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Some Notes on Attendance
Publication Date: August 16, 2005
So, Who Showed Up?
Every year, the NCAA releases a list of the top attendance average and total figures for the previous season. The list is occasionally interesting, but mostly it amounts to a listing of who was able to sell the most season tickets the last year, with repeat offenders usually taking the top spots. This year's isn't out yet, but I've run through my box score archive and come up with some things that I think are a bit on the interesting side, since I think they better reflect both actual interest in the team and give some context to that interest. Not all box scores have attendance figures given, and not all games have available box scores, but I have figures for about 94%, which should give us some accurate readings. On the other hand, that means the numbers here probably won't match any official figures.
We'll start off with the obvious one. Here are the top 25 in average home attendance:
Ave. G Team 7325 36 Louisiana State 6685 28 Arkansas 6019 33 Mississippi State 5918 25 Texas A&M 5224 41 Texas 4964 35 Nebraska 4362 39 Mississippi 4048 32 Clemson 4039 37 Florida State 3915 35 Alabama 3643 38 Wichita State 3448 37 Tulane 3423 33 South Carolina 3245 27 East Carolina 3219 34 Southern Mississippi 3055 35 Baylor 3020 35 Auburn 3010 32 Rice 2727 36 Hawaii 2654 32 Arizona State 2607 43 Florida 2570 18 Ohio State 2360 32 Texas Tech 2345 37 Miami, Florida 2252 37 Cal State Fullerton
Note that Mark Johnson still lost his job after finishing fourth on this list; it may be harder sometimes when everyone's actually paying attention.
Now, a number that you don't see much of, but which may be more telling. The top 25 in average road attendance:
Ave. G Team 4325 22 Texas 4233 21 Louisiana State 4225 18 Kentucky 4127 23 Auburn 4086 19 Mississippi 3936 21 Alabama 3865 24 South Carolina 3805 18 Florida 3329 20 Oklahoma 3265 20 Mississippi State 3254 19 Vanderbilt 3217 17 Oklahoma State 3155 17 Kansas State 3143 20 Miami, Florida 3105 19 Missouri 2744 23 Rice 2686 19 Tennessee 2653 16 North Carolina 2640 22 Arizona State 2629 23 Baylor 2530 26 Clemson 2514 23 Georgia 2470 29 Arkansas 2426 22 Alabama-Birmingham 2401 18 Nebraska
The main lesson from this list (UAB?) is that you should go play in front of big crowds. Kentucky managed this by playing in the SEC, for example; several others of these played in front of much larger crowds on the road than at home. From a recruiting and program-building point of view, this may not be a bad thing.
Finally, a number that I really like, since it adjusts for the schedule. These are the top 25 teams by the average percentage of average home attendance for the teams road opponents (in other words, more than two-and-a-half times as many people as normal showed up for a game when LSU was in town this year):
% Team 256.0 Louisiana State 218.5 Notre Dame 200.2 Cal State Fullerton 199.5 Miami, Florida 192.5 South Carolina 188.7 Texas 161.5 Tulane 159.9 Florida State 159.8 Clemson 155.8 Arkansas 154.9 Texas A&M 154.8 Wichita State 152.3 Michigan 147.0 Mississippi 142.8 East Carolina 140.9 Minnesota 138.7 North Carolina 138.2 Tennessee 137.0 Missouri 134.5 Arizona 134.3 Florida 133.6 Auburn 131.5 The Citadel 130.3 North Carolina-Wilmington 128.9 Arizona State
Now, some of this is really fun. Obviously, LSU travels well, but who would have figured that Notre Dame could get folks to come out? Well, average attendance for Irish road games was only 1140, but their opponents only managed around 500 in average attendance, so they were worth having in.
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