Sept. 3, 2008
Lobo Football
What: Lobos vs. Texas A&M
When: Saturday, 3 p.m.
Where: University Stadium
Tickets: www.unmtickets.com; 925-5858; 1-877-664-8661; The Pit’s ticket office; UNM bookstore
COMMENTARY
By Richard Stevens
Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
It’s a slap to the face of the hard-working Lobos football players that they won’t be looking at their second-consecutive sellout Saturday when Texas A&M visits University Stadium.
It’s an indictment of Lobos football fans.
It’s also a blow to a program that deserves better.
University of New Mexico football fans want Mountain West Conference championships, bowl victories, a national reputation, coast-to-coast respect, even better players, yet not enough fans do what they need to do in order to help obtain that wish list.
That key: buy a ticket, go to the game
Make University Stadium a special place, an intimidating place, a field that kids can’t wait to play football on.
The UNM crowd for TCU was listed at 31,583 which, well, was kind of a disgrace. Even Greg Remington, UNM’s long-time media relations director who knows well the fickle Lobo fans, was expecting a gate around 35,000. This writer was expecting at least 33,000.
Why?
Because it was a great home and season opener. This was TCU of the MWC. This was a good TCU team. This is a Lobos team coming off a 2007 bowl win and looking to avenge its worse loss of 2007. It was a game that really didn’t need much hype in order to catch a fan’s interest.
So, where is the love and growing fan base this steadily improving program deserves to see?
If the TCU game was presented to a community that actually understood its importance to the development of a football program, you probably would have seen a sellout. This type of community would have been hungry for an afternoon of college football.
But this is Albuquerque – a city without an all-purpose sports arena; a community whose purpose obviously isn’t to push its college football program to the highest peaks possible.
The Lobos’ top attended game for a non-area team (which excludes New Mexico State and UTEP) is 40,182. That game was played against Utah on Oct. 1, 2004. The Brigham Young game on Oct. 8, 2005 drew 39,233. Heck, UNLV drew 37,533 in 2005 and San Diego State drew 37,287 in 2004 and the Rebels and the Aztecs aren’t exactly league powers or bullies.
The fans let the Lobos down against TCU.
It appears the fans might be letting the Lobos down again against Texas A&M, with close to 30,000 tickets sold. University Stadium seats 40,094.
The Texas A&M game is one of those marque games fans should hope is on the Lobos football schedule. UNM could have filled the date with a lower-tier Division I-A team, which actually might have been the best route for this inexperienced UNM squad.Instead, UNM gives you A&M, a Big 12 team of reputation and tradition – a team that no other UNM administration had the guts to schedule. This is the first meeting between A&M Aggies and Lobos.
So, will the local fans appreciate, or even recognize, this sweet gift? Probably not.
And, in a way, this game really is a gift to the Lobo fans. Paul Krebs, UNM’s Vice President for Athletics, could have sold this game for close to $2 million by moving it to San Antonio.
Instead, Krebs felt it was the type of game that Lobos fans deserve and the type of game the Lobos football team needs to play at home in order to build the type of program and tradition that Krebs and coach Rocky Long envision.
The main ingredient needed to make this game special – to make Krebs not second-guess his decision not to bring close to $2 million to his department – is fans.
A full house is a special thing in all sports. In a way, it doesn’t even matter the size of the venue as long as the place is packed and hopping. You can see this in The Pit. When it’s full, it’s an unbelievable atmosphere. When it’s half full, it’s kind of average.
University Stadium can be the same way. When the stadium is packed at 40,000-plus, it becomes a big-time environment.
And it gives a special message to all those who notice – that Lobos football is special to its fans.
Editor’s note: Richard Stevens is a former Associate Sports Editor and sports columnist for The Albuquerque Tribune. You can reach him at rstevens50@comcast.net. Previous articles are available at The Richard Stevens Corner