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This thread is like reshuffling the chairs on the Titanic. In 10 years we will not be in the same division as the teams playing for a national championship. We will be placed in some mutant league between the Top5 and the FCS.

Year 1-5: Hire the best recruiter ever
if he cannot win
Year 6-10: Hire a coach that can use that talent.

SoCal_Pony wrote:Very small thinking on your part.

You're probably right. So I can level set here and go back to basics? Do you think a small alumni base in Dallas is a problem ?

ponyboy wrote:

SoCal_Pony wrote:Very small thinking on your part.

You're probably right. So I can level set here and go back to basics? Do you think a small alumni base in Dallas is a problem ?

I'm pretty sure TCU's local alumni base is not that much bigger in the DFW area than SMU's. Amon Carter Stadium on Saturdays is not filled to capacity by TCU alums alone. They have managed to make TCU Ft. Worth's college team. SMU has not been able to do that with Dallas...yet.

So it's not a problem, then. Just winning at the level of TCU's --and getting to a power conference --will solve the problem? The seems reasonable.

ponyboy wrote:

SoCal_Pony wrote:Very small thinking on your part.

You're probably right. So I can level set here and go back to basics? Do you think a small alumni base in Dallas is a problem ?

Sorry if I came across as an [deleted] (I'm sure I did).

SMU is currently #81 by Forbes. I want us to surpass UT. I want us Forbes Top 50. I want us internationally recognized like Rice and UT. After we accomplish those goals, then let's see how popular we are among the best and brightest in the Metroplex and work from there.

Btw, I was in NYC not that long ago pitching an equity raise to a highly regarded investment banking firm. They quizzed me on my own background, which fortunately I passed. When I asked them which schools from Texas were 'bio worthy', their response was quick and succinct,'Rice, UT, SMU'.

Nah, I didn't take it personally. That's very cool

How do SMU fans live in such self denial. TCU in 1998 at 5-5 with no winning tradition brought twice as many fans to the Cotton Bowl to play SMU than SMU will take the Amon Carter Saturday after 4 straight bowl games -and we couldn't even sell 1,200 of our alottment. Its not so much the size its the fact we can't even sell our alottment to our biggest rivalry game 45 minuites away

Stallion wrote:How do SMU fans live in such self denial. TCU in 1998 at 5-5 with no winning tradition brought twice as many fans to the Cotton Bowl to play SMU than SMU will take the Amon Carter Saturday after 4 straight bowl games -and we couldn't even sell 1,200 of our alottment. Its not so much the size its the fact we can't even sell our alottment to our biggest rivalry game 45 minuites away

Stallion- you've pointed out hundreds of times that we have an apathetic fan base. Do you have any ideas on how to solve the problem?

I'll answer for him. See Russ Potts

ponyboy wrote:I'll answer for him. See Russ Potts

even Mustang Mania would have failed if there weren't signs of year over year improvement in the product on the field. There's no question we need butts in seats and a more energetic Ford Stadium to help lure recruits, so any effort to lure fans with promos and giveaways has to be coupled with an all-out blitz to bring in more talent and get some momentum rolling

I wasn't exactly lucid in the early 80s- but was Mustang Mania really that successful? I mean we had a top-ranked team and still struggled to draw big crowds unless we played an opponent that traveled well like Texas, Arkansas, A&M, right?

that wasn't Mustang Mania which ended in 1982. Mustang Mania was from 1978-1981 and PRECEDED our football success. Bob Hitch ended Mustang Mania. Go back and look at the crowds in that period for a bad-to mediocre-to good team. It was common to have 45,000-60,000 for games that previously drew 20,000. Rice was 6,000 prior to MM and we have 60,000 the next time we played in Dallas. It was basis of our later recruiting success. An integral part of the strategy

gotcha. Here's the thing- if we gave away 10,000 tickets in the DFW area for every conference game this season, how many people would actually come? I don't think the price of admission is keeping people out of Ford Stadium today

The present size of Ford would definitely change the strategy. But we just didn't give away tickets. We had a large marketing budget and co-opted with local corporations like Ford etc to provide free advertising, TV commercials, weekly TV show (at great time after Sunday Nite sports),TV bumper stickers, posters, billboards. We were marketing Dallas much like a professional sports franchise would. It seemed like a different local corporation was the sponsor of 1 game. 7/11 was the sponsor of the Jerry Lewis Bowl-which coincided with both the goals of the Marathon and SMU The corporations would usually sell both their product and the SMU game in the same commercial. "Test drive a new Ford mustang and get 2 free Tickers to the SMU/Baylor game this Saturday". We got Dallas' attention-its the only time we have ever reached the greater Dallas sports fan in the last 50 years