No beer at DKR in 2014

[texasdobbs]

Enjoy! Just don't complain about the fans that show up late or leave early. If you are going to exclude 70,000 fans from the party, you take what you get from those being treated like crap.

The AD should be unifying the fanbase, not creating a group of haves and another of have nots. Falling attendance is a problem at a large number of NCAA schools, including many large, successful programs. We already aren't selling out most of our home games. When you enjoy that beer, count the empty seats.

Lol... maybe it's time to weed out the flakes anyway.... you know the ones that like beer more than Texas Football. ..

Duke I'm just jacking with you man.... crap if you want a beer that bad... maybe I can let you come to my seats for a quarter or two and have a beer on me?

 

[utisdabomb12]

I honestly don't want Tech fans having access to alcohol, I would prefer to get home alive. 

 

[texasdobbs]

I honestly don't want Tech fans having access to alcohol, I would prefer to get home alive.

Or the West Virginia game...

 

[Randolph Duke]

I honestly don't want Tech fans having access to alcohol, I would prefer to get home alive.

Oh, come on. What is as the story of the drunk Tech women last time the game was in Austin? I can dig out the details if no one remembers off the top of their head. Big money ticket holders are getting drunk and making asses of themselves and you say the best way to prevent drunk fans making asses of themselves is to keep people who haven't been a problem from buying beer while continuing sales to people who have been a problem? That makes as much sense as claiming the way to stop gun violence is to take guns away from those who have shown they are responsible individuals.

We aren't selling out home games. Our game day atmosphere is lacking and even the players are saying it sucks. So far, the plan seems to do a lot of nothing and even people on this board are saying "I got mine, while I am enjoying a beer, I will be thinking of (read:laughing at) those who are being treated like second class fans."

A lot of fans are already preferring to stay at home and watch the games on TV. The attitude of "I don't care, because I got mine. Steve Patterson cares about me" is bad news for the financial health of the program. The Bellmont attitude that they can half-ass their jobs because they can't be fired is bad news for the overall health of the program.

People can laugh it off, but attendance this year will probably be below that of last year where Bellmont was already relying on marketing ideas like Groupon to sell tickets. We need an athletic director willing to make changes. We need an AD who understands keeping fans wanting to attend in person is important. Steve Patterson seems to be the perfect person to manage an athletic department that just needs someone to sign paychecks, shake hands and keep the field mowed. Texas needs a leader, not a caretaker. Patterson was a mistake.

 

[texasdobbs]

Oh, come on. What is as the story of the drunk Tech women last time the game was in Austin? I can dig out the details if no one remembers off the top of their head. Big money ticket holders are getting drunk and making asses of themselves and you say the best way to prevent drunk fans making asses of themselves is to keep people who haven't been a problem from buying beer while continuing sales to people who have been a problem? That makes as much sense as claiming the way to stop gun violence is to take guns away from those who have shown they are responsible individuals.

We aren't selling out home games. Our game day atmosphere is lacking and even the players are saying it sucks. So far, the plan seems to do a lot of nothing and even people on this board are saying "I got mine, while I am enjoying a beer, I will be thinking of (read:laughing at) those who are being treated like second class fans."

A lot of fans are already preferring to stay at home and watch the games on TV. The attitude of "I don't care, because I got mine. Steve Patterson cares about me" is bad news for the financial health of the program. The Bellmont attitude that they can half-ass their jobs because they can't be fired is bad news for the overall health of the program.

People can laugh it off, but attendance this year will probably be below that of last year where Bellmont was already relying on marketing ideas like Groupon to sell tickets. We need an athletic director willing to make changes. We need an AD who understands keeping fans wanting to attend in person is important. Steve Patterson seems to be the perfect person to manage an athletic department that just needs someone to sign paychecks, shake hands and keep the field mowed. Texas needs a leader, not a caretaker. Patterson was a mistake.

Lol.... Duke takes a licken but keeps on ticken....

 

[streettopeschel]

Lol.... Duke takes a licken but keeps on ticken....

the only person who could possibly be this pissed about patterson getting the AD job, for no tangible reason other than he's not george patton, would be oliver luck. 

i'm announcing with the 100% certainty that only an anonymous interweb insider can have that randolph duke is indeed oliver luck.

