PACK 32: Propose new campaign to increase attendance

[feelthehorsepower]

Good idea. It can be done. I would market it to true football fans. Who are they? they are the ones at the local high schools who are on their feet screaming when their team is on defense and quiet when their offense comes to the line of scrimmage but still standing. They come early and stay late and they are loud!! Why? Because they think they affect their teams outcome and they want to help any way they can! Anyone coming to the games and sitting on their hands will be asked to leave and their money refunded unless handicapped. Besides, where else can you go and scream and holler and release a lot of pent up energy and emotions than at a sporting event...or a roller coaster and at SMU you get both with the roller coaster ride of its football team. I played against SMU when Mustang Mania started and before and it was like a contagious disease. It spread fast and as the recruiting improved (I know, some alumni got out of hand) it was THE TEAM in TEXAS and so exciting.

Yep, there are a lot of people yearning for a local college football team. TCU is far for them to be going to the home games and SMU is right here at home, but not many people know about our program. They think the games are too expensive, don't know we are division I FBS..etc.

We can get these fans!

[CBpony]

Here's a strategy:

1. Win the opening game of the season.
2. Win the home opener of the season or at least be competitive/take some chances.

Kind of hard to rally enthusiasm when you consistently drop both of the games and the average margin of loss is greater than two scores.

June Jones has a defeatist attitude and this will fulfill itself with losses on the field/lack of enthusiasm and belief by the players. We need some underdog fight and he does not have the personality to rally that.

[coloradoStang]

FTHP, why don't you email your suggestions on attendance to Rick Hart instead of wearing everyone out on ponyfans about the subject.

In here a lot of people get to read it and maybe even SMU SID or Hart take a look at this.

Wait, I just got an idea! We should have a town hall meeting with athletic department, student body, alumni and community on how to move towards increasing attendance within SMU students, alums and community... (Before you shoot me, I don't know if this has been done before, which is why I suggest it!)

JFC, WE ARE ALREADY DOING THIS. That's where the alcohol initiative came from. Your ideas are stale.


I'm just curious, and a ignorant student about MC and boosters and all that stuff so apologizes for the ignorance and dont feel like you have to answer. But explain that for me please. So what the MC members or big boosters/mid level boosters meet with the big wigs in athletics kinda regularly and talk about ideas/suggestions about how to improve things? thats very cool if so. I guess Ive always just assumed the athletic department just takes in the money and uses it however they see fit and only listen if a big time guy gets in their ear about something.[/quote]

The Mustang Club has a board of about 16 directors that meets with Hart and all the different AADs on a monthly basis. The board then has subcommittees from time to time that will then explore various issues such as attendance.

Separately, there are other clubs. For example, basketball has a separate club for donors in excess of say $10k per year. You have a similar list of school attendees but it has brought in pro athletes and coaches. (The NBA trophy made an appearance a couple years back under Dougherty.) These guys are probably the big wigs that get in their ear (as you say).[/quote]

very cool thank you

[2ndandlong]

very cool thank you

NP. If you're ever looking to get involved, PM me. We are always looking for people to help with the Morgan Campaign.

[feelthehorsepower]

very cool thank you

NP. If you're ever looking to get involved, PM me. We are always looking for people to help with the Morgan Campaign.

What's the Morgan Campaign?

[Mountain Mustang]

Here's a strategy:

1. Win the opening game of the season.
2. Win the home opener of the season or at least be competitive/take some chances.

Interesting points. I think a good example is Fresno State. Their average attendance in 2012 was about 31,000, and they were 9-4 with a 7-1 conference record and bowl loss to us. Their in season non-conf games were Oregon (L), Colorado (W), Tulsa (L) and Weber State (W). One really tough game, 2 toss ups, and one easy win. This is probably what we should be looking at from a scheduling standpoint.

However this year, Fresno State only lost 1 game (SJSU at end of season) and saw attendance spike to almost 37,000 with sellouts in three of their last four games. Everyone's complaint about them was that their schedule was too easy. But you know what? They were in line for a BCS berth, and saw a 20% increase in average attendance. Their OOC schedule was Rutgers, Cal Poly (FCS) and Idaho with their Colorado game being canceled due to floods. They walked through this portion of their schedule and had momentum going into conference play both on record and attendance. Wouldn't that be nice? To me, I'd rather see a couple of seasons like this where we schedule easier teams OOC, get some momentum and then see how far that momentum can take us in a pretty weak conference. That's how we sneak into the BCS picture and start to become relevant nationally. Then we go forward and start with the 2012 Fresno model listed above. Why not?

