DC SO BE

[AusTxPony]

Yes, "02 we are living in different worlds with different levels of entertainment expectations. My sister and her husband (fervent UT FANS) didn't once say how boring their games last year were (but many half=hearted fans would disagree). So let's just say we agree to disagree about the excitement of attending games at Ford. But where are your ideas of how to help our attendance problem?

[San Antonio Mustang]

I think one of the things that keeps our fans from coming to the game is the unpredictable nature of our teams in recent years. They may play a great competitive game as they did against TCU last year and then not even show up against a team they should dominate. This frustrates me more than anything else. When it is a 10 hour drive round trip and $200 extra for hotel and food and giving up an entire weekend - you want to at least be proud of the performance. Wining is great - losing is horrible, but embarrassed is unbearable. Now, my situation is different from people who live in Dallas, but only in degree.

[PonyKai]

Yes, "02 we are living in different worlds with different levels of entertainment expectations. My sister and her husband (fervent UT FANS) didn't once say how boring their games last year were (but many half=hearted fans would disagree). So let's just say we agree to disagree about the excitement of attending games at Ford. But where are your ideas of how to help our attendance problem?

I will respectfully avoid throwing around more attendance ideas, because it's been so incredibly beaten into the ground here, I wouldn't have anything new to offer, and I wouldn't have any silver bullets, because if there were, someone would have done it anyways. So, I'll keep it confined to the entertainment aspect of it, because I think it's important.

UT isn't SMU, obviously. SMU has never, and will never, unless it buys NTSU, fill its stadium with alumni, and at this stage, likely no casual fan picked up will tolerate a poor entertainment product when he has so many other options. It's going to come with selling the product and the experience to the greater Dallas area. You accomplish this by winning football games against relevant, regional opponents that SMU has historical ties to or nationally relevant programs to generate interest. Then, you must deliver an entertaining product on the field in order to encourage your casual Dallasite to attend, and then entice them to come back. It's a simple cost benefit analysis; people aren't going to attend if it isn't an entertainment product worth their time and money, no matter how low your prices are.

About 99.9% of the known world will not attend, and won't return to SMU games without the entertainment factor. It's also pointless to compare the issue with other "fervent" fans because they aren't the issue. We simply have so incredibly few that it's a total non-starter.

You attract through entertaining football that scores more points than the opponent that's a regional, traditional rival and/or a nationally relevant program. You retain with reasonable ticket prices, improved atmosphere, amenities and enticements to those that have also attended. You expand through other means.

This isn't an anti-June rant, so inquisitors, take it easy. I've had the opportunity to attend several June-era Hawai'i games with Timmy Chang at QB- they were genuinely, truly exciting and very entertaining products based on the teams' prolific offensive abilities. They were the kind of games that attracted the casual sports fan; yes, being the state University there was the added element of community support and a team to rally around, but June's teams were playing really exciting ball. He has not been able to replicate that style or level of excitement at SMU yet; our games are poor entertainment products. That isn't an isolated opinion. Outside of our happy little bubble of a mix of fanaticism and masochism, many people, and I've heard this personally many times, simply don't enjoy watching the actual football games because it isn't entertaining. This is a serious issue, and ticket gimmicks, marketing, berating students, alumni, and Greeks isn't going to fix it. Although, our alumni base, especially the 25-40 age bracket truly do suck on the whole in terms of support, so, please, feel free to take it and run; they need a swift kick in the rear. Tulane last year is an excellent example. We won by 3 TDs (that's pretty darn great!) and we scored over 40 points (again, pretty darn great!), and still, the game was bloody boring.

This is quickly morphing into an attendance debate, which has been absolutely beaten to death and back on here, so to circle all the way back: even though we have elevated the program considerably, and are now winning (on the whole) more games than we are losing, a good deal of the games we have played (some won/some lost) are pretty bad entertainment products, and it's something to consider. Games like @ ECU 2010, and @ TCU are excellent examples of what we can, and should be shooting for. Those were exciting, entertaining games which would sell the program as an entertainment value. Games like @ UCF 2010, Tulane 2011, Rice 211, Army 2010, TAMU 2011 are examples which the entertainment factor was non existent.

