Despite a 21-4 record in the past two years and a 15-1 record in the American Athletic Conference, UCF head coach George O'Leary has expressed frustration over attendance numbers. Only 30,920 fans showed up at the last home game of the season.

"I think [the seniors] were disappointed," O'Leary said. "I think for a final home game, you would have expected more people in the stands and more people in the administration to work at getting people in the stands."

To compare......Memphis vs UCONN was the last game at the Liberty Bowl in 2014 with attendance of 35,102. To speculate if Memphis has a similar record in 2015 as UCF had in 2014.....last home game in 2015 will be 40,000 to 45,000 plus at the LB. Interestingly....UCF has twice the enrollment of Memphis, the Orlando Metro Area is about twice the population of Memphis and the climate is much more agreeable to getting a larger turnout in November in balmy Orlando than in Memphis.

(02-03-2015 08:53 PM)DallasTiger Wrote:  Despite a 21-4 record in the past two years and a 15-1 record in the American Athletic Conference, UCF head coach George O'Leary has expressed frustration over attendance numbers. Only 30,920 fans showed up at the last home game of the season.

"I think [the seniors] were disappointed," O'Leary said. "I think for a final home game, you would have expected more people in the stands and more people in the administration to work at getting people in the stands."

To compare......Memphis vs UCONN was the last game at the Liberty Bowl in 2014 with attendance of 35,102. To speculate if Memphis has a similar record in 2015 as UCF had in 2014.....last home game in 2015 will be 40,000 to 45,000 plus at the LB. Interestingly....UCF has twice the enrollment of Memphis, the Orlando Metro Area is about twice the population of Memphis and the climate is much more agreeable to getting a larger turnout in November in balmy Orlando than in Memphis.

stop giving them facts Dallas, the miserables think everything with any possible negative slant is unique to Memphis. and everthing good and great we have is common.

Yes UCF and USF have good fans and students, BUT Tampa and Orlando will follow UF/ FSU/Miami before USF or UCF and that is real TrUeTh...Why Once Big 12 expands another reason it will be Memphis/Cincy....The World Is Ours Memphis....

(02-03-2015 09:25 PM)tigerscane Wrote:  Yes UCF and USF have good fans and students, BUT Tampa and Orlando will follow UF/ FSU/Miami before USF or UCF and that is real TrUeTh...Why Once Big 12 expands another reason it will be Memphis/Cincy....The World Is Ours Memphis....

University of Central Florida has a total undergraduate enrollment of 51,269. At this school, 18 percent of the students live in college-owned, -operated, or -affiliated housing and 82 percent of students live off campus. So, that being said, UCF has more students living on campus than Memphis. So, although U of F is located 2 hours away...I am not convinced that those 51,000 UCF students and 2 million plus Orlando residents are all really closet Gator fans nor are they probably driving 4 hours to Tallahassee to see an FSU game. Ole Miss is just over an hour from Memphis but I would be hard pressed to say that OM football effects the ability for Memphis to draw fans to the LB. Coach Leary said it best....he is dissapointed and thinks they should be able to draw a larger crowd and I think he is right.

Maybe, But UF/FSU/ Miami get more pub than UCF or USF in Tampa and Orlando....You have to live there and visit to understand...Alot of those Students have other things to do, and Still think UF/ FSU/ and Miami are above them....It takes time to change Culture, just as we are Doing At Memphis....It takes time....The World Is Ours Memphis...

The New York Times actually put together a cool map of college football fan bases based off Facebook likes in each zip code:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/...l-map.html

Seems most folks in Orlando like the knights over other Florida teams.

(02-03-2015 10:46 PM)Memphis10Tigers Wrote:  The New York Times actually put together a cool map of college football fan bases based off Facebook likes in each zip code:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/...l-map.html

Seems most folks in Orlando like the knights over other Florida teams.

Wow, that is pretty interesting. Memphis has nearly as many football fans in Desoto county as Ole Miss. You have to go below Batesville before there is no percentage of tiger fans. So much for that wall around Memphis.

(02-03-2015 08:53 PM)DallasTiger Wrote:  Despite a 21-4 record in the past two years and a 15-1 record in the American Athletic Conference, UCF head coach George O'Leary has expressed frustration over attendance numbers. Only 30,920 fans showed up at the last home game of the season.

"I think [the seniors] were disappointed," O'Leary said. "I think for a final home game, you would have expected more people in the stands and more people in the administration to work at getting people in the stands."

That was the only home UCF game this year that had bad weather...and for that Noon kickoff...it was mostly diehard supporters who showed up...as too many bandwagon fans (for almost every team) only want to show up for:

Night football games (especially at UCF, where all day tailgating is usually off the hook)
Good weather
Good opponents (SMU left town with an 0-10 record after 53-7 defeat)

UCF, just like every other AAC program, wishes they had more diehard football fans but AAC teams can't throw aside bandwagon fans...as every team has plenty of more room for more fans and hopefully, more future diehard fans.

