Old TCU article on ticket sales, attendance and fan support

[Dooby]

For your edification, I offer the following December 2003 article from the TCU alumni magazine. Why? I will tell you why. As I have said, I know TCU better than any SMU fan on this board and probably better than a few of the TCU interlopers that come here as well. It sets forth the position that I have been putting forth for some time: TCU is the product of its commitment and success. It has no inherent advantages over SMU-it garners no greater significant community support because it is in Fort Worth and not Dallas.


http://www.magarchive.tcu.edu/articles/ ... eid=200304

TCU has been winning consistently for 10 years. SMU has been winning inconsistently for 1. It wasn't just winning. TCU focused the core of its marketing on a very small area within Fort Worth. SMU can easily do the same by focusing on the Park Cities and Preston Hollow. That small area is enough to create the level of support in Dallas that will lead to crowds the size that TCU enjoys now.

[SMU 86]

I think Coach Jones wants to try to market SMU to Dallas and not just a certain part. He is trying to break that stereotype of SMU so tht he can start reaching out to all the communities around. He has start some things that are doing just that.

[Stallion]

I think generally this is right but I think you've got to give the nod to TCU fans slightly because during the bad times they had better fan support, both home and away, than SMU has had in our down times. Of course, Ft. Worth/Tarrant County has changed a lot since the 1970s and 1980s. But I remember being pretty darn impressed with TCU fans even when we beat their heads in for 15 straight years.

[ponyinNC]

Best quote that really aplpies to SMU athletics:

The truth is we lost a generation of fans because the product on the field was so bad," Hyman says. "When we started carrying out our plan, we knew they wouldn't be coming back right away. But we were going to work to get them back."

[Dooby]

See, I went to more TCU games than SMU games during those 15 years so I know their attendance issues first hand. I remember that nobody went to the TCU-Rice games, for example when I was a kid. Big surprise.

You will note the line in the article about 26,000 attendance for an Air Force-TCU game back in 1998. Jive that with the 22,000+ SMU had for Navy-SMU. Before you start commenting about buses and weather and blah blah blah, I will note that Fort Worth is filled with Air Force veterans given that is the home to a former-SAC base and the General Dynamics plant in Fort Worth.

[SMUSportsTalkNow101]

Would love to know the attendance marks for all Conference USA schools over the last decade. A sorry schedule begets a sorry crowd on gameday folks. It's that simple. Especially when you are not in a "college town". Very few programs will "sell out" or have good showings against lackluster opponents. I am not saying it doesn't happen but certainly is not the norm. SMU plays most of it's games against schools that anyone with college football interest loses interest before kick off. Marshall? UAB? Rice? Tulane? UTEP? ECU? UCF? I am not saying that these programs cannot field a legit team once in a while but let's face it, they are not marquee worthy and either is SMU right now. I do not even know how long SMU has been part of Conference USA but until it gets out, not many of the on the fencers or folks who have no affiliation will really care. Last season NAVY was the biggest home game. NAVY? Let's get the team taking care of business and whooping butt for a few seasons and then get a move into a bigger conference or go independent. I know that is not realistic but SMU wil never be accepted into a BIG TIME conference again---at least not as long as BCS controls the landscape for the next however many years. We need to book 3-4 HUGE non-conference games and hope for decent TV coverage to begin the crawl to legitimacy. College football(NCAA Lords and voters) may take SMU seriously in the polls if they win big but fans will not until they win big against big name schools.

[Topper]

Best quote that really aplpies to SMU athletics:

The truth is we lost a generation of fans because the product on the field was so bad," Hyman says. "When we started carrying out our plan, we knew they wouldn't be coming back right away. But we were going to work to get them back."

For some of us older guys, it is hard to imagine that it has been 24 or 25 years since we have had a freshman class with a significant number of members who considered quality football as a criteria for selecting a college. I am afraid this will be a "lost generation" of alums who have only a minimal interest in the success of football at SMU.

[Charleston Pony]

I don't think there is any question but that SMU lost a "generation of fans" with 20 years of irrelevant football and bball programs. Our venues should not be that difficult to fill, but the key will be to 1st get strong student support and then to market SMU as Dallas' college football & basketball teams. The challenge remains getting the casual Dallas sports fan interested in SMU athletics. Obviously that starts with an attractive product on the field/court but once we get them out for the 1st time, it has to be an enjoyable experience that will make them want to come back and bring their friends.

Hats off to TCU. They've done a far better job than SMU. I was really impressed with the turnout they had for college gameday this past season.

I think I read somewhere that SMU has an estimated 30,000 alumni living in the DFW area. Playing in CUSA where, with the exception of Houston and UTEP, we cannot expect much visitor attendance, it becomes that much more important to market Dallas if we ever hope to pack Ford/Moody regularly

[Metropolis777]

The best advice I can give SMU fans is this.

Be committed. Be persistent. And, most of all, be patient.

Despite on the field success, it takes a long time to rebuild the fanbase. We're still not where we want to be. Note that the article above was written in 2003. I'd venture to say that it wasn't until 2009 that we really started to reach some of the goals that were claimed in that article. Even now, despite all of last year's hype and success, we still only had just over 33K in the stands when UNLV came to town a week after we drubbed #16 BYU with College Gameday there in Provo. It just takes a long time to overcome the dark times and the reality that the Big 12 has made average people think that we are a second class product.