 

[Randolph Duke]

the only person who could possibly be this pissed about patterson getting the AD job, for no tangible reason other than he's not george patton, would be oliver luck.

i'm announcing with the 100% certainty that only an anonymous interweb insider can have that randolph duke is indeed oliver luck.

I'm not pissed that Patterson was hired as AD. I am disappointed. Bellmont needs leadership, innovation, change and creativity. We got an administrator who isn't one to act dynamically. In my mind, an extended period of status quo and only slow, glacial change will result in the program going backward. I understand you disagree.

Attendance will be lower this year than last year. Bellmont will discount tickets heavily and we will have more empty seats this year than last year. Those are my predictions.

 

[streettopeschel]

attendance has nothing to do with bloat or ineffectiveness at Bellmont. Nobody has bought a ticket, or not bought a ticket because of Nick Voinis.

Patterson could work 20-hr days and change every thing possible to change. or he could come in at noon hungover and leave at 4. and guess what?  attendance will be related to the product on the field.

it's not about disney, beer, where the band sits, twitter, athletic dept personnel costs or any of the extraneous BS you seem so preoccupied with. patterson ultimately will be judged in large part by whether strong is successful. if CS is, nothing you fret over will be remembered by anybody but you. if CS is not successful, everything goes under the microscope. 

it's about the product on the field. this year. next year. 10 years from now and 100 years from now. Nothing more, nothing less.

that's my prediction.

 

[Randolph Duke]

attendance has nothing to do with bloat or ineffectiveness at Bellmont. Nobody has bought a ticket, or not bought a ticket because of Nick Voinis.

Patterson could work 20-hr days and change every thing possible to change. or he could come in at noon hungover and leave at 4. and guess what? attendance will be related to the product on the field.

it's not about disney, beer, where the band sits, twitter, athletic dept personnel costs or any of the extraneous BS you seem so preoccupied with. patterson ultimately will be judged in large part by whether strong is successful. if CS is, nothing you fret over will be remembered by anybody but you. if CS is not successful, everything goes under the microscope.

it's about the product on the field. this year. next year. 10 years from now and 100 years from now. Nothing more, nothing less.

that's my prediction.

I don't care how many hours a day Steve Patterson works. I care about results. Most NCAA programs are dealing with the fact the latest generation of college football fans are tied into social media and more predisposed to watch games at home on their 60" screens than attend games in person. Nick Voinis sucks at his job but as I have learned, he is guaranteed lifetime employment, so the UT social media effort will fail to deliver to an entire generation of fans, but that doesn't matter.
We can fail to deliver the game day experience the fans want and the fans will increasingly show up late, leave early and be disengaged. Fans who use social media will not connect with the program, but all will be just fine because 50 year old alumni say so. And at one time, baseball was America's past time. Boxing used to be dominant. Horse racing was hugely popular.

But the generation that is bring underserved by the social media group and is being ignored by Steve Patterson because they don't pay enough will somehow learn to care about the program that didn't care about them because "We're Texas."

Lol. Sounds logical to me. After all, nothing in sports entertainment ever changes. Go Seabiscuit!

 

[Lord Vader]

Im a "poor" I guess, so its not like my opinion really matters.

Thanks to Aaron, the kid and I got to go to the Kansas State game last year. First game we'd ever attended. I went too hard at the tailgate (but hey you only live once), and I paid for it, but honestly the fact I couldnt get a beer was the last thing on my mind. Its something her and I will probably never get to do again, but if we did, I still wouldnt care if I couldnt buy a beer in the stadium. 

I got to see the Longhorns win. My kid was in tears when she got those tickets because thats how big it was. Texas Longhorns football is about a hell of a lot more than an $8 beer. 

 

[Aaron Carrara]

Patterson's plate was full the second he accepted the AD job at Texas. To call him a loser or a failure after 6 months on the job is nothing short of absurd.  Passion (negative and positive) is extremely important but let's talk rationally about the challenges and issues within the athletic programs and in Bellmont.    

