UP/HP: Anti-SMU?

[Sam_Houston]

it's why so many people in Odessa are Tech fans. it's all they've got.

Last I checked, Texas Tech was in Lubbock, not Odessa. Did it move overnight?

Odessa has a high school that probably has received more attention - at least in the past couple of years - than Texas Tech because of the book Friday Night Lights and the movie based on the book.

[PK]

.... I assume this means football and soccer for the men, tennis and basketball for the women?

so you're dismissing the other sports, including women's soccer and swimming? The whole idea of going to a format of two sports for each is silly, but even under this proposal, why automatically overlook two of the best teams on campus? Is the women's tennis team good? I don't know. I do know, however, that the women's soccer and swim teams are terrific.

Besides that, NCAA requirements for D-1A participation mandates a minimum of other sports be provided. We may have a few more sports than the minimum requirement, but not many.

[McClown27]

And if we really want to start eliminating things from the general school budget that are not part of the educational mission of the university, the list will get pretty long, quickly.

I totally agree, and would believe in getting a lot of that stuff out of the budget. My point is that an off budget athletic program does not win fans, and should be eliminated by aggresively marketing SMU and Ford Stadium. Yet, even when Copeland wanted to do some of those things, it got blocked by the powers that be in Park Cities.

[McClown27]

Besides that, NCAA requirements for D-1A participation mandates a minimum of other sports be provided. We may have a few more sports than the minimum requirement, but not many.

2 was an arbitrary number. I would like the minimum number of sports, with some sports receiving few scholarships. We need the greatest possible concentration on the football program.

What about schools like Hofstra and Oral Roberts? They only seem to have basketball D1 participation. Anyone know? Is it based on your conference?

[Flatlander]

D-IAA teams like ORU compete in a seperate division for football and then fall into the D-IA basketball, baseball, etc. That's the difference. For example, Texas State is in the NCAA DI baseball tourney or Stephen F Austin pops up time to time in the Big Dance. D-IAA is only a football designation. It would not behove SMU to take this position by dropping the requesite number of sports to drop out of DI.

[Flatlander]

Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 9:27 pm Post subject:

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In regards to Phil Bennet's Mustache's comments on Midland/Odessa and Tech-I'll point out a seperate note: Texas Tech is in Lubbock, a good 2 hour drive up the road. While the greater Petroplex doesn't have the great of entertainment values that Dallas does, they do understand football and they do support their communities. Of course, that's because Midland Lee and Odessa and Odessa Permian have a quality commitment to the programs and the communities recognize that. Midland and Odessa don't have Tech per say. That's like saying Longview has SMU, which none of us will argue.

Yes, the Park Cities has a higher education level per se, and it is getting more transient, but SMU for years worked for the "Parkies" and it seems that it isn't being reciprocated. My questions are more of : How is SMU or who is gonna make up the difference in support?

[93Mustang]

Parkies not coming to games is not our attendence problem. A low percentage of all of our alums having any interest is the problem. There was a time when SMU fans from Houston, Austin, San Antonio, West Texas, etc. would travel to every home game. Those days are over, and while we still have some diehards who come in town every weekend, the majority of our small base are from the Park Cities and the surrounding areas. The way to fix the problem is to give casual fans a decent product at a cheap price. We've got the cheap price down, we've got the tailgate scene down, and we've got the great stadium down, all we need now is some success on the feild. This season could be the year that we finally get to 7 wins. Once we do, our fans should start to come back, but blaming the Park Cities for our attendence woes is not the answer.

[OC Mustang]

Only so many SMU alums available in the first place. I heard a number about 10 years ago...do not know how significantly it has changed with new alums vs. deaths. Approximately 90,000 known SMU alums in the continental US...a relative handful more outside the US. Approximately 30,000 of those alums live within the DFW metroplex.

Let's assume that 50% of all people at SMU home games are alums (less than that when more people show for competitor schools). Average attendance is what, 19k? So 9,500 are alums...and roughly 70% (pulling this figure out of my rear...actually don't know composition) are from DFW metro. So...6,650 from Dallas...so 22% of Dallas alums and 4% outside DFW. And a tad over 10% total. Is that consistent with Texas, TCU, USC, Miami, and with other CUSA schools? (4 schools representing urban private schools with a cross-section of population size, etc. and then our conference, which is important for obvious reasons)

Compare percentages to other schools and weight by alumni population, and then alumni population in immediate area (30-40 miles radius) around campus. Making the big assumption that my % bogies are right, but I am pretty sure my method is good. Assuming those %s work, when we reach numbers comparable with other schools, then every incremental attendee or fan will require that much more work because they are not already tied to the university.

