The truth about football attendance...

[zipp]

I haven't seen much discussion about the recent WDRB hatchet pieces on football attendance. (I'm not linking them, but they're easy to find at the moment.) Hopefully, U of L fans have become pretty skeptical about fake news in the media esp. when it's motivated by a circus clown like Schnatter. You can't just take as is data and draw the conclusions they're making. Too many biases like schedule, weather, etc.

For example, I looked at reported attendance numbers to try to screen out schedule bias. That's best accomplished by only considering teams that repeat on the home schedule, those being the ACC teams and LPT. Going back four years since joining the ACC, there are eight such opponents: Clemson, Boston College, Virginia, Syracuse, FSU, NC State, Wake Forest, and the slapd!cks. The first four were on the home schedule in 2015 and 2017, the latter four in 2014 and 2016. Average home attendance announced by U of L for these eight teams in 2014-2015 was 50,812. For the same eight teams in 2016-2017, it was 49,683. That's an average decline of 2.2% over a period of two years, with each team appearing every other year. The annualized decline would therefore be sl. more than one percent controlling for schedule strength.

I doubt you're going to find anyone knowledgeable on stadium metrics nationally tell you that's a significant or meaningful trend. And that's without further analysis on factors like competing events, time of day or day of the week, weather, or a team's strength in a given year. If you're gonna conclude that fewer U of L fans wanna attend games, all of those factors need to be considered in data that result from an uncontrolled study.

But the agenda with some at the moment is to reflect negatively on the prior regime. We certainly know that's Schnatter's agenda...

 

[gocds]

I wonder how much of the public’s tax dollars are going into this expansion project? In fact, I have to wonder how many tax dollars actually went into the original construction OR the 1st expansion. Since these were ALL paid for by public donations and bond issues which, to this point, have been repaid what’s the major rub here. I can report that the WDRB writer is an Alabama grad and a fan of the $ec. Plus I can see snotter’s hands all over this. He’s still pissed that the YUM is called the YUM. I won’t use his initials any longer with our CARDINAL STADIUM. I do not eat his so called “best ingredients” pizza any longer (since last year) and I won’t forever. I know this is simply a point in my favor that doesn’t dent that company’s bottom line but it’s MY point. And yes, there are at least 2,000 folks on the party deck each game and sometimes more so I’ll choose to figure that those are a lot of the empty seats. Attendance is down across the board in college football. If you’ll remember, during the Penn State scandal even their beloved stadium had many, many empty seats. We’ll be fine and our BOT will also pass like a bad meal. Yeah, I know, the sooner rather than later.

GO CARDS - BEAT EVERYBODY!!! God Bless America!!

 

[Chapman123]

I wonder how much of the public’s tax dollars are going into this expansion project? In fact, I have to wonder how many tax dollars actually went into the original construction OR the 1st expansion. Since these were ALL paid for by public donations and bond issues which, to this point, have been repaid what’s the major rub here. I can report that the WDRB writer is an Alabama grad and a fan of the $ec. Plus I can see snotter’s hands all over this. He’s still pissed that the YUM is called the YUM. I won’t use his initials any longer with our CARDINAL STADIUM. I do not eat his so called “best ingredients” pizza any longer (since last year) and I won’t forever. I know this is simply a point in my favor that doesn’t dent that company’s bottom line but it’s MY point. And yes, there are at least 2,000 folks on the party deck each game and sometimes more so I’ll choose to figure that those are a lot of the empty seats. Attendance is down across the board in college football. If you’ll remember, during the Penn State scandal even their beloved stadium had many, many empty seats. We’ll be fine and our BOT will also pass like a bad meal. Yeah, I know, the sooner rather than later.

GO CARDS - BEAT EVERYBODY!!! God Bless America!!

The "empty seats" thing they are reporting is literally the tickets scanned. Party deck plays no role in that.

 

[ville 77]

I haven't seen much discussion about the recent WDRB hatchet pieces on football attendance. (I'm not linking them, but they're easy to find at the moment.) Hopefully, U of L fans have become pretty skeptical about fake news in the media esp. when it's motivated by a circus clown like Schnatter. You can't just take as is data and draw the conclusions they're making. Too many biases like schedule, weather, etc.

