Something very disturbing...

[Big Hoss]

My wife and I, both SMU alums, returned to north Texas last year and settled in Ft Worth. We are 07-08 alum and have steadily gotten other friends in our yrs to become season ticket fans.

Being in Ft Worth has shed new light on the situation discussed on this thread. Here in Ft Worth, everyone seems to be a Frog Fan. As many on this board know, the former mayor of Ft Worth pushed for the residents to become fans etc. Not to make this too long and drawn out but to give a few examples:

-The Kroger near TCU has a purple uniform; all of the time.
-The lights on the top of the Chesapeake Energy building glows purple on Friday and Saturday Nights. (And it annoys me that I can see them from my balcony even when the Mustangs stomp them for over 3 quarters of football)
-The local shopping/entertainment districts at Sundance Square and West 7th Street, have Purple signs up everywhere
-Local companies, have "purple fridays" and encourage employees to wear purple on pre-game fridays
-Every time I go into a local grocery store or pharmacy there is TCU apparel on an end cap

Point is- TCU has done a great job marketing TCU Football to the locals. The "snobbish kids" argument mentioned previously has no less meaning to the kids at TCU than it dose for the kids at SMU but the Ft Worth community has embraced them anyway.

If we want to get the Impact mentioned here then we need to both win games and win fans. I think that similar to the SMU2BCS group, there should be a fan driven DALLAS LOOK AT SMU group. MAybe they could help push the city, and surrounding citizens into getting behind the home team. Just MHO

Not going to work. Fort Worth doesn't have any major sports programs, so TCU could position themselves as "Fort Worth's Team". Do you think SMU even has a tiny shot at becoming "Dallas' Team"? No way in hell.

And this is the negative attitude that essentially stops us from Marketing our school & team before we even try to do it because obviously there is no way Dallas will support SMU like Fort Worth does TCU. Please! There are plenty of people in Dallas who don't care about the Cowboys OR who have plenty of room to pull for both a college and pro team. Not to mention the fact that the Dallas Cowboys are "Dallas" in name only. How far outside of Dallas is that big, brand new stadium?

The point is that we will never make a dent on Dallas area fans unless we have the attitude that we can accomplish what TCU has in Fort Worth, which is exactly as IndyPony has described. But mainly, just freaking keep winning!

[PonyKai]

The worst excuse I've ever heard in my life is that there were a bunch of parties the night before. Suck it up, you effin candy as*es. You call yourself an SMU student? You get your lazy, stereotypical fuc*ing as* out of bed, and go to a college football game to drink more.

If that's the case, I can't believe what a bunch of limp wristed, spineless, Baylor wannabe students we're running through the school.

[jpe747]

PK invite a friend and sit in the end-zone with him if that's a problem. OR come up with a better idea on getting guests into Ford! I like your idea. What was it again?

[facultydrcoog]

Also selling beer in stadium and having REALLY stupid security that dont check boots or butts for flasks helps a ton.

[ponyte]

Screw marketing!

I want the deal makers now! Sorry, the name of the game is a better conference, not better behinds in the seats. We sell out Ford and stay in CUSA and we lose! Period.

We have a deal maker now and move to a much more lucrative conference and the entire athletic department and school win, big time!

Right now winning is the best thing we can do. And we are doing it. And having deal makers make a deal is more important than marketing.

Attendance is improving. And so too are our chances of moving to a conference with a lot more money. Is that because we have better billboards or TV ads? No, it is because we have people that understand the business of sports, have the connection and the ability to make the big deals happen. Right folks at the right time.

We get into the Big East and we will have the cash to hire the marketing folks. Right now we need the deal folks.

[PK]

PK invite a friend and sit in the end-zone with him if that's a problem. OR come up with a better idea on getting guests into Ford! I like your idea. What was it again?

So...is that what you do?

[Big Hoss]

Marketing the team doesn't take the place of making deals to get us into a better conference, ponyte. They should go hand in hand. Putting a better product on the field in a better conference, just gives us an easier job of selling the team to potential fans.

[Otter]

Thank you for being the voice of reason Big Hoss. Getting better on the field and marketing the program are not mutually exclusive -- they should go hand in hand.

Too bad Orsini doesn't care about getting fans to watch us. As long as he gets to wear his silly red jacket at the games when we draw 12,500 fans.

We've spent more time in the past 5 minutes on this board discussing attendance than the AD and his SID/Marketing Guy have done all year.

