Attendance

[App91]

We are leading the conference by over 3K per game. I would say that is pretty good.

Who cares what the others are doing, that's like being the tallest 'little person'. We need to get back to where we were and grow from that so this program can grow.

Budd I hate to break it to you 27,400 would be the highest attendance for a full season since 2010.

You can see the negative all you want but we have had better attendance than Marshall this year too. In the ballpark with Southern Miss. We just beat the hell out of GSU. Enjoy it.

Running a business you have to look forward. Whats the negative, it is just a fact ticket sales to football games fund the athletic dept. Yes we are doing well this year due to Miami, hopefully Wake helps next year. DG mentioned same in pregame interview, we have to put people in the seats to grow, who cares what others are doing, we have to be better than those.

Yes, i am enjoying the win over the gumroots.

That's fair then. I was just off base from where you were coming from. The midweek games for the bigger gates has to stop.

DG mentioned that, seemed resigned to the fact we will have at least one. IN his pregame interview, Benson basically said we had to take one for the team. Interestingly DG noted he was on the TV committee for the new contact, wonder if those mid week will change?
I actually do not mind mid week, IF they are away games

DG did say his model was maybe 1 noon game, 1 night game (sat. night) and the rest at 3;30 but espn makes the call.

[AAPP1]

Ever think it could it be the quality of opponents? I mean Georgia Southern and Western usually packed in the house in the SoCon days, but in reality outside of that, who in this conference do people circle on their calendar as must-see games? Idaho, New Mexico State, Texas State? These wouldn't have the same draws as say regular games against say a Marshall or an ECU might have since school like that (along with GASO) have a history with us.

Maybe it's because we're still new to the Sun Belt, although I could see Arkansas State and maybe Troy games becoming potential head-turners, but we really aren't having any UNC/NC State, Clemson/USC, UT/VT, Alabama/Auburn type games that rile up the fanbase to get out and scream like those aforementioned match ups.

I 1000% agree with this. "Back in the day" you knew people that went to other schools in the conference, there was a sense of pride to talk smack to them and show your friends what an App game experience was like. With the conference we are in we have lost that sense of rivalry outside of GA southern. We sound like old farts when we say "well back in my day", why cant we just enjoy the product that is being put on the field and let the people hired to put butts in the seat do their job. Rivalries take time to build and we haven't really had time to do that with the early success we have had. Great win. Go App!!

[HighlandsApp]

Ever think it could it be the quality of opponents? I mean Georgia Southern and Western usually packed in the house in the SoCon days, but in reality outside of that, who in this conference do people circle on their calendar as must-see games? Idaho, New Mexico State, Texas State? These wouldn't have the same draws as say regular games against say a Marshall or an ECU might have since school like that (along with GASO) have a history with us.

Maybe it's because we're still new to the Sun Belt, although I could see Arkansas State and maybe Troy games becoming potential head-turners, but we really aren't having any UNC/NC State, Clemson/USC, UT/VT, Alabama/Auburn type games that rile up the fanbase to get out and scream like those aforementioned match ups.

I 1000% agree with this. "Back in the day" you knew people that went to other schools in the conference, there was a sense of pride to talk smack to them and show your friends what an App game experience was like. With the conference we are in we have lost that sense of rivalry outside of GA southern. We sound like old farts when we say "well back in my day", why cant we just enjoy the product that is being put on the field and let the people hired to put butts in the seat do their job. Rivalries take time to build and we haven't really had time to do that with the early success we have had. Great win. Go App!!

An annual series with Charlotte or Wake Forest would do it. Charlotte is best bet if they can become competitive.

[TheMoody1]

An annual series with Charlotte

God, I hope not.

[App91]

Ever think it could it be the quality of opponents? I mean Georgia Southern and Western usually packed in the house in the SoCon days, but in reality outside of that, who in this conference do people circle on their calendar as must-see games? Idaho, New Mexico State, Texas State? These wouldn't have the same draws as say regular games against say a Marshall or an ECU might have since school like that (along with GASO) have a history with us.

Maybe it's because we're still new to the Sun Belt, although I could see Arkansas State and maybe Troy games becoming potential head-turners, but we really aren't having any UNC/NC State, Clemson/USC, UT/VT, Alabama/Auburn type games that rile up the fanbase to get out and scream like those aforementioned match ups.

I 1000% agree with this. "Back in the day" you knew people that went to other schools in the conference, there was a sense of pride to talk smack to them and show your friends what an App game experience was like. With the conference we are in we have lost that sense of rivalry outside of GA southern. We sound like old farts when we say "well back in my day", why cant we just enjoy the product that is being put on the field and let the people hired to put butts in the seat do their job. Rivalries take time to build and we haven't really had time to do that with the early success we have had. Great win. Go App!!

I dont think this is a discussion of the "we". We are engaged, our butts in the seats and we support the product. the discussion is the fact that attendance is on a decline and the atmosphere of the stadium is also in decline. the two go hand in hand. I know someone will throw average attendance #'s up and point out this year is better. Remember last year we had two thursday night games and others were bad weather. This year was an outlier with miami. Will say it again, we depend on the gate for athletic funds. To keep this business afloat, we must grow this business. Attendance is the #1 revenue driver.
Also, its a message board, a place where people discuss things. We can enjoy the product at the same time discuss things like butts in seats.

