Growth in MGC and Season Tickets 2002-2014

[Cerebus]

I posted this in another thread, but I didn't want it to get buried:

After the 2001 season the AD published the Game Plan For Success. This thirteen page booklet laid out the plans of the department to meet their mission, which included "Position(ing) the Mean Green to compete in the upper echelon of intercollegiate athletics and attract top athletes from the Metroplex...."

It went on to layout current MFG and FB season tickets numbers, and goals for each. All numbers from 2001 are taken from that booklet. The 2014 MGC numbers come from me hand counting the numbers off the AD website. The 2014 FB season ticket numbers come from the twitter link above.

Before we get into the details, here are the numbers:

Here are the header meanings:

2002 Actual: Number of MGC/FB Season ticket holders per Game Plan For Success (GPFS).

2004 Goal: Goal numbers set to be reached by GPFS.

2014 Actual: Number of MGC/FB Season ticket holders per AD Website/Twitter respectively.

Diff: How short we fell of the 2004 goal in 2014.

Avg Yearly Change: Average MGC/FB Season Ticket Holders added per year between 2002 and 2014 seasons.

YTG: Years to Goal, number of years with Avg Yearly Change to reach 2004 goals from current.

The year 2004 goals included:

*10,000 FB Season Ticket Holders.

*3,000 MGC members.

*40 MGC district directors.

*$600,000 in ad, radio, and sponsorship sales.

*30 spring/summer events.

*$10 million in capital fund raising for athletics.

Just for UNT90, GPFS also listed some scheduling goals, including:

* Only two "money" games per year.

* Goal to have six home games in twelve game seasons.

I'll leave the interpretation of this data/performance up to the reader. If you have any questions about the data sources, hit me.

[TheTastyGreek]

Shouldn't this be in the Fottball forum?

[Cerebus]

Shouldn't this be in the Fottball forum?

[North Texas Shep]

We suck at selling tickets.

[greenit]

So he did have plans and goals when he still cared...I guess he learned quickly to never publish things if at all possible.

Too bad.

[SHOSS]

If the ticket office didn't f up my gift matching 3 years in a row and then expect me to pay for their error in year 3, i would still be a season ticket holder...

[GrandGreen]

AD spin would be that Mean Green Club memberships are up 400% and season ticket 300% under our leadership.

This is exactly why there are no longer any public goals. My question is why would the President and BOR that where presented with these types of goals, reward that performance?

Not only 12 years later, is the AD approximately 60% lower than his second year objectives but he would be much worse if not for Apogee. These goals were set for Fouts, and most of the minuscule increase is due to a new stadium.

[UNTFan23]

So let's say we do (hypothetically speaking) get new leadership in the Athletic Department. I doubt the goals will change very much. This board might blow up if the new leader actually lowers those goals but it could be whoever is in charge feels a lower goal is more attainable/realistic. What exactly would change that gets more people to buy season tickets? Become Mean Green Club donors? Get more schools to want to play us both home and away for even 2-game series?

[MeanGreenTexan]

AD spin would be that Mean Green Club memberships are up 400% and season ticket 300% under our leadership.

This is exactly why there are no longer any public goals. My question is why would the President and BOR that where presented with these types of goals, reward that performance?

Not only 12 years later, is the AD approximately 60% lower than his second year objectives but he would be much worse if not for Apogee. These goals were set for Fouts, and most of the minuscule increase is due to a new stadium.

Tailgating and new stadium development are also up Infinity% !!!

[Ben Gooding]

So let's say we do (hypothetically speaking) get new leadership in the Athletic Department. I doubt the goals will change very much. This board might blow up if the new leader actually lowers those goals but it could be whoever is in charge feels a lower goal is more attainable/realistic. What exactly would change that gets more people to buy season tickets? Become Mean Green Club donors? Get more schools to want to play us both home and away for even 2-game series?

Winning would change all of that and our current AD has proven time and time again that he can't hire the right coaches to consistently win. That is where the problem lies.

