(11-08-2015 07:36 PM)CornellCoog Wrote:  Not salty. Just honest.

I have been around UH football long enough to know that moving nearly 33,000 seats to watch a game against a team that traveled 50 fans, no cheer squad, and nobody locally cares about is actually pretty darn amazing. Throw in that 25,000 of those fans actually sat through 3 hours of constant rain, and I am pleasantly surprised.

It is what it is. I wish we had more fans. But, at the end of the day, if given a choice, I'd choose 9-0 vs. having 5,000 more fans.

So I guess UC was supposed to bring 15,000-20,000 fans to Houston?

And Houston fans will show up if the opposing teams bring their cheerleaders?

If you're going to show pictures, don't you kind of need to show both sides of the stadium? Reminds me of early in Fuente's tenure when Memphis sports writers would show the east side of the stadium (view from their press box) with about 5k in the seats to prove a point and conveniently ignore the 15-20k sitting on the other side.

(11-09-2015 10:20 AM)jlbphila Wrote:  If you're going to show pictures, don't you kind of need to show both sides of the stadium? Reminds me of early in Fuente's tenure when Memphis sports writers would show the east side of the stadium (view from their press box) with about 5k in the seats to prove a point and conveniently ignore the 15-20k sitting on the other side.

He's right.

At least show the visitor side from Chapman if that's what you're going to show for SMU and Tulane.

It was at best 20% full.

Tulsa has one of the best looking stadiums in the AAC...

(11-09-2015 10:23 AM)TUBballJunkie Wrote:  He's right.

At least show the visitor side from Chapman if that's what you're going to show for SMU and Tulane.

It was at best 20% full.

That's the only TU picture I have, because I took it from my seat. I took a pic because I get flamed every week in this thread. :) Did my standard google image search for Tulsa Football and Central Florida football within 1 week, and found no crowd shots. Same on twitter. Only one I found was from a media guy before gates were open, since I'm not there I KNOW there were more fans there than this:


I know on the east side (my side) it was definitely thin, nearly no UCF fans and my section was MAYBE 50% full (I'm at the 45), but I never saw my side of the stadium with a decent perspective. Students showed up on the north end of the east side. So I'd welcome any photos of the east side (which would have been the side shown on TV), and I wouldn't doubt they are not impressive - but I generally blame the center section "platinum" donors for not showing up.

As I said repeatedly above, the Tulsa crowd as sad in number and energy level. Here are the other sides of Tulane and SMU.

Home side of Tulane:

That's the first time I've ever seen the home side of Tulane's new stadium. The far side is impressive looking, I expected it to be balanced. Strange deal.

Home side of SMU:

The original SMU picture was the one tweeted by their media guy.

(11-09-2015 10:41 AM)UofMemphis Wrote:  Tulsa has one of the best looking stadiums in the AAC...

Besides the troughs in the bathrooms. Those are wuff.

(11-07-2015 11:49 PM)AirRaid Wrote:  Good job Memphis with the attendance. You have a P5 worthy fanbase.

Would love to test that theory.

(11-08-2015 07:36 PM)CornellCoog Wrote:  I have been around UH football long enough to know that moving nearly 33,000 seats to watch a game against a team that traveled 50 fans, no cheer squad, and nobody locally cares about is actually pretty darn amazing. Throw in that 25,000 of those fans actually sat through 3 hours of constant rain, and I am pleasantly surprised.

I think it was more then 50 fans. The UC Allotment prices were not the greatest, it was much cheaper to directly through Houston for tickets, so we weren't all together.

I was there and sat with some Houston friends of mine, and was red/black. There are also a decent number of students who work in Texas/Louisiana/Arkansas areas and they came down. It wasn't our greatest turnout ever, but I'd bet there were at least 1000 to 1500 Cincy fans there.

(11-09-2015 11:39 AM)MemphisTigerFreak Wrote:  

(11-09-2015 10:41 AM)UofMemphis Wrote:  Tulsa has one of the best looking stadiums in the AAC...

Besides the troughs in the bathrooms. Those are wuff.

I may try the concessions, but normally not the restrooms, lol...I try to find a nice, clean, private restroom around the stadium somewhere, say a newer gas station or supermarket...and go before/after the game.

Road game warrior tip, lol

Helpful hint to visiting fans: the bathroom on the "home" side has the original bathrooms as well as a stable of brand new bathrooms build when the stadium was renovated a few years ago. The restrooms are pretty much like you would expect in most office buildings. It also has better concessions and way more space behind the grandstands. Its amazing how ghetto the bathrooms on the visitor side are - but the piss troughs are efficient!

Also, the basketball arena is usually open. Same gig, office style restrooms and lower traffic. You can come and go from the stadium as often as you like.

