According to the Box Score on ESPN, the attendance Saturday was 20,016.

Paid/student attendance, obviously not actual.

According to their fans it was roughly 8-9k there.

As I mentioned earlier - I have been underwhelmed by the attendance at the games I have watched on TV - I know ours is down some as well but it has looked bad at the other sites - also, I would rather look at a green hill than that bank of aluminum in the end zone at Ark State ---

Agreed, in fact, If our attendance stays low I would be for taking the bleachers in the north end down. The atmospher is so much better when the stands are full.

MJ1988 wrote:Agreed, in fact, If our attendance stays low I would be for taking the bleachers in the north end down. The atmospher is so much better when the stands are full.

Same here, MJ, and would certainly move the marching band back to the main stands, whether the East Side or the Home team side.

Starting to look like ESPN3 is really hurting the mid tier programs. The big programs are always going to draw. Except for what we hope are some big home dates like WFU can we realistically expect games with 35K in attendance? I know we have gone north of 30K (although it blows my mind to think we can actually get 8K in standing room/on the hill). I really have a hard time believing that attendance has dropped due to our record. I was at Coastal Carolina game years ago and we drew over 28K! Coastal Carolina!

I like the bleachers in the field house endzone - it gives a better look than the area in front of and of the field house ---

WVAPPeer wrote:I like the bleachers in the field house endzone - it gives a better look than the area in front of and of the field house ---

I agree, and I like ho the band can be heard on both the East and West sides.

I think ESPN3 is hurting us too. The current students and folks into their mid 30s are very use to streaming Internet programs. I have been at tailgates and seen current App students leave and go back to their apartments to watch the game. Really, they were standing 50 feet from the stadium and they left to sit inside and watch the game on ESPN3.

I think it's hard to determine the effect that ESPN3 has on our attendance because that has come at the same time as some performance issues which drove some general frustrations in the fan base. I don't think season ticket sales declined....certainly not proportionately with the overall attendance. Also, early season attendance was considerably better. I think our attendance will rebound as the winning ways return. Getting over 30K might be harder with ESPN3 available, but that's not what's driving the empty bleachers right now. The Idaho game will be interesting because of the timing. That weekend is historically bad for us, but since it is now planned and included in packages, fans might come! The problem will be the absence of students.

I think we will finish strong and a great home schedule next year will bring plenty of fans back to The Rock.

Eternal Optimist.

From a purely financial standpoint what is better.

28,000 in the stadium and also getting food and drink or

22,000 in the stadium with 6,000 less getting food and drink BUT money from ESPN3, assuming money comes in from ESPN3 and the whole ESPN package. Also some lost sales in the bookstore and maybe campus dining.

For the Boone economy as a whole I assume the former is better. For App budget and athletic budget specifically I wonder.

Empty seats are never good

MJ1988 wrote:Empty seats are never good

I bet some at the G5 athletics level would take a $4 million guarantee from ESPN for every home game and have a closed stadium for a year to see what happened. That would be $24 million for App. I bet we would have discussion about the offer behind closed doors even if we passed on the offer.

Frankly I have come to resent what money has done to college football. As a fan I love the experiance of a full stadium and an engaged fan base. Money put UNCC in conferance USA before they ever played a game and ruled us out after 3 FCS national championships. I do understand that one of the main reasons college football exist is to bring in money but there has to be some way to balance things out.

MJ1988 wrote:Frankly I have come to resent what money has done to college football. As a fan I love the experiance of a full stadium and an engaged fan base. Money put UNCC in conferance USA before they ever played a game and ruled us out after 3 FCS national championships. I do understand that one of the main reasons college football exist is to bring in money but there has to be some way to balance things out.

I agree, and was going to add a bit to my last post but was busy around the house needing to get some things done.

One thing about UNCC and C-USA. I think it is a bit of going after the potential money and market getting UNCC football into C-USA, but these decisions, though mostly about football do involve decisions that also includes men's basketball and to a much lessor extent other sports. UNCC does have a bit more history than we do with basketball. But more than anything UNCC was a charter member of C-USA back in 1995. I think that played as much of a role as anything.

Georgia State did the same thing with the SB. Yes a big market in Altanta metro, but GaSt was a charter member of the SB in 1976. That played a big part in this as well I bet.