Excluding FCS playoff games (for which 95% of teams these attendances are less than the regular season), we averaged about 20K since Monken took over in 2010. I think our highest total in that span was somewhere north of 22K, maybe 21.5K.

During that time, the actual seats in the stadium were less than 15K, so we had about 4-6K on the hills. I knew more people than didn't go to the games because it was so cramped and they didn't like hills more than I knew that actually liked the hills. With the new seats, our official capacity is somewhere between 24K-25K, and I expect attendance to increase by about 30%, like many others who have moved up.

That 15K figure was for last year. Transition year, limited tickets being sold and limited seating, nothing to play for, etc. We will exceed that 20K easily this year, barring extremely embarrassing outings early in the year.

App will be averaging 30K + and I hope we can average 24K+ this year.

(07-17-2014 03:23 PM)The Black Flag Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:20 PM)Hemi Man Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:09 PM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:04 PM)Hemi Man Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 02:37 PM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  If my calcs are correct, looking at just the 8 schools with football teams in the SunBelt as of the 2013 season, the average was 19,342 fans per game for a total of 45 home games.

We're losing WKU which averaged 18,334 and gaining App State (24,894) and GaSouthern (14,828) which results in a net gain by a bit.

BTW, why does GaSouthern's attendance suck donkey balls?

Still better than FAU or FIU.



I think I'll have a beer.

FAU - 14,552
FIU - 15,453

Yeah, but they've got market.

Yep they've got it. Having been to those schools 2 or 3 times I can assure you the actual number was around 7000


I think I'll have a beer.

Just like GaState claiming 10-15 when its closer to 3-5k. Southern's 15k was closer to accurate, and like other said, we should be back to or above our ~20k average now that everything is finished.

And you are making me thirsty. When I get home, I'll have a Bourbon.

Then why couldn't y'all break 9k for the last playoff game y'all hosted?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Georgi...tball_team

Or more than 14k for the previous 2 playoff games before that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Georgi...tball_team

(07-17-2014 03:51 PM)StanMolsonMan Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:23 PM)The Black Flag Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:20 PM)Hemi Man Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:09 PM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:04 PM)Hemi Man Wrote:  Still better than FAU or FIU.



I think I'll have a beer.

FAU - 14,552
FIU - 15,453

Yeah, but they've got market.

Yep they've got it. Having been to those schools 2 or 3 times I can assure you the actual number was around 7000


I think I'll have a beer.

Just like GaState claiming 10-15 when its closer to 3-5k. Southern's 15k was closer to accurate, and like other said, we should be back to or above our ~20k average now that everything is finished.

And you are making me thirsty. When I get home, I'll have a Bourbon.

Then why couldn't y'all break 9k for the last playoff game y'all hosted?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Georgi...tball_team

Or more than 14k for the previous 2 playoff games before that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Georgi...tball_team

playoff games for almost every school are typically lower. Not to mention 1 of those playoff games each yr is thanksgiving weekend.

and please don't tell me a State fan is trying to rag on Southern about attendance.

(07-17-2014 03:51 PM)StanMolsonMan Wrote:  Then why couldn't y'all break 9k for the last playoff game y'all hosted?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Georgi...tball_team

Or more than 14k for the previous 2 playoff games before that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Georgi...tball_team

I remember stAte playing Grambling (and Eddie Robinson) in a playoff round in Jonesboro. Our attendance was about that as well. It was pathetic for such a legendary figure, and the playoffs.

(07-17-2014 03:56 PM)NCeagle Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:51 PM)StanMolsonMan Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:23 PM)The Black Flag Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:20 PM)Hemi Man Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:09 PM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  FAU - 14,552
FIU - 15,453

Yeah, but they've got market.

Yep they've got it. Having been to those schools 2 or 3 times I can assure you the actual number was around 7000


I think I'll have a beer.

Just like GaState claiming 10-15 when its closer to 3-5k. Southern's 15k was closer to accurate, and like other said, we should be back to or above our ~20k average now that everything is finished.

And you are making me thirsty. When I get home, I'll have a Bourbon.

