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Judging by TV I honestly don't think the place was 1/3 full...no way. So that means less than 11K. I would guess 7,500...when they interviewed Jones right after the game, there were less than 100 people in the stand behind him on the home side while the team was still on the field. Feel for you guys.

SMU appeals to the upper 10% demographic and has to win consistently and be ranked to appeal more broadly and be a "hot ticket." TCU can claim to be Ft Worth's team, even though the DALLAS Cowboys play in Arlington, which should have the same impact on both Dallas and Ft Worth fans. UH appeals to a broader demographic but much less so to the upper quartile. When UH was winning, it pulled in a lot of casual bandwagon fans. SMU should look to schools like Georgia Tech, Vandy, Miami and to a lesser degree Stanford for success metrics. It's tough being a small to mid-sized, premier university in an urban area. SMU has the resources to keep it interesting.

WildBillPony wrote:UofH brought a decent turnout; the west side of Ford was populated OK, could have made the 16k. How about the club up on level 3? Does that count in the figures?

Club and suites were packed

ReedFrawg wrote:Judging by TV I honestly don't think the place was 1/3 full...no way. So that means less than 11K. I would guess 7,500...when they interviewed Jones right after the game, there were less than 100 people in the stand behind him on the home side while the team was still on the field. Feel for you guys.

Well, I was one of those hundred. Stayed until the band was almost finished for the night...just soaking in the win!

PK wrote:

ReedFrawg wrote:Judging by TV I honestly don't think the place was 1/3 full...no way. So that means less than 11K. I would guess 7,500...when they interviewed Jones right after the game, there were less than 100 people in the stand behind him on the home side while the team was still on the field. Feel for you guys.

Well, I was one of those hundred. Stayed until the band was almost finished for the night...just soaking in the win!

I bet! Don't blame you...long time coming against UH.

Weeknight home games are supposed to be louder and rowdier in college football as a rule. 40,000 living alumni in DFW per SMU's website. Should be able to fill the stadium for a game like this.

The Tulane loss certainly sucked the life out of a lot of us, but that's not all of the story. I've been a solid supporter over the last dozen years since getting my MBA from SMU, but even I couldn't make it last night because of work commitments.

Until we start winning regularly, and against decent competition, then we won't be a hot ticket in this city. Plain and simple. I couldn't even GIVE away my season tickets to last night's game, and both my wife and I tried. Our fan base, hell, even our somewhat interested sports fan base isn't very broad because our product is inconsistent.

If we start winning at least every other game in the Iron Skillet match, occasionally beat (or at least scare the very loving crap) out of the A&Ms of the world when we play them, and play up in big TV games like we did last night, we seriously cannot expect our stadium to average more than 25k+. Full stop.

the crowd during the second quarter was not embarrassing. The problem is all the coming late and leaving early. With all of the TV timeouts, passing, turnovers and scores, the game was brutally long which doesn't help. I don't know if there is a solution, but i do know that no one wants to spend 4+ hours at a game. I also continue to think that having all of the invisible, silent people up in the luxury suites has a real impact on the appearance and atmosphere. they might as well be home watching on tv and we have alot of seats/space up there.

A week day game at a location that is Hades to get to during afternoon rush drive in a major metropolitan area and a crummy loss less than a week ago contributed. Most folks left during various points in the 2nd half. And after an over 4 hour game with the outcome determined with about 5:30 left in the game also contributed to the low number of folks after the game.

The suites and club level were packed; however, as a testament to the nonchalant attitude of THOSE "fans", the TVs in the suites were playing the Cards-Giants game. Ridiculous.

Hoop Fan wrote:the crowd during the second quarter was not embarrassing. The problem is all the coming late and leaving early. With all of the TV timeouts, passing, turnovers and scores, the game was brutally long which doesn't help. I don't know if there is a solution, but i do know that no one wants to spend 4+ hours at a game. I also continue to think that having all of the invisible, silent people up in the luxury suites has a real impact on the appearance and atmosphere. they might as well be home watching on tv and we have alot of seats/space up there.

right on.

Treadway21 wrote:

Hoop Fan wrote:the crowd during the second quarter was not embarrassing. The problem is all the coming late and leaving early. With all of the TV timeouts, passing, turnovers and scores, the game was brutally long which doesn't help. I don't know if there is a solution, but i do know that no one wants to spend 4+ hours at a game. I also continue to think that having all of the invisible, silent people up in the luxury suites has a real impact on the appearance and atmosphere. they might as well be home watching on tv and we have alot of seats/space up there.

right on.

I know the length and day of the week was an issue for me. As much as I wanted to stay til the very end of what was a fun game to watch, I had to get my kid home as she has school today. I don't like leaving games early, but it seems like Fox has an unusually high number of commercial breaks (even makes watching on TV hard) which makes things longer than they need to be.

On a slightly related note, our game presentation just seemed off last night (even more than usual). Team intro at the beginning was blown, and we should not be playing music on the loudspeaker over our own band! Hoping it was just a fluke, but they need to tighten it up.

The point about the poor Tulane showing dampening enthusiasm is well taken. Hard for folks to get excited about driving out to see a potential beatdown.

The point about SMU fans being casual is so true, so true. Our fans have always been pretty casual, a little too sophisticated to jump up and down and scream and wave banners in large numbers. Many SMU fans find it gauche to wear too overtly Mustang fan gear. Maybe a small Mustang logo on the chest of the tennis shirt, but -- my God -- not a baseball cap or a sweatshirt emblazoned with that stuff. Subtle, tasteful, that's our style.

When my father was in the athletic department back in the early 1970s, they agonized over the 13,000 fans rattling around in the Cotton Bowl like a handful of BBs in a tin pot. We have not made much progress since those days, I'm afraid.

texasmustang10 wrote:Weeknight home games are supposed to be louder and rowdier in college football as a rule. 40,000 living alumni in DFW per SMU's website. Should be able to fill the stadium for a game like this.

Does 3 out of 4 all possible alumni making this game really sound realistic to you?!? I would venture the upper limit we could possibly get is 40%, and we'd have to be killin' it for a decade like TCU has.

PonyPlayer4 wrote:Announced attendance. I pray for a consistently full Ford one day.

Maybe 50-60 percent of that at its peak, the freezing cold post-Thanksgiving finale against Rice last year had a better atmosphere.