FOOTBALL Guesses on attendance for UTSA blackout game?
- Thread starter Matt Dossett
- Start date
I was going to go to the Oakland game, but after the Miami beatdown, I owe it to the boys in Blue to be at Floyd. Plus can't miss the KB jersey retirement.
I know a diehard Oakland fan and alum who will have a difficult choice to make this Friday night. 😂😂😂
He lurks in here so I know he’ll see this.
He lurks in here so I know he’ll see this.
21,500 because the students show up big on a Friday night. No vawls (or other FBS games) to compete with.
Walnut Grove will be hoppin. Beers will be flowin. I'd love to be in the Garden, but our crew will have quite a few little skunks with us.
Everyone is picking the Roadrunners, so Im sure Stock is hammering the team with that to motivate them.
Im pumped. I've never had more random people come up and say something to me about my MT T-shirt than the last two days.
Walnut Grove will be hoppin. Beers will be flowin. I'd love to be in the Garden, but our crew will have quite a few little skunks with us.
Everyone is picking the Roadrunners, so Im sure Stock is hammering the team with that to motivate them.
Im pumped. I've never had more random people come up and say something to me about my MT T-shirt than the last two days.
I think a successful number would be a crowd of 20k. I know typing this out makes it sound like winning Friday is easy since UTSA is a good program and nothing is ever a cakewalk. Winning Friday would sway a lot of people and fans. Some of us held on for a long time before giving up. Some of you are beasts for being there and contributing to this day.
But giving up had a lot more to do with the administration and coaches rather than the performance of the team.
But giving up had a lot more to do with the administration and coaches rather than the performance of the team.
With it being a Friday GameDay, I foresee the actual attendance to be in the 15K to 18K range, maybe... Announced attendance will be in the 22K-25K range...
I do not like Friday Games but the NFL took over Thursday, that used to be a good option for Group of Five games. But for this I cannot miss, plus I think its the Kevin Byard Jersey Retirement game. Hoping for 24K, but the ticket sales have not even opened the Upper Deck yet so I am not all that optimistic for even squeaking by 20K.
This game is a prime example of why the capacity should be severely reduced. 15k in a 20k seat stadium creates a better game and tv environment than even 20k in the 31k seat we have now.
I think 23-25k is the perfect number for us. Enough for bigger games but still small enough to feel tight.
Nonsense. Symptom of the problem. Not the problem itself. If we weren’t mired in perpetual mediocrity this program would have grown and the fan base would have grown.
Evidence Exhibits:
1. Over a decade ago we were averaging over 20K.
2. All 10 of the highest attended games are at or well over this number.
There is plenty of examples and evidence to support a 30K stadium. The solution isn’t a smaller stadium. The solution is already fairly well defined.
Attendance has been declining for every program in the country over the last two decades (with the exception of a couple like UCF). Our fan base is not going to fill up a 30k stadium. Fun fact for you, we’ve only gone over 30k once (GT 30,502). We have absolutely no need for our current capacity (30,788). In fact we’ve only had over 25k nine times. I’d rather have a packed house that demands higher ticket prices than being able to celebrate “almost” selling out.
You can't take a macro view of trends nationally on attendance numbers and apply it to an individual situation with very specific circumstances. While attendance has been down slightly thanks to the increase in TV options and big screen TV's, that really has little to do with how both the program and the athletic department have failed to deliver a quality product and support the growth of the program, respectively. Let me be clear too. You could reduce it to 10K and you're still not going to create a premium on the ticket price because the product sucks or is at best mediocre with no pulse and energy behind it.
We actually have no idea what attendance would have been like if a) either the University supported a championship caliber program or b) if the coach would have achieved it onw his in spite of that not being the case. Just look what App St has done. They have no problem whatsoever with attendance. Quality football program and a great job by the administration building a fan base and community that supports the program. That's what I'm getting at. That's what I mean by addressing the symptom. You want to reduce the size of the stadium because we have failed. I want us to stop failing. See the difference?
