Michigan Spring Game attendance history

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

Since I recently finished up compiling the complete history of the Spring Game as far as the results go, I've now moved on to the attendance totals which I noticed along the way researching of them being reported.

Now I'm going back, year-by-year and trying to find the attendance for each game. 

So far I've found every year's attendance save two going back to 1975. Then there's a large gap between attendance being reported prior to 1975. 

Here's what I've got so far-

Date Attendance Result Prev. Season Record
4/19/1975 5,300 17-3 Blue 10-1
4/17/1976 7,000 13-0 White 8-2-2
4/16/1977 7,000 35-24 Blue 10-2
4/15/1978 5,000 15-14 Blue 10-2
4/14/1979 5,000 21-0 Blue 10-2
4/19/1980 8,000 35-7 Blue 8-4
4/18/1981 9,750 19-18 White 10-2
4/17/1982 8,102 10-6 Blue 9-3
4/16/1983 4,500 16-8 Blue 8-4
4/14/1984 2,000 18-15 White 9-3
4/20/1985 12,500 27-20 Blue 6-6
4/19/1986 15,000 18-13 White 10-1-1
4/18/1987 20,000 20-17 White 11-2
4/16/1988 15,000 20-17 White 8-4
4/15/1989 20,000 24-17 Blue 9-2-1
4/21/1990 18,000 31-6 White 10-2
1991 Cancelled (Poor field conditions)
4/11/1992 8,000 14-12 White 10-2
4/10/1993 16,000 21-20 White 9-0-3
4/9/1994 20,000 10-6 White 8-4
4/8/1995 8,000 45-44 White 8-4
1996 Cancelled (Poor field conditions)
4/12/1997 4,000 22-20 White 8-4
4/18/1998 25,000 20-17 White 12-0
4/14/2001 15,000 21-7 White 9-3
4/13/2002 25,000 No Score Kept 8-4
2003 Cancelled (Poor field conditions)
4/10/2004 18,000 No Score Kept 10-3
4/16/2005 10,000 No Score Kept 9-3
4/17/2006 15,000 No Score Kept 7-5
4/14/2007 5,500 42-41 White 11-2
4/12/2008   2,500* No Score Kept 9-4
4/11/2009 50,000 No Score Kept 3-9
4/17/2010 35,000 49-37 Blue 5-7
4/16/2011 25,000 14-7 Blue 7-6
4/14/2012 25,000 17-0 Blue 11-2
4/13/2013 18,000 No Score Kept 8-5
4/5/2014 15,000 No Score Kept 7-6
4/4/2015 60,000 7-0 Blue 5-7
4/1/2016 35,000 14-13 Maize 10-3

Italics indicate SCRIMMAGE
*2008 Spring Game was invitation-only at Saline High School

 

Prior to 2009, the 1998 attendance of 25,000 was the record because 20,000 was the record according to the Michigan Daily in 1987.

 

BeatOSU52

April 14th, 2017 at 7:24 PM ^

Interesting the huge record spike that happened in 2009, especially with a non-score game. Everyone must've wanted to see early enrollee Tate.



As for tomorrow's prediction , I agree with the above poster of about 50,000.

BoFlex

April 15th, 2017 at 1:44 AM ^

I think recruits care a little bit. If you're a highly impressionable 16-18 year old, it is probably pretty impressive to see 100K+ people come out to see a glorified practice. The "hype factor" easily be sold to a recruit, "if our fans are this passionate about watching a practice, imagine how wild they'll be for a game!"

But yes, in the overall grand scheme of things it matters very little, but it can give that initial foot in the door with a recruit.

Lil boy blue

April 14th, 2017 at 10:10 PM ^

Packed house would be better

Recruits rave about the atmosphere during the season. Giving a dose of that couldn't hurt our chances with guys who might otherwise never make it back.

The charity drive idea is brilliant

StephenRKass

April 15th, 2017 at 4:05 AM ^

"If you build it, they will come."

When WD says (of OSU attendance) "No one cares," that's not quite true. Michigan fans care. We care about the optics for recruits, and even for athletes. But Jim Harbaugh gets it.

I'm sure Spring Game attendance will be growing. It doesn't happen overnight, however. Michigan will undoubtedly do some unique things that no one else has thought of before. Remember, this is Jim Harbaugh. At the same time, I'm also sure Michigan can learn a few things from other big time schools who attract huge crowds to their Spring game. The trick is to do this in ways that are very attractive to the Michigan fan base, and avoid the shtick (think Dave Brandon) that Michigan fans want to avoid.

rob f

April 15th, 2017 at 9:28 AM ^

back in the late 70s thru mid 90's?

I went to quite a few of those and, while (for obvious reasons) the '98 Spring Game had more attendance than any I had seen prior, I'd swear many of those others had attendance over 20,000.