If we had a domed stadium, the new list of reasons not to attend.
HVAC too hot
HVAC too cold
Stadium roof should be retractable
No bidet toilets
Line of sight sucks
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What if they lower prices and do family packs for Just the upper decks bc most wouldn’t move there even if cheaper.
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All I have to say is, “yep”.
Having a band play costs money.
If the Athletic department already has money problems, having a band show up will make it worse.
The best thing that UH could do, as Ryan said, and as I said about a month ago, is to give away tickets, or, at least make them so cheap that they are basically free. It is more important for us to have people in seats than to try and nickel and dime every paying customer. It’s clear that the people aren’t buying what is being sold; guilt tripping people will not work.
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I stopped reading after 46 of 103 comments. I thought this thread was about coaching. Attendance? Okay, I’ve got a few solutions.
- I realize the start time wasn’t our decision, although the first three tickets had a start time printed on them. In any case, I will attend ONE game that isn’t on a Saturday. And I will attend ONE game when tailgate offer coffee instead of beer.
- What became of the shuttle buses? Heck, for all the trouble I go through, I’ll just go back to taking the light rail.
- The concession experience makes me tuck a sandwich in my pocket (no ice cream sandwiches, however). But I still have to thread my way through hundreds of others standing in line just to get to my seat or the RR.
- Quit gouging us on everything.
- Did I mention shuttle buses already?
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Agreed 100%. UH has to get the people of Houston to adopt UH as the city’s only P4 program and make it a source of pride. The only way to start that process is to make it easy and affordable for people to come vs. an expensive hassle.
We also, in my opinion, need to be courting the local A&M, Tech, and UT fans who love college football but aren’t able to travel to games 150 - 500 miles away. As much as we tend to despise those people (snark intended!) a lot of them love college football even if it’s not their alma mater. No, we’ll never get an Aggie, Longhorn, or Raider to love UH like they do their own team but we can certainly be their local entry to major college football. Can’t drive 3 hours or the eternity it takes to get to Lubbuck? Come enjoy major college atmosphere locally. For those groups we can be their adopted 2nd team (I know what you’re thinking, but it’s possible to market to them).
If we can just find a way to get another 10k to games from the pool of people here we’d be pulling in 35k per game which is at least respectable.
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Good point. My neighbor, who is an Aggie, now has Houston as his second favorite team. I can’t take the credit, he has a high school, buddy who is a Coog. But I definitely make it a point to give him and his friend any of my tickets that I cannot use. When possible, we should make these fans of other schools as welcome as possible.
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We had a few full stadiums during Tom Herman’s tenure. I would rather bring back those UH fans then go out and try to convince UT and Aggie fans to come to TDECU.
2015 home attendance for each game was as follows:
Tennessee Tech: 30,479
Texas State: 32,257
SMU: 25,204
Vanderbilt: 29, 565
Cincinnati: 32,889
Memphis: 42,159
Navy: 40,562
AAC Championship Game: 35,721
The attendance was along the lines of what we have had this year until we were showing that we were actually a power team. We had been beating teams by big scores and had gone on the road and upset Louisville. Our first game against Tennessee Tech drew 30K largely because we had a new coach that got a lot of national and local attention because of his work at Ohio State. Until the Memphis game, our attendance had been along the current lines.
Until we played Memphis, those “announced” attendance numbers didn’t pass the eye test. When we played Memphis and Navy, we were all ranked and we were undefeated. When we played Temple in the AAC CCG, we played 21st ranked Temple for a spot in a New Years Bowl and still only drew 35,721. But we did bring a large contingent to the Peach Bowl.
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The problem is some of those fans are like my dad. He went to UH in the 60’s and is getting old. Not all are as mobile as they used to be.
When I was at UH in the 90’s and we played in the Astrodome, we were lucky if two shuttle buses were needed to get students to and from their dorms.
Monceaux even acknowledged one problem is a gap in the students spirit from 1985-2004. Most during that time didn’t care about UH sports. I know he’s right since I lived on-campus during the Helton years.
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Yeah, I don’t buy that.
I’m 78 years old and can identify what you posted. Having had 2 heart attacks, Super ventricular tachycardia, A-Fib, and Type 2 diabetes, I find it harder and harder to go to the games each year. I also have a very hard time with the heat, partly because I survived a heat stroke about 30 years ago.
I have been struggling with deciding whether I should renew my season tickets next year. I have had season tickets in football and basketball since 1976 and look forward to each season, but 11:00 games take a toll on me and for a few days afterward I am dragging.
The time I will have to only go to night games and basketball games is drawing closer each year.
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It’s not about convincing UT and A&M fans per se. It’s about convincing Houston residents from any other schools to adopt UH as their local major college program. If UH can’t put more than 25k in the seats when it’s 7-1 and ranked then it needs to make an effort to be inclusive of college football fans who graduated from other places. I guarantee you UH basketball gets fans to show up who aren’t UH alums, and there’s no reason football can’t do the same thing.
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I talk to Houston area fans of opposing teams and welcome them to our stadium and thank them for coming. By the end of our conversation, I tell them they could think of UH as their home away from home and to come watch the Coogs. I would rather a T-Shirt fan in the stands than a UH alumnus at home.
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You’ve been around for a long time and you understand the value of the T-shirt fan. There are several for UH but we need a lot more.
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My dad is only 2 years older than you. He has type 2 diabetes, leukemia, neuropathy, and has to see a retina specialist every month. He knows how you feel.
I’d take him to the games if I could drive, but I have epilepsy and lost my driver’s license in 1997. By law, I have to go three months without a seizure before they will consider letting me have one. Today, I average 1 seizure every nine days according to the diary I keep for my neurologist.
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Oregon St had escalators, most stadiums do, we need that also
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Nah they would rather stay at home and watch their team on tv that day lol, waste 6 or 7 hours to watch us? Good thought but not feasible, their team plays the same day we do most of the time
Regarding this latest line of thought.
I’d like to see a study of P4 football stadiums with upper decks and see what percentage of them have escalators or elevators to those upper decks.
I’m sure we aren’t the only program whose multi-tiered stadium doesn’t have them, but I am guessing that a pretty significant number do.
Based on a quick search that I did, it appears that UT and aTm both have them in their stadiums.
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It doesn’t really matter though, just like prices at other stadiums don’t matter.
We’re trying to find ways to get more people into the stadium for every game, not check some box on market data rankings. What’s important is what our fans and our market want.
The escalator thing is really a fail when you consider that accessibility was one of the big issues used as justification for tearing down Robertson.
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