trud1966

I think most people (including teams) would prefer games in the evenings. Day games make it more convenient on the traveling team to hit the road earlier to go back home. Since UNT is just down the road, it's not an issue.

Can someone Chriogenically Freeze me and thaw me out 2 hours before Kick-Off at the OU game? 4 months is too long.

I dont know if I'd agree with "stupid". I do love the atmosphere, but I would caution about continiually bringing in New Chants. To date, if we did all the ones eveyone suggests, we'd have like 250 by now. I'm always going to regress back to the idea that simplicity is a better solution when it comes to the masses. I'm being a little sarcastic here, but we've tried about 7 shades of green, now have like 5 different fonts for 10 different departments, schools, programs and the like, along with 9 helmet changes in 20 years. Still think "new" is gonna help things? It's track record so far is nil. Either refine what we have now, or if you start something new, abandon an old idea that is PROVEN to no longer work. If you throw ideas on the table just for the sake of claiming "that one is mine", you're reward will be nothing more than confusion.

Alot of discussion about the almost guaranteed success that TD brings to the picture. Obviously we all want the same thing, to win a conference championship, to win in New Orleans. Both of those items keep helps the program, which helps the university, which helps recruiting, which turns full circle, etc etc. However, one thing that keeps rolling in my mind that I havent seen much discussion about is National Ranking. This is a realistic goal I'd like to see happen in the next couple/few years. Even if we got to #17 for 4 weeks, the rewards of that could be four-fold. That list is published in every single paper, on every single sports website, every single day during the college season. I think something like that will really help with many lacking areas. One example is student attendance. If the word "North Texas" appears in the National Rankings every single day, there wont be a need to place "words" on the helmet for promotional purposes. Ok, I'm tangenting back to helmets, sorry. Bottom line, start noodling on the idea of what it will take for us to reach that goal and all the areas it will help... Thoughts?

Did anyone go by Voertmans yesterday? I might be wrong, I was there, and I want to say they're selling this hat. My memory is fading, but I know it was mesh, it had a black bill (mesh also), I'm pretty certain the color was right. I just cant recall the exact detail on the Font. Anyone?

Does anyone have a good feel of how many seats will be available for the SMU game or where they'll be located? I think they rarely fill that stadium, but still with UNT coming to their place, it will draw alot more SMU fans as well. I mean since it's literally "in town" is it better to buy those tickets directly from SMU, or will UNT be selling some as a large contingent so we can all sit together? Thoughts?

See, I can get on board with this. Everyone fights about Uni's and helmets. But I will always be one of those people that would prefer an insignia on the helmet rather than text. I even like the idea of interlocked letters better. And I think most of us can agree that will happen eventually, but for now, maybe this is just a transition to bring in the Dodge era. So The fact that its changing from Green to White in my mind isnt a huge deal. I'd rather they simply change the helmet ONLY the color for now, rather than once again, in haste, pick another poor design to put on the helmet. Maybe for now, Dodge prefers the white helmet to make him more comfortable when visually looking at the field. Maybe a final design will be unveiled for the first new season in a new stadium.....in 2035.

Yeah, Meager seemed to start a little slow, but then found his groove. Phillips looked good too. When they both hit consistancy, I thought to myself back to last year when I was pulling my hair out watching the quarterbacks. It proved itself today that last years quarterbacks werent the problem, it was the coaching they received. I thought Tune just performed like a Freshman quarterback. He just needs time and good coaching. Both are in his future now.

I got there early, and decided to hit Voertmans. It was very slow, only me and two other families. (husband+wife+1 son each). But the couples werent in tow with each other. Eventually they all start talking, and realize both their sons will be playing this fall. One was Giovanni Vizza, the other was Justin Pardon (I think?) The guy I though was Justin had his arm in a sling. Heard him say somethingabout upcoming surgery. Can someone confirm this was him? So THEN I'm sitting in the stands, and Head basketball coach Johnny Jones sits in front of me with him kid. I did see FFR,. Never met the guy, but didnt get the chance to go shake his hand and introduce myself. Still a very fun day, weather turned out beautiful. What gives? I heard George on the ticket on Friday saying the Green Brigade was gonna be there? Wish they were...

