Attendance if SMU went 12-0?? I think we'd only see 9k extra

[ponyinNC]

Tulane is probably our most similar conference mate - a small private university in a large city that has professional sports teams with very passionate fanbases and has a lot of competition for entertainment dollars. That's exactly the situation SMU now finds itself in.

I went back to see what Tulane avg. attendance was in their glory year of 1998 - a 12-0 season with Tommy Bowden at Coach, future NFL'er Shuan King at QB and a #7 finish in Coaches Poll / AP. That year, Tulane averaged 27,500 fans at home games. They saw increased attendance for rivalry games against USM and La Tech. Other home games that year included UH, SW Louisiana, Louisville and Navy.

We are averaging 18,500 fans at home games this year, obviously helped/skewed by the TTU game attendance of 35k. With 1 more home game left against UCF, I think our numbers are pretty stable at 18,500 for the year.

So, if we take the numbers from Tulane and apply to SMU, even with an undefeated season, I only see about a 9k increase in attendance with a similar schedule and fan base. Could we pick up more T-shirt fans than Tulane did in 1998? Sure, that is possible. Dallas population is 1.2M while New Orleans sits at 375k, so the potential for more fans is there.

Would we have had bigger wins than that Tulane team? Sure - we would've beaten Tech, TAMU and TCU as well as #17 UCF. Would our final poll number be much different than Tulane's was in 1998? Probably not, as #7 is about as high as I think we'd get.

I think this is an interesting case study...but then again, I'm an attorney and not a statistician, so my logic may be flawed. I'd like to hear your opinions on the subject, whether you agree or disagree. I guess my entire point is that I see our attendance cap at about 29-30k, even in an undefeated year.

[SMUer]

Agreed. And we'd have to give away 10K just to make up the other 5K ...why don't we have seating sections al la the Miller Lite Party Deck. A section with no assigned seats that we can over-sell or over-donate...then we can deal with the over-flow as needed...

[sbsmith]

Sounds about right, even with a 4-0 start (including wins over 3 Texas P5 teams and a national ranking) there just isn't any sellout potential with our lousy conference slate. It would take several seasons of 12-0 to build up a brand that could legitimately compete for 32K a week.

[SMU2007]

it's almost like no one cares about 2nd tier football.

[East Coast Mustang]

I disagree- a lot of Tulane's student body comes from the Northeast, which traditionally doesn't really care about college football. If we were 9-0, 10-0, 11-0 and in the hunt for a BCS Bowl I think SMU alums and friends and students would come out of the woodwork. Everybody wants to get on board with a winner

[blackoutpony]

I think NC is about right. If it was just one flash in the pan season, I don't know if we even get to that 30K number. Sustained prolonged 10 win seasons with definitely do more I think than one 12-0 year and then going back to 6-6. I mean look at what happened after we beat TCU in 2011, there was no one at the next game. I would prefer the long term success that might actually bread a winners mentality as well as some proud and actual affection for our team from the majority of the student body.

It's an interesting question though.

[Pony ^]

If we were ranked 5th in the country and Bama was coming in, we still wouldn't sell out ford. If we did it would be 70% bama fans

[PonyKai]

Maybe we should actually get to 12-0 so we can find out.

[Stallion]

in 1984 a nationally ranked 9-2 SMU played a mediocre Arkansas team on a Saturday nite in the last game of the year for the SWC Co-Championship. We got about 28,000 for the game including a bunch of the usual Arkansas fans. We might get a little bit more due to the Boulevard and on campus facility-but SMU fans don't come out the woodwork ever

http://www.smumustangs.com/sports/m-foo ... ts-38.html

[FriscoChuck]

I disagree- a lot of Tulane's student body comes from the Northeast, which traditionally doesn't really care about college football. If we were 9-0, 10-0, 11-0 and in the hunt for a BCS Bowl I think SMU alums and friends and students would come out of the woodwork. Everybody wants to get on board with a winner

Agree. Dallas likes a winner. Some marketing would also help. Right now our marketing sucks. We can't even get people from Boulevard into stadium. Pitiful!

[East Coast Mustang]

in 1984 a nationally ranked 9-2 SMU played a mediocre Arkansas team on a Saturday nite in the last game of the year for the SWC Co-Championship. We got about 28,000 for the game including a bunch of the usual Arkansas fans. We might get a little bit more due to the Boulevard and on campus facility-but SMU fans don't come out the woodwork ever

http://www.smumustangs.com/sports/m-foo ... ts-38.html

Ford was packed for the Armed Forces Bowl- I realize Army traveled well and there were corporate tickets bought, but people showed up nonetheless- 36K, I believe.

[Stallion]

there were about 21-22,000 SMU fans at that game at our home stadium. WOW!!!

[East Coast Mustang]

there were about 21-22,000 SMU fans at that game at our home stadium. WOW!!!

Like I asked before, do you have any suggestions/ideas for getting more SMU fans into Ford on Saturdays? You [deleted] and moan about attendance all the time, and no one disagrees that it's not where it should be, but it's easy to complain. Do you have any ideas for alleviating the problem? You fancy yourself as the smartest person here, let's hear them.

[PonyKai]

there were about 21-22,000 SMU fans at that game at our home stadium. WOW!!!

Like I asked before, do you have any suggestions/ideas for getting more SMU fans into Ford on Saturdays? You [deleted] and moan about attendance all the time, and no one disagrees that it's not where it should be, but it's easy to complain. Do you have any ideas for alleviating the problem? You fancy yourself as the smartest person here, let's hear them.

Give away: prada bags, muscle milk, liquor, money, cocaine, and 25% off coupons for plastic surgery. Everybody in Dallas will be there.

[Stallion]

yeah I've had no ideas on that subject EVER.

1. You need a Mustang Mania style promotion campaign. You are so clueless you are talking about what great attendance we had against SFA a few years ago and don't realize that was an Operation Sellout promotion. I've brought up Mustang Mania style promotion campaign only about a hundred times because I was actually there when it happened and participated in some of it while working for the SID office

2. Schedule teams SMU fans care about and hire a Coach to get it done. SMU flushed about 20,000 down the drain by cancelling Baylor game this year.