PACK 32: Propose new campaign to increase attendance

[feelthehorsepower]

I propose that us alumni come up with a campaign for next season to pack our stadium and build excitement for football. I think Moody will be a good way to start practicing new traditions and build excitement in our athletics.

We could start meeting up as alumni first and then go to the Athletic department and make it an official SMU marketing campaign. Something similar to Mustang Mania which increased our average attendance from 25k to 52k from one season to the next (1977-1978)

Here's an excerpt from wiki about mustang mania:

"With sagging attendance in recent years, including a dismal 6,918 against conference foe Rice, Southern Methodist athletic director Russ Potts orchestrated "Mustang Mania." Potts wanted to make SMU more visible in the Dallas area. Average attendance at SMU home games jumped from 25,644 in the previous year to 51,960 in the 1978 season. This was the highest average attendance had been at SMU home games since 1950"

---I would like to note that Mustang Mania was executed during a period where we had 3 or 4 wins per season...and we got the butts in seats, so don't tell me anything about "winning comes first"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_SMU_M ... 978_Season
Look at attendance in 1977 and 1978 and then look at the records... ------

This is possible and we can do it. We need to build excitement in our alumni and students. We need to get people to come to our stadium for all home games and get the locals in on it too. TCU did it in Fort Worth, and although the winning did help, so did their marketing efforts and reaching out to the city of Fort Worth.

Now the brainstorming begins:

We can call it Pack 32 (pack 32k in Ford...).
It would be awesome if we could do billboard with the Pack 32, and maybe shirts that say:

Front side
"1/32,000
#Pony Up!"

Back side"
"Operation: Pack 32"

We could put up signs across campus and HP, UP, Dallas that say:
"DEFEND THIS HOUSE!
#PonyUP"

Highland Park Billboard:
"Horse
Power"

University Park Billboard:
"PonyUP"

Dallas Billboard (I would put these in the City Limits):
"This is Mustang Nation"

[feelthehorsepower]

Cool video on Wisconsin's 83,000 strong campaign

http://row27.com/project/83000-strong

[redpony]

FTHP- love your enthusiasm and ideas. However, if jj is still here we will probably lose about half of the hard core fans which would make your idea even harder to implement and deploy. Besides, our AD could care less about a major marketing program. i.e. our marketing efforts last fball season.

[Pony ^]

Our program is much to small to fill our stadium. Face it, Ford will NEVER be full in the near future with all pony fans. We could be ranked and it still wouldn't matter.

[2ndandlong]

While i stopped reading pretty quickly, we already have a group that does this. That's where the beer/wine concept was initiated. There are a lot of other initiatives, but that's the one that got the most attention.

[35straight]

Turn in your ticket stubs at the end of each game. Draw for a brand new Mustang at the end of the year.


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[PonyKris89]

Love your enthusiasm FTHP.

But, these days, winning Does come first. We are a small school, small Alum base

and even if we win big, drawing new fans would have to come from the teenagers that are stoked to see a hot team. But guess what,
most of those kids parents have allegiance to other schools.

We have a DFW Metroplex of about 5-6 million, but almost all of them are loyal to their Alma Mater.

We have to get the Boulevard scene to venture into Ford. If our marketing dept can't figure this out, then God help us.
Implementing Plans like EastCoastMustang's north end zone cabana partio, where we make it a party atmosphere coupled with winning would help. Once we have our own fans in the stadium, then we can add the T Shirt fans by winning big, and playing exciting brand of football, and who knows, maybe some snazzy uniforms.

In the meantime, beat down all your friends and relatives to come to the games!

[Bergermeister]

Turn in your ticket stubs at the end of each game. Draw for a brand new Mustang at the end of the year.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Kinda like "calf tickets" sold at AA high school games in west Texas. That calf is there in the trailer at every game until they draw the name of the winner at halftime of the last home game.

Does Sewell have a Ford dealership somewhere?

[CenTXpony]

I like the enthusiasm and you don't get anywhere without trying.

[feelthehorsepower]

Love your enthusiasm FTHP.

But, these days, winning Does come first. We are a small school, small Alum base

and even if we win big, drawing new fans would have to come from the teenagers that are stoked to see a hot team. But guess what,
most of those kids parents have allegiance to other schools.

We have a DFW Metroplex of about 5-6 million, but almost all of them are loyal to their Alma Mater.

We have to get the Boulevard scene to venture into Ford. If our marketing dept can't figure this out, then God help us.
Implementing Plans like EastCoastMustang's north end zone cabana partio, where we make it a party atmosphere coupled with winning would help. Once we have our own fans in the stadium, then we can add the T Shirt fans by winning big, and playing exciting brand of football, and who knows, maybe some snazzy uniforms.

