and they lived in that town for 4-6 years and developed that culture.
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Too late lol
Look at the bright side. After we get through this season, we’ll have B12 opponents who have good alumni bases in the Houston area who will help UH increase home attendence.
It has to become a destination. Have a band everyone knows play before/after games, it’s worth the mioney if the number of people increases by 10K because of it. Have a food truck area. Have a kids area. Invite clubs like Boy/Girl scouts. There are a lot of ideas.
In the off season, do what ever you can to host things at the stadium to get people on campus and remove the ghetto stigma.
The last decade or so I hear all the excuses for both football and basketball.
Football:
- Game is too early/too late
- It’s too hot/too cold, raining, windy, etc
- Parking sucks, traffic sucks, food sucks, coach sucks.
- Football schedule sucks
- I got better things to do on Saturdays like playing video games or meeting with the wine club.
Basketball
- Weeknight games are tough to attend
- Game starts/ends too late
- Traffic sucks, parking sucks,
- The basketball schedule sucks
- I have to attend something for my kids/wife/dog/cat.
- I have go to my weeknight dance class or bowling league
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Everyone knows we need to beat a couple of OOC brand names at the beginning of the year while starting 4-0. This is what drives our attendance.
Then the interest in the conference games is can we win them all and get to a NYD Bowl.
If we are not at least on that track then attendance is bad.
This group has not come close to doing that year. No excitement, no attendance.
LOL. UH had highly ranked teams under Pardee, great records, SWC schedule, pathetic attendance. Don’t cloud the issue. Great teams. Highly ranked. SWC schedule. Pathetic attendance.
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I blame yesterday’s low attendance on the USF fans. They did not support their team.
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FYI
A&M and all of its manifestations is largely a socio-political phenomenon.
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Coog51, I think that the narrative that things are the way they are is not something UH should hold onto. You later admit that Herman changed things in his limited time here, but he actually made the effort to attract fans. If not the coach, who will do it? The other administration and student groups.
For anyone who says Houston fans are terrible, I agree for the Houston-based teams, specifically professional level. As for the other Houston fans going for their alma maters, there is a large and strong fan base for those teams/schools.
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UH and A&M alumni run Houston. There’s smaller contingency of Horns and Raiders here, but they still travel to Austin and Lubbock.
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Kansas State, Michigan State, Illinois, Arizona State have a strong, devoted alumni in Houston. They fly back for games and fill the stands if their teams are in Texas. Even Spelman College has a strong alumni group in Houston.
All these schools, have active and consistent ways of building spirited alumni. I do not think UH does this well. I do not think winning alone helps because that just builds bandwagon fans. What CF keeps looking for are dedicated fans and that takes a level of effort that UH has only had inconsistent attempts at. Saying a city of 4+ MM can’t be dedicated is silly: they have to have a connection and UH does the bare minimum of work in this area. It’s strong in some places like the teams, band, or frats, but it’s not a central identity to the overall student and alumni body.
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This is a silly and reductive comment.
Lots of solutions, ideas, thoughts, complaining and doing nothing.
UH fans are the fat guy glued to his lounger “talking” about working out and getting in shape.
Wife on the couch: “Yes dear, that’s what you said last year.”
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What are you talking about
Every local Houston news channel always reports on UH Football
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Add a roof! Bring back hype. That’ll make winning and loosing more enjoyable
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This is really simple. We had one game our old fans cared deeply about and that was Tech. We choked. Then we came home and got rolled by Kansas. It got so bad the damn rock chalk cheer was loud in the 4th quarter. Perception of Kansas is it’s the worst P5 program of the last decade. Then we host Rice at 5 for no apparent reason on a scorching hot day and we are praying as time runs out as the Owls are throwing into the endzone. Follow that up with a total fail against Tulane and here we are.
I’ll save everyone the trouble… we could win out by 20+ and it won’t matter. Why act surprised or disappointed. We pay people handsomely and re-arranged leadership at cougar pride and things have gotten worse.
I’ve given up caring. I bought tickets and they’ve been used for every game. That’s all I care to do anymore.
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UH is missing the opportunity to create interest in culture by the undergrads.
After graduation I bought season tickets the very next season, as did just about everyone in my circle of UH friends. For about 15 years we attended all the games, even the bad ones, but still enjoyed the experience. Then some stuff like kids, job transfers, etc, we all still go to as many as makes sense.
In the same timeframe, the gameday experience has fallen to lesser than the alternatives, like watching on tv, for example.
Look at the stands now on any given game for people between age 23 and 35, or the lack thereof.
And thats the attendance problem.
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You apparently have no connection to its history and knowledge of the demographic that is its base of support and student makeup. Even with all the diversity in modern culture, 55% of its student population is white (3% black). And so you think its base of support let’s say representing the 30-70 age bracket attended A&M when there were less than 55%? I feel safe in saying that in the 90s and in the early part of this century that figure ranged higher, maybe upwards of 70%. And all those people and their piers and business contacts that coattail as one put it, you think they’re not predominantly white and not Texan? Hmmmm white, Texan, attended A&M, have family and friends that are fans of A&M regardless of not having attended (several in my extended family just for example) and they’re predominately liberals??? LOL. FYI A&M home to the George H W Presidential Library. Thanks Captain Oblivious
Attendance was getting better from Briles to the closing of Robertson.
Changing the tailgate scene was a mistake they should correct. imo
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I didn’t say that they wouldn’t come and the situation is hopeless. I am saying that we will never have a fan base that shows up through thick and thin. If we get a coach like Sampson who takes the football program to the level of the basketball program and it stays there for an extended period of time, we could sell out TDECU easily. We could probably sell out a 60,000 seat stadium in decade or two.
Herman could have been that guy, we believed his BS and unfortunately he believed his BS. Had he stayed we would have the football equivalent of the basketball program. But he flew the coup and his career and our program are the worst for it. But there are other Hermans, maybe it is Dana, who knows.
But you have to win and you have to understand that going to a football game on campus takes work and you have to give the fans an experience that is more than a football game. Hell they can get that on a Friday night or a Sunday afternoon.
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