Good: average basketball attendance - Syracuse 27,460
Bad & Ugly: average football attendance - Duke 26,571

YIKES

(03-05-2012 12:36 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  Good: average basketball attendance - Syracuse 27,460
Bad & Ugly: average football attendance - Duke 26,571

I've seen more than that at the Spring Orange & White game.

Not to question your math but...I'm not buying the Duke number. 26,571 is 78% of capacity. To get that would mean selling out 3 or 4 of the 7 games. They did host FSU and VT this year so I can see 26k ticket sales. I just don't believe they had 186k in actual attendance. There was something like 5k there for the Richmond game!

(03-05-2012 02:39 PM)Wolfman Wrote:  Not to question your math but...I'm not buying the Duke number. 26,571 is 78% of capacity. To get that would mean selling out 3 or 4 of the 7 games. They did host FSU and VT this year so I can see 26k ticket sales. I just don't believe they had 186k in actual attendance. There was something like 5k there for the Richmond game!

That is the number reported through the NCAA. However, I think they leave it up to each school to count attendance however they wish (some use turnstiles, others just report tickets sold, etc.)

I was just amazed to find a combination of teams in a BCS league where one has more attendance in basketball than another has in football... that should NEVER happen.

(03-05-2012 03:00 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(03-05-2012 02:39 PM)Wolfman Wrote:  Not to question your math but...I'm not buying the Duke number. 26,571 is 78% of capacity. To get that would mean selling out 3 or 4 of the 7 games. They did host FSU and VT this year so I can see 26k ticket sales. I just don't believe they had 186k in actual attendance. There was something like 5k there for the Richmond game!

That is the number reported through the NCAA. However, I think they leave it up to each school to count attendance however they wish (some use turnstiles, others just report tickets sold, etc.)

I was just amazed to find a combination of teams in a BCS league where one has more attendance in basketball than another has in football... that should NEVER happen.

Agreed. I guess my point was that the SU number is probably close to actual attendance while the Duke number is nowhere close.

To be fair though, how many schools have a 33k seat basketball arena? If Duke could play BB in Wallace-Wade they would have SU numbers for attendance.

I'm curious what Kentucky's numbers look like.

(03-05-2012 04:29 PM)Wolfman Wrote:  

(03-05-2012 03:00 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(03-05-2012 02:39 PM)Wolfman Wrote:  Not to question your math but...I'm not buying the Duke number. 26,571 is 78% of capacity. To get that would mean selling out 3 or 4 of the 7 games. They did host FSU and VT this year so I can see 26k ticket sales. I just don't believe they had 186k in actual attendance. There was something like 5k there for the Richmond game!

That is the number reported through the NCAA. However, I think they leave it up to each school to count attendance however they wish (some use turnstiles, others just report tickets sold, etc.)

I was just amazed to find a combination of teams in a BCS league where one has more attendance in basketball than another has in football... that should NEVER happen.

To be fair though, how many schools have a 33k seat basketball arena? If Duke could play BB in Wallace-Wade they would have SU numbers for attendance.

I'm curious what Kentucky's numbers look like.

+1 percentage is probably a better number to compare.

(03-05-2012 04:29 PM)Wolfman Wrote:  If Duke could play BB in Wallace-Wade they would have SU numbers for attendance.

I'm curious what Kentucky's numbers look like.

1) with football attendance numbers that LOW, perhaps the real question is what if Duke played football in Cameron...?

2) Kentucky ended up a little higher than Syracuse (a few hundred, I think). I'm thinking both schools broke the old record for basketball, but I'm not sure.

These numbers show why it was a bad idea for the ACC to institute a rule where Duke couldn't sell their home games to other conference teams. They can't be making all that much money with attendance numbers like that, so it would be a financial boost for them, and it's not like they enjoy a homefield advantage....other than past Clemson teams have talked about how it was hard to get up for a game when you were playing in front of high school sized crowds.

(03-06-2012 01:22 AM)catdaddy_2402 Wrote:  These numbers show why it was a bad idea for the ACC to institute a rule where Duke couldn't sell their home games to other conference teams. They can't be making all that much money with attendance numbers like that, so it would be a financial boost for them, and it's not like they enjoy a homefield advantage....other than past Clemson teams have talked about how it was hard to get up for a game when you were playing in front of high school sized crowds.

I wonder why Duke does not put more effort into their football team. If they hired a decent coach they could probably turn it around somewhat.
I guess they figure it is not worth their while.

(03-07-2012 02:06 AM)tj_2009 Wrote:  I wonder why Duke does not put more effort into their football team. If they hired a decent coach they could probably turn it around somewhat.
I guess they figure it is not worth their while.

Duke actually has a good football coaching staff now. Their problem (IMO) has been that they are the 5th best FBS school in a state with 9.5 million people. 5th best in Texas (25.1 million) & Florida (18.8 million) still draw well, but not in NC. That's just no way to build a fan base... and their ceiling is probably 3rd or 4th most years - they just aren't going to top UNC and NC St over a long period of time, which would be needed to build that base.

The 27k average was only including Big East home games. With OOC games we averaged like 23k.

(03-05-2012 04:29 PM)Wolfman Wrote:  Agreed. I guess my point was that the SU number is probably close to actual attendance while the Duke number is nowhere close.

To be fair though, how many schools have a 33k seat basketball arena? If Duke could play BB in Wallace-Wade they would have SU numbers for attendance.

I'm curious what Kentucky's numbers look like.

If students don't show up, then I doubt it.

(03-07-2012 05:40 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(03-07-2012 02:06 AM)tj_2009 Wrote:  I wonder why Duke does not put more effort into their football team. If they hired a decent coach they could probably turn it around somewhat.
I guess they figure it is not worth their while.

Duke actually has a good football coaching staff now. Their problem (IMO) has been that they are the 5th best FBS school in a state with 9.5 million people. 5th best in Texas (25.1 million) & Florida (18.8 million) still draw well, but not in NC. That's just no way to build a fan base... and their ceiling is probably 3rd or 4th most years - they just aren't going to top UNC and NC St over a long period of time, which would be needed to build that base.

Duke simply doesn't care. If they did care they wouldn't be knocking hard at the door of a 20 year losing season streak.

Wake Forest has every disadvantage that Duke has and then some because of the small enrollment, thus smaller alumni base. However Wake has not only been able to field a competitive football team in the conference, they have done something the two large public schools they share the state with have been unable to do and that is not only compete but win a conference championship.

A lot of the fanbases of ACC schools, including a significant portion of Clemson's, looks down at Wake Forest but I not only respect what they have done under Grobe, I find myself pulling for them like I do FSU, VT, and GT becuse unlike the rest of the conference they actually care about football. This ain't your father's Wake Forest football program, and even if Grobe were to leave I don't see them taking a step back. No reason whatsoever that Duke couldn't replicate at least somewhat of the same level of success.

(03-05-2012 02:39 PM)Wolfman Wrote:  There was something like 5k there for the Richmond game!

If I had a multiple game losing streak against a FCS school, I wouldn't show my face in public either.