[ASUGoose]

An annual series with Charlotte

God, I hope not.

Agree. Rather work towards annual series with ECU

[AppDawg]

An annual series with Charlotte

God, I hope not.

Agree. Rather work towards annual series with ECU

X100,000,000,000,000

[moonshine]

Considering the nationwide trend, I'd say App is doing ok. The issue of attendance is impacting a large majority of programs, even the Privileged 5. Look at last night's Cal v USC match up in one of the most historic stadiums in the country. Now it's no UCLA or Notre Dame type rivalry but these 2 teams have been playing each other for over a century. Announced attendance was 61,725 in a venue that seats 93,607. That comes out to be just under 66% of capacity in a town with over 4mil people and a metro of over 13mil.

This is not to say that App doesn't have room to improve, we obviously do. I'm all for cramming 34k into KBS on Saturdays during the fall. In order to keep building off this momentum, the program must continue winning. The AD must continue bringing in intriguing OOC match ups and trying to increase the donor base.

[HighlandsApp]

I would rather have a regular home and home with ECU too..... but I doubt that they are going to give up their annual home and home with VT or their biannual series with NC or NCState for us.... We will get a series with them, but I don't think that it will be come a thing...

[HighlandsApp]

An annual series with Charlotte

God, I hope not.

It will fill seats....

[TheMoody1]

An annual series with Charlotte

God, I hope not.

It will fill seats....

At UNCC maybe, but I don't see the big draw in Boone.

[hotrod2001]

We are leading the conference by over 3K per game. I would say that is pretty good.

Who cares what the others are doing, that's like being the tallest 'little person'. We need to get back to where we were and grow from that so this program can grow.

Budd I hate to break it to you 27,400 would be the highest attendance for a full season since 2010.

You can see the negative all you want but we have had better attendance than Marshall this year too. In the ballpark with Southern Miss. We just beat the hell out of GSU. Enjoy it.

Running a business you have to look forward. Whats the negative, it is just a fact ticket sales to football games fund the athletic dept. Yes we are doing well this year due to Miami, hopefully Wake helps next year. DG mentioned same in pregame interview, we have to put people in the seats to grow, who cares what others are doing, we have to be better than those.

Yes, i am enjoying the win over the gumroots.

That's fair then. I was just off base from where you were coming from. The midweek games for the bigger gates has to stop.

I agree, GASO and Arkansas State games would probably pack in KBS on a weekend. Like I said in another post, maybe part of the attendance problem is the quality of the opponents, nobody has the Texas State or ULM games circled on their calendars as Must See TV like they do the Georgia Southern Games, and the upcoming Wake Forest games. I know we're in a conference where there isn't any really big named schools, but if we tried hard to got more OOC schools like Marshall, ECU, Air Force and the like to come to KBS and I would think the numbers would increase.

(I included Air Force because they have a pretty good fanbase since they're a military school. When they played Georgia State a couple of seasons ago they "packed in" the Georgia Dome.

[AppAlum1]

An annual series with Charlotte

God, I hope not.

It will fill seats....

With what?

[bcoach]

An annual series with Charlotte

God, I hope not.

It will fill seats....

With what?

Asses

[bigdaddyg]

Would love to see the average attendance numbers for all of the G5 schools this year. I'm willing to bet we are right up there on the list

[bigdaddyg]

Look at 2015 attendance numbers. If we get to an average of about 33k which would equate to Miami type numbers each game we would be in the Houston and Boise St attendance neighborhood. To me that's about what we should shoot for. Even if we could expand to 40k I don't think we can reach that figure. Boise and UH were pretty good last year and they only hit that 33k plateau. Without the weekly and bad weather games we probably would have settled in around the 75th ranked FBS school for average attendance. Even with those issues we were, I believe 93rd. That's bad but there were still over 30 FBS schools lower than App.

[moonshine]

BigDad, here is a list I compiled. Not sure if all the numbers are correct as it looked as if the MWC had not updated their numbers at the time of research. I pulled the MAC numbers off their message board. With that said, this should give you a decent a look at where things stand 3/4 of the way through the season.