For example, I looked at reported attendance numbers to try to screen out schedule bias. That's best accomplished by only considering teams that repeat on the home schedule, those being the ACC teams and LPT. Going back four years since joining the ACC, there are eight such opponents: Clemson, Boston College, Virginia, Syracuse, FSU, NC State, Wake Forest, and the slapd!cks. The first four were on the home schedule in 2015 and 2017, the latter four in 2014 and 2016. Average home attendance announced by U of L for these eight teams in 2014-2015 was 50,812. For the same eight teams in 2016-2017, it was 49,683. That's an average decline of 2.2% over a period of two years, with each team appearing every other year. The annualized decline would therefore be sl. more than one percent controlling for schedule strength.

I doubt you're going to find anyone knowledgeable on stadium metrics nationally tell you that's a significant or meaningful trend. And that's without further analysis on factors like competing events, time of day or day of the week, weather, or a team's strength in a given year. If you're gonna conclude that fewer U of L fans wanna attend games, all of those factors need to be considered in data that result from an uncontrolled study.

But the agenda with some at the moment is to reflect negatively on the prior regime. We certainly know that's Schnatter's agenda...[/QUOTE

We have had the same stories before they built PJ and before they expanded in phase 2. Just like before UL will sell out big games and struggle to fill the place for bad weather and lesser opponent games. In the end just like in phase 2 the Suites, Club Seats and naming rights pay for the expansion and tickets sold is just a bonus. When you think about it they have already raised the majority of the funds for this project. You could say the remaining money is for the football complex expansion which is a big part of this.

Another little nugget is that UK spent 116 mil Kroger Stadium shrinking while UL spent only 126 mil to expand PJ twice and do a massive upgrade on the football complex. I never have figure out how UK gets so little bag for the buck.

 

[CardsFirst]

The more I thought about this my response is “So what” what should we change; nothing except maybe market better. WDRB like every other local news agency is trying to find every way they can to kick us when we’re down.

Now everyone should understand why Jurich treated the local media like he did......they deserved it.

 

[STLNBSE]

Media and attention grabbing headlines. Reporting the reality often fails to garner a notice.

 

[zipp]

The more I thought about this my response is “So what” what should we change; nothing except maybe market better. WDRB like every other local news agency is trying to find every way they can to kick us when we’re down...

My guess is you're going to see the clown show trying to benefit from this issue even though it focuses on the university they represent. The reasoning will be that overbuilding and over-investment reflects negatively on the prior regime, exactly what they want.

I'm not trying to smear anyone else, but my personal experience is that SID Kenny Klein has always defended the numbers his office reports. That's NOT the impression I get reading these articles. I'm not now pointing the finger at KK, but keep in mind who he reports to...

 

[Kratz]

You also have to look at the schedule last season. We had tougher schedules in CUSA. With the exception of Clemson, that home schedule wasn't worthy of a P-5 school.

Couple that with an underperforming team and some people stayed home. I admit, I gave my tickets away a couple of times.

 

[Knucklehank1]

My guess is you're going to see the clown show trying to benefit from this issue even though it focuses on the university they represent. The reasoning will be that overbuilding and over-investment reflects negatively on the prior regime, exactly what they want.

I'm not trying to smear anyone else, but my personal experience is that SID Kenny Klein has always defended the numbers his office reports. That's NOT the impression I get reading these articles. I'm not now pointing the finger at KK, but keep in mind who he reports to...

I think Tyra brings a consumer-centric mind- set to the position. So my hope is that he looks at the issue from a consumer perspective (ie: why are fans staying away and how can we enhance the fan experience to drive attendance). Jurich was a genius at getting big fish to buy expensive seats. He also was good at appealing to those that liked to drink and was great at getting promotional advertising dollars. However I think that his blind spot was making the game experience better for the fan that isn’t quite as passionate or isn’t able to afford luxury seats. I know that Tyra has been meeting with other ADs to get their thoughts/input on many things, including fan engagement.

Here are some ideas I’ve seen or heard:

- better food options (ie FSU had Chik-Fil-A)
- inexpensive food options(the new dome in Atlanta slashed food prices and saw its food revenue go up
- FSU had misting stations and water bottle refills for warm games
- FSU had a big fan gathering area right next to the stadium (it’s a great way to get fans into the stadium early because they aren’t lingering at their tailgate)
- Clemson doesn’t bombard you with advertisements and they replay every play on video board including controversial calls
- once per year Chicago Bears season ticket holders are given a sideline pass to experience warmups on the field prior to the game

 

[wilkie01]

Well, we need to turn the game atmosphere and get rid of the Disco atmosphere that currently is occuring at Cardinal Stadium. Also, we need a band and Cheerleaders that understand when to cheer amd play in a football game. Football is not like basketball! We Louisville football fans must demand this change be made, if we are to sell out and win at the P5 level.

