* MAC Bowls:
New Mexico (Wy-Temple): 25,762
Idaho Bowl (OU-USU): 28,076
LCPB (PU-WMU): 46,177
Military (UT-AFA): 25,042
GoDaddy.com (NIU-Ark St): 38,734
MAC average: 32,791 and a record of 4-1. For you long-time MAC followers (like moi), this looks pretty good when you think back to the late 80's when we had one bowl (Vegas) that was lucky to draw 20K plus). Quite an upgrade. I know that the CUSA-ers love attendance smack (esp vs each other as evidenced how they savage Memphis, SMU and UAB in football), but to be honest I don't know how we fared overall vs. them, although the conferences did have identical 4-1 records in bowl games. They had some pretty good attendance marks like the TicketCity bowl, but they also had the Beef O Brady-s (lowest attended bowl game) and even though the Hawaii Bowl announced over 30K, there were probably only 12K on hand. So, pretty tough to gauge. I watched part or all of the MAC games, and I think that the attendance announced was pretty accurate judging on fans in the stands.
Doesn't include Orange, Cotton, BBVA Compass, or Go Daddy bowls either.
After my initial post, I was too curious to stop, so I did look up the attendance for our friends at C-USA......here are the results:
Beef O Bradys (FIU vs Marshall): 20,072
Hawaii (USM vs Nevada): 32,630
Armed Forces (Tulsa-BYU): 30,258
TicketCity (Houston-PSU): 46,817
Compass (SMU-Pitt): 29,726.
Average: 31,900.
So, the MAC ekes out an attendance average win by about 1,000 per game. That doesn't change the fact that C-USA outdraws the MAC in the regular season by a "country mile", but it does indicate how much better the MAC is doing in both competitiveness and in supporting their bowl games. It also helps to play in venues like Boise and Mobile where locals are very supportive, although at the GoDaddy Ark State had a huge presence, as did WMU of course at the LCPB.
(01-09-2012 04:29 PM)exCincy Kid Wrote: [ -> ]* MAC Bowls:
New Mexico (Wy-Temple): 25,762
Idaho Bowl (OU-USU): 28,076
LCPB (PU-WMU): 46,177
Military (UT-AFA): 25,042
GoDaddy.com (NIU-Ark St): 38,734
MAC average: 32,791 and a record of 4-1. For you long-time MAC followers (like moi), this looks pretty good when you think back to the late 80's when we had one bowl (Vegas)
Vegas didn't start until 1992.
I don't know what the California Bowl (in Fresno) averaged, but they had good fan support when I went.
You're right, Torch (such a stickler for detail :).
I was too lazy (as usual) to check my dates. And the Doc is right, the Cal Bowl was pretty well supported (I went to the Miami-San Jose game in '86 and it was a near sell out crowd even though Fresno was not in the game). The Vegas Bowl was a bust as locals didn't support, and neither the WAC (or did it start as Big West?) and the MAC sent that many folks, either..crowds of usually less than 20K. That bowl struggled for awhile even after it cut ties wtih the MAC, but has been doing better lately with pretty good match-ups.
(01-10-2012 11:29 AM)exCincy Kid Wrote: [ -> ]The Vegas Bowl was a bust as locals didn't support, and neither the WAC (or did it start as Big West?) and the MAC sent that many folks, either..crowds of usually less than 20K. That bowl struggled for awhile even after it cut ties wtih the MAC, but has been doing better lately with pretty good match-ups.
Even though it's harder drum up a lot of local support, I'm surprised the Las Vegas bowl struggles as much as it does attendance-wise, given the obviously large amount of entertainment and activity one can check out during the non-game days. Airfare is very reasonable from nearly every major city and there are nice, cheap hotel rooms aplenty on the strip that time of year.
(01-10-2012 11:29 AM)exCincy Kid Wrote: [ -> ]You're right, Torch (such a stickler for detail :).
Not trying to gig you eCK. You bring up a good comparison for the MAC's games:
Cal Bowl (folded)
Vegas Bowl (dropped MAC)
MCB (MAC team in MAC territory)
Cherry Bowl (no MAC team in MAC territory, folded)
MAC has done a good job supporting the MCB, which has been attended better than Cal or Vegas. That is something the MAC should recognize and champion. Nevertheless, the Cherry Bowl had far better reported attendance, and still folded.
Agreed. For as much media snark and snide 'jokes' made at the Motor/Pizza Bowl's expense every year, it consistently produces great attendance for a so-called minor or regional bowl. It may not be a tropical wonderland, but it's a fine football facility and draws a lot of people downtown to watch it.
(01-10-2012 12:06 PM)Motown Bronco Wrote: [ -> ] (01-10-2012 11:29 AM)exCincy Kid Wrote: [ -> ]The Vegas Bowl was a bust as locals didn't support, and neither the WAC (or did it start as Big West?) and the MAC sent that many folks, either..crowds of usually less than 20K. That bowl struggled for awhile even after it cut ties wtih the MAC, but has been doing better lately with pretty good match-ups.
Even though it's harder drum up a lot of local support, I'm surprised the Las Vegas bowl struggles as much as it does attendance-wise, given the obviously large amount of entertainment and activity one can check out during the non-game days. Airfare is very reasonable from nearly every major city and there are nice, cheap hotel rooms aplenty on the strip that time of year.
I have attended about half of the LV Bowls, so I feel well informed on this topic. Attendance from the two visiting teams has always been pretty good, however local support is minimal. BYU played in the game 5 years in a row and gave the game it's first 5 sellouts. Boise played in it the last two years and Boise/Utah was sold out last year but Boise/ASU fell about 5,000 short this year. Sam Boyd stadium has been expanded from about 25,000 to 38,000 or so since the MAC used to play in the game. The matchup now is MW #1 vs PAC12 #4/5 and if BYU or Utah are playing you have a host team with a 5 hour interstate drive and a big following. If you would get stuck with Colorado State or New Mexico vs Washington, then the crowd would be much smaller, but in recent years it has been Arizona. ASU, UCLA, USC, Oregon, CAl vs BYU, Utah, or Boise, so pretty good matchups attendancewise. BYU, Utah, and Boise are no longer in the MW, so I think attendance will be down in future years.
I tried to look up the attendances of the Las Vegas Bowl for reference...there was no one place (that I found) to get the info although from a couple of the MAC school's on line media guides I found a couple of data points. In the first MAC Las Vegas Bowl (92), BG defeated Nevada in front of 15,476 fans. I didn't find the attendance for the 93 and 4 games but in 95 UT defeated Nevada in front of 11,127 and in 96 BSU lost to Nevada in front of...drum roll..10,118. And that's with Nevada (Reno) in the game for gosh sakes. Compare that with today's MAC bowls and their attendance, esp our one regional bowl in Detroit which has averaged over 40K per year since its inception. My brother (BSU) grad went to the 2 BSU Vegas games and as I recall he said BSU took 3,500 or so fans to the events, which obviously had absolutely no local support.
Also, as already suggested the Cal Bowl in Fresno was well attended, even when Fresno wasn't in the game. In the last one in 92 in which BG beat FSU, there was a crowd of 34,877.