Attendance 2011

[AusTxPony]

Am I crazy or are we having a bit of an uptick in attendance this year? Considering we got blown out by A&M, UTEP only brought around 1000 and our next game was FCS, I was pleasantly surprised at the fan turnout. Now if we can win the next two...oops, one game at a time, please and UCF doesn't stub their toe again...we'll see.

[S....M....U]

i was actually pleasantly surprised with the turnout for northwestern state...i expected the stadium to be completely empty. instead i saw a lot larger group of active fans (ie red blue chant). unfortunately many of them left because of the blowout.

[GiddyUp]

Family weekend was a huge factor in the end zone and uppers above students. Good turnout.

UCF is operation sellout. Let's hope it's about the same as UTEP or better.

[skyscraper]

26,691 for UTEP
20,083 for NWST

[Otter]

Just started on this board - my daughter is a sophomore at SMU and I have really enjoyed reading the discussions for the past couple of years.

However, for the past several months I have followed the discussions pertaining to football and basketball attendance and the excuses from Orsini, Brad Sutton and other in the athletics department.

I don't mean any disrespect to the hard-core Pony Fans and their eternal optimism, but I would like to see some effort or progress with respect to attendance, marketing and ultimately - relevance. By ignoring this area for the past 5 years, Orsini is jeopardizing SMU's chances at ever being taken seriously when he attempts to make his case for inclusion in a AQ conference.

I appreciate that you all have gone through some lean years, but June Jones and Steve Orsini continue to dine out on your lowered expectations. I happen to believe that SMU - and its most loyal fans (Ponyfans.com), deserve better.

[Comet]

Just started on this board - my daughter is a sophomore at SMU and I have really enjoyed reading the discussions for the past couple of years.

However, for the past several months I have followed the discussions pertaining to football and basketball attendance and the excuses from Orsini, Brad Sutton and other in the athletics department.

I don't mean any disrespect to the hard-core Pony Fans and their eternal optimism, but I would like to see some effort or progress with respect to attendance, marketing and ultimately - relevance. By ignoring this area for the past 5 years, Orsini is jeopardizing SMU's chances at ever being taken seriously when he attempts to make his case for inclusion in a AQ conference.

I appreciate that you all have gone through some lean years, but June Jones and Steve Orsini continue to dine out on your lowered expectations. I happen to believe that SMU - and its most loyal fans (Ponyfans.com), deserve better.

I don't want to be "that" guy, but there has been an earnest effort as of late to fix these issues. Operation Sellout, marketing campaigns against teams like TCU last year, and buying out tickets in bulk and passing them out. It would help if our teams actually provided more candy for their fans by winning a big game for once.

[Otter]

The "so called efforts" were marginal from the beginning and doomed to fail because of the lack of marketing infrastructure and expertise at SMU. With all due respect, Steve Orsini is an accountant who doesn't believe in marketing, branding, ticket sales or promotion. And SMU is the only NCAA Division I school where the SID (with no background or expertise), runs the marketing and sponsorship program.

Until this is addressed, expect sub-par crowds. And, I was there for both games so far and the attendance figures are vastly inflated.

[Comet]

If your criticism is the marketing campaign, you'll have an army of PonyFans right behind you on that. With the limited resources given to SO, I think he's doing as much as he can. We really need to find a way to fund-raise for the sole purpose of creating a nice marketing push in DFW.

[Otter]

I agree. But until it is a priority (which it will never be with Orsini), the perception will be that there is tepid interest from the market. Continuing to use the "wait until we win" excuse is nothing more than an attempt to deflect the lack of effort and interest that the current AD has in this area.

[f4shionablecha0s]

SMU is the only NCAA Division I school where the SID (with no background or expertise), runs the marketing and sponsorship program.

Source?

[MustangSTATS]

Does anyone know how well the FCS teams we play travel to Ford? I know in recent years we played TState (08) and SFA (09). I wonder because does it make more sense to play them as our given warmup W or would we get more attendance/interest from playing say UNT which is still a given W unless something radical changes over there. Not that I want to have UNT seen as a rival, but more butts in the seats is always a plus. Its like the football game you play at thanksgiving against the overly competitive cousin per his obsessive insistence that he never has chance at beating you but always thinks you will go toe to toe with him winning. I see we have SFA again in 2012 and UNT 2014-2018 alternating away and home according to fbschedules.com

[StangCP]

Steve has been forced to cut in-house marketing. What do you want him to do? I suppose he could cut the men's track team to free-up some cash to market football. He is 100% doing the best he can given the situation right now at a time when there are simply not enough hours in the day to stay on top of all that is going on in his world at SMU.

[PonyPlayer4]

Does anyone know how well the FCS teams we play travel to Ford? I know in recent years we played TState (08) and SFA (09). I wonder because does it make more sense to play them as our given warmup W or would we get more attendance/interest from playing say UNT which is still a given W unless something radical changes over there. Not that I want to have UNT seen as a rival, but more butts in the seats is always a plus. Its like the football game you play at thanksgiving against the overly competitive cousin per his obsessive insistence that he never has chance at beating you but always thinks you will go toe to toe with him winning. I see we have SFA again in 2012 and UNT 2014-2018 alternating away and home according to fbschedules.com

Dan McCarney is a very good football coach over at UNT with schools such as ISU, Florida, and USF on his resume. It would not surprise me if he at least makes UNT respectable again in the Sun Belt.

[StangCP]

unfortunately many of them left because of the blowout.

I am ok having this problem. Would prefer to start with more fans.

[MustangSTATS]

Dan McCarney is a very good football coach over at UNT with schools such as ISU, Florida, and USF on his resume. It would not surprise me if he at least makes UNT respectable again in the Sun Belt.

He should, I don't mean to imply UNT is doomed to Tod Dodge level of play for life, which would mean more people interested in the game, but if we are struggling against the "respectable" schools of the sunbelt in 2014, we have a whole host of other problems to address.