 

[STLNBSE]

You also have to look at the schedule last season. We had tougher schedules in CUSA. With the exception of Clemson, that home schedule wasn't worthy of a P-5 school.

Couple that with an underperforming team and some people stayed home. I admit, I gave my tickets away a couple of times.

True. Murray and Kent were unwatchable and Syracuse was a monsoon.

 

[wilkie01]

Agree, we need to schedule like this for out of conference games:

Kentucky SEC
Big 12 Team
Big 10 team
PAC 12 team

I am tire of us scheduling "cupcake" teams.

 

[zipp]

If you look at the data quoted in the Chris Otts article, it shows that for the 2017 Clemson game, there were only 46K tickets scanned. Not sure how many of you attended that game in person. To imply that there were actually 9K empty seats is comical.

Here's the youtube video of the game, and I encourage you to look at the crowd shots at the beginning of that game and later in the first half if you have time to cue around. It was wall-to-wall fans in a blackout game. The orange backdrop for one large area were the five thousand or so Clemson fans who traveled up for the game.



I recall game tickets for sale on Stubhub at the time for hundreds of dollars. Why would 9K people leave tickets unused for that kinda money? Makes zero sense.

This one stat undermines Otts' complete analysis. If his approach can yield that sort of ridiculous number, it discredits everything else he published. But it fits nicely with a clown agenda to discredit the stadium architects. Be careful gulping down what gets published as "data" and "analysis"...

 

[Rollem Cards]

I was there.

Paid $500 (IIRC) for two extra tickets (club seating) from a gent on this board.

It was packed.

But there have been a lot more that my lying eyes said it wasn't.

Like Zipp, a lot of people are going to quit buying high dollar seats for MOST games when they can get them for next to nothing at the stadium.

Times are changing. FANS are changing. Ticket prices have about maxed IMO, vs the 60" HDTV, cheap concessions, wi-fi, and perfect environment of home, or even a bar.

Stadiums/schools/venues need to get the consumer back. Raising prices ain't the answer.

 

[CardsFirst]

The more I thought about this my response is “So what” what should we change; nothing except maybe market better. WDRB like every other local news agency is trying to find every way they can to kick us when we’re down...

My guess is you're going to see the clown show trying to benefit from this issue even though it focuses on the university they represent. The reasoning will be that overbuilding and over-investment reflects negatively on the prior regime, exactly what they want.

I'm not trying to smear anyone else, but my personal experience is that SID Kenny Klein has always defended the numbers his office reports. That's NOT the impression I get reading these articles. I'm not now pointing the finger at KK, but keep in mind who he reports to...

I think this is spot on. As I said in another post I bet UofL setup the interview.

 

[Knucklehank1]

I believe the numbers that Chris Otts used were per an Open Records Request, so I doubt that they were manipulated. The Clemson numbers definitely look off though, so you have to assume that there was faulty scanning equipment or some other issue with the initial data collection. Regardless, it is irrefutable that we were nowhere close to capacity for any other game. And that has been the norm for more games than not. And this is something even schools in the SEC are facing. So the question becomes, how do you approach this problem? First step is to take a consumer-centric approach. In fact, I'd suggest that the athletic department staffers bring their spouse to a game, start out in the green lot, come in the same gates as the masses of fans and watch a game from somewhere in Row Z or further back. Take note of issues, make observations and create solutions to improve the experience. I'd also suggest they better engage the students to come up with creative ideas to get students into the game. Doing things the same old way isn't going to get things done.

 

[zipp]

I have separately corresponded with Chris about his numbers, and he acknowledges that at least the Clemson number is questionable. He asked me about the reliability of the scanning process, and I commented to him on my experience. I've never witnessed someone getting past a bar scanner un-scanned for any U of L event, and that's even less likely with the security check bottlenecking a crowded line before the scan. If these numbers are verified, the only way it could have happened to that degree (9K shortfall) is lost or deleted data. No chance that number represents no-shows for that particular game.

The bigger issue for me is what it implies about the rest of his/U of L's data. If you can demonstrate a problem in the data, you don't know how widespread it was...

