Diggs tells it how it is

[Davharjac]

Texas defensive back Quandre Diggs calls for change in Longhorn fan culture, provides plan http://share.d-news.co/ubu8mrN

 

[The Tres Leches]

The first step to creating a better atmosphere would be to field a championship-caliber team.

 

[JMagana]

The first step to creating a better atmosphere would be to field a championship-caliber team.

Disagree... we say we love Texas so much but yet we keep the show me first mentality.

First comes the idea, then the action, and finally the reward.

 

[armadillo slim]

this led to a typically myopic discussion on TOS which, as it always does, devolved into a critique of the gray and blue hairs and how much better life would be if only the students had control.

LOL. sure. Quandre needs to spend less time talking and more time practicing. He's a good kid. unfortunately, that's all he is. a kid. and a kid doesn't have the wisdom or perspective to be opining on this topic.

 

[Lukus Alderman]

this led to a typically myopic discussion on TOS which, as it always does, devolved into a critique of the gray and blue hairs and how much better life would be if only the students had control.
LOL. sure. Quandre needs to spend less time talking and more time practicing. He's a good kid. unfortunately, that's all he is. a kid. and a kid doesn't have the wisdom or perspective to be opining on this topic.

You are correct. What Texas has done for decades now has worked. We may not have the craziest fans closest to the field, but we have the facilities and the money to maintain them due to the fact that we are doing things that way.

 

[utisdabomb12]

Completely agree with the changes that Diggs suggested.

 

[Hooverhog]

I'm with Diggs. First come first serve for the students and yes, they should get in free.

 

[armadillo slim]

to be fair, my comments were less directed at Quandre and more directed towards the self entitleds commenting on his comments. Quandre is a great kid and great leader for this team. Some of his comments could be implemented without impacting too many of the season ticket holders, but who will you displace if you do too much of it?

Remember, those season ticket holders were students too, and they've been to a lot of games over the years and donate large sums of money to the school for the privilege of doing so. It is those donations that pay for pretty much everything that Quandre loves about this school.

 

[Randolph Duke]

this led to a typically myopic discussion on TOS which, as it always does, devolved into a critique of the gray and blue hairs and how much better life would be if only the students had control.
LOL. sure. Quandre needs to spend less time talking and more time practicing. He's a good kid. unfortunately, that's all he is. a kid. and a kid doesn't have the wisdom or perspective to be opining on this topic.

It's easy to explain how you believe things should be. It's a lot tougher to understand why they are the way they are in the first place.

To change the game day atmosphere, we first have to decide what we want it to be. Rowdy isn't always consistent with family friendly. Five mile hikes from parking structures won't draw in 70 year old alumni. Trying to be accommodating to every constituency entails so many compromises that the end result that a lot of things are done, but nothing is actually done well. Exactly what type of fans do we want at which location in the stadium and, considering their ability to pay for those tickets, how do the changes affect the cash flow of the program?

The game day atmosphere will change a lot in the next years as the med school complex is built out and both parking and tailgating areas south of MLK disappear. Game day parking is going to have a to be a major consideration. Do we shift the tailgating on to campus? If so, logistics are going to have to be worked out to get supplies and equipment in and out without a constant stream of automobiles driving through the crowds.

The particular Disney group brought in to advise Patterson in changing the game day environment is the Disney Institute (When discussing "Disney" it is important to identify just what niche of the company is being talked about. They are a huge group with many distinct specialties, get the wrong specialty and you end up with pink unicorns and glitter during half time shows). Hopefully, the first priority is determining how much of the stadium seating we want to dedicate to various constituencies. We need to create different areas around the stadium for each of them, ensure easy parking, be prepared to move people from parking to the desired entrance for each constituency (people movers will be a must) so family friendly isn't having to deal with rowdy tailgaters/ students and long term alumni with season tickets don't give up on supporting the program because growth around campus is such an obstacle, going to games ceases to be an enjoyable experience.

