(12-17-2015 10:37 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote: UCF AAC 30,065/44,206
. . . (what's up with Tulsa?)
Thoughts?
Yeah, we don't lie as well as some others. UCF reporting 30k is an insult. Everyone is going to do some padding (Tulsa included), had some great discussions on it on this board. But some pad more than others. But Tulsa's attendance does suck, let me try to give you some perspective...
We simply don't have enough living alumni within 100 miles and we lose out on casual fans to OU, OSU, and Arkansas (all of which are within 2 hour drive). I don't think our conference-mates grasp how small the University of Tulsa is.
Tulsa has less than 3500 undergrads. Of the American students, 50% are from out of state, many of the in-state grads leave when they graduate (Oklahoma is a net exporter of college graduates),
a further 1,170 of Tulsa students are international students. So...
we graduate ~800 kids a year, 1/3 leave the country, and at least half of the remaining students leave the state. Building a 100 mile alumni base of ~250 people a year (100 miles encompasses Tulsa and OKC MSA).
Lets add 20% to assume some of the international students and out-of-staters stick around and to account for some graduate students who may become fans. So adding 300 per year to the 100 mile alumni base. Then lets assume an average graduate has 40 years to be a potential season ticket holder before they retire, move to Florida, or die.
That gives us a living alumni base within 100 miles of ~12,000 people. Add in the 1800 non-graduate non-international students and you get to 13,800 people. I think we do draw a fairly high percentage of casual fans for a non-bandwagon program, but lets say they make up 50% of our fan base... that's only 21,000 people. Then you can add in some fans that do hop on the bandwagon when we are on a roll, or fans that come to see a big game or to cheer for the opponent. Of course you get groups of people who are looking for something to do and are somewhere below actually being "fans" (like me for our minor league baseball team), you get Pop Warner day, or veterans day, or whatever.
But then you subtract fans for OSU, OU, and Arkansas home games. Even alumni will ditch a TU game to go to OU-Texas, Bedlam, or a top 10 matchup in either Stillwater or Norman. Any of those fans that hold TU season tickets will ditch a TU game to go to their alma mater. Corporate seats also often go unused. Unless we are putting up video game numbers and drawing media attention, its tough.
I think we could do better marketing. Make it more like a nice minor league baseball game, where families come for more than the game and young people show up for a day/evening of entertainment. But I also admit that we will not be a major draw unless we win big.
For perspective - Tulsa has 2,300 non-international undergrads. Every other AAC team has more than 10,000 (SMU is cutting it close). Very likely, Tulsa has less living alumni in the world than most of our AAC mates have currently enrolled students.
So I admit our attendance is weak, but I think we face problems other schools don't and have to come up with a unique way of remedying that.
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