No one feels threatened. You do not win people over to your side by disingenuously spinning what people are saying into something they are not saying. Texas fans do not have issue with the terms of this compromise. In fact, I think 99% of alumni strongly prefer the field being named after Ricky Williams and Earl Campbell over Joe Jamail. I do not know anyone that ever called it "Joe Jamail Field" or liked the name. The fans have an issue that UT has shown they will give into the players and this will continue until the Eyes of Texas are gone, the Texas flag is removed, etc, etc. UT has already removed the Six Flags of Texas from the Stadium. The UT Band has already stopped playing the Yellow Rose of Texas. Herman and the players described this as "a good first step". That means more demands to follow until we became a traditionless, bland program without identity. With players saying that they will not sing the eyes of texas, you can bet protests will follow, possibly in game. As many posters above say, they are here for football, not politics.
A lot of us, especially those that paid (or have kids or grandkids that paid) outrageous student loans so UT's overblown, wasteful and worthless administration can live fat and happy on the backs of its students do not appreciate a bunch of mostly academically unqualified students getting free tuition, food, housing, tutoring, and physical training (plus getting cost of living payments in addition to other perks) complaining like they are being done wrong in some way. Playing football is a fun game. It is optional and not service like the military. None of these players are putting themselves "in danger" for anyone but themselves. They are playing a game either because they enjoy it or they hope they go to the NFL and make big time money on it.
The truth is, there are not many new people yearning to pay high dollar for season tickets. How do I know? In my section, no one has ever replaced those that left due to Steve Patterson. UT continually sells upper deck tickets for $90 a game. Even after winning the Sugar Bowl, no one has replaced those that left from Patterson. The past 6 years, I have never seen the upper deck so consistently empty. It was never like that from 1994-2013. With the past 10+ years of students and future students taking on crippling student debt, no one will be showing up to replace the season ticket holders anytime soon. Last year I sold my season tickets, only attended the Kansas State and Oklahoma State and scalped tickets for under $40 each for both games in my same section rows below my actual seats. I could actually buy seats in my same section online for $90 each without a donation if I wanted to do so. Anyone paying foundation dues at this point is a sucker.
UT HAS to get the old-timers with money. I think UT is aware of this which is why they are shrinking the stadium and adding more suites in the south end zone. UT knows it has lost the middle class/average alumni (see how low the donations are) and is only going to cater to few 1%ers and corporations. I expect the suites and tickets the 1% and corporations buy to get more expensive and the other seats to get cheaper and cheaper.
I think UT also thinks it can sell to non-Longhorn Austinites (which is why there is more of a focus on "Austin" than "Texas" at the game than in years past). The problem they have is that these new Austinites do not care about UT Football. UT is not an NFL team and transplants do not treat college teams the same way. The new Austinites will attend one game to say they did, may get interested in a big game like LSU, Notre Dame or USC, but otherwise will not care. If they do care about college football, it is their own school not UT.
UT may be able to get away with a lot more if it was the only show in the state like with Arkansas or Nebraska. However, this state has 2 NFL teams, 2 MLB teams, 3 NBA teams, and 11 other D1 college football programs. On top of that, Austin hotels have become outrageous and traveling to, from and inside Austin has become very painful.
While DKR will still sell out for big games, I expect season tickets sales and attendance to drop significantly over the next 10 years. Alumni that are long time ticket holders are the backbone of college sports. Piss them off and you will never see that money again.
UT in general is operated by non-longhorns and, for the most part, non-Texans. They do not care about alienating the population of this state. For the most part, the population ignores them (and if an actual alum like Wallace Hall tries to fix things, they run a smear campaign against him). This will not last forever and at some point UT will be knocked down a peg. Unfortunately, the non-longhorns and non-Texans that run it will not care and will just move on to ruin someone else's university.
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