[KRAM1]

Winning would change all of that and our current AD has proven time and time again that he can't hire the right coaches to consistently win. That is where the problem lies.[/quote

So...after the HOD bowl and a great winning season...ticket sales actually dropped. What part does that play in the theory that it is all about winning? Seems we had 30,000 + fans at the HOD bowl...many who had never been to Apogee...and who have yet to attend a game at Apogee. Does that mean a good many UNT so-called fans really do not respond even to winning? And if winning was all there was to it...why in the best JJ years were we only getting a bit over 4,000 in a 10,000 seat arena with 80% of 36,000 students living within a 3-mile radius of the heart of the campus?

I would love to think that winning cures all, but I am beginning to feel that at UNT with its so-called fan base that folks are more interested in seeing bad attendance, low ticket sales, coaching turnover, player departures, etc., etc. so they can continue to participate in their real love of trashing their own school at every opportunity and supporting the players from afar. Instead of finding their own ways to be part of the solution, they waller in self flagellation and find every excuse to blame someone else why they won't even pony up $25 for a Mean Green Club membership...trust me I could write a book on the excuses I have heard and the broken promises told to me regarding membership....or buy season tickets anywhere including the Wing Zone, why they refuse to come to men's or women's basketball games, etc. but, they are interstellar quick to tell someone else what "they" should be doing or how someone or someplace else does it better. People talk about on and on about perceived complacency on the part of UNT BOR's, administrators, Athletic Dept. personnel all the while forgetting to look in the mirror and understand the role they could play in turning it all around.

Yep...only at North Texas.

[ColoradoEagle]

So let's say we do (hypothetically speaking) get new leadership in the Athletic Department. I doubt the goals will change very much. This board might blow up if the new leader actually lowers those goals but it could be whoever is in charge feels a lower goal is more attainable/realistic. What exactly would change that gets more people to buy season tickets? Become Mean Green Club donors? Get more schools to want to play us both home and away for even 2-game series?

You sound like a battered wife. But I suppose we all are at this point.

[oldguystudent]

they won't even pony up $25 for a Mean Green Club membership...

I have asked about this because all I see that the $25 membership gets somebody is a sticker. I can't sell that. It needs valance. I have not received any kind of response. Even it it came with some reasonably priced wing zone season ticket opportunity, I think I could sell it, but I don't think I can sell $25 stickers.

Edited May 21, 2015 by oldguystudent

[UNTcrazy727]

So no blame falls on the AD for not capitalizing on 2013? Just blame all the fence sitting fans for not doing all the work to get tickets? I know you're BFFs with a lot of higher ups so you'll never publicly criticize them, but don't come on here and guilt trip the people who do. Because the vast majority of people here are in the MGC and buy season tickets. It's not our job to grow season ticket sales, that's what the AD gets PAID to do. The season tickets numbers are an absolute embarrassment, especially after 2013, and the AD has no one to blame but themselves. RV saying that they've done everything needed to attract fans is absolute BS when you look at our records in football and basketball the past 5 years.

Yep...only at UNT will the athletic department deflect the blame on fans for their failures.

Edited May 21, 2015 by UNTcrazy727

[Ben Gooding]

So no blame falls on the AD for not capitalizing on 2013? Just blame all the fence sitting fans for not doing all the work to get tickets? I know your BFFs with a lot of higher ups so you'll never publicly criticize them, but don't come on here and guilt trip the people who do. Because the vast majority of people here are in the MGC and buy season tickets. It's not our job to grow season ticket sales, that's what the AD gets PAID to do. The season tickets numbers are an absolute embarrassment, especially after 2013, and the AD has no one to blame but themselves. RV saying that they've done everything needed to attract fans is absolute BS when you look at our records in football and basketball the past 5 years.

Yep...only at UNT will the athletic department deflect the blame on fans for their failures.

This and only this.

[UNTFan23]

You sound like a battered wife. But I suppose we all are at this point.

I just see people saying that getting new leadership will suddenly make everything better. I could name a couple companies where getting a new CEO actually put the company in a worse position than before (Plano's JCPenney for one!). No one knows who would be the Athletic Department's new CEO and what that person will do and whether it will be beneficial or hurtful for all the programs here at North Texas.