/that concludes the tour of bathrooms

(11-08-2015 10:25 PM)shere khan Wrote:  

(11-08-2015 10:12 PM)Farmer Jack Wrote:  There was definitely 32k there including myself.

If yall gonna make **** up just say 80000

There's an idea.

(11-08-2015 10:29 PM)SMUmustangs Wrote:  

(11-08-2015 05:00 PM)T-Town Cane Wrote:  

(11-08-2015 01:27 PM)SMUmustangs Wrote:  

(11-08-2015 08:23 AM)TulsaBlood Wrote:  

' Wrote:['emple Owl' pid='12614078' dateline='1446983088']
SMU had 17K at that game...sure didn't look like it.

SMU reports fake numbers and has been doing so for years.

I have heard several times that boosters buy up huge lots of tickets before each game, as sort of a donation and to boost their attendance numbers. And then instead of reporting tickets scanned at the gate, they report tickets sold.....pretty sly of them!

Don't disagree about what SMU does. BUT, don't tell me Tulsa does not do the same thing.

Actually, Tulsa is slyer than SMU on boosting attendance or tickets sales/distributed. Tulsa might sell a large block of tickets to like say a local Doctor who then gives the tickets to all of the local hospital employees. Many of those employees will take the free tickets and actually attend the games. That is really being sly. Or better yet Tulsa will give something like the City employees free tickets and many of those will attend the games.

In fact SMU should take lessons from Tulsa on inflating attendance and ticket sales and I am being serious. I do not fault Tulsa for doing what they have to do.

Tulsa did that for the first game, but I haven't heard of any large ticket purchases the past 4 games. Tulsa's marketing for football is just atrocious. We use to get a lot of local school teams and big groups sitting in the endzone, but haven't seen much of that this year. The east side is always empty due to 30$ tickets and having to sit in the sun. Based on attendance numbers, Tulsa only reports tickets scanned. We do count the free student tickets that get scanned, so that helps boost attendance. Tulsa's attendance when we aren't that good will always be an issue. We have about 15-20k solid fans, but the other 10-15k casual fans will only show up when we are really good or their ticket is free.

Hogwash. Tulsa does not report tickets scanned. There is no way 16,000+ people were in the stands at the UCF game and that was the reported attendance. In the past I think TU has probably inflated attendance numbers more than any school I know.

There was a discussion last year about credibility with the way attendance was being reported. This year they seem to be actually reporting tickets distributed (tickets sold, discounted or given away, which is what many schools do), but not actual people in attendance.

You act like you know a lot about TU, but most of what you say is ignorant and misinformed. There were definitely 16k tickets scanned last game. The west side was almost full, as it is most of the time and between the east side and end zone it is fair to say we had 16k. By the end of the game we maybe had 12k in the stands due to people leaving to watch the OSU game and people going to the tailgates.

If you want to talk about inflated attendance, SMU is culprit #1. I remember going to a game in Dallas a few years back that had at most 15k in the stand (including half TU fans,) but the reported attendance was over 25k.

(11-09-2015 01:23 PM)T-Town Cane Wrote:  

(11-08-2015 10:29 PM)SMUmustangs Wrote:  

(11-08-2015 05:00 PM)T-Town Cane Wrote:  

(11-08-2015 01:27 PM)SMUmustangs Wrote:  

(11-08-2015 08:23 AM)TulsaBlood Wrote:  SMU reports fake numbers and has been doing so for years.

I have heard several times that boosters buy up huge lots of tickets before each game, as sort of a donation and to boost their attendance numbers. And then instead of reporting tickets scanned at the gate, they report tickets sold.....pretty sly of them!

Don't disagree about what SMU does. BUT, don't tell me Tulsa does not do the same thing.

Actually, Tulsa is slyer than SMU on boosting attendance or tickets sales/distributed. Tulsa might sell a large block of tickets to like say a local Doctor who then gives the tickets to all of the local hospital employees. Many of those employees will take the free tickets and actually attend the games. That is really being sly. Or better yet Tulsa will give something like the City employees free tickets and many of those will attend the games.

In fact SMU should take lessons from Tulsa on inflating attendance and ticket sales and I am being serious. I do not fault Tulsa for doing what they have to do.

Tulsa did that for the first game, but I haven't heard of any large ticket purchases the past 4 games. Tulsa's marketing for football is just atrocious. We use to get a lot of local school teams and big groups sitting in the endzone, but haven't seen much of that this year. The east side is always empty due to 30$ tickets and having to sit in the sun. Based on attendance numbers, Tulsa only reports tickets scanned. We do count the free student tickets that get scanned, so that helps boost attendance. Tulsa's attendance when we aren't that good will always be an issue. We have about 15-20k solid fans, but the other 10-15k casual fans will only show up when we are really good or their ticket is free.