[Big Al]

SMU's problem is two fold...one a winner needs to be put on the field. Two, intense rivalries with named schools will excite the fan base, both locally and with those opposing teams whose fan base will travel. These two combined will put butts in the seats. Unfortuantely, SMU lacks both.

I'm a product of the Mustang Mania period where we had all of the above. Seeing Texas Stadium hold 60,000 against Arkanasas supporting the Ponies was a sight to behold. Sure Russ Potts probably gave away 15k seats, but still the atmosphere was something. A winning product was on the field and the fan base supported it. At home, every student on campus either bussed or drove to the games. On the road, SMU fans accounted for about 7-12,000 seats or maybe more depending on who we were playing. Donations to SMU soared, i was proud to be a Mustang or Horseshoe member. I for one am not satisfied with mediocre play against the UAB's or East Carolina and a 5,6 or hopefully 7 win season against lackluster opponents. Those schools do not have the fan base and will not travel . Also, SMU can move from C-Usa to the Big East, but it won't bring in the named rivalries of which the fan base can be excited. And, cost of travel will prevent a lot of SMU fans to attend these games, unlike driving to Lubbock or College Station.

Unfortuantely, SMU is in no mans land and it will be difficult to reach the next plateau. Maybe I am living in the past, but I sure long for the "old days".

[AusTxPony]

You're both right on one score, we must put a winner on the field to secure more real FOOTBALL fans. My point was that even UT plays some pretty boring football at times as do we. The NAVY game was the worst. But I believed this thread was started about attendance. Where IS another Russ Potts? I was trying to encourage us to go after the casual fan as well. I have done that with some friends in Dallas who did not go to SMU and they are now attending games with their grandkids on occasion and care nothing of the nuances that you discuss, just want a safe, good family experience. That's where I'm coming from.

[SMUer]

Your quest is virtuous but any fan (or bandwagon fan for that matter) from the B12 schools would walk into Ford and laugh at what he or she sees. We love it because we've already bought-in.

[SMUer]

One of the problems is that our game presentation is so terribly bad, we are totally reliant on what's happening on the field to keep excitement. SMU needs to up it game with better A/V and make the game atmosphere exciting, even if the game is not.

[PonyKai]

It's an awful catch-22...our fans need exciting game play to generate a better atmosphere...our team needs a better game atmosphere and home-field advantage to generate more exciting play. Those are generalizations, and in theory, both sides should be able to accomplish what they need to without support from the other. But, this is the real world, and our in-stadium game atmosphere is terrible, and our play, a good portion of the time, mirrors that. Still have a long ways to go.

Ultimately, all three areas can, and need to do a better job. June needs to deliver that exciting football he's been promising will bring fans around since he got here. The fans need to grow a pair, liquor up, make it to the game early, and actually generate an in-game atmosphere. The Department needs to do plenty of things to help facilitate the other two.

[Charleston Pony]

one of the things that makes the game day experience "boring" is 16,000 empty seats at Ford. Russ Potts turned 6,000 into 60,000 to watch SMU play Rice! We need to market and give away seats to those games we know will not be well attended. Make attending SMU football games at least "appear" the thing to do. Provided the on field product continues to improve, eventually ticket revenue should follow

We all recognize the challenge SMU has is getting people curious enough to check us out. That means make it cheap/free rather than just accept the fact SMU football teams will have to continue playing to a half empty stadium. Get those marketing classes to work on this project. How to do this on a limited budget? And think about getting the next Russ Potts on board.

[PK]

One of the problems is that our game presentation is so terribly bad, we are totally reliant on what's happening on the field to keep excitement. SMU needs to up it game with better A/V and make the game atmosphere exciting, even if the game is not.

I'm not sure what you are referring to when you say make the game atmosphere exciting, even if the game isn't or how you would accomplish that. When I watch other college games on TV, I don't see anything going on different from what we have going on except they have tons more people at their games making a lot more noise. If you are talking about Pro style gimmicks, forget it. One of the reasons I prefer college ball over pro ball is that the college game is more "real" without the gimmicky fake excitement. Besides, we have tried that and it was a complete bust. If you have noticed, when Ford is full and there are lots of fans present yelling for both teams, the atmosphere at Ford has been great.

[SMUer]

Go to any other area college game and you can see we can do much much better.