BYU 62,439
ECU 45,573 AAC
UCF 39,252 AAC
UH 38,586 AAC
USF 37,786 AAC
Memphis 37,535 AAC
Boise 35,025 MWC
UC 34,755 AAC
Colorado St 32,944 MWC
Navy 32,553 AAC
Army 32,178
SDSU 29,454 MWC
USM 29,254 CUSA
Air Force 29,132 MWC
Uconn 28,898 AAC
App St 27,436 SUNBELT
Temple 27,034 AAC
Marshall 27,016 CUSA
Hawaii 26,251 MWC
SMU 26,064 AAC
Wyoming 25,323 MWC
UTEP 25,287 CUSA
Fresno St 24,964 MWC
TXSt 24,752 SUNBELT
Tulane 23,963 AAC
GS 23,486 SUNBELT
stAte 23,204 SUNBELT
Ohio 22,999 MAC
WMU 22,990 MAC
UTSA 22,884 CUSA
RICE 22,378 CUSA
ULL 21,430 SUNBELT
Toledo 21,388 MAC
Troy 21,298 SUNBELT
MTSU 20,828 CUSA
Nevada 20,644 MWC
ODU 20,118 CUSA
NM 19,971 MWC
LaTech 19,762 CUSA
WKU 19,742 CUSA
NT 19,569 CUSA
Tulsa 19,324 AAC
CMU 19,166 MAC
Miami 18,641 MAC
EMU 18,571 MAC
Utah St 18,501 MWC
UNLV 18,086 MWC
Buff 17,902 MAC
USA 17,584 SUNBELT
BGSU 17,296 MAC
FIU 17,079 CUSA
SJSU 15,910 MWC
ULM 15,659 SUNBELT
Charlotte 14,354 CUSA
Kent 14,100 MAC
GSU 13,545 SUNBELT
NIU 13,125 MAC
Akron 12,214 MAC
NMSU 12,026 SUNBELT
Idaho 11,886 SUNBELT
FAU 11,368 CUSA
Ball St 9,630 MAC

[bigdaddyg]

BigDad, here is a list I compiled. Not sure if all the numbers are correct as it looked as if the MWC had not updated their numbers at the time of research. I pulled the MAC numbers off their message board. With that said, this should give you a decent a look at where things stand 3/4 of the way through the season.

BYU 62,439
ECU 45,573 AAC
UCF 39,252 AAC
UH 38,586 AAC
USF 37,786 AAC
Memphis 37,535 AAC
Boise 35,025 MWC
UC 34,755 AAC
Colorado St 32,944 MWC
Navy 32,553 AAC
Army 32,178
SDSU 29,454 MWC
USM 29,254 CUSA
Air Force 29,132 MWC
Uconn 28,898 AAC
App St 27,436 SUNBELT
Temple 27,034 AAC
Marshall 27,016 CUSA
Hawaii 26,251 MWC
SMU 26,064 AAC
Wyoming 25,323 MWC
UTEP 25,287 CUSA
Fresno St 24,964 MWC
TXSt 24,752 SUNBELT
Tulane 23,963 AAC
GS 23,486 SUNBELT
stAte 23,204 SUNBELT
Ohio 22,999 MAC
WMU 22,990 MAC
UTSA 22,884 CUSA
RICE 22,378 CUSA
ULL 21,430 SUNBELT
Toledo 21,388 MAC
Troy 21,298 SUNBELT
MTSU 20,828 CUSA
Nevada 20,644 MWC
ODU 20,118 CUSA
NM 19,971 MWC
LaTech 19,762 CUSA
WKU 19,742 CUSA
NT 19,569 CUSA
Tulsa 19,324 AAC
CMU 19,166 MAC
Miami 18,641 MAC
EMU 18,571 MAC
Utah St 18,501 MWC
UNLV 18,086 MWC
Buff 17,902 MAC
USA 17,584 SUNBELT
BGSU 17,296 MAC
FIU 17,079 CUSA
SJSU 15,910 MWC
ULM 15,659 SUNBELT
Charlotte 14,354 CUSA
Kent 14,100 MAC
GSU 13,545 SUNBELT
NIU 13,125 MAC
Akron 12,214 MAC
NMSU 12,026 SUNBELT
Idaho 11,886 SUNBELT
FAU 11,368 CUSA
Ball St 9,630 MAC

Great data Moon and that's probably not too far off. With all of the complaining some folks do on this board those numbers put a lot into perspective. We will never touch a BYU or even ECU. Boise and Houston seem to hover around the 35k mark no matter what. The service academy schools are a different animal. Too me if we hit and maintain even 25k per game we will typically be in or close to the top 10 among G5's. I would bet there are a few P5's below 30k as well. We have these aspirations of 35k at our games. Maybe that just isn't feasible?

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

What good is 35k if it is 3/4 empty (Slight exaggeration) by the middle of the 3rd quarter? Obviously the revenue it brings, but I think most on here have an issue anytime there is aluminum showing. There tends to be a lot of aluminum midway through the third.

[moonshine]

BD, as you can see from the list, almost all the top dogs are located in major metro areas (Orlando, Houston, Tampa, Memphis, Cincinatti...). The rural exceptions, ECU (91k), USM (46k) and Marshall (48k) are all located in larger towns than App (17k). I agree that App won't see ECU numbers anytime soon. We should shoot for USM and Boise type numbers (30-35k).

09, I understand the fans displeasure of seeing empty seats and no energy in the 2nd half. However, if 25k people (10k students) are paying to fill that 35k seat stadium, what they do with their seat is their business. Obviously, we all want every fan to stay and cheer until the end. Ultimately, if the AD is getting the money for those additional seats, the revenue will benefit the entire athletic department via coaching salaries, funding all athletic scholarships, facility improvements, etc...