 

[CardsFirst]

I believe the numbers that Chris Otts used were per an Open Records Request, so I doubt that they were manipulated. The Clemson numbers definitely look off though, so you have to assume that there was faulty scanning equipment or some other issue with the initial data collection. Regardless, it is irrefutable that we were nowhere close to capacity for any other game. And that has been the norm for more games than not. And this is something even schools in the SEC are facing. So the question becomes, how do you approach this problem? First step is to take a consumer-centric approach. In fact, I'd suggest that the athletic department staffers bring their spouse to a game, start out in the green lot, come in the same gates as the masses of fans and watch a game from somewhere in Row Z or further back. Take note of issues, make observations and create solutions to improve the experience. I'd also suggest they better engage the students to come up with creative ideas to get students into the game. Doing things the same old way isn't going to get things done.

Good post. One thing that my son and daughter complained about was the students are forced to tailgate at the Fairgrounds. They need to be given spots at the Green Lot or somewhere much closer. They need to cater to the students.

 

[Knucklehank1]

Good post. One thing that my son and daughter complained about was the students are forced to tailgate at the Fairgrounds. They need to be given spots at the Green Lot or somewhere much closer. They need to cater to the students.

Yeah, it makes no sense to have students tailgate at the fairgrounds when the stadium is essentially on-campus. The Speed School parking lot would be perfect for student tailgating.

 

[Knucklehank1]

Another idea I have is based off of the fan area FSU has outside Doak Campbell Stadium. I'd take the southwest corner of the Bronze lot and make that a concert/beer garden/street food vendor area before the games. The people that park there now could be reassigned to the front A section of the Green Lot since no one parks there anyways. With this, you would have to have affordable food (ie $3 burgers, BBQ, etc) and then rotate the beer/bourbon vendors. You could have craft beers, local brewers, etc. Again the beer/bourbon would need to be affordable - $3 per drink. For noon games, maybe you do a kegs & eggs theme with the food and beer. You could have a good band and then also use that as a pre-game pep rally spot (cheerleaders, UofL band, alums can give a pep talk). Have them play up until 20 minutes before the game.

I realize that Budweiser does something like this at the front of the Green Lot, but it really doesn't make sense. It's not a great gathering area and there isn't any food there.

If this is done right, it would be a great place to get fans away from their tailgates an hour before the game and have them near the stadium to go into the game on time. It would create a real festive atmosphere right next to the stadium.

 

[beantowncard]

I think Tyra brings a consumer-centric mind- set to the position. So my hope is that he looks at the issue from a consumer perspective (ie: why are fans staying away and how can we enhance the fan experience to drive attendance). Jurich was a genius at getting big fish to buy expensive seats. He also was good at appealing to those that liked to drink and was great at getting promotional advertising dollars. However I think that his blind spot was making the game experience better for the fan that isn’t quite as passionate or isn’t able to afford luxury seats. I know that Tyra has been meeting with other ADs to get their thoughts/input on many things, including fan engagement.

Here are some ideas I’ve seen or heard:

- better food options (ie FSU had Chik-Fil-A)
- inexpensive food options(the new dome in Atlanta slashed food prices and saw its food revenue go up
- FSU had misting stations and water bottle refills for warm games
- FSU had a big fan gathering area right next to the stadium (it’s a great way to get fans into the stadium early because they aren’t lingering at their tailgate)
- Clemson doesn’t bombard you with advertisements and they replay every play on video board including controversial calls
- once per year Chicago Bears season ticket holders are given a sideline pass to experience warmups on the field prior to the game

So I guess you liked the FSU game at Doak Campbell

 

[Knucklehank1]

So I guess you liked the FSU game at Doak Campbell

I liked that we won. The atmosphere was not in the same stratosphere as Clemson. FSU did offer a few things that were fan friendly and easily replicable at minimal expense.

 

[ShortCreek]

I wonder how much of the public’s tax dollars are going into this expansion project? In fact, I have to wonder how many tax dollars actually went into the original construction OR the 1st expansion. Since these were ALL paid for by public donations and bond issues which, to this point, have been repaid what’s the major rub here. I can report that the WDRB writer is an Alabama grad and a fan of the $ec. Plus I can see snotter’s hands all over this. He’s still pissed that the YUM is called the YUM. I won’t use his initials any longer with our CARDINAL STADIUM. I do not eat his so called “best ingredients” pizza any longer (since last year) and I won’t forever. I know this is simply a point in my favor that doesn’t dent that company’s bottom line but it’s MY point. And yes, there are at least 2,000 folks on the party deck each game and sometimes more so I’ll choose to figure that those are a lot of the empty seats. Attendance is down across the board in college football. If you’ll remember, during the Penn State scandal even their beloved stadium had many, many empty seats. We’ll be fine and our BOT will also pass like a bad meal. Yeah, I know, the sooner rather than later.

