$ Bill has a sense of humor about himself

[Firebird]

Let's talk about bats. It used to be the Mexican Free Tailed Bats at Kyle Field utilized a seasonal migration. Now, many have taken year round residence in various nooks, crannies, and ledges around the stadium. Some of you reported spotting live bats during the game in some areas. Our staff works extremely hard each week cleaning up after the bats. It's an endless task. We'd love for the bats to find a new home, but we are limited in how much relocation assistance we can provide, because the bats are a protected species in Texas. Since the bats won't leave, my alter-ego "Dollar Bill" is working on a plan to charge the bats for admission to the football games. Everyone must have a ticket to enter Kyle Field.

http://www.aggieathletics.com/genrel/090909aaa.html

[pied]

I like the format. HAven;t seen this week's edition though. Parts I like/caught my attention:


One of the concerns we had this week was the flyover by the World War II aircraft we scheduled. These planes don't have computers or GPS. So, the pilots use the ol' stopwatch for guidance when they need to be over Kyle Field at the end of the National Anthem.
Let's talk about the Bullhorn guy. We continue to get lots of emails about this individual. As I've mentioned before, it is simply an issue of freedom of speech.
We debuted the 1st & 10 Nachos I told you about last week at two concessions stands at Kyle Field for the New Mexico game
We debuted the 1st & 10 Nachos I told you about last week at two concessions stands at Kyle Field for the New Mexico game
Plus, we've reduced the cost of the discounted season ticket option to $225. Buy your discounted season ticket now, and get the same seat for the six remaining home
We are offering half-priced tickets in a variety of sections to all TAMU faculty and staff members.
At the New Mexico game, we had over 2,000 Aggies take advantage of our Recent Grad half-priced ticket option.
Our Junior Aggie Club is one of the best entertainment values in town. For $25, a child receives free admission to many Aggie athletic events and to the football game against UAB. And family members of Junior Aggie Club members get half-price admission to the UAB game, too!

[Dawg Fan]

The bullhorn guy is an idiot. He stands out there screaming his left wing bs to absolutely no one. I would love to see someone get a huge bull horn and stand right in front of him and drown him out.

[Firebird]

The bullhorn guy is an idiot. He stands out there screaming his left wing bs to absolutely no one. I would love to see someone get a huge bull horn and stand right in front of him and drown him out.

He's a jerk, but not worth the effort of paying him any attention at all. It's sad that all he can think about on Aggie Gameday is his "politics." Go inside and enjoy the game, man.

[Dawg Fan]

He's a jerk, but not worth the effort of paying him any attention at all. It's sad that all he can think about on Aggie Gameday is his "politics." Go inside and enjoy the game, man.

exactly what I did and it was a gooood game!

[tayb]

What is this bullhorn guy that you speak of?

[Firebird]

What is this bullhorn guy that you speak of?

Nobody knows his name, but he's a guy with a bullhorn who shows up on gamedays and stands in the middle of the area between Kyle Field/MSC with a bullhorn and rants and raves about politics to no one in particular. As best as I can tell his politics could be described as "nutty leftist." He doesn't say anything particularly offensive or crude, but the point is that no one wants to listen to him when they're just trying to get a Slovacek sausage or listen the the pregame show outside the stadium.

[Firebird]

exactly what I did and it was a gooood game!

To be clear, I was suggesting that the bullhorn guy should lighten up and go take in a game, not that you should lighten up.

Will you be at any other games?

[pied]

What made me laugh is that the AD calls him "the Bulhorn Guy".

[pied]

This week's chuckling tidbits:





One of the good things about the rains over the weekend is it flushed out Kyle Field. I went out Monday and walked around Kyle. Last week, the drains I saw were stuffed with all sorts of debris. Monday, all the drains were clear except one, and I grabbed a stick and flushed that sucker clean.
We have a variety of ticket options for this game and for all remaining games. Tickets for the south end bleachers are half-priced at $25. Tickets in other areas of the stadium are $50.
We've also pro-rated the cost for season tickets and for the discount season tickets. Our discount season tickets are now available for $225. It's one of the best values out there. For an average of $37.50 a game, you get the same seat for the remaining six home games, including the game against our friends from the state capital.
Speaking of the Thanksgiving night game, the only way to get a ticket to the game against our friends from the state capital right now is via a season ticket, discount season ticket, or via our Texas Three-step promotion.
Several of you have written me about the interior look of Kyle Field this year. Some have suggested we add something to cover the wall along the track. Others wonder why we have not replaced the maroon metal coverings on the third deck on the student side. The answer is simple. Both projects are expensive to do, and we don't have the money to do it right this year. To replace the east side covering and the track wall is $30,000. Replacing only the east side covering is $10,700.
Several of you wrote disappointed the WWII aircraft we arranged for the flyover did not fly as low as the military aircraft we usually have over Kyle. Here is a little secret. The WWII aircraft actually flew at the FAA approved level.
Due to a scheduling conflict, our affiliate in San Antonio KTKR-AM will be airing the game on a taped-delayed basis.