Hogwash. Tulsa does not report tickets scanned. There is no way 16,000+ people were in the stands at the UCF game and that was the reported attendance. In the past I think TU has probably inflated attendance numbers more than any school I know.

There was a discussion last year about credibility with the way attendance was being reported. This year they seem to be actually reporting tickets distributed (tickets sold, discounted or given away, which is what many schools do), but not actual people in attendance.

You act like you know a lot about TU, but most of what you say is ignorant and misinformed. There were definitely 16k tickets scanned last game. The west side was almost full, as it is most of the time and between the east side and end zone it is fair to say we had 16k. By the end of the game we maybe had 12k in the stands due to people leaving to watch the OSU game and people going to the tailgates.

If you want to talk about inflated attendance, SMU is culprit #1. I remember going to a game in Dallas a few years back that had at most 15k in the stand (including half TU fans,) but the reported attendance was over 25k.

He acts like this all the time - he says he's "in the know" about TU and what's happening behind the scenes but really he just comes around when he can find a way to bash Tulsa or at least hand out some back handed compliments.

(11-09-2015 10:44 AM)JesseTU Wrote:  

(11-09-2015 10:23 AM)TUBballJunkie Wrote:  He's right.

At least show the visitor side from Chapman if that's what you're going to show for SMU and Tulane.

It was at best 20% full.

That's the only TU picture I have, because I took it from my seat. I took a pic because I get flamed every week in this thread. :) Did my standard google image search for Tulsa Football and Central Florida football within 1 week, and found no crowd shots. Same on twitter. Only one I found was from a media guy before gates were open, since I'm not there I KNOW there were more fans there than this:


I know on the east side (my side) it was definitely thin, nearly no UCF fans and my section was MAYBE 50% full (I'm at the 45), but I never saw my side of the stadium with a decent perspective. Students showed up on the north end of the east side. So I'd welcome any photos of the east side (which would have been the side shown on TV), and I wouldn't doubt they are not impressive - but I generally blame the center section "platinum" donors for not showing up.

As I said repeatedly above, the Tulsa crowd as sad in number and energy level. Here are the other sides of Tulane and SMU.

Home side of Tulane:

That's the first time I've ever seen the home side of Tulane's new stadium. The far side is impressive looking, I expected it to be balanced. Strange deal.

Home side of SMU:

The original SMU picture was the one tweeted by their media guy.

That's not Tulane's "home side" - the team is on the other, double-decked side of the field, and the visitors have a corner of the stadium. The other side if you look closely in the earlier picture is packed just behind the overhang from the upper deck. Were there 26,000 people there? Definitely not, but there were plenty inside and under the seats avoiding the constant rain.

Every school reports tickets distributed, and this was our homecoming. The university was reporting it was the largest amount of alumni who have ever registered for homecoming events, and the tailgate was larger than it was for the opening of Yulman last year. So we probably sold that many tickets. Once the rain picked up right at game time, plenty of people just went home. Most people left after halftime, and I don't blame them. It was awful weather from start to finish.

Sorry, I was called out for not showing Tulane's home side. I assumed it was the side with the press box, like most places. So this is the home side:



I have no doubt the weather played a big role. I have no doubt club seat holders or whatever were inside. But if the image below is reflective, I'd say the number was closer to 6k than 26k.

If "tickets distributed" is the metric, then why not just throw the tickets from a rooftop 5 minutes before kickoff and report 26k every week?

Like I've said, Tulsa was horrible at it during Wojcik years. They'd report 6k at a game and I could count the butts in a section and extrapolate to maybe 2k. Pure crap to make the program look better in paper.

Just a pet peeve of mine.

(11-09-2015 01:23 PM)T-Town Cane Wrote:  

(11-08-2015 10:29 PM)SMUmustangs Wrote:  

(11-08-2015 05:00 PM)T-Town Cane Wrote:  

(11-08-2015 01:27 PM)SMUmustangs Wrote:  

(11-08-2015 08:23 AM)TulsaBlood Wrote:  SMU reports fake numbers and has been doing so for years.

I have heard several times that boosters buy up huge lots of tickets before each game, as sort of a donation and to boost their attendance numbers. And then instead of reporting tickets scanned at the gate, they report tickets sold.....pretty sly of them!

Don't disagree about what SMU does. BUT, don't tell me Tulsa does not do the same thing.

Actually, Tulsa is slyer than SMU on boosting attendance or tickets sales/distributed. Tulsa might sell a large block of tickets to like say a local Doctor who then gives the tickets to all of the local hospital employees. Many of those employees will take the free tickets and actually attend the games. That is really being sly. Or better yet Tulsa will give something like the City employees free tickets and many of those will attend the games.

In fact SMU should take lessons from Tulsa on inflating attendance and ticket sales and I am being serious. I do not fault Tulsa for doing what they have to do.

