Poor student attendance

[smudubs]

Game attendance from an SMU perspective has, and for reasons that escape me, will always suck. Conference affiliation will not change that. Winning will not necessarily change that. Yes, our best attendance was during the old SWC days, but how many of those fans came from the visiting schools that have huge alumi bases in Dallas and actually travel? While having local opponents will increase attendance some, familiarity with an opposing school will not increase the number of SMU fans by more than 5,000 in my opinion. It's the functional equivalent of me telling my wife I want her to have an [deleted] like Kim Kardashian. She can run all day and do a ton of squats and lunges but it ain't gonna happen. I have to be happy with what I have and applaud the incremental changes.

The question is, how do we make actually attending the games as cool and interesting as hanging on the 'vard or at Barley House to the students and casual fans. Maybe selling beer in the stadium would help? I just don't know.

[johnangle]

There was nothing acceptable about student attendance yesterday at any point of the game
They didn't show up by Kickoff
Most didn't show up at all for the Game at all
They did their usual disappearing act after Halftime
I'm tired of the excuses for SMU fans including students

Are you serious? By the end of the game our attendance was better than the east side. People around who know about older fans complaints about our attendance even pointed it out and asked me to take pictures to show y'all.




One of the issues is the young alums who come to the boulevard and then don't come to the games. They were part of the culture that didn't go to the games at all, while current students are a little better about going for a bit.

[SMU_Alumni11]

Maybe they could make it a requirement that all FRs and SOs attend a minimum number of games.

GO PONIES!!!

Yeah but the rule would get revoked somehow. Besides people would scan in and they would just leave. You would have to find some way of keeping them there. This would be ridiculous but kind of funny. Is like assign all the freshman a seat, and if someone is missing from their seat they get a negative mark.

[Charleston Pony]

this thread was started with an article about West Virginia's student attendance and it was a very negative thing that only 25% of the undergrads were coming to their games. That's the equivalent of 1500 students actually showing up for SMU games. How many students actually show up? Looks to me like we have a hard core group of maybe 500-600?

I'd be thrilled if we had 1500 at every game (West Virginia complains that their 6500 is only 25% of their total student population. Well, for us that's about 2500 students. That would be a great start, especially if even 10% each year remained in the area and supported our programs.

We'd have no trouble filling Ford and Moody with our own fans

[SMU_Alumni11]

Boulevard was crazy packed yesterday. I think they need to shut down the boulevard 30 minutes before kick off. UNT does it, and they have a more crowded stadium than us.

You don't have to go home but you can't...stay...here...

I agree there needs to be a 30 minute gap between the end of boulevard and start of the game. That way people have time to finish food, conversations, clean up to get to the game. If we lost our football games, boulevarding would continue and be popular, but if we lose boulevard we would have significant drop in attendance. Thus, we need to merge boulevard with the game. We should one (just in general) block off the boulevard to the general public and keep it only for alums, student, faculty, donors, etc. Im tired of freeloaders getting food and jetting out of there. If we made it so you have to have a ticket, student ID, or some form of ID that said you belong her, we can make people go to the game. I mean its getting ridiculous seeing awesome boulevards and really crappy attendance at games. I mean we can make boulevarding like a 10 dollar entry and gets you a free football ticket. People might go to that to get their money's worth. I mean I dont know but Im tired of seeing people with LSU clothes, Tulane clothes coming in eating and drinking and then jet out of there.

[mrydel]

Wow. So much to say but I will leave it at wow.

[gostangs]

Some ideas that might help-

Officially request that the tailgates close down 25 min before kick - off - including the bar!!

Shut down student tailgates officially 25 min before game. Also all "school" tailgates (law,business, etc)

It might be time to try the re-entry policy idea

Let's move the fraternity sorority tailgates to the east side at soak walker plaza or in front of moody.

Run a car down each side of the blvd 20 minutes before kick off with sirens and loud speakers letting them know it is game time. Make it obnoxious

Step up police presence at same time to enforce cup policy and ask bottles to disappear. If that needs to be SMU cops then that is fine.

What about serving beer in game? Others do it

Give scholarship each week (5k)to fraternity or sorority with most fired up students in the game. Announce it in 4th qtr. Must be present to win.

[Charleston Pony]

you have a problem with people wearing the visitors colors on the 'Vard? I don't get that. I would think we would want to be known as a very welcoming place, so our visitors will want to make the trip to Dallas and enjoy the pre-game experience....just as long as SMU beats their team in Ford

the more visitors, the more tickets sold and butts in seats. That's a good thing

[Mestengo]

When UCF played at the citrus bowl they had attendance problems that closely mirror SMu's numbers. They attempted to force people in the stadium IT DOES NOT WORK!

[WildBillPony]

I do believe that winning all the time will turn attendance around, but that really means winning all the time. SMU was averaging about .500 in wins/losses when I was a student in the early to mid 70's, and the Cotton Bowl crowds were generally sparse.

[Mestengo]

IMO SMU game day inside ford is like a very nice funeral.

I try to help

[Charleston Pony]

I do believe that winning all the time will turn attendance around, but that really means winning all the time. SMU was averaging about .500 in wins/losses when I was a student in the early to mid 70's, and the Cotton Bowl crowds were generally sparse.

so all we have to do is go undefeated...for how many years?

[Dutch]

Go UT!

[Dutch]

i'm just guessing here, but i have a feeling that no one who pays for a boulevard spot is on here calling for it to be shut down 30 minutes before kickoff.

[SMU_Alumni11]

Ok well clearly letting everyone come to the vard doesnt work either. I mean shooting down ideas that havent been tried yet is not the smartest option. I mean when we to TCU they had alot of gates up to try to deter people going in. I will retract not lettting the opposing team in, but seriously wearing LSU at SMU? I mean c'mon man. Serving beer wont change anything, if it were that simple you would see the daily campus writing about it. You just need to stop giving the benefits (Vard) away before the costs (game). Yes I dont like freeloaders that arent from this school or the opposing team come in and eat. I mean thats why I like the law school tent because they never have food shortages. I hate having to fight my way to get food at the business school, because I remember one time 30 minutes into the vard, and they ran out of food. I mean if you are on scholarship not too big of a deal, but if you are paying all the fees to here which probably cover food; you dont want it to go to people you have no reason to be there.