Copeland: Getting Students/Fans in the Seats + 5pm Kick-off

[RGV Pony]

Well BUS maybe you can help me with this one...last year we made the trek to the OK State game...along with my 6 month old, who's been to 2 SMU fball, one bball game, the SEC Champ game and an LSU home game, and what do you know but at the gate we're told sorry...stroller goes back. Now, we've just hoofed it a mile or so...in the heat... and this is what we get? My question to the guy was that how does this happen at Ford, with 5000 empty seats even at the OSU game, while at Tiger Stadium w/ 92000 strong they have plenty of room for the stroller(s) in the ticket office??

And it's all I can do to try & convince my wife that SMU isn't an also-ran program...

[PlanoStang]

Well BUS maybe you can help me with this one...last year we made the trek to the OK State game...along with my 6 month old, who's been to 2 SMU fball, one bball game, the SEC Champ game and an LSU home game, and what do you know but at the gate we're told sorry...stroller goes back. Now, we've just hoofed it a mile or so...in the heat... and this is what we get? My question to the guy was that how does this happen at Ford, with 5000 empty seats even at the OSU game, while at Tiger Stadium w/ 92000 strong they have plenty of room for the stroller(s) in the ticket office??

And it's all I can do to try & convince my wife that SMU isn't an also-ran program...

Thats why I call him Copeland!

I have several major league examples of this kind of stuff happening to me, and hundreds, or maybe 1000s of others at SMU football games.

1. Ticket fiasco at SMU vs. Arkansas when Copeland moved the game to Shreveport Independence. Only 1 ticket box office open. Got there about 20 minutes before kickoff, and didn't buy my ticket till well into the second quarter.

2. Blocked off an entire parking lot near the Cotton Bowl for fireworks to celebrate the start Cavan's regime the same night there was a Jimmy Buffet concert at Starplex. 1000s of people forced to park way in the back, and there wasn't tram service like at the state fair. We had to walk over a mile a lot of it over that coarse railroad grade gravel back there in 90+ degree heat.

3. Construction at Ford building the new road, and/or Doak Walker monument. Sign directing the crowd was about 300 yards from where it should be forcing people to double back around it. It was tacked to the fence blocking you.

4. At last update to me since I received the rules of Ford Stadium, NO
UMBRELLAS are ALLOWED in the stadium.

etc.

etc.

[PlanoStang]

I KNOW I saw the NO UMBRELLAS rule in the literature I got when I bought my tickets for the first game in Ford against Kansas, and was slightly dumbfounded.

I also know I got one in anyway during the misty LaTech game the next year.

Anybody seen the official rule on UMBRELLAS in Ford lately?

[EastStang]

Gang, why in the world do you want to take umbrellas to a football game? They are totally worthless in a crowded stadium. Everyone elses umbrellas run off on you and yours run off on everyone else. Go to Sears, buy one of those cheap plastic ponchos. Trust me you'll be drier and warmer. I remember going to an SMU-Arkansas game at Little Rock and all I had was an umbrella and a raincoat, I have never been so wet and cold in my life.

[PonySoprano]

The No Umbrellas rule makes sense. Umbrellas block the sight lines if you are sitting behind one (especially one of those large golf umbrellas), and they cause water to run off on the people sitting around one. In fact, the no umbrella rule is in place at most stadiums today. No umbrellas are allowed at Memorial Stadium in Austin, and Kyle Field has a no umbrella policy. Invest in the pancho - both you and the people sitting around you will be better off.

[PlanoStang]

The NO UMBRELLA rule is fine if you want to cut out 50%+ of our walk-up
ticket sales on a rainy game day. UT & A$M don't exactly have walk-up
ticket sales unless its scalping.

I thought the idea of this thread is putting butts in seats, and the stupid
things we do that run off potential customers.

[Mike Damone]

I have never see as much [deleted] about worthless crap in my life. Its amazing that any of you leave the confines of home to even attend a football game. If you to go to a football game in the rain, do what EVERYONE else does. Wear a freakin' raincoat. If you don't have one, call me, and I'll provide you and your whole party with garbage bags that you can cut three holes in and use just the same.