In the meantime, beat down all your friends and relatives to come to the games!

Our fan base is small right now, but we do have 110,000 living alumni. (for comparison, Texas A&M has 350,000.)
We have around 40,000 SMU alums living here in DFW. I have talked to many people around Dallas that went to other schools and they say that they would come to the football games if: a) we served booze (being solved next year) and b) SMU played well. (Some complained that they have been to games but parking sucks and other little things) but the point is that we can do it.

TCU has been doing it in Fort Worth. I have been to their home games and talk to some of the people and a lot of them are just Fort Worth locals that cheer on the Frogs because that's Fort Worth's team. I saw some season ticket holders that were wearing purple for some games and then when their school came to play, they wore orange, blue or green. Borrowed fans are common everywhere. TCU has a great relationship with a lot of businesses in Fort Worth, and it is evident in the support they receive from the city. They do "wear purple friday" in which they discount customers if they wear TCU gear or just purple. They have bars that have "frog margaritas" or "TCU purple drank" etc. We could do that here with all the businesses in the Uptown, Downtown, Addison, even the suburbs! Why can't we have drinks called "Stangarita" and "the Pony Express"?

What the SMU admin doesn't seem to realize is that it's about the relationship with the fans...to reach out and make them feel part of the community. When you manage to create that relationship with a new fan, that's the point when the merchandise, season tickets and TV viewership comes. It's not about selling tickets, it's about that relationship...and SMU does a horrible job in connecting to Dallas/FW area to our awesome school.

We could sit around and wait for TCU to take the entire city...or we can wake up (and I think having 500 people show up to a "free" game should serve as a veeeeryy big wake up call) and take the town! We could be Dallas' team, but we just don't act like it!

[coloradoStang]

I dont know if we will sell it out anytime soon. But I will say we need to make BIG time moves right now. With all the NCAA talks and the P5 and the top 65 teams and all that crap. We need to start pumping everything we have into the program or we or going to be left behind, very soon. Idk what that looks like but we need to make a big move soon.

This is probably very unpopular but hell we could even take some money from academics for a few years and just commit as much as we possibly can to athletics for a few years. With the understanding that when the big time tv revenue and other money start coming in a portion is given back to academics until the debt is repaid. It's an investment that overall leads to more money 20 years down the road.

[dr rc]

We have around 40,000 SMU alums living here in DFW. I have talked to many people around Dallas that went to other schools and they say that they would come to the football games if: a) we served booze (being solved next year) and b) SMU played well. (Some complained that they have been to games but parking sucks and other little things) but the point is that we can do it.

point A will now turn into "We would go to the game if the booze wasn't so overpriced."

TCU has been doing it in Fort Worth. I have been to their home games and talk to some of the people and a lot of them are just Fort Worth locals that cheer on the Frogs because that's Fort Worth's team. I saw some season ticket holders that were wearing purple for some games and then when their school came to play, they wore orange, blue or green. Borrowed fans are common everywhere. TCU has a great relationship with a lot of businesses in Fort Worth, and it is evident,

when they aren't playing Texas schools and winning their attendance hasn't been so hot. See their game against Kansas this year for example.

[sbsmith]

Cute ideas, of course without any real winning they'll last about a few games then die off due to disinterest.

[feelthehorsepower]

We have around 40,000 SMU alums living here in DFW. I have talked to many people around Dallas that went to other schools and they say that they would come to the football games if: a) we served booze (being solved next year) and b) SMU played well. (Some complained that they have been to games but parking sucks and other little things) but the point is that we can do it.

point A will now turn into "We would go to the game if the booze wasn't so overpriced."

TCU has been doing it in Fort Worth. I have been to their home games and talk to some of the people and a lot of them are just Fort Worth locals that cheer on the Frogs because that's Fort Worth's team. I saw some season ticket holders that were wearing purple for some games and then when their school came to play, they wore orange, blue or green. Borrowed fans are common everywhere. TCU has a great relationship with a lot of businesses in Fort Worth, and it is evident,

when they aren't playing Texas schools and winning their attendance hasn't been so hot. See their game against Kansas this year for example.

Not trying to defend TCU, but that game against Kansas got really hot and if you've been in a stadium at 100 degrees without shade you wouldn't stay up there. A lot of people left the game to go back to the tailgates, others moved to the concourse area in which they can still see the game fairly well, and others obviously left. They reported 42k people in the turnstiles before kickoff though...I would say after halftime they had around 20k people there...which is our average attendance on a nice day

[feelthehorsepower]

Cute ideas, of course without any real winning they'll last about a few games then die off due to disinterest.

True, which is why we should start moving in this direction and implement them as well as win. At least if we are trying to pack the house, JJ or any other coach won't have the "our crowds suck" excuse for why we lose...