NCAAbbs

If attendance keeps it up like it did last night, you really can forget about it....
Wonder what President Garrison and Brian Mackin were thinking last night in the press box looking down at all those steel bleachers.....

I really believe we are going to have to put together a solid bowl season to get any traction there... Anyone with any power to make a Campus Stadium reality has to be curious how many bandwagoners will show if we start playing some real football.

how many attendance threads are you gonna start?

I'm willing to bet at least one more.

mmmm.. I will think about it...

Setback...ha.

It's amazing how people can think major projects or issues hinge on one single night or even a single season....

Last night had or will have ZERO effect....

11k attendence in a 30k seat stadium is almost 50 percent capacity. Think about it!

Last night's game has ZERO, ABSOLUTELY NO effect. UAB could not sell a single ticket for the rest of the year and it would have no effect. UAB could have no attendance for the entire 2007 season and it would not matter at all.

Now, I will say this: Saturday night the team appeared to take a night off. But so did the Blazer fan base. And I will tell you absolutely that UAB supporters taking a night off is more damaging to the long-term goals than the team doing it. Not for the stadium, which will happen or not regardless of attendance. More toward achieving a bottom-line support base and being able to politically manuever.

If you care about getting UAB athletics to where it can potentially go, you should think about that the next time you decide you've got something better to do than go to the game. The hard-core fans have as big or perhaps even a bigger role in taking UAB to the next level than the players and coaches do. Everybody has to be on the team and moving in the same direction ...

That said, the UAB administration needs to seriously pressure C-USA to help them with the scheduling. This is a conference-wide problem but UAB is affected more than most. UAB absolutely does not need to be playing at home on the Third Saturday in October, the weekend of Talladega and the weekend of the Iron Bowl. UAB needs more home games in September/early-October and fewer in late-October. This has been proven over 15 years that UAB will lose 25-50 percent of its attendance on these three dates. For a school averaging 50K that's not such a big deal. For UAB this is a MAJOR hit.

UAB's schedule this year is the absolute worst since the program went I-A for maximizing attendance: weaker-than-usual team, first two home games vs. poor teams, too many guarantee games early to kill the record and enthusiasm, etc.

The AD is working on this but there is only so much he can do if C-USA is going to schedule UAB at home on these dates.

100% at Hoover Met

Cogent analysis as usual.

"NO attendance for the rest of the season would have no effect"?

What is it with you and your slightly disturbing obsession with the Met? We had bad attendance. We get it. Move on. You're like the comedian that tells the same joke over and over. It gets real old real quick.

Flying Mouse nails it again!

Amen brother. To make this stupid attendance thread relevant to anything, I'm waiting on someone to somehow link attendance to all the interceptions and dropped passes, or the fact we have ZERO running game!

honestly....why is this guy mentioning the hoover met?

i bet you like Hoover U. too and Propst is your hero i bet

Please quit with the Hoover Met stuff. Other school's fans are probably reading this and laughing their a$$es off.

well put.

No 11,238 tails in the seats is a laughing matter. One thread doesn't speak for 11,238.
They speak for themselves.
Enuff said.

By the way per a conversation with Dr. Garrison, a AVERAGE of 25,000 to 30,000 butts in the stands only a on campus stadium be considered then.

We need to sell tickets, but the on campus stadium has momentum and is far from impossible. Events regarding the Parks Board's treatment of UAB and the shootings at LF a month or so ago moved it to the front burner. A stadium on campus is far less a pipe dream than it has been in recent years. 11,238 or not this remains true.

Go to the games. Bring friends. Buy tickets. It matters a lot.

If we get that stadium and get out of LF the average will go up. If we get it and start to win we will not be having this discussion.

I hope you are right UAB Band Dad...

dragonbreath, attendance is IRRELEVANT to the stadium issue.

If the product sucks, than people will not buy it. If the product sucks and you have to travel through the ghetto to get to it, than they really will not buy it.

Attendance is revenue? Is it not? Quantity x price?

Please explain. And I guess that Dr. Garrison just flat out lied to my face.

No, Dr. Garrison just determined that some information is on a need to know basis...and you don't need to know. FM is correct, at this point our attendance is irrelevant where an on-campus stadium is concerned. Other factors have become more critical and will determine whether it happens or not (or whether it happens in a reasonable time frame or not).

