2015 home attendance bounces back so far from 2014

2014 had the lowest home attendance since 1981 (I believe is the stat I saw) with 57,141--while stadium capacity is listed as 63,725. This year's' games look better than last year so far:

9/12 - Boise State - 63,470

10/2 - UCONN - 56,393

10/10 - East Carolina (Homecoming) -

10/17 - Cincinnati -

10/24 - Wagner -

11/21 - Fresno State -



Hopefully the numbers for next week are good with homecoming--though I hear there might be some rain again next weekend like there was this past weekend. The 2 game average is 59,931.5 but I'd LOVE to see it top 60k again. Wagner of course will be the lowest attendance I'd bet unless we have a weekend with terrible weather.

Two games does not an average make in comparison to a Full season.

After a big win fandom was up was up for the DONKS--not to mention that a bunch of DONKS came down to spike attendance. But after two losses, some late starts, and some weather, It's already trending downward. After more bad weather and likely another loss in next few weeks and some weak late season scheduling,expect attendance to be on par with last season and likely lower. Your assertion that "attendance has bounced back" is pretty weak. Sorry to be negative, but attendance isn't going to finish up. The only thing that would have boosted attendance would have been WINNING.

Cougs ... first, I hope you are wrong about another loss in the next few weeks. (Although, the team will have to play better than they have the last 2 weeks to avoid that). BUT, what I don't get is why attendance has been dropping. Sure, winning and weather both make a difference, but I think something else is going on. A couple of years ago there seemed to be almost an animosity between the coaches (and the team?) and fans. Fans almost seemed tolerated rather than embraced. BUT, that seems to have changed. Bronco seems almost personable, pizza is delivered to fans (students) waiting for tickets, players come to thank the fans in line ... etc. Is it a lingering effect from the earlier years? Am I missing something else? More fans should be in attendance.

Cougs_Rule wrote:
Two games does not an average make in comparison to a Full season.

After a big win fandom was up was up for the DONKS--not to mention that a bunch of DONKS came down to spike attendance. But after two losses, some late starts, and some weather, It's already trending downward. After more bad weather and likely another loss in next few weeks and some weak late season scheduling,expect attendance to be on par with last season and likely lower. Your assertion that "attendance has bounced back" is pretty weak. Sorry to be negative, but attendance isn't going to finish up. The only thing that would have boosted attendance would have been WINNING.

I guess I would counter by pointing out that your assertion that its "already trending downward" is at least as weak as my assertion that attendance is bouncing back since 1 game does not a trend make. I'm hopeful that homecoming will keep attendance at a respectable level but I guess we'll see. I think only having 1 November home game helps attendance since weather is less likely to be a problem in October.

I think there are more students attending due to the magic of the first two games. They had a great time and will come to more games. That BSU game cemented them as fans.

And part of the reason I bothered to look is because the MWC fans were slapping each other's backs for having a conference-wide average of 29,682 so far this year. Still think the MWC is the place to be?

Attendance level at MWC has nothing to do with why I think BYU needs a conference to win and dominate (assuming we get tv rights we want). This formula is working for BSU.

But the largest variable is that BYU has to play very tough schedules and it doesn't now nor has it ever had the depth to compete at the P5 level. BYU will limp through the rest of the year. I wish it did, but I dint think anyone would argue that BYU has a ton of depth.

Anyway, let's see how this season plays out. I dont love the MWC, but not having a Conf title to play for, and now that we ar edit of playoff and NY6 consideration, what is there left to play for? Playing for Cougar pride alone isn't going to get it done year in and year out. It has a half life.

Fido wrote:

Two games does not an average make in comparison to a Full season.

After a big win fandom was up was up for the DONKS--not to mention that a bunch of DONKS came down to spike attendance. But after two losses, some late starts, and some weather, It's already trending downward. After more bad weather and likely another loss in next few weeks and some weak late season scheduling,expect attendance to be on par with last season and likely lower. Your assertion that "attendance has bounced back" is pretty weak. Sorry to be negative, but attendance isn't going to finish up. The only thing that would have boosted attendance would have been WINNING.

I guess I would counter by pointing out that your assertion that its "already trending downward" is at least as weak as my assertion that attendance is bouncing back since 1 game does not a trend make. I'm hopeful that homecoming will keep attendance at a respectable level but I guess we'll see. I think only having 1 November home game helps attendance since weather is less likely to be a problem in October.

Close. You are not comparing the two seasons game by game. You are taking the season as a whole and BYU ha yet to have its lowest projected attendance games of Wagner and Fresno. So, unless something great happens w homecoming or Cincy, at best attendance will be flat. But I fear worse is yet to come.



As for other reasons attendance is down, another variable could also include availability of tv coverage mixed with late start times, weather, mania all but gone which doesn't attract the the fair weather fans that show up if the season looks special.

IMO, attendence is down for a number of reasons:



1) Games on TV. It's easier and in a lot of cases cheaper to watch the games from home. Throw in a DVR and the watching experience just became a whole lot better.

