendance. In fact, the only thing that has repeatedly shown to produce acceptable attendance is quality of opponent-our traditional and natural rivals

[StallionsModelT]

Baseball was never more important than SWC Football in the 1980s-are you crazy

Texas Stadium was the place to be in the 1980s-it was cool. Texas Stadium was an essential part of Ron Meyer's plan to build a powerhouse. It gave us a national profile. You think Eric Dickerson wanted to play at a 32,000 seat on campus facility. Texas Stadium is how we drew the fans we had because the quality of recruits that wanted to play at Texas Stadium made the program stronger. The Boulevard has really not substantially increased attendance. In fact, the only thing that has repeatedly shown to produce acceptable attendance is quality of opponent-our traditional and natural rivals

How many games were broadcast on TV in 1984? How many pregame shows? How many coaches shows? How much media attention was there around the country?

[Stallion]

Anybody in College Sports Administration will tell you that widespread TV broadcast of college sports hurts attendance at a second tier conference team like SMU in the AAC. Many alumni, family and friends will decide to watch Texas v OU or even last week TCU at OU/Baylor OSU rather than come to watch SMU. You had to go to SWC games in the 1980s to see most games-SWC was a definite P5 level power conference in the 1980s

[StallionsModelT]

Anybody in College Sports Administration will tell you that widespread TV broadcast of college sports hurts attendance at a second tier conference team like SMU in the AAC. Many alumni, family and friends will decide to watch Texas v OU or even last week TCU at OU/Baylor OSU rather than come to watch SMU. You had to go to SWC games in the 1980s to see most games-SWC was a definite P5 level power conference in the 1980s

Under normal circumstances I would agree with you. However, in a market like Dallas having the buzz of being nationally relevant would increase attendance at our games IMO. Again, since we haven't been nationally or even regionally relevant in 30 years there is no evidence we can point towards aside from has happened at TCU over the past 15 years. We will never have Dallas adopt us the way FW has adopted the Frogs, but that isn't really what we are getting at here.

Look at SMU basketball. Put a winning, fun, and highly entertaining product out that has captured the buzz of this area and boom. Again, not saying we will ever sell out Ford for the Tulane's of the world but I do believe we could get to 23-25K if we were relevant.

[StallionsModelT]

BTW, just looked up this little nugget researching Baylor's attendance in 2010-2011 from a Baylor poster. Really puts it into perspective:

Dec. 10 2011

"This year we broke the record for most total fans in attendance (at FCS) in a year, and largest average number of fans per game (at FCS) in Baylor history. We also averaged over 40k in back to back years for only the second time in school history."

BTW, that was the year RG3 won the Heisman, Baylor beat #14 TCU, #5 Oklahoma, and Texas at home.

At a school that has been playing in a P5 conference for its entire history the second time they ever averaged 40K attendance for two consecutive seasons was 2010-2011 which coincided with a Heisman winning QB and several home wins over marquee opponents in a market that is competing with absolutely nothing for entertainment dollars.

Gee its almost like the formula is:

WIN GAMES PEOPLE CARE ABOUT
HAVE DYNAMIC PLAYERS
RINSE. REPEAT.

[StallionsModelT]

2007 Baylor Football Attendance:

RECORD (3-9)

HOME OPENER - (Rice - 29,107)

(Texas State - 36,274)

(Colorado) - 32,376

(Texas) - 41,355

(Texas Tech) - 39,015

(Oklahoma State) - 28,159


BTW, that year we drew 26,969 against Tech at home in the last season of The Stache.

[Puckhead48E]

Enjoyed reading the equivalent of two deaf people yelling at a wall in a dark room.

Synopsis:
Our attendance has never been outstanding absent a very organized and concerted campaign to get people there.
We have a very small alumni base who recently (last 30 years) has been beaten down by a collection of crap that would drive anyone but the most rabid fan away.
We are improving...even if that improvement is currently felt in the form of students averaging 10 more minutes in the stadium a game.
There will be a point in the near future where we will be able to speak highly with pride about our record and our attendance...or we won't and will be at pains to explain the demise of the program beyond what it was the past 30 years.
In the meantime, can't we just let Stallion whine with others about recruiting and stars and tradition and how much the despise footballdad.