We've never had sustained success. If we have sustained success and we don't start averaging in the high 20's with a sellout or near sellout out mixed in every year then I would concede the point. We've never experienced either. And I believe they are correlated. Actually, I know they are.
I will say I 100% agree on all that. My rationale in reducing the seating, which I will totally admit is a guess/hunch, is that even if we had multiple 10 win seasons, ranked every year, won 3 out of last 4 conf championships, I still think we wouldn't sell out.
I absolutely could be wrong. I have no evidence to support my guess. I just think there is too much to do in the area (as well as too many ugly orange fans) and we are too much of a dead weekend campus school to achieve that.
That being said, I absolutely hope that we become that one day as I think we are more than capable with the right people in place, from admin to coaching, of achieving sustained championship success, rankings, etc here. I would love for my guess to be full of crap.
No one will argue with that. The problem is, it's pretty much like yelling at a cloud now more than ever with the new extension.
We're at the point where it's more feasible and realistic to deconstruct part of the stadium than it is to fire a deadbeat coach.
We have screwed this up so much that you would have a hard time doing to the football program and thus attendance if you tried. It is literally not worth my time listing all of them. But I did look at one thing.
Go back 20 years. Before big TVs. Our best season ('01) at the time, we averaged 17,857 that year. After the 10-3 2009 season (beginning in 2010 when big TVs were now on scene and this kind of refutes Glen's point more) even with that one 2-10 year mixed in we averaged still averaged 18,339 over the next three years. Just imagine if we had actually followed that up with something other than a .500 and .200 seasons over the next two years!
But now. Look at it now with year after year of mediocrity, administration alienating the fan base, etc., attendance has dropped like a rock. Last three years or two seasons since I'm excluding '20, attendance has decreased to below half of capacity at 14,900 on average. That's not just because of a national trend. It's because of a local one created by the three stooges.
Also, FWIW, my understanding is capacity is going to decrease because of the new stadium configuration so some of you will get your wish to a degree.
Go back 20 years. Before big TVs. Our best season ('01) at the time, we averaged 17,857 that year. After the 10-3 2009 season (beginning in 2010 when big TVs were now on scene and this kind of refutes Glen's point more) even with that one 2-10 year mixed in we averaged still averaged 18,339 over the next three years. Just imagine if we had actually followed that up with something other than a .500 and .200 seasons over the next two years!
But now. Look at it now with year after year of mediocrity, administration alienating the fan base, etc., attendance has dropped like a rock. Last three years or two seasons since I'm excluding '20, attendance has decreased to below half of capacity at 14,900 on average. That's not just because of a national trend. It's because of a local one created by the three stooges.
Also, FWIW, my understanding is capacity is going to decrease because of the new stadium configuration so some of you will get your wish to a degree.
So true. And how sad is that? Kind of helps give meaningful insight and illustration to how and why attendance has cratered.
You're right we don't know what the ceiling for attendance can be. We have had zero success at the D1 level. For goodness sakes we have never even won an out right conference championship! We've had the same boring coach for 17 years that has never even put two good season back to back. We can put 12,000 fans for a conference basketball game in the Murphy Center. Something most D1 schools can not do. You're right lets actually have some success in football, at lease once, before we start reducing stadium capacity to high school level.
I always saw a comparable goal for MT as ECU in Greeneville NC. A City of about 90,000, with student population around 21,000. Somewhat similar (except the Boro's at 160,000 now) to MT, but in one regard. They have a 50,000 seat stadium with excellent student & community support. Primary difference, they had good administrative support for a successful program. Honestly at ECU not every year was great, but the community sensed the administration & football dept always sought improvement. If MT's admin had the same drive & motivation as ECU's admin the prior 15 years I don't think we would be having a conversation concerning a 20 vs 25 vs 30,000 seat stadium. But unfortunately the powers that be dropped that ball, & here we are trying to make up for for facilities improvements 15 years behind schedule. Which now includes stadium downsizing to probably 25k when should have been at least 40k by now
I think if you literally swapped out the WKU football program with the MT football program - players, coaches, records, everything since 2010, we're in a very different and much better place.