GO CARDS - BEAT EVERYBODY!!! God Bless America!!

Party Deck was a mistake IMO. Yes I guess the fans would just hug the concession concourses near the beer taps but I honestly think the Party Deck should be re-done and configured to have a separate admission. Thus, forcing fans to their seats or the parking lot.

 

[gocds]

The "empty seats" thing they are reporting is literally the tickets scanned. Party deck plays no role in that.

What!? You are wrong. Pretty simple.

GO CARDS - BEAT EVERYBODY!!! God Bless America!!!

 

[gocds]

Party Deck was a mistake IMO. Yes I guess the fans would just hug the concession concourses near the beer taps but I honestly think the Party Deck should be re-done and configured to have a separate admission. Thus, forcing fans to their seats or the parking lot.

You are right. And the “cheap” beer prices prior to KO don’t help much either. But I’m not sure if those “kids” would ever really be in their seats. They are there to party and that is exactly what they are going to do. But the fact is they do have a seat somewhere in the stadium and those seats are, indeed, empty. Perhaps having a seating area all together somewhere might help and would also show how many folks are actually up there in the Party Deck. I might suggest an additional charge of a couple of bucks to be up there and maybe that money could be given to a charity. Just a thought.

GO CARDS - BEAT EVERYBODY!!! God Bless America!!!

 

[ShortCreek]

I’m afraid charity would start at home.

 

[zipp]

Party Deck was a mistake IMO. Yes I guess the fans would just hug the concession concourses near the beer taps but I honestly think the Party Deck should be re-done and configured to have a separate admission. Thus, forcing fans to their seats or the parking lot.

Why would you force fans to their seats? Or force them anywhere else if you don't have to? Makes no sense...

 

[Rollem Cards]

Only place fans are being forced is OUT. (Not literally of course but it does affect attendance.

High tickets

High concessions.

Constant “ commercials “

Lousy OOC games.

These are problems in both football and basketball, Although the football schedule does appear to be getting better.

 

[Knucklehank1]

Only place fans are being forced is OUT. (Not literally of course but it does affect attendance.

High tickets

High concessions.

Constant “ commercials “

Lousy OOC games.

These are problems in both football and basketball, Although the football schedule does appear to be getting better.

If you or anyone else has additional ideas to help improve the game-day experience, please share. I'd love to make a list and get it in front of the athletics administration. Schools need to wise-up because more and more people are just going to sit on the couch.

 

[zipp]

If you or anyone else has additional ideas to help improve the game-day experience, please share. I'd love to make a list and get it in front of the athletics administration. Schools need to wise-up because more and more people are just going to sit on the couch.

I don't recall U of L needing or asking for much help until your guys took over. Hell, we were attracting enough money to regularly finance stadium expansions...

 

[Knucklehank1]

I don't recall U of L needing or asking for much help until your guys took over. Hell, we were attracting enough money to regularly finance stadium expansions...

None of my guys took over. Last I checked Bevin appointed the Board.

Regardless of your flippant comments, I think all universities are struggling with attendance and declining interest in people actually going to games. So I think it behooves any administration to take a consumer-centric approach. Ultimately we are all paying customers. Perhaps you are a corporate suite guy and don't experience the games like the rest of us proletariat.

From a personal perspective, I'd enjoy an enhanced game-day experience. I'll attend any game regardless but I'd love to see more casual fans feel the same.

 

[Rollem Cards]

Yeah, we were making money, but the "experience" left a lot to be desired IMO. Especially when the team lays down.

Knucs-
- There needs to be SOME kind of coordination with the PA announcer, the DJ, and the Band. All three cannot play/talk at the same time with any kind of quality. Or the band will be playing, and the DJ will start. The Stadium production is just a bush league operation as is.

- We gotta get something besides the C-A-R-D-S cheer. 20 times a game, times 30 years is a lot of CARDS. We go on the road, or a bowl, and opps throw cheers at us, and all we have is CARDS. It's get's to be like "Oh Yeah?" The Red-White thing seems to work pretty good when tried.

- But, when you get down to it, those things don't really matter. It's $$ that talks. $5-6-7 for a coke or popcorn? That is a lot of money. And if we fall on hard times in FB, it will be prohibitive to a lot.

 

[Knucklehank1]

Yeah, we were making money, but the "experience" left a lot to be desired IMO. Especially when the team lays down.

Knucs-
- There needs to be SOME kind of coordination with the PA announcer, the DJ, and the Band. All three cannot play/talk at the same time with any kind of quality. Or the band will be playing, and the DJ will start. The Stadium production is just a bush league operation as is.

