Football Home Opener Attendance

[the artist FKA zipp]

Saturday’s was 47,067.

Prior to Austin Peay, we were averaging 50,806 for the thirteen season openers dating back to the expansion of the stadium to 55,000 in 2010. That omits the Covid season (2020).

Of course, there have been some good teams in the openers. If we just look at the Murray State (twice), Ohio, Houston, Charlotte, Indiana State, and EKU games, the average dropped to 47,729.

Further limiting the data to pre/post 2017 for those seven games, the averages were respectively 51,159 and 43,155. Including all opponents pre/post 2017, the averages were 53,296 and 46,822.

Football attendance took a big hit after 2017, and hasn’t fully recovered esp. considering the new amenities. But the Austin Peay opener was better than we had been averaging recently for a team of that caliber. There were 1,800 more fans Saturday than Brohm’s opener against Murray State last year.

 

[UofLouisville]

Not bad for a holiday weekend.

 

[glassmanJ]

as with the bball team, winning usually solves financial issues as more gate revenue and % of concessions/merch. feet in the door means more money. obviously though, probably higher overhead/operating costs, but better to have more people to offset than not enough to cover. just maintain 9+ win avg.

 

[beantowncard]

as with the bball team, winning usually solves financial issues as more gate revenue and % of concessions/merch. feet in the door means more money. obviously though, probably higher overhead/operating costs, but better to have more people to offset than not enough to cover. just maintain 9+ win avg.

Don’t say that to the Artist. Winning doesn’t mean anything. The only reason we don’t sell out every game is the athletic director, the university president, and anybody else associated with the new “regime”.

 

[UKCoachesGraveyard]

1800 more fans is not bad, a modest improvement. If this team has a season like last year, I expect similarly sized crowds to last year, depending on weather, of course.

 

[fredburgcard]

Noon start, hot humid weather and maybe the worst opponent we have ever faced in a home opener.

 

[Cardsfan69420]

I didn’t think it was that bad but we do have a shocking number of season ticket holders with prime seats that just don’t use their tickets. I hope we go to a system like the Bengals. They track my attendance on my app and you get small perks if you go and for attendance streaks. I believe it also impacts upgrades and parking.
They also revoke tickets for people who don't go or sell all of their tickets but that’s tricky to do when people have been donors for a long time. Hopefully we get to a point where they run out of season tickets and they can implement something like that.

 

[the artist FKA zipp]

1800 more fans is not bad, a modest improvement...

I didn’t think it was that bad but we do have a shocking number of season ticket holders with prime seats that just don’t use their tickets...

U of L reported 40,000 season ticket sales a few weeks ago. (LINK) That's up about two to three thousand from what was reported last year. (LINK)

IMO Saturday's attendance by comparison supports those numbers. As the AD also alluded to in the 2nd link, we're still 5-10 thousand below where we were at our peak in football season ticket sales.

Don’t say that to the Artist. Winning doesn’t mean anything. The only reason we don’t sell out every game is the athletic director, the university president, and anybody else associated with the new “regime”.

I assume you don't think Brohm can improve on what he's doing. Who does that leave as far as responsibility?