Michigan the national attendance leader for 45th time in last 47 years
December 6th, 2018 at 10:58 AM ^
Who led the nation in '97 and '14?
December 6th, 2018 at 11:06 AM ^
I’m betting Tennessee in 97.
December 8th, 2018 at 9:19 AM ^
Good call
December 6th, 2018 at 11:07 AM ^
We were 2nd in 1997 behind Tennessee by just 90 persons. They had only 6 home games while we had 7 that year.
2014, as you know, was basically a civil war between fans and the athletic department. Walk outs were planned on this here site for the PSU game, white out Dave out was planned for Indiana but he was canned the day before. Home schedule was really bad too which led to us being 3rd in the nation behind OSU and Texas A&M with an average of 104,909 per game and only 95.5% full.
Save 2014, The Big House has averaged being filled to capacity every season since 1976.
The highest % full oddly enough was 1997 with 103.9%.
December 6th, 2018 at 11:50 AM ^
1997 isn't odd to me. Tennessee had just completed its full upper deck and had a very good team (Peyton's senior year, natch) and Michigan was just not big enough to beat them in attendance. But it was, of course, a great year for Michigan football, with Gameday on site twice, home games against Colorado and ND and OSU, and incredible press demand for a team gunning for a Heisman and a national title.
Of course, Tom Goss then initiated the expansion (and, regrettably, the halo) after the season and Tennessee never sniffed the title again.
Though it feels like it, Michigan hasn't always had the biggest stadium. The Rose Bowl was bigger for a long time, until they chopped out the corners to host the World Cup in 1994. Then there was Tennessee for a cup of coffee.
Michigan Stadium isn't great and notable just because of its capacity. Note the capacity percentages on that list--even Alabama isn't at 100%. Michigan Stadium is the Big House because of the fans as much as any other factor.
December 6th, 2018 at 12:39 PM ^
"for a cup of coffee" - Rod Allen(?)
Nice perspective.
December 6th, 2018 at 12:55 PM ^
I always liked that story of how Tennessee had the bigger stadium for a short time in the 1990s. And them Michigan was like, "Oh, you have a bigger stadium now. I see. We'll take care that."
And then they lowered the field to install more seats.
December 6th, 2018 at 1:49 PM ^
Pretty sure we also sent them some blueprints for a possible stadium expansion. Upper deck or something. As if to say, don't bother, we're not letting this one go.
December 6th, 2018 at 11:00 AM ^
What the hell? We missed two years?
December 6th, 2018 at 11:02 AM ^
I can understand not winning in 1997. Our football team sucked that year.
December 6th, 2018 at 11:07 AM ^
Yet another thing people associated with Tennessee's athletic department took from the Michigan football program that year.
December 6th, 2018 at 11:03 AM ^
People overreacting to one loss and the rise of our basketball program have been asking "is Michigan a basketball school now?"
As long as we have numbers like this, we are not just a football school, but THE football school.
December 6th, 2018 at 12:50 PM ^
For folks who only consume M sports through a screen (because we are most likely out of town) the two sports are pretty close in popularity for us mentally. In fact, for those of us in the DC area we get more good basketball here (B1G tourney in 2017 and I think NCAAs here in 2019 (a 1 seed UM team could start here potentially)).
December 6th, 2018 at 11:04 AM ^
In 2014 we were 3rd behind OSU and TA&M.
In 1997, Tennessee beat us by 90 fans a game.
December 6th, 2018 at 11:06 AM ^
Someone, somewhere has information about gameday ticket scans, and from what I hear it's quite a different story.
December 6th, 2018 at 11:09 AM ^
Very true, but I would imagine that applies to every school on this list. All probably inflated to some degree.
December 6th, 2018 at 11:10 AM ^
i’d be willing to guess that every school uses a number which accounts for everyone else in the stadium and not just ticket scans.
these last few years i don’t have any doubt that we led the nation in attendance; the rr/late hoke years are a totally different story - those numbers must’ve been fake as hell
December 6th, 2018 at 11:34 AM ^
This has always been a complaint, but Michigan does the same thing every other school does - follow NCAA guidance on how to count attendance. They use the number of tickets sold, the number of credentialed media and guests, and include a number for band members and cheerleaders (which, I believe, is a set figure for all schools).
They don't rely on game day scans showing exactly how many people are in actual seats that day. No school does that...
December 6th, 2018 at 12:55 PM ^
Correct, these numbers are misreported as "attendance". According to the WSJ article earlier in the year I think, Michigan's actual % of scanned tickets was around 80% - which was good compared to many other schools. These numbers are really tickets sold/distributed plus some allowance for others in the stadium (band, workers, staff, etc.)
December 6th, 2018 at 11:10 AM ^
who cares? feels like we lost to OSU for the 45th time in the last 47 years.
December 6th, 2018 at 11:13 AM ^
They care because their athletic department celebrated it all over their social media in 2014 when they led for the first time ever.
Michigan also won 10 other games this season and is ranked in the top-10.
December 6th, 2018 at 1:15 PM ^
I thought you of all people valued beating OSU. Seems like everyone is adjusting their expectations.
December 6th, 2018 at 11:40 AM ^
I'd prefer more wins, but that might be just me.
December 6th, 2018 at 11:52 AM ^
These numbers are all bogus anyway. we artificially inflate the numbers weekly counting sold tickets, staff, band,and media.
December 6th, 2018 at 5:14 PM ^
This is exactly right! What did the recent FOIA show? I think it was at least 20% of reported attendance did not actually show up at the game, that’s a big number.
December 6th, 2018 at 11:57 AM ^
Frankly, I'm impressed with the fan endurance of Tennessee considering they've been bad for a decade now. They've gotta be on Fandom Endurance Badge XVI or something by now
December 6th, 2018 at 11:57 AM ^
Seems like we should be able to get up to at least 105% based on the number of empty seats that I see even when they announce a number like 110,000 at the game. It would be more honest if this was called "tickets sold" rather than "Attendance".
December 6th, 2018 at 12:13 PM ^
And we contributed to that 3 times this past fall! Go Blue!
December 6th, 2018 at 12:27 PM ^
Where is Nebraska?
December 6th, 2018 at 12:50 PM ^
North of Kansas.
December 6th, 2018 at 12:49 PM ^
Others can say what they want about Michigan fans being "arrogant" or "entitled." One thing they can't say is that we don't show up to support our team!
GO BLUE!
December 6th, 2018 at 1:09 PM ^
It is more about winning with me than stadium size or consecutive bowl appearances!
December 6th, 2018 at 1:12 PM ^
Would be nice if all those in attendance year after year could see us best Ohio State once in a while.
December 6th, 2018 at 1:15 PM ^
Using data from Wikipedia, I compared the average home attendance of the teams we played away this year (without UM) to the attendance when UM came to visit. Fill the Stadium! (except in NJ where we hope everyone watches on cable I guess)
ND was not included because they lamely list all their games at the stadium capacity of 77,622. On the B1G site, they list the UM at ND attendance as 80795 but other sources just say 77,622 for all of their games (including UM)
December 6th, 2018 at 1:21 PM ^
Tennessee can have 1997 Attendance Title..we got everything else that year
December 6th, 2018 at 4:12 PM ^
Funny because its admitted that our numbers are made up
December 8th, 2018 at 10:38 PM ^
Fucking yay!!! Have we beat Ohio State yet? Let us know when that happens. Fucking stupid accomplishments that don’t mean a fucking thing.