Low Attendance?

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

Attendance won't get better after the Wake game and as the weather turns to shit. Not when you can easily stream ESPN3 with many different devices.

I think the jump to FBS hype has worn off. With no P5 team on schedule at home next year, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw an even larger drop. We went from decades of tradition and rivalries in the Southern Conference to playing teams that are states upon states away. Our one rival Georgia Southern is trash and it's almost like it was attending a Western game when we face them. I don't think some fans care that much about most of our opponents especially in conference.

[hotrod2001]

I'm not concerned. Savannah State isn't exactly must-see tv.

[EastHallApp]

Attendance has essentially been way down since the FBS move but for 3-4 games. And we never run out of excuses. It used to be that the weather in Boone was bad. Now apparently it's that the weather ANYWHERE was bad.

And if you want to keep telling yourself this week was just because the opponent wasn't exciting, make sure you don't go check out the unsold seat map for Homecoming, Georgia Southern or Senior Day.

[MtnMan09]

Attendance won't get better after the Wake game and as the weather turns to shit. Not when you can easily stream ESPN3 with many different devices.

I think the jump to FBS hype has worn off. With no P5 team on schedule at home next year, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw an even larger drop. We went from decades of tradition and rivalries in the Southern Conference to playing teams that are states upon states away. Our one rival Georgia Southern is trash and it's almost like it was attending a Western game when we face them. I don't think some fans care that much about most of our opponents especially in conference.

This isn't unique to App. There has been a downward trend in attendance across all CFB. Largely due to the easy access to games on TV and streaming services. Best think you can do is encourage those you know to attend. We were unfortunately cursed with geography so its not easy for most to just up and decide to go to the game. Its a lot of planning and logistics.

I think a factor for this particular games was the amount of fans that made the trip to UGA. There may have been some fatigue for back to back travel weekends. I know I brought 16 people to UGA, but only ended up catching the SSU game with my wife even though two other of the couples have seats on our row. Seemed daunting to some to travel to UGA, travel this weekend to SSU, and then turn around in one more weeks time to make it to the Wake game.

But im pretty sure being back in the Southern playing Mercer and VMI or taking a loss to Samford would not increase the attendance.

[ASUGoose]

Have to say that I was impressed with the student turnout for an opponent like SSU. Student section looked full from my perspective.

I agree that the drop in attendance for this game was due to travel to UGA. My wife and kids stayed home for SSU as they needed some relief on all the traveling we did the weekend prior for Labor Day.

Wake will be 34k+, Coastal reserved seating is already sold out and I think NMSU will be well attended with their success so far this season. Ga South Thurs is always hit or miss due to weeknight game.

[ASU3432Mi]

We don't need to play FCS opponents now.

[brocktune90]

I'm trying to make it to the Southern game from the west coast. I can get into and out of RDU for < $300. That Friday is a holiday too. Just need my co-conspirators to ante up.

I'll spend nearly the same to get to Idaho in a month.

[EastHallApp]

We don't need to play FCS opponents now.

We do if we're going to keep playing road-only games vs. P5s.

[yosef13]

We used to draw 25k no matter the opponent. Home opener with next home game two weeks away, perfect weather. I'm not buying a hurricane 1,000 miles away as an excuse. The mentality of our fanbase (and most of CFB) has changed due to tv/internet access.

We don't need to add general seating.

Our average attendance in 2016 was 13% over capacity. We led the SB in attendance last year.
How has our fanbase changed? Most of the SB and CUSA will kill to have our kind of fan support. More seats will bring bigger and better opponents to Boone. I'll take a half empty stadium against SSU as a trade off. The game was a garbage opponent that we had to fill in after a schedule shuffle last year. It has no bearing on our fan support, or lack thereof.

[NewApp]

I thought the crowd looked okay. SSU doesn't exactly move the meter for people, and I think everyone knew it was going to be a blowout.

On TV, it looked like the East Side stands were mostly empty. We may have sold 20,000 tickets, but the holders weren't there.

[Saint3333]

All fan bases have changed. https://www.cbssports.com/college-footb ... ight-year/

App's attendance was up 22% last year over 2015 due to all Saturday games and 34k for Miami. Even with the Wake game we are trending down based upon pre-game sales.

You don't add a $50M+ capex project to sale an additional 10k seats for a "big" game every other year and have them empty 90% of the time.

If we must add seats you add premium seating that pays for itself.

You will continue to see a trend of college stadiums reducing capacity (which we don't need to do obviously) to make way for club and box seating options.

[App91]

We used to draw 25k no matter the opponent. Home opener with next home game two weeks away, perfect weather. I'm not buying a hurricane 1,000 miles away as an excuse. The mentality of our fanbase (and most of CFB) has changed due to tv/internet access.

We don't need to add general seating.

Our average attendance in 2016 was 13% over capacity. We led the SB in attendance last year.
How has our fanbase changed? Most of the SB and CUSA will kill to have our kind of fan support. More seats will bring bigger and better opponents to Boone. I'll take a half empty stadium against SSU as a trade off. The game was a garbage opponent that we had to fill in after a schedule shuffle last year. It has no bearing on our fan support, or lack thereof.

Never compare our fanbase to the rest of the SB and Coosa. We are better. And we should strive to be better. Look forward not behind

[WVAPPeer]

We used to draw 25k no matter the opponent. Home opener with next home game two weeks away, perfect weather. I'm not buying a hurricane 1,000 miles away as an excuse. The mentality of our fanbase (and most of CFB) has changed due to tv/internet access.

We don't need to add general seating.

Our average attendance in 2016 was 13% over capacity. We led the SB in attendance last year.
How has our fanbase changed? Most of the SB and CUSA will kill to have our kind of fan support. More seats will bring bigger and better opponents to Boone. I'll take a half empty stadium against SSU as a trade off. The game was a garbage opponent that we had to fill in after a schedule shuffle last year. It has no bearing on our fan support, or lack thereof.

