Student Attendance/Enthusiasm Key for Recruiting

[PonyKai]

I go, It was the royal We.

[ndsonofhype18]

AND Bruce Springsteen is much cooler than you

haha I don't disagree. Bruce is the man.

[ndsonofhype18]

How are you such a big fan if you chose Notre Dame over SMU? We all chose SMU, so doesn't that make us bigger/loyal fans?

yep that makes perfect sense. i couldnt possibly be a big or loyal fan since i dont go there. still cant figure out why i chose notre dame. if i would have known the criteria determining one's "big/loyal" fan status, i might have made a different decision...

[SMUer]

SMU only has something like 5000 undergrads, and again that many grad students. That means the "students" could never be more than 31.25% of the equation.

That is a very good point. While student attendance is certainly vital to recruiting and important for atmosphere, if we're talking about filling Ford and "butts in seats", students represent a comparatively small slice of the total pie. A "butts in seats" campaign should be targeted city-wide.

[PonyLove]

So, what do you do instead?

No kidding..I've been wondering that myself..

[CheeseSndwch]

We had the big time crowds - some at the Cotton Bowl but mostly at Texas Stadium largely due to the ticket giveaways,
Ron Meyer's shot of enthusiasm, Russ Potts' hype of Mustang Mania and the Pony Express. The large alumni base of conterence members Tech, UT and ATM - even Baylor helped boost attendance. We do not have that with the Rice alums and many former UH students are in correctional facilities - UTEP shows up pretty well - Tulsa and Tulane travel as bad as we do.

UH traveled pretty well to Ford in 2006.

[crazy horse]

Winning and better opponents help the "tag along" ticket sales. IF the program is competitve and/or we are playing someone like Baylor (historical/traditional rival), I can more easily increase the number of fans that come with me.

When the team is losing and playing teams with no connection to us or the area, it becomes virtually impossible to even give tickets away. At least that has been my experience.

The 80s were great at Texas Stadium with the bus rides. The stadium always seemed filled, but maybe that was my beer goggle memory. But then again we were winning and playing our natural in-state rivals.

[Bergermeister]

UH traveled pretty well to Ford in 2006.

Most were let out of Lew Sterrett on a day pass.

[Ponymon]

If and when we win the seats will fill but never think the students will be a big part of the equation at games -they to my knowledge never have been and I mean never. And I'm not counting a few isolated circumstances where we've won over the years. Apathy reigns for the most part-it's a sad fact.

SMU only has something like 5000 undergrads, and again that many grad students. That means the "students" could never be more than 31.25% of the equation.

SMU has 6,176 undergrads and over 3,000 grad students. Total population is just less than 11,000. Expect that total to continue to grow as SMU adds new facilities such as those for Education and Engineering.

http://www.smu.edu/facts/enrollment.asp

[Ponymon]

Of course, what should be most important to recruits is this stat:

Undergraduate Students by Gender:

Female 53.9%
Male 46.1%