I'm just tired of seeing people saying to get rid of RV and bringing in someone new as our next silver bullet when in truth no one knows what will actually happen.

[Travis]

I just see people saying that getting new leadership will suddenly make everything better. I could name a couple companies where getting a new CEO actually put the company in a worse position than before (Plano's JCPenney for one!). No one knows who would be the Athletic Department's new CEO and what that person will do and whether it will be beneficial or hurtful for all the programs here at North Texas.

I'm just tired of seeing people saying to get rid of RV and bringing in someone new as our next silver bullet when in truth no one knows what will actually happen.

I wouldn't mind getting someone new in if they had a philosophy of scheduling better, holding coaches to a higher standard, and having better customer service when buying tickets, etc.

[oldguystudent]

I wouldn't mind getting someone new in if they had a philosophy of scheduling better, holding coaches to a higher standard, and having better customer service when buying tickets, etc.

Show me anybody, anybody at all who's going to say, "I'm in favor of mediocrity across the board."

Every AD in the universe has a philosophy of better schedules, better coaches and better customer service. It's the AD resume equivalent of saying "I'm a team player and detail oriented."

[ColoradoEagle]

I just see people saying that getting new leadership will suddenly make everything better. I could name a couple companies where getting a new CEO actually put the company in a worse position than before (Plano's JCPenney for one!). No one knows who would be the Athletic Department's new CEO and what that person will do and whether it will be beneficial or hurtful for all the programs here at North Texas.

I'm just tired of seeing people saying to get rid of RV and bringing in someone new as our next silver bullet when in truth no one knows what will actually happen.

It's the same as having a coach. Either you're happy with where you've peaked, and make no mistake, we've peaked under RV, or you see potential for more. There's no guarantee that whoever we bring in would be better, but it has been proven through the numbers in the first post that we've seen the best we're going to out of this AD.

[Censored by Laurie]

Winning would change all of that and our current AD has proven time and time again that he can't hire the right coaches to consistently win. That is where the problem lies.

hey...what's your take on RV and the rest of the athletic department?

[CaribbeanGreen]

I have asked about this because all I see that the $25 membership gets somebody is a sticker. I can't sell that. It needs valance. I have not received any kind of response. Even it it came with some reasonably priced wing zone season ticket opportunity, I think I could sell it, but I don't think I can sell $25 stickers.

Fun fact about that: I did the $25 thing. The sticker never came.

Also, I got an email about joining during a T-shirt giveaway, so they wanted to confirm my size and address. I did that. Never got a shirt.

I got a welcome/thanks letter, though!

[KRAM1]

I have asked about this because all I see that the $25 membership gets somebody is a sticker. I can't sell that. It needs valance. I have not received any kind of response. Even it it came with some reasonably priced wing zone season ticket opportunity, I think I could sell it, but I don't think I can sell $25 stickers.

You see...that is EXACTLY the problem. It is not about a sticker and you are not selling a sticker. Until our so-called fans understand that simple fact progress will be vey very slow in coming. Such attitude of "what do I get" is exactly what is keeping us behind our peers in fundraising, support and progress. Only at Nirth Texas are folks more interested in what they "get" than who/what they are supporting.

[Withers940]

How about selling season ticket holders $1 beers at the games? You buy a season ticket package and join the mean green club, you get a Beer Card. Bring Card to game...BOOM!!!!....$1 beer.

Its an idea

[TIgreen01]

You see...that is EXACTLY the problem. It is not about a sticker and you are not selling a sticker. Until our so-called fans understand that simple fact progress will be vey very slow in coming. Such attitude of "what do I get" is exactly what is keeping us behind our peers in fundraising, support and progress. Only at Nirth Texas are folks more interested in what they "get" than who/what they are supporting.

Who are our true peers, and what numbers are they hitting that are better than ours? Honest question.

Also, this line is just frustration boiling over and doesn't help anyone: "Only at Nirth Texas are folks more interested in what they "get" than who/what they are supporting."

[Ben Gooding]

hey...what's your take on RV and the rest of the athletic department?

Should be everyone's take, but I understand that UNT and the majority of it's alum suffer from a pretty serious disease of indifference.