B-I-N-G-O

IMO, bottom line, to spend that kind of money is insane. But yeah, there is a market at work there, unfortunately. Big programs will continue to spend like this order to keep sucessful. If a school like Michigan suddenly lost its football program, most would agree, it could be financially disasterous to the university. Damn near shut the place down. Whereas if UNT lost the program, I'm sure it would trudge on. Again, I'm not protecting it, but I do recognize the fact there are reasons why there are vast differences between programs like Michgans as opposed to the UNT's of the country. Still 26 mil does seem crazy. I can understand because of the climate of that part of the county and making guys practice outdoors in 20 degree weather for 15 hours a week. But is the place lined with gold or something? Seems sad that their indoor practice facility is probably much nicer than our outdoor game facility.

George said the band is gonna there. Hadnt heard that before.

man, you just cant help but smile when TD speaks

Again, I originally said, unless someone knows more can add to this, Im speaking from experience. I might be wrong. Most of the work I do is crappy strip retail and office warehouses. 98% of the time I'm putting these on sites that are zoned for such. Yes, you'd THINK, "well, if it's zoned retail, then you could just SIMPLY put a retail building on it". Granted, there are SOME cities that will let you do this. However, again, I'm speaking from experience that as of lately, more and more cities are now requiring you to go through a formal process. The process is in place so a developer and architect dont design something hideous, spend thousands of dollars on construction documents only to be unrolled for the very first time when applying for permit. Planning and Zoning boards arent in place to ONLY change Zoning. Again guys, not trying to create drama, just saying, if you can simply build a 50,000 seat stadium that costs several million dollars without the City of Denton wanting to run it through a public review process, well then I'm going to start doing more work in Denton. Hope I'm wrong, but I'm leary.... I will say, UNTLifer, the issue regarding it being STATE owned land is a good point, and might just make it an exemption. I honestly dont have experience in State owned or government owned land, so hopefully the rules dont apply.

It's hard to say...Municipalities differ from each other. I know "studies" have been done, but I dont believe formal submittals for City Council and P&Z have been completed. Reason being, we're all wondering/creating ideas on what the stadium should look like, how big it is, etc. IF this were already done, and approved, there is no question in my mind, everyone would know about it, we'd all have access to the finished drawings, and the press would be all over it. Even IF the land is currently owned, platted, zoned for this particular use, usually the city will require submittals on a formal level (city council and P&Z) so they can have a chance to object prior to permitting the project. Basically, Denton will not allow the development/permit of something of this scale simply based on the "master plan" which just basically just shows a graphic footprint of a stadium. They'll want a to a chance or several chances to throw alot of darts at it.

I'll always be one of those up in arms about the helmet designs, branding, insignia, consistancy of colors, ad-infinitm. We've all gone over this 4000 times, agreed to disagee, etc etc etc. I do have my personal preferences like others on here. I, like countless others cant stand the current helmets. The thing that still bothers me about UNT graphics are not the designs themselves, but the decisions on what and where they they are placed. I know I dont have all the criteria, but on the surface, the decisions that are made about graphics seem to be coming from someone that knows very little about graphics, and doesnt realize the full impact they have. If you dont work in graphics or dont understand them, get out of the way. Many people feel that "art" is too simple of a thing to get upset about. Case in point? My GOD, look at this board! The opionions are all over the place. UNT's decisions regarding graphics over the course of 10-15 years, in my opionion have been nothing short of a disaster. The whole campaign is now seems to be a huge friggin mess. To me it's evident that whoever was the controlling factor in this really didnt take it to heart, and took "art" and "impact" for granted. But, regardless of the whatever the FINAL DESIGN is (if we EVER get there) I hope and PRAY UNT and the AD have certainly learned a lesson out of all of this. Any of you who work in business and need to come up with a marketing idea, always remeber how UNT screwed this up. Put careful thought behind the decision before you go to print and scatter it all over the metroplex. Never take art for granted, it's a powerful force. As for the stadium, I gotta say this. I work in architecture, and honestly we dont do projects on that type of magnitude such as a stadium. But unless somone else can add to this, basically all I understand UNT to have, at this point, is a site, maybe some preliminary ideas and a little bit of money. Preliminary ideas would indicate we've pretty much narrowed down the architect that is going to prepare construction documents. But most often, the process is going to go something to like this: 1. Project of this magnitude will most usually require formal approval from both city council and planning and zoning. Usually to the submittal process for this will require the Civil Engineering drawings (Site, Drainage, Erosion Control, Grading, Utilities, Traffic Studies, etc.) to be 100% complete. The drawings for something like this would take no less than 2-3 months to prepare. Also on a project such as this, they will require exterior elevations, renderings of what the FINAL design is to look like. And if this had been done already, we'd all know about it. UNT can keep secrets, but the City of Denton will leak the story. 2. The City Council and Planning and Zoning approval will always take a MINIMUM of 8-10 weeks. Basically, your project gets put in line behind others and you wait go get put on the dockett. Now, 8-10 weeks is a cake walk IF youre submitting something like a simple retail strip shopping center. This is a 50,000 seat stadium, very close to a residential district, viewable for miles and most importantly from 35 North, where 100,000 people will pass it each day. The stadium will be one of the largest (if not the largest) projects in Denton. I got news for ya, it aint gonna be 8-10 weeks to get this through the City Council and Planning and Zoning. Denton will make comments and require changes several times leading to several re-submittals. It easily could drag out for 4-6 months in this process alone. 3. Construction Documents will have to be complete on the stadium itself including architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing. All of this can be done concurrenty while the project is going through City Council and P&Z, but its still a HUGE amount of time. Once these are complete and UNT passes through City Council and P&Z, the project will most likely be bid out to several contractors while also being submitted to Denton for constuction permits. Again this equals time. 4. Permits released, project awarded to a General Contractor = 2 months MINIMUM (I'd guess) 5. Construction begins = I'm going to guess a year easily to build this. Bottom Line = We're almost halfway through 2007. I hope I'm wrong, but if I were a betting man, I wouldnt put money down a new stadium by 2009.

