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Recieved this e-mail at 9pm tonight. Mean Green Family, I want to thank you for your support at Apogee Stadium on Saturday. We are fortunate to have such a great fanbase and strive to deliver a high-quality gameday experience for you, our fans. After a thorough review of our gameday operations and your collective feedback, it is clear we fell short in several areas. We appreciate those of you who have reached out to share your experiences through various channels, including our online fan survey. We want you to know we hear and understand your frustrations. We have reviewed every comment and our staff is working diligently to address any operational challenges, both in and around the stadium so they can be corrected before this week. The following enhancements will be made to improve the fan experience: Additional parking attendants will be distributed across all working gameday lots. Electronic message boards will be placed at North Texas Blvd and I-35 as well as Bonnie Brae and I-35 to assist with wayfinding for fans to get to their appropriate lots. The Blue Lot will move to a pre-purchase/pass only lot for games featuring premium opponents with no passes sold the day of the game. Attendants will be added to restrooms in the HUB Club and Suite levels at Apogee to monitor paper towels, soap and cleaning needs. Wristbands will be provided to all HUB Club ticketholders upon arrival to the First State Bank Club and Suite Entrance to allow for increased freedom of movement for HUB Club guests between the club level and concourse throughout the game. Note: Wristbands DO NOT grant access to guests in the Suite Level. CSC staff will be added to assist with this function and ensure wait times are minimized for entry into Apogee Stadium. Grounds crews will mow all high-traffic areas no more than 48 hours prior to kick off (weather permitting) to maximize use of tailgating spaces. Additional parking passes will be required in the Blue Lot for both vehicles and tailgate setups. This will be strictly enforced to ensure we have an accurate count of available spaces in the lot. Updates will be made to the Northeast auxiliary video board to ensure an assortment of in-game statistics are available. Feedback has been provided to the team shop, and as inventory becomes available, they will increase both variety of products offered as well as higher quantities in all sizes. Your patience and loyalty are not something we ever want to take for granted. To that end, please to claim free tickets that we will upload to your account for a future Mean Green athletic contest in 2022-23. We are very grateful for each of you and your continued love and support of the Mean Green, our student-athletes, and our programs. We look forward to seeing you this Saturday as we take on Texas Southern. Go Mean Green! Wren Baker

I gotta say, aside from the on-field product, I didn’t really have any issues Saturday. Just the same, I respect Wren for trying to increase the value of the fan experience by listening to those who did.

Good communication. Now for the follow through.

I received it to. Very touching. I selected the March 4 MBB game against WKU. I look forward to seeing the fruits of our honest feedback this weekend. Go MEAN GREEN!

I’m sure there won’t be parking issues this Saturday whether they have extra attendants or not. There will be 5-10k less people headed to the stadium.

Vito is 2 for 2. All aboard the Bert train

I think this is a bit of oversimplification. I've seen dozens of posts from other athletic departments about similar issues this year and last. Most businesses (athletic departments included I'm sure) have experienced massive turnover. Don't know about you but I've experienced service issues at restaurants, airports, hotels, pretty much everywhere post pandemic. Added to this is the athletic department uses several 3rd party contractors on game day (parking folks are a 3rd party, ushers/event staff are mostly 3rd party as well, perhaps concessions is too) I would imagine there's been massive turnover for those companies. I'm trying to think back but I think the was the first really big crowd since COVID. Not here to make excuses, because I was pissed myself at waiting 40 plus minutes to get to my parking. I think owning the mistake was the right move for the ath dept and working to make it better was as well. Fans can and should expect better. But saying "this isn't their first rodeo" is oversimplifying the situation a bit IMO.

This isn't their first rodeo. They knew what the attendance was projected to be. This group has been through big games at Apogee before....

Yeah, screw them for being happy about getting us into the best conference we've ever been in! These guys suck! I can't believe some of the stuff I read on this forum...smh

Wren's staff (underlings) let him down big time on Saturday. There needs to be some significant turnover in his support staff.

Would these issues have come up had we won the game against SMU? And I'm not giving Wren and Neal a pass. I have no doubt there were issues at the game that need to be corrected. I mean, it's not like the first big football game we've had at Apogee. Wren should have all of these issues worked out before the first home game of the season.

The scariest part about this all is that SMU really doesn't have to get their guys fired up to play us--we get so intimidated and freak out as soon as the team sees a Mustang on the helmet. Thats the sign of a very weak minded team. SMU has annihilated us pretty much every year since 2018. But we have given them so many easy wins by just cowering on the field. Its really pathetic. But then again, getting motor-boated at your place by them and then a few days later, start a thread about how they aren't a target for the big 12 as if that should be some pride point around here.

