Early Monday morning, a part of campus resembled a scene from an appliance store on Black Friday. Students lined up outside of the Athletics/Alumni Center on Cullen before sunrise. Some were so loyal that they camped out the duration of the night, and slept in front of the building until the doors opened at 8 a.m.
There was no clamoring for a special bargain on an HDTV, Xbox or any other sort of device.
Instead, these devoted fans waited for hours to get tickets to the Conference USA Championship game on Saturday against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles. The line eventually weaved in front of Hofheinz Pavilion, and all the tickets were sold out in a hurry.
Many are disappointed that they will not be able to attend the game. Having the matchup nationally televised on ABC is little consolation to those who wanted to be loud and wear red at Robertson Stadium.
Our sympathies are with those fans, but if the plans for a new stadium go through, then the Cougars will have a new house that seats more than 50,000 people. That number will dwarf Robertson’s current capacity of 32,000.
As long as the Rob is standing, every football game should be filled. This year all six opportunities were taken advantage of, and fans will be treated to an extra seventh home game.
Just like followers of any other team, Cougar Nation has had to deal with fair-weather fans who are inconsistent when it comes to showing up for games.
The UH bandwagon has become more crowded as the season has progressed, and hopefully these new fans are converted to life-long supporters regardless of this season’s outcome.
To the coaches and players, congratulations on all of your accomplishments so far. But we know that is not enough for this ambitious bunch, so best of luck to all of you on the gridiron Saturday.
It’s only the most important football game in the history of the University.
No pressure, right?
