you should read this . UH is in far worse shape than us. There was an article in the Houston Chronicle on Wed. talking about the horrible shape of there athletic program money wise. They are sending out letters to former players and allums basically begging for money. They are so poor they might have to move down to division 1a if they do not get donations. They only draw around 10,000 for home football games and that is including the students. The students even get in for free. Nobody at the school shows an interest in their football program. The only only game within the last 5 years they sold out was UT(Texas) last year but they had the whole problem with the temp. bleachers and now UT said they won't play at Houston again. Also there basketball ball programs is in bad shape. Think our situation is bad here. We at least draw 5,000 fans. The average attendence for a home game is around 1,000 people, far worse than ours. There program is on the brink of destruction. Article
From what I've heard about UH living around here, most of their students don't feel any allegiance to the school. They're either graduate students getting their masters at night or possibly transfer students from Texas or A&M. I've thought about getting my MBA there but I'll never show an interest in their sports programs or anything. I think it's a lot of cases like that. This is a reason they have few boosters and alumni to "give back." LSU, on the other hand, is the pride of the entire state and you don't even have to go to school there to be a Tiger for life. My dad had me bleeding purple and gold by the time I was about 7. I would still be a diehard Tiger fan if I would've never attended school at LSU.
Amen to that Sabretooth. I attended USL and have always bled purple and gold. The first time I ever set foot in Tiger Stadium was as a high school band member for "Band Night" (remember those?). LSU was playing Miami and George Mira, Sr. was their QB. We kicked their tails that night. McNaspy Stadium just never seemed to cut it after that experience.
The problem with UH is that it is a commuter school. It's hard to get the student body interested when they are on campus for class and then depart back to homes, jobs, etc. that don't revolve around typical university life. Probably has to do with the size of the city. People's lives don't revolve around UH events; UH events are built into their lives. LSU, on the other hand, is in a smaller town. Plus, there is a very large segment of the student population that move to campus to go to school there. Those students are going to seek out everything there is to do on/near campus and that involves LSU. Once those students leave, they continue to look for opportunities to be on campus & involved with the university. While living on/near campus, their lives revolve around LSU.
exactly - look at the largest cities in the nation and the University that is affiliated with them . . University of New York (probably a SUNY) University of Chicago I guess UCLA would qualify University of Houston. So out of the 4 largest cities in America - only two seem to hold big time athletic programs - look at the other large cities: Atlanta Dallas Boston Baltimore Washington DC Detroit Not many of them have big time sports programs - probably b/c of the commuter nature of the schools.
I thought you might find this interesting, Moo State playes UH in Houston this year. In 2004 they play University of Miami(Florida) at home. Those are pretty big non conference games for them. Lets see if they draw fans to those games.