Blah, blah, blah… Most of this could/should have been anticipated before hand. “Why wasn’t it?” is my question. Most of this stuff wasn’t an issue in the past, so why did they drop the ball to make it an issue now? I still like WB a lot (like a lot, a lot), but his luster is beginning to wear off with me. He’s been great for all sports except the biggest one that I care the most about and it’s starting to show on and off the field now. Hope he can turn this ship around.

My God, this is as bad as me hearing the couple behind me say that the best part about coming to a UNT game was the Green Brigade marching at halftime… Vomit…

Yes, the issues would have still come up. I haven’t been upset about the game at all. We all had a pretty good idea what the outcome would be.

Look, I knew we were in serious trouble after I watched that prideful, self congratulatory event at Apogee when both Neal and Wren took turns applauding themselves and each other for getting UNT accepted into the AAC. Just like I knew Littrell would never be successful here after what he pulled with K-State, holding his employer, the players and the fans hostage before a bowl game and before the ink could dry on his second contract extension and raise. It ain’t rocket science people. The Pride always comes before the Fall.

I am not buying that we can't compete with SMU. They view us as a must win and we piss down our leg every year we play them. Last year they lost to Tulsa, UH, Memphis and got obliterated by a good Cincy team. They beat LaTech by a couple points. Year before: The week before SMU played us they beat TXST by a TD then turned around and dropped 65 on us. Let Navy hang around (and Navy hadn't been very good lately). Lost to both Tulsa (again) and ECU. 2019: Yeah, they won 10 games. Smoked us, of course. Eked out a W vs Arkansas State. Barely beat Tulsa. Barely beat ECU. Lost to Navy. Spanked by FAU. 2018: Beat us by almost 4 TD's and turned around and lost 7 games. I could go on and on. They are not that good. They (their coaching staffs over the years) clearly hype up this game to their players. They play hard and fast vs us and they view us as a can't lose, as stated. Also as stated, we fill up our cleats with urine. I'm just not buying it.

Reading through the letter it boils down to: 1. Better parking experience. I don't think I've ever been to a significant sporting event where the parking experience was good. I attended the Dallas/Washington game in DC last year with my daughter and it was a disaster. We allocated 3 hours before game time to get to our seats. At one point we moved no more than 40 feet in an hour. When we finally did park, it was another 45 minutes to get through the gates. I asked a local fan and he said it's this way every game day. When everyone wants to arrive at the same time, it's going to cause a backup. With our setup, it's inevitable. As fans, we can help by arriving earlier and enjoying the pre-game activities. 2. Hub Club and Suite level experience. I don't know how you drop the ball on this one. How hard is it to keep the bathrooms stocked and ensure that a relatively small subset of the fanbase have an experience commensurate with the expense. Easy fix. 3. Mow the grass. Really? Another swing and miss. Not sure if this is an AD responsibility or something facilities is supposed to take care of, but how about running through a simple checklist of things that need to be done before game day. 4. Video board. I don't even know how that happens. I mean really. Instead of telling us you will make updates, how about filling us in on a root cause analysis. Instead of continuing to display obviously incorrect data and embarrassing ourselves, either turn it off or display a default splash screen with our logo or something. If you don't have a backup plan if/when it fails again, I recommend making one. 5. Store merchandise. No real message here..."as inventory becomes available." When is that expected? Could be this week or could be at the end of the season.

My only real issue was trying to get into the Blue Lot with only one guy scanning tickets and the bottle neck with traffic coming in from from three directions. Very frustrating. Also, with no internet reception, there needs to be periodic FB scores from around the country. I like to know about other games as well.

Really glad to see this! Our voices have been heard!!

This. This is Step 1. Please don’t let us down again, Wren. We like you, we recognize what you’ve done, and we know you’ve got a lot to accomplish here still. Good luck to you.

If Aune starts then he only needs to play a quarter (no more than 2 series). Gunnels second quarter and first series of the 2nd half. Then two others split the rest of their time. OL ones play1st half, mixed with twos during 3rd quarter and full on twos during the 4th. What do you all think?

Piling up points against a team like this is meaningless. IF we have a decent lead at the half (or sooner) we should get our backups in and get valuable experience for them so they can hopefully be ready if their numbers are called. If we do not go 3 deep across the board then we are in trouble

Umm, and potentially make someone's girlfriend cry?

I agree 100%, this is by far the worst gameday experience I've seen in a long time. Wren and Neal failed miserably to the point where we have hardcore fans not even wanting to go to anymore home games this season.

The last truly historic person of our era. Godspeed

He not only addressed the issues and took ownership but he laid out what he is specifically going to do about it. well done.

I’m a season ticket holder for both football and basketball and donate to the MGSF and I have yet to get this email. Checked all junk mail files too. Wouldn’t you think you would send it to everyone who attended last week? I am glad to see stuff being done but even small things like this can be annoying.

