A few of several. We have to find ways to address this. I bring a group to most games as do several on here.
Our admin needs to do something on their end since they’re a big part of the problem. $50 parking, $20 beer, security with no customer service skills, the list goes on.
Not a popular take but we should have never tried to get into the P4 until we had a true Traditional Campus ready to go.
THIS is what happens when you are a glorified Commuter School/first generation/ Working class/ Transfer stepping stone, etc pretending to be in the same class of real destination P4 schools.
Where is our Freshman live on campus mandate?
Where is our adjacent University District or Real Greek Row suitable for a 50,000 student size public University?
I encourage many of you to visit the campuses of the our fellow P4 Universities (our contemporaries) and report what you see.
.and i don’t want to hear the BS about age…our mission statement…or something like that
We were WAY more traditional than Texas A&M who didn’t even allow female students until the 1960s/70s and we have a larger enrollment than more than half of the P4 schools.
What we don’t do is form real passionate connections with our students and alums…we just check the boxes
has anyone stopped to think of the type of students UH attracts? are they more there for academics than the college experience / sporting events?
we here on CoogFans are sports fans, but are the current college age students enrolling in our university even interested in sports?
Im 42 years old and have no clue what 18 year old kids are into these days. When I was at UH I was an athlete as were all my friends (aside from a few frat / sorority folks) who were all into sports - so naturally we went to all the sporting events.
where are all the frats? where are all the sororities? we have 40,000+ kids enrolled at UH with more living on campus than ever before - where are they? why is there no interest in going to sporting events?
something seems off when pretty much every other university has their stadiums absolutely packed and rocking AT kickoff while our meager crowd barely shows up and is still filing in at halftime.
Khator tried to create the freshman campus mandate about 10 years ago but Whitmire stopped her.
Even then, the entertainment district alone would fix a lot of this.
Louisville, Cincinnati and especially Pittsburgh are the closest P4 comparisons. Emulate them.
Yeah…our own alums, and politicians, have been vocal about “keeping us in our lane” and not turning us into a Destination school
Big mistake!
We keep throwing money at athletic facilities thinking THAT will fix it…
Dumb mistake
It 100% is a “type of student” issue…and NO not a race issue.
Texas seems to attract students of all backgrounds, even first generation college students that are ALL IN the day they set foot on campus.
Ours still prefer to live with Mommy and Daddy
Today’s students are more interested in UH athletics than ever before. The student section filled up as the game went on.
That being said, it’s not enough.
We’ve seen folks come out for Texas Tech and Colorado.
I think back to back 11 am games is killing us.
as many have said on here already - the gameday experience is just lacking and confusing.
have to have pre-paid parking or drive around campus looking for available game day parking that cost $40-$50. once there - where do you go and what do you do before going to the stadium? we used to just show up and walk from tailgate to tailgate all around the stadium parking lot - if we didn’t already have one of our own going.
the last few games ive been to over the years parking was a nightmare. tailgating was pretty much non existent and there was zero organization, flow or even direction of whats going on and happening pregame outside the stadium.
its strange to me that basketball seems to have their sh!t completely together and moving forward while football is just spinning its wheels.
A few years back I posted an article about how it is a custom in many SEC and ACC towns for fans to meet up at the local Waffle House on game day for breakfast.
Perhaps we should encourage such a franchise to open up near UH, and make that the hangout for 11/12am starts!
everyone meet at Frenchy’s!
Cullen,
I agree . As I understand we have done away with or diluted down our Freshman orientation program . We miss our opportunity to build a lifelong relationship with the Freshman. We are building Freshman Housing so we should take advantage of having them all in one place for events . Next,we could have sophomore day when all sophomore gather at the new Cullen fountain for an event. Same for all the rest of the classes. Seniors would get a week of celebration and events.
We got to do better building relationships with students as they become Alumni.
Go Coogs !
We do not have a generational fanbase like other schools.
I have never met a grad who had a grandparent or parent attend UH 3 generations in a row.
This is where the grads of the 80s and 90s did not encourage their children to attend UH.
I get the feel good story that UH provides opportunities for the working class, first generation, and people on the lower income bracket.
As we were walking from our tailgate in the blue lot towards the stadium yesterday, we encountered almost as many people headed
away from the stadium as we did toward the stadium. Obviously, they had been to the tailgates along Cullen, but were not staying for the game.
This was probably peak attendance yesterday. Can’t blame students when they have drawn 9k more than once this season.
Such a front runner city.
I think just about everybody can share in this problem with attendance, maybe not equally,
Guys:
If you are all expecting UH to pull in 40K a game, then you may as well stop.
Houston is the energy capital of the world and oil prices are at $61/barrel. Inflation is high and jobs are scarce. Who can afford to go spend $150 plus all in, on a CFB game?
Those other places you guys keep mentioning have nothing else going on EXCEPT college football. What else are you going to do? Houston has four professional sports teams, museums, parks, etc. It also has a ton of alumni from all over the U.S., not just Texas, and those people have little interest in UH athletics.
As for the repeated argument of “traditional” vs “no traditional” campus, student, etc, in my opinion that would actually make the problem worse. If cost is one of the main issues, then making attendance more expensive just means less money for football games.
We had this debate before, but the best thing that UH Athletics could do is give out free tickets. If people aren’t buying what you are selling, then you have to give it away until they do. Instead, our AD would rather whine about our alumni and students. That won’t help.
That is the reality. UH Athletics (as well as many on this board) want UH to be UT or TAMU, but we are never going to be those places, so you may as well get over it.
All major urban universities have similar attendance problems: UCLA, Ga Tech, Minnesota, Maryland, Miami, USC, etc. While they may not be on the same scale as ours (mainly because they have been in P5 longer than us) their administrations complain just like us. All of these universities have something in common. I will let you figure it out.
It’s money!
This right here! We were talking about this during the game. The pregame experience at Fertita Center is head and shoulders better than the pregame experience at TDECU. At the football games, we introduce the starting lineups 20-25 minutes before kickoff with about 37 people in the stadium. I don’t know how to fix this, but something needs to change.
There is no excuse for this game to be the poorest attended game of the season. Even the student turnout was disappointing and they have shown up every game.
Explain Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Louisville.
Pitt and Cincy have pro sports and are still drawing crowds. Hell, Pitt shares a stadium with the Steelers
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