Great post. I could pull 3-4 great quotes, but this one pinpoints the reason for existence of a truly apathetic alumni base. Life on campus for students is mundane. The games aren’t anything special beyond a game. A lot of you need to take a step back to see the forest for the trees.
If you own a business that sells a product that isn’t selling well, the smart course of action is to work on improving the shopping experience, especially if you can’t improve the product itself.
Thank you. So it’s not the “type” of students that’s UH’s problem. Its the product on the field.
It is possible that a significant portion of UH alumni have more important things to do than drive to campus for a game. Also, Houston has a lot of competition for a sports fan’s dollar. Most of the schools in the above list have one or zero pro sports within 100 miles. For those fans who want the in-person experience, it’s college ball or nothing.
We suck. Hopefully the generations that follow can turn that suckage around.
To compare our attendance numbers to flagship schools in states where generations of alumni have been going to games is not comparable to UH. It’s indoctrination. You go to B1G games, and you see people in the same seats for decades. I know when I was in school it was common to see students wearing school colors that were not scarlet and white. Those were students who were invested in other schools but getting their degree at UH. Has that changed?
A better comparison would be UCLA. We laughed at pictures of the Rose Bowl earlier this year where they maybe had 20K, maybe, for a noon kickoff game. I guess their alumni suck too. Miami has the Hurricanes, if they’re playing UF or FSU it’s a tough ticket. Otherwise, show up on game day and pick which section you’d like. They won national championships and draw flies for most games. That’s been going on for years.
We don’t have the market here to ourselves. We compete against UT, A$M, LSU for fans. We were crippled when we did not get invited to the Big XII. We lost 30 years of playing other Texas schools in a P5 conference. That’s an entire generation of playing directional and small private schools buried on lesser cable channels We are now going to have to build up the base again. A$M playing Alabama or UH playing UAB. Which do you think draws better? Opponents matter. Cincinnati was mentioned, I went to a UH-Cincinnati game 6 years ago, when UC was a middle of the road program. Tickets were easy to come by.
Marketing sucks? You know the best marketing tool? Winning!! The BB team is selling out, for Oral Roberts!! For UNC, and not Chapel Hill.
You barely see another school color now unless they’re a visitor from that place. If they’re caught, they’re called out.
Sampson even said ‘Administration didn’t care so we did something about it’
TCU doesn’t fill Amon Carter (their stadium). They come close when hosting other Big-12 schools who bring 8-15k of their own fans. The stadium only seats 47k.
The Rose Bowl is 26 miles from the UCLA campus. The stadium seats over 90k. Students have to purchase bus tickets to get to the game ($14). Parking is non-existent around the stadium, so most parking is on a golf course with big numbered balloons to find where you’re parked. When a photo shows the Rose Bowl nearly empty, there are probably more people there that at TDECU. I’ve been to several games there, including the times at UH has played UCLA.
Man, A&M has a lot of students. Does that count feeder programs from Galveston and Blinn? How big are their classes?
Compare Greek percentages by university. It’ll bring down the impact of number of students. Then just look at incoming freshman classes.
You have to form a bond with the school when you’re a freshman. A bond at that age sticks with you. Greek life, campus activity, surrounding neighborhood life, etc. I saw a report a few weeks back that shows us have only 16% of our students living on campus where most “destination” schools, like TCU, are above 60%. Also, family economic level is an important factor as it relates to the time a student has to be involved in the campus.
It’s not the “on campus” living where we’re short – it’s the “near campus” living that we have none of.
We’ve always high a very high number of “on campus” beds (relative to ALL other schools in the State of Texas), but there’s no “west campus” like scenario.
The student section at Kyle field is HUMONGOUS. I think their student section alone would fill up TDECU about 85%.
Glad to see students getting called out on it. It’s a shame the programs don’t get marketed better. But I feel winning and better opponents will help with that. We need to make our games must see games.
So, they have their excuses for not attending games too? They have nice beaches as well Where Miami plays it’s home games is also a 45 minute drive from campus. When I was in college, we played in the Astrodome. Not exactly a walk from campus. But there were games when the dome was sold out, mostly, UT, A$M, and Arkansas.
I’m just pointing out that our situation is not as unique as some make it out to be. It’s going to take an extended period of success to build up the enthusiasm. BB is starting to reach that. But it’s going to take an extended period where a down year doesn’t lose the fanbase.
All of you people complaining about attendance need to read @strakerak post. I know y’all won’t because it satiates the ego to believe that you’re just a “superior” fan, but he’s actually putting in the work and he’s actually speaking to people on all sides. That Sampson quote is DAMNING and yet folks will still stroll in with the “we suck, we’ve always sucked, and always will” rhetoric.
Two words will solve this problem.
Coach.
Prime.
UH has over 8,000 beds on campus and will be over 4,000 beds near campus by fall 2023.
My belief is that we have a core group of about 15,000 alums that flex up or down on season tickets depending on how they feel about the team. For example, a few years back, many people bought the family packs to hand out to friends. With the success of basketball, I believe some of these fans have switched to being predominantly basketball and have allocated dollars away from football season tickets.
For young alums, it gets very difficult to attend games once you have kids. This means we likely lose fans for about 5-8 years as their kids take up their time. This means you may not get that regular fan back for 5-8 years (30-35).
We should be running whatever promotion we can with our sponsors (TDECU, Shipley’s, etc.) to get people to the games. Once we get them to games, we need to have a great experience.
I think if we lose a fan for 5-8 years, they’re typically gone.
Y’all should contact the UHAA to voice your concerns: their phone number is 713.743.9550.
Heads of the UHAA Organization
Mike Pede ('89): UHAA’s Associate VP of Alumni relations (UH Employee)
Wayne Luckett ('74) UHAA’s Current President
Eloise Dunn Brice UH’s Vice Chancellor for Advancement at University of Houston (UH Employee)
UHAA Annual Report 2021
I ran through their not-for-profit financials on ProPublica, and it doesn’t seem they (UHAA) have a dedicated “staff” like University of Michigan’s Alumni Association. To give some comparison, UM’s AA has $150 million in the bank and 5 highly paid leaders, and UH’s just broke $10 million in 2021 with tangential support (UHAA was absorbed by UH and assigns UH employees like Ms. Brice and Mr. Pede).
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