Comparing the UT game day experience to that of aggy, Baylor, Florida State or whichever school is a waste of time. Texas is a landlocked campus with increasing density around the stadium. No other 100,000 seat college stadium is in a landlocked urban setting in a city of almost 2 million people (Austin/Round Rock is currently just over 1.75mil, projected to be 2.75 mil by 2030). Ole Miss has a great tailgate, but they have plenty of space. Baylor students are having fun these days, but a) they are winning, B) tickets are readily available at a cheap cost and c) they don't have 100,000 people on game day. Cornhusker games in Lincoln, Nebraska are an easy sell because there is literally nothing else to do in that town on weekends in the fall and they are not facing the density issues we are increasingly facing. Texas has specific problems to solve in order to draw specific types of fans to its games.

To change the game day environment, we are going to have to build infrastructure that is going to compete with various other needs. Parking for 30,000 vehicles for 7 games a year close to campus is a HUGE waste of valuable real estate for the other 358 days during the year. The med school will push football fans east, or north of the stadium. West is limited by how we want to use the campus itself on game day. Drunk students in prime seats aren't going to be able to add enough revenue to maintain the program's growth. Individuals paying big money for tickets are going to be increasing less willing to tolerate long walks from wherever their parking spots are relocated to.

The issues here aren't as simple as Quandre sees things.

 

[HornNdriftwood]

Duke

It's an exciting time for the UT Austin campus. We're moving up in the world and truly becoming a "university of the first class." With Cigarroa stepping down and Powers probably following in a year or 2, we need to keep a close eye on the search for their replacements.

Hook 'em.

 

[armadillo slim]

R.Duke--that is one great post. Kudos. I wish i'd written that.

 

[Randolph Duke]

DukeIt's an exciting time for the UT Austin campus. We're moving up in the world and truly becoming a "university of the first class." With Cigarroa stepping down and Powers probably following in a year or 2, we need to keep a close eye on the search for their replacements.

Hook 'em.

A professor at UT opened my eyes to the fact that is there isn't and change, there isn't any opportunity. The fact that change has finally come to the program really creates some exciting possibilities. Patterson supposedly wasn't hired to be an administrator of the program, as Deloss was at the end of his tenure. One of the questions I posed to McPhaul concerned when we can start to see some of the changes we were assured would becoming with Patterson's hiring. So far, there seems to be just a lot of "business as usual" from Bellmont.

Change can be great and it can be hugely problematic. I can think of a number of things to do to help fans connect with the program. It remains to be seen if Bellmont is willing to listen or if they are still convinced they have all the answers. Some people are going to be economic winners from the change and some will be economic losers. Bellmont today is an example of institutional bloat and an utter lack of evolutionary thinking. As I have said a number of times, exactly how many aspects of UT athletics exemplify excellence? ZERO. Our use of media sucks, our marketing is nothing to be proud of, the game day environment is not connecting with any of the various groups within the fanbase. We complain about the performance of the athletes, but the administrators are failing far worse than the players.

At least change is happening. I hope Patterson is the right guy to manage it. So far, I haven't seen much real change, but time will tell.

 

[streettopeschel]

A professor at UT opened my eyes to the fact that is there isn't and change, there isn't any opportunity. The fact that change has finally come to the program really creates some exciting possibilities. Patterson supposedly wasn't hired to be an administrator of the program, as Deloss was at the end of his tenure. One of the questions I posed to McPhaul concerned when we can start to see some of the changes we were assured would becoming with Patterson's hiring. So far, there seems to be just a lot of "business as usual" from Bellmont.
Change can be great and it can be hugely problematic. I can think of a number of things to do to help fans connect with the program. It remains to be seen if Bellmont is willing to listen or if they are still convinced they have all the answers. Some people are going to be economic winners from the change and some will be economic losers. Bellmont today is an example of institutional bloat and an utter lack of evolutionary thinking. As I have said a number of times, exactly how many aspects of UT athletics exemplify excellence? ZERO. Our use of media sucks, our marketing is nothing to be proud of, the game day environment is not connecting with any of the various groups within the fanbase. We complain about the performance of the athletes, but the administrators are failing far worse than the players.