[coloradoStang]

very cool thank you

NP. If you're ever looking to get involved, PM me. We are always looking for people to help with the Morgan Campaign.

I just googled it thank you. Not right now but I will probably shoot you a PM one of these days.

[feelthehorsepower]

Here's a strategy:

1. Win the opening game of the season.
2. Win the home opener of the season or at least be competitive/take some chances.

Interesting points. I think a good example is Fresno State. Their average attendance in 2012 was about 31,000, and they were 9-4 with a 7-1 conference record and bowl loss to us. Their in season non-conf games were Oregon (L), Colorado (W), Tulsa (L) and Weber State (W). One really tough game, 2 toss ups, and one easy win. This is probably what we should be looking at from a scheduling standpoint.

However this year, Fresno State only lost 1 game (SJSU at end of season) and saw attendance spike to almost 37,000 with sellouts in three of their last four games. Everyone's complaint about them was that their schedule was too easy. But you know what? They were in line for a BCS berth, and saw a 20% increase in average attendance. Their OOC schedule was Rutgers, Cal Poly (FCS) and Idaho with their Colorado game being canceled due to floods. They walked through this portion of their schedule and had momentum going into conference play both on record and attendance. Wouldn't that be nice? To me, I'd rather see a couple of seasons like this where we schedule easier teams OOC, get some momentum and then see how far that momentum can take us in a pretty weak conference. That's how we sneak into the BCS picture and start to become relevant nationally. Then we go forward and start with the 2012 Fresno model listed above. Why not?

I like it. In reality it has to go hand in hand. It has to be a full on effort from all sectors involved in order to make the biggest impact. The SMU admin, Students, Alumni, Team, all of us have to act in concert. We need to heavily market using new and proven methods as well as win/have an awesome product on the field. It is about building that relationship with the students and growing their pride for the school's teams. Basketball will be a very interesting experiment, and if we do real good and we manage to pack Moody every home game, we can bring that excitement to the Football field.

[2ndandlong]

very cool thank you

NP. If you're ever looking to get involved, PM me. We are always looking for people to help with the Morgan Campaign.

What's the Morgan Campaign?

It's the annual fundraising campaign for the Athletic Department. This represents the funds that are available to the department for all discretionary spending. Basically, the entire rest of the annual budget is earmarked.

[2ndandlong]

And how many times do I have to keep saying it? Your idea HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE. You continue to drone on and on like it's some brilliant idea that no one has ever thought of.

[feelthehorsepower]

And how many times do I have to keep saying it? Your idea HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE. You continue to drone on and on like it's some brilliant idea that no one has ever thought of.

So that's it then? There is no hope...do we just crawl up into a fetal position and let go? Panic?

[CBpony]

Seriously the only thing outside of winning is just to invite as many friends and family to the first couple games of the season as possible, butts in seats. May have to cough up some tickets out of your own pocket but if everyone brought +1 or +2 it'd make a difference. They don't even have to be fans but hopefully a good/excitable product on the field might entice them to come back but there in lies the problem the product must be exciting/above average. The Baylor game two years ago and the Texas Technical High game last year were plain embarrassing and I had brought 3 people to both games and felt bad about it afterwards. Kind of hard for me to convince them that next time will be better because as the program lays right now I know I'd be lying to myself.

[Stallion]

try to get them to go to a Montana St. game or SFA game and report back. They don't care about our schedule and beating up on teams they don't and NEVER will care about. Build your program and beat Texas Tech and Baylor and then they might be interested. that is the only way SMU builds its fan base. We aren't Fresno St or Kansas St or any other of the dis-similiar programs you might want to compare. SMU will only improve its attendance by beating schools that Dallas cares about. Hopefully some day you get to see what many of us know-because then we will at least have a strong team playing before the same 20,000

[mrydel]

Yep

[2ndandlong]

And how many times do I have to keep saying it? Your idea HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE. You continue to drone on and on like it's some brilliant idea that no one has ever thought of.

So that's it then? There is no hope...do we just crawl up into a fetal position and let go? Panic?

try unplugging your keyboard