never directly… but it was insinuated by everyone that our attendance was dreadful (which it was 3-4 years ago and beyond) and there was a sentiment that we were never going to be good in attendance…
used alot of coded language like “intimate space”, refocusing on “luxury seats, where we can thrive”… there was a general belief that we couldn’t draw people to our games in numbers… our attendance was worse than our relative success. we had the attendance of 5 win teams while producing NIT calibur squads
the people in the forums then kept noting our phi slama jama attendance wasnt that good either. (only 1 of the phi slama years was close to a sell out)
(note: my rebuttal to that was that it was a different time and era, and it removes the context…that yes we only did 7k for some of phi slamma years, but that 7k was comfortably then 2nd best in the SWC after arkansas. those teams doing 3-4k in the swc behind us are now doing 13-15k in the modern era)
i was in the minority, i was in the “if we build up the program they will come” camp… 2 decades of tragedy wasnt going to be removed by NIT runs…we hadnt given the people of houston a reason to come back…
sdsu had worse attendance that us, after their 3rd/4th ncaa run in the fisher era, they started doing 15k .and i felt that could be us
I like the smaller arena. More intimate and closer to the action. Everyone who’s interested needs to buy season tickets though… or get scalped bizaatch!!!
History matters, not Arena size. Shoot little old Green Bay has won more NFL championships than the Texans ever will in Houston. Yet Houston population is bigger.
we can sellout as is…we just increased the price of tickets …which is what will keep happening as we estabalish the program…we’ll push the price to match the demand
me personally id rather build us towards 10k in stands than be duke and have $250 being the cheapest non-student tickets PER GAME
I thought ticket pricing stayed the same even after the “deadline”. You’re right like anything price will go up with demand but that helps us also if we ever wanted to sell a game. I think they also wanted to make sure if we were to ever suck again the size wouldnt be bad. In the city with a down year can hurt pretty bad.
That and the TV angle focusing on the luxury seats have been but my only complaints arena wise but I’ll probably just learn to accept both
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The AD department has stated that next year, the cameras will be moved to the other side. Other things had to be addressed, first, for this next season. So, one more season of empty seats on TV.
I’m torn by this. As far as tv angle goes. I like the aesthetic and beautiful look of the expensive seats but the hardcore rowdy fans are on the other side, especially the student section on the floor.
I think it works because what if we dont have a good season and the fans dont show up. I’m guessing the people with the most money invested are most likely to show up and fill the seats? It’s not to say the other side wont but I just think some parts may or may not fill and look worse.
aesthetic? we never look like we have a packed arena… literally every homes game last season. do you know how many “you guys are undefeated and its the opening year of your arena, and you guys still cant sell out” comments houston got… they dont realize it is a sell out, it just doesnt look it on tv
the key to a great looking tv game, its not being able to tell what types of seats they are because there as so many people there
I don’t pay attention to those haters, they’re wrong. Just because a game is sold out, doesn’t mean every seat will be occupied. And that goes to your point @pesik of rather wanting a 9k arena instead of 7.1k I’m fine with.
But like noted before, it’s not only about haters… When recruits see our games and it looks half empty and then they turn to Texas (or whichever recruiting rival) and it looks crazy packed that is a huge advantage for them…
There is a reason Sampson was requesting people to stay in there seats during the games last season, because he knew it didn’t look great
angle goes. I like the aesthetic and beautiful look of the expensive seats but the hardcore rowdy fans are on the other side, especially the student section on the floor.