2) Ticket prices. Buying a bunch of single game tickets on the spur of the moment and taking the family out to watch a game has gotten a whole lot pricier.

3) Game time. Since going independent games have been later. For the older fans and fans with younger kids, late games in the cold are not appealing. Factor in traffic and it's a long night.

4) Lack of familiar teams. For the casual fan, it's harder to keep up with BYU and the impact of games as an independent. There's very little familiarity - East Carolina who? Are they any good? Is it worth plopping down $100 to go see BYU play East Carolina?

5) Apathy. IMO, this is the biggest. Win, and all the other reasons go out the window. BYU hasn't done much on the winning side of things to excite people. If we were 5 - 0 right now, BYU would be the hottest ticket in town and we'd be discussing how evil scalpers are.



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Cougs_Rule wrote:

Close. You are not comparing the two seasons game by game. You are taking the season as a whole and BYU ha yet to have its lowest projected attendance games of Wagner and Fresno. So, unless something great happens w homecoming or Cincy, at best attendance will be flat. But I fear worse is yet to come.



As for other reasons attendance is down, another variable could also include availability of tv coverage mixed with late start times, weather, mania all but gone which doesn't attract the the fair weather fans that show up if the season looks special.

Mercy, so you can see going game-by-game from year to year doesn't really line up well.



2014 attendance

Houston 57,630

Virginia 59,023

Utah State 64,090

Nevada 56,355 (Homecoming)

UNLV 53,622

Savannah State 52,123



2015 attendance

Boise State - 63,470

UCONN - 56,393

East Carolina (Homecoming) -

Cincinnati -

Wagner -

Fresno State -



East Carolina and Cincinnati are both pretty good opponents so hopefully fans continue to come out and support the team. Wagner is about as bad as Savannah State was last year so that one may have similar attendance.

Game started at 8:30 on a rainy night. I was there but it was tough with kids. If we were in the mtn west I probably would have gone to bed and got up early to go duck hunting. I can't imagine antendance staying level if we went back. Maybe if they started giving away tickets like the Utes and reporting tickets sold/given rather than people in the seats.



LES is making an effort to make the game day experience better.



(However there's no way there was only 8k empty seats.)



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I think we've had our top two attendance games this season already...

I'm hopeful that this Saturday has good attendance. It is homecoming, East Carolina appears to be a decent team, the weather forecast has been updated to be 80 degrees and sunny, and they have a more favorable 5:30pm start time.

Fido wrote:
I'm hopeful that this Saturday has good attendance. It is homecoming, East Carolina appears to be a decent team, the weather forecast has been updated to be 80 degrees and sunny, and they have a more favorable 5:30pm start time.

The problem with playing a good ECU team is that the only people who truly realize ECU is a decent opponent are probably already planning on attending the game. They have little to no name recognition with casual fans. The casual read-the-des-news fans won't really have any extra motivation to attend this one, especially if they are worried about the headache of getting to and from Provo during homecoming weekend.



Does anyone from out-of-state really attend homecoming anyway?

There looked like a lot more than 56 there Friday night. I expect more people there next week given the time and weather. fans are excited again. only cougar board is pissed that we are 3-2. Casual fans are wearing their BYU gear again and excited to watch Mangum. if we don't lose to cinci or ecu, attendance won't go down much aside from raelly bad weather games and wagner.

And really for Wagner, it is a rare saturday afternoon game with a 1pm start. As long as the weather isn't bad, people should show up.

The biggest difference so far? The student section is showing up like they haven't in years.

Fido wrote:
2014 had the lowest home attendance since 1981 (I believe is the stat I saw) with 57,141--while stadium capacity is listed as 63,725. This year's' games look better than last year so far:

9/12 - Boise State - 63,470

10/2 - UCONN - 56,393

10/10 - East Carolina (Homecoming) - 60,186

10/17 - Cincinnati -

10/24 - Wagner -

11/21 - Fresno State -



Hopefully the numbers for next week are good with homecoming--though I hear there might be some rain again next weekend like there was this past weekend. The 2 game average is 59,931.5 but I'd LOVE to see it top 60k again. Wagner of course will be the lowest attendance I'd bet unless we have a weekend with terrible weather.

Ok, updated the attendance with last night's game. The average is back now over 60k half way through the home schedule. Cincinnati should be another tough matchup with their strong passing game. Hopefully the fans keep coming out. The projections say next week could be mid-70s and cloudy but rains are expected to stay south. It is an ESPN game and a 6pm start so hopefully there is a push to fill the stadium.

Was impressed how full the stadium was on Saturday. Only a few corners looked a little ragged. The royal blue looked good too.

I was very surprised at how many ECU fans were there. They certainly represented well especially after the lack luster showing fan from UCONN. In fact I talked to a group of about 8 guys from New Orleans that came into town 2 days early for a business conference in Salt Lake, but they wanted to catch a football game. They were neither ECU nor BYU fans but just wanted to come experience the game. Pretty cool.