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Some Notes on Attendance
Publication Date: August 8, 2006
So, Who Showed Up?
Once again, here's a look at the attendance figures as culled from box scores, rather than the official numbers that are turned in to the NCAA. As with last year, I only have box scores for 98+% of the games, and about 3% of those don't have attendance figures.
We'll start off with the obvious one. Here are the top 25 in average home attendance:
Ave. G Team 1 7311 37 Louisiana State 2 6872 26 Arkansas 3 6737 28 Mississippi State 4 5426 28 Texas 5 4865 22 Nebraska 6 4613 34 Clemson 7 4505 31 Alabama 8 4472 31 Texas A&M 9 4319 36 Florida State 10 4262 32 Mississippi 11 3818 35 South Carolina 12 3757 34 Wichita State 13 3514 35 Florida 14 3253 31 Southern Mississippi 15 3161 34 Rice 16 3002 34 Baylor 17 2890 36 Tulane 18 2846 36 East Carolina 19 2668 31 Arizona State 20 2621 29 Texas Tech 21 2548 30 Hawaii 22 2508 24 Notre Dame 23 2445 33 Auburn 24 2233 17 Ohio State 25 2108 38 Fresno State
Here, we see just how worthless reported attendance figures are. Eyeball reports from Baton Rouge indicate that LSU probably averaged well under 2,500 fans a game this year, but the season tickets were all still sold, and everyone report tickets sold, so here we are. A similar situation occured in Starkville, and has for a couple of years now.
Next, 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 1 4515 19 Alabama 2 4235 18 Oklahoma 3 4138 21 Mississippi State 4 4098 19 Auburn 5 4095 18 Tennessee 6 3998 20 Georgia 7 3875 20 Arkansas 8 3738 20 South Carolina 9 3640 17 Vanderbilt 10 3532 19 Florida 11 3311 20 Texas A&M 12 3251 17 Louisiana State 13 3066 17 Mississippi 14 2748 26 Houston 15 2725 25 Texas 16 2671 20 Nebraska 17 2612 15 Florida State 18 2574 18 North Carolina State 19 2552 19 Kentucky 20 2426 15 Texas Tech 21 2412 28 Kansas 22 2261 18 Clemson 23 2214 18 Missouri 24 2150 26 Southern California 25 2128 20 Rice
Again, if you want to be on this list, go play in front of big crowds.
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 UNC was in town this year):
% Team 1 240.0 16 North Carolina 2 239.8 13 Notre Dame 3 235.4 25 Texas 4 212.0 20 South Carolina 5 193.5 20 Rice 6 186.5 15 Florida State 7 185.6 18 Clemson 8 181.1 21 Mississippi State 9 161.5 20 Nebraska 10 159.5 20 Texas A&M 11 154.9 18 Tennessee 12 153.9 17 Louisiana State 13 152.0 18 Fresno State 14 147.2 20 Southern Mississippi 15 147.1 18 North Carolina State 16 144.8 18 Missouri 17 144.7 26 Southern California 18 141.1 18 Oklahoma 19 139.7 21 Michigan 20 138.1 21 Long Beach State 21 136.6 20 Arizona 22 136.2 21 Bradley 23 133.8 19 Florida 24 133.1 19 Alabama 25 132.5 26 Cal State Fullerton
So, what's the moral here, other than that Notre Dame is a really good team to invite in? Well, it's good to have a great year, as UNC did, but that's not enough; you'll notice that Oregon State isn't on the list. Early success may be at least part of the key; UNC started off with a high preseason ranking and a hot start to the season, while OSU struggled a bit early. Big name prospects are probably also a factor; Miller and Bard were good draws for the I-saw-him-when factor.
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