High ticket prices

[Chanson]

So...listening to Kappy last night and one of the segments was the high price for the cheapest ticket at a men's basketball game. I think he was saying $25 a ticket. I went on to a few sites & found nothing less than $35/ticket. Not to mention fees.

I'm actually not as upset. We need to be able to afford good coaches & facilities & this is a start. The loyal fan base will happily pay this, because it means improvements. What I'm disappointed in is the athletic department needs to have specials every once in a while to get these places packed. The other thing I'm disappointed in is the disconnect with sports & UTEP students. UTEP is a Commuter school & lots of students work. However, if Senter would pull some kind of extra credit program with other departments rewarding for school participation, etc.

Again, things are getting better, but moving like molasses. Senter has got to pick up the pace & get some attractive incentives. Using Covid as a crutch excuse is no bueno.

[zyxwvutsru]

The students will come when the team wins. Simple as that. The Athletic Department overthinks this all the time.

[kyyote]

Ding ding ding!  We have a winner.

[Chanson]

Winning alone takes too long. Big loud crowds push those kids to give their best. If we wait until we see big wins, by the time things get hoping, the coach is gone. Barbee is a prime example. It took him 4yrs to get the crowds. By that time he was ready to move on.
No Bueno.
If Senter can get up to 8k in seats, that would be a difference maker.

It's a shame this coaching staff is not seeing bigger crowds. Gilding is doing fantastic for his 1st year. Doing better with CRT with CRTs kids. That says a lot.
Also, big crowds sooner than later helps to pick up great prospects.

[kyyote]

Some people pay big money for a super car to go fast. Some people buy a corvette for the same thrill for a lot less money, and some people put slicks and flames on a pinto and see if they can put an old mustang 289 in it and hope for the best.

I ask myself if UTEP is trying. Is it making a serious commitment to winning. At this point I don?t think so. They are doing the best they can to do the best they can. If the coach works out well he moves up and we start the hope and prayers again. We are on the stepping stone plan. I want us to be on the destination at the top plan. I want a top name coach bringing all Americans here to win championships and lead us to conference climbing instead conference dumpsters. I would pay money for that. People don?t mind paying for high quality. They also know that low quality is also insidious in its ability to eat away at the good like acid. That in no way is to imply that Golding isn?t a fine coach. We will see. It won?t be for lack of effort.

[Minermojo]

I think one of the reason Haskins era was successful was that fans knew that he wasn't going anyplace. They knew that if he got the players he wanted that they also would stay. Nowadays coaches and players are mercenaries they'll go "fight" for the entity that'll give them more money/attention. Look at that guy that now plays for Tex Tech, he didn't care in making Utep a household name he wanted the school tech to make him a household name. The only ones that will now benefit are the schools that are in prestigious conferences because they have the name to bring in good to great players. We might get a 3 or a 4 some years but those schools have a whole slew of them some even sitting on the bench. It sucks but nothing will change.

[kyyote]

I hate to argue with you but UTSA is moving up while we sit and hope. UNT moving up. How many teams have moved up while we just keep slipping further down. UTEP and the powers that be have allowed UTEP to wither away and while things have changed others have lapped us on the track. How long before we are back in the wac?  I hate being negative about UTEP but after forty years I have to face the facts. During that time in football the only time we weren?t jaw dropping horrible is by accident. And that is so damned obviously because it wasn?t something that they cared to fix. I am not arguing the value of the mission of UTEP. I am simply stating a fact.  And I haven?t seen anything to convince me that anything is going to change. Wilson had her first chance when Terry left. We could go with the Corvette and be competitive in the big races or go with the guy with the pinto with the slicks and flames. It is interesting enough to keep the locals happy at the track on the far east side of town. It has flames! 
Maybe the marketing department can sell tickets by advertising to come see the miners play teams that are cartel teams now. Pay cusa prices to see the miners play soon to be cartel teams!  How about that utsa team passing us like we were standing in cement in ten years blowing away our 100 years of football.

[Chanson]

Here here, KY. The fact that we have been stagnant while others have surpassed is ridiculous. Both Natalicio & Wilson are to blame.
Prime example is Texas Tech. At one time they were the redheaded stepchild of the Big12. Now they are a top 20 program in all sport except football.
I'm not sure if any of you saw that beat down they put on the Longhorns last night, but that crowd is the best crowd in NCAA Basketball. Every kid wants to go to Lubbock. My kid is a Soph there and is the VP of his respective Fraternity. That destination offers something for everyone. Another is Boise. The town is as big as Las Cruces, yet the school does very well.
El Paso is a kick ass town & a good athletic program should have no problem getting people in seats if they would stop teetering on OK.
Senter is doing a great job in raising money. He also picked up a good men's basketball coach. Why, because he wins the games he is supposed to win & gives them a better chance on beating the tougher teams. That is something Terry & Floyd couldn't do.
Football seems to be building every year since Dimel got here. It's moving like molasses by scheduling bottom of the barrel programs.
UTEP needs a boost & the cool thing is they don't have to invent it. All they have to do is adopt a model that many others are already using.
Thanks for being the forum to let me vent.

