OTOH, it might have been funny seeing a lot of longhorns laying in the parking lot.
Having seen the bleacher construction up close, I have to admit that I do not know what Gladchuck was thinking !!
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I would love to play Texas and A&M in football again. Problem is UH gains significantly more from winning than UT and A&M do. Also, UH is one of those teams who are perceived as “lesser” yet have no problem not only winning but dominating the top dogs of the FBS world.(Ask Oklahoma/Florida State/Penn State/Louisville/etc.) It is a major risk playing UH even at their home fields, which is why I commend schools like Tech, Washington State, Arizona, and the other P5 schools on our schedules for adding us.
As for Bleachergate being an issue in the future or even now, I call BS. There have been changes in administration to both UH/UT since and to be honest, I do not believe Bleachergate is even a thought to those currently in charge. If UT/A&M do not schedule us, it is due predominately to them losing more than they would gain from playing us.
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They will start playing us when we are perceived as a threat.
We just need to continue growing and continue to put skins on the wall.
imo
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You left out a big factor. As long as schools like Rice and USF give Texas 2 for 1 deals and schools like San Jose State and UTEP give one and done deals, it would be a really dumb move for UT to give any G5 a 1 and 1 deal. As long as Houston gets one and one deals with schools like Washington State and Texas Tech, it would be a really dumb move for UH to give any P5 a 2 for 1 deal.
When UT signs teams like Boise State or Cincy to a 1 and 1 deal or UH signs teams like Michigan and Notre Dame to a 2 for 1 deal, then asking why UT and UH don’t play can come down to theories like bleacher gate. Until then, a deal doesn’t make sense for either team.
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We almost had a deal with the Aggies not too long ago. Rice came in at the last second and stole that series from us by, I believe, offering to play both games at Kyle field and not taking any money for it. Aggies went with that deal instead (‘12-‘13). They have openings after 2021 and hopefully Pezman can work something out.
Bleachergate was used by DeLoss Dodds to embarrass us and ensure they never had to play us again. If it wasn’t the bleachers, it would have been something else as Dodds held a grudge from being passed over for the UH AD job in a prior year before landing at UT. With Traitor Tom there and Dodds worshipper, Chris Del Conte, as the AD, I doubt we see UT on the schedule in the near future unless we somehow end up in the same conference.
At this point, I’m fine playing Tech and wish Baylor or TCU had the balls to play us.
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UT will never play us unless they have to like in a bowl game, a basball regional, or in the basketball dance. They have everything to lose in playing us since we are not in the “guaranteed win” category like Rice, UTEP, etc. Same with A&M. They would rather play Rice or Sam Houston than lose to us.
I was hoping that when the A&M/UT annual game went away, that we could work out an annual game with UH/A&M at the Texans place each year for Thanksgiving. A stick in the eye to UT, great TV exposure and some additional dollars…
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We play ATM and UT in baseball this year.
I agree that we have more to gain, but not significantly more to gain. Over the past several years neither Texas nor A&M have been anything near special or even really good. It’s been a cesspool of mediocrity, which is why they both have new coaches. The only reason we might have more to gain by a win than them is we are not P5. I don’t have time to go back and look right now, but I’m willing to bet we’ve spent more weeks being ranked than either of them over the last several years. If they were to play us while we were ranked and they were not, I think the argument could be made that we both would stand to gain from a win.
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Good point on the 2 for 1 deals.
As long as Rice is an easier option and guaranteed win for UT and A&M, UH will never be on the regular season schedule.
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With most schools, football and basketball are considered the revenue sports. Yes, some schools make enough money in ticket sales and donations in baseball to cover scholarships but very few cover all operating costs. So if UT or A&M lose to UH in baseball over the period of many years, they would not see a dent in their overall revenue.
The decision on Bleachergate was the correct one. If those stands had fallen, there would be no UH football program to speak of.
I drove by the stadium the week before the game and couldn’t believe we were going to put anyone in those stands. Houston absolutely made the right decision to ban fans from that rickety mess. We were crucified for the decision, but we would make the same decision again if we had it to do over again.
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I completely agree that not having the game using those bleachers was correct. What we screwed up on was not moving the venue of the game. We still had options up to a week before the game.
One work around for this is what we worked out with OU and the Texas Kickoff. That wasn’t technically a home game for us, but I’ll take that as a neutral sight game in exchange for a road game for a program of that caliber. I think a UH vs Texas/A&M/LSU match up has a really good shot at happening given the success in ticket sales and viewership in '16.
If we had moved the game it would have been a UT home game which is what they wanted
Instead we put on our big boy dunce hat and screwed our income for years to come and became an embarrassment for a few months.
A game at UT likely would not have cost us as much as having to refund tickets and not get to renew the series.
we played the following year in Austin. UT leading 41 - 15 with 15 seconds left in the game and the ball on UT 40 yd line they threw a bomb trying to score one last time. They were not going to play us again in Houston no matter what we did. They will not play us or ATM until the state legislature forces it.
A lot of people could possibly have died or been seriously injured. It wasn’t a matter of if that thing fell IMO, but at what point during the game. It looked completely unstable. The base of those added bleachers were sitting on stacked wood planks.
Here they are and how high they were:
Actual image of the bases:
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Bleachergate has already happened and I would not have renewed the series if I were them either.
Lets be clear the ut alumni were the ones pushing to get the stands closed down and the game moved. They were whining like Divas.
Lets also be clear that the company that set up stands also did other sporting events like the Winter Olympics and has never had any accidents. Also the stands were approved by the City of Houston.
Ok lets all get back to being embarrassed now…