Then why couldn't y'all break 9k for the last playoff game y'all hosted?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Georgi...tball_team

Or more than 14k for the previous 2 playoff games before that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Georgi...tball_team

playoff games for almost every school are typically lower. Not to mention 1 of those playoff games each yr is thanksgiving weekend.

and please don't tell me a State fan is trying to rag on Southern about attendance.

Yes. Just because I am a State fan doesn't mean I am without a point. Because we hear about how great your traditions are, and how much better your fans are... but yet, your playoff attendances are worse than some other teams. Can't even draw 14k for a playoff game? The games in the links attached were not Thanksgiving weekend. They were after. So when it is said... the attendance issues were due to construction... Thanksgiving... or whatever, I am just saying there seems to be a glitch here.

For us, last year was definitely a perfect storm for poor attendance. I would be shocked if we didn't average over 20,000 this year and each year going forward (hopefully much more as we progress). I'm actually glad we play Savannah State in our home opener because we will have a great crowd coming to support the move-up which should help with the uninteresting, pathetic team that is SSU.

(07-17-2014 03:40 PM)Hemi Man Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:23 PM)The Black Flag Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:20 PM)Hemi Man Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:09 PM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:04 PM)Hemi Man Wrote:  Still better than FAU or FIU.



I think I'll have a beer.

FAU - 14,552
FIU - 15,453

Yeah, but they've got market.

Yep they've got it. Having been to those schools 2 or 3 times I can assure you the actual number was around 7000


I think I'll have a beer.

Just like GaState claiming 10-15 when its closer to 3-5k. Southern's 15k was closer to accurate, and like other said, we should be back to or above our ~20k average now that everything is finished.

And you are making me thirsty. When I get home, I'll have a Bourbon.

Knob Creek, Jeffersons, or Woodford Reserve should cure your thirst.




I think I'll have a beer.

Got a big bottle of Knob Creek 9 year waiting for me at home.


Now go have that beer.

construction was last year. We weren't playoff eligible.

That, and even though playoff attendance is typically lower, attendance is probably under reported since we pay the NCAA on our attendance. And supposedly, each student counts at 1/5 since they received a discounted price. So it is one of the two

You want to rag on the 9k attendance game, but yet the next weekend we get over 20k.

The December 10 game the following year would be the weekend after school lets out, so that won't help attendance.

Do you really want to start getting into Ga State's attendance with their huge media market?

Great, so you found 3 games with sub par attendance ratings. Those 3 games still probably have a higher average than GState had last year.

And yes, our fan base is still better, and more passionate than State's. But then again, if our program was as garbage as yours, our fans probably wouldn't show up and support it either.

(07-17-2014 04:09 PM)NCeagle Wrote:  construction was last year. We weren't playoff eligible.

That, and even though playoff attendance is typically lower, attendance is typically under reported since we pay the NCAA on our attendance.

You want to rag on the 9k attendance game, but yet the next weekend we get over 20k.

The December 10 game the following year would be the weekend after school lets out, so that won't help attendance.

Do you really want to start getting into Ga State's attendance with their huge media market?

Great, so you found 3 games with sub par attendance ratings. Those 3 games still probably have a higher average than GState had last year.

And yes, our fan base is still better, and more passionate than State's. But then again, if our program was as garbage as yours, our fans probably wouldn't show up and support it either.

The next weekend... Old Dominion got over 20k. The game was in Norfolk.

I am not ragging. All I am saying, 20k may not be as automatic as y'all make everything out to be.

I didn't say our fans were better.

Just fyi, I am a season ticket holder since year one, and I buy 2 additional tickets to be donated to local charities. I will continue to show up to support this "garbage" program, because I am proud that I went to Georgia State. It would be interesting to see what your attendance would be if you won 1 game over the next two years. I have a strange feeling it would only be the gnats.

(07-17-2014 04:02 PM)StanMolsonMan Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:56 PM)NCeagle Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:51 PM)StanMolsonMan Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:23 PM)The Black Flag Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:20 PM)Hemi Man Wrote:  Yep they've got it. Having been to those schools 2 or 3 times I can assure you the actual number was around 7000


I think I'll have a beer.

Just like GaState claiming 10-15 when its closer to 3-5k. Southern's 15k was closer to accurate, and like other said, we should be back to or above our ~20k average now that everything is finished.

And you are making me thirsty. When I get home, I'll have a Bourbon.

