12,979 attendance

[Big10Ponyfan]

Produce the evidence by googling all of their home box scores ince Fran started and post them on the board.

And besides, I was making a general statement. I guess some of us are more enthralled with TCU's attendance avg. than others.

[KnuckleStang]

The AD should be making an attempt to market the UAB game to the Greek leadership RIGHT NOW, if they haven't already, about somehow incorporating the game into their Halloween party plans. It's a long shot, but if they take the angle that this is a nationally televised ESPN game, and offer some kind of incentive to the frat/sorority who brings the most kids, we could end up with a decent showing. At least for the first half, anyway.

But of course, we've tried this kind of thing before...

[couch 'em]

I thought the students had a pretty good showing last night. If we keep winning they'll be there. I don't know about anyone else though.

[abezontar]

Sorry Thad, but I just don't see that happening, even on a 4 game win streak. The average Dallas sports fan either doesn't know who Marshall is, or still thinks they are 1-AA. With a 4-2 record, we would be lucky to see 18,000 at that game. (which would still be better than before)

While I would generally agree with you, when does that movie about Marshall come out? If it is before the game and does well, it might raise the awareness of the locals about Marshall and they will want to come out and see them. Hopefully, they will and get to see us tear them up, but that is getting ahead of ourselves.

[JesuitPony]

The AD should be making an attempt to market the UAB game to the Greek leadership RIGHT NOW, if they haven't already, about somehow incorporating the game into their Halloween party plans. It's a long shot, but if they take the angle that this is a nationally televised ESPN game, and offer some kind of incentive to the frat/sorority who brings the most kids, we could end up with a decent showing. At least for the first half, anyway.

But of course, we've tried this kind of thing before...

Time to incorporate some of the Mavericks marketing philosphy: if the Ponies score a certain # of points, all fans with a ticket stub get a free chalupa. Of course, if PB's boys keep winning, the students will come to the games.

[CalallenStang]

when does that movie about Marshall come out?

December 22

[Original Frank]

I get a kick out of many of Stallion's posts but his seemingly omniscient statement that "there were no more than 10,000 in the stands last nite" (as opposed to the 12, 900 official attendance) is laughable. Did he conduct a physical count? Did he count those in the stands or did he include those in the boxes? What about the kids running around in the south end zone? This is the kind of "who cares" forced negativity that causes his credibility to wane.

Winning a game or two is not the cure for a generation of poor results-caused poor attendance. SMU must capture the imagination of the market by winning games in bunches to cause non-SMU affiliated folks to come out to the games. It is terribly naive to submit that two low-profile wins will immediately reverse (a) the short term impact of losing to NTSU and (b) the long term impact of 15 years of very poor play. Win this year, go to a bowl game, dig up some good recruits, capitalize by repeating next year, and then - and only then - do we have the means to gripe about poor attendance.

Poor attendance is a sympton. The institutional expectation of losing as caused by SMU's seemingly perpetual failure on the field/court is the disease. Establishment of a winning PROGRAM over several years is the only cure. It is my opinion that Orsini understands all of this.

[Phi Delt]

The AD should be making an attempt to market the UAB game to the Greek leadership RIGHT NOW, if they haven't already, about somehow incorporating the game into their Halloween party plans. It's a long shot, but if they take the angle that this is a nationally televised ESPN game, and offer some kind of incentive to the frat/sorority who brings the most kids, we could end up with a decent showing. At least for the first half, anyway.

But of course, we've tried this kind of thing before...

Everyone I've talked to in the Greek system is pretty fired up about the game on ESPN...the game kicks off at 6:30 (I think) so it should be over by 10, and most parties even on Tues. night don't start up until around 11 so that shouldn't be a problem.

[Stallion]

Hey Frankie-I invite you to go sit between the 40s or in the Luxury Boxes which we know are season ticket holders and just as an experiment count if any of those rows are over 50% occupied. None of the rows inside the 40s at my level were even 35% occupied. 12,900 is paid attendance not actual attendance.

[jtstang]

12,900 versus 10,000?? Really? Look the bottom line is our attendance sucks. If y'all want to spend your time arguing over how much it sucks, y'all are a bunch of friggin timewasters.

[OR-See-Nee]

I thought the student section had a good showing last night. They were loud and into the game. Would I like to see more there? Of course. But those who were there were fans. Good job.

[Corso]

I believe that in football, the attendance is based on the number of people who come in the building. Besides, in a 32,000-seat stadium, do you really think 12,900 looks all that different from 10,000? Of course not.

[Stallion]

I believe you are wrong. Each school can count attendance any way it wants. I've read 10-20 stories supporting my belief. It has nothing to do with numbers reported to the NCAA for other purposes.

[Charleston Pony]

attendance for SMU football and bball has been an ongoing problem and winning has only mildly helped. We need Orsini to spin some Russ Potts magic around here. Gonna have to give away a lot of tickets to put a respectable number of butts in the seats at Ford and Moody. If winning is objective #1, increasing attendance needs to be objective # 1a

[NavyCrimson]

you guys are worrying about nothing -

once the 'winning' starts consistently, the fans will begin to come back - slowly -

it takes time -

being excluded from the bcs-bs doesn't help any but nevertheless, that's a fact & that's a fact of a fact -

obviously our administration & the rest of the non-bcs-bs losers decided to cave in & not fight the cartel / i guess it wasn't that important afterall (sarcasm of course) -

so let's get on to another subject now -