http://www.aggieathletics.com/genrel/091609aaa.html

Have to use the tu game to try and sell the place out.

How sad is it that in San Antonio, you have to liten to the game, in tape delay?

[Dawg Fan]

To be clear, I was suggesting that the bullhorn guy should lighten up and go take in a game, not that you should lighten up.

Will you be at any other games?


we are planning to go to the Oklahoma State game. It is my son's Fraternity parents weekend. We may just tailgate at their setup outside the stadium because I haven't got the tickets yet

[pied]

we are planning to go to the Oklahoma State game. It is my son's Fraternity parents weekend. We may just tailgate at their setup outside the stadium because I haven't got the tickets yet


That does not appear to be a problem.

[Dawg Fan]

That does not appear to be a problem.


I was at the opening game and there were 73,000+ fans there. Pretty dang good IMO considering the season they had last year. I am sure the tickets will be hard to come by if they continue to win. I remember when Ut went through their down time, you could walk up and get a ticket to one of their games easy.

[pied]

I was at the opening game and there were 73,000+ fans there. Pretty dang good IMO considering the season they had last year. I am sure the tickets will be hard to come by if they continue to win. I remember when Ut went through their down time, you could walk up and get a ticket to one of their games easy.

But tsips don't claim to have the best fans either. What was Nebraska's record lately and when was the last time they didn't sell out?

[the_phoenix612]

Bullhorn guy made me laugh.

He wasn't drunk and didn't seem to be crazy, and I really wanted to go talk to him....

[Dawg Fan]

But tsips don't claim to have the best fans either. What was Nebraska's record lately and when was the last time they didn't sell out?

sure they do all the time on here...where have you been?

[Aggies2009]

He's a jerk, but not worth the effort of paying him any attention at all. It's sad that all he can think about on Aggie Gameday is his "politics." Go inside and enjoy the game, man.

A buddy of mine and I are planning...

We don't go to the all games; we enjoy tailgating outside while listening/watching much much more, although we always go to a few. He wants to ***** about freedom of speech? Well, everyone has it; not just him.

The guy's name is H. Keith Sterzing, and he graduated in 1961. He had a son and a daughter graduate in 92 and 94, and has a son who's a sophomore right now, and is expecting another daughter to go to A&M....

[pied]

I was at the opening game and there were 73,000+ fans there. Pretty dang good IMO considering the season they had last year. I am sure the tickets will be hard to come by if they continue to win. I remember when Ut went through their down time, you could walk up and get a ticket to one of their games easy.


Fun with numbers. When I was in school I think it's safe to say it was the dark days at Texas, 90-93. We had one good season and the rest kind of sucked.

Th capacity at Memorial back then was 77,809. There were 21 home games not including the Texas-ou game in Dallas.

We had 4 sell outs, Houston/a$m in '90, Auburn in '91, and a$m in '92. Zero my senior year. There were a few that were pretty close. The low point was the last game my senior year against Baylor, 55,644 ouch.

Averages and % against capacity:

1990-76,007-97.68%
1991-68,606-88.17%
1992-67,555-86.82%
1993-61,576-79.14%


Pretty bad, no doubt. I imagine 94 was about the same and things likely picked up in '95 when we won the conference.




Now, onto the ags.

They don't have individual boxscores for the games during that period, which I think most would agree were the best for the school give or take a year.

From the information I can gather, capacity was increased to 72,000 in '79 and then 82,6000 in '99 with the zone. I believe '98 was reduced because of construction.