Then why couldn't y'all break 9k for the last playoff game y'all hosted?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Georgi...tball_team

Or more than 14k for the previous 2 playoff games before that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Georgi...tball_team

playoff games for almost every school are typically lower. Not to mention 1 of those playoff games each yr is thanksgiving weekend.

and please don't tell me a State fan is trying to rag on Southern about attendance.

Yes. Just because I am a State fan doesn't mean I am without a point. Because we hear about how great your traditions are, and how much better your fans are... but yet, your playoff attendances are worse than some other teams. Can't even draw 14k for a playoff game? The games in the links attached were not Thanksgiving weekend. They were after. So when it is said... the attendance issues were due to construction... Thanksgiving... or whatever, I am just saying there seems to be a glitch here.

You are a small, petty man with attendance envy. You remind me of citdog, a Citadel fan.

(07-17-2014 04:28 PM)sarkelcpa Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 04:02 PM)StanMolsonMan Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:56 PM)NCeagle Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:51 PM)StanMolsonMan Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 03:23 PM)The Black Flag Wrote:  Just like GaState claiming 10-15 when its closer to 3-5k. Southern's 15k was closer to accurate, and like other said, we should be back to or above our ~20k average now that everything is finished.

And you are making me thirsty. When I get home, I'll have a Bourbon.

Then why couldn't y'all break 9k for the last playoff game y'all hosted?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Georgi...tball_team

Or more than 14k for the previous 2 playoff games before that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Georgi...tball_team

playoff games for almost every school are typically lower. Not to mention 1 of those playoff games each yr is thanksgiving weekend.

and please don't tell me a State fan is trying to rag on Southern about attendance.

Yes. Just because I am a State fan doesn't mean I am without a point. Because we hear about how great your traditions are, and how much better your fans are... but yet, your playoff attendances are worse than some other teams. Can't even draw 14k for a playoff game? The games in the links attached were not Thanksgiving weekend. They were after. So when it is said... the attendance issues were due to construction... Thanksgiving... or whatever, I am just saying there seems to be a glitch here.

You are a small, petty man with attendance envy. You remind me of citdog, a Citadel fan.

I'm trying to wrap my brain around why playoff attendance would be less than regular. Can someone splain me that or am I just having another brain fart? I have them often.

Also, for those teams that were formerly in FCS, I'd think that having some new conference members who are FBS coming to town would at least get a few more fans in the stands just for the "newness" factor.

(07-17-2014 04:49 PM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  I'm trying to wrap my brain around why playoff attendance would be less than regular. Can someone splain me that or am I just having another brain fart? I have them often.

Also, for those teams that were formerly in FCS, I'd think that having some new conference members who are FBS coming to town would at least get a few more fans in the stands just for the "newness" factor.

the newness factor will definitely help our attendance. as far as playoffs, a couple things typically affect it.

1 round is typically thanksgiving weekend, the next round is typically after the semester has ended, so a lot of kids go home. Students have to pay for tickets to playoff games. And as for us, 1st round games are usually low because honestly, we expect to win that game, so they usually save up for the 2nd or 3rd if we happen to be hosting. I know the Central Arkansas game nobody was excited about because we didn't expect it to be close, so there just wasn't much excitement around that.

Add that to the fact that probably nobody knew who Central Arkansas was. Had it been App State, I'm sure it would have been well over 22k.

Hell, at an away game at Wofford in the playoffs, there was probably at least 10k Southern fans. And that was an away game.

(07-17-2014 04:49 PM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  I'm trying to wrap my brain around why playoff attendance would be less than regular. Can someone splain me that or am I just having another brain fart? I have them often.

Also, for those teams that were formerly in FCS, I'd think that having some new conference members who are FBS coming to town would at least get a few more fans in the stands just for the "newness" factor.

The first game of the playoffs was always low because it's during Thanksgiving break. A second reason it's low is because students no longer get in free. NCAA forced ticket sales to all attending. At Texas St student tickets were $5. While it's cheap, it also makes it impossible it inflate attendence because now its ticekts sold.

During our run in 2005 the first game against Georiga Southern had around 10k which was well below the season average. The nest two games against Cal Poly And UNI sold out. The UNI game sold out in less than a day.

