DMN: Patterson asks for help from the home fans

[PonySoprano]

Coach Gary Patterson said his eighth-ranked Horned Frogs deserve more support from their fans. TCU's average attendance at its 44,000-seat stadium is less than 35,000, and 31,156 showed up for its last home game, against Colorado State. Meanwhile, the Frogs have played before crowds of 64,336 at BYU, 70,000 at Clemson and 48,336 at Virginia.

"When we walked out of the tunnel in the Colorado State game, we started slow, but there was nobody in the stands," Patterson said.

"That's just a fact. We want to get this done. It's not on the shoulders of the team.... [Fans] don't have to wait to be loud when something happens, we need to be loud as soon as we come in the stadium. It needs to be a home-field advantage."
TCU faces UNLV at home Saturday.
Jan Hubbard

[SmooBoy]

I think winning, to an extent, has gotten stale in FW, but more importantly there is still the fact that no casual fan gives a *&^% about a team like Colorado State (or UNLV, SDSU, Wyoming, ECU, Marshall, etc) . The C-USA and Mtn West conferences will continue to hurt DFW attendances unless realignment occurs. Regional rivalries are key to any future conference considerations, but unfortunately, schools will follow the money.

[Mestengo]

Bring back the SWC!

[MrMustang1965]

Bring back the SWC!

Good luck getting UT, aTm, TT and Baylor to sign on!

[froglicious]

I think winning, to an extent, has gotten stale in FW, but more importantly there is still the fact that no casual fan gives a *&^% about a team like Colorado State (or UNLV, SDSU, Wyoming, ECU, Marshall, etc) . The C-USA and Mtn West conferences will continue to hurt DFW attendances unless realignment occurs. Regional rivalries are key to any future conference considerations, but unfortunately, schools will follow the money.

No one ever acknowledges the difficulty of drawing in an NFL Metro area. Other schools, like Baylor, love bagging on our two schools attendance or Rice and Houston's. We don't have the luxury of being the only game in town like queerlor and aggie. Pick any NFL city/metro area and you will see college teams that struggle to fill the stands. Coupled with being a small private school like SMU, TCU, etc... and the lack of regional opponents... In the end it doesn't really matter. Next year, 35k fans will watch us donkey baylor in the nutts (if they have them) again. We'll celebrate with a few pops (probably at halftime since it will be over by then) and they'll make fun about our lack of support or some other weak loser smack.

Good luck against TU.

[KnuckleStang]

Whenever SMU starts winning consistently, we will have the same problem. in the Sportscenter highlights of the frogs win over Colorado St. (? can't remember) their only comments were basically, "You are a top ten team, why is your stadium half empty." I know it was TX-OU weekend, but come on support your team, they're good
As an SMU fan, it is a scary thing to see the Frogs struggling with attendance issues with the success they've had

[03Mustang]

It is scary in a way, but remember Ford only holds 32k or so - if we get to top25 level like we're working toward we'd have a packed house with the same number of people TCU is drawing now.

[1983 Cotton Bowl]

Large metro area with lots of entertainment options, small private schools with small alumni bases, lack of regional opponents who travel well. . .these are all reasons for the attendance problems at TCU and SMU (of course a poor quality product for many years has exacerbated the situation here). Even going back to the glory days of the early 1980s though, SMU did not typically sell out home games. I believe the Arkansas game in 1982 was a sellout and UT would usually sell out. Outside of that though, Texas Stadium was usually not full. Decent crowds, but not sell outs by any stretch. And that was an era when we played in a major conference and were contending for the national championship (when we weren't on probation). If we couldn't sell out under those circumstances, I have no reason to think we would regularly sell out a large stadium today, even with a team as good as TCU's. I think U Miami has had similar issues over the years. I know I've seen lots of Miami games on TV where there looked like a lot of empty seats in the Orange Bowl.

I think the administration was smart when they built Ford as a 32,000 seat stadium. Even at 44,000, I think Amon Carter is still a monument to a different era when UT, A&M, and Arkansas were on the schedule every year. If we can get a top quality product on the field, we can sell out a 32,000 seat stadium with regularity. Any bigger than that would be a stretch in my opinion.

[SMU21TCU10]

I agree that nobody from Texas cares about seeing UNLV, San Diego State , wyoming or CSU. Especially when TCU will dominate them. At least when we play teams from the Eastern Division of C-USA there is a chance of a good game or a blowout by the away team !

However I love our western Division! All the other 5 teams are regional rivalries and 2 are old SWC foes, 1 more is in Texas and the other two are teams we should always be on par with to beat from neighboring states.

[NavyCrimson]

I'd be willing to bet that SMU & TCU find themselves in the same conference again. And I hope so, too!!!

[MrMustang1965]

I'd be willing to bet that SMU & TCU find themselves in the same conference again. And I hope so, too!!!

The 'new' Southwest Conference?

[Stallion]

Bitchin' about a private school like TCU OR SMU getting attendance of 35,000 or 32,000 is a waste of time. That's about as much as you can expect for schools with a small enrollment playing against Texas St., SMU and Colorado St. unless there are some big regional matchups on the home schedule. More than 4 times student body enrollment-I'd like to see any other school other than Notre Dame or USC try to claim such a ratio. BYU likes to [deleted] about TCU attendance but they have an enrollment of 34,000 plus an entire Mormon Nation. SMU would have the same problem if it were 8-0. A lot people making these arguments are just taking a shot at TCU because they can't beat them on the field. TCU's home and road attendance I think is really pretty impressive under the circumstances

[CalallenStang]

Whenever SMU starts winning consistently, we will have the same problem. in the Sportscenter highlights of the frogs win over Colorado St. (? can't remember) their only comments were basically, "You are a top ten team, why is your stadium half empty." I know it was TX-OU weekend, but come on support your team, they're good
As an SMU fan, it is a scary thing to see the Frogs struggling with attendance issues with the success they've had

That is why I argue that percentage of capacity is more important than actual attendance. They wouldn't be making comments like that if the stadium held 30,000. Wake Forest plays in a stadium smaller than Ford...no one ever says anything about their attendance because their stadium is always full. If they played in a 44,000 seat stadium with their attendance, it would look half-empty.

[NavyCrimson]

dead right callanstang -

duke is 33K
wf is 31K
this is a great web site: http://football.ballparks.com/NCAA/ACC/Duke/index.htm