At least change is happening. I hope Patterson is the right guy to manage it. So far, I haven't seen much real change, but time will tell.

maybe not yet, but seems the wheels are in motion. The future 4-team basketball barnstorming tour sounds good. bringing in disney to consult on gameday experience at least means a concern has been acknowledged. i don't like it, but the mexico city concept certainly isn't business as usual.

 

[HornNdriftwood]

Duke

I actually would hope change would not occur in the first couple of months. It would most likely be knee-jerk if so. IMO, your concerns re; "Bellmont" are overblown. Could there be streamlining in the budget and personnel? No doubt. But the biggest problem in the AD the last few years is not enough winning, period.

Back to the topic, the hiring of Disney indicates an awareness of the problem. It remains to be seen what solutions are proposed. With the southeast campus building projects coming on line soon, I think any changes to gameday atmosphere in the short term will be tweaks like the "first-come-first-served" idea. Long term, I believe to seriously address the noise level concerns will require real physical renovations to the stadium design.

 

[armadillo slim]

maybe not yet, but seems the wheels are in motion. The future 4-team basketball barnstorming tour sounds good. bringing in disney to consult on gameday experience at least means a concern has been acknowledged. i don't like it, but the mexico city concept certainly isn't business as usual.

i was fixing to make the same point about the Disney consultancy and the Mexico City proposal. Those are the types of ideas that evoke underlying change and they also recognize that UT has a preeminent place in the hierarchy of college athletics.

I don't think you can have effective fruit basket turnover without some serious evaluation first. He hasn't had time for serious evaluation yet. Changing for the sake of change is not real change, its just reactionary thinking. It's the Jerry Jones approach to administration and that has led the Cowboys to a mediocre place that they're unlikely to climb out of without some revolutionary thinking of their own.

To say we have ZERO excellence exemplified is silly. You don't get to the top of the financial heap and brand recognition without doing something right. Can we at least recognize that what has been done here over the last decade is actually pretty special considering where we were back in the 90's. Yes, there are things to work on as you point out, but I think you paint far too bleak a picture. 98% of administrations around the country would swap our situation for theirs in a heart beat. Patterson is not exactly starting with an empty cupboard.

 

[doc longhorn]

The university has over 50,000 students attending - not including the faculty and employees. Stadiums were not built to entertain alumni - they were built for the student population, first and foremost, and our stadium should be no different. Rich alumni should not be allowed to buy entitlement - it reeks of opulence and arrogance. Besides, it's just not right.

This is a state university - basically supported by state funds and the costs of attending - donations DO NOT support the school.

 

[BBQ time]

Awesome post Duke.

Love the idea of splitting up the stadium. A kid zone with no alcohol, no cussing, etc. A party zone with beer vendors cruising the aisles. A no standing section for the gray hairs.

The first step is not treating fans in the stadium like an audience for an infomercial. Turn down the volume of the ads. Turn up the band.

 

[streettopeschel]

The university has over 50,000 students attending - not including the faculty and employees. Stadiums were not built to entertain alumni - they were built for the student population, first and foremost, and our stadium should be no different. Rich alumni should not be allowed to buy entitlement - it reeks of opulence and arrogance. Besides, it's just not right.
This is a state university - basically supported by state funds and the costs of attending - donations DO NOT support the school.

whoa, whoa. whoa....not rich by any means, but can afford LHF and season tix and i enjoy reeking of opulence and arrogance. in fact, i wear it well and look forward to it every fall. don't screw with that or at least not until i'm laid out in my burnt orange pine box. TIA.

 

[doc longhorn]

whoa, whoa. whoa....not rich by any means, but can afford LHF and season tix and i enjoy reeking of opulence and arrogance. in fact, i wear it well and look forward to it every fall. don't screw with that or at least not until i'm laid out in my burnt orange pine box. TIA.

LOL - at least you are honest.