And I wish they would remove the 2009 Mustang Football posters from the wall at the SMU bookstore - it just reinforces how bush we are at this stuff

[ponyte]

CUSA doesn't bring in a huge amount of cash. Other that football, no other SMU sport brings in the cash that can support the athletic department.

So the budget is limited. Based on resources, We need deal makers. Deal makers brought in Jones. Marketing guys didn't.

With limited resources, I want deal makers. Sure they are crunch numbers and ignore fancy advertising but we don't have the resources to have it all. We have the resources for one or the other. Based on need, we hired a deal maker. So be it, let him make the deals.

Once we have the resources to have it all, then I can go with marketing. For now, I want a better conference.

[Otter]

You are the first person in the history of time to ever call Steve Orsini a [deleted] deal maker. He is a lazy bean counter who has been nothing but reactive in this whole conference realignment discussion. Two weeks ago he was lobbying Dan Beebe for inclusion in the Big XII. Talk about a guy without a clue who to talk to ... Orsini is just reacting - not being proactive.

A deal maker?? Are you his cousin?

[jpe747]

PK the answer is YES. I would be happy to sit anywhere at FORD if I brought a guest that could not sit where my tickets are. However, instead of running down my suggestion, I stated that some people some where connected with SMU need to come up with some ideas to put 10,000 more butts in seats. I haven't heard anything better from you or anybody else. I'm sure you and many others have better ideas. Lets hear them and act on them. I don't want a fight. I just want SMU to prosper.

[PK]

PK the answer is YES. I would be happy to sit anywhere at FORD if I brought a guest that could not sit where my tickets are. However, instead of running down my suggestion, I stated that some people some where connected with SMU need to come up with some ideas to put 10,000 more butts in seats. I haven't heard anything better from you or anybody else. I'm sure you and many others have better ideas. Lets hear them and act on them. I don't want a fight. I just want SMU to prosper.

Fine...I use to buy two extra season tickets every year so I could bring friends to the game. Guess what...I was rarely able to find anyone interested. They had their own favorite team they wanted to watch on TV or a kid's soccer game to go to or whatever. I stopped doing that when getting decent seats started costing an arm and a leg. Maybe when I win the lotto I'll start doing that again. As I said in my earlier post I do not have a solution to the problem. Evidently neither does anyone in the athletic department. It doesn't really help much televising home games either as it makes it too easy for our half way devoted alums to sit at home and watch the games instead of coming to the stadium. Marketing may not be the whole answer, but no marketing is insanity.

[soccermom]

Even during the Pony Express days, in Texas Stadium, most of the crowd was for the opposing teams. Why? Because state schools have more students and alumni. The economy isn't helping either. Where I work we are told a RIF will take place in the spring so if I'm asked to go in on Saturdays, guess where I will be.

[2ndandlong]

You are the first person in the history of time to ever call Steve Orsini a [deleted] deal maker. He is a lazy bean counter who has been nothing but reactive in this whole conference realignment discussion. Two weeks ago he was lobbying Dan Beebe for inclusion in the Big XII. Talk about a guy without a clue who to talk to ... Orsini is just reacting - not being proactive.

A deal maker?? Are you his cousin?

You really don't know anything. You spew this bullsh and throw out a lot of smiley faces. It just makes you look like you are holding a grudge.

I challenge you to get off your bully pulpit, stop throwing out baseless opinions, stop calling out real fans and people on this board, and provide facts.

I've said I would like to increase marketing, but I'm also realistic in how it can be achieved. Personally, I think we're investing in the right areas right now, and I hope it pays off to provide for marketing down the road. Let's focus our resources on winning games through a high-dollar recruiting effort and high-paid, talented coaches. We're spending the money to fly all over the country (to our chagrin in some cases) and have well respected coaches.

You say Orsini is reacting? He stated to the Mustang Club Board at the beginning of the season that he was going to push for a BCS conference. I personally didn't think that was realistic, but this is the best crow I've ever tasted.

You keep dogging attendance without fact. I've posted on the Operation Sellout thread NCAA attendance at SMU games for the last 3 years. The last 3 years have been the best since the turn of the century. How can you not give Orsini credit for that? Sure, I want more, but he's doing what we asked. It doesn't happen overnight, and, if you think it does, find the program out there that did it and sustained it. No one has done it faster than we're doing it right now.

[BUS]

Good grief.
Needs improvement!