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Wofford Math is epidemic

PostPosted:Sun Sep 02, 2018 2:57 pm
by Paul C
https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-fo ... 1535634001

(If you can see the whole article you’ll see that the school with the biggest gap between announced attendance and tickets scanned is Coastal Carolina (scanned tix were 13% of announced attendance)

When Minnesota hosted Nebraska at TCF Bank Stadium last year, the game featured charismatic new Golden Gophers coach P.J. Fleck, a home team fighting for a bowl berth and a big-name opponent. The announced attendance was 39,933—an OK crowd for a crisp November day in Minneapolis—but it didn’t tell the whole story.

Only 25,493 ticketed fans were counted at the gates, 36% lower than the announced attendance and about half of the stadium’s capacity. More than 14,000 people who bought tickets or got them free didn’t show up.

College football has an attendance problem. Average announced attendance in football’s top division dropped for the fourth consecutive year last year, declining 7.6% in four years. But schools’ internal records show that the sport’s attendance woes go far beyond that.

The average count of tickets scanned at home games—the number of fans who actually show up—is about 71% of the attendance you see in a box score, according to data from the 2017 season collected by The Wall Street Journal. In the Mid-American Conference, with less-prominent programs like Central Michigan and Toledo, teams’ scanned attendance numbers were 45% of announced attendance.

Even teams in the nation’s five richest conferences routinely record thousands fewer people passing through stadium gates than they report publicly. The no-shows reflect the challenge of filling large venues when nearly every game is on TV, and they threaten a key revenue source for college athletic departments.
“Attendance drives recruiting, attendance drives donations, merchandise sales,” said Rob Sine, who until earlier this year was president of IMG Learfield Ticket Solutions, which works with dozens of colleges. If fans don’t use their tickets, he added, “they’re more likely to not come back.”
Most schools scan and keep count of tickets used at football games. The Journal requested access to those counts under public-records law, and most public schools supplied them. Private schools aren’t subject to public-records law.

When Arkansas hosted No. 21 Auburn, scanned attendance was more than 25,000 lower than announced attendance. Overall last season, Arkansas’s scanned home attendance was 58% of its announced attendance as the Razorbacks went 4-8. Nonetheless, Reynolds Razorback Stadium is reopening Saturday after a $160 million renovation that increased capacity by about 4,000. An Arkansas spokesman declined to comment.

Re: Wofford Math is epidemic

PostPosted:Mon Sep 03, 2018 12:42 am
by apaladin
Not surprising. When these MAC teams play during the week stands are really empty but the announced attendance makes you wonder. Even yesterday at Clempson, was there really almost 81,000 as announced?

Re: Wofford Math is epidemic

PostPosted:Mon Sep 03, 2018 12:49 am
by FUBeAR
apaladin wrote:
Mon Sep 03, 2018 12:42 am
Not surprising. When these MAC teams play during the week stands are really empty but the announced attendance makes you wonder. Even yesterday at Clempson, was there really almost 81,000 as announced?
I don't know about fans, but there were about 81,000 Cops doing everything they could to impede the flow of traffic leaving Clemson, where there had earlier been 8.1 Cops assisting with the inflow of traffic before the game.

What a cluster...

Re: Wofford Math is epidemic

PostPosted:Mon Sep 03, 2018 9:19 am
by AstroDin
FUBeAR wrote:
Mon Sep 03, 2018 12:49 am
apaladin wrote:
Mon Sep 03, 2018 12:42 am
Not surprising. When these MAC teams play during the week stands are really empty but the announced attendance makes you wonder. Even yesterday at Clempson, was there really almost 81,000 as announced?
I don't know about fans, but there were about 81,000 Cops doing everything they could to impede the flow of traffic leaving Clemson, where there had earlier been 8.1 Cops assisting with the inflow of traffic before the game.

What a cluster...
so true > I guess they have some reasons why they narrow your way out of Clemson but I don't get it. A friend of mine gave me a parking pass at Douhitt Hills it was at least a mile walk to the stadium but boy was it easy to get out of there.

Speaking of seats… I ordered late, as in the week of the game, so I drew — row KK — upper deck. As a point of pride, I just moved a few rows up to the top of the upper deck. It's been a long time since I sat that high up for a game.

The high upper deck was whipping people's tail — I watched two elderly female Furman fans struggle to get to their row, stopping multiple times to take a break. WHY would you buy season tickets and subject yourself to that every game — you can barely make out the players numbers with the naked eye?

Re: Wofford Math is epidemic

PostPosted:Mon Sep 03, 2018 10:19 am
by The Jackal
AstroDin wrote:
Mon Sep 03, 2018 9:19 am
FUBeAR wrote:
Mon Sep 03, 2018 12:49 am
apaladin wrote:
Mon Sep 03, 2018 12:42 am
Not surprising. When these MAC teams play during the week stands are really empty but the announced attendance makes you wonder. Even yesterday at Clempson, was there really almost 81,000 as announced?
I don't know about fans, but there were about 81,000 Cops doing everything they could to impede the flow of traffic leaving Clemson, where there had earlier been 8.1 Cops assisting with the inflow of traffic before the game.

What a cluster...
so true > I guess they have some reasons why they narrow your way out of Clemson but I don't get it. A friend of mine gave me a parking pass at Douhitt Hills it was at least a mile walk to the stadium but boy was it easy to get out of there.

Speaking of seats… I ordered late, as in the week of the game, so I drew — row KK — upper deck. As a point of pride, I just moved a few rows up to the top of the upper deck. It's been a long time since I sat that high up for a game.

The high upper deck was whipping people's tail — I watched two elderly female Furman fans struggle to get to their row, stopping multiple times to take a break. WHY would you buy season tickets and subject yourself to that every game — you can barely make out the players numbers with the naked eye?
I've been to a number of Auburn games up that high. It's (literally) for the birds.

Long ago I told myself that if I am going to subject myself to travel, crowds, and expense of seeing live sporting events, I am going to sit where I can see the game without the aid of a jumbotron.

Re: Wofford Math is epidemic

PostPosted:Mon Sep 03, 2018 11:08 am
by Jasper
All in all the experience at Clemson made the Furman game day atmosphere so much more civilized. Why so many people would pay so much money to subject themselves to all that unpleasantness for an entire season is beyond my comprehension. If you must go to support dear old ivy and don't have enough dough to sit in the AC of the suite section, the next best thing is to get into one of those elaborate tailgate set ups, turn on the fans and the TV, settle into a comfy chair and open a brew. As I stumbled back to my bus's location after climbing and descending several 1000 stairs and crossing an arid desert, I passed a guy doing exactly that. I stopped and told him that he was the smartest guy in the place. He replied " I'm drunk". I said " Yeah, that too".