Attendance at San Diego State football games reached an all-time high average of 47,026 in 1992, at the height of the mania surrounding Marshall Faulk and coming off the school's Freedom Bowl appearance.

The only other spike (from 25,864 to 29,888) occurred following the team's 1998 trip to the Las Vegas Bowl.

Since 1999, the Aztecs' record is 15-31, season tickets are down 5,205 and average overall attendance has declined 4,625.

But now, operating under the assumption and with the slogan "The Red and Black is Back," SDSU is stepping up its efforts to retain, reinvigorate and regenerate its fan base.

Primarily targeting alumni and current students, the athletic department's marketers have embarked on an unprecedented campaign that will intensify in the coming weeks.

While they, indeed, hope for victories, which are the greatest marketing tool of all, the Aztecs realize that hope is not enough in this day and age and at this school. The football team is the department's breadwinner, but it has had four consecutive losing seasons and has been steadily losing fans for most of the past decade.

"The reality is we really do feel like we're ready to turn the corner in football," said SDSU marketing director Steve Schnall. "We do think the red and black is back. Also, we realize when you're coming off a 4-9 season, the general public isn't necessarily buying into it ... Right now it's a very tenuous position as far as the way the public looks at us. We know we're very close."

Average attendance at SDSU football games dropped eight of nine years before last year's spike of 2,754 to 25,263. Still, season tickets were down almost 1,000 in 2002 and have dropped – dramatically, at times – eight of the past 10 years.

"One of the obvious factors is the football team has not won that much," Schnall said. "We know the alumni fan is out there. They're waiting for the product to improve."

San Diego State is not waiting.

Almost 100,000 SDSU alumni live in San Diego County, a figure that is both appealing and appalling to Schnall.

"In order for us to grow, we need our alumni fan base to grow," he said. "Ohio State has 104,000 people in its stadium every Saturday because its alumni are passionate about it. We need to increase the number of people who feel an affinity to our football and basketball teams."

As the Aztecs have made the postseason the past two seasons in basketball, their attendance has increased. Over the past four years, basketball's attendance gains led the nation and the 1,000 student season tickets sold out last season.

"We're trying to create a little bit of what we've created in basketball," Schnall said.

To that end, SDSU has raised its football marketing budget by about $100,000. In addition to television and radio ads featuring former star players that already have begun airing, SDSU has taken or will take at least a half-dozen other progressive steps.

By the end of this month, SDSU students will have contacted 30,000 alumni and former season ticket holders, told them about the team and second-year coach Tom Craft's improved offense and offered them deals on season tickets.

"This is the largest effort we've ever had, by far," Schnall said. "Alumni that haven't been contacted in forever, we're contacting them for the first time."

Based on figures so far, Schnall estimated SDSU will realize 1,000 new season tickets from the campaign, an impressive return considering recent history.

The second group SDSU is targeting aggressively is its current students. Schnall estimates that only 2,000 to 5,000 students attend football games on average.

"If they don't go while they're here," Schnall said, "it's difficult to turn them into passionate alums. It's integral we get students while they're here."

In an attempt to attract students to the opener, SDSU will sponsor a tailgate party that afternoon and provide transportation to and from the game. The school also will have for the first time banners around campus the week of home games.

Similar to the "Fisher Fanatics" who attend basketball game, the school is promoting "Craft's Crazies." For $50, students get a season ticket to football and basketball, a "Fanatics" and a "Crazies" T-shirt, and a coupon for a free pizza. Additionally, in an effort to improve atmosphere, the student section at games has been moved to behind the end zone above where teams enter the field.

Further promoting the product to a constituency that will be largely young adults and SDSU students, the band and cheerleaders will make trips on Friday nights before home games to such hot spots as the Gaslamp area downtown and Pacific Beach. Aerial signage promoting the games will be flown over beaches on Saturdays.

There will be promotions at games as well. The first 20,000 people at the opener will receive floppy hats. That night and again at the BYU game on Oct. 4, trading cards will be given out featuring the 12 players on the Aztec Wall of Fame, two new murals that will be set on the high walls beyond both end zones. Fireworks will follow Aztecs scores.

All this follows a $200,000 investment in an online ticketing system that kicks off today on the school's Web site, GoAztecs.com.

"We felt the time was right because it is a more exciting brand of football," Schnall said. "We felt the time was right to get a decent return on our investment."