OPEN REQUEST TO SMU BRASS -- CALL TO ACTION!!!!

[Pony Boss]

No its not

Its a P5 school which sellouts all its game
v.
A NEVER will-be P5 school that has a fraction of TCU's attendance home or away despite actually having a larger student body than TCU.

Call it a school whose alumni, family and friends give a damn v. a school where they don't, have not and never will give a damn

And here is the smoking gun of why I insist you really have no solution and all you do is cry about how SMU students and alumni don’t care. They don’t care because SMU football has sucked and is a bottom feeder for the better part of its history with only one period of “being good” for 6 years in the 80s. No one cares because there is no football championship tradition (or athletics for that matter) and the only way people will start caring is if you make them proud by winning. True for every single program/school.

Basketvall is building on the championship culture and hopefully football follows and continues building a championship tradition.

[Nacho]

we can't increase attendance unless we are in a P5 conference. we can't get in a P5 conference unless we have a large fan base.

[ebrooks11]

we can't increase attendance unless we are in a P5 conference. we can't get in a P5 conference unless we have a large fan base.

So you're saying there's a chance?

[Stallion]

After about 53 years of observing the "SMU Fan" I gave up on solutions about 2 decades ago. The really laughable argument is expecting the average Dallas college football fan to somehow save us. That ain't ever going to happen. The only way to turn it in a better direction is to appeal to the students, alumni, family and friends of the university. We need the 60-80% student attendance that TCU and Baylor have had. I've posted evidence of that before several times. We need to raise full season ticket sales to at minimum 15,000. We need for all those empty seats in out season ticket sections to actually put their [deleted] in their seats for 6 games a year. Look at other universities when they play big games or even important games on their schedule-the season ticket holders are actually sitting in their seats. I'm not sure if I've attended an SMU game in 3 decades when over 75% of our season ticket holders were actually in their seats and filled with SMU fans rather than our opponents fans. A high percentage of these season ticket holders who spend thousands of dollars go to 2-3 games a year or leave at halftime. Watch for this phenomena this weekend as we are 6-2(best record in 32 years), fighting for a Division Championship against a Top 15 team. Our own season ticket holders don't show up. In short, they really don't give too much of a damn about SMU football

[Nacho]

during the mustang mania glory days I remember seeing a lot of fans who were not typical smu fans. those were great times for the whole area. people came for the excitement. we may not ever replicate that but it goes to show that smu can appeal to non smu alumni.

[ALEX LIFESON]

After about 53 years of observing the "SMU Fan" I gave up on solutions about 2 decades ago. The really laughable argument is expecting the average Dallas college football fan to somehow save us. That ain't ever going to happen. The only way to turn it in a better direction is to appeal to the students, alumni, family and friends of the university. We need the 60-80% student attendance that TCU and Baylor have had. I've posted evidence of that before several times. We need to raise full season ticket sales to at minimum 15,000. We need for all those empty seats in out season ticket sections to actually put their [deleted] in their seats for 6 games a year. Look at other universities when they play big games or even important games on their schedule-the season ticket holders are actually sitting in their seats. I'm not sure if I've attended an SMU game in 3 decades when over 75% of our season ticket holders were actually in their seats and filled with SMU fans rather than our opponents fans. A high percentage of these season ticket holders who spend thousands of dollars go to 2-3 games a year or leave at halftime. Watch for this phenomena this weekend as we are 6-2(best record in 32 years), fighting for a Division Championship against a Top 15 team. Our own season ticket holders don't show up. In short, they really don't give too much of a damn about SMU football

Sadly, I have proof of what you say about SMU season ticket holders. Most of them, really do not give a damn. They get their late, they leave early... Or they don't show up at all.

[Stallion]

What better evidence than the fact that our 2 greatest moments in over half a decade have concluded before less than 3,000 fans (some suggest 2,000) -an upset of our rival No. 15 ranked Houston last year and clinching Bowl eligibility with a comeback 4th quarter victory over Tulsa that went down to closing minutes. At some point you can safely conclude that SMU has less than 3,000 hard-core, die-hard fans. No hard-core, die-hard fan misses those moments especially after a long drought. That ain't going to cut it even at the P6 AAC level

[SMU_Alum11]

What better evidence than the fact that our 2 greatest moments in over half a decade have concluded before less than 3,000 fans (some suggest 2,000) -an upset of our rival No. 15 ranked Houston last year and clinching Bowl eligibility with a comeback 4th quarter victory over Tulsa that went down to closing minutes. At some point you can safely conclude that SMU has less than 3,000 hard-core, die-hard fans. No hard-core, die-hard fan misses those moments especially after a long drought. That ain't going to cut it even at the P6 AAC level

FAKE NEWS.... It was No.11 Houston!!! Sorry I couldn't resist. At least students ran out onto the field after the victory. To your point, very sad attendance #s. I can make an argument that Tulsa is boring but Houston, I mean everyone should have been there.

