OT - Bowl Attendance
So I was looking back over the different bowl games today with a co-worker. We were discussing which games really caught our interest and which ones were duds. Seeing that we are in Ft. Worth we bowl paid attention and loved the competitive Rose bowl. We also thought the OSU/Arkansas game and Florida/PennSt game were worth the watch.
Then we got talking about attendance and this is where we were amazed at how poorly the games were attended. Below is a graph of the games for this past bowl season (capacity and actual attendance.)
Interesting fact is that the Texas 5A Div 1 high school championship game had 43,321 in attendance at JerryWorld - which is great than 16 of the 35 bowl games.
I got the list from Helmet Stickers at http://helmetstickers.blogspot.com/2011/01/2010-2011-bowl-attendance-figures.html.
|
Bowl |
Attendance |
Capacity |
|
New Mexico Bowl |
32,424 |
38,634 |
|
uDrove Humanitarian Bowl |
25,449 |
33,500 |
|
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl |
29,159 |
72,968 |
|
Beef 'O' Bradys Bowl St. Petersburg |
20,017 |
42,735 |
|
Maaco Bowl Las Vegas |
41,923 |
36,800 |
|
San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl |
48,049 |
71,294 |
|
Sheraton Hawaii Bowl |
43,673 |
50,000 |
|
Little Caesars Pizza Bowl |
32,431 |
65,000 |
|
AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl |
39,362 |
53,000 |
|
Champs Sports Bowl |
48,962 |
70,000 |
|
Insight Bowl |
53,453 |
73,379 |
|
Military Bowl |
38,062 |
45,596 |
|
Texas Bowl |
68,211 |
71,500 |
|
Valero Alamo Bowl |
57,593 |
65,000 |
|
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl |
36,742 |
32,000 |
|
New Era Pinstripe Bowl |
38,274 |
54,251 |
|
Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl |
69,143 |
69,143 |
|
Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl |
57,921 |
71,294 |
|
Meineke Car Care Bowl |
41,122 |
73,778 |
|
Hyundai Sun Bowl |
54,021 |
51,500 |
|
AutoZone Liberty Bowl |
51,231 |
62,380 |
|
Chick-fil-A Bowl |
72,217 |
71,228 |
|
TicketCity Bowl |
40,121 |
92,100 |
|
Capital One Bowl |
61,519 |
70,000 |
|
Outback Bowl |
60,574 |
65,857 |
|
Progressive Gator Bowl |
77,497 |
84,000 |
|
Rose Bowl |
94,118 |
92,542 |
|
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl |
67,232 |
72,200 |
|
Discover Orange Bowl |
65,453 |
75,192 |
|
Allstate Sugar Bowl |
73,879 |
72,968 |
|
GoDaddy.com Bowl |
38,168 |
40,646 |
|
AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic |
83,514 |
80,000 |
|
BBVA Compass Bowl |
41,207 |
71,594 |
|
Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl |
41,063 |
41,915 |
|
Tostitos BCS National Championship Game |
78,603 |
72,200 |
January 13th, 2011 at 9:45 PM ^
OMG
You wouldn't suggest people might attend more at an actual home game right?
edit: inb4 talkin' bout playoffs
January 13th, 2011 at 9:46 PM ^
What are we OMGing?
January 13th, 2011 at 10:01 PM ^
it's possible that bowls might not be as great as home games would be, even money-wise.
Honestly, I don't see why bowl games would even need to be eliminated. Maybe don't do the home games, but just call the semifinals the Sugar and Orange or Fiesta and Rose bowls (rotate maybe?).
Whoever doesn't make these playoffs would still play in bowls, and they would operate like normal. We still would've been in the Gator bowl against NTMSU, and the sponsors would still all get their money.
God, I know this is "for another time, grasshopper," but it just peeves me off
January 14th, 2011 at 7:25 AM ^
Maybe Kevin's boss letter jacket?
January 13th, 2011 at 9:44 PM ^
I learned one thing from this: Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl takes their attendance numbers very seriously.
