Maybe this bad national press and TV showing empty seats will get Madame President and the administration to wake up. Quit raising prices on tickets every season, eliminate $20-$60 parking and make it FREE. Encourage tailgating and expand the tent area with reduced prices so every frat and sorority can have one. Instead of $15 for seat backs, try $5. AD and administration need a come to Jesus moment Monday morning to recognize the problems and address them.
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I think that maybe we did this already. Now for the fanbase to realize that Fritz is the closest thing to a football CKS that exists.
Also, now that Whitmire is mayor, it is past time to revisit the freshman mandate.
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You’re a troll and hater with a fake account that just joined this year claiming all kinds of history of this university and how we should compare UH to other “power schools.” lol
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The administration believes winning will solve everything.
Unfortunately it needs to be “perfect” winning.
It will take more than effort on the field to fix the problem.
I don’t think the ticket pricing is a problem. I actually got a great deal this past game. Parking is an issue. I truly believe part of the issue is the time of the morning games. Having a game in the morning after Halloween was not a good idea.
Sat games in the evening like Colorado brought in 37k+ and Tech 43k+ and even the Rice game at Rice in the evening was over 31k+.
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The ticket pricing is not the problem it is the outragoues prices for gameday as parking, sodas, beer. The casual fan is going to be pushed away due to those prices. Also the tailgating seen is gone that was a Robertson. They have huge intermurial fields that sit empty game day. Could use those as a tailgate village. Would be good scene as fans drive by them being one of the major entrances to UH.
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I went to the UH vs OU game last season in Norman. All the OU fans near me never even went to OU.
Ohio state, Michigan, all the SEC schools, and especially UT get a lot support from people who never attended these Universities…
I knew a cop who went to Tyler community college and was a huge UT fan.
That’s where UH struggles, we struggle to get the bandwagon fan.
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I agree with other posters, offer promotions to youth football teams and free tickets to high school players etc. Get people into the habit of going. I got into the habit during the Herman years then kept it going. Yesterday was sad!
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A lot of good points brought up and so many factors are involved. Having an 11:00AM kickoff the morning after Halloween is tough. I think that time slot for the last two home games really hurt us. I am a longtime season ticket holder and attended games with my parents growing up. Attendance has always been a challenge for UH.
The increase in prices does not help matters either. How many casual fans are going to pull up on game day and pay $50 to park in the blue lot??
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I remember during the Herman days TDECU was filled up or close. There really is no excuse for fans not to show up…
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I beleive it was $15 to park right next to Rice Stadium. We are charging $50 for the blue lot
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Folks have been told this for at least a decade and they don’t care. Just like the school doesn’t care. That’s a legitimate reason that makes people stay away. A legitimate item for the university to address. A legitimate complaint that all of the attendance warriors on this forum can focus on.
UH fans should be looking forward all week to the party that awaits them on Saturday. We should be so well known for our tailgating scene that the average Houstonian is not only aware, but a certain percentage of them should be looking forward to trying it out too. The average Houstonian with no affiliation with UH should be able to hop on the train, get to the stadium an hour or so before the game, enjoy some food, beverages, and fellowship IN ADDITION to watching UH football. UH tailgating should be a party that the whole city feels invited to.
Instead what do they do? They ignore and skip over the #1 way to fix this problem and focus on the bs excuses that fans make.
“The weather isn’t perfect”
“It’s too early”
“It’s too sunny”
People (and UH apparently) focus on these arguments because they know that the school shouldn’t/can’t be held accountable for these things. They don’t come here to brainstorm on how to make things better. We’ve known for years how to increase attendance aside from just winning. It’s always about passing the blame on others instead of working together to improve our school.
I’m so tired of the “we’ve always been this type of school and it’s all we’ll ever be” mentality that much of our fan base has. It feels like the younger voices are stifled and unheard. I get the impression that Whitmire isn’t the only person standing in the way of progress. He’s probably just the most visible.
Also, for whatever reason a large portion of this forum just flat out doesn’t seem to understand how catastrophic it was to hire Applewhite and then follow up with 5 years of Dana. School leadership got us into the Big 12 which is obviously great. They also took a sledgehammer to the football program’s fan base. Many people still haven’t come back. And speaking of coaches, many people hate Herman so much that they lie to themselves about how great of a marketer of the program he was. We can’t adopt his tactics because we’re too caught up in downplaying everything that he did right.
“I don’t understand why we have attendance issues”. This is what happens when nobody bothers to listen to customer feedback. Of course you don’t understand. You’ve never cared to listen.
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Say what you will about Tom Herman, he had the stadium packed when he was here. Not blaming Fritz, but he has a different style. It’s embarrassing that a city of this size can’t fill a 40K stadium on the beautiful Saturday we just had. Whoever is in charge of getting the word out is doing a horrible job.
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In the beginning of Herman era, attendance was an issue but gradually it got full as the first season went on.
Attendance went through the roof after the wins over OU and FSU, then all the games were nearly sold out until TH started looking around.
Herman was great with the media, getting his grill, catching everyone’s attention, I recall UHs YouTube channel was always posting behind the scenes, and I especially remember the Halloween prank video.
Herman a few times even got free pinks pizza for all the students who were going to the game.
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I think we made a great choice in hiring Coach Fritz. I believe he will build our football program back into a consistent winner.
I was not a fan of Herman and the way he used our university. However he was an incredible self promoter and with that “skill” he also brought a lot of attention and buzz to our football team.
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Win win win and they will come. Herman years same thing. Started winning big and it showed. Yes, prices keep most away but winning will also cure that excuse.
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This is why I’m canceling my Texans season tickets after this season. I do t get the joy of sitting through their games as I do with the Cougars. Even if the Texans go 12-5 and the Coogs go 2-10, I still have way more fun at the UH games. Part of that enjoyment is I truly like the people that sit around me. We have a blast win or lose.
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Email Nunez
I used ai to gather this info quickly. Added the 2017 attendance after he left just for fun. 2 sub 30k games in Herman’s tenure: a Thursday night game against SMU and a Halloween game against Vandy.
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We did not play Memphis at home in 2016.
Memphis played at UH in odd years like 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021.
The even numbered years was at Memphis.