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A national TV home game should be a great showcase for the University. It's chance for SMU to show that it's a good place to come to school. It's a chance for SMU to show to Dallas that it is DALLAS' college football team.

Imagine my shock and disappointment that, after a great win for the program, I see a flyer attached to my vehicle that the Boulevard will not open until 3:30 on the next home date. How unfortunate.

Mr. Orsini wants our program to act like a Champion. Flyers on windshields are not championship actions. Shutting down the lynchpin to your gameday experience without much notice is not a championship action. Screwing the people that pay your bills are not championship actions.

I fully understand that 10/31 is a school day and the university is in business to educate students. But I dare say the Ole Miss wouldn't shut down the Grove or Duke wouldn't shut down Kryzewski-ville because the game is on a school day.

A lot of people scheduled vacation time weeks ago. If SMU was going to shut down the boulevard, they should have announced it at the beginning of the season or with a letter in my season ticket package....not with a chicken-s flyer on my car when I'm in their game.

I'm a season ticket holder in two sports, a donor to the Mustang Club, the Mustang Band, the Engineering school, and the general University fund. My name's not Ford or Dedman, but I give what can. I've missed one home game since 1991.

Actions like these say to me that SMU does not really want my support any more.

Why should I bother? Some tell me why I should....

regis wrote:Why should I bother? Some tell me why I should....

Maybe you shouldn't, if that will make you feel better.

you can join the rest of SMU's fair weather fans who care more about making an "appearance" on the Blvd than watching SMU compete on the gridiron

If only 14,000 showed up for Marshall, I don't expect 10,000 to come out for UAB

STUDENTS NEED TO BE THERE!

I think UAB will be surprisingly well attended for at least teh first half...national television draws a crowd.

I'm not sure I understand the uproar. The Blvd. usually opens four hours before the game. This one opens three hours before. It's one hour! What's the big deal? And, BTW, the headline of this thread is totally misleading. I thought maybe you had some inside info that they really were shutting it down.

That is a big rant over nothing.

Bigger question is why you schedule a game when no families will attend.

I will sacrifice a weekend game for national attention anytime, as long as we win. ESPN needs to get plenty of shots of the "talent" on the BLVD to help us with our recruiting. I think the sororities should do their part and put together a mock pig run....Those were the days.

Bigger question is why you schedule a game when no families will attend.

Uh - National Television ESPN.

gostangs wrote:That is a big rant over nothing.

Bigger question is why you schedule a game when no families will attend.

My family, including my 3 year old (who loves SMU and walks around singing Peruna) will be there. I think the crowd will be solid, especially for the first half or so. Unfortunately, the game may follow the pattern of a Frisco Roughriders baseball game with a lot of the family crowd filing out early due to work/school the next day.

me@smu wrote:I think UAB will be surprisingly well attended for at least teh first half...national television draws a crowd.

Doubtful. I remember going to a national tv game on a weeknight a few years at the Cotton Bowl, against TCU as I recall, where the blimp hovered low in front of the stadium so it could show the Cotton Bowl facade and would not have to show the non-existent "crowd".

This game is the perfect opportunity for SMU to market itself to the Dallas market. Sell the game as the biggest Halloween party in the Metroplex. Put together a Haunted House. I am sure that would be easy enough to do. Offer great prizes to the best costumes, offer "safe trick or treating" to the families, and most importantly do not charge more than $1 for seats in the end zone and visitors side. Sell the darn thing in the papers, on the highways, and get your story out to the local media as well. Get the Turner and Orsini out there talk this up on the radio, in the paper, and on TV. Give away a new Red and Blue Ford Mustang. Do something! Anything! I just don't want to see another half filled stadium.

jtstang wrote:

me@smu wrote:I think UAB will be surprisingly well attended for at least teh first half...national television draws a crowd.

Doubtful. I remember going to a national tv game on a weeknight a few years at the Cotton Bowl, against TCU as I recall, where the blimp hovered low in front of the stadium so it could show the Cotton Bowl facade and would not have to show the non-existent "crowd".

If we took a full house at Ford to the Cotton Bowl it would still look empty (and decrepit, but that's another story). I think we'll draw 20-23k for the game, with around 12-14k in the stands by the end of the game win or lose.

I think there will be about 10k in Ford for Halloween.

All SMU fans will be needed to help the attendence for this game. Can SMU depend on your proactive help jtstang?