UCF is still a relatively young program. We have quite a few old heads (myself included) attending Tiger games who were buying season tickets decades before UCF even had a team.

Were it not for the unusual number of bad gameday weather forecasts last season, our average attendance would have easily exceeded 45,000. I still hope to see the day when more of our fans buy ponchos and rainsuits and have enough pride to attend regardless of weather.

(02-03-2015 10:05 PM)tigerscane Wrote:  Maybe, But UF/FSU/ Miami get more pub than UCF or USF in Tampa and Orlando....You have to live there and visit to understand...Alot of those Students have other things to do, and Still think UF/ FSU/ and Miami are above them....It takes time to change Culture, just as we are Doing At Memphis....It takes time....The World Is Ours Memphis...

Actually, I am from Clearwater. Graduated from Clearwater High and St. Petersburg College and lived there for 13 years and have family all over Pinellas and Pasco Counties. A lot are GATOR fans and several went to FSU. I know those schools well and have been to football games at both. But, Florida is changing as new schools are opened such as UCF, FIU and Florida Gulf Coast. My point is that with that large of a population base, some fans going to UF and FSU games should not effect a UCF team that has such a great record and such a large market of students and immediate residents.

(02-03-2015 10:46 PM)Memphis10Tigers Wrote:  The New York Times actually put together a cool map of college football fan bases based off Facebook likes in each zip code:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/...l-map.html

Seems most folks in Orlando like the knights over other Florida teams.

OMG That thing is awesome! According to that, there are no Cincinnati fans anywhere in the Country... LOL. Not even 6% in the zip code where the university is....

(02-04-2015 10:51 AM)DallasTiger Wrote:  My point is that with that large of a population base, some fans going to UF and FSU games should not effect a UCF team that has such a great record and such a large market of students and immediate residents.

Most FSU/UF fans in the Tampa/Orlando area do not travel to Tally or Gainesville for games...most just watch them on TV (heck, UF couldn't even give away tix to some games last year...as some of their blue hairs are dying off and a much larger percentage of their young alumni are not bothering with season or single game tix purchases).

UCF's record for their final home game was 6-3 vs 0-9 SMU for that Noon kickoff in bad weather (as noted above).

As noted in previous post...almost every school in FLA hate Noon kickoffs...as fans prefer night games/all-day tailgates...and if weather is bad (like it was for the UCF/SMU game that day) many bandwagon fans will just stay home and watch it on HDTV's.

We shoulda had more than 35K for our final home game. That post-game celebration was something that I'll never forget.

(02-04-2015 11:45 AM)ksigtigerdood Wrote:  We shoulda had more than 35K for our final home game. That post-game celebration was something that I'll never forget.

Me either. I stayed after the game for a long time.

(02-04-2015 11:11 AM)The_Goat Wrote:  

(02-03-2015 10:46 PM)Memphis10Tigers Wrote:  The New York Times actually put together a cool map of college football fan bases based off Facebook likes in each zip code:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/...l-map.html

Seems most folks in Orlando like the knights over other Florida teams.

OMG That thing is awesome! According to that, there are no Cincinnati fans anywhere in the Country... LOL. Not even 6% in the zip code where the university is....

Interesting how big Fresno's map is.

(02-03-2015 10:46 PM)Memphis10Tigers Wrote:  The New York Times actually put together a cool map of college football fan bases based off Facebook likes in each zip code:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/...l-map.html

Seems most folks in Orlando like the knights over other Florida teams.

HaaaaaaHHAaaaaaa!!!!! Let's see the stAte fans defend THAT!!!!!! HAAA HAAAAAAA!!!!!

I like the VIEW of the field from this one

Seems odd in some respects. As an example, I lived in Indianapolis for 2 years. According to the map, IU is not that popular there. Yet, I would think IU, Butler, IUPUI and Purdue are the leading universities....not Notre Dame. Maybe I am reading this map wrong. Then look at Marshall, SMU. UCLA and Tulane.

(02-04-2015 09:26 PM)DallasTiger Wrote:  Seems odd in some respects. As an example, I lived in Indianapolis for 2 years. According to the map, IU is not that popular there. Yet, I would think IU, Butler, IUPUI and Purdue are the leading universities....not Notre Dame. Maybe I am reading this map wrong. Then look at Marshall, SMU. UCLA and Tulane.

I dont think you're reading the map wrong at all. On the AAC board there were a number of posts a few months ago discussing the problems with the map's methodology and how inaccurate it was.

(02-04-2015 05:01 PM)bluebacker Wrote:  

(02-04-2015 11:45 AM)ksigtigerdood Wrote:  We shoulda had more than 35K for our final home game. That post-game celebration was something that I'll never forget.

Me either. I stayed after the game for a long time.

Yep, me too. What a great night, didn't want it to end.