Took my 11th grade daughter to her first UT game in several years. She will be making college decisions soon. She can get into UT and other good schools. I'm a UT grad and long-time season ticket holder. You should have heard all the excuses I was making: "UT crowds always arrive late." "Don't worry, night games are more electric." "Could be worse, we could be playing Kansas or ISU." "Don't worry about the empty student section, they're probably studying for exams." "At least when you're at UT in 2 years, we'll have Nick Saban as coach!" Most pathetic, dead crowd in ages! Steve Patterson should fire Mack for this fact alone. Totally embarrassing!
Fans pay to see a good product. Money drives UT. If the product sucks, the money dries up. I'm sure Patterson knows how the cycle works. Mack is responsible for the product that Patterson sells. The product does not justify the price of admission right now.
Big Fan: Sounds like you feel that your daughter will make her decision about higher education based on a football game. I'm a big UT sports fan. So is my daughter who also attended. She is now a PhD professor in Michigan. She attributes a good deal of her success to the EDUCATION at UT. She loved Major as a QB, but our family supported UT first for the academics.
^^^agree with above. Deciding on where you will pursue your undergraduate degree based on a football game's attendance and/or atmosphere, is really not very farsighted. UT probably not the place for her.
UT is not and has not been in the realm of good crowds since ever. Just isn't. Spurts here and there with fickle fans actually caring. But overall and in comparison to many other teams and venues...we are about a B-.
IMO fan base has never been the same since stadium was upsized to seat 100,000. Prior to expansion, it used to be harder to get tickets, now you can pretty much get into to any game below face value the week of. The larger seat capacity has generally been matched up with crappy temas and generally crappy home schedules.
In 2008 and 2009 we did not fill up the stadium multiple times. We sold all the tickets but i remember the 2009 UCF game, for example, had lots and lots of empty seats. The only rowdy crowds we have are in Dallas for OU, at the Rose Bowl and maybe once a year at night if it's a big game. If it had to do with the coach, why did we have so many empty seats when we went 25-2 (13-0 at home ) in 08-09? Texas fans 08-09 "I don't want to go watch a boring blowout." Texas fans 10-13 "I don't want to see us lose." Texas fans after 13 Iowa State and WVU games "I don't want to see us win a close one against these teams." We don't apparently want to see blowout wins, blowouts losses, close wins or close losses. Im not sure why half the fans buy tickets. I mean, if you intend to come to austin to go to the Texas Exes, you can save money by not purchasing tickets at all. This problem is even worse in basketball (I'm talking before we started being bad) but I think that is more that many seats are sold to corporations and are always empty. I remember an UT-A&M basketball game where thousands of students were turned away and there were hundreds of empty seats on the lower level. I was like "what the hell?" Patterson has a lot of off the field, particularly with getting fans to come to events even when we are winning, problems to deal with as well as on the field problems. I hope he is up to the task.
Here is a better point to make. Even if we had won yesterday, there would have still been lots of empty seats, a lame environment and all the recruits would have walked away unimpressed.
If you think the student section was pathetic you should have had a view of the alumni section. Half full and always on their asses. I guess you coulda told her alumni dont always suck so much during games but you would be lying, they almost always sit.
So now we're arguing what section has the shittiest fans? Looks like we may be headed back to the $5 stampede zone era.
I'm in Sect. 29, Row 43... not even bothered much by the jumbotron's directional speakers. After giving up the two quick TD's just before the first half ended... seriously you could hear a pin drop. Even at the ensuing kickoffs there was no clamor, nothing, and you could turn and talk with "inside voices" to fans beside you. Which I did. Numb silence. It was the freakiest game I ever sat through. The '61 loss (6-0) to TCU as an undefeated team was stunning and devastating, but that team played hard and was championship caliber playing at an elite level. This was just inexcusably weird.
The administration can do things to increase the quality of the crowd - but they consistently choose money instead. You can reduce the size of the stadium to create a supply constraint - then you less "social" fans. You can choose not to put up obnoxious ads at every stoppage of play or having every first down or replayed sponsored by someone. It may seem like a small thing, but it helps create a sterilized, commercialized atmosphere. We were talking to some fans that had just been to a game at Wisconsin a few weeks earlier, and they said it was ridiculous how many ads were going on - there were ZERO at their Wisconsin experience. Instead, the Jumbotron could be running highlights of past games or big plays to get the crowd involved instead of tuned out. Fans are fans everywhere. With just a few exceptions, their involvement and attitude is going to be a result of the environment created by the product. This is true in all sports in all cities. There are endless ways for the admin to change and improve the atmosphere.
I think the product on the field sucks right now but.... SERIOUSLY? I didn't go to Texas because of the performance of the football team.... Or the basketball team... Or any team for matter. What ever your daughters choice, I hope it's not made on wich college has the best football record.
When I get down during games, my kid reminds me of the quote by the tech support guy in Vanilla Sky - "There are no guarantees, but remember: Even in the future, the sweet is never as sweet without the sour."
Patterson from the pro background and ASU, and you expect emphasis on academics and UT bragging material? I hope you are correct, but I worry. Most schools would kill to have a "subpar" attendance of 100,000. You need the large stadium to accommodate the newer graduates who want to come to games. Those who have come for many years don't want to be displaced after all the years of loyalty. Something for everyone, including the chronic complainers.
Better just be pleased your daughter can get into UT and hope she makes the decision bSed on factors other than school athletics (unless she plays VB). My out of state scholar granddaughter got rejected and ended up at Johns Hopkins, having an awesome time btw. To the other point, I was at the game and agree with everyone, was quite weird in toto, game and atmosphere. The crowd tried to help early but was dead by mid 3 qtr. I was amused at the jumbotron's attempts in Q4 to get some noise and no one responded, no one. Things really have gone bad to worse. I remember when the upper right corner of 'tron' had the game stats, doesn't even show that now. It is all commercial. Sucks, just like our performance on the field.
Oh my, I get credit for a rant? My goodness. I did indeed see stats somewhere on the bottom once or twice, but as I said, they used to appear in upper right rectangle - regularly - and poor old me is a creature of habit I guess. And I do think the ticket holders would be better served by a less commercial laden video board.
These threads always crack me up. We are no different than any fans. The product sucks, we are not going to make noise needlessly, and we are going to leave early. I would have left toward the end of the 3rd Q if I could've. And I'm going to laugh at any message board poster, or DT Malcolm Brown or Kenny Vaccarro for any shaming attempt.
