The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

https://www.al.com/uab/2021/08/for-uab-f...-here.html

Pretty spot on. Time for us to show up.

The problem is it takes time to build a fan base. UAB had twenty years of outside interference and outright sabotage limiting its fan base. Those issues are finally gone but it’s going to take years to build a hard core fan base large enough to sell out protective on a constant basis.

We'll be fine. I just want all those people who were reluctant to show up at Legion Field to
show up now that we have a brand new venue in downtown surrounded restaurants, bars,
and other entertainment venues. It should be a easy sell to those that said no to the old grey lady.

That or it exposes them and their excuses.

It’s going to be a vastly better fan experience and I’m sure students will be more likely to attend and more likely to become season ticket holders after they graduate. I just don’t expect instant sellouts. I do expect UAB games to become a difficult ticket eventually

(08-06-2021 09:45 AM)kdblazer Wrote:  We'll be fine. I just want all those people who were reluctant to show up at Legion Field to
show up now that we have a brand new venue in downtown surrounded restaurants, bars,
and other entertainment venues. It should be a easy sell to those that said no to the old grey lady.

But, but, but…..parking!

On the other hand, Goodman and his "every game needs to be a hard sell out" can kma. If most of teams on our schedule came to Bryant-Denny there would be plenty of empty seats too.

We need every butt in seat we can get, but if you set the bar twenty feet high its impossible to jump it.

(08-06-2021 11:03 AM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  On the other hand, Goodman and his "every game needs to be a hard sell out" can kma. If most of teams on our schedule came to Bryant-Denny there would be plenty of empty seats too.

We need every butt in seat we can get, but if you set the bar twenty feet high its impossible to jump it.

Yeah, I thought that was crazy talk. We need to average more than 30,000 in attendance for a season maybe before we expect to sell out a 47,000 seat stadium every game.

Goodman

Quote:Is there a better home field in the American Athletic Conference than UAB’s new Protective Stadium? Probably not.

AAC Stadia vs. Protective Stadium

UAB - Protective Stadium, capacity 47,100 • opening 2021


UCF - The Bounce House, capacity 45,323 • opened 2007


CIN - Nippert Stadium, capacity 40,000 • opened 1915


ECU - Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, capacity 51,000 • opened 1963


HOU - TDECU Stadium, capacity 40,000 • opened 2014


MEM - Liberty Bowl, capacity 58,325 • opened 1965


NVY- Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, capacity 34,000 • opened 1959


SMU - Gerald J. Ford Stadium, capacity 32,000 • opened 2000


USF - Raymond James Stadium, capacity 65,618 • opened 1998


TMP - Lincoln Financial Field, capacity 69,796 • opened 2003


TUL - Yulman Stadium, capacity 30,000 • opened 2014


TLS - Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium, capacity 30,000 • opened 1930

How many games have Tulane, East Carolina, SMU, Tulsa, Temple, USF, Memphis, Houston Cincinnati and UCF sold out?
Did any of them regularly sell out games in C-USA?

No, no, never, no, no, no, no, no. Geez. Goodman once again sets up an impossible straw man hurdle. It's lazy -- and wrong.

OF COURSE it would be great for UAB to sell out every game and that should be the goal even in C-USA. OF COURSE it would look good for upward mobility to do so. But that isn't the arbiter of whether UAB gets in or not, and never has been.

I get sick of this childish, lazy, all-or-nothing thinking that sets the greatest thing to happen to Birmingham sports in half a century to be a failure if it doesn't meet Joe's bar. Stupid.

To illustrate what complete hyperbolic buffoonery Joe's "sellout" standard is, -- and it is utter buffoonery -- I present to you the attendance at UCF's Spectrum Stadium. I think we could all agree that UCF is a similar university, has experienced some similar challenges as UAB (young, urban university, SEC-dominated market, went from an old, awful stadium to a new one, etc.) and has achieved some things that UAB would like to achieve.

UCF has the advantage its stadium being on campus with the largest undergraduate student body in the nation, as well as recent success that included an undefeated season, the nation's longest winning streak, a long home winning streaks, some P5 home-and-homes, some prime national TV slots and that self-proclaimed national championship.

Spectrum Stadium opened in 2007. I'm not going to include the 2021 attendance due to COVID pandemic. The first game was against Texas and it was a sellout. Since then, UCF has played 83 home games in Spectrum, including hosting a conference championship game four times. In all those games, UCF has sold out 16 times. Five of those occurred in 2018 when UCF was undefeated in the regular season, coming off its "national championship" year and win over Auburn in the Peach Bowl and on its way to challenging for a playoff spot and facing LSU in the Sugar Bowl. These sellouts also included a huge rivalry game known as the War on I-4 in which South Florida helps fill that stadium.

