We were top 15 for average attendance. That is disappointing.
Not sure how much stock to put in that, as teams like Florida A&M, Grambling, and Tennessee State had significantly fewer games (four, two, and four, respectively), thereby making the average more susceptible to skewing. I'd be interested in the median attendance for some of the venues. Plus, at least four teams in the top 15 for average attendance are from states with warmer climes.
The HBCU schools traditionally have very high attendance. Even though they have few home games, they play rivalry games in venues such as the Super dome (Grambling vs Southern) or the Peach dome in Atlanta. TN St stadium is the same as Titans play. Jacks are a top 15 attendance school now, and could readily make top 10 with decent December attendance.
IMHO the attendance this year was really disappointing. Yea, we had a couple record breakers but we never did sell it out even for Hobo Day.
The Athletic Department did a nice job in offering some deals to try and sell the last bunches of seats but didn't quite fill it. Hopefully, next year will be a much stronger year attendance wise. We should be favored to win the conference and the Buffalo Chips come to Brookings next year. At least we know that game will be a sellout with 3-4000 in green.
That is the next step for us as fans is to fill this thing every week. When you look at that list and who is at the top, it is the perennially great programs. That is where we want to go, it is where we are trending, but we have to keep going.
IMHO the attendance this year was really disappointing. Yea, we had a couple record breakers but we never did sell it out even for Hobo Day.
The Athletic Department did a nice job in offering some deals to try and sell the last bunches of seats but didn't quite fill it. Hopefully, next year will be a much stronger year attendance wise. We should be favored to win the conference and the Buffalo Chips come to Brookings next year. At least we know that game will be a sellout with 3-4000 in green.
That is the next step for us as fans is to fill this thing every week. When you look at that list and who is at the top, it is the perennially great programs. That is where we want to go, it is where we are trending, but we have to keep going.
SUPERBUNNY
As long as sdsu fans get a bunch of tickets before they go on sale to the public. If we don't get 15K by then ndsu will have more then normal.
"The most rewarding things you do in life, are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.” Arnold Palmer
Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things.
Id guess some alumni will step in and buy up a bunch of tickets before they go on sale to the public.
2 years ago they did a presale to sdsu fans before general public. We got several that way. Sdsu fans just need to plan ahead. Ndsu fans will get them if we don't.
"The most rewarding things you do in life, are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.” Arnold Palmer
Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things.
One thing to keep in mind is the attendance without the playoff game. In the six games leading up to our December 3rd/cold and snowy playoff game was 15,019 per game. Our only game ever hosted in December, was 6,154 that attended the Villanova game. We also didn't benefit from a visiting team that brought a significant fan base with them. (This is not meant to be derogatory towards Villanova fans as they were very good, it's just that there could not have been more than 100 of them.)
Top that off with the home schedule that featured Drake, Cal Poly, Western Ill, Youngstown, Missouri St, and USD. USD was the only school on that schedule to seriously bring visitor fans. I'm confident that we will average close to 16,000 fans next year excluding home playoff games. (I believe we will host more than one playoff game.)
Another thing to consider was that we had gate attendance of nearly 19,000 more fans this year than any year prior. (2015 - 77,394 vs. 2016 - 96,268). From 2007 to 2014, we had annual draws of 50,117 to 71,056). From 2007 to 2015, we averaged 11,410/game.
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