We can agree to disagree. We’re talking hypothetical scenarios right now. If we started winning I’d rather have a packed 25k seat stadium loaded with premium options than a larger aluminum erector set.
Well if we’re just throwing out things we want I would rather have a packed 50K seat stadium with premium ammentities and winning 10 games a year.
For a school that is a part of a conference that doesn't have a major TV deal, the main way that a lot of MT fans/alumni will be able to watch games for a good team will be in person. In theory, a packed 50k seat stadium could be a reality for us if we have a few years of sustained success
No problem buddy, I think we all collectively agree more on MT issues than we disagree on. #1 thing is we love our alma mater & want it to succeed. Now whether or not we're in the worst, 2nd worst, or 3rd worst fbs conference in America are things to really fight over!😂. But dang it, got to say I still think the C-USA name is one of the coolest conference names out there.
Yeah. I know for me I’ve always been like “it would be great to be in a conference with xyz”. But admin needs to be the leaders that make other schools want to associate with us.
maybe this is a turnaround. I mean. Who here didn’t give Kermit the business before he turned it around. He lost to Dallas Baptist or something and it seemed like we were heading for the side of a mountain.
if…all hypothetical… stock turns this season into what we hope it could be, Massaro would have the patience of Job himself....or the dumb luck of a broken clock.
maybe this is a turnaround. I mean. Who here didn’t give Kermit the business before he turned it around. He lost to Dallas Baptist or something and it seemed like we were heading for the side of a mountain.
if…all hypothetical… stock turns this season into what we hope it could be, Massaro would have the patience of Job himself....or the dumb luck of a broken clock.
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If we win a conf champ this year, I'll be the first on Twitter or anywhere to congratulate Stock on what will by far be his best coaching job.
I seriously am tempted to drive down for the heck of it. 6.5 hours but hey, why not. If I can convince the Mrs. that is. Closest airport that lands at BNA is Charlotte. If I'm driving 3hrs to fly, might as well drive 6.5 all the way.
Northwestern just announced a new stadium coming...at a cost of $800m. They are shrinking it but what really really really caught my eye.....the whole stadium will be chairbacks. Nice. I got chairbacks for FAU. It may be quieter than across the way, but I'm old. Haha. Wish we had more chairbacks as so many of those are sold for season tickets. Hard to get them for single games.
I got lucky to have 2 chair backs for this Friday’s game. Need more for sure, makes for a much better experience
This. Same. I have talked more than enough shizz about the coaching and admin of this program, but a win on 12/2/22, and I will say it here, say it on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, I'll call the athletic office, leave messages, try to tell Stock in person if I can: "Thank you! This is all I've ever wanted for the 25 years of my fandom of this program. Here's my check!" And I'll refrain from the trash talk on him/them for at least 2 years. And then I will start calling people out for not showing up to home games, "We've beaten ranked teams AND won championships, what more can you want?!?!" I honestly look forward to that happening.
I know this is OT, but this thread has already taken a few detours. So speaking of conference desirability, anyone else ever think McPhee may have stepped in when MT was passed over on most recent wave of realignment?
As soon as MT was passed over, McPhee went front and center almost immediately to announce the new facilities. This was the week after the embarrassing failure rather than a few months earlier on something they had already been planning for a year or two. It also appeared McPhee was front and center on rejecting the MAC move. It almost appeared that maybe he had quiet conversations that suggested with the new facilities announcement and investment, MT just might be front and center for an invitation in the next wave that will likely occur within the next couple of years.
I have no inside information to base this on. It is a possible scenario that has crossed my mind. Since I have been highly critical in the monumental failure of MT in recent realignment, I thought I might throw out another slightly less critical speculation at least in regards to McPhee. Anyone else speculate that maybe he stepped in once he realized the ball had been dropped?
There is no might about it. CUSA will be a markedly improved basketball league in the new CUSA.
Again, continuing the OT, but yes. I despise Judy but BBall should be great, provided Nick can keep it up.
NMSU last year was 27-7
SHU 19-9
JSU 18-9
Liberty 23-6
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