The most notable absence in student attendance could be seen throughout the endzone bleachers which stretch from sections 209-216. | Rebekah Stearns/The Daily Cougar
Student support was at a high point during last season’s 12-0 regular season. Attendance hovered at more than 30,000 every game. | File photo/The Daily Cougar
The combination of a woeful 1-3 start along with the hosting of North Texas was not enough to draw students out to Saturday’s 44-21 victory over the Mean Green at Robertson Stadium.
With an announced attendance of 25,476 and a head count attendance of what was much less, the UH student body (the largest culprits) continued to effectively prove Longhorns and Aggies across the state justified in their reasoning (attendance) for UH not being admitted into the Big XII.
This season, through two consecutive home games, attendance dropped below 30,000 and Saturday’s ticket sales were the lowest since Nov. 28, 2009, when 28,243 spectators attended the Bayou Bucket against Rice.
Simply put, the student body is not interested in spending their time at Robertson Stadium unless UH is playing a marquee program or consistently winning games — neither of which are happening this season.
Growing up in a small town in west Texas, football was a religion and upon my arrival to UH it seemed second nature to find myself at Robertson Stadium on Saturdays — whether the university pushed gimmicks like free shirts or not — for the record, many of the 1,000 remained unclaimed.
Maybe I should not be surprised. UH boasts students from many different cities, states and countries, and many students do not share my football-centric background.
With a new stadium on the way expecting to hold 40,000 fans — an increase of 8,000 seats from the current model — the student body and fan base at large will be expected to attend games, through good and bad.
Whatever theory you subscribe to that explains our suffering football attendance, do not expect a quick fix. This week, the combination of another low-key opponent in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (1-4) and an earlier than usual kickoff at 11 a.m., will likely lead to the same outcome — if not worse.
Whose House??……………………………….COOGS HOUSE!!!!!!
Show up and support the coogs as they EAT EM UP!
Largest ghost town in Texas — http://t.co/bYp17WqZ
UH fans will come out if they are winning. This is the way it has always been. BTW, Baylor and TCU fan base has been the same with fickle attendance as well, historically, and they are both in the BIG XII. Also if you want to compare UH to other schools with the same make-up in a big city look no further than Miami, USC, and Pitt. All three (two of them public) are in large metropolises. All three rely on the surrounding city when they are winning as a fan base. This will never change for these schools. Win and they will come, lose and they won’t. So if UH wants to solve this problem they need to recruit better, make better coaching personnel decisions (i.e. Offensive Coordinator that lasted one game), and WIN. The new stadium will help recruiting once it is built. Let’s hope the program doesn’t reach Dana Dimel era status before then.
I agree with RJ. I am one of the dedicated UH football fans that will be out there to support the Cougars rain or shine. Although I am a little frustrated with those many fair weather fans, I still can’t blame them entirely. I understand that college football has always up and down, but each school has a certain degree of expectations to maintain. UH, with all the donations, efforts and supports put into the football program by UH supporters, has never met their expectations and as a result they have been upset. Someone would say it’s a young team. However, it still does not justify our loss to Texas State as well as La Tech. We need to keep winning to draw students. No one wants to go to a stadium where UH will be defeated by Texas State or equivalent. Remember that the first game (Texas State) was sold out. So it’s not all about who the opponent is. It’s also about winning.
Right now the players are working hard as are the coaches. Significant improvement is clearly visible. We need to come to the games and show our support. We can still salvage the season by winning all of our remaining games and justify a bowl bid. Of course bowl officials keep an eye on attendance too.
It’s really frustrating that the students and alumni of this school are such fairweather fans when the school has such a rich athletic history. A lot of it just has to do with the amount of commuter students and the amount of first generation college students who just weren’t brought up on college football. The good news is that as the university moves forward with its campus life initiatives, the since of community and interest in sports should improve. Along with a new stadium, new conference and improving team, I think we have a bright future as far as fan support goes. Everybody who goes to every game and stands by the team and the school just need to keep doing what they do. Fairweather fans aren’t real Coogs anyway, but they serve their purpose by paying that nifty little stadium fee……
I’m so glad we voted to increase our student fees to pay for a brand new stadium! We really need more seats! #wheresmyrefund
Completely agree with JD! If finding a parking spot during school hours is stressful enough, imagine on a Saturdays where thousands of students, alumni, supporters, donors, etc are expected to come out. #priorities
There plenty of parking space. You just need to open your eye. I park at the demolish Y building behind the Engineer Building during game day. There were only 8-10 cars that day.