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It took Ron Meyer 5 years to just get us to the Holiday Bowl, and that was with some maybe cheating Probably not anything really out of the ordinary back then

PlanoStang wrote:It took Ron Meyer 5 years to just get us to the Holiday Bowl, and that was with some maybe cheating Probably not anything really out of the ordinary back then

It did take him 5 years to get to a bowl. But in his fourth year he grew attendance from 29k to 52k (1979) largely due to his salesmanship. SMU went 5-6 that year.

Comet wrote:Honestly I can't see us competing against A&M not with this offense and these safeties. SFA has how many yards against us?

Jay Scott had 8 tackles, a fumble recover, an interception and 2 passes broken up. Ryan Smith had two interceptions and 6 tackles. Were they really liabilities tonight? Didn't look like it to me.

Lefty wrote:

Comet wrote:Honestly I can't see us competing against A&M not with this offense and these safeties. SFA has how many yards against us?

Jay Scott had 8 tackles, a fumble recover, an interception and 2 passes broken up. Ryan Smith had two interceptions and 6 tackles. Were they really liabilities tonight? Didn't look like it to me.

Allowed an FCS team to put nearly 400 yards in the air on us. A&M looked scary good in the first half of their game this week. And let's not forget what Baylor did to us. I'll be impressed when these players have lights-out stats against real teams.

From this game we should be thinking nothing to lose just play hard till the end. The thing to win is get an early lead, take every opportunity given to you and just pray it stays a good game... Their QB looked like a one man offense....ugh just hope they go into it overestimating us since they probably looked at our box score against Baylor

dbone wrote:

PlanoStang wrote:It took Ron Meyer 5 years to just get us to the Holiday Bowl, and that was with some maybe cheating Probably not anything really out of the ordinary back then

It did take him 5 years to get to a bowl. But in his fourth year he grew attendance from 29k to 52k (1979) largely due to his salesmanship. SMU went 5-6 that year.

Meyer and Russ Potts were good salesmen, but there were a lot of free ticket giveaways involved in getting those attendance figures up

Charleston Pony wrote:

dbone wrote:

PlanoStang wrote:It took Ron Meyer 5 years to just get us to the Holiday Bowl, and that was with some maybe cheating Probably not anything really out of the ordinary back then

It did take him 5 years to get to a bowl. But in his fourth year he grew attendance from 29k to 52k (1979) largely due to his salesmanship. SMU went 5-6 that year.

Meyer and Russ Potts were good salesmen, but there were a lot of free ticket giveaways involved in getting those attendance figures up

They should do that now what good is it to leave so many empty seats. Give all the 2nd tier on East part of the stadium cause damn that game had little people. Sadly so many I talk to at bus school, law school tents weren't going to the game even when I tried to tell them there's nothing better to do on a Saturday night....

Aren't you the one that wants to kick people off the Blvd for wanting free food? But now you want to give away tickets when those of us that are loyal fans have to pay up to $1,000 just to have the right to buy tickets. Give some away to some local youth groups for fan development, but other than that, get a product and market it properly to bring in a paying base.

Let's don't start the, "should SMU or should they not give away ticket argument" again,

Why not? I am sitting in the airport waiting for my plane with nothing better to do.

mrydel wrote:Why not? I am sitting in the airport waiting for my plane with nothing better to do.

Hey same here hate airports ugh. Yes that's bitter old me who hated that after 3 hr class gets out and it's only 30 minutes into the blvding and your told sorry no food and u see another teamer with nice delicious meal that i could get. Since they got the corral I'm over it. And I agree they shouldn't give out free tickets when people pay so much it just sucks nobody goes to games just tailgating...

We discuss this every year. I don't want them to give away free tickets. Many will then come to depend on the free tickets, once the freebies stop most of the recipients will stop coming as well.

lwjr wrote:We discuss this every year. I don't want them to give away free tickets. Many will then come to depend on the free tickets, once the freebies stop most of the recipients will stop coming as well.

the issue is whether to play in front of 10k empty seats or to make an effort to bring people out who would otherwise never consider attending a game. Give seats away for games you know will be sparsely attended. As the product improves, people will come back as paying customers, but you 1st have to get them on campus and let them experience gameday on The Blvd so they know what it's all about. Some non-SMU folks mght even come back and bring a friend. The more people in the seats, the more opportunities to sell food and beverages, SMU apparel, etc...

or, we can continue as we have and play our games in front of our exclusive little club of 10k alumni and family/friends of players

CP, I understand your point. I am sure you are aware Russ Potts and Brad Thomas did the same thing in the late 70's with Mustang Mania. They put a lot of people in the Cotton Bowl. When the Pony Express was in full gear in the early 80's the only time SMU could get more than 30K in Texas Stadium was when one of the state schools came to town. This was a top five program in the country and they had a hard time drawing crowds.
I hope with this new marketing campaign SMU will generate interest in Dallas and that will bring more people to the game. I also believeOne of the things SMU needs to do is promote thier final spring game/scrimmage as a fanfest like most of the schools do these days.
While the free tickets would probably have some immediate impact, long term I believe it will have very little.

Yeah I think the real point is that they built THE WINNIEST FOOTBALL PROGRAM in the Country several years AFTER they began to fill the stadium. Empty seats build no momentum. Mustang Mania began in 1977-SMU didn't win until several years later but recruiting responded to the excitement created by Mustang Mania. We don't get Eric Dickerson/James et al without addressing attendance.