Even if we...

[RednBlue11]

The stadium held either 75,000 (Cotton Bowl) or 65,000 (Texas Stadium).

well im not gonna blame our unpopularity on the cowboys, people want to see a championship winning team and we didnt deliver year in and year out

[SmooBoy]

You can argue that TCU has not drawn THAT well considering their bowl streak and recent 1-loss team. 30K avg in a stadium that holds much more. I am assuming their alumni base is on par with ours if not bigger.

I am sure that frogs can shed light on their own theories.

[Dutch]

another thing we will have going for us is $4 gas. The rangers are winning right now, but people don't want to drive all the way out there for a game. cowboys pricing is going up, and gas won't be any cheaper when they move next year. people in Dallas are still going to want a sports fix. we're a cheap option relatively. AND we're on the rail line so to speak.

look at how much it costs to go down to austin for a saturday game now. gas alone will set you back over $100. people can watch their horns on ABC at 2:35 and then head out to Ford for a nice evening on the Blvd and a game.

[Longtime]

well im not gonna blame our unpopularity on the cowboys, people want to see a championship winning team and we didnt deliver year in and year out

Yeah, our lack of success hurts. But as others have pointed out, even when we were winning 10 games a year in the 1980s our crowds weren't good unless we were playing UT, A&M or Arkansas.

With a school as small as SMU, the only way we're going to have a big fan base is to attract the fan who has no actual allegiance to SMU. For people like that, the Cowboys and other pro sports teams are an easy alternative. If people want to root for "Dallas' team" - well, that's the Cowboys. It used to be SMU before the Cowboys came along.

We averaged well over 40,000 fans a game every year from 1956-1959. Our best season in that span was 6-4. (People will support a losing team if it's all they have).

The Cowboys arrived in 1960. By 1966, the Cowboys had taken hold and we averaged just 39,800 for an 8-3 team that went to the Cotton Bowl. So tell me again the Cowboys haven't hurt our popularity.

In most major cities where there are both college and pro sports, the colleges usually struggle in comparison to the pros. You just can't compete with the marketing power of pro sports. You just hope you can carve out your niche.