Jump to content

TheFranchise

Members
  • Posts

    551
  • Joined

  • Days Won

    1
  • Points

    1,910 [ Donate ]

Posts posted by TheFranchise

  1. Some thoughts about looking over at TCU and what they've done:

    Don't discount the genius of Gary Patterson. That dude can take a 2* recruit at halfback and talk him into playing linebacker and then the dude becomes an All-American two seasons later. He feeds off of finding guys that "couldn't quite make the cut" at schools like Texas, Oklahoma, LSU and A&M and bringing them in to shine at TCU.

    As far as attendance, it wasn't until 2010 that they really started consistently selling out games. That game against Utah was a madhouse, though.

    They started small. They won games against the teams on their schedule. Then, they started "competing" in the road games where they were expected to get throttled. Then come 2005, they opened the season and put themselves on the map by stunning Oklahoma in Norman -- something NO team was able to do for a long time back then.

    It's easy to look over at TCU and what they've done right and want to do it, but the "doing it" part is far easier said than done. If it was that easy, you'd see a lot more schools succeeding the same way. Granted, I'd love to see the Mean Green follow a similar path (and it CAN happen). While they did work hard and do a lot to set themselves up for success, they had a lot of good fortune too.

    All that to say, if a couple of good breaks go our way and the athletic department puts in the work of marketing this thing a little bit, Mean Green football could get HUGE.

    That ends my little rant for now.

    -- Franchise

    • Upvote 1
  2. I don't think so.

    Tom Hicks demonstrated financial commitment with the A-Rod signing and kept shelling out for other players until he went broke. Often times, it was incredibly stupid, but his commitment was always there. He was the guy who made the idiotic move (at the time) of hiring 28-year-old Jon Daniels as his GM. He let this GM hire Ron Washington. Then he hired Nolan Ryan to run the franchise. Tom Hicks was not the problem. If you want to say John Hart was the problem, I'll give you that.

    By the time he sold the team in 2010, all of the pieces were in place (thanks to Jon Daniels' prowess) to make the runs to the W.S.

    The problem was a losing team.

    I remember being able to walk up to the gate and get great seats 30 minutes before first pitch in my favorite section (216). If I tried to do that today, I'd probably be sitting by the foul pole (205). Today, the team is winning. And, in true Dallas fan form, the stadium is full.

    The only exception? Cowboy games will sell out for a 5-11 team. Every time.

    Make no mistake, this is Jerry's town... and it's not even for DFW-only. 1855 is right. Football is king in Texas as a whole.

    I know I'm not alone here. You may not remember it but I do. There was a story that broke somewhere around 2004 (will try to find a link for you, but it's going to be in an archive somewhere) where Hicks blamed his lack of spending on the fans. It got a lot of play on the radio and he got a lot of flack for it, as he should have. It was a big story at the time.

    If anyone thinks Hicks' priority was winning, they're out of their mind. That dude had one goal as a sports owner -- making an ess-load of money. And when he didn't, he blamed the fans.

    In fact, look at what he did to F. C. Liverpool. It was like rinse, wash and repeat with that situation.

    Wait never mind . . . some of you guys hate soccer here . . .

    -- The Franchise

    • Upvote 1
  3. Don't tell that to every Rangers bandwagon jumper in DFW. They'll make sure you know that this is a baseball town for sure. Nevermind the fact that they were nowhere to be found in Arlington as recently as 2009.

    There are more "true" Rangers fans than some may think. A lot of us stayed away during the 2000's because of bad ownership that refused to do anything worth a crap with the team. Tom Hicks was nearly the death of this team and the day he left with "empty pockets" never came soon enough. The guy was a horrible owner and then had the sac to tell the media that the team's routine sub-.500 seasons were the fans fault and would have been remedied if "the fans had shown up."

    Sorry, but the dude basically said back in 2004 that he will continue to put crap on the field until the fans start showing up to watch said crap. Then, he would think about investing more into the team. (My paraphrasing but it's the same basic message)

    When Nolan/Greenberg took the team over, and they *gasp* actually lowered ticket prices from what Hicks had done, fans started showing up again. Yes, there was a winning product being put out at that time, too but there was also a fresh wind that started blowing into town at that time. The guy focusing on "making money" instead of "winning games" had finally left town and the focus was on a title. Dang, we came close . . . twice.

    Also, an entertaining read (which even I question but find interesting given it's a pretty big publication like Forbes): http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/07/baseball-fans-loyal-forbeslife-cx_mw_0807sport.html

    -- The Franchise

    • Upvote 2
  4. I'm sure everyone's tuned into the details now, but man . . . Not much else to say than simply, pray, love, run to help -- whatever your method of help is, just do it. West is in chaos right now. A beautiful, charming little town that pretty much anyone that has ever driven south on I-35 is familiar with.

    Just devastating . . .

    http://www.wfaa.com/news/texas-news/powerful-exploson-rocks-town-north-of-waco-203508001.html

    -- TheFranchise

    • Upvote 2
  5. So do I understand correctly that you have to have 3000 for a regional? So why would be build 200 short of that?

    I'm willing to bet it will be expandable. For example, N.C. State hosted a regional at Doak Field last season. Doak has a listed capacity of 2,500 but is expandable to 3,000.

    I would see U.N.T. doing something similar in the event that the team plays well enough to even consider hosting a Regional/Super Regional.

    But that's all in the future. I'm just giddy about the prospect of having a team and a stadium, period!

    -- Stephen

    • Upvote 5
  6. I'm sure you read that I stated the mid-week games are a great glance at the future of a program, and that we can expect to see local teams for those games. My point was that you aren't exactly going to see Matt Purke, ca. 2010, pitching on a Tuesday night. It's more likely to be a rotation of freshman getting in 2-3 innings apiece or a Matt Purke ca. 2011 rehabbing an injury.

    Agreed. My intent was to piggy-back on what you were saying. Sorry if my text got in the way of my message.

    In fact, I was really just trying to shoehorn in an Emmitt Smith reference.

    And yes, your Purke illustration is an excellent example. B)

    -- The Franchise

    • Upvote 1
  7. Hi everyone,

    I've "lurked" for a couple of days but found this to be the perfect opportunity to chime in.

    I just have to say that this stuff is making me uuber-excited.

    I'm a new student at UNT (seriously, this is my first semester) and have been hoping for a while that the Mean Green would restart the baseball program. The fact that this is coming true has me seriously giddy.

    I used to be a sportswriter following another nearby university and followed their baseball team a lot. I grew to LOVE college baseball. To find out The Mean Green aim to join those ranks makes me proud. I can't wait for opening day.

    For those that love baseball but aren't familiar with the college game, you're in for a treat. As oldguystudent alluded to, it doesn't get much better than a Friday night or Saturday matinee college baseball game. On opening night, I will for sure be at KRAM1 ballpark. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

    But don't "poo poo" the mid-week games entirely. Those are still going to be the one/two game sets (sometimes home and home on back-to-back nights) with some really good local programs (DBU, TCU, Oklahoma, even UTA is decent).

    This is excellent news.

    -- The Franchise

    • Upvote 1
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Please review our full Privacy Policy before using our site.