November 17th, 2008 at 8:39 AM ^
According to the box score. I doubt that...
November 17th, 2008 at 8:50 AM ^
From where I was sitting, it definitely looked over 100K, but I think the official number might have been kind of high. It was actually pretty full before halftime.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:21 AM ^
I think that 107,000 number is the number of tickets sold. I was surprised at how many people were there to start the game, although there were many empty seats.
Another weird thing was that they couldn't even count the tickets of the people entering the gates because those scanner thingys weren't working. When you walked through the gates it was littered with ticket stubs. There's not way in H they counted the stubs.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:40 AM ^
what about those three bar people counting things?
November 17th, 2008 at 9:41 AM ^
I have no idea what that means.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:43 AM ^
i assume turnstiles. i dont think those are very efficient either.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:49 AM ^
OHHHHHHH that's what he means! That's funny.........you know I didn't think of the turnstiles.
November 17th, 2008 at 10:01 AM ^
i thought turnstiles were full size revolving gates. didn't realize the three bar things are turnstiles too
November 17th, 2008 at 10:10 AM ^
....fractured knee cap and all.....and I cant tell you that there were not 100,000 fans there when the game kicked off or at any point in the game.
A Big BOOOOOO to the students who did not show up....I have never seen the student section as empty as it was on Saturday.....a big CHEER for the students who did show up as well as everyone else.
But, other than wide swaths of the student section, I did not see too many empty areas of the stadium.
November 17th, 2008 at 10:27 AM ^
The lack of students in the student section allowed me to jump up 30 rows. I was also wearing a cloth sweatshirt that got soaking wet from snow, so I am now sick from not only watching that game, but for standing in the damn cold weather to do so. Also I believe the # is based on the tickets scanned, not the turnstiles. Both bands and all the people on the sidelines go towards the attendance number as well.
November 17th, 2008 at 10:36 AM ^
You can buy disposable rain ponchos in the camping section at Meijer, Wal-Mart, Target, and other retailers.
November 17th, 2008 at 10:54 AM ^
when they announced 107856 when there were clearly less than 70 or 80000 in the stadium at that point it made me wonder: who would ever know if we just made it up? answer: no one outside of the AD probably
November 17th, 2008 at 11:04 AM ^
..Except they didn't announced 107,856 at the game. They announced the attended was 100,085.
November 17th, 2008 at 11:21 AM ^
Huh? WTF? The stadium board clearly showed 107k and change and everyone around me was like "uhhhh not so much."
Where did you get the 100,085 as "announced"? That doesn't make any sense.
November 17th, 2008 at 11:33 AM ^
The weather was bad Saturday, but not nearly as bad as the Purdue game in 1995. The wind was whipping the freezing rain around so hard that it hurt to leave your face exposed. M won 5-0, and it was amazing we ever made that field goal. I got my tickets from one of the coaches, and he later said, "you actually went?"
The announced attendance for that game was 103,721, but at no time was the place close to even being half full. The attendance figure was clearly fabricated. I don't think they will let the official number drop below 100k as long as the seats actually get sold.
November 17th, 2008 at 11:44 AM ^
I managed to make it through the whole game, along with my wife, who is an NU fan by the way.
When the weather is that bad, the number of people in the seats at any given time isn't reflective of how many people are in the stadium. Many are huddling together, taking up less space than usual. Many are in the concourse or bathroom getting warm. Some just leave halfway through the game. I felt like there were over 107,000 who passed through the turnstiles at some point, but there were never than many in their seats at any one time during the game.
They did announce over 107,000 in the second half on the scoreboard.
The attendance is based on turnstiles, which is how you can have more people there than tickets available. There are only 107,501 tickets and every game is higher than that. They count every media member, every band member, every player, every support staff person.
I was a student for that 5-0 Purdue game. That's the only one I remember being worse than Saturday.
November 17th, 2008 at 11:49 AM ^
Yeah, my stepson spent the entire second half of that Purdue game in the bathroom standing under a heater. (Was that bad parenting?)
But I'm still skeptical of that 1995 number. Not that we'll ever know unless someone makes a deathbed confession or turns on the program to make a buck.
November 17th, 2008 at 1:12 PM ^
They base it on tickets sold. They'll announce 100,000+ K even if 20 people show up.
I can recall at least five occasions over the years where it was blatently obvious that there were not 100,000 people in the stadium at any time during the game.
BUT, I think all schools do this. For all you mischevious hackers out there . . . the real turnstile numbers are out there somewhere. Find them and tell 60 Minutes.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:22 PM ^
I attended the game on Sat. but my ticket stub got destroyed from the rain and snow. I like to collect the ticket stubs of the games I attend, does anyone have a ticket stub laying around they do not care about that they could mail my way. Thanks.