[Alaska Miner]

These are all good comments. I do realize it?s going slow, but I am cautiously optimistic. I think Wilson is much more committed to sports than Natalicio was, and I feel like Senter is moving in the right direction. While a nice infusion of cash would help, we all know that?s probably not going to happen. UTSA is a prime example of how putting money into even an upstart program with ZERO history, can make ALL the difference.
Still, I definitely think Golding is the right man for the job, and after this football season, it looks like Dimel may be, as well.  Time will tell, but to me, while I can?t put my finger on it, I just have a general feeling things are looking up with the new regime in charge. God, I hope I?m right, and don?t have to eat these words, later.

[Austintacious]

An El Paso mentality keeps UTEP down.  For example, I wanted to go to UC Berkeley but my dad said no.  He justified it by saying UTEP is just as good.  Likewise, we want UTEP to move up but the powers that be act as if C-USA is just as good.  We need positive change. 

[kyyote]

You are right.  We are poor and can barely afford to send our children to school.. We  don't have money for sports like those other schools.  That is bullshit!  That is the soft bigotry of lowered expectations.  Our children have the same right to have an athletic department fielding teams that are respected and for as long as I can remember that has never been the case.  No one at UTEP has even put two and two together to realize that the athletic department is so much more than the athletic department classes.  When will they ever figure out that we export the best of our best so that they can "go to college"  instead of taking classes at UTEP, taking the pride of El Paso along with them to all of the other schools.  There are dozens of new buildings at UTEP that most of the world will never see or know about.  And it is a shame. 

[SisyphusMiner]

Lots of interesting comments.  I think I'd rather put butts in seats for what is a fun team to watch than make it on margin.  Fuller stands would make a funner atmosphere and more of an event, which then allows you to raise prices.

El Paso has alway's had a horrible case of the poor me's.  It's the only thing I ever hated about the place when I grew up there.  Now that I visit occasionally I'll add the traffic and crowds.  But I digress.  El Paso has never been a place of go-getters.  They are a place of sit in your garage and guzzle a case of beer and complain that no one respects you.  And then do it again tomorrow.  Anyone with ambition leaves because the good-enough attitude is so damn depressing.  We had Haskins.  And that was freaking it.  Now he's been gone a while and there's nothing to replace him in the whole freaking 30th largest city in the country.

Don't get me wrong, I loved El Paso.  Still do.  But I am never moving back there.

Not sure who the "corvette" hire would have been in hoops.  If we're talking about Tim Hardway I don't think there's any guarantee we would be any better.  Memphis is 11-8 with Penny at the helm.  Michigan is 11-8.  Which NBA star has ever had incredible success?  Not Drexler.  Not Ewing.

My two daughters go to Tech.  The oldest loves hoops and went on a road trip to watch them in the final four in minneapolis the other year.  The fans are nuts and I wish it was us.

[kyyote]

I?m not sure who the corvette is either but Hardaway would show the basketball world that you are trying. You see. It?s the fact that we don?t try.

[Chanson]

Very colorful, gentlemen.

I love it. Everyone is right, however, lots of good stuff in EP. People just need to wake up & realize we have a good town here. Truly open to all cultures, best Mex food, hot women, & your dollar goes a long way.

Thanks, KY. The den is a great place to vent about my Miners.

[SisyphusMiner]

I may have been a little over the top.  I wasn't drunk though.  None of that should be construed as universal.  Obviously there are successful, ambitious individuals in EP.  Cities just have overall characteristics, and EP's is to be hesitant, fearful, expect bad outcomes, half-ass it, and wish things were different.  In my opinion.  If you're gonna fail, fail forward.  Fail big because you went big.

Play to win, not to not lose.  My single biggest complaint about Dimel.  Ditto Stull, Natalicio, and maybe current regime as well.  I have a much different opinion than Kyy about the basketball hire.  I think Dimel and Terry were "safe" hires, mediocrity guaranteed.  Would stop sucking but not better than mediocre.  I could be wrong about Dimel in reality, he may turn us into winners and I like the progress, but I still think "safe" was the thought process behind the hire.