While fan attendance started off strong for UH last football season, numbers steadily declined the rest of the season, only breaking 30,000 three times all year. | File photo/The Cougar
In this week’s round table, The Cougar sports staff takes a look at last years attendance in two major sports and discusses expectations for this coming year.
Fan support and program success is a cyclical relationship. Attendance numbers for football broke 30,000 just three times last season. Do you think fans need to do a better job of showing up no matter what? Or do they need to see success first?
Staff writer Michael Calderon: I think it is up to the program to create interest and give fans a reason to fill the seats. They have to put together a product that students and alumni can be proud of. If the team can build a winning culture and become a bigger part of the national scene then they can attract a loyal fan base.
Staff writer Adam Coleman: I think it’s a little of both. It’s no excuse for the student section to not be filled for every game since students get in free. For the whole stadium to be filled, however, there will have to be more success.
Do you think attendance numbers will reach new heights this year with the excitement building around the football program?
Staff writer Shardanna Jones: I absolutely do. I believe more people will come out to support because there is so much hype being built and a lot of anticipation of what’s to come. If teams don’t produce, I expect those numbers to dwindle.
Staff writer Francisco Casillas: I believe that numbers will increase. Whenever there is someone new at the helm, it is bound to catch interest because fans want to see what a new coach can bring to their program.
Basketball is also suffering from small attendance numbers, with an average of just above 2,700 in an arena with a capacity of 8,479. Do you expect to see better numbers this year?
SJ: I expect to see better numbers because there is a better product out there on the court this year, and also a more interesting schedule. On the other hand, I found many students were completely unaware of when the basketball team played, which is another factor.
FC: Right now, the basketball program is in reconstruction mode, but once everything meshes together the team will be something to watch. After all, Coach Sampson is known as successful coach having led three different schools to NCAA tournaments.
Do you think UH suffers from a “fair-weather” fan base? Or they just want to see more winning?
MC: I don’t think that is an entirely unfair assessment. Houston is a big city with many attractions, including several professional sports teams and that give fans a heap of other options. As UH continues to grow as a whole and compete with the other schools, the fan base will grow and strengthen as well.
AC: Any sports team is going to have some fair weather fans, but I wouldn’t say that UH suffers from that. I see UH like Baylor University was a few years ago. The fan base is growing and will continue to grow. UH is already getting nationally televised games and with possibly a move to the Big XII on the horizon, you will see the more consistent fans.
Everyone, the mere fact that there are 0 comments on this article points to the irrefutable fact that sports apathy is alive and well at U of H. Having said that, your new football stadium, your new coach is pushing all of the right buttons, and indeed, your new coach has already come out and challenged U of H fans everywhere to “fill the stands” this fall. The ball is the court of the U of H fan, clearly. How will you respond, Cougar Nation ?
Not saying you’re wrong or right, but the comments on The Daily Cougar’s website are not a good benchmark for determining a loyal fanbase for sports at UH. That would be an insane sampling error.
Out of my group of friends who regularly attended games last season, I’m probably the only one who reads this paper.
Does the Daily Cougar even have a print copy anymore?
Last time I checked.
It’s been a while since I was on campus to
verify that, it being Summer and all, but this website still claims there
is a print edition every week.
Hi Diego,
The Cougar still has a print copy, but because it is summer we only print once a month. Our first print issue of the school year comes out Aug. 19, and after that we will be back on a weekly print schedule with the exception of the holidays.
Hope this helps!
Hi Diego! Just so you are aware, The Cougar does have print issues come out every Wednesday of the school year. During the summer, we had monthly issues come out, which can be viewed here: https://thedailycougar.com/print-edition/
Hope this clears up any confusion!
Organite, I am glad you read the Daily Cougar, apparently no one else does. You may be right about my comments, but the mere fact that you are the only one who reads the Daily Cougar out of your group proves me right on one thing: Apathy has long established a foothold at U of H.
My friends may have not read The Daily Cougar, but they were the
type that when we went to competitions in other parts of the state or country they were the first to scream “Whose House!?” on someone else’s home turf to get our team motivated. Again, readership of a school newspaper is not a good frame of reference for a student body’s collective apathy. The website has no ticker on it to keep track of how many people are clicking on articles, and physical newspapers are damn near obsolete in even the most “spirited” schools.
Attendance to extracurricular activities like sports, social gatherings, assemblies, concerts, etc. are events where school pride really shows, and by my last count all of those were at record highs.
I’m not denying that apathy at UH doesn’t exist, but, as per my comment yesterday, our school is still mostly a commuter school and commuter students tend to be (not always!) the most apathetic. UH is in a period of cultural transition. I sincerely believe that in the next few years you’ll see a complete metamorphosis much for the better.
I was a football season ticket holder but the parking at the new stadium is horrible and the seats are extremely uncomfortable. I don’t want a stranger practically on top of me where I am unable to move without touching the stranger. Drunk, obnoxious fans make it even worse.
Was that at Robertson or last season?
Coming from someone who isn’t normally very interested in sports, UH has done a pretty good job of trying to get its student body excited about football (namely). I am excited about the upcoming season, but I would be lying if I said that wasn’t due in part to the new facilities and the team’s performance last year. However, another large part of that comes from the push to elevate school pride all-in-all. That has made me more excited to be part of the school’s culture though in its more developmental stages. UH is still mostly a commuter school, and it’s hard to get people for whom school is just a day-time “job” to be excited about the going-ons of campus. That’s starting to shift though, and whether you care to admit it or not, the new stadium is a beacon of that change.
Sure there is still plenty that needs to happen. Parking on gameday is undeniably egregious, but a look at the centennial master plan ( http://www.uh.edu/af/uhs/masterplan/UH_masterplan_phase1_2015-2020.pdf ) reveals that there are upcoming plans to build another parking structure spitting distance from the the stadium. Cullen Boulevard is a major street that separates campus from the majority of athletic events at UH. Sure, they close it during football games, but it doesn’t do well to close the “distance” from everything else on campus. I put distance in quotes because though TDECU is a mere street-cross away from the rest of UH it still feels apart from campus. A framework plan from 2006 ( http://www.uh.edu/about/initiatives/master-plan/downloads/presentation.pdf ) outlined an idea to dissolve Cullen Boulevard through campus and replace it with green area or tailgating space either of which would do an excellent job integrating the athletics district in with the rest of campus and “harden” the school’s “soft” boundary to effectively increase security on campus. Little things like that can go miles to simulating attendance to sporting events at UH.
EDIT: Inserted Sources
“…though TDECU is a mere street-cross away from the rest of UH it still feels apart from campus. A framework plan from 2006 ( http://www.uh.edu/about/initia… ) outlined an idea to dissolve Cullen Boulevard through campus and replace it with green area or tailgating space either of which would do an excellent job integrating the athletics district in with the rest of campus and “harden” the school’s “soft” boundary to effectively increase security on campus. Little things like that can go miles to stimulating attendance to sporting events at UH.”
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Great idea man! You made some great points, I hope the school really looks into doing what’s proposed. Great constructive criticism!
Thank you :]
This town has more fair-weather fans than anything place I’ve ever been. Not just with the Cougars, but the pro teams as well. Houston just does not show up. The problems are similar at campus too. Football draws students pretty well, but basketball really struggles. I wonder if the students even know about volleyball or baseball.
Having said that, I think football and basketball will draw more students and paying fans than last year. Baseball should see better numbers too.