In our hay day under Gary what was our avg attendance vs now under Joni?

Hill08 said:

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In our hay day under Gary what was our avg attendance vs now under Joni?

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Women's basketball doesn't run a profit so that argument is pointless…

Attend the game and make it fun, take a drink for every turnover

Although you may be leaving Reed with College Station PD

cevans_40 said:

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Artimus Gordon said:

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I'd be willing to bet the deficit is a heckuva lot bigger than it was under Gary, and it's only going to get bigger.

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Well yeah. We are paying Joni a quarter million more than we paid our national title winning coach.

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Well yeah every time we turn on the lights for a home
Game or get on a plane to plane an away game we're increasing the deficit. And will continue to do so until the admin rights the ship.

It's gonna get ugly Monday night.

Artimus Gordon said:

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cevans_40 said:

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Artimus Gordon said:

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I'd be willing to bet the deficit is a heckuva lot bigger than it was under Gary, and it's only going to get bigger.

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Well yeah. We are paying Joni a quarter million more than we paid our national title winning coach.

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Well yeah every time we turn on the lights for a home
Game or get on a plane to plane an away game we're increasing the deficit. And will continue to do so until the admin rights the ship.

It's gonna get ugly Monday night.

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And then we are gonna have to pay her not to coach

• When Blair took over the Texas A&M women's program in 2003, he significantly boosted fan interest A&M home attendance increased 156% in his first three seasons, and a school-record crowd of 11,088 attended a home game against Baylor.
• Reed Arena's listed top attendance marks for women's basketball include crowds over 11,000 in 2006 and over 13,000 in 2011, which came in big rivalry or marquee matchups during Blair's era.

-- Early Blair attendance averages: 2003-2007, 2200-4400/game
-- Mid-Late Blair attendance averages: 2008-2022, 8000+ (a few games exceeded 13,000 vs Baylor)

Joni Taylor
2022-23, 15 home games, total attendance 47,434, 3,162 average per game
2023-24, 12 home games, total attendance 49,604, 4,134 (results were a bit better and attendance reflected that)
2024-25, 16 home games, 55,657 total attendance, 3,479 (misery ensues)
2025-26 (to date), 8 home games, 30,724 total attendance, 3,841 (as of Jan 12, 2026)

Gary Blair INCREASED and boosted fan interest because he put out a product that was competitive with the exception of 1 or 2 seasons (first and maybe last).

Joni has decreased fan interest because she's won 12 games in conference in 4 years. 21% win rate.

aggiedrjdub said:

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• When Blair took over the Texas A&M women's program in 2003, he significantly boosted fan interest A&M home attendance increased 156% in his first three seasons, and a school-record crowd of 11,088 attended a home game against Baylor.
• Reed Arena's listed top attendance marks for women's basketball include crowds over 11,000 in 2006 and over 13,000 in 2011, which came in big rivalry or marquee matchups during Blair's era.

-- Early Blair attendance averages: 2003-2007, 2200-4400/game
-- Mid-Late Blair attendance averages: 2008-2022, 8000+ (a few games exceeded 13,000 vs Baylor)

Joni Taylor
2022-23, 15 home games, total attendance 47,434, 3,162 average per game
2023-24, 12 home games, total attendance 49,604, 4,134 (results were a bit better and attendance reflected that)
2024-25, 16 home games, 55,657 total attendance, 3,479 (misery ensues)
2025-26 (to date), 8 home games, 30,724 total attendance, 3,841 (as of Jan 12, 2026)

Gary Blair INCREASED and boosted fan interest because he put out a product that was competitive with the exception of 1 or 2 seasons (first and maybe last).

Joni has decreased fan interest because she's won 12 games in conference in 4 years. 21% win rate.

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Blair increased attendance by retail marketing by himself personally. Our school doesn't naturally support sports except during huge winning periods. And then demands coaches be fired like you did with Blair…

Gary also spent a lot of time and effort to get people interested in his sport, he'd go anywhere and do anything. Hell I know stories of he'd give tickets to people filling up gas next to him. You also saw Gary at every sport A&M played supporting other teams and supporting other coaches. Gary sold his program while he was building it.

Does Joni even live in town? Is she active in anything in town.

greg.w.h said:

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aggiedrjdub said:

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• When Blair took over the Texas A&M women's program in 2003, he significantly boosted fan interest A&M home attendance increased 156% in his first three seasons, and a school-record crowd of 11,088 attended a home game against Baylor.
• Reed Arena's listed top attendance marks for women's basketball include crowds over 11,000 in 2006 and over 13,000 in 2011, which came in big rivalry or marquee matchups during Blair's era.

-- Early Blair attendance averages: 2003-2007, 2200-4400/game
-- Mid-Late Blair attendance averages: 2008-2022, 8000+ (a few games exceeded 13,000 vs Baylor)

Joni Taylor
2022-23, 15 home games, total attendance 47,434, 3,162 average per game
2023-24, 12 home games, total attendance 49,604, 4,134 (results were a bit better and attendance reflected that)
2024-25, 16 home games, 55,657 total attendance, 3,479 (misery ensues)
2025-26 (to date), 8 home games, 30,724 total attendance, 3,841 (as of Jan 12, 2026)

Gary Blair INCREASED and boosted fan interest because he put out a product that was competitive with the exception of 1 or 2 seasons (first and maybe last).

Joni has decreased fan interest because she's won 12 games in conference in 4 years. 21% win rate.

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Blair increased attendance by retail marketing by himself personally. Our school doesn't naturally support sports except during huge winning periods. And then demands coaches be fired like you did with Blair…

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Are you Gary Blair? You have a personal bee up your bonnet because I wanted a new coach that could get us back to where we were; continue the excellence that he began. Sure as hell did. I'm also man enough to admit I was wrong (have said so NUMEROUS times). Wrong in the sense that we let him go and hired this failure of a staff. Take your condescending tone and shove it where the sun doesn't shine. I guess I'll wear a scarlet letter the rest of my days, Dr. Greg.

Edit: your argument about our school only supporting winning teams is an odd take. That's not true at all. If we didn't support, we wouldn't even bother mentioning these programs. This is no different than any other school when their programs are down. Not sure what your reference has anything to do with competitive sports other than stating the obvious.

Thank you, Gary Blair, for all you've done. I'm sorry we hired this staff at your expense. It was still time for you to retire even though you could outcoach this crew in your sleep. Obviously the administration thought so, too, which is why they gave him a going away party for a year. Our opinions mean nothing, right?

It looks like every current coach is invested in supporting other programs...Joni is the exception.

Lastly, Blair marketed himself - and he's a natural people person and salesman, but don't get it twisted. Winning is the ONLY thing that matters. He could have been the best man in the world, and with the results we are getting from Joni, we would still want him gone. Good person? Yes. That had NOTHING to do with attendance. Absolutely nothing.

The only thing I see her doing is some women's group that they advertise during the games and I imagine she is getting paid for attending those meetings.