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Really impressed with the turnout, not just yesterday but all year really. There are more students going to these games in many cases than when I was in school despite enrollment dropping by like 10k. Obviously getting CMU on a Saturday helps, but even last time we played on Saturday it wasn’t anything like this. Hopefully a good trend going forward

CMU needs to be on Saturday every GD time. Everything about the atmosphere from the lots all the way through the game yesterday was amazing.


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Couldn’t agree more.

Yesterday’s game was an absolute electric environment.

I wonder where we stack up against the rest of the mac in attendance this year?

Gotta be near the top, all home games have had really good crowds this year. Shoutout to Dan B getting this done and also for getting us 6 home games this year as well.

(11-02-2025 10:25 PM)Broncodan Wrote:  Couldn’t agree more.

Yesterday’s game was an absolute electric environment.

I wonder where we stack up against the rest of the mac in attendance this year?

Gotta be near the top, all home games have had really good crowds this year. Shoutout to Dan B getting this done and also for getting us 6 home games this year as well.

I was wonder the same things, so I took a moment to run the numbers:

1. OU.........22,843 with 4 home games so far.
2. CMU.......22,627 with only 3 home games so far
3. UT..........22,484 with 4 home games so far
4. WMU......22,063 with 5 home games so far
5. BGSU.....20,293 with 5 home games so far
6. EMU.......16,336 with 4 home games so far
7. UB.........14,063 with 5 home games so far
8. NIU........12,008 with 4 home games so far
9. MU.........11,997 with 4 home games so far
10. BSU......10,396 with only 3 home games so far (BSU only has home games scheduled for the year)
11. Kent......10,316 with 4 home games so far
12. UMASS...10,133 with 4 home games so far
13. Akron.....8,236 with 4 home games so far (this figure is from the average of 3 games as their game against Duquesne has no announced attendance figures)

Half of the MAC is looking pretty good for attendance this year!
I would think that as the rest of the conference gets to their 5th home game, WMU should move up to the #1 spot or the #2 spot at worst.

A few observations regarding attendance from my perspective for what it is worth:

• The atmosphere was electric for sure, and I think everyone here agrees these games need to be played on Saturday afternoons. There is just no substitute. I felt like I was back in the early 00’s again when crowds like that were a weekly thing.

• Not sure that I believe the 29,000 figure. Yes, it was the biggest crowd in years, but the end zones were far from full and there were still a lot of open spaces on the Oakland Drive side. We sat in section D the whole row in front of us had no one in it and although there were people directly behind us the whole middle that row was empty. The yellow seat back chairs across the aisle from where we were sitting were less than half full. The student section appeared to be close to full, for the first half at least. I would guess actual attendance was more like 25,000, but still a great crowd.


• More students stuck around until the end for this game than usual. A bunch still left at half time and more at the end of the 3rd quarter, which I will never understand, but it appeared that about half of them stayed till the end. Quite a few people on the Oakland drive side left during the 4th quarter as well, which I thought was odd considering what a close game it was. We had an aisle seat and there was a steady stream of people heading to the exits well before the game was over.

• We tailgated in lot 88 beginning around noon and along with WMU folks, there were quite a few CMU people too. Everybody got along and had a good time. All in all, it was a great day.

(11-03-2025 10:00 AM)sdsly Wrote:  A few observations regarding attendance from my perspective for what it is worth:

• The atmosphere was electric for sure, and I think everyone here agrees these games need to be played on Saturday afternoons. There is just no substitute. I felt like I was back in the early 00’s again when crowds like that were a weekly thing.

• Not sure that I believe the 29,000 figure. Yes, it was the biggest crowd in years, but the end zones were far from full and there were still a lot of open spaces on the Oakland Drive side. We sat in section D the whole row in front of us had no one in it and although there were people directly behind us the whole middle that row was empty. The yellow seat back chairs across the aisle from where we were sitting were less than half full. The student section appeared to be close to full, for the first half at least. I would guess actual attendance was more like 25,000, but still a great crowd.


• More students stuck around until the end for this game than usual. A bunch still left at half time and more at the end of the 3rd quarter, which I will never understand, but it appeared that about half of them stayed till the end. Quite a few people on the Oakland drive side left during the 4th quarter as well, which I thought was odd considering what a close game it was. We had an aisle seat and there was a steady stream of people heading to the exits well before the game was over.

• We tailgated in lot 88 beginning around noon and along with WMU folks, there were quite a few CMU people too. Everybody got along and had a good time. All in all, it was a great day.

Probably tickets sold. However, you have to keep in mind that not everyone their was in their seats. There were quite a few people that chose to sit on the hills instead of the freezing metal seats. Further, every time I took a piss break, the concourses where shoulder to shoulder with people either warming up or waiting in long lines for concessions.