[93Mustang]

I agree with the point you're trying to make generally. That is, even if every living SMU alum came to our games, we could barely fill up the Cotton Bowl. This is true and makes it more difficult for us to get fans in the stadium than at UT where the student body would overflow our stadium. But, private schools have had some success attendence-wise even with small enrollments (and subsequent alumni bases). Look at Wake Forest's basketball program (not necessarily this season). Wake has about 4500 undergrads and they play in a 14,000 seat basketball facility owned by the city. When they are good, which is often, they routinely sell out and more amazingly, student attendence is at around 80%. The balance of the fans come from the area and opposing teams. If we were competitive in football, we should be able to get 5000 students there, 12,000 alums, and 5,000 - 7,500 locals who like college football and are looking for a cheaper alternative than the local pro-sports. The balance of the attendance should be opposing team's fans which will obviously vary based on who we play (TCU bringing more than say UAB). With our small stadium, getting close to capacity should not be hard once we start getting people excited about winning games. The key is getting the solid 15,000 -20,000 of alums and students to create a good atmoshphere to help sell the non-SMU local segment on checking out some college football in a fan, friendly environment.

[OC Mustang]

Agreed. That is the goal. I was just mentally crunching numbers and setting bogies based on old information. But at least it is a stake in the ground. I would be thrilled if an AD actually hit the door who grasped at the statistical sampling I am talking about. This is not rocket science, but it is a science. What SMU has not seemed to get is that branding and direct response are not the same. Branding doesn't seem to be getting it done. Our "brand" doesn't currently sell the program; it sells the school. Great, so that leaves direct response.

Here is a test program: SMU should start now with a phone bank (is cheapest direct marketing aside from direct mail) of people and dial every single alum on the rolls it can reasonably place a telephone number with, simply giving them the message that season tickets are up and they will receive more information later. Send emails to the same effect in or around the same time. Go through every person and see if there are any takers this round. Tell them that they will receive another call in 2 months with one last chance. After that, they will have to get tickets at the gate.

And then call again in 2 months. You use that with a combination simple marketing survey about where they live and how often they make it back to the Hilltop. Ask for their attendance (ask for the business), and then follow up with a nice collateral piece and/or cool email.

The problem to me isn't that we can't sell it, it is that we don't sell it when we can.

SMU already employs a call center of non-SMU students in Wichita Falls, TX to pitch for Annual Fund and/or the Mustang Club. Make those people earn their money by actually giving some thought to the pitch and ASKING FOR THEIR BUSINESS (ATTENDANCE) instead of simply money.

THEN SMU has a chance to build brand at the game. Spruce up campus...encourage people during the game (if during the day) to stroll up the Boulevard and see their campus. Tell them that we want them back...and keep telling them until SMU collectively believes it. Once SMU believes it, the recipients of the message will believe it too.

[Flatlander]

Here's a stat that might be of interest. Texas Tech only needs to grab approx 22% of the Lubbock population to sell out Jones/SBC and UT only needs 8% of the greater Austin area to sell out DKR/Memorial (but both have larger alumni bases with less entertainment options) SMU only needs less than 1% of Dallas' approx 4million population. Of this, the Park Cities can only support so much, so get out and sell to the rest of Dallas. Try to make SMU Dallas' team instead of the Park Cities.

[McClown27]

Here's a stat that might be of interest. Texas Tech only needs to grab approx 22% of the Lubbock population to sell out Jones/SBC and UT only needs 8% of the greater Austin area to sell out DKR/Memorial (but both have larger alumni bases with less entertainment options) SMU only needs less than 1% of Dallas' approx 4million population. Of this, the Park Cities can only support so much, so get out and sell to the rest of Dallas. Try to make SMU Dallas' team instead of the Park Cities.

Austin and Lubbock actually cover their D1 football team in the newspaper though. They also do not have their games in an elitist area, where area people do not want certain kinds of demographics in their home area. SMU can do little to reach out to the true Dallas community, without ruffling the feathers of the elite Parkies. Having high school football and soccer games in the stadium would make more Dallasites aware of SMU football, and they would likely come back for more events.

[Flatlander]

McClown- I'm getting worried that we agree more and more, but The Dallas Morning News needs to cover more. I don't know how that happens unless SMU flat out buys the coverage by putting home written articles. Now, real coverage will come with more and more wins, but The DMN needs to put some coverage of SMU and show some support to the school, but they need to get some inside scoop from C-USA, even. I know the Big 12 will rule here, but the idea that the C-USA gets rolled in there with the WAC and MWC hurts SMU. The DMN needs to provide some coverage of the Mustangs, even if it takes 'whoring out' of Bennett with a weekly column or something inventive. Heck, since the DMN bought out most local newspapers, it's not like SMU can market through them anymore and it ain't like Park Cities People is gonna cater to the sports crowd.

The old school Parkies still support the school, the new ones need to come around and treat SMU like their home town team, much like TCU and Ft Worth have.

[Col. Nathan R. Jessep]

As of this morning (Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2006), they're still standing.
A parking garage that covers all three lots would go a LONG way toward alleviating the number of people who have to park miles away and walk to the games.

Right. Parking is bad now with only 15K at the games.