[Pony Boss]

What better evidence than the fact that our 2 greatest moments in over half a decade have concluded before less than 3,000 fans (some suggest 2,000) -an upset of our rival No. 15 ranked Houston last year and clinching Bowl eligibility with a comeback 4th quarter victory over Tulsa that went down to closing minutes. At some point you can safely conclude that SMU has less than 3,000 hard-core, die-hard fans. No hard-core, die-hard fan misses those moments especially after a long drought. That ain't going to cut it even at the P6 AAC level

LOL OK SHUT IT DOWN!

[skyscraper]

I'm generally a fan of Hart, but his comments in the DMN today about attendance were not very reassuring. The most generic non-answer answers.
It appears the school's football plan is to mirror basketball's "win and they will come" plan.

[Pony Boss]

I'm generally a fan of Hart, but his comments in the DMN today about attendance were not very reassuring. The most generic non-answer answers.
It appears the school's football plan is to mirror basketball's "win and they will come" plan.

That worked. Did anyone go to games during Doherty years or before that?

[One Trick Pony]

I'm generally a fan of Hart, but his comments in the DMN today about attendance were not very reassuring. The most generic non-answer answers.
It appears the school's football plan is to mirror basketball's "win and they will come" plan.

That worked. Did anyone go to games during Doherty years or before that?

Well of course we were referred to as the 250. That's when we had the cheap blue seats that are now red and PonyScott used to play that shuffle game to get down there.

[StallionsModelT]

I love that somehow a 40 degree game on a non-college football day of the week against a two win Tulsa team for the glory of getting to the Pampers Dirty Diaper Bowl is cause to throw in the towel on attendance.

Win games that matter. Don't get war crimed at home by good teams. Finish the year strong. Attendance is not going to improve b/c we beat a bunch of garbage from the Sun Belt and CUSA. This university did everything it could to drive away anyone who attended for the better part of the last 30 years. A four point win on a Friday night against a two win Tulsa team isn't gonna cut it.

[deucetz]

I love that somehow a 40 degree game on a non-college football day of the week against a two win Tulsa team for the glory of getting to the Pampers Dirty Diaper Bowl is cause to throw in the towel on attendance.

Win games that matter. Don't get war crimed at home by good teams. Finish the year strong. Attendance is not going to improve b/c we beat a bunch of garbage from the Sun Belt and CUSA. This university did everything it could to drive away anyone who attended for the better part of the last 30 years. A four point win on a Friday night against a two win Tulsa team isn't gonna cut it.

I agree. Fans will develop when we have 6-10 years of 9+ wins and are able to beat a reputable P-5 teams with a good percentage of alums in the DFW.

Football is harder to build up than basketball.

[mustangxc]

The truth of the matter is that fans in general of any team, not just SMU, are very stupid. I worked in the season ticket office for the Houston Astros in 2006 and 2007 and those were the best 2 years of ticket sales in franchise history, with over 3 million fans each season. The 2006 season ended with 82 wins and 80 losses. The 2007 season ended with 73 wins and 89 losses. Why did we sell so many tickets? The Astros were coming off the 2005 National League championship. This season, the Astros were dominant from the beginning and yet somehow only managed about 2.4 million fans. Why such paltry attendance? The 2016 Astros did not even make the playoffs.

For SMU to increase attendance we need to have sustained success and do something transcendent. People want to cheer on winners because even if they are losing in life, at least they can associate with winning during the 3 hours they are watching their team. I wish our fans would show more appreciation and start showing up to support a team that wins more than it loses (i.e. 7-5 or better), but that level of success does not suffice for the fans that want to walk away as winners. The reason I say fans in general are stupid is because of the lag effect. We probably will not even see increased attendance the season we make our P5 bowl appearances, but will see a large bump the seasons following that level of success. Does it make sense? not really, but it is a fairly predictable pattern in sports.