 

[streettopeschel]

Duke...i've never known anybody either in real life or in cyber-life i was so frequently 180-degrees apart from on issues. doesn't mean i'm right or you are...just that we frequently see things completely differently. which i do find interesting. 

keep fighting the good fight. if we ever meet, the first beer and pitchfork is on me.

 

[Randolph Duke]

Patterson's plate was full the second he accepted the AD job at Texas. To call him a loser or a failure after 6 months on the job is nothing short of absurd. Passion (negative and positive) is extremely important but let's talk rationally about the challenges and issues within the athletic programs and in Bellmont.

I'm not saying he is a failure. I am saying he isn't the leader Texas needs. After eight months, we can begin to understand his leadership style. He seems to be more of a status quo administrator than a dynamic leader. The largest athletic program in college sports needs leadership, not someone to just sign paychecks and make sure the fields are mowed. Patterson would be great back at ASU, at a program like Temple or maybe Iowa. Texas needs leadership and dynamic change. Texas should be a leader on and off the field. Patterson isn't a dynamic leader. He isn't the right guy for Texas unless we are ready to abandon the role of being a leader on and off the field.

 

[Randolph Duke]

Im a "poor" I guess, so its not like my opinion really matters.

Thanks to Aaron, the kid and I got to go to the Kansas State game last year. First game we'd ever attended. I went too hard at the tailgate (but hey you only live once), and I paid for it, but honestly the fact I couldnt get a beer was the last thing on my mind. Its something her and I will probably never get to do again, but if we did, I still wouldnt care if I couldnt buy a beer in the stadium.

I got to see the Longhorns win. My kid was in tears when she got those tickets because thats how big it was. Texas Longhorns football is about a hell of a lot more than an $8 beer.

It isn't about the beer. It is about engaging the fans who are enjoy the game differently than we did. Young fans today use social media to enhance the game day experience. Following certain individuals on twitter during the game adds a lot to the overall story of what is going on. I understand Patterson used to tweet during the ASU games. Do we have additional wifi capacity in the stadium for fans? Fans can get a much broader exposure to the game staying home, watching the game on TV and enjoying a beer. What are we doing to draw that younger fan back to the stadium other than saying for $10,000 you can get the same experience at DKR that you can get for $150 at home.

Attendance is going to fall off this year and until we get a new media group in place. And, probably, until we get dynamic leadership at the head of the program.

 

[Lord Vader]

The expense part I can appreciate and agree with, but its expensive to see any top team right?

Maybe part of "what they bank on" so to speak is people like me, who would come if others didnt?

 

[Randolph Duke]

The expense part I can appreciate and agree with, but its expensive to see any top team right?

Maybe part of "what they bank on" so to speak is people like me, who would come if others didnt?

Our debt service is 20% less than Ohio State ($17 mil vs $14 mil) yet we spend $240,000 per athlete as opposed to OSU's $170,000. The national average for public universities is $107,000. Where are we spending all that money and, while I understand Bellmont employees have lifetime employment regardless of performance, what are we getting for the insane amount of money Bellmont is blowing through? I get it that Patterson is OK with spending (at ASU his program was spending roughly $140,000 per athlete) but why are we so underperforming, on and off the field, so many schools that are spending tens of millions less than UT?
It is insane how people are clamoring for more of the status quo and content with Steve Patterson's no change policy. For $3 million, we could move our worthless media group to a warehouse and let them rot and bring in a group that is actually competent. No issues about lifetime employment. Just let them stare at a blank wall eight hours a day while we rebuild our media group with a different team.

 

[texasdobbs]

Our debt service is 20% less than Ohio State ($17 mil vs $14 mil) yet we spend $240,000 per athlete as opposed to OSU's $170,000. The national average for public universities is $107,000. Where are we spending all that money and, while I understand Bellmont employees have lifetime employment regardless of performance, what are we getting for the insane amount of money Bellmont is blowing through? I get it that Patterson is OK with spending (at ASU his program was spending roughly $140,000 per athlete) but why are we so underperforming, on and off the field, so many schools that are spending tens of millions less than UT?