The start time in an hour too early.....the start time is an hour too late....it will be too hot......it will be too cold.....what if it rains?......what if its windy?.....the sun will be in my eyes.......I had to wait in line to get tickets......the walk was too long......we might lose the one person that happens to be walking by in the rain and gets the urge to go to a football game, but can't because he has an umbrella.....

Sack up, people! Its a football game, not a weekend at the Ritz Carlton. And I wonder why we have the reputation of being spoiled.

[lobster claw]

The no umbrella rule is a great one. Nothing is worse than umbrella blocking your view, coming within inches of putting your eye out or just dripping all over you. Buy a rain coat and pants. They're not expensive and they keep you dry.

You're nuts if you think that not being able to bring in an umbrella will hurt the walk-up crowd. It's the rain itself that hurts. I'm surprised you don't just blame Jim Copeland for bad weather?

[PlanoStang]

Never heard of a NO UMBRELLA rule at a stadium until when Ford opened. I've seen thousands of them at every rainy game I've been to.
That probably includes that rainy LaTech game. Had to peak over, and under a few to watch the game too.

Beats gettin wet, and who wants to wear and/or sit next to that smelly mildewy old pancho that makes you feel like you're taking a sauna anyway.

[gostangs]

Plano - you big whiner.

1. Order your tickets earlier and get to the game on time and you won't have to wait for tickets.

2. Buy the parking pass so you don't have to worry about blocked lots for fireworks - I went to that game and had no problem.

3. A little construction at Ford should be no problem - again - I went to that game and remember enjoying it.

4. I have a perfectly good non-smelly poncho I will loan you so the poor guy behind you can see the game.

Jees, take a chill pill and have some fun, grumpy.

[MustangTu]

Plano - you big whiner.

1. Order your tickets earlier and get to the game on time and you won't have to wait for tickets.

2. Buy the parking pass so you don't have to worry about blocked lots for fireworks - I went to that game and had no problem.

3. A little construction at Ford should be no problem - again - I went to that game and remember enjoying it.

4. I have a perfectly good non-smelly poncho I will loan you so the poor guy behind you can see the game.

Jees, take a chill pill and have some fun, grumpy.

AMEN! AMEN! AMEN! AND AMEN!

[Cheesesteak]

I live in the northeast and I attend several Big East and Big Ten games each season.

I work in a comfortable office. I live in a comfortable house. I drive a comfortable car.

During football Saturdays I LOVE watching games in "the weather" (heat, humidity, rain, wind, ice or snow).
I also LOVE watching games in perfect weather.

For me, football is not meant to be played under a roof and I am not meant to watch it under an umbrella.

I frequently cheer loudest in foul weather.

I LOVE college football (especially the Mustangs)...during those few hours the weather and my comfort are secondary concerns.

[PlanoStang]

You guys sound like you work in the SMU Athletics marketing department,
and like to kiss up to Copeland every day.

The ticket fiasco was inexcusable stupidity.

The parking mess was the same. Not a big deal to me. I ran 4 miles earlier, and have finished a marathon, but my wife in her thin leather sole shoes had different ideas especially on that slippery coarse gravel.

The construction stuff in 2001 shows they still aren't thinking much about managing what little crowd we draw now days. The earlier guy who couldn't check their baby's stroller in the athletic office or somewhere
is evidence of the same lack of attention.

If its raining, and I know I we can't bring umbrellas into Ford, my wife is making us go to see The English Patient, or whatever chick flick is playing that afternoon/evening.

Right now were about on the edge looking down of that 15,000 PAID attendance rule. Lets run off all the butts in seats we can. See y'all at the Rice game in divison III

[jtstang]

Right now were about on the edge looking down of that 15,000 PAID attendance rule. Lets run off all the butts in seats we can. See y'all at the Rice game in divison III

Scary prospect, isn't it? We are definitely on that bubble. SMU football cannot afford to be anything less than user friendly right now--better still to be user subservient.

[mrydel]

You will lose more fans by allowing umbrellas than by not. If you have ever had to sit behind one and know they are allowed you will not go back. If you know they are not allowed, hopefully your degree (if it is from SMU) will provide you with enough sense to figure out what to do.