[footballdad]

Enjoyed reading the equivalent of two deaf people yelling at a wall in a dark room.

Synopsis:
Our attendance has never been outstanding absent a very organized and concerted campaign to get people there.
We have a very small alumni base who recently (last 30 years) has been beaten down by a collection of crap that would drive anyone but the most rabid fan away.
We are improving...even if that improvement is currently felt in the form of students averaging 10 more minutes in the stadium a game.
There will be a point in the near future where we will be able to speak highly with pride about our record and our attendance...or we won't and will be at pains to explain the demise of the program beyond what it was the past 30 years.
In the meantime, can't we just let Stallion whine with others about recruiting and stars and tradition and how much the despise footballdad.

Stallion & SoCal win the argument going away. You & StallionModelT wrong as always.

[Puckhead48E]

Enjoyed reading the equivalent of two deaf people yelling at a wall in a dark room.

Synopsis:
Our attendance has never been outstanding absent a very organized and concerted campaign to get people there.
We have a very small alumni base who recently (last 30 years) has been beaten down by a collection of crap that would drive anyone but the most rabid fan away.
We are improving...even if that improvement is currently felt in the form of students averaging 10 more minutes in the stadium a game.
There will be a point in the near future where we will be able to speak highly with pride about our record and our attendance...or we won't and will be at pains to explain the demise of the program beyond what it was the past 30 years.
In the meantime, can't we just let Stallion whine with others about recruiting and stars and tradition and how much the despise footballdad.

Stallion & SoCal win the argument going away. You & StallionModelT wrong as always.

Ha...synopsized points from both sides...as both sides have merit. Didn't make a final prognosis as to whether the chicken or the egg came first on attendance. I see your reading comprehension is exceptional as always.

[ALEX LIFESON]

That Arkansas game in 1984 was on ESPN, for what it's worth.

[PK]

It hasn't been 30 years, just feels like it. Excluding the two years we didn't have a team, its' only been 26 years of god awful football...like 4 years makes that big a difference. Ha. I have sat in the stadium watching the debacle of SMU football through all of those years. Obviously I have no life. Winning consistently will make a difference, but marketing the product aggressively will make a bigger difference. We have a lot of pro teams in the area sucking up all the sports entertainment interest and dollars. I admit it is hard to market a losing team and I'm not sure pouring money into marketing a losing team is the best use of the current marketing budget, but once we start winning on a consistent basis against teams people recognize we need to market the hell out of SMU football. Meanwhile the faithful need to keep on supporting the program and players and showing up for the games. HCCM will get this team winning...he is a winner and will bring the team along with him...and provide something to market. Hopefully the winning will start next year, but as I said it needs to be consistent which may take a few years to qualify.

[skyscraper]

You cannot market a losing team and expect a return on that $$$ spent. It just doesn't work that way.
I would think a big spend in Year 3 of Chad would actually have some payoff since the team would be performing at a better level.
But winning and beating top level opponents is the best forming of marketing.

[Stallion]

Mustang Mania was marketing a losing team for several years and worked like a charm. Its greatest achievement was not money in the bank but Butts in the seats which made recruiting easier for Ron Meyer. We've had a bunch of great prospects watch us play in front of 4,000 in recent weeks. How many of them crossed SMU off their list? SMU's own fans are Chad Morris' biggest rally killer-he'll probably succeed despite SMU fans and then he's going to leave and we are going to have to start over-maybe retain someone from his staff

[Pony Boss]

Mustang Mania was marketing a losing team for several years and worked like a charm. Its greatest achievement was not money in the bank but Butts in the seats which made recruiting easier for Ron Meyer. We've had a bunch of great prospects watch us play in front of 4,000 in recent weeks. How many of them crossed SMU off their list? SMU's own fans are Chad Morris' biggest rally killer-he'll probably succeed despite SMU fans and then he's going to leave and we are going to have to start over-maybe retain someone from his staff

So you suggest they run a marketing campaign right now.