Attendance at which sports? With Barnes out, our basketball attendance will be much higher this year. The low attendance at men's basketball games was low because of Barnes boring product. Patterson's removal of Barnes and hiring of Shaka Smart is a fantastic move for attendance. Once Smart and Patterson work out getting a serious home schedule going, things will change. Basketball will show a major spike this year just because of Smart's hiring and the kind of basketball he coaches. So that's a very positive move Patterson made. I don't have the figures, but I'm guessing baseball was down, as the weather for about 60% of the home games was abysmal. In fact, of all the years I've had season tickets, I cannot remember a worse baseball season for weather. And, with the exception of the Oklahoma series, most of the good series were away from home. Even the OU series was plagued by bad weather.
As for football, I haven't compared the number of season ticket holders for the year before last and this last season. The overall crowd attendance will spike IF the hiring of Charlie Strong turns out to be a good move by Patterson. But this is all just the beginning. Patterson now "owns" his decisions in both football and basketball. And this upcoming season will be the 1st we can begin to judge. That's why I think it's silly for us to try and 'grade' him now.
What I've always been most concerned with in any of our sport's venues is the student's attendance and the overall atmosphere. Let's face it, UT is not known for inspired crowds, and that has to change. At the Erwin Center, I'd get excited if all of the crowd around me had the ability to stand up for the national anthem. That's got to change, as does 1/2 of the crowd leaving at the start of the 4th quarter in football (and this was happening when we were a top 10 team). Whether the antics that Patterson is putting into place for football and basketball will work, we'll just have to wait and see. But anything would be an improvement over the almost detached crowd atmosphere we've had.
I'm willing to give him a chance to govern our athletic department and see if he can improve things. If he can't, his time here will be short-lived anyway.....It's hard to be liked or appreciated when you're the "top dog." Whether it's coaching, administration, or in corporate world, most like to find fault with the person in charge instead of working in whatever venue and capacity to make things click well. I've been there. Nothing becomes a perfect product overnight, especially when the product was not running smoothly anyway.
Last edited: Jun 10, 2015