College football attendance continues to decline

[GT_05]

That was me you are talking about. I thought you didn’t mind... [emoji848]


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Just kidding, of course. [emoji23]


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[Animal02]

The bench spacing was designed when people were smaller.

The spacing is luxurious compared to the U of Mich.

 

[takethepoints]

As a Columbia resident for the past 33 years I agree. What I found interesting about them when I first moved here was their level of optimism. Seems that most Gamecock fans believe the team is going to win the division or at least come in second every year. I told by brother-in-law (USC graduate) that the only way they would ever compete is if they brought in a coach who's reputation alone could improve recruiting. Holtz and Spurrier somewhat proved me right on that point but they still have a hard time competing with all the to notch schools around them.

It's true. I went to grad school up there in the late 70s and they were always "just a step away!" But having games on Saturday night does help attendance; people plan their whole weekend around a Carolina game and W-B is a great place to watch football. (I liked the old place better, but nobody paid any attention to me. Again.)

And they were remarkably short-sighted too boot. They had a really good coach, Warren Geise, from the Woody Hayes coaching tree. Three straight 7 - 3 seasons, and All-American (!) player, Alex Hawkins - overall, the best record a USCe coach had had up to that point. And, of course, they fired him: "The games are too boring! All we do is run! We'd do better if we passed more!" (Sound familiar?) When I got there he was heading up the physical ed department - Giese had a Ph.D. in the subject - and everybody was sitting around looking at the ruin that was USCe football and wondering what happened.

Now you know one reason why I don't have much patience with folks around here who want to get rid of Coach. I've seen what can result.

 

[MikeJackets1967]

It's true. I went to grad school up there in the late 70s and they were always "just a step away!" But having games on Saturday night does help attendance; people plan their whole weekend around a Carolina game and W-B is a great place to watch football. (I liked the old place better, but nobody paid any attention to me. Again.)

And they were remarkably short-sighted too boot. They had a really good coach, Warren Geise, from the Woody Hayes coaching tree. Three straight 7 - 3 seasons, and All-American (!) player, Alex Hawkins - overall, the best record a USCe coach had had up to that point. And, of course, they fired him: "The games are too boring! All we do is run! We'd do better if we passed more!" (Sound familiar?) When I got there he was heading up the physical ed department - Giese had a Ph.D. in the subject - and everybody was sitting around looking at the ruin that was USCe football and wondering what happened.

Now you know why I don't have much patience with folks around here who want to get rid of Coach. I've seen what can happen.

USC would have been better off going into the SEC had Coach Joe Morrison not died of a heart attack in 1989. He would have had South Carolina competitive in the SEC in the 1990s. South Carolina was also stupid firing head coach Jim Carlin after the 1981 season for going 6-6.

 

[takethepoints]

USC would have been better off going into the SEC had Coach Joe Morrison not died of a heart attack in 1989. He would have had South Carolina competitive in the SEC in the 1990s. South Carolina was also stupid firing head coach Jim Carlin after the 1981 season for going 6-6.

See? Firing Carlin was just as stupid as firing Geise. Carlin was a real good coach.

And, yes, if Morrison had lived USCe would have had a long stretch of good football. But their big problem would have come back to haunt them: there just aren't enough good football players in South Carolina. That means they have to come down to Georgia and fight it out with the rest of the FBS universe. They usually lose those fights.

 

[MikeJackets1967]

See? Firing Carlin was just as stupid as firing Geise. Carlin was a real good coach.

And, yes, if Morrison had lived USCe would have had a long stretch of good football. But their big problem would have come back to haunt them: there just aren't enough good football players in South Carolina. That means they have to come down to Georgia and fight it out with the rest of the FBS universe. They usually lose those fights.

The two rumors Gamecock fans have mentioned to me as the reason Jim Carlin was fired was

1)He wasn't friendly with the Press and didn't have enough Press Conferences
2)Rumors that he was having an affair with a South Carolina Cheerleader

Neither one of those reasons seemed to me to be a plausible excuse for firing him.

 

[Eastman]

Carlin’s son is a good friend of mine and he told me that he had hoped to follow Bobby Dodd at Tech but of course that didn’t happen.

 

[first&ten]

You know what I find impressive? South Carolina has been the very essence of mediocrity in college football for as long as I can remember. They have been winning 5 or 6 games a year going back to when they were first in the ACC. Yet, like clockwork that Williams Brice Stadium is sold out and an absolute madhouse worked into a frenzy on Saturday night.

I'vealways been impressed with with the S.C. fans. They turn out in any kind of weather or whether theirteam is winning or not.

