Lobos fall short of pace for football game ticket sales
New Mexico’s football team fell well short of expectations on the playing field this season, and with regard to home-game ticket sales, the Lobos continue to do the same.
They are not on pace to meet a projection that was lowered from last year and appeared reachable, considering it was a $1.2 million mark. That was lower than the actual revenue last year, which was $1.54 million.
Through October, which includes three of the season’s six home games, UNM football is only at 38.8 percent of the $1.2 million projection, according to reports provided by the Board of Regents committee meeting on Tuesday.
The revenue is at $465,311, which is $588,894 less than it was at this time last year when one more home game was included. The lowered projection this year followed criticism that athletics in the past made overly optimistic ticket forecasts so that it could spend accordingly, only to see annual deficits pile up when the sales did not materialize.
UNM athletic director Eddie Nuñez was scheduled to speak at Tuesday’s meeting, but was not able to. In his place, Rob Rob-
inson, UNM senior associate athletic director-chief financial officer, spoke about the excitement for the men’s and women’s basketball seasons. Robinson also said figures for November football game ticket sales, the final three home games, would be provided at next month’s meeting.
Last month, Nuñez acknowledged that the numbers “don’t look exactly like I want them to look,” and that it would become increasingly difficult to fill seats in November, citing factors such as weather and the start of basketball.
UNM’s losing didn’t help matters. The Lobos finished 3-9, 1-7 in the Mountain West Conference, ending their season with a seven-game losing streak, just like in 2017.
UNM made just $323,610 through the first third of the home slate, which was 27 percent of the goal for football tickets. This recent report resulted in $141,701 in revenue solely for October.
The Lobos averaged 16,587 announced in attendance this season, but the number who actually showed up appeared much lower. UNM’s smallest crowd, and many would say its lowest point of the season, came in the finale when 14,629 were announced for the attendance for UNM’s 31-3 loss to Wyoming on Nov. 24.
Attendance for the first three games, which produced revenue reflected in Tuesday’s report, was 17,908. The average for the last three games was 15,386.
On Nov. 30, Nunez and UNM announced their support of head coach Bob Davie, who has three years remaining on his contract. Davie, 64, is 33-54 in his seven seasons at UNM.
Nuñez said in a statement that he and Davie were not satisfied with the results of last season, and that Davie and his staff, along with the UNM athletic department, “are striving to make the 2019 season a success, and that process has already started.”
Davie is working on bolstering the roster and trying to turn around a team that had several weaknesses. Redshirt freshman free safety Marcus Hayes, who led the nation in punt return average (21.2 yards) and earned All-MWC second-team honors, and redshirt sophomore outside linebacker Rhashaun Epting, who led the Lobos in sacks (5½), announced via Twitter last week their plans to transfer.