Orange Out

[easttexasfan]

Charleston Pony - always enjoy your posts but ( and you can disagree) Doug Ash who served as the assistant coach for Dave Bliss is now a scout for the Detroit Pistons and was at the Memphis/SMU game this year and said to a lady friend of mine that "this crowd is just as good as we had during our years. I don't think local players will help in attendance. My opinion only~ Has it in the past?

[mrydel]

Discussing our attendance based on any home game with Memphis is not a good place to start. I wonder if Mr Ash was at the Dallas Christian game? Local players will help if just a couple of family members will attend. Beginning to win and a better class of competition will help much more.

[GiddyUp]

good lord, how many times are we going to discuss attendance?? - CP, I appreciate your fandom and participation on the board, but you have said the same thing for 10 years over and over. (students and avg attendance, etc) -- I salute Kristin for her efforts on Dorm Storm and Youtube. I don't think she is getting paid for either.

The Sat afternoon games did much better in attendance than Wed nights. I would prefer Tue/Sat.

it is what it is folks, only a top 20 team will change that or a marque game against a top opponent. every SWC is going to outnumber us every time. I would like to play UNT, Baylor, A&M, UTA, ACU, Oral Roberts, OU, in the near future vs East Dallas Catholic whatever...we seem to do better than Tulane, Houston, or Rice but that aint saying much.

See the Wake Forest game a few years back - top 10 team, pretty well attended. Your average SMU fan isn't going to care about Tulane or Rice.

The local kids friends/family aren't going to matter too much unless we are top 25.

I am excited about the class coming up and our "system" - with some players, I think we can disrupt some of these unorganized athletic teams.

[ponyscott]

And yes local players do bring more attendees and fans....not in huge numbers but another 500-1,500 fans every game because of family and friends from local high schools is a help. Add the curious fans when SMU fields a good competitive team and thats another 1,000 to 1,200 fans. When the school requires sophomores on campus in two years then you add another 500-600 students to the current mix. It adds up one element at a time.

[GiddyUp]

And yes local players do bring more attendees and fans....not in huge numbers but another 500-1,500 fans every game because of family and friends from local high schools is a help. Add the curious fans when SMU fields a good competitive team and thats another 1,000 to 1,200 fans. When the school requires sophomores on campus in two years then you add another 500-600 students to the current mix. It adds up one element at a time.

Ok - I am comparing this to the Sasser days with all locals - not a whole lot different that I could tell, but a better conference overall at that time (RPI wise I think). We'll see.

Generally speaking, I don't think the fans of these HS's care too much. Once they leave, out of sight, out of mind.

[BIGHORSE]

There are still a lot of our "fans" that do not wear S.M.U. shirts, you can tell

all the utep fans because they wear utep shirts, some of our fans just don't get it.

[easttexasfan]

Giddy up - Good post - someone is dreaming when a "local" brings 1,000 more fans to the games. Maybe 10 would be a high number. Regarding the Memphis game, it was the well attended this year - maybe 4,000-5,000. There is no rhyme or reason - we had the biggest turnout for the UALR game. If I am wrong, please advise.

[PonyPlayer4]

Charleston Pony - always enjoy your posts but ( and you can disagree) Doug Ash who served as the assistant coach for Dave Bliss is now a scout for the Detroit Pistons and was at the Memphis/SMU game this year and said to a lady friend of mine that "this crowd is just as good as we had during our years. I don't think local players will help in attendance. My opinion only~ Has it in the past?

I don't see how this is your opinion when you are just restating what someone else heard in the stands?

[tristatecoog]

Giddy up - Good post - someone is dreaming when a "local" brings 1,000 more fans to the games. Maybe 10 would be a high number. Regarding the Memphis game, it was the well attended this year - maybe 4,000-5,000. There is no rhyme or reason - we had the biggest turnout for the UALR game. If I am wrong, please advise.

I believe I heard that yesterday was the biggest crowd of the year, but wasn't UALR an "operation sellout" type game?

[easttexasfan]

You are probably correct about UALR. I thought the crowd ( yes it was small - 1,800) gave us great energy in the overtime win against Rice. They were standing and cheering. It was great! Believe it or not, the UTEP announcers were complaining about their crowd being so quiet when we played out there and they had 8,000 plus. I don't think they knew they were on the air.

[easttexasfan]

Pony - I checked attendance figures in the media guide. Coach Ash is correct!

[Charleston Pony]

Charleston Pony - always enjoy your posts but ( and you can disagree) Doug Ash who served as the assistant coach for Dave Bliss is now a scout for the Detroit Pistons and was at the Memphis/SMU game this year and said to a lady friend of mine that "this crowd is just as good as we had during our years. I don't think local players will help in attendance. My opinion only~ Has it in the past?

Doug's memory is short. Even in the early Bliss years when we went 7-20 and 6-21 in those 1st 2 seasons with a schedule that included the likes of Texas Weslayan, Wisc-Oshkosh, Southwestern, Angelo State, etc...we AVERAGED close to 4,000. Our Memphis game drew only 2500 this year. We drew those kind of crowds against the teams mentioned above but EVERY conference game, even Rice, would draw better than 2500. Granted, Texas, Arkansas, A&M and Tech helped bolster our averages but we had a loyal group of at least 2,000 - 2,500 that showed up no matter who we played. I know because I was one of them in those years.

After the SWC blew up, our "core" of loyalists shrunk to about 1,500. Today that figure appears to have dwindled to about 1,000. I think this year we AVERAGED less than 2500.

During my years at SMU, we averaged 5234, 5881, 6223 and dropped off to 4910 my Sr year. Those figures included games against Austin College, Dallas Baptist, McMurry, etc...Moody could seat 10k in those years and we had SWC games that would be close to full

I'm not expecting miracles. I just want to see us get to the point we can put 3500-4000 SMU fans in for every conference game and increase the number of hard core loyalists to the same 2000-2500 we once had. It starts with the students. That's another thing that changed. In my day, the students filled the pull out bleachers on both sides of the court. The blue seats came into play the 1st year the Mavericks made the playoffs and had to use Moody because Reunion Arena wasn't available. That change went a long ways towards ruining the atmosphere at Moody. Don't mean to offend the donors in this seats. I know several of them. That's why I would like to see Moody remodeled to include suites in the lower mezzanine. If we reduce capacity to 7500 in the process, no big deal

[gostangs]

lets see ....what year did the Mavericks show up? That did not help us as far as basketball - we were the only game in town until what ....1980?

[easttexasfan]

C. Pony - Enjoyed your post! I am not saying they didn't draw those fans but was it "paid" attendance or actually fans in the seats? You are right - just like UTEP last night, Arkansas, Texas, etc. would help those attendance figures.

[easttexasfan]

C PONY - A & M had a tremednous turnout at Moody when we played them a couple of years ago. You are probably correct - but Southwest Conference certainly brought fans from other SWC Schools. It is hard to get excited for Tulane, USM, etc for some fans who still can't get over the SW Conference. Regarding Doug, this lady could have been saying something that he didn't actually say to her. Who knows? Second hand information! I have always enjoyed your posts.