Speaking of tickets and attendance. What is wrong with El Paso?? Golding has a good team and Haskins Center is empty . I hope attendance picks up when Utep is back in the Mountain West?? The Sun Bowl Tournament has some good quality Mid Majors, if Utep makes the championship game there should at least be 8k. Where are those volleyball ball fans that were packing the memorial gym??
The Golding teams have been mainly boring/frustrating to watch and haven't been winning (this years team is probably the most fun to watch since Year 1 of Golding). The lack of winning is a big reason. Monday night game competing against working people, parents, and Monday Night Football. The games being on ESPN+ has its effects as well, although ESPN+ sucks. To go to a game is pretty pricey to some people (although you can buy cheap seats and move up). And it's not like UTEP is playing familiar teams. The home schedule has sucked this year. All of this put together, only the die hards will come out. When you go almost 15 years without an NCAA appearance, it starts having an impact on attendance. And even with this, UTEP is still among the attendance leaders in CUSA.
All this can change with winning though. And i really hope this season and next builds momentum going into the MWC. I don't think Golding has the recruiting chops to do it, but hopefully he can prove me wrong.