Don’t blame Temple fans for attendance

Took this photo from my seat. The nice blonde lady in front of me is the mother of Tulane kicker Pat Durkin, who went 5-for-5. This is what 13,336 fans look like in a 70K stadium. Below, this is what the same number of fans look like in Hawaii’s 15,000-seat stadium. Nobody from the mainland makes snide remarks asking about only 1,000 people at the Hawaii game.

Everybody’s a know-it-all when they are watching a Temple game from 1,000 miles away.

While sitting on the “Tulane” side of the field, I was pretty impressed with the Temple announced crowd of 13,336 and tried to take as wide a shot as I could (above).

Then I looked down at my phone and saw this post from somebody watching on TV: “Are there 1,000 people there?”

I shook my head.

A shot of the Lot K parking lot (completely full on both sides but could not take a wider shot).

Yes, there are a thousand people here. Ten times that many. Maybe not the 13,336, but at least 10,000. When you are actually at the stadium, and not at home, you can turn your head completely around and see that a lot of people look like very few people in a 70K stadium built for pro football, not college football.

For a school officially on break, where 12,500 students live 7 miles north of the stadium, that’s a pretty good late November crowd. Definitely more than the 12,131 fans who attended the UTSA game and the Lot K parking lot was completely full at 3:30 and there was even a significant spill-off in the lot across the street.

There were 90 percent Temple fans and a good sprinkling of Tulane fans, maybe 10 percent. It was a lively, crowded, fun, pre-game tailgate and a much better feel than the crowd for UTSA even if it was half the crowd for Homecoming.

I talked to a Tulane fan in front of me who mentioned that this crowd would look great in Yulman Stadium (25K capacity) and the Green Wave had the same perception problem when they played games in the Superdome.

It’s not what we want but the Temple fans are not to blame for this situation.

You know who is to blame?

Rod Carey and Stan Drayton, who imposed five-straight years of losing on this program. Not just regular losing but sustained brutal losing: 1-6, 3-9, 3-9, 3-9 and 3-9.

We lost a lot of long-time fans over those long years, both living and dead, and to get the living ones back a 5-6 season is not going to do it. This is a beaten-down fan base and they are not all going to come back in a single season.

The Owls need to string together some winning seasons before they can get a crowd back. Perspective is important. Prior to Al Golden getting here, the Owls drew similar crowds because of a 20-game losing streak.

Then he went 1-11, 5-7 and 9-3 and the crowds started to come back. It will take something like that for K.C. Keeler to repeat the same feat.

The good news is that he’s ahead of schedule.

The bad news is that there will always be chirpers from the peanut gallery 1,000 miles away. The stadium is way too big for a G5 team and any crowd will probably look small on TV. It’s easy to criticize from a couch but the old saying is if you aren’t part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

It definitely applies here.

Friday: UNT-Temple Preview

7 thoughts on “Don’t blame Temple fans for attendance

  1. Temple gets 7 home games next year. Second home against PSU will be a near sellout.

    Marketing and ticket office should start now. Think of creative ways to get students, fans, and Joe Philly to home games. Broad Street pep rallies, Temple Pep Band in Center City, community outreach, billboards, etc., DO SOMETHING, and try something new!

    Owls will start off with a win against Rhode Island to build momentum. All work from now until the home game vs PSU should build towards a new Temple fan experience at the Linc.

  2. Definitely think putting up a giant video screen at the Bell Tower during football season with videos of Temple fans at the games having a great time during the halcyon years (with the entire stadium singing T for Temple U, for example) would help. Might want to do that for packed Hoop games during the basketball season in the distant past. Don’t know if that would be prudent for fencing, etc. Also free scholarships for 4 students around for every fourth quarter of a football game would help, but we would need a donor to sign off on that. No attendance, no schollie.

  3. Who’s really to blame? The administration for “allowing” horrible coaching hires in a row to happen. Except for a couple exceptions the entire athletic program has mostly losing teams. Hear that Mr. AD?

    • The AD is tone deaf. He would be fired under ordinary circumstances. However, he is the perfect vessel for Fryʻs limited vision for Temple Athletics. Fry wonʻt spend a dime more than the conference rev share minimum.

      The paradox of TUFB is readily apparent. Keeler comes in and immediately raises hope and expectations. Meanwhile the uni wonʻt commit to doing what it takes to win. Expectation vs commitment.

      Keeler put himself in a box. He is not positioned to implore the uni for more spend. KCK thought he could win using the Clayton Barnes moneyball strategy. Wrong. Moneyball canʻt compete with the hard cash from Memphis, Tulane, ECU, USF, UNT.

      Fryʻs limited vision, the ADʻs incompetence, and Keeler naiveness equals a low ceiling for TUFB. Fry is happy with 5-7. It fits his criteria for being competitive. We should learn to share the same happiness and avoid the frustration.

  4. This describes me exactly. My wife and I were season ticket holders during the AL Golden era and then when Matt Rhule left, Carey and Drayton destroyed any interest I had in the program and I stopped coming. I went to my first Temple game in years on Saturday and took my 13 year old son to his 1st Owls game. When we got to lot K it was packed and I was expecting a good crowd. Inside of the stadium told a different story. My son actually said in the 2nd quarter that it wasn’t the environment he expected for a college football game and he was bored. He said the university of Delaware game i took him to last month was a much better environment. I did not attend college so I have no affiliation with either team but my son and I are huge college fans and always wanted a local team to cheer for. We live 20 minutes from University of Delaware and roughly 35 minutes from the Linc. Im hoping Keeler can bring Temple back to how it was during the Rhule era and get my son more interested in wanting to go to the Linc vs Tubby Raymond stadium.

    • Strange because in the “old days” half the crowd would stay outside and tailgate. When I took that photo of all the cars, it was halftime and I didn’t see any outside tailgaters still in the lot. A little after 1:45, they closed the entire lot to outsiders because it was full. All Temple fans and a smattering of Tulane fans. When I watched the replay on TV, they showed only one side of the stadium. They never did a full 360 panorama and there were a significant amount of Temple fans on the so-called “Tulane” side. Definitely a lot closer to the 13,336 announced crowd when you take all of that into consideration. It’s going to be awhile before we push that past 20K on a consistent basis. One, maybe two years, tops if Keeler continues his upward trend.

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