I was there @ NRG for the OU game and I was @ TDECU for a Tech game, Both were packed, and both games were FUN. If there are games people cared about people will come. Silly me, but I don’t want to spend the money I have to spend to fly to Houston and sit in 90 degree heat to watch us beat up Southern.
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Having lived in both, THIS
Houston sprawls, traffic is horrible, and then even if do make it for the huge game, you are greeted with difficult parking and high prices.
Now a part of this is my age but I’ve started to turn down invitations (like this years SC/UCLA game, a band I like playing the Fonda, Dodgers games, Hollywood Bowl) because it’s difficult, expensive, and often leave stressed or mad.
Now add that the last few big football games we’ve lost.
Winning the Texas Bowl will help. Guaranteed ranking will help. Beating LSU will help. But UH has to make game day atmosphere attractive enough to entice people to want to come back.
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I’ll say this
Every Coog game at NRG that I’ve been to has always been a great atmosphere. Even Wazzu was fun despite losing
Idk what it is about it
I can’t say the same about TDECU. Even the big games there’s always something missing
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It’s worse than you think. That line of thinking assumes one seat per account. It’s not that you were 2000 in line but you were behind people who had 2000 seats above your ranking. I had 12 seats last year just for me. Most folks have at least two. I’d wager the actual number of people with seats in their name is closer to 3,000 than 5,000.
And yeah, I know folks combo under one name…
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IMO UH went very budget conscious with TDECU given our attendance history, while NRG went all out to impress people. My understanding was if attendance improved TDECU was designed so it could be readily expanded and improved. I look at TDECU and it looks to me like it isn’t finished yet.
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I wish they could just turn the damn thing into a dome , closed roof
Forget expansion
It would solve the heat issue, and it would be a much louder atmosphere
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I guess you are about 500 spots from where I am at on the pecking order.
I say the administration makes a hard final decision in the year 2030 if we will expand TDECU Stadium or not.
Then we can focus on putting money towards building a shade or canopy similar to Baylor, plus upgrades like escalators, bathrooms, elevators, etc.
15+ years from the opening in 2014 is more than enough time and data to crunch numbers.
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IMO we should’ve made TDECU smaller but nicer.
A packed out palace with 35,000 that is awesome is better than spending a lot of your budget on a foundation being expansion ready and with too many seats for us to sell.
Part of our problem is there is no incentive to buy season tickets. You can always get buy a single and usually for cheaper than season ticket “suckers.”
FC did it right and nailed our fan base as it currently is. There’s a waiting list for tickets and we aren’t having games with 25% capacity. TDECU built for what we hope the future will be but that essentially cut our collective arm off.
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We could possibly put a canopy shade over the stands. That might mess things up for expanded seating, and as I recall, being able to expand the seating was a selling point for this stadium design.
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We don’t need expansion
Tickets lose value with expansion
Just add a roof or canopy
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We are on par with Cincy, UCF, Baylor, TCU, and Kansas.
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We need to make TDECU bigger, if you build they will come.
60k Space City Stadium, and FREE BEEEER!!!
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We will know by 2030 about our fanbase.
It will be right when the boomers are phased out and cannot attend games anymore and we see our fanbase moving forward.
Didn’t TDECU come it at, or below, budget?
I think it was $125 million and we were on target.
I hear you. I turned down free tickets to to both USC and UCLA games because the games weren’t worth the hassle. BUT I NEVER turned down free tickets to the Hollywood Bowl or the Greek
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Quite a bit over budget actually
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Was a young couple in front of my group at the bowl game. Husband was just there to support his wife. The wife had more passion than anyone ive ever met at a UH game. She actually was in the intro video before the game (was in the Band). At 38-28 she was waving bye to all the LSU fans around us. if she is any indication of the future fan support, the future looks bright. I still find it kinda funny the husband didnt know anything about football. He just sat the whole game while she was cheering and giving high fives.
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Large urban cities are generally pro sports town. Name me a university in a large urban city that does not struggle with football attendance. Top 10 urban cities:
New York
Los Angeles
Chicago
Houston
Phoenix
Philadelphia
San Antonio
San Diego
Dallas
San Jose
There are too many entertainment options in these cities. Plus, urban cities attract a lot of transplants, who have no roots or did not grow up in the culture.
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