As for that "lost generation," we have stopped focusing on them now. We used to beg and plead them to come back. Now, we just say, "Fine! You wanna turn your back on your alma mater? We'll be fine without you. And just so you know, you're turning your back on one of the best football products in the nation! Have fun with that." By turning the tables on them, some are actually pulling their head out of their [deleted] and returning.

It just takes time. Have faith.

Hopefully, y'all can spoil Tuberville's debut and we can have a high profile (from a Metroplex perspective) matchup on Fri Sept 10 on ESPN. That should do a lot to help y'all get the fans back.

[Three Putt]

A Frog posting something logical and that makes sense? I like your post.

[Topper]

I went to a college student blog site where the kids post about their college experience. Many of the SMU posters said that they had no interest in football and resented the amount of money the University has devoted to the sport. We will never get these kids. But a significant number of them said that they went to the Bouldevard, but not the game. Instead, a lot of them went back home or to the dorms where they watched Big 12 teams or teams from their home states. SMU football just didnt register with them. It isnt fun to lose week after week to the likes of Rice. Maybe we can turn enough of these kids who are football fans into Mustang fans to make a long term difference. With the stadium on the campus, there is no excuse for those stands on the east side to be empty.

[SMUSA2013]

The best advice I can give SMU fans is this.

Be committed. Be persistent. And, most of all, be patient.

Despite on the field success, it takes a long time to rebuild the fanbase. We're still not where we want to be. Note that the article above was written in 2003. I'd venture to say that it wasn't until 2009 that we really started to reach some of the goals that were claimed in that article. Even now, despite all of last year's hype and success, we still only had just over 33K in the stands when UNLV came to town a week after we drubbed #16 BYU with College Gameday there in Provo. It just takes a long time to overcome the dark times and the reality that the Big 12 has made average people think that we are a second class product.

As for that "lost generation," we have stopped focusing on them now. We used to beg and plead them to come back. Now, we just say, "Fine! You wanna turn your back on your alma mater? We'll be fine without you. And just so you know, you're turning your back on one of the best football products in the nation! Have fun with that." By turning the tables on them, some are actually pulling their head out of their [deleted] and returning.

It just takes time. Have faith.

Hopefully, y'all can spoil Tuberville's debut and we can have a high profile (from a Metroplex perspective) matchup on Fri Sept 10 on ESPN. That should do a lot to help y'all get the fans back.

as a student, I can say that people are already excited for this fall. Of course we need a larger student base to fill the stands, since our students can only fill 1/5th of the stadium if everyone comes to the game. At least the hype is there for the students, and it hasn't been like that here in a very long time. Its exciting to be a part of, and hopefully the surrounding area can pick up on it as well! And it is going to be a great game between us I can't wait.

[Longtime]

SMU focusing its marketing on the Park Cities and Preston Hollow is a recipe for disaster. That's basically what SMU has always done. It does nothing but build walls between SMU and the rest of the Dallas area. SMU is always going to have a presence in the Park Cities just by sheer geography. For SMU to turn the corner in attendance, it needs to reach areas where SMU is rarely mentioned. We need to make SMU games more accessible, not exclusive to the Park Cities and Preston Hollow.

And in reality, TCU started its revamped marketing efforts by creating a group of 100 or so Fort Worth businessmen who promoted the Frogs all over the city, not just the area around campus. It may seem like a small, affluent core is the reason for TCU's renewed popularity if you're in the middle of that circle (just like you see a lot of kids wearing HP shirts at SMU games) but the people that sit in the upper deck and end zones are not from that inner circle. And those are the people that boost your attendance numbers.

But really, it just takes time - and winning. We've won for one year. That's not enough to get attendance significantly increased (and not enough to immediately ramp up the required donation for season tickets, Mr. Orsini). In this market, which is bombarded by images of the local pro teams and Big 12 schools, it takes years of winning for your team to become a part of everyday conversation, and for people to trust that they're going to have a good time if they spend their money to attend one of your games.

The students are no different - they are customers too, and they don't want to waste time at Ford watching an inferior product. Now that we have a good product, the best marketing SMU can do is to win over its own students. When they start wearing SMU gear all over Dallas (SMU students don't confine themselves to the Park Cities bubble) and start getting excited about the games, not just The Boulevard, interest will spread.

[One Trick Pony]

The best advice I can give SMU fans is this.

Be committed. Be persistent. And, most of all, be patient.

Despite on the field success, it takes a long time to rebuild the fanbase. We're still not where we want to be. Note that the article above was written in 2003. I'd venture to say that it wasn't until 2009 that we really started to reach some of the goals that were claimed in that article. Even now, despite all of last year's hype and success, we still only had just over 33K in the stands when UNLV came to town a week after we drubbed #16 BYU with College Gameday there in Provo. It just takes a long time to overcome the dark times and the reality that the Big 12 has made average people think that we are a second class product.

As for that "lost generation," we have stopped focusing on them now. We used to beg and plead them to come back. Now, we just say, "Fine! You wanna turn your back on your alma mater? We'll be fine without you. And just so you know, you're turning your back on one of the best football products in the nation! Have fun with that." By turning the tables on them, some are actually pulling their head out of their [deleted] and returning.

It just takes time. Have faith.

Hopefully, y'all can spoil Tuberville's debut and we can have a high profile (from a Metroplex perspective) matchup on Fri Sept 10 on ESPN. That should do a lot to help y'all get the fans back.

How much does it cost for two seats on the 50 yard line over there?

[PK]

I don't know about ticket prices, but I do know that a parking space next to the stadium with some grass areas and big trees like the Vard at SMU runs about $1500 a season and does not include your game tickets.