Ouch from the Daily Campus

[mrydel]

Only if there were female, buck naked skippers and caddies.

[whitwiki]

SMU, much like Dallas, is a melting pot. We have a very regionally diverse campus, so we don't have a ton of kids growing up in the area yearning to come here - learning the history over the years. Many of our students come here from FL, CA, AL, LA, etc. and have been cheering for one team or another their whole lives. Those teams were most likely not SMU until maybe they got their acceptance letter. Hell maybe even have an event where the football team challenges the incoming freshmen to bring a shirt from the team they grew up watching and have a pep-rally/ceremonial burning of them, where they are then issued an SMU shirt. Talk about baptism by fire!

.

This would be so incredibly awesome.

[whitwiki]

I think next time, if we have a decent crowd, during a break the cheerleader on the west side should go out on the field at about the 50 and raise the sign. The red blue army will get it going and the whole west side can join in with them. The east side cheerleader can be in front of the students and band.

If I can every get a hold of someone representing the cheer team, DONE.

Could any of the students heard the alum side chanting back? It sounded pretty weak.

It was pretty weak all-around because of the terrible attendance. We are working on better coordinating this with the Mustang11/Cheerleaders, but three games in a row...almost tradition.

It takes 21 days to form a habit.

[ericdickerson4life]

It takes 21 days to form a habit.

So that's 3+ seasons till we can drop the attendance talk.

[skyscraper]

Will be interesting to see if there is any response in the paper the next few days from people.

[ericdickerson4life]

Not really.

[johnangle]

I've heard a decent number of people talking about this article today on campus. I think it's a wake up call to be called out by one of our football players

[Mustangsabu]

the very best fans tend to go to oot games.

Are those in Canada?

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

[RepublicanPNY]

The attendance will improve once we've become proven winners over an extended time.

I transferred to SMU from Univ. of Texas in the early 90s and when I was at UT the stadium was not full. That was during the years when the team there wasn't very successful. They had to expand the stdium once Mack got there and they won consistently over a number of years.

There are always bandwagon fans looking for a new ride and they will come around. However we need consecutive 10 plus win seasons. Casual fans just don't get excited about winning 7 or 8 seasons.O

[Mestengo]

I already know what I'm going to do to help. I'm canceling my golf clap seats
And I'm going to buy and entire row with the money I save . Then I'm going to invite all my neighbors and friends And tell them they have a place to party right at 33.

Are you going to buy row 8 in 104? If so thank you in advance if you will give me my tickets.

Cheap seats could get 32

[Mestengo]

You don't have to buy in the designated mustang club section more than half the stadium is not designated in that area so no additional monies are required

$78 per seat something like that

[MustangSTATS]

Another thing that we need to start doing with the students is more education. Part of AARO/orientation needs to include a movie night where they watch Pony Exce$$. Bring in some of the football team, June, Mason, whoever, and educate the incoming freshman on our rich history and where we have come back from. Teach them the songs, chants, cheers. Educate them on Peruna - the difference between a Mustang & a castrated horse mounted by an OSU alum.

SMU, much like Dallas, is a melting pot. We have a very regionally diverse campus, so we don't have a ton of kids growing up in the area yearning to come here - learning the history over the years. Many of our students come here from FL, CA, AL, LA, etc. and have been cheering for one team or another their whole lives. Those teams were most likely not SMU until maybe they got their acceptance letter. Hell maybe even have an event where the football team challenges the incoming freshmen to bring a shirt from the team they grew up watching and have a pep-rally/ceremonial burning of them, where they are then issued an SMU shirt. Talk about baptism by fire!

Point being, once we get these kids on campus, we need to spend some of that orientation time educating those students about who we are. This (and as always winning) will help continue to build the student fan base.

This is very true. I like the bonfire, it is a bit A&M cultish but we need a radical shift to overcome apathy in both FB and SMU spirit in general. At corral they go through school spirit, but the students leading are only a few years younger and they themselves are generations removed from a strong SMU school spirit, so it turns into just going through the motions.

Building up the importance of rivalries also builds a cohesive team spirit. The TCU game is always well attended, but Baylor should be another target. 50% of our students come from out of state, and probably never even thought of applying to TCU but most pick up and run with the rivalry quickly. We should be able to replicate that with Baylor. In the Big12 schools have a main rival but students always believe they are better than any other school, not just as a team but as culture. We need to show why we are the best school in Texas and why we are their school.

We need to get more outstanding Alumni to come in show what true mustang spirit is and how SMU helped them get to where they are now, during AARO/Corral and beyond. If you are an Alumni from the Pony Express era mad at apathetic students, you should have a chance to show what school spirit is. School spirit is low everywhere. FB is just an easy barometer. Moving to a residential commons system there should be even more opportunities to mentor and build school pride.

[Mestengo]

Anyone remember the part in the movie sling blade where dwight yoakam is arguing about what they should do with the band?

[CaptainW]

In a small defense of the students, if every undergrad, grad, continuing education, smu legacy, smu at Taos, faculty, staff, employee all showed up, we would still need about 20,000 fans to fill Ford. That's not to say that more should not be there, stay the entire game and make a lot of noise. I guess that was one benefit of taking the busses to Texas Stadium - you were stuck until the game ended.

We need those 40,000 DFW area alumni along with 20,000 or so from around Texas and build some bridges to the DFW sports fans, Methodist Churches, youth groups etc to get the stadium filled consistently.

Unless we are going to double the enrollment in the near future, we have to expand our fan base. There are not enough students to do it alone.

I just read through this thread and this is one of the only posts that criticizes SMU not reaching out enough to DFW. Yes, the students are one part of the problem but so is the community. They are also part of the Lost Generation of fans and need to be brought back as well. The marketing needs to be massively stepped up to remind them who we are and what we are doing. The average DFW resident doesn't know how good UCF is and how important that game is? Educate them! Otherwise it is like a tree falling in the woods. DFW did not grow up on these C-USA schools or this SMU team and bringing them back to the game will take some work. This means having a great team, and an effective marketing campaign to remind them who we are and why these games matter.

I'm a season ticket holder for Vanderbilt, a school I have no ties to and who is annually in the SEC basement. Nonetheless, the community (and my friends) support them and I feel compelled to do the same. Get the SMU community involved and the fans will follow.

Also, the importance of homecoming needs to be stepped up. My friends don't understand why I don't return to Dallas for SMU homecoming games. Outside of the 5 year, 10 year, etc. reunions I never saw the need to. Alumni need to make it a priority to return to SMU for homecoming games. That would at least guarantee that that game is packed.

[mustangxc]

So much for enjoying road games more than home games!!!