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Not trying to knock a school who I hope along with NDSU and SDSU are added to the Mid-Con, but I thought this story should be included on our board.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortway...l/15038783.htm
Full count: Teams tally up no-shows
Why are fewer fans in stands than announced? Go figure – franchises do
By Justin A. Cohn
The Journal Gazette
When is an empty seat occupied? When a sports team is doing the counting.
The Komets hockey team, Freedom indoor football team, Wizards baseball team and IPFW men’s basketball – the sports tenants of Memorial Coliseum and Memorial Stadium – all boast attendance figures that seem impressive.
The Komets and Freedom claim numbers that are tops in their leagues. The Wizards are fifth out of 14 teams in theirs. In IPFW’s effort to secure a spot in an athletic conference, the school uses attendance as one of its key selling points.
But the attendance figures these teams publicize aren’t accurate. Not even close. When it comes to sporting events, the word “attendance” has become a misnomer, cleverly used to promote the popularity of teams. . . .
The old college try
The basketball program at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne has the largest variance of the Coliseum tenants – the Wizards play in the Stadium – when it comes to overstating attendance. Through the Mastodons’ first three seasons of playing at the Coliseum, which included 32 analyzed games, the average attendance was 2,770 and the average turnstile count was 1,739.
These numbers were bolstered by growth experienced during the 2004-05 season, when the Mastodons averaged 3,393 in attendance and 2,093 in turnstile. A Dec. 18, 2005, game against Notre Dame that had 8,957 in attendance and 7,637 in turnstile numbers affected the season averages.
Still, on average, the announced attendance at an IPFW game was 72 percent higher than the number of people in the stands. Only three games showed a disparity lower than 40 percent.
IPFW’s situation is unique because it has a large number of people attending games who don’t possess tickets. They are students who, because they have paid an activity fee as part of their tuition, can flash an IPFW identification card and gain admittance to the Coliseum. According to athletic director Mark Pope, this makes using ticket distributions as a means of calculating attendance a near impossibility.
IPFW has a base of roughly 1,500 season ticket holders always included in its announced attendance. With that in mind, Pope said, “What we try and do is a rough approximation of those individuals who are at the game and not seated in the season-ticket areas.”
Add them together, throw in some peripheral bodies such as IPFW staff and cheerleaders, and you have the Mastodons’ attendance number. Unlike the pro-sports tenants, IPFW doesn’t factor complimentary tickets into its attendance figures, Pope said. The school also doesn’t announce attendance at its games, although it does go into box scores and other statistical data. . . .
In Fort Wayne, Pope isn’t satisfied with the turnout at Mastodons games. Last season, the disparity between the turnstile counts and the announced attendance was, on average, 91 percent. In every game, there was a difference of at least 1,000 people.
“It does surprise me,” Pope said. “I keep looking at (Coliseum general manager Randy Brown) like maybe he’s not counting right because it looks like a whole lot more than that are there. … I’d like to tell you this is a scientific device that we all use, but at the end of the day there’s some trial and error.”
At one game, Dec. 3, 2005, 794 people showed up and attendance was announced at 2,236. Pope couldn’t explain such a disparity, but he didn’t think any fan would be duped by what’s announced. . . . (read more)
Go State!
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortway...l/15038783.htm
Full count: Teams tally up no-shows
Why are fewer fans in stands than announced? Go figure – franchises do
By Justin A. Cohn
The Journal Gazette
When is an empty seat occupied? When a sports team is doing the counting.
The Komets hockey team, Freedom indoor football team, Wizards baseball team and IPFW men’s basketball – the sports tenants of Memorial Coliseum and Memorial Stadium – all boast attendance figures that seem impressive.
The Komets and Freedom claim numbers that are tops in their leagues. The Wizards are fifth out of 14 teams in theirs. In IPFW’s effort to secure a spot in an athletic conference, the school uses attendance as one of its key selling points.
But the attendance figures these teams publicize aren’t accurate. Not even close. When it comes to sporting events, the word “attendance” has become a misnomer, cleverly used to promote the popularity of teams. . . .
The old college try
The basketball program at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne has the largest variance of the Coliseum tenants – the Wizards play in the Stadium – when it comes to overstating attendance. Through the Mastodons’ first three seasons of playing at the Coliseum, which included 32 analyzed games, the average attendance was 2,770 and the average turnstile count was 1,739.
These numbers were bolstered by growth experienced during the 2004-05 season, when the Mastodons averaged 3,393 in attendance and 2,093 in turnstile. A Dec. 18, 2005, game against Notre Dame that had 8,957 in attendance and 7,637 in turnstile numbers affected the season averages.
Still, on average, the announced attendance at an IPFW game was 72 percent higher than the number of people in the stands. Only three games showed a disparity lower than 40 percent.
IPFW’s situation is unique because it has a large number of people attending games who don’t possess tickets. They are students who, because they have paid an activity fee as part of their tuition, can flash an IPFW identification card and gain admittance to the Coliseum. According to athletic director Mark Pope, this makes using ticket distributions as a means of calculating attendance a near impossibility.
IPFW has a base of roughly 1,500 season ticket holders always included in its announced attendance. With that in mind, Pope said, “What we try and do is a rough approximation of those individuals who are at the game and not seated in the season-ticket areas.”
Add them together, throw in some peripheral bodies such as IPFW staff and cheerleaders, and you have the Mastodons’ attendance number. Unlike the pro-sports tenants, IPFW doesn’t factor complimentary tickets into its attendance figures, Pope said. The school also doesn’t announce attendance at its games, although it does go into box scores and other statistical data. . . .
In Fort Wayne, Pope isn’t satisfied with the turnout at Mastodons games. Last season, the disparity between the turnstile counts and the announced attendance was, on average, 91 percent. In every game, there was a difference of at least 1,000 people.
“It does surprise me,” Pope said. “I keep looking at (Coliseum general manager Randy Brown) like maybe he’s not counting right because it looks like a whole lot more than that are there. … I’d like to tell you this is a scientific device that we all use, but at the end of the day there’s some trial and error.”
At one game, Dec. 3, 2005, 794 people showed up and attendance was announced at 2,236. Pope couldn’t explain such a disparity, but he didn’t think any fan would be duped by what’s announced. . . . (read more)
Go State!
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