Football Attendance at 5 Schools: 2005 to 2009

[UConnJim]

Here are the home attendance numbers for 5 schools from 2005 to 2009:

1. 33,184, 41,113, 43,663, 42, 378, 49,113
2. 41,001, 41,482, 39,881, 39,680, 32,450
3. 40,252, 37,263, 35,009, 33,474, 39,043
4. 40,000, 38,399, 38,205, 39,331, 38,229
5. 39,429, 38,843, 41,990, 41,037, 35,716

Answers:
1. Rutgers
2. Louisville
3. Syracuse
4. UConn
5. BC

Not a big difference, but consider:
Louisville includes their big rivalry game with Kentucky every other year. BC played VT, FSU, and Clemson every other year and ND, as well as Miami and BYU at home. Syracuse played a number of Big 10 schools at home including, Penn St., Illinois, Northwestern, Minnesota, Iowa, as well as Washington.

Rutgers is the outlier as they expanded their stadium, gave away the tickets and looks like they increased their fanbase. I think they will attract more paying fans in the Big 10. Syracuse, and BC have maxed out. Good OOC games at home and attendance is mediocre. UConn with almost no marquee OOC games did as well as BC and Syracuse.

 

[UConn9604]

Here are the home attendance numbers for 5 schools from 2005 to 2009:

1. 33,184, 41,113, 43,663, 42, 378, 49,113
2. 41,001, 41,482, 39,881, 39,680, 32,450
3. 40,252, 37,263, 35,009, 33,474, 39,043
4. 40,000, 38,399, 38,205, 39,331, 38,229
5. 39,429, 38,843, 41,990, 41,037, 35,716

Answers:
1. Rutgers
2. Louisville
3. Syracuse
4. UConn
5. BC

Not a big difference, but consider:
Louisville includes their big rivalry game with Kentucky every other year. BC played VT, FSU, and Clemson every other year and ND, as well as Miami and BYU at home. Syracuse played a number of Big 10 schools at home including, Penn St., Illinois, Northwestern, Minnesota, Iowa, as well as Washington.

Rutgers is the outlier as they expanded their stadium, gave away the tickets and looks like they increased their fanbase. I think they will attract more paying fans in the Big 10. Syracuse, and BC have maxed out. Good OOC games at home and attendance is mediocre. UConn with almost no marquee OOC games did as well as BC and Syracuse.

Thanks for pulling this together -- do you have updated numbers for 2010, 2011 and 2012?

I would imagine that BC's and Syracuse's continued to fall off the table (with Syracuse's maybe ticking upward this year), and that ours took a nosedive after the 2010 Fiesta Bowl season, too.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

While this a positive for UConn, unfortunately attendance numbers at that level don't really sway realignment decisions all that much. Look at ECU, they outpaced all five of those, and they've been an afterthought addition to Big East 5.0 at best, and not at all a candidate elsewhere. I would guess once the numbers for a school are regularly topping 60K, they would start becoming a factor. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any non-BCS conference school that averages 60K.

 

[CTMike]

Attendance matters except when it's TV markets that matter. TV markets matter except when it's recent performance that matters. Recent performance matters except when historical performance matters. Historical performance matters except when academics matter. Academics matter except when attendance matters. Or something.

 

[TexanMark]

Why 2005 to 2009?

Why not 2008 to 2012?

 

[CTMike]

Why 2005 to 2009?

Why not 2008 to 2012?

Because we don't compare favorably the last two years?

(No offense, UConnJim. Don't know if the data was available)

 

[UConnDan97]

Attendance matters except when it's TV markets that matter. TV markets matter except when it's recent performance that matters. Recent performance matters except when historical performance matters. Historical performance matters except when academics matter. Academics matter except when attendance matters. Or something.

This is up for post of the month...

 

[The Funster]

Everything matters. This matters. That matters. Nothing matters.

Take one of the four criteria and selectively apply it to your CR "why" question and you'll have your answer.

