UNM football fans now have 5,964 new reasons to watch a football game at the renovated University Stadium.
That’s how many seats were added when a north end zone section was added to the stadium as a part of its renovation and expansion project.
Now, the athletics department’s marketing staff is doing its part to try and fill those seats as well as encourage more student participation at the games. It also received some help from a group of diehard Lobo fans who formed a group in the north end zone section called “The Red Menace.”
Keith Nesbitt, a member of UNM’s athletic marketing and promotion department, is helping form a student group called the Lobo Pack.
While tickets for all UNM students are free, Nesbitt said this group will receive a free shuttle service to and from the stadium for home games. He said the students will get a chance to get the best available seating in the student section, which is on the northeast side of the stadium between the 10- and 50-yard line.
The group also will get the best seating in the student section for men’s basketball games. Nesbitt said people in the group will get T-shirts and key chains and have their own tailgate parties. They also will have opportunities to meet some of the football players at certain Lobo Pack functions.
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“We’re really trying to improve the experience of attending a Lobo sporting event and let students be students,” Nesbitt said. “This is college athletics. What’s college sports about? College students.”
Nesbitt said in past years, students would attend tailgate parties at the stadium before games but would not get tickets to watch them. He added that student participation also depends on the success of the football team.
“When you’re winning, of course it’s higher,” Nesbitt said. “In the past years, the product has not been as successful, and this has an impact on attendance. We’re looking to find ways to keep them there.”
Meanwhile, next to the student section, in the new north end zone section, will be a group of Lobo fans who promise to be a rowdy, rabid pack — “The Red Menace.” The brainchild of Lobo fans LeeRoy Lucero and Dom Zarella, the group plans on cheering loudly and proudly with its assortment of cherry-clad fans.
Lucero said he always saw that section as a place he would like to see a Lobo game from. He said he also got tired of people trying to dampen his enthusiasm when he had tickets on the west side of the stadium.
“I’d get too rowdy and crazy and the people behind me would tell me to sit down, they can’t see the game,” Lucero said. “It was like being at church. So, I said, ‘Hey, that (the north section) would be a great place to watch a game.’ I thought it would be exciting to watch a game up there. We just put it on the back burner, but with extension of the north section, I had to be in there no matter what.”
Lucero said he threw out the idea of a group of fans sitting in that section, patterning it after the Cleveland Browns’ “Dog Pound,” on Cherrysilver.com, a Web site for UNM athletics fans. The response was immediate, and soon, “The Red Menace” numbered in the hundreds. He and fellow Cherrysilver.com operator Dom Zarella began working with the athletics department to sell tickets for the group at a discounted rate and they advertised it on their Web site.
The athletics department even helped make T-shirts for the group, which were on display at Fan Appreciation Day on Saturday for UNM’s final scrimmage.
When the promotion ended early August, the group included 321 people at a $30 rate per season ticket. The regular price for a season ticket in that section is $50.
That hasn’t stopped some fans from trying to get in on the anticipated fun. Bob Beagan, who has bought season tickets for the past three years, bought season tickets for himself and his grandchildren in the north end zone because he wanted to be in a place where he could cheer without having to be told to sit down.
“I want to be in the end zone seats, the new ones, where the rowdies are, because that will help the defense,” Beegan said. “The players have to do it, but the fans help a little bit.”
Hopefully, people such as Beegan will help Lucero fulfill his ultimate dream.
“What we’re thinking about doing is fill that whole north side and just pack it in with crazy, wild fans called the ‘The Red Menace’ when TV stations start showing the crowd,” Lucero said. “I’d like to have 5,700 ‘Red Menace’ fans in the section. We want that kind of loving relationship. We want Rocky to know that whole side will give that home field advantage.”
The anticipation for the first home game on Sept. 1 against the University of Texas at El Paso is already brewing for some of the players.
“I heard of ‘The Red Menace,’ and I think there’s going to be crazy fans in ‘The Red Menace,’” defensive end Brian Johnson said. “They are going to be the loudest, and I expect guys to have flags and fly them around. It’s going to be a great atmosphere, and I think it will definitely help the team morale. I think we’re going to win some games this year.”
