An average gameday crowd at the Scheu
Yesterday on PhilSteele.com, the college football guru released some actual data about attendance for the previous 2010 season. If you’re a sadist, go ahead and click on that link and be prepared to scroll… and scroll… and scroll some more to get to the paltry figure turned in by BSU. Someone had to be last, I guess, so being the best at being the worst is sort of a badge of honor, right? Right?!? The Cards clocked in at 120 out of 120 in terms of paid asses in the seats, with a surprisingly low 8,947 per game. That’s low even for MAC standards and equates out to about 39% capacity on average at the Scheu. Additionally, BSU is the only FBS program to average under 10k per game. The reasons for this are of course plentiful and valid, beginning with a weaker home schedule and more losses than wins but ranking last in FBS in attendance, despite the lack of a great stadium experience is just a bit disappointing. Coach Lembo has said all along what a “challenge” his rebuilding job at Ball State would be, and I’d say that sub-40% crowds are example A of just how much of a task this is going to be.
The positive from all of this is next year will be drastically different assuming the numbers for the Indiana game at Lucas Oil Field actually count towards our “home” attendance. You know, assuming we can get more than 8900 people in there.
Filed under: Ball State |
Over The Pylon 
Our numbers have been pretty pathetic for sure, but I find it EXTREMELY difficult to believe that we were dead last for 2 reasons. First, I think that whoever is in charge of counting on game day is screwing it up somehow. During the last 2 games of the season, I can see how we had 5-8k at the games, but the early season attendance looked to be more in the 75% capacity range.
Second, there is NO WAY that Eastern Michigan had more people at the games. I’ve heard that they have a “Superbooster” that buys up a bunch of the seats and, of course, the school gets to count those purchased seats as “attendees”, when in reality they have like 2,000 people actually there.
I’m curious how the report gets its numbers and what some of the schools do to actually count fans.
Schools get to count however they want, be it tickets sold or butts in seats. Most opt for the former. If it were the latter, EMU would definitely be last, but I hear they sell blocks of unused seats to one of their sponsors for a buck each to pad their totals.