The aggieathletics site does have the top ten average attendance. We know that the lowest of the top ten was 62,457 in '95. The rest of the years not listed have to be under that number. Interestingly only one year corresponds to my years on campus in Ausint but the years are close enough for a message board:

1991-63,318-87.94%
1994-62,877-87.33%
1995-62,457-86.75%
1996-63,272-87.88%


Even when a$m is rolling, they don't fill up the stadium.

http://www.aggieathletics.com/facilities/attendance-rec-kylefield.html

[Aggies2009]

I blame it on not having as many t-shirt fans (a good problem to have in my opinion) :D

[pied]

I blame it on not having as many t-shirt fans (a good problem to have in my opinion) :D

In the early 90's there were plenty of t-shirt ags around.

[Firebird]

Fun with numbers. When I was in school I think it's safe to say it was the dark days at Texas, 90-93. We had one good season and the rest kind of sucked.

Th capacity at Memorial back then was 77,809. There were 21 home games not including the Texas-ou game in Dallas.

We had 4 sell outs, Houston/a$m in '90, Auburn in '91, and a$m in '92. Zero my senior year. There were a few that were pretty close. The low point was the last game my senior year against Baylor, 55,644 ouch.

Averages and % against capacity:

1990-76,007-97.68%
1991-68,606-88.17%
1992-67,555-86.82%
1993-61,576-79.14%


Pretty bad, no doubt. I imagine 94 was about the same and things likely picked up in '95 when we won the conference.




Now, onto the ags.

They don't have individual boxscores for the games during that period, which I think most would agree were the best for the school give or take a year.

From the information I can gather, capacity was increased to 72,000 in '79 and then 82,6000 in '99 with the zone. I believe '98 was reduced because of construction.

The aggieathletics site does have the top ten average attendance. We know that the lowest of the top ten was 62,457 in '95. The rest of the years not listed have to be under that number. Interestingly only one year corresponds to my years on campus in Ausint but the years are close enough for a message board:

1991-63,318-87.94%
1994-62,877-87.33%
1995-62,457-86.75%
1996-63,272-87.88%


Even when a$m is rolling, they don't fill up the stadium.

http://www.aggieathletics.com/facilities/attendance-rec-kylefield.html


Your (or rather wikipedia's) numbers are off. Scroll down lower in the article to read about the Zone and you will see that the Zone contains a capacity of about 20,000. Seating increased by 20K, not 10K after it opened. The capacity pre-zone was more along the lines of 62,000, not 72,000. Take a look at some picks and just by eyeballing you will see I'm right. The endzone section holds far more than 10K. There's a reason there was never a game with more than 65K in attendance until after that secion opened.

[pied]

Your (or rather wikipedia's) numbers are off. Scroll down lower in the article to read about the Zone and you will see that the Zone contains a capacity of about 20,000. Seating increased by 20K, not 10K after it opened. The capacity pre-zone was more along the lines of 62,000, not 72,000. Take a look at some picks and just by eyeballing you will see I'm right. The endzone section holds far more than 10K. There's a reason there was never a game with more than 65K in attendance until after that secion opened.

The Zone seats 20,000, but it also replaced the old horseshoe part that had seats. It was not a net add of 20k.

Another reference to what it added that kind fo goes in line with the increase from 72k-84k. If you have more detailed/official reports I'd love to see them. HArd to find the info for some reason.



One of the top college stadiums in the country is about preparing to add as many as 30,000 seats. A plan is under review to add six new end zone levels Kyle Field at Texas A&M, expanding the capacity to 115,000.

In addition to the enhanced seating capacity, the plan would also connect all the stands, create a bowl around the entire stadium, and increase restrooms and parking capacities.

The last expansion at Kyle Field was completed in 1999, adding 12,000 seats mostly in the north end zone. The final completion date for the project could be as many as 20 years away.


http://www.fanblogs.com/texas_am/005208.php

[DragonBand06]

The Zone seats 20,000, but it also replaced the old horseshoe part that had seats. It was not a net add of 20k.

Another reference to what it added that kind fo goes in line with the increase from 72k-84k. If you have more detailed/official reports I'd love to see them. HArd to find the info for some reason.






http://www.fanblogs.com/texas_am/005208.php
First of all, you're misreading the stats. '95 was the 15th largest average attendance of all time, not the 10th. The 10th largest was 66,623.
http://www.aggieathletics.com/facilities/attendance-rec-kylefield.html

Also, if you click on "photo tour" on that page and flip through the history of Kyle, you'll note that capacity was 70,000 as of 1980 and remained that way until the Zone was built in 1999 bringing capacity to 82,600 (there is some discrepancy here between what is stated on the photo tour and what is the official seating capacity; perhaps it was originally 80,650 and they added about 2000 seats somewhere?)