It is insane how people are clamoring for more of the status quo and content with Steve Patterson's no change policy. For $3 million, we could move our worthless media group to a warehouse and let them rot and bring in a group that is actually competent. No issues about lifetime employment. Just let them stare at a blank wall eight hours a day while we rebuild our media group with a different team.

Oh crap you just busted out that recycled numbers game again.... Duke this is about beer, but I realize you want to make it about Patterson and how he sucks. No beer at DKR 2014.... but maybe next year

 

[joeywa]

It isn't about the beer. It is about engaging the fans who are enjoy the game differently than we did. Young fans today use social media to enhance the game day experience. Following certain individuals on twitter during the game adds a lot to the overall story of what is going on. I understand Patterson used to tweet during the ASU games. Do we have additional wifi capacity in the stadium for fans? Fans can get a much broader exposure to the game staying home, watching the game on TV and enjoying a beer. What are we doing to draw that younger fan back to the stadium other than saying for $10,000 you can get the same experience at DKR that you can get for $150 at home.

Attendance is going to fall off this year and until we get a new media group in place. And, probably, until we get dynamic leadership at the head of the program.

You have no idea whether we will be tweeting about games, in-game, or not. Baseball Twitter feed was extremely active throughout the season, and I could have followed it and religiously and gained a pretty good idea of what was going on in the games.

I would guess that football is the same.

That said, the game/series I was at in-person, I had no desire to follow Twitter, unless I missed something and those around couldn't tell me because they were not watching either.

"Fans" that choose to stay at home and watch a sporting event at home can ALWAYS get a more informed view of the event than they can live. It doesn't matter if it's a CFB game, the Super Bowl, MLB or NBA. Sports media, such as ESPN, FOX, CBS, message boards, etc all do an incredibly thorough job of providing the stats, feel-good stories, matchup info, player data, etc, to the viewer at home.

WiFi at DKR, (and I don't know of it's been upgraded for this season or not yet,) is a benefit, but, that alone isn't going to draw the younger fans to the games, just like Twitter isn't. As Street said, the success of Charlie Strong, and the success of the football team is what will get people to games. In the late 1980s, when I was an undergrad, we SUCKED. The young fans, (translated: students) still went to the games. They partied at tailgates, snuck in booze, arrived a little late and left early, as did alums. This is not a new issue. And it's not an issue that only UT faces. Students will come. Alums will come. Look at any Texas message board and you'll see that the average Texas fan is clamoring for football to start so they can attend/watch the games. It's like this every year. And the stadium is not going to be sold out for Rice, UNT, Iowa St, Kansas, TCU. Those are not strong match ups. Games like Tech, BYU, Ok St, K St, Baylor-will draw close to sellout crowds.

I've been a season ticket holder since 1993. I don't sit in the EZ Club seats. The fact that I can't get an $8 beer in the stadium does not make me feel slighted, left out, looked down upon or feel any less of a part of the game day experience. I sit on the West side LL. If I had to sit near the airplane flight path at the top of the upper decks, I'd probably stay home and watch on TV. Better experience. And there's absolutely nothing anyone can do to enhance the experience from way up there.

Your "ideas" are so scattered here. You say you want to engage the fans. OK. How? Tweets in-game? Already being done in baseball and basketball, would think this is likely going to happen in football as well. You want more Dot Races on the jumbotron? More t-shirts fired into the crowd by the big gorilla? I, for one, would be fine with more Chaps Girl coverage on the jumbotron. But what else? The concourse has been redesigned to include new food offerings. The jumbotron, while obnoxious as all get out, has been toned down the last season or two. I've heard we will have a new entrance video, but I'm not 100% certain. I just don't get what you think is going to make it better.

Make a list of what would make YOUR game day experience better and send a letter to Patterson.

 

[joeywa]

Oh crap you just busted out that recycled numbers game again.... Duke this is about beer, but I realize you want to make it about Patterson and how he sucks.

No beer at DKR 2014.... but maybe next year

This is ALL about Duke wanting to continually bash a new AD, and show that he is the money wizard with all the answers and no place to share them. He should set up a meeting with Patterson so he can be the savior of the UT Athletics Department.

 

[Lukus Alderman]

Attendance will not go down this year.

Preposterous.