Football Attendence

[89rabbit]

Bison_Kent posted this on Bisonville's board, I thought it was very interesting.

Here are the Big Sky, Gateway, and the new proposed Great Western Conference teams attendence average figures so far this season:

Big Sky
1. Montana 23,367
2. Montana State 11,253
3. Northern Arizona 9,160
4. Sacramento State 7,791
5. Weber State 7,733
6. Idaho State 7,614
7. Portland State 6,975
8. Eastern Washington 5,755

Gateway
1. Youngstown State 16,528
2. Western Illinois 13,983
3. Western Kentucky 11,956
4. Northern Iowa 11,807
5. SW Missouri State 10,974
6. Southern Illinois 9,534
7. Illinois State 8,453
8. Indiana State 2,686

Great Western
1. NDSU 12,471
2. Cal-Poly 7,367
3. SDSU 7,091
4. UC-Davis 6,845
5. Southern Utah 6,168
6. Northern Colorado 5,893
7. St. Mary's 1,813


Go State!

[Charger13]

Re: Football Attendence

I got this post of the anygivensaturday.com board.

just read this from our school website. We probably will not host a playoff game this year (too bad) but for all the people who have ripped on Macomb in the past years being in the middle of nowhere and not having good enough attendence for ESPN...shut the he$$ up!
"Season Attendance Flirts with School Record

The Leathernecks are averaging 13,983 fans per home game this season - a mark that would break the school record of 13,815 (1973) if the home schedule were complete. Western, however, will need 12,983 fans at Saturday’s game against SMS to officially record the highest single-season average in school history.

This year’s crowd of 19,287 against Southern Illinois was the second-largest in school history, and the 18,263 fans that attended the game against Western Kentucky marked the fourth-largest single-game figure. This year’s total attendance of 69,913 is just 2,125 shy of Western’s all-time single-season record of 72,038 fans who saw six games in 1971. "

This is really incredible for a town and school almost identical to the size of Brookings and SDSU. I hope in the future we start to see numbers more like this. Depending on how many turn out this weekend, we may be lucky to get half of what WIU gets for the season average. I'm jealous.

[SDSUFAN]

Re: Football Attendence

One commonality with McComb is that the students are usually looking for on campus events for the weekend. With a winning football, like they have now, they get a better turnout of students. Western Illinois has a large contingent of students from Suburban Chicago and may have some from St Louis, which is not that far way. Chicago is at least 100 miles from Macomb if not more. I dont recall off hand. For some Chicago students Western is about their fourth choice as Champaign DeKalb and Carbondale fill up in terms of Freshman and Macomb is their choice by Default. Gee if South Dakota only had that problem.

I dont know what SDSU's student count in attendence is compared to ticket purchasers, but I would think we have done a little better this year. SDSU needs to get as many events on campus as possible when there is a home game. I notice the Senior Day thing being on same day at the Beef bowl helped out.

Definitely need a earlier Hobo Day. Its crazy to imitate 1913 with a November 1 date. In fact if you look at the student body picture of 1913 over at Tompkins Center, it looked like they had nice weather in November in 1913. Kind of crazy and unpredictable. I think we have to push the tailgating outside no matter what the weather. In the past everything has been moved to Frost if it got chilly. Need to make it fun and something people will do on a regular basis.

I really think we need to have more than one 8 win seasons back to back before the numbers start to pick up. Lets hope it does, and if it dont, I suspect adjustments will be made.

[RunninRabbit]

Re: Football Attendence

I've got one simple statement to drive attendence and namely student attendence - sell beer at the stadium. Yes, it may cause other problems but I think that's what President Peggy is testing through allowing alcohol at the tailgating. I realize very few colleges sell beer at games, I believe that UNC does, but I think that would boost attendence second only to a winning team.

That and an indoor stadium when it's so dang cold.

[Texas_Jacks_Fan]

Re: Football Attendence


I don't personally disagree with you about the beer sales, but I "think" the NCAA prohibits it. I know you cant buy beer inside LSU' s "Death Valley". and if you cant buy beer at LSU, there HAS to be some higher law prohibiting it (otherwise it would be sold)! I am doing some remembering back to all of the diffrent stadiums I've been in for college games and I've never seen beer sales.
~can you imagine Frost Arena with beer sales??

[wsufan]

Re: Football Attendence

I think it might be a conference by conference (or even school-by-school) issue.

I know that the Metrodome, the Gophers off campus stadium, sells alcohol.

http://www.ncaa.org/news/2003/200304...e/4008n29.html

In that link, "The program is designed for all universities, not just those that sell alcohol in the stadium". So there has to be more than just the Metrodome (Although I believe the Big Televen has a rule against it), so if/when the Gophers get their new stadium, they'll have to drop beer sales too.

[Guest]

Re: Football Attendence

UNC sells beer at games and has a winning team and still can't get people to the games.

[Texas_Jacks_Fan]

Re: Football Attendence

I stand corrected, sorry about that.

[Guest]

Re: Football Attendence

I really hope the move to D-IAA helps UNC's attendance. You guys average more fans in a way smaller population. Sonny Lubick from CSU mentioned that he wanted a home and home series with UNC. That would draw some people.

[89rabbit]

Re: Football Attendence

uncbear,

I think that would be great for you guys. To get CSU at your house would let the fans know (what we already do) that UNC is for real.

I also wanted to say Welcome to the board and thanks for posting. When you get a minute, please register, we would love to count you amongst or members.

Go SDSU!

[Texas_Jacks_Fan]

Re: Football Attendence

unc bear,
I'm sure that SDSU and UNC will renew games in the near future as well. If CSU agreee to a home/home that would be awesome for your program.
Weve discussed popuation vs attendence on lots of these threads, and there is little or no correlation. It all comes back to support. SDSU is always the leader in basketball attendence in a small city. There are literally 75-100 D1 programs that draw great in towns under 40,000. UNC's biggest obstacle as I see it is CU, CSU, AFA, Wyoming all a couple hours away.
The positive thing for SDSU/NDSU is that were the only game in town so people support us. Call it the "Green Bay Packer Syndrome".
Come back in anytime bear, Its always good to get other fans prespective.
Texas

[uncbear]

Re: Football Attendence

Based on how Wyoming beat Montana State and CSU and how UNC beat Montana State I think that the unspeakable might be possible at some point in the not too distant future. If CSU has an off-day when they meet the Bears they might find themselves in an embarrassing situation.

Speaking of embarrassing, Augustana is moving the ball at will against UNC in the first quarter. tied 0-0 still.

[89rabbit]

Re: Football Attendence

uncbear,

They did that to us last week and we beat them 42-22. I recall that the Radio guys said that they had this huge scoring difference between themselves and their opp. in the 1st qtr. they seem to come out of the gates fast but can't keep it up. Good Luck Bears!

Go Jacks!