January 13th, 2011 at 9:47 PM ^
Not for nothing, but it's expensive to dedicate 2-4 days (hotel stays, flights, car rental). Times are tough, can you blame folks?
Interesting nonetheless. The Gator Bowl... that's pretty impressive IMO. I would have gone if I wasn't in Puerto Rico.
January 13th, 2011 at 9:50 PM ^
I agree - really can't blame folks, with the current economy, but I was still surprised to think that there are that many empty seats.
January 13th, 2011 at 9:57 PM ^
The economics of bowl games are not driven by who actually shows up at the stadium.
That's too bad, cause there are too many of them.
January 13th, 2011 at 10:02 PM ^
How was it? We were considering going there for SB, but weren't sure if people would actually be there.
January 13th, 2011 at 9:54 PM ^
Sorry for the Post-Jack...I needed to humor myself today. =]
(source: Michael Phelps Smokes the Olympics)
January 13th, 2011 at 9:48 PM ^
I don't care how bad the attendance was, I think all bowls should be called "The Beef O'Brady's Bowl"!
January 13th, 2011 at 9:52 PM ^
|
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl |
36,742 |
32,000 |
Were they hanging off the damn things watching the game...I mean there's Ann Arbor shoehorning the fans in but that's 10 percent more crowd...
January 13th, 2011 at 9:49 PM ^
Yea Gator bowl didn't seem that full, I had a least 7 empty seats right next to me in my row and about 7 or 8 in the row in front of me
January 13th, 2011 at 10:25 PM ^
January 13th, 2011 at 9:50 PM ^
I dunno man....I look at those attendance figures and see pretty damn good numbers with just a couple of exceptions. Maybe i'm a glass half full kinda guy but with the exception of the Ticket City Bowl I see pretty good attendance.
January 13th, 2011 at 9:54 PM ^
|
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl |
29,159 |
72,968 |
|
Beef 'O' Bradys Bowl St. Petersburg |
20,017 |
42,735 |
not so hot there.
January 13th, 2011 at 10:01 PM ^
OK you got me. The epic match up of the tradiional rivals and football powers Ohio and Troy didnt draw very well nor did the always popular Louisville and Southern Mississippi. Normally when any of those four football powers show up it's an instant sell-out so I could see where the OP assumed attendance figures were down.
January 13th, 2011 at 9:53 PM ^
The horrible corporate naming rights.
The Beef A Roni Chick Fil Helicopter Nacho Salsa Frank Heritage Sun Cotton Bowl, who the hell wants to see that? The uDrove With No GD Humanitarian Insurance Bowl? Really?
January 13th, 2011 at 9:53 PM ^
Wow, I was there and I would not have guessed that number. There were empty seats as far as the eye could see. And, our fans were severely outnumbered. I'll never get the sound of cowbells out of my head.
January 13th, 2011 at 10:00 PM ^
Enron-like accounting is used for attendance, and includes tickets sold, the bands, the teams, the refs, the ushers, people who strongly considered going, and people who walked by and were curious about what was happening.
January 13th, 2011 at 10:04 PM ^
wasn't 75% full.
Maybe number are tickets sold.
I had 6-12 seat empty around me on 2nd tier 30 yd line
January 13th, 2011 at 10:06 PM ^
I have heard before that it is tickets sold which would make the attendance records even worse.
January 13th, 2011 at 10:20 PM ^
Definitely plenty of empties, but if we were outnumbered I didn't think it was by all that much. I feel like we represented Michigan pretty well.
Those cowbells were horrible.
January 13th, 2011 at 10:47 PM ^
I was at the Gator Bowl and though Michigan had a great turnout considering the game really meant nothing. I would guess 55% Mississippi and 45% Michigan.
...and the cowbells were like nails on a blackboard. A Mississippi State fan was trying to get around my son and yelled "Step aside, partner". It was at this moment he realized he wasn't in Kansas anymore.
January 13th, 2011 at 10:05 PM ^
Don't they also include the tickets that the schools are contractually obligated to purchase and resell through packages? If a school doesn't sell them all they are still responsible for the tickets but that could lead to empty seats.