• UNT ticket office said there were just a bit over 10K students for the SMU game. Last Saturday night I’d say more students vs your La Tech Bulldogs.
• When I transferred from Alvin JUCO (near Houston) To UNT in January, 1972, UNT had 17K enrollment & was more a commuter school. Denton County had 99K population & Denton hardly 39K population. The 2 aforementioned have skyrocketed in growth.
• Our leaders have dramatically changed the “commuter school” thing by going on a dormitory building binge. Right now we have more living on or within blocks of campus than SMU & TCU’s combined enrollment.
Still...small enrollment universities make it happen all the time, ie, USC, Baylor, TCU, etc. The advantage they have are the opponents they play at home that our 2 schools would kill to have. Some of those opponents who bring a minimum of 5K traveling fans.
Amik blocked it so your kicker would be spared the grief of missing - ( meant as joke ).
I have been going to Tech games since 65 -- that was beyond a doubt one of top 10 games of all time ( excluding 2 Alabama wins and Ole Miss win) based on Importance of games (CUSA) and the intensity and Mean Green fan turnout . crazy how Vegas had over/under at 56 and it was 56.
????? 1 home game so far and 23,000 attended. of course that's padded with solid attendance by Southern. Attendance is often down when fans can stay home and watch on TV -- I remember going to games when crowd was 4,000 . Doubt we will exceed 20k unless UAB shows up ...
I have not spent much time thinking about student attendance so I defer to you BUT I think they are staying in dorm playing Video games or texting . Hell-I sit in student section and many spend time on Cell phones checking out no telling what.
So for those who do not get it-- mine is clowning around and frustrated by focus on phones--video games-- PD is addressing serious issue -- I would recommend having committee with folks like PD on it with solutions and I am serious ...
if this was the answer, why did north texas attendance suck for decades?
new ad/coach/president have made it a priority to get students there, give them a reason to be there, and have succeeded. previous administration did nothing to entice the students.
it's a fun ass all day affair and an exciting team. hope the students keep showing up.
to me, it's the admin that has made all the difference indoctrinating the freshmen/students to get to the games due to the love of their university and to support their fellow students
Louisiana Tech freshmen all are required to take a one hour class called University Seminar. Professors teaching that class should somehow incentivize or require that students attend at least one home football game. Maybe make it for extra points? It is a total joke class already. We literally had one class where we walked around campus looking at where the different colleges/classrooms were located.
Then Louisiana Tech's administration needs to come to a decision about priorities. If our priority is to slowly squeeze every dollar we can from the same small group of alumni/supporters, then carry on. If our priority is to increase student and local attendance to try to build interest in our program and to try to build a great game day tradition, then we need to have free or very cheap tailgate spots that are organized. Students should have access to spots as well. These spots need to be clearly marked, close to the stadium and efforts should be made to improve them over time. To students, the tailgating atmosphere is as important or more important than the actual game. I used to attend every game when I was in school and it wasn't because of the great football being played. We went 4-8 two of my four years. I went for the game, the atmosphere, and the tailgating with friends. Because of that, now I am an addict like all of you.
Next, our police need to learn to overlook minor infractions by college students and need to be told to use warnings to resolve any issues that they can. Issuing tickets or making arrests should only be made as a last resort for people who are truly getting out of hand. (Please don't tell me that this can't be done for legal reasons, every SEC school accomplishes this.)
I also believe moving our team to the home side of the field contributed to killing our atmosphere. In big situations, the excitement of the players and the player's reactions really pumped up the student section. The student section fed off of the team and then the rest of the stadium seemed to feed off of the student section. Now, our team is in front of the oldest, most calm group of fans in the stadium. They try to build excitement, but get no reaction from the crowd. Then our students have five mostly empty rows between them and the opposing team. I sit in those five rows, and I appreciate the amazing deal that I receive, but I would gladly give those seats back to the students if the atmosphere/excitement would return.
Lastly, the people who make videos for our video board need to learn to make videos that Tech fans can rally behind. A movie clip or music video is not going to do it. I remember our fans truly reacting when they saw Terry Bradshaw and Trace Adkins on the video board pumping them up.
The home team was on the student side in the old WAC days because the Fresno students would throw hard objects at the visitor's bench. The tradition of the home team being on the west side started when almost all games were afternoon games and it was an advantage to have the sun at the home team's back. Now, Bear Bryant liked to be on the east side because the bench got a lot more coverage from the press box TV cameras which are on the west side looking east.
I was at the game and talked with a lot of the UNT fans. They were all nice folks.