Remember when we went into the SWC we had nationally ranked programs in Texas, Agy, Arkansas and Texas Tech. Baylor was coming off a title run, so at the time the SWC was on par if not better than any other conference in the country. That said, we won the SWC title three out of the first four years…so can you refresh me on how many sell outs we had over those four years? And how did our season tickets go?
Bottom line is Houston is a fair weather city when it comes to sports and we are going to have to be a big time winner every year to draw decent crowds.
I think it is getting better, but to continue to draw crowds we are going to have to schedule top OOC games in both hoops and football, and win more than our share of conference titles and bowl games.
The new stadium has been a good draw…what Herman did his first year added attendance as did winning a conference title, beating FSU and being under consideration to join the Big 12.
That all evaporated after our big win over OU…Herman decided to leave, the Big 12 slapped us in the face, and we lost four games. Talk about a program taking a huge hit.
Now Applewhite must bring us back. Arizona in the opening game is going to be a huge, huge game. Sumlin comes in with a chip on his shoulder and AU goes for revenge. Win that game and maybe our smallish fanbase gets excited…and maybe the students keep coming to games.
Simply put, our program cannot afford to lose five games again. We need to win our division and hopefully win another AAC title and get a NY6 bid.
The college landscape has changed since 40 years ago so citing attendance figures from that time is useless.
But since you asked 4 of our top 8 attended seasons were from 1976-1978. Our 2 best attended games in school history were in1976 and 1977
First of all, my point was despite winning in one of the toughest conference’s in America we were never able to get over the hump with attendance in either football or basketball. The landscape has changed, no doubt, but all these years later we are still talking about poor attendance and UH in the same sentence. As useless as that sounds, it is still a fact.
We are never getting in the SEC so talking about what LSU or Bama or even A&m would do for our attendance is also useless. Playing in the Big 12 would certainly be an improvement with Texas and OU as big draws, but once again, if we aren’t fielding competitive teams we are not going to fill any stadium with Cougar fans.
Hoping Applewhite can make us a solid program regardless of whether we are in the AAC or a P5 conference. UH has put a lot of money into facilities without the benefit of a bunch of alumni support. We are going to need that support on and off the field if we are going to survive…regardless of the landscape…
But the point is that we are drawing better crowds for crap opponents than we ever did in the old SWC days. The stadium helped with that. It made people literally invest in the program. Less than a decade ago a crowd of 28000 was a huge game. Now it’s a huge disappointment. 40 years ago really isn’t a good metric.
Maybe 40 years ago is not a good metric, but maybe if you look at the metrics of the past 40 or so years it is…Houston does not support college sports unless a school is having a great year. Rice once upon a time drew decent crowds when it was competitive, but look at them now. When UH does well and creates a little noise, then yes we get the attention of a few fans and even the media every once in a while.
I agree we have been trending up since Art Briles took over years back, but we have a lot to overcome now after the Herman ordeal and then the rejection from the Big 12.
And while you are at it, we have a basketball program that has been winning 20 games over the past few years but we still can’t average 4000 fans…explain that to me if you can…why is there still so much student and alumni apathy for our basketball program?
We should make the Dance this year, so with a nice returning group, some really good recruits, and a new Fertitta layout perhaps we can draw decent and supporting crowds next year…and we can hope when Sampson decides to call it quits we can make another great hire…
For the life of me I want to be a glass half full…but I also am a realist…nothing would tickle me more than for our Coogs to excel in everything and lure in many, many fans and alums who are willing and able to give back to the program…Go Coogs…
I’m pretty sure most schools didn’t have completely full stadiums every game until starting in the 90’s. It’s a weird cult of college sports thing that developed around the same time they started treating it like a business…except that they run it like a mercantilist microeconomy, rather than a proper free market.
Overall in college football, attendance is down. That said, we are now averaging more in the Cage than we had a capacity in the Rob. That says a lot. I remember coming to town to catch the UAB “Sprinkler” game on a Thursday night and the “announced” crowd was 18+.
That said, when I was at UH from 1981-85, the Hof was always full and a game to see. I remember “sneaking in” by way of going with the room mate who had me help him hand out marketing flyers just to get in and stand around the upper wall!
I think that since we are averaging around 3500 at TSU, next year, after the year we are having this year and the incloming talent, it should be much higher.