How about Langfords dome?

Assuming the sore loser Cooper doesn't get this election thrown out - Larry will have a dome going up within 18 months - how does that fit in with the on-campus stadium plans. Watson always said a dome would negate the need for our own stadium - I tend to relunctantly agree.

We have boosters who'd pony up the dough if someone would take the bull by the horns and say - by God we're going to have our own stadium - you can come if you buy a ticket. No specials for council members and politicians or even mayors. We need to have a product they are willing to pay for.

Damn the BOT - if they kept their greedy little crimson colored hands out of our efforts to hire a coach we'd be light years ahead of where we are now.

(I know Flying Mouse we can't blame the Tide machine for all of our problems but you can't be a blind mouse as well.)

Komodo

So hiring Jimbo would have put us light years of where we are 9 months after the fact? He would have found more eligibility for 30-something seniors and changed the personalities of some kids who were used to having their head coach lick their...um...cleats? You guys crack me up.

But the dome will have no impact on whether we get an on-campus stadium either. Mark my words. Hear me now and believe me later. An on-campus stadium for UAB is completely it's own issue...separate even from the performance of our football team the way things are shaping up at this point.

So, the BOT is behind all of this regarding a stadium?

And the Hoover Met can't hold even half of that number! So for now we have Legion Field. The only realistic option we have is an oncampus stadium.

There are people on this board that have very good connections within the UAB athletics department and can know even more than Garrison can publicly say.

The item that would have the biggest impact on increasing attendance is an on campus stadium.

The Larry Dome and an on campus facility for UAB are two seperate issues.

Did it ever cross your mind that Dr. Garrison was telling you this because she knows that the fans want this stadium...she knows that we talk about it...she know that there are a few of us who will do whatever we can to make that happen...including getting out there and telling everyone that we can't do it unless we get 25-30 thousand in the seats for every game...she's working just as hard as we are to try and get numbers up...and if that means telling people who ask that we have to get more people in the stands for it to happen, I'm sure that's what she's going to do...among many other things I'm sure...I wouldn't be naive enough to think that we are the only one's talking about this issue...look how far UAB has come in the last 10 years...seriously, take a look around and see how different the university is now than it was in 1997...to continually say that the leadership is out to destroy the university from the inside is absolutely ludicrous...I have every confidence that they are working on a plan to take this university to the next level...and I'm sure that in that plan they are discussing what we can do to take every facet of our athletic programming to the next level as well...just take a and try and find some of the positive things that are happening with UAB...try and enjoy being a fan...I'm sure you will find that it's much more fun...and much more infectious...and I think we all agree that's what we need.

Unfortunately, for dragonbreath that would require that he refrain from posting anything whatsoever about UAB football. Actually, that wouldn't be so unfortunate now that I think about it...

She didn't lie to you....that was the case at one point...the situation has changed dramatically since then....most importantly the situation with the Park Board...

The finances have changed as well.
FAU is building a stadium averaging about 1/3 what UAB averages.

Blazerjay is correct.
Remember our average for the year I think is around 19,000.
The USM should off set the Houston number. It may come down to how many fans we have at the UCF game.
Last year, UAB was 3-9 and almost average 25,000.
If we had a new stadium I believe we would draw at least 10,000 more fans. Then we will whine about parking and tailgating
Trust me, we can whine with any BSC school.

Regarding the original post...

I guess you never read my posts about homecoming..

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you here. Attendance may not be the biggest issue by a long shot, but you can't say it is irrelevant. A hypothetical situation just for arguments sake: Say we tank out, and I mean really tank out, and go the next few years only winning 2-3 games, and attendance drops down and averages 5000 or so every season. I don't see how the president or trustees could look at that situation and think it would be a good investment- nor should they. Granted, that is just a worst case scenario, but what if? If the program shows no sign of life, it doesn't deserve that facility.

I will say this, it seems like every 3 days somebody starts a stadium thread, which I think is just ridiculous. We are talking about something that MIGHT happen, contigent on 1000 different factors, most of which is out of our control, all of which is probably a minimum of a decade out. Do we have nothing better to talk about? I like dreaming/wishful thinking as much as the next guy, but the conversation is getting tiresome. Yes, we want a facility. No, we're not getting one any time soon. Lets move on.