- We gotta get something besides the C-A-R-D-S cheer. 20 times a game, times 30 years is a lot of CARDS. We go on the road, or a bowl, and opps throw cheers at us, and all we have is CARDS. It's get's to be like "Oh Yeah?" The Red-White thing seems to work pretty good when tried.

- But, when you get down to it, those things don't really matter. It's $$ that talks. $5-6-7 for a coke or popcorn? That is a lot of money. And if we fall on hard times in FB, it will be prohibitive to a lot.

I agree 100% with all of these

 

[zipp]

Knuckles is trying in large part to make the new regime look good. Maybe he can set me straight, but I don't recall suggestions of this nature from him when these attendance trends started.

I've heard Deener remark on many occasions that U of L fans are high maintenance. (One instance where I agree with him...) They pay for their tickets, but any little excuse to stay home gets the job done. Hell, when the weather changes to what diehard football fans consider to be "real football weather", our fans wanna check out.

And unlike suite holders, I tailgate and sit in that weather. Just for the record...

 

[Knucklehank1]

Knuckles is trying in large part to make the new regime look good. Maybe he can set me straight, but I don't recall suggestions of this nature from him when these attendance trends started.

I've heard Deener remark on many occasions that U of L fans are high maintenance. (One instance where I agree with him...) They pay for their tickets, but any little excuse to stay home gets the job done. Hell, when the weather changes to what diehard football fans consider to be "real football weather", our fans wanna check out.

And unlike suite holders, I tailgate and sit in that weather. Just for the record...

McCarthyzipp - Not everything is some evil attempt to discredit someone. I honestly dont know if I made any suggestions on here or not. You are welcome to research that. However the past two years I’ve been able to travel to several road games, which has provided me with some more perspective. Combine that with a noticeably absent crowd this past season, and it got me thinking about ways to engage casual fans.

Maybe this Lent you can resolve to look for positives, even with those with whom you disagree.

All that being said, please provide any thoughts about improving the game day experience and we can get this in front of the right people.

 

[zipp]

...All that being said, please provide any thoughts about improving the game day experience and we can get this in front of the right people.

I may start bringing out a pregame trunkful of 'clown show' Tshirts for the masses. Everyone loves 'em...

 

[Knucklehank1]

If anyone has any legitimate ideas, feel free to provide. The more fans at games, the merrier

 

[EasyCard]

I haven't seen much discussion about the recent WDRB hatchet pieces on football attendance. (I'm not linking them, but they're easy to find at the moment.) Hopefully, U of L fans have become pretty skeptical about fake news in the media esp. when it's motivated by a circus clown like Schnatter. You can't just take as is data and draw the conclusions they're making. Too many biases like schedule, weather, etc.

For example, I looked at reported attendance numbers to try to screen out schedule bias. That's best accomplished by only considering teams that repeat on the home schedule, those being the ACC teams and LPT. Going back four years since joining the ACC, there are eight such opponents: Clemson, Boston College, Virginia, Syracuse, FSU, NC State, Wake Forest, and the slapd!cks. The first four were on the home schedule in 2015 and 2017, the latter four in 2014 and 2016. Average home attendance announced by U of L for these eight teams in 2014-2015 was 50,812. For the same eight teams in 2016-2017, it was 49,683. That's an average decline of 2.2% over a period of two years, with each team appearing every other year. The annualized decline would therefore be sl. more than one percent controlling for schedule strength.

I doubt you're going to find anyone knowledgeable on stadium metrics nationally tell you that's a significant or meaningful trend. And that's without further analysis on factors like competing events, time of day or day of the week, weather, or a team's strength in a given year. If you're gonna conclude that fewer U of L fans wanna attend games, all of those factors need to be considered in data that result from an uncontrolled study.

But the agenda with some at the moment is to reflect negatively on the prior regime. We certainly know that's Schnatter's agenda...

UofL has a whole staff of people who work hard every year trying to address these very things. If there is a way to remove game advertisements without risking the relationship with those advertisers, I’m sure the AD is all ears. But, Chick-fila loves their promotion.

 

[Catfanlou]

If anyone has any legitimate ideas, feel free to provide. The more fans at games, the merrier

Let students use their meal cards at games. Pittsburgh does.

 

[zipp]

Let students use their meal cards at games. Pittsburgh does.

That's the kinda stuff knuckles is looking for. And better if the students are sporting "Keep Tyra" tshirts...