Here's the other thing. You're arbitrarily picking the 90's as the "best" years for us and using those attendance numbers. What if you actually used our highest attendance numbers?

1. 82,711 2001
2. 82,207 2007
3. 80,198 2002
4. 79,732 2005
5. 77,579 2000
6. 76,243 2003
7. 75,985 2006
8. 74,498 2004
9. 73,126 1999
10. 66,623 1987
11. 63,833 1981
12. 63,318 1991
13. 63,272 1996
14. 62,877 1994
15. 62,457 1995
If you compare those numbers against the capacity at that time (either 70000 or 82600) you get:

1. 2001 100.13%
2. 2007 99.52%
3. 2002 97.09%
4. 2005 96.53%
5. 1987 95.18% (70000 capac.)
6. 2000 94.14%
7. 2003 92.30%
8. 2006 91.99%
9. 1981 91.19% (70000 capac.)
10. 1991 90.45% (70000 capac.)

You can't just arbitrarily pick "good" years because you have to consider other factors including economic climate and many, many other things.

So even in our 10th best attendance year, we still filled the stadium 90.5%. That's pretty good.

[slcdragonfan]

Although it's early, I'll probably be too busy tomorrow with the game, so let me just say now, CONGRATS ON RING DAY!:notworthy

[pied]

First of all, you're misreading the stats. '95 was the 15th largest average attendance of all time, not the 10th. The 10th largest was 66,623.
http://www.aggieathletics.com/facilities/attendance-rec-kylefield.html

Also, if you click on "photo tour" on that page and flip through the history of Kyle, you'll note that capacity was 70,000 as of 1980 and remained that way until the Zone was built in 1999 bringing capacity to 82,600 (there is some discrepancy here between what is stated on the photo tour and what is the official seating capacity; perhaps it was originally 80,650 and they added about 2000 seats somewhere?)

Here's the other thing. You're arbitrarily picking the 90's as the "best" years for us and using those attendance numbers. What if you actually used our highest attendance numbers?

1. 82,711 2001
2. 82,207 2007
3. 80,198 2002
4. 79,732 2005
5. 77,579 2000
6. 76,243 2003
7. 75,985 2006
8. 74,498 2004
9. 73,126 1999
10. 66,623 1987
11. 63,833 1981
12. 63,318 1991
13. 63,272 1996
14. 62,877 1994
15. 62,457 1995
If you compare those numbers against the capacity at that time (either 70000 or 82600) you get:

1. 2001 100.13%
2. 2007 99.52%
3. 2002 97.09%
4. 2005 96.53%
5. 1987 95.18% (70000 capac.)
6. 2000 94.14%
7. 2003 92.30%
8. 2006 91.99%
9. 1981 91.19% (70000 capac.)
10. 1991 90.45% (70000 capac.)

You can't just arbitrarily pick "good" years because you have to consider other factors including economic climate and many, many other things.

So even in our 10th best attendance year, we still filled the stadium 90.5%. That's pretty good.


First, I had the data for all fifteen years, and have no idea why I had top ten in my head. I am wrong with that number.

I used the 90's as the most succesful period, because they are. The six seasons from 90-95 a$m averaged 10 wins. There was a three year run from 85-87, and a case could be made for the two years of 98-98.

Of the most succesful six year run, the stadium was less than 90.45% full, half of them. Not sure if those years were TV probation years which theoretically would add more to the stadium.

If filling up the stadium 90% consititutes during your best yearthe best fans I have a different definition. Home openers since 2000 have averaged 9,291 empty seats. Since 2000 there have been 19 non conference games and 3 sell outs, Va Tech in '02 , and Miami and Army last year.

[DragonBand06]

Although it's early, I'll probably be too busy tomorrow with the game, so let me just say now, CONGRATS ON RING DAY!:notworthy
Thanks! I'm camping out tonight to get my ring ticket early in the morning.

[SLC]

Thanks! I'm camping out tonight to get my ring ticket early in the morning.


No doubt brother. Congratulations!:notworthy

[Warbird]

What made me laugh is that the AD calls him "the Bulhorn Guy".

Any relation to Abilene's very own "Get Some Guy," I wonder? :p:D