(06-18-2022 01:27 PM)DFW HOYA Wrote:  

(06-18-2022 01:03 PM)ken d Wrote:  The other two 2022 FCS callups, James Madison and Jacksonville State, have averaged about three times as much as Sam Houston State over the past four seasons. Despite an undergraduate enrollment of about 19K and a location about an hour from Houston, one of the most populous cities in America, the Bearkats have averaged fewer than 7K at its home football games. In a football crazy state like Texas, wouldn't one expect more? What am I missing from this story?

Look at the regular season opponents that played at Bowers Stadium in 2021. Who's traveling to watch these games?

SE Missouri State (4-7)
Lamar (1-9)
Dixie St. (1-10)
Incarnate Word (10-3 but a very small fan base)

Sam's rivalry game with SFA drew 25,000 in Houston as a neutral site game.

Games againsst Jacksonville State and Eastern Kentucky, two co-participants in the WAC/ASUN challenge were also regular season games held at Bowers in 2021. The Incarnate Word game was an FCS playoff game; not a regular season game.

The game against Lamar @ 9,836 (70+% of Bowers capacity) was Sam Houston's best attended game of the season at Bowers as well as the best attended game during the 4 year period mentioned in previous posts.

For 2021, Lamar was 1-1 against FCS competition coming into the game. Lamar had defeated Sam Houston 2 of the previous 3 games. Even so, I suspect an even larger driver of better than the rest of the season attendance was a good promotion. The game vs Lamar was part of Bearkat Family Weekend. Another possible attendance booster is that Beaumont is 2 hours drive time away from Huntsville. The homecoming game was against Jacksonville State. Attendance for that game at 7,559 was just a little above the season average of 7,283)