Ive been to 3-4 games at Fretitta/Hofeinze and seen a lot of empty seats at all games. Crowd is announced as sold out, but at least 1000 seats without buts. I think that is a crime. Sampson's teams play consistent, exciting and winning ball. There is no excuse not to jam a 6K arena.
When I got my Coog tickets, the only available ones in our section were the ones we got. Showed up Saturday and the entire section was at about 60% capacity. Stadium was about 50-60% full. The AD needs to reign Dana in. Should be some cuts and potential firings after this past weekend. This team looks so undisciplined.
Fertitta center is a ghost town even at 7K. It's the smallest P5 arena there is. The tickets are sold, but unused. TDECU runs at 60% capacity most games. As I said, certain games (ranked teams, season openers, etc) against teams like Tech, Baylor, BYU, etc. will get to capacity, but those will happen once or twice a year at most. Neither will be expanded in our lifetimes, unless we fall ass backwards into a conference with UT and A&M in it.
Even then, I wonder if UT or A&M would insist on playing at NRG. I always wish that UT would play Rice at Rice Stadium when they go to Houston but, alas, revenue.
Guys Fans do not have faith in Holgerson. If UH brought in a legitimate HC I think this team could be really good....they have the talent.
Oh, they would. In fact, it would be mandatory for any game with either going forward. UT, A&M, OU, LSU, Notre Dame. All games that would only be held at NRG.
Revenue and an infinitely better game experience for the fans, UT will never play a game in Houston not in NRG.
Oh yeah, I saw many a UT game at Rice stadium in the pre-NRG days. Watched us lose in a thunderstorm, watched Ricky go apes**t on them, etc....
Nothing is as it was.... We have a perennial National Title contender in hoops. It will be the hottest ticket in town this year. The days of being able to walk up and get a ticket or two gratis are over. We're going to need to seat 12-13K. The new Big 12 is going to be a helluva basketball conference, and WE are going to rule. As to football, once we've been in the Big 12 for a bit, the need will be obvious. Not only will both be expanded or rebuilt in our lifetimes, news about the facilities will come out in the near future.
I have to agree that we won't be near capacity for either sport. College basketball has lost interest nationally, and while it will pick up some locally because of the talent, I don't envision a raucous house at any point this year. We don't have the basketball culture to support that kind of attendance. The football program is going to be power 5, but it's like we are still in a doink conference in the big picture, so what games really have any significant draw.
I love the enthusiasm, but you're way out over your skis on this. MBB is going into the year favored to win a natty. That hasn't happened in 40 years. As good as Sampson's programs are, that's a very rare event. This year will be fairly special, not just due to expectation/team talent, but also in that we have some good games lined up on weekends (Bama, UCF, Temple, Cinci, Memphis)... some if not most of those should be sold out (at least on paper). But 12-13K? You might get that with two top 10 programs going at it on a weekend (Kansas, Baylor, Tech, etc). But you're not going to come even close to averaging that in the new Big 12 unless Sampson puts together a dynasty in his twilight. Does anyone know the specs on Fertitta Center expansion limits? I know TDECU can go up to 60K (in 10K phases). Speaking of TDECU, I've seen way too many ranked UH teams vs ranked opponents draw flies to fall for any optimism about expansion. 40K is absolutely enough for this incarnation of the Big 12. Short of the program becoming some new juggernaut, I cannot see expansion on the table unless we see it as a prerequisite to inclusion in the new super conferences and we just toss our bread on the water a la San Antonio and the Alamodome.
I remember Tom Herman begging fans to come to the games every week on his radio appearances. Only game I can remember being truly packed was vs Louisville.
Once the Herman era got going in 2015 going 13-1 while winning the Peach Bowl and getting Ed Oliver the next year, the games were packed during this time. Of course this was a whole lot of bandwagons just hearing the hype but going to every home game was as fun as its ever been since the Keenum run. Who can forget the infamous security tackling and fighting students when they rushed the field after the Temple game in Dec 2015 It's going to take that type of run for any sort of relevant hype to come back to UH football. Extremely long way to go to be relevant in the B12 in the coming years. Thankfully UH has basketball that has them in the elite status
The Memphis game when Herman was here too was packed. There were several. I think the problem with Houston Football and fans is fans didn't relate to the schools in CUSA and the AAC. And before, when was in the SWC they played in the Astrodome. It was not a college atmosphere. I think playing against Baylor, TCU, TTech and other schools in this region will help but my main question is; IS HE FIRED YET? UNTIL THEY DO, THIS PROGRAM WILL CONTINUE TO SUFFER.
I think ward got hurt in that game and the backup won the game after they were down 20. Paxton Lynch was the qb for Memphis. Remember all the hype he had lol.
From what I remember Ward got hurt the previous game and was playing injured then got replaced either at halftime or just before. We were at that game, started off with a good crowd but most of the fans left during the 3rd quarter. AAC Championship Game crowd was very disappointing.
