Better yet what is our athletic department doing to put butts I. Seats. Texans do it every weekend with an average team
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I think people got desperate after losing pro football for 6 yeas…so they paying to not lose the Texans…I understand where you are coming from.
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Pro teams go after a different type of fan base.
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The hardcore 25K are there as always. MA doesn’t have the charisma and/or “big win” program to put us solidly in the 35+ crowds. I think that fact has been established by now.
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charisma OR coaching ability to do the job.
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Our section was definitely thinner than normal last night. My wife was sick so she didn’t go last night either. One thing I do notice is that people that attend with a group are more likely to show on Thursday night or after a bad loss.
My kid, who just graduated in May, says “it’s on us (alumni) to show up.” He has gone to every game when he wasn’t working this season even though the free ticket train has left the station.
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There’s truth in what you say. We can all get mad as hell for the way Herman handled his last year here, but his personality drew a lot of attention to the program, and that brought butts into the seats. So, he made a difference where the bottom line counted.
Ronnie Howard may not like it, but he’s got to be a better salesman to the community. He’s the face of the program. Herman inherently understood that. CMA needs to understand that. It goes with the turf and of being the head coach. He needs to become a better and more emotional motivator. Our players, students, and apparently, the Houston community, feed off that emotion.
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No the city just loves a good bandwagon. Casual Fans didn’t show up until after UH beat FSU & OU and we were a college football darling.
They’ll come back. But they can never be counted on. It’s the same for the Rockets and Astros as well.
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The Texans are not an average team. Don’t compare anything to the NFL, they’re a monster.
Going 13-1 put butts in the seats, but Judas was a better ambassador of UH than Applewhite until about half way through 2016. I am torn about whether I think that is the coach’s responsibility. I tend to lean toward it is the Athletic Director’s, or VP of Athletics in Houston’s case.
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13-1 helps. I’m not trying to discount it. However, it helped 2016, not the 2015 season. The numbers for the 2015 season are attributable to several factors, which include Herman’s motivational skills.
Look, I’m not trying to sell Herman to anyone. He clearly looked out for his own self interests in 2016, and I believe that played a huge part in our losses at Navy and SMU that year (he was already looking for a new gig, and the players knew it).
All this being said, I believe we still have to give credit where credit was due. 2015 was a magical year because Herman’s motivational skills played a large part in it. That raw emotion seeped over the sides into the student body and the community. We were all “jacked up” and ready for game day. It’s the only thing I’ve seen demonstrated over the course of the past several decades which seems to consistently get butts into the seats at UH games.
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I believe we sold out one time in 2015, Memphis. I think our excitement and emotions get caught up in how we remember a season. Reality is attendance struggled in 2015 despite Herman’s charisma. He specifically called out fans that year, which can be dangerous for a coach to do. There was a bump from 2014 for sure, but that can be attributable to simply having a staff change.
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Navy was a sell out toi
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In CMA’s playbook. At this rate the correlation between loses & wins will have direct consequences for for the 2019 season. I find it remarkable that UCF did not miss a beat from 2017-18. Yes judas majorly screwed us (no pun intended) but was this coming? It is only fair to ask. No matter how bad we feel we need to find a way/ways to bring the fans back into the stadium.
Correct, a 7-0 #18 ranked team drew less than 30k announced for an October night game against an SEC team. The following week at 8-0 still ranked #18 with a homecoming game at 2:30, there was just under 33k announced. Earlier in the year 25k announced for that Thursday SMU game.
Also don’t forget the 2016 numbers are higher because of increased season ticket sales thanks to the OU/Louisville games being on the schedule as well as the Peach Bowl season. Were there really 36k for those UCF and Tulane games when we dropped out of the rankings? I remember giving away my Tulane tickets when I couldn’t make it because they wouldn’t sell on stubhub for anything.
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UCF and Tulane games in 2016 looked like this year.
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It’s a pro town, always has been and always will be…tons of other options for folks to drop couple hundred bucks of their entertainment dollars. I’ll use TCU, who has been on a real good 10 year run, as proof. Good friends with TCU HoF and says same thing. DFW same boat, when team isn’t having a great year, fans find other things to do. The hardcore 20-25k, we’re always there. IMO it’s getting better has the young alumni have just started the life journey with kids, marriage, etc. I can see 30-35k being the hardcore in the not too distant future. UH is leaps ahead thanks to RK
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Maybe I’m still scarred from going to UH in the '90s, but having a hardcore 25k under these circumstances sounds pretty good to me. They announced 30k for Saturday’s game and I was surprised. I expected under. I wish it were more of course.
The dip in season tickets translates directly into fewer butts in seats. I’m not sure what the solution is (besides winning a high percentage of games) but I know that it’s not undercutting your season ticket holders by offering the “Four Packs”. Unless you are in a premium section there is simply no reason to buy the season ticket.
Single game tickets should NEVER cost less than the season ticket holder price. If they want to offer cheap seats then those should be in the upper corners and any season ticket holders in those areas should get the discount as well.
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