Attendance Woes vs. Schedule Changes with Addition of TX & OK

[Goldendawg]

College football attendance is down for many reasons for many colleges, covid year, co$ts of being there, game day experience, product on the field, blue blood dominance, etc. ETSU game Saturday will probably be a poor crowd for many reasons, although a package was released this week for 4 tickets and a parking pass for $40.

Winning solves most all woes but do you think the addition of TX and OK with a 9 game SEC rotating schedule (with 3 set foes) brings more interest and more behinds in the seats? I hope we no longer play bama 117 games in a row and winning more and being more competitive in all games would solve a lot.

[msu15]

It definitely should. They need to just get rid of the FCS game period as well.

[PikeDawg15]

1. Yes, I think it will help with the attendance issue because not many people at MSU currently are excited to go watch State play against an FCS squad. They will eventually get rid of the FCS games with the addition of the 9 game conference schedule.

2. With the addition of the 9 game conference schedule and TX and OK. I think this will make getting to a bowl game much harder, especially if they keep the rule that you must play another Power 5 school every year. A bad year for a sec school like Auburn who has their faults but are not scared of competition, they could have Clemson, Bama, LSU, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida, and Tennessee all on the same schedule.

3. Excitement and winning cures everything, currently we do not have excitement and are not winning compared to others that we expect to be winning on the same level as.
Auburn has excitement currently because getting a new coach gives hope and excitement to a program and hope is very powerful in College Football.

[BrunswickDawg]

It's funny how a game can change things. https://www.d1ticker.com/2022-fbs-attendance-trends/

After Saturday's sell out, we are averaging 54,606 fans a game - up a little over 10% from last seasons 49,494. We are only down 2.5% vs. our 5 year average of 56,030.
I imaging after ETSU we will be at about break even.

That article in October - when most teams had played 3 cupcakes and 3 SEC games - shows why you don't make spot assessments like that until a season is over.
Bam is down .09, Auburn is down .53%, A&M is down 3.44%. Meanwhile crap ass Missouri is up 20.71%

FYI - we are 36th overall in average attendance out of 130 teams; and 34th out of the 64 P5 programs.

[DawgFromOxford]

Winning solves most all woes but do you think the addition of TX and OK with a 9 game SEC rotating schedule (with 3 set foes) brings more interest and more behinds in the seats?

The key part is winning. Will TX draw more interest than a team like Middle New Mexico State Technical College of Chicago? Sure. But this past weekend was evidence that just because we play a big name doesn't guarantee we pack the stadium with maroon. The entire east side was a sea of red and black.

[Coach34]

FCS programs need that welfare check

[Goldendawg]

It's funny how a game can change things. https://www.d1ticker.com/2022-fbs-attendance-trends/

After Saturday's sell out, we are averaging 54,606 fans a game - up a little over 10% from last seasons 49,494. We are only down 2.5% vs. our 5 year average of 56,030.
I imaging after ETSU we will be at about break even.

That article in October - when most teams had played 3 cupcakes and 3 SEC games - shows why you don't make spot assessments like that until a season is over.
Bam is down .09, Auburn is down .53%, A&M is down 3.44%. Meanwhile crap ass Missouri is up 20.71%

FYI - we are 36th overall in average attendance out of 130 teams; and 34th out of the 64 P5 programs.

Very interesting info. Do you know if we announce tickets sold or turnstile count for games? GA was a sellout but there were many empty seats in the corners of the East upper deck. I sit on the West and as posted here failed to sell 4 good seats to GA even though put on Ticket Exchange at a good discount. Finally sold to scalper 1 1/2 before game for $25 each and he failed to resale as no one sat behind us.

My family has issues again for attending ETSU, but I have 4 friends who will be there for 4 of our tickets, and giving the other 2 to friends to improve their seats. The "Goldendawg Move of the Game". Agree, very little interest in ETSU, and that 4 tickets and a parking pass are available for $40 says it all.

We need more excitement in our program asap! A win over OM and a good win/very competitive play, in a better level bowl against a good foe can change things quickly. Hail State!