Tulsa did that for the first game, but I haven't heard of any large ticket purchases the past 4 games. Tulsa's marketing for football is just atrocious. We use to get a lot of local school teams and big groups sitting in the endzone, but haven't seen much of that this year. The east side is always empty due to 30$ tickets and having to sit in the sun. Based on attendance numbers, Tulsa only reports tickets scanned. We do count the free student tickets that get scanned, so that helps boost attendance. Tulsa's attendance when we aren't that good will always be an issue. We have about 15-20k solid fans, but the other 10-15k casual fans will only show up when we are really good or their ticket is free.

Hogwash. Tulsa does not report tickets scanned. There is no way 16,000+ people were in the stands at the UCF game and that was the reported attendance. In the past I think TU has probably inflated attendance numbers more than any school I know.

There was a discussion last year about credibility with the way attendance was being reported. This year they seem to be actually reporting tickets distributed (tickets sold, discounted or given away, which is what many schools do), but not actual people in attendance.

You act like you know a lot about TU, but most of what you say is ignorant and misinformed. There were definitely 16k tickets scanned last game. The west side was almost full, as it is most of the time and between the east side and end zone it is fair to say we had 16k. By the end of the game we maybe had 12k in the stands due to people leaving to watch the OSU game and people going to the tailgates.

If you want to talk about inflated attendance, SMU is culprit #1. I remember going to a game in Dallas a few years back that had at most 15k in the stand (including half TU fans,) but the reported attendance was over 25k.

SMU reports tickets sold or distributed, which is what most G5 schools do and what TU is now doing. Of course there are never any where near that many fans in the seats. You will not find me defending SMU's attendance. It is horrible.

I imagine I know more about TU than you think. As for the UCF game , one of the TU posters earlier pointed out that the East side was only 20% full at best, which I agree with. That means about 2,000 fans on the East side, at best.. The end zone had even less, probably 15% at best. The end zone seats 6,500, so that comes to 975 fans. So 2,000 on the East side and 1,000 in the end zone comes to 3,000 fans, at best.

The two end sections on the West side were no more than 1/2 full. So that is about 2,000 fans. The four middle sections were say close too full, which is being generous. That equates to about 4,000 fans. Add another 1,000 for Club and Suites and you have a grand total of 10,000 fans. No where near 16,000.

Excuse me, but I would say you are the one misinformed. I will not stoop to calling you ignorant.

BTW I did not start this discussion. TulsaBlood did when he started bashing SMU about reporting fake numbers.
I have just been pointing out that TU should not be throwing stones at SMU when they are just as guilty or maybe even more so.

Interesting discussion. If Tulsa is doing the same thing, then why not give away more tickets or horribly discount them and report 26k like other schools are doing?

From where I sat, I would believe the 16k figure. It is reasonably close given all the other variables (again, people leaving to go back out to tailgate, people at restrooms/concessions, donors inside the luxury box, etc.). That was assuming that my side was less attended than the "home side" which I was looking at. Clearly the UCF allotment was nearly void. My section, the middle, was maybe 60% full. The Student section was near full as always (seriously, kudos to our students. For many moons they didn't give a crap about football: too many foreign students and egg heads. Guarantee at least 25% of the student body shows up, maybe 50%). The end zone was maybe 25% at its peak and suffered a rapid decline (most didn't return after half).

So without a decent perspective on my side, I guess I can't place a bet one way or another. But from what I saw, I would smile and nod at the 16k figure. But, if my side was as sad as you say (and my section was a gleaming bright spot of hard core fans!), then it would be hard to get to the sad 16k number. At which point, I'd have to guess 16k represented tickets sold.

Which is fine, if you REPORT PAID TICKETS SOLD! But don't report attendance that is wrong... or if you do, at least do it to such an extent that you don't land us dead last. I mean, if you are going to sell your integrity, don't give it away! If youre going to cheat, cheat to win!

(I'm tempted to have an intern do a head count on my Tulsa picture. Now I'm curious! Then I remember that I pay those people...)

[edit] It occurs to me that I really never looked up in my section either. Let alone up and to the sides... so that was probably more sparse than looking forward. I'm getting nervous on the sad 16k number, but no! It must be true![/edit]

The replay is available on watchespn for now...that TV angle is toward the east side. It was the worst crowd on TV I've seen in a loooong time.

And I don't know why we don't try some creative ticket promos. It doesn't have to be cheese wrappers but the status quo isn't good. We gave away a Lexus or some nonsense at the first game but heaven forbid we discount a ticket or actually promote football returning from the grave.

Tulane is the king of fake numbers.

Their stadium capacity is fake. They say it holds 8,000 more than it does. So every crowd starts at 8000 fakes.

Then their crowds assume every student on campus attends whether they attend or not.

And that's before the normal puffery.

nobody fluffs a crowd like Tulane. all those years in the superdome taught them well