Orsini on ESPN Blog

[PonyPlayer4]

http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/colleges ... u-football

DALLAS -- SMU athletic director Steve Orsini put out a plea for Pony backers to support the football program as it heads into a fourth season under coach June Jones and seeks a third consecutive bowl game.

Orsini said Pony fever hasn't exactly caught fire. He described ticket sales for the 2011 season as "flat."

"It's time to rally the community," Orsini said. "The SMU community, the student body and the Dallas community because it is, we're there, we're knocking on the door, something they've wanted for 25 years, since the Death Penalty, so it's time we all rally."

SMU ranked 30th in the NCAA last season in largest average attendance increase, jumping from an average home attendance of 21,348 in 2009 to 23,515 in 2010. By comparison, TCU, which finished last season ranked No. 2 in the nation, was 16th in largest attendance increase, from 38,187 to 42,466. And, SMU was behind seven other Texas schools in the category.

The Mustangs open the season at No. 9 Texas A&M on Sept. 4 and play at No. 15 TCU on Oct. 1, so there a chances for SMU to drum up excitement outside of the more ho-hum Conference USA schedule. SMU opens the home schedule on Sept. 10 against UTEP. The rest of the home slate includes: Northwestern State, Central Florida, Tulane, Navy and Rice.

Orsini knows -- just as has been the case to the west at TCU -- continued success on the field -- translating to national rankings and higher profile bowl games -- is the best way to drive ticket sales.

"It's very important for our community, and all the things that are happening in college athletics today, the timing is just right," Orsini said, referencing renewed speculation of major conference realignment. "It's time for SMU to get back into the national landscape, to be relevant again. I believe we're accomplishing that and yet we still have a long way to go.

[03Mustang]

If we had ANY decent home opponents on the schedule I'm sure sales would be up. It's hard to rope in fans that are on the fence when your best home opponent is Navy.

[Nacho]

we have to be good+we have play a good team=good attendance
e=mc2

[PonyPlayer4]

I didn't comment on the article. However, I have tried to convince a lot of my non-SMU buddies to go to some games this year. They all said they wanted to go until they saw the home schedule.....

[Stallion]

We'll I'm glad he is at least gently calling out our fans. Don't sugar-coat it. SMU's own alumni, family and friends may put a ceiling on how far this program can go. There really is no more room for excuses why YOU* don't have season ticket package and attend games

*YOU know who you are

[RGV Pony]

the "flat" comment was repeated at the Luncheon

[ponyboy]

We'll I'm glad he is at least gently calling out our fans. Don't sugar-coat it. SMU's own alumni, family and friends may put a ceiling on how far this program can go. There really is no more room for excuses why YOU* don't have season ticket package and attend games

*YOU know who you are

Amen.

[Stallion]

By this stage in TCU's program development they had 12,500 season ticket holders and were heading toward average attendance of 32,000. YOU* just aren't as good a fan as you're average TCU fan

*YOU know who you are

[RGV Pony]

problem is, I dont see any outreach to reel in the YOU* folk. We're still trying to sell the place out by buying tix and giving them to deserving youth etc. We keep doing what we've been doing, so....we're continuing to get what we've gotten.

[redpony]

It might help if we did some marketing. OOPPS- forgot- Orsini does believe in marketing and hence eliminated that dept.

GO PONIES!!!

[AustinPerson]

Here's a challenge: win some games and people will show up. The team has made progress, yes. But a team that is barely above 500 won't attract many people in Dallas. Just win, ponies.

[ponyboy]

And schedule solid opponents. Not necessarily in that order.

[Mitch McConnell]

I think it's a reflection of what an afterthought SMU has been over the years. So two years of better football won't have them flocking for tickets.

Win a big game to get people's attention and recruit's attention. Then you may have something.

Orsini is right to call out the fans. He also has to look at himself in the mirror and say how do we get our name out there.

When you have:

a limited media campaign

you don't sell your stuff all over the DFW area

when your administration is committed when it suits its purposes

These results are not surprising.

[Comet]

I think it's a reflection of what an afterthought SMU has been over the years. So two years of better football won't have them flocking for tickets.

Win a big game to get people's attention and recruit's attention. Then you may have something.

Orsini is right to call out the fans. He also has to look at himself in the mirror and say how do we get our name out there.

When you have:

a limited media campaign

you don't sell your stuff all over the DFW area

when your administration is committed when it suits its purposes

These results are not surprising.

Exactly this. It's very underwhelming that SMU can't successfully market itself as THE Dallas university. THE Dallas college football team. When I'm in sports stores in local malls I even see gear for schools such as Houston before I see anything from SMU. We need to market the hell out of our product and things could change. The bottom line is that everyone on this forum is what I think of as an SMU insider. We're on the inside, we know the school or we know people in the school. We've already crossed a border which most people in Dallas haven't done. We need to have mass appeal so that people in the region will want to tune into our games and whenever they see a Mustangs hat they'll want to get it. It's happened with Texas, Tech, A&M, OU, and now TCU (strictly talking about the DFW area). It's long overdue for us to re-think our marketing and our branding strategy, especially in light of conference realignment.

[Comet]

double post