(07-17-2014 04:49 PM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  I'm trying to wrap my brain around why playoff attendance would be less than regular. Can someone splain me that or am I just having another brain fart? I have them often.

Also, for those teams that were formerly in FCS, I'd think that having some new conference members who are FBS coming to town would at least get a few more fans in the stands just for the "newness" factor.

Hard to go to a game on short notice I imagine. These guys get what a week to sell tickets, and those early rounds are against teams few follow, on or near Holiday weekends.

I'll be curious to see how Georgia Southern sells for the ULM game this year. Its Thanksgiving week, but they've had all season to sell tickets rather than just a week like they get in FCS.

Another reason for low playoff attendance is that the regular season schedule is released months in advance, allowing people to make plans for travel, hotels, etc. For the playoffs you get one week notice to make weekend plans around the holidays. That's pretty difficult for lots of families. We don't have a ton of local alum, so with the atl alum likely out for a short notice gsme, and students home for the holidays, we are left with 10k for attendance instead of 20k.

I am not a big Charlie Cobb (App AD) fan, but gotta give him credit for having the department step up and pay for any student who wanted to attend home playoff games. Before our run of NC's the 1st and 2nd round attendance was pitiful.

(07-17-2014 12:40 PM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  Home attendance totals by conference for the FBS.

These are the numbers using Conference 2014 make up plus Navy in AAC

1. SEC 100 home games, 7,567,406 total attendance, AVG=75,674
2. BigTen 101 home games, 6,742,318, AVG= 66,756
3. BigTwelve 66 home games, 3,887,362, AVG=58,899
4. PAC 80 home games, 4,289,553,AVG= 53,619
5. ACC 97 home games, 4,929,715, AVG= 50,821
6. American 74 home games, 2,174,731, AVG= 29,388
7. MWC 75 home games, 1,955,955, AVG= 26,080
8. CUSA 72 home games, 1,456,162, AVG= 20,224
9. SBC 64 home games, 1,196,425, AVG= 18,694
10. MAC 74 home games, 1,238,425, AVG= 16,739

I have always thought Britton Banowsky was making a big mistake going after markets where schools are an afterthought rather than successful and well supported programs. I did some research on market size of SunBelt & CUSA schools in relationship to football attendance and the results are pretty eye opening. The population numbers are from 2012, but the concept is the same. I copied this out of a Excel spread sheet so I hope it looks right. As you can see, size of market has little to no bearing on football attendance. Two of the bottom three SunBelt markets have two of the top three attendance figures. CUSA sure has some mighty big markets to average only 1500 more per game than the SunBelt.

SunBelt
School Metro Area Population Ave FB Att
Ga State Atlanta 5,522,300 15,577
ULL Lafayette 479,200 25,976
S Ala Mobile 414,400 15,926
Ga So Savannah 336,000 14,828
Texas St Tri County Area 327,000 18,062
NMSU Las Cruces 213,500 16,050
ULM Monroe 178,500 17,035
Ark St Craighead Co 96,500 24,913
App State Watauga Co 55,000 24,895
Idaho Latah Co 33,000 14,744

CUSA
School Metro Area Population Ave FB Att
N Texas Dallas/Ft Worth 6,810,900 21,013
Rice Houston 6,313,158 18,785
FAU Miami 5,828,200 14,552
FIU Miami 5,828,200 15,453
UNCC Charlotte 2,335,400 15,541
UTSA San Antonio 2,277,600 29,214
MTSU Nashville 1,757,900 18,715
ODU Va Beach/Norfolk 1,707,400 20,118
UAB Birmingham 1,140,300 10,550
UTEP El Passo 831,000 28,375
Marshall Huntington 364,100 25,023
WKU Bowling Green 163,500 18,334
So Miss Hattiesburg 147,900 22,752
La Tech Lincoln Parrish 22,000 18,650

Size of market is not supposed to drive attendance. It's to drive TV numbers.

(07-17-2014 09:03 PM)panama Wrote:  Size of market is not supposed to drive attendance. It's to drive TV numbers.

Understood. But one would think that there should be some correlation between lousy attendance (poor fan support) at the stadium and piss-poor viewer numbers for television.

I think C-USA's strategery will eventually bit them in the UNT.