End MACtion! With literally every game broadcast in one form or another, playing mid-week games as ESPN's circus monkey doesn't make sense. The MAC chased the money and has fallen further behind. Try something unique, and make it about the overall gameday experience.

(11-03-2025 10:11 AM)westernwilly Wrote:  

(11-03-2025 10:00 AM)sdsly Wrote:  A few observations regarding attendance from my perspective for what it is worth:

• The atmosphere was electric for sure, and I think everyone here agrees these games need to be played on Saturday afternoons. There is just no substitute. I felt like I was back in the early 00’s again when crowds like that were a weekly thing.

• Not sure that I believe the 29,000 figure. Yes, it was the biggest crowd in years, but the end zones were far from full and there were still a lot of open spaces on the Oakland Drive side. We sat in section D the whole row in front of us had no one in it and although there were people directly behind us the whole middle that row was empty. The yellow seat back chairs across the aisle from where we were sitting were less than half full. The student section appeared to be close to full, for the first half at least. I would guess actual attendance was more like 25,000, but still a great crowd.


• More students stuck around until the end for this game than usual. A bunch still left at half time and more at the end of the 3rd quarter, which I will never understand, but it appeared that about half of them stayed till the end. Quite a few people on the Oakland drive side left during the 4th quarter as well, which I thought was odd considering what a close game it was. We had an aisle seat and there was a steady stream of people heading to the exits well before the game was over.

• We tailgated in lot 88 beginning around noon and along with WMU folks, there were quite a few CMU people too. Everybody got along and had a good time. All in all, it was a great day.

Probably tickets sold. However, you have to keep in mind that not everyone their was in their seats. There were quite a few people that chose to sit on the hills instead of the freezing metal seats. Further, every time I took a piss break, the concourses where shoulder to shoulder with people either warming up or waiting in long lines for concessions.

Good points. Yes, bathroom and concession lines were long all day, although they moved pretty fast.

(11-03-2025 10:37 AM)Wheres_Waldo? Wrote:  End MACtion! With literally every game broadcast in one form or another, playing mid-week games as ESPN's circus monkey doesn't make sense. The MAC chased the money and has fallen further behind. Try something unique, and make it about the overall gameday experience.

Could not agree with this more.

To be fair it made sense in the late 90’s-2000’s. Not anymore, for the exact reasons you stated.

Yep, admittedly I have some thought of "cool, some MAC tonight after work" in my head, but with CUSA doing the Tuesday-Wednesday thing in October, it certainly doesn't feel so "special" anymore. There are some pros and cons. I get MACtion has become a solid household word, but indeed there's a kiddie-table element and I feel like it throws off the players' rhythm to an extent (I remember our 2016 team fell behind 14-0 to Kent State on our first Tuesday game).

Anyhow, I guess they are going to rotate the MAC rivalry games in/out of MACtion. So WMU-CMU won't always be on Saturdays.

Makes no sense. The rivalries have a big hyper-local interest as we saw at Waldo Saturday. But the casual watchers and degenerate gamblers in California don't follow MAC rivalries nor care if WMU is playing CMU or Akron. So why ESPN insists on having those on Tuesday TV nights baffles me, we aren't UM-OSU.

There is one big case against weekday Maction: global warming. It has been impacting midwest falls in a huge way. Back in the 80's, we experienced some very cold high school/college football games in October. Now, it's not uncommon to go to October games in shorts and t-shirts. This Saturday is forecasted to be over 60 in Kalamazoo. Obviously, it's a crap shoot getting snow today, but my bet going forward is mild November falls.

(11-09-2025 09:35 PM)BroncoMD Wrote:  There is one big case against weekday Maction: global warming. It has been impacting midwest falls in a huge way. Back in the 80's, we experienced some very cold high school/college football games in October. Now, it's not uncommon to go to October games in shorts and t-shirts. This Saturday is forecasted to be over 60 in Kalamazoo. Obviously, it's a crap shoot getting snow today, but my bet going forward is mild November falls.

The high for Tuesday night MACtion is 33, so probably lower for at the 8PM kickoff. I am still planning to go, but wish it was going to be warmer.

Global warming? Fall weather in Michigan has been all over the place for all of my life. MACtion might have made sense in the pre-streaming days. Now, I believe it devalues your program when the "exposure" provided shows a 90% empty stadium. I love that 5 teams are averageing over 20,000 attendance.

Like it or not, the midweek games get far more total viewership than any other MAC games, borne out in the ratings. One mistake the conference made was signing the ESPN deal for so many years. MACtion being an established brand with a fairly strong cult following now, the conference needs to be able to cash in on the brand at a significantly higher $ number. Otherwise I’d agree it isn’t worth it anymore.

Would like to see rivalries as protected Saturday games and (in a perfect world) 1 midweek home game per team, but that might be too much to try to negotiate.