 

[UConnJim]

Because we don't compare favorably the last two years?

(No offense, UConnJim. Don't know if the data was available)

Data is available, but I thought it was most relevant pre-recession. Here are 2010 and 2011:

BC: 38,369, 35,708
UConn: 38,248, 36,668
Syracuse: 40,064, 40,504
Rutgers: 46,195, 43,761
Louisville: 50,648, 48,538

 

[UConnRock]

What I take from this is that the two teams (Rutgers and Louisville) who said "to hell with budgets and debt, lets enlarge our stadiums and show the major conferences that we are ready" have seasons where they are averaged 45K to 50K. Who the hell cares if they gave away half the tickets (like Rutgers), they are at least showing a more interested fan base along with a dedication to growing their program.

If UConn had originally built a 50K stadium, I have no doubt that through cheap tickets or promotions there would be more fannies in the seats than the current 37K.

 

[UConnDan97]

What I take from this is that the two teams (Rutgers and Louisville) who said "to hell with budgets and debt, lets enlarge our stadiums and show the major conferences that we are ready" have seasons where they are averaged 45K to 50K. Who the hell cares if they gave away half the tickets (like Rutgers), they are at least showing a more interested fan base along with a dedication to growing their program.

If UConn had originally built a 50K stadium, I have no doubt that through cheap tickets or promotions there would be more fannies in the seats than the current 37K.

That's what you took away from it??? What I took away from it is exactly the opposite. It doesn't seem to be capacity that is dictating the attendance. If you look at both Rutgers and Louisville, they both saw attendance drops year over year, 2010 to 2011. In the case of Rutgers, it was a 6k drop. That speaks to me to be more economy driven, since they had a relatively successful 2011 campaign.

In other words, if our stadium was 50k, we still would have been about 36k to 37k for 2011 as was reported, since we weren't at capacity. The last time we averaged full capacity was apparently 2005. If anything, these numbers are data supporting exactly why we SHOULDN'T expand....yet....

 

[hexlub]

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any non-BCS conference school that averages 60K.

BYU?

 

[whaler11]

You have to take all these numbers with a grain of salt. These are tickets distributed generally and don't correlate at all to people in the stadium. Look at USF and Kentucky this year - their true tickets scanned were available and were like half what you see in the boxscores.

What matters is who has the power in any given situation and what their inclination is. The last go around Florida State had the power in the ACC and the criteria was simply who did Florida State prefer. When Syracuse and Pitt went to the ACC, Boston College had just enough power to make our lives miserable - their criteria is they don't want to compete against UConn.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

What happened with our attendance (declining at a time when our football program was improving) is one case in point (of many) that JH did very little while on the job beyond sitting on his thumb and scratching. I cannot think of one logical reason why we couldn't have had a waiting list for tickets by 2008. It is very disheartening looking at our program today, realizing that the general perception (outside of our fan base) is little different than it was in 2002.

We need a coach to revitalize the program (as the current one has it on life support). It infuriates me to think of what was lost (opportunities to grow the brand from 2007-2010) and how much we've regressed when we were at a point where a vibrant young coach leading the program could have vaulted us to the top of the BE. I'm tired of looking at what JH didn't do. He was an absolute failure but that chapter is over. I'm hoping that WM can get us someone. someone who can build the program, add excitement and be willing to make this his home and career job.

The one thing that we can draw some comfort from is that if a Chris Peterson (Boise St) or Gary Patterson (TCU) was here for the past decade, we'd already be in the B1G. It is not easy to fnd one of those guys but they are out there. This (the next football HC) and this alone will be WM's legacy.

 

[uconNYC]

The one thing that we can draw some comfort from is that if a Chris Peterson (Boise St) or Gary Patterson (TCU) was here for the past decade, we'd already be in the B1G. It is not easy to fnd one of those guys but they are out there. This (the next football HC) and this alone will be WM's legacy.

Along with hiring the right coach, WM also needs to work on scheduling and marketing. So far have not seen anything on those fronts.