Every athletic department in the country uses contractors for gameday.

T-shirt fans, with UNT diplomas and credit hours, of other schools happens in Denton because of the culture here. Branding, apparel availability, loathing the athletics fee, not caring about athletics, giving nothing back to the university when graduating, running a terrible game day experience, and losing bigly…they are all by-products of a place that gives zero value to putting out a winning team at all costs. All costs means being willing and able to buyout any contract you give to a coach. It means hiring enough staff to run a gameday at full speed, not half-assed (or worse).

It's a disgusting smell of burnt orange that lingers everywhere.

Very true…just looking for a silver lining to cling to in this MG darkness we are covered in at the moment. WB did the right thing by at least acknowledging it was terrible and giving us something to at least make up for it with extra tickets for a game this upcoming year.

This is so spot on, it’s not even funny. It makes it so clear why so many people just walk away to be t-shirt fans of UT, A&M, OU, Tech, Baylor, TCU, etc…

Teams greatest weakness: Head coach

You and I are on the same page. Why not get under center and run the dang ball or do a QB SNEAK???!!! Is it that difficult?

105 rushing plays will tend to speed up the game a bit. Not too many possessions to go around with the clock constantly running.

NT will be ok in the AAC. The conference is the most important thing in recruiting according to experts. Stating that NT is not ready based on 2 games is to me problematic. SMU has about the best team money can buy at least in the G5. I don't know if NT can ever compete with a pro team like SMU. I think NT and D1 athletics, only hope is that the NCAA puts some restraints on purchasing talent. There is now no semblance of fairness or an environment that creates competition. I wonder why AD's, coaches and fans don't see the future if this continues. Less competition and eventually less D1 teams which is going to mean less jobs and fan interest. This is just not "sour grapes" because I am a NT fan, but it is a real concern that this maybe the end of any kind of college athletics that most alumni and fans are going to be interested in.

Are the university, the athletic department, and the alumni association really doing what's necessary for promoting our branding and our colors? Are they allowed to select whatever fashion colors their group uses, and can they willy-nilly use made up interlocked NT logos, outdated throwback logos, or something else they pulled out of their asses this past week? This fish has rotted from the head down.

Very glad that you posted this because this and DentonStang's comments above are exactly what I believe to be wrong at UNT. This is nothing new and dates back to the early 1980's I believe. North Texas needs an ironclad ethics policy and enforcement level compliance program in their athletic dept. There is NO accountability and lots of Money floating around NT athletics. It's not a lack of money at NT at least not up to this point in our history. For those of you that work in the private sector, tell me you're a$$ would not be fired from a company where you were paid these kinds of salaries and you produced such mediocre results.

But UTSA doesn’t have the funding either not near the facilities and yet they can hang with teams like UofH and win championships. Give me a break with all that.

"Obviously, going out west is where I would like to go, entering that fourth time zone," Yormark said Wednesday. He added of the Big 12's wish list: "A program that has national recognition, one that competes at the highest level in basketball and football, stands for the right things, is a good cultural fit." https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/34544151/commissioner-brett-yormark-says-big-12-expansion-strategy-going-west

Queen Elizabeth has passed.

Sorry. Last week SMU destroyed us. They could have easily put 65+ points on the board. Beating up on Texas Southern really doesn’t do anything for me and really doesn’t mean anything as well. Big deal. What are we suppose to say? “Boy, we showed them”

Amazing to have that kind of talent, a very good O-line, and still have a QB hovering at around his 50% completion mark with 3 TDs and 2 INTs (both of which are around career averages for Aune). And don't give me the strength of competition argument. Frank Harris just played a ranked UH team and still managed a 65% completion percentage with 3 TDs, 1 INT and another TD run. I am so relieved this will be Aune's last season. I can't take another year of Aune leading this team.

Why post about this now? Its a bad look. We just got our asses completely kicked all over Denton by them. We look like we won't be anywhere close to competing with them anytime in the future because of that NIL. It'd be like them getting demolished by TCU, then someone from SMU posting about the fact that TCU isn't a target of the B1G or SEC. It just looks real bad. SMU owns way too much space in our heads.

I think that’s a HUGE part of what the culture here attracts for students. It’s either liberal arts students that usually don’t care or like sports OR it’s kids that love the value that we so love to trumpet to the world about our degree costs. IOW, nobody who wants to invest time into our teams or really, the entire university. It’s why we have alumni giving at 2%, when other schools dwarf this. As Adler mentioned about Voertman’s control of shirts, it ain’t changing anytime soon, so you either stick with it or you walk away like all the others do.

Cash their last check and transfer

I think there's a talent gap between UNT and the top of the AAC. I don't think there's one with the bottom of the AAC which is horrible so far this year. The question is how far down in the middle tier does UNT fall