 

[MikeJackets1967]

Carlin’s son is a good friend of mine and he told me that he had hoped to follow Bobby Dodd at Tech but of course that didn’t happen.

Jim Carlin would have been a much better hire than Bud Carson

 

[Sideways]

It's true. I went to grad school up there in the late 70s and they were always "just a step away!" But having games on Saturday night does help attendance; people plan their whole weekend around a Carolina game and W-B is a great place to watch football. (I liked the old place better, but nobody paid any attention to me. Again.)

And they were remarkably short-sighted too boot. They had a really good coach, Warren Geise, from the Woody Hayes coaching tree. Three straight 7 - 3 seasons, and All-American (!) player, Alex Hawkins - overall, the best record a USCe coach had had up to that point. And, of course, they fired him: "The games are too boring! All we do is run! We'd do better if we passed more!" (Sound familiar?) When I got there he was heading up the physical ed department - Giese had a Ph.D. in the subject - and everybody was sitting around looking at the ruin that was USCe football and wondering what happened.

Now you know one reason why I don't have much patience with folks around here who want to get rid of Coach. I've seen what can result.

Yep good old Williams Brice Stadium. How does the refrain go? "If it ain't swaying, we ain't playing" I dismissed that statement as pure hyperbole and one night they were playing Nebraska and took the lead in the middle of the third quarter and dang if the television did't show the student section of the second deck actually swaying from the near riot going on. Amazing.

 

[Sideways]

Jim Carlin would have been a much better hire than Bud Carson

\
Poor Bud. He was a good defensive coach but too stubborn for his own good. He should have known better than to try to follow a legend. Same thing happened to Ray Perkins when he followed the Bear. Did it matter that he was a near legend as an All American wide receiver at the Capstone? Nope. Did it matter that he had pro coaching credentials? Nope. He was not the Bear so out he went after a suitable grace period of course.

 

[GT_05]

Yep good old Williams Brice Stadium. How does the refrain go? "If it ain't swaying, we ain't playing" I dismissed that statement as pure hyperbole and one night they were playing Nebraska and took the lead in the middle of the third quarter and dang if the television did't show the student section of the second deck actually swaying from the near riot going on. Amazing.

I saw a Faith No More, Metallica, and Guns ‘n Roses concert in that stadium. Labor Day, ‘92. It was swayin’ that night, for sure, and the Gamecocks weren’t playing.


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[Sideways]

I saw a Faith No More, Metallica, and Guns ‘n Roses concert in that stadium. Labor Day, ‘92. It was swayin’ that night, for sure, and the Gamecocks weren’t playing.


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Gentlemen: There is a heretic in our midst. I have no doubt that something or someone was swaying on that long ago Labor Day. The question arises: was it the stadium in question or was it by chance good gentle GT 05 that was doing the um "swaying"?

 

[Treb1982]

Two things have changed college football imo

1) Alabama: litterally they have made college football boring (as far as National Championship Hopes).
2) ESPN: control game times and honestly every Saturday night is 4 SEC games and what ever is on ABC. I'm sure more people than not are tired of having SEC football thrown in their faces every weekend night.

 

[GTFLETCH]

Across the entire ACC, there was an average of 48,110 live spectators per home game in 2017. In 2016, the average was 50,022 fans per game. This marks a decline of approximately 3.9 percent year-over-year. Most of the reductions around the league were minor. In the cases of Clemson, Miami, NC State, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, and Virginia, the difference was less than a thousand fans per game. The top five ACC schools in terms of average home attendance – Clemson (No. 1), Florida State (No. 2), Virginia Tech (No. 3), Miami (No. 4), and NC State (No. 5) – all remain the same year-over-year.

GEORGIA TECH 2017

Jacksonville State H 50,161
Pittsburgh H 40,211
North Carolina H 42,805
Wake Forest H 45,224
Virginia Tech H 47,909
Georgia H 55,000

Total Home Attendance: 281,310
Average Home Attendance: 46,885

Miami A 55,799
Clemson A 80,346
Virginia A 38,448
Duke A 20,141

Total Road Attendance: 194,734
Average Road Attendance: 48,684

Tennessee N 75,107

Total/Average Neutral Attendance: 75,107

GEORGIA TECH 2016

Mercer H 49,992
Vanderbilt H 41,916
Clemson H 53,932
Miami H 53,047
Georgia Southern H 47,609
Duke H 43,886
Virginia H 42,136

Total Home Attendance: 332,518
Total Home Attendance: 47,503

Pittsburgh A 47,425
North Carolina A 58,000
Virginia Tech A 65,632
Georgia A 92,476