Even with all of that, the most successful G5 program in the country over the last 15 years doesn't come close to meeting Joe's standard.

Like I said, BUFFOONERY.

https://ucfknights.com/news/2020/1/9/ucf...gures.aspx
https://www.underdogdynasty.com/2017/10/...st-orlando

An article about fans showing up from a guy, (IIRC, who is a UAB grad?) that doesn’t attend one game of any sport at his alma mater every year.

Also, don’t help that UAB fans try to dictate who can be a fan and how one can be a fan, even though some of us show up to every game.

If the AAC don’t split, I suspect we’ll have a game or 2 sellout every 3-4 years. Depends on how often, if we get in that league, it has 2 teams in the top 15-20 in the rankings.

The thing that irritates me about his blanket approach is that it puts the onus for success on this nebulous "UAB Fan" ....

Seriously, kma. UAB fans have been showing up for six years. UAB fans showed up in the streets, showed up in town halls, showed up at BOT meetings, showed up at road games, showed up at the statehouse, showed up outside Ray's office, and continue to show up by raising more than $50 million dollars and digging into wallets for money a lot of us really didn't have to spare to save this program and get us to here. We showed up at that dumpster fire at legion, showed up in the cold, showed up in the rain, and showed up in numbers that lead C-USA. We showed up in Boca Raton, in New Orleans, in Hattiesburg, in Murfreesboro, in College Station, in the Swamp. WE SHOW UP.

Way to take a nice dump all all of that with an article that would imply attendance is a potential problem for all of those former C-USA teams that will be voting for UAB. Nice job. USE YOUR BRAIN, DODO.

Hey, Joe, for real, Kiss my Green and Gold backside and then lick the crack. Lick it real good on a day I haven't showered. It ain't "UAB fans" who need to fill Protective. We'll be there.

If you want to finger wag, and you really shouldn't, your tone should have been that it's time for the rest of Birmingham to join us and discover what makes this a great story to be a part of. If you've stayed away because Legion was a dump, well, you're gonna love Protective.

(08-06-2021 11:03 AM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  On the other hand, Goodman and his "every game needs to be a hard sell out" can kma. If most of teams on our schedule came to Bryant-Denny there would be plenty of empty seats too.

We need every butt in seat we can get, but if you set the bar twenty feet high its impossible to jump it.

Seriously. I don't know how anybody thinks that's even possible just looking at history and facts. If, and this is a big if, we win every game other than a close loss to Georgia going into the Liberty game, I think that is the one we have a possibility of having a full house at. Other than that, I'm hoping we can just average 30,000+ on the season.

I’ll be happy with 32-35 but point well taken by the article. We can apply this to basketball as well. No excuses.

His overall premise is fine, but I do agree that a hard sell out every game being his standard of success is too high. I think averaging 30K+ would be a success and would continue to lead CUSA in attendance.

(08-06-2021 12:58 PM)hooverblazer Wrote:  His overall premise is fine, but I do agree that a hard sell out every game being his standard of success is too high. I think averaging 30K+ would be a success and would continue to lead CUSA in attendance.

Me too. A 30K average would be a big milestone for us and put us firmly in that upper echelon of the G5. I'm thinking that might be a big number for advertisers and potential NIL partners as well.

I join with the "This is a stupid article" crowd. Fact is, there aren't a lot of dyed in the wool, full bore UAB fans. I'd guess 30,000 or so. They're the ones you can count on being at the games. The simple fact that the new stadium exists isn't going to suddenly create UAB fans out of the ether or something, and we suddenly sell out 50K every game. Sure, the stadium will generate interest, get some new faces in the gate. But turning those into season ticket holders who come to all or most games doesn't happen overnight. That' why the article, especially the headline, is trash. If we've learned anything since the Return, there is no one "moment" of truth or whatever. To steal a phrase, it's a process. It will continue to play out. Many factors will play into the future: financial commitment of boosters, support of business community, commitment and interest of the student body, parlaying the student body interest into making them interested alumni and boosters, and most importantly playing good football, because that will be the main factor in making the rest happen. I honestly do appreciate that Goodman wrote the article, because any publicity is good publicity. But his premise is flawed. Much like 98.75% of everything on that website. Which is why I quit reading it.

I hope they have a solid advertising campaign rolling during the month of September. And of course we need the latest Covid surge to subside. I've been upset that the stadium isn't ready for the Jax St game, but that may end up being a blessing. An October opening gives us more time for this surge to be behind us.