Yep - Great Idea, I'd certainly buy one. But since since UNT cant get off dead center on a GOOD helmet design that appeals to MOST people, we're stuck. Take a look at this company that manufacturers the emblems. Notice the 2nd emblem from the left. Look familiar? http://chromeemblems.com/CustomEmblems.aspx

Guys, I'll be headed that way. I'm a 89 alum, but this is my first GMG event, so someone will have to tell me where eveyone is. Would like to put some faces with the names.

FYI - Nick Williams emailed me back today in regard to the above statement I posted earlier. Couldnt exactly answer the question, but it's still kinda interesting. Hi Tom. There was a different version. I am not aware of when it changed, as our records don't show the date. As far as extant scores, I have a framed copy of "Fight, North Texas" in my office. It's a version for Male Vocal Quartet. It is slightly different than the current version. And, what many people may not know is that we (band office) had in our possession, until last fall, the ORIGINAL copy of the fight song...on the original paper...it was attached to a plaque several years ago. We have loaned it to the NT Exes office to be displayed there. It is, at very least, an interesting part of our history that is on display in the alumni center. I hope this helps a bit. =NW= Nicholas Williams Assistant Director of Wind Studies/ Director of the Green Brigade Marching Band University of North Texaswww.music.unt.edu/windstudies

Too many arguments for too long. Personally, these are not what I want, but if that's what the A.D department wants, I'll live with its. My thoughts when I see this are: 1. The NT Exes logo: Best look so far, but drop it already people, it aint never gonna happen. They were approached about it, and said no. If you still want it, offer them money. 2. The "North Texas" style of branding to me looks very nice, looks really sharp in the end zone. Problem I have basically have is when I see it on a helmet ALL I can think is "Did anyone even try?" It's the laziest solution they could come up with. This is my speculation on how this decision was made. May be way off, but still, its what I think. RV came up with the original idea of putting "text" on the side of the helmet to promote the program. Basically, it's a billboard on a hat. And to a degree, the method has worked. I think as long as he's in charge, that idea is his baby, and it will stay that way. Couple years ago, when it first started, it was the horrible script font. Somone probably said that looks bad, so they agreed new helmets. We'll STILL put North Texas on the side, but a better font. Now people STILL hate the design. It is again agreed for a new helmet, but RV probably said, ok, new WHITE helmet, but we're STILL putting North Texas on the side. Its going to take a some real convincing to him on a business level to get rid of the billboard idea. 3. Interlocked NT wont happen. Not part of the current branding. THE BRANDING CURRENTLY, IS SOW AND THE FONT THAT'S ON THE HELMET NOW. Pick one of these or both combined. If you want something else, you're wasting your time, UNT wont even entertain the idea.

I'll agree to part of that. They'll be changing it within 3 years, but God only knows the reason WHY they change it, it certainly isnt because it's what the customer wants. It seems to me that they do whatever they want, and never listen to input from others.

It's like an orange creamsicle or remember Orange Push-ups?

That just looks like a hemoroid waiting to happen.

a HA! I KNEW it! I never should have suggested it!