Total Road Attendance: 263,533
Average Road Attendance: 65,883

Boston College N 40,562
Kentucky N 43,102

Total/Average Neutral Attendance: 41,832

Link
https://accsports.com/acc-news/football/declining-football-attendance-inside-the-numbers-in-the-acc/

 

[GTFLETCH]

GEORGIA TECH
2017 - 46,885
2016 - 47,503


ACC 2017 home attendance

1. Clemson - 80,773

2. Florida State - 70,943

3. Virginia Tech - 63,214

4. Miami - 57,775

5. NC State - 50,250

6. UNC - 50,071

7. Georgia Tech - 46,885

8. Louisville - 46,160

9. Virginia - 39,398

10. Pittsburgh - 36,295

11. Boston College - 35,924

12. Syracuse - 33,929

13. Wake Forest - 28,436

14. Duke - 26,887


ACC 2016 home attendance

1. Clemson - 80,970

2. Florida State - 76,800

3. Virginia Tech - 63,043

4. Miami - 58,572

5. NC State - 57,497

6. Louisville - 54,079

7. UNC - 50,250

8. Georgia Tech - 47,503

9. Pittsburgh - 46,076

10. Virginia - 39,929

11. Syracuse - 37,089

12. Boston College - 32,115

13. Duke - 29,894

14. Wake Forest - 26,456

 

[jgtengineer]

GEORGIA TECH
2017 - 46,885
2016 - 47,503


ACC 2017 home attendance

1. Clemson - 80,773

2. Florida State - 70,943

3. Virginia Tech - 63,214

4. Miami - 57,775

5. NC State - 50,250

6. UNC - 50,071

7. Georgia Tech - 46,885

8. Louisville - 46,160

9. Virginia - 39,398

10. Pittsburgh - 36,295

11. Boston College - 35,924

12. Syracuse - 33,929

13. Wake Forest - 28,436

14. Duke - 26,887


ACC 2016 home attendance

1. Clemson - 80,970

2. Florida State - 76,800

3. Virginia Tech - 63,043

4. Miami - 58,572

5. NC State - 57,497

6. Louisville - 54,079

7. UNC - 50,250

8. Georgia Tech - 47,503

9. Pittsburgh - 46,076

10. Virginia - 39,929

11. Syracuse - 37,089

12. Boston College - 32,115

13. Duke - 29,894

14. Wake Forest - 26,456

The delta between years for us does speak that we have a pretty consistent loyal fanbase and that our stadium is probably 10000 seats to big.

 

[GTFLETCH]

Georgia Tech Avg Home Attendance (since BDS renovated to 55K seats in 2003)

Paul Johnson Era
avg home attendance
48,113

2017 - 46,885
2016 - 47,503
2015 - 50,707
2014 - 49,288
2013 - 49,077
2012 - 43,955
2011 - 48,232
2010 - 46,449
2009 - 51,584
2008 - 47,488

Chan Gailey Era
avg home attendance
50,436

2007 - 50,280
2006 - 50,617
2005- 51,607
2004- 46,817
2003 - 52,862

 

[GTFLETCH]

BDS Top Ten highest avg. attendance years

2003 - 52,862 (Renovation completed, fans came out)

2005- 51,607 (Upset #16 Auburn on road, beat #3 Miami at Home)

2009 - 51,584 (ACC Championship Season, ranked 13 end of season)

2015 - 50,707 (3-9 Season, tix sales up after winning Orange Bowl)

2006 - 50,617 (Lost ACC title game, ranked 22 end of season)

2007 - 50,280 (Upset ND on Road, Beat #13 Clemson)

2014 - 49,288 (Won Orange Bowl, Lost ACC title, ranked 8 end of Season)

2013 - 49,077 (played two FCS teams, lost to UGA in 2OT)

2011 - 48,232 (Upset #6 Clemson, Lost Sun Bowl in OT)

2016 - 47,503 (Upset #18 VT & UGA on the Road, Beat Kentucky in Gator Bowl)

 

[GTFLETCH]

Just some thoughts on our Season Home avg at Georgia Tech....
1. Fans showed up for Gailey... He avg 50K in seats (was scheduling or excitement around the program from beating Auburn & ND or a little of both)
2. Fans will show up for Johnson..... However the losses in the Peach and the OB in 08/09 really had fans shy away until the 2014 OB win..
-- It is interesting that with Tenn & the Chick-fil-a Kick off game packaged w/season tix GT avg less season tix than after a 3-9 season. whats up with that??
-- It will be interesting to see how many people show up this year (Could this be another 2012 only 43K fans show up)