[Desoto1967]

FCS programs need that welfare check

That's what I was thinking. With 9 conference games you would be crazy schedule another P5 program from OOC. Stick with 3 cupcakes

[confucius say]

I think we're more likely to keep an FCS game and just drop the P5 requirement.
9 conference games
2 G5 games
1 FCS game

[BrunswickDawg]

Very interesting info. Do you know if we announce tickets sold or turnstile count for games? GA was a sellout but there were many empty seats in the corners of the East upper deck. I sit on the West and as posted here failed to sell 4 good seats to GA even though put on Ticket Exchange at a good discount. Finally sold to scalper 1 1/2 before game for $25 each and he failed to resale as no one sat behind us.

My family has issues again for attending ETSU, but I have 4 friends who will be there for 4 of our tickets, and giving the other 2 to friends to improve their seats. The "Goldendawg Move of the Game". Agree, very little interest in ETSU, and that 4 tickets and a parking pass are available for $40 says it all.

We need more excitement in our program asap! A win over OM and a good win/very competitive play, in a better level bowl against a good foe can change things quickly. Hail State!

I assume it is tickets sold. Official seating capacity is 60,311. For UGA we reported attendance at 60,352. As you said, there were a number of empties in the upper deck - BUT the SE corner of the upper deck are seats allocated to visiting teams.
So, UGA fans sought out tickets on the secondary market instead of sitting in the upper deck.

[PGHBulldogBG]

I wish we would drop the FCS game. I don’t see why we can’t play 2 of the following every year. Directional Louisiana, Troy, UAB, USM, Memphis, USA. That being said we should never play them away. I like keeping the P5 game if it’s a mid tier Big 12 or ACC school. No top tier teams though stick to NC State, Arizona, kstate etc. Nothing like Penn State, Florida State keep those kind of programs off the schedule unless we have a good season and draw them in a bowl game

[Leeshouldveflanked]

When the playoffs expand, the bowl games will decrease. Could Strength of Schedule play a bigger role on who makes the playoffs?

[Pancho]

Won't the bowl games be tiered as they are now and used as part of the playoff?

[RocketDawg]

College football attendance is down for many reasons for many colleges, covid year, co$ts of being there, game day experience, product on the field, blue blood dominance, etc. ETSU game Saturday will probably be a poor crowd for many reasons, although a package was released this week for 4 tickets and a parking pass for $40.

Winning solves most all woes but do you think the addition of TX and OK with a 9 game SEC rotating schedule (with 3 set foes) brings more interest and more behinds in the seats? I hope we no longer play bama 117 games in a row and winning more and being more competitive in all games would solve a lot.

Parking, last time I checked, was $30 in a university lot. That means the tickets are $2.50 each.

I think people will at least initially show up for the Texas and Oklahoma game. But they already show up for the big games, like Alabama and Georgia (there were a few seats vacant Saturday night but it was still a sellout).

[RocketDawg]

I assume it is tickets sold. Official seating capacity is 60,311. For UGA we reported attendance at 60,352. As you said, there were a number of empties in the upper deck - BUT the SE corner of the upper deck are seats allocated to visiting teams.
So, UGA fans sought out tickets on the secondary market instead of sitting in the upper deck.

Can't blame them for that, if the tickets were available. The negatives to them are higher cost and they had to sit amidst State fans.

[Goldendawg]

Can't blame them for that, if the tickets were available. The negatives to them are higher cost and they had to sit amidst State fans.

From my view from the West Side, it looked like State fans sitting among GA fans, but the red gear stood out, maroon vs, black, not so much.

[Quaoarsking]

Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Oklahoma aren't going to want to drop the P5 requirement, and Alabama and the other big boys probably won't either.

As long as every P5 conference keeps the same rules, I'm fine with 9 (I'd even like 10 - 2020 was fun) conference games and a P5.

[Maroonthirteen]

To answers your Q, no I don't think we will see an uptick in attendance adding TX and OU. What we need to increase attendance is an energetic coach and AD. We need an AD that won't allow 3 weeks in a row of home games.

Long range thinking, will the GTR and Tupelo continue to grow and keep graduates home to help with local attendance? That's what we need to boost attendance.