Sounds like your relatives worked the system well. Party in Austin for 6+ years? Hell yes. Congrats!
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I live in Georgetown, TX. and my neighbor has a daughter who is the coach of the womenâs softball team at UT. I am always wearing my Cougar gear. One day I am working in the yard and she come over to and the conversation went like this:
She -âPaul, why are you wearing UH stuff when you live in the Austin areaâ
Me - âWell, I didnât go to UT.â
She - âWell since you live here you should wear the UT stuff.â
Me - "So are you saying that all of the UT grads living in Houston should wear UH stuff?
She - âWell, no, thatâs different.â
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Stupid fâsâŠ
Iâd have just turned the hose on her.
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Money buys fans. Winning buys fans. If you have the former then the latter seems to be easier. But you can still get your fans with just Wâs. It just takes more resolve. Example: TCU over the last 20 years.
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Reminds of when Boomhower taught Bobby Hill how to pick up girls.
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The Wâs eventually got them money.
Was leaving my car for ârecallâ work at the dealership when an employee noticed my UH gear. He told me that we were having a good year. He had watched some games on TV and talked about college FB in general. But what he said next was something that many casual fans of UH think.
" Yeah if UH finishes with another good season I guess you will be looking for another new coach after the present coaches leave."
Question: How does a casual fan get emotionally attached to UH to the point that they will physically fight Houston traffic and the bad game times/days to attend a UH game?
After all, most games are on TV and just as a HC and staff win over many casual fans, they hook em to UT or another big payday P5 program. Even the casual fans know the cycle of HC leaves, hurts recruiting, team takes a step back or keeps status quo. Then new HC gets team back to or past the level of the previous HC, he and staff then leaves, and âŠ
TV allows casual fans to watch without getting involved directly. It is work to get to a game on a Thursday night or on a extremely hot Sept. Saturday morning/afternoon. That couch in an air conditioned room with cold beer and food in the next room is very convincing.
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I donât think itâs a matter of fighting impediments. College fans from small states make plans, have to drive hundreds of miles, set up accommodations, budgetâŠbut they still pack their stadiums.
Houston is just not a college town. Houston is a âsteak vs. sizzleâ town. Houstonians gravitate to whatever is hot at the moment.
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This is why Fertitta wanted to make sure there was a serious buyout on any coach they wanted to hire.
I dunno. I live in Bellaire. There are apparently a lot of UT fans in my neighborhood. A whole crew of them typically shows up several times a week. They mow and blow yards, converse with each other solely in some language other than English, and then get back in their trucks and, well, hook 'em. Many of them wear UT hats and T-shirts. Major Applewhite also lives in Bellaire. I bet those UT fans do his yard too.
[sarcasm alert]
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Does Applewhite keep a UT garden flag by his petunias?
Houston is a sizzle town. Fans would rather pay way too much for sizzle of the NFL than to enjoy a top notch, soul satisfying, back yard steak of UH football.
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Yeah Funk you are probably right about some like Iowa St., Utah, etc.
But a Texas Tech fan site has a thread where fans are complaining about paying 450 dollars a night to stay at a Holiday Inn or having some local hotel requiring them to pay triple rate or better with a required 2 night minimum.
Add the other thread on the Tech site where fans are complaining about 11:00am games and Sept. heat, etc. Now this is Texas Tech who in 2016 boasted to UH fans how great their attendance was and how loyal their fans are. Well now they have an local newspaper article asking why the students are BOYCOTTING the second half of their games. Especially during the 2nd half of the WVU game.
Oh, and they hope that Oklahoma and UT games sell out. Why those games are potential sell - outs in not because of the Tech fans but the OU and UT fans who are buying up tickets.
The fans are responding to the media/advertisers and the local gouging and some are no longer attending games. They are still watching them, but at home with friends and all the chips, burgers, back yard tailgating they want.
But hey, that benefits the media and advertisers, right.
Thereâs a market to drive sell-outs in Houston, but its not primarily based on âsupportâ. Its based on âaffiliationâ. Houstonians want to be affiliated with whatâs hot.
Those are some high RPMâs you have to run to drive sales. Its tough but doable.
Just curious why you are visiting the Texas Tech site?
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Actually i have only visited it 3 or 4 times and never to communicate with them. I was curious of how they liked Gibbs D and what they were saying about it. Tech has always been O first, second, third, etc. This is the first time in years that they actually have a good D with great depth.
As I was searching for threads on their D I discovered threads on attendance. They were very interesting to me because when UH was involved in the dog and pony show the BIG12 was putting UH and others through it several Tech fans boasted about their attendance and loyal fans. Now they are not close to filling their stadium and their students and many fans are leaving at the half.
It was these threads that made me return to read them as more posts were added. They had some very âout of the boxâ posts on attendance.
Texans fans arenât paying for the sizzle of the NFL. The Oilers were in the NFL and only sold out games in winning seasons just a few days before the game. Remember the old blackout rule? If a team didnât sell 85% of the tickets 72 hours before the game, it wasnât shown locally. Every home game in the 80âs after the Luv Ya Blue faded, either missed the mark or barely made it by the deadline.
The success of the Texans ticket sales isnât because of the NFL. Itâs because the county foot the bill for a luxurious indoor/outdoor stadium outdoor entertainment and the largest tailgating set up in the country. They made it an experience to the point that people that didnât even have tickets were hanging out with friends at the tailgates and watching games in parking lots while their friends were inside at the game.
We were sort of building on that with a new stadium, plenty of comfortable seats and tailgating right next to the stadium. Then we build a practice facility right next to the stadium, practically shoving a decent chunk of the pregame atmosphere to separate parts of the campus. Meanwhile we raise the season ticket price that was OK with 7 home games, including one in Reliant with two top 10 opponents and then leave it that price when we are back to 6 home games with unranked teams.
Keeping season tickets the same price with less games, less hype, less pre-game atmosphere, less ranked opponents and then hope cheap tickets will make up for it on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings? Itâs not the sizzle of the NFL we are missing, itâs everything else missing from when the price was set.
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Well said Shaggy!
I know parking spaces are imperative on game day but has anyone thought about tailgating on the top level of the garage next to the stadium? Iâm sure there would be some logical matters but that would be something different and unique for game day. âTailgating on the Roofâ. Bring the other tailgates from across campus to one location. It would be great having the indoor and outdoor tailgating next to the stadium plus the RVs. Just an idea the AD should explore.