But... If we pack out Legion Field what incentive is there for them to build a new place?

Seriously though... in many ways crappy attendance is a reason FOR the stadium, not against it. Better (at least perceived) atmosphere for the fans = more people. Better recruits = better teams = more people.

If the program is to continue and to eventually flourish it has to happen sooner or later. It's a gamble more than worth taking to build it sooner. Worse case scenario, UAB has the best intramural football field in the country.

Posted on three other attendance threads:

We are all sick about the attendance but two posters making six threads about the same issue will not put more butts into LF!

I brought two extra people this week, one the week before and two the week before that. I don't know what more I can personally do besides start kidnapping people.

Sorry for the posts.
I brought 4 myself.

and that's what we need....... Bring someone.

WRONG. UAB could draw no fans at all the rest of this season and it would not matter in regards to a stadium. To other things, it would matter. It would have ABSOLUTELY ZERO, UNDERLINED AND IN BOLD, effect on the possibility for a stadium for UAB.

I predict you are probably going to be VERY wrong on that. So far wrong it will make your head spin.

I can't see how UAB drawing no fans for the rest of the season would not affect us getting a stadium unless... there are some men with deep pockets who are that adament about us getting a stadium.

Since I you've given me no reason to doubt you FM, wow that is some interesting and good news.

Surely you won't continue to tease us so.

FAU is going to finance a nice 40,000 seat on-campus stadium averaging 5K per game!
The financing of a stadium, especially in Birmingham, is not easy of course but it is sooooo much easier than people think and has virtually NOTHING to do with how many people you are putting into the seats of the existing facility ... UCF has shown how to do it.

BTW, their attendance at the Citrus Bowl wasn't much better than UAB's. I think they had 13K actual attendance for the UAB-UCF game last year. Their averages were typically in the low 20s of PAID attendance and much less than that actual.

This year they are averaging almost 45K paid in the new stadium.

Between naming rights, luxury suites, parking, owning the concessions, etc., a stadium is much more feasible than the naysayers realize. A stadium quickly could be a major MONEYMAKER for the university rather than a debt. Additionally, a UAB-owned stadium of a more manageable size would create season-ticket demand and help generate in-pocket dollars rather than the whims of the walk-up crowd (subject to massive shortfalls when the team is poor, the weather doesn
t cooperate or you get stuck up against the wrong game.)

Not to mention that the sad state of Legion Field and the lack of quality stadium experience there is a MAJOR impediment to the growth of the fan base. Legion Field doesn't ooze history and nostalgia, it oozes rust and sewage. It is not a fun place to attend a game and UAB has very little ability to improve that experience other than in winning games.

UAB needs to impove its attendance, sure, and the last game was indeed a big disappointment and setback. Just not a setback to the notion of a stadium. In fact, might have helped believe it or not.

Now, let me add this: I'm not saying UAB will have its own stadium soon. Only that it's more possible than people think and that you should not tie the prospects of a stadium to the current or historical attendance.

Man do I ever agree with you on that. When PCG made that statement to AB, Slinkie, and myself at the first FSU meeting in Tallahassee I didn't believe that particular comment. Winning is important part of the stadium issue but attendence isn't.

My opinion is that an on-campus stadium would energize the student fanbase and the Birmingham community.

+1

I know you are exaggerating for effect, but if your hypothetical of zero attendance were true- if the rest of this year and the next not a single person showed up to a game- not only would we not have a stadium in our future, we would not have a football program for long. There is no way to prove my point, because your zero attendance scenario is not going to happen. But if we had ZERO attendance, not one person in the stands, what sponsor is going to put up serious money? The idea of not one fan in the stands is absurd, but so is saying that it would have no effect. You can't say that with 100% certainty. Besides (and i'm not trying to be a smartass here), no matter how much insight you may have into the situation, there are still too many unknowns to be talking about absolute certainties.

I just want us to get a on campus stadium before Memphis does. That way we can hear them complain about how much better they are than us, yet we keep defeating them and we have an on campus stadium.