Don't believe he was making any comparisons of attendance in Boone vs other SB teams - only comparing our attendance against our attendance of previous seasons --- there is no question that attendance in down nationwide ---

[moonshine]

Definitely a bit disappointing for a season opener especially with the new board and 2007 team recognition. I'd imagine several factors already mentioned play into it the lower number. I'm just glad I was able to be there and the student section looked solid.

For some perspective, I looked up the last several seasons of both the Sun Belt and Socon (and CUSA). Also keep in mind that the Socon took the exit fee money from App, GS, Leon, CoC and Davidson to build the Socon Digital Network.

Socon
2013 - Avg: 11,623 (51 game/9 teams) Conf. Season total = 592.7k (App & GS last season)
2014 - Avg: 8,204 (47 games/8 teams) Conf. Season total = 385.6k
2015 - Avg: 8,210 (46 games/8) Conf. Season total = 377.7k
2016 - Avg: 8,386 (49 games/9) Conf. Season total = 410.9k

Sun Belt
2013 - Avg: 19,859 (38 games/7 teams) Conf. Season total = 754.6k
2014 - Avg: 18,294 (52 games/9 teams) Conf. Season total = 951.3k
2015 - Avg: 17,482 (63 games/11 teams) Conf. Season total = 1.1m
2016 - Avg: 18,057 (63 games/11 teams) Conf. Season total = 1.13m* (new conference record)

CUSA has seen a drop in their average attendance every year over the past 4.

CUSA
2013 - Avg: 21,510 (73 games/13 teams) Conf. Season total = 1.57m
2014 - Avg: 20,455 (72 games/12 teams) Conf. Season total = 1.47m
2015 - Avg: 20,379 (70 games/12 teams) Conf. Season total = 1.42m
2016 - Avg: 19,849 (80 games/13 teams) Conf. Season total = 1.588m

[yosef13]

All fan bases have changed. https://www.cbssports.com/college-footb ... ight-year/

App's attendance was up 22% last year over 2015 due to all Saturday games and 34k for Miami. Even with the Wake game we are trending down based upon pre-game sales.

You don't add a $50M+ capex project to sale an additional 10k seats for a "big" game every other year and have them empty 90% of the time.

If we must add seats you add premium seating that pays for itself.

You will continue to see a trend of college stadiums reducing capacity (which we don't need to do obviously) to make way for club and box seating options.

I understand the trends, but our average has been over capacity for about a decade with the exception of 2015, I think. You can credit it or discredit however you want. If you don't provide a great experience for an over capacity crowd, they will find something else to do.

We need to built a facility in the north end zone that will seat 3k with as many additional club seats as we can fit. Club level currently has a waiting list. This will put us around 25,000, which is close to our average over the past 5 season.

I agree, we don't need to spend 50m for 10k seats, but we do need to expand. The PPP model will allow us to create this facility as a mixed use project that will house students, departments, and even retail. This is not just about football. This is needed.

[Saint3333]

We need to built a facility in the north end zone that will seat 3k with as many additional club seats as we can fit. Club level currently has a waiting list. This will put us around 25,000, which is close to our average over the past 5 season.

Why are you arguing, this is exactly what I've been proposing for two years on here?

[Yosef84]

I was disappointed in the attendance. I absolutely think that the opponent is the biggest factor, but the pending storm (yes it was an overreaction), ease of streaming and upcoming game with WF are all factors as well. I think the casual fan who might traditionally come for the opener saved that trip for WF.

I don't think we have to rush into it, but I also think we absolutely need to expand seating. We don't need to add tons, but we are relying on temporary bleacher seats to get us to our current capacity, and we consistently rely on a grass bank for overflow. Despite the nostalgic recollection of some, the bank is a terrible place to watch a game from....especially in wet weather. It's just an opinion, but I think that is part of the driving factor behind some people choosing to stay home and watch ESPN3 instead of coming. It's funny how the board lights up with comments of "high schoolish" every time the track come up, but they are fine with temporary bleachers and grass seating. Of course, the two are connected, since the track has to go before the seating can be added, so that's the reason I said there is no rush.

[bigdaddyg]

I really don't see the big deal with the temporary seating. Seems like a reasonable affordable solution and I think we have established a good enough sampling to say that there's no way we need 35k seating. Seems like 28k to include premium seats with the ability to add 5-7k temp bleaches is a good way to go.

The numbers I would love to see would be the number of visitor seats sold be game (or season) over the past 10 or so years. Even during the SOCON years there had to be games with 24k in App sales coupled with 3-4K in say, Wofford sales? What has been the most sales for a Sunbelt visiting team? On the flip side what has been the most heavily purchased regular season conference away game by App fans? I'm sure we hurt sales for Idaho and the other far reaching conference teams.

[ArmantiWaterSafety]

I see I'm beating a dead horse here, but the hurricane had to have impacted attendance. There was a lot of talk about running out of gas thanks to Harvey and then Irma. We still didn't know Saturday how that would play out. That said, I went, but I can understand why people didn't. Also, I may have seen 2 SSU fans.

[Yosef84]

I agree that the temporary seating is an affordable and reasonable option for now. That's why there is not a rush. I just don't believe this should be our permanent solution.

I would also like to see more visiting fans, but I think we'll see some of that with CCU coming into the conference. GS travels well, and if GSU ever starts winning a few, there is potential. If we get P5 games (or good G5 teams) from within our geographical area, that will also help. Miami and WF both sold a bunch. ODU brought quite a few. Marshall and ECU will bring plenty. Who knows what Charlotte will do.