What was the attendance like today?
- Thread starter VanHoosier
- Start date
Or you could say not having fans has been an overused excuse for not winning for decades.
You can win without fans. It’s harder, but you can do it. You don’t have to have fans to win football games, but you do have to win football games to get butts in the seats.
Quite the contrary. I don’t put the coach above the program. I follow IU basketball, not Knight, not Crean, not Archie. My loyalties are to the university first and foremost.
I love both IU football and basketball. And, I’m one of these that don’t think that solid results in both is an either/or proposition. The expectation is we do well in both and treat each program on the same level. Frankly, though, basketball has lost a lot of its luster in going from a nationally elite program to one that struggles to consistently be in the top-2 of the conference year-in and year out.
Not really because I am like 98% of the other fans in this country who know when to switch gears and talk basketball. I wasn’t impolite. I simply wanted them to know that I’ll worry about basketball after football is done. My focus is entirely on football right now. I guess I just think it’s premature to start getting hyped about another sport when the one we are actually playing is going on and I don’t reinforce this idea that football is just something we are biding our time until basketball starts.
I have a hard time believing that IU's business school and IT folks can't come up with a crude version of the airlines' and hotels' variable pricing optimization programs applicable to ticket prices. That stuff has been around for so long in those industries . . . .
A couple of thoughts on this:
1) I thought the student section was about as full as I've seen it in a long time other than the Ohio St. game last year. They were awesome, even though many left after halftime because it was so hot..
2) The west stand crowd was less than I thought it would be, but I think this is an ongoing issue that I'm not sure will recover unless we are a perennial winner - for a few reasons:
1) I thought the student section was about as full as I've seen it in a long time other than the Ohio St. game last year. They were awesome, even though many left after halftime because it was so hot..
2) The west stand crowd was less than I thought it would be, but I think this is an ongoing issue that I'm not sure will recover unless we are a perennial winner - for a few reasons:
- People just have too many family activities and obligations to make many afternoon games anymore. I've had season football tickets for 30+ years, and for at least 20+ of them, I had kids soccer/football games, etc. to attend. So I'd make maybe 2 games per year, and give the others away.
- TV is a double-edged sword for attendance. One, it is too easy to stay at home and watch in the comfort and time constraints of your own home instead of take an entire day to travel to Bloomington. And mostly, TV has made it almost unbearable to sit through a college or pro football game. Sitting through TV timeout after TV timeout is no fun, and there is no reason a college game should last 3.5 - 4 hours.
Our local high school use to be basketball oriented
now the crowd drawing sport is football. Our huge
fieldhouse for basketball seldom has more than
a couple thousand in attendance.
I would like to know when was the last time
our highly ranked business school was consulted on
anything related to the football program?
This^^^
There are few programs that draw well that have not seen at least some sustained success. Btown is a tough market due to the unsustainable number of options to keep people busy. This ain't Iowa city or Lincoln.
That’s not the issue. It’s always been about performance on the field. People can and will find things to do anywhere if the program isn’t a winner. Plenty of things to do in Lincoln and IC. The people there choose to support winning football.
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Duke is off to a nice start. Their stadium is tiny. Northwestern is off to a rough start but even when they have won 10 games they have empty seats.
Down the road at UK, about as big a “basketball school” as any, they have had big crowds during dismal years and Stoops was on the hot seat a couple seasons back before he pulled it together.
I remember 2015 when Wilson's team was 4 and 0 going into the home game against OSU, there was a sellout for that one I think. Still, the non-conference games leading up to the OSU game were similar to the crowd for Ball State. After 3 (or was it 4) straight "L's" in a row the crowd again dropped off for the Iowa game later in 2015. Then again, how many OSU fans account for the sellout that year? That was the last year I had tickets for every home game; we have since moved to Florida.
Given IU's history in football, I thought the crowds were good that year. I'm not sure expectations for a sellout each week are in line with the level of success for the program. Is that fair? Matter of opinion I suppose. However, beat a couple of OSU/UM/MSU/PSU each year and I would anticipate some great crowds showing up in MS.
Given IU's history in football, I thought the crowds were good that year. I'm not sure expectations for a sellout each week are in line with the level of success for the program. Is that fair? Matter of opinion I suppose. However, beat a couple of OSU/UM/MSU/PSU each year and I would anticipate some great crowds showing up in MS.
I have a different and (most likely) minority view about this subject.
I believe that IU's yearly (and average) attendance is actually pretty impressive given our abysmal history. I'll also repeat what I said this morning - - - a 4-2 start this season will yield a crowd approaching 50k against Iowa. A 5-1 start will result in a sellout (take it to the bank) against Iowa and a big crowd the following week against Penn State. It's not rocket science. As others have said, win and they will come.
I asked this earlier but it was never really answered so I would like your take on it.
No doubt winning will bring more fans but how much winning will it take to fill the stadium? A fairly small stadium in big ten terms.
Did we fill the stadium when Mallory was here and went to all those bowl games? I don't seem to remember there being packed houses game after game during that time.
U.K. Has always been an outlier in this regard. They have drawn well despite being crappy. I attended a couple of games there and was surprised. Not much tailgating, but good attendance. Wonder if that is a result of the SEC football culture?
IU fan is fickle. They lose both and we are back to 35k in the stands with another 20k in the lots watching on TV or listening on radio.
If your math is accurate, I am in the 2% that can follow the sport that is active and look forward to another sport. Apparently the repairman that was at our house yesterday is also in that 2%. We talked about the football team but he quickly mentioned how much he was looking forward to basketball.
I started looking forward to football last winter (during basketball) after taking time to get over our terrible loss to Purdue. I started looking forward to basketball with a similar amount of time to recover from the Rutgers loss.
I didn't know I was so unique.
The only way I know of to break the cycle is spend the money for a name coach, who will draw the players, who will win the games, which will fill the stands.
The winning will have to take place over a period of time. Football has to build a loyal following and that won't happen during one season. Too many only follow basketball. If we have a successful season a few more may come next year to check out what is going on. If we have a good start, a few more may show up.
A short program improvement followed by a down year or two and we will be starting over. I believe Hep was in the beginning stages of building excitement that Lynch killed. Coach Allen is moving in the right direction after Wilson started the process to turn the program around.
No..it hasn't...what your proof??? Stands will fill after we have won local people to games...you do that with getting kids in the stadium and growing the fan base. Geesh guys don't you know how this works? I didn't make it up...this is Indiana...Ive been in that stadium since Corso...what the heck are you taking about?
And who the hell are you to tell me what kind of fan I am???? Bet Ive given more money more time and more love than you've ever conceived of over the last 40 years. Ive run a business IN Btown for a generation...had players work there...member of the Boys and Girls CLub and was a season ticket holder when I lived there.
I can think what I want. Your thought s aren't an ounce better. Better watch out...
Go to Webster...look up the word debate..then shut up...
God Im sick of people like you...got to be trumpette...
People's memories differ, and I'm not sure where to find box scores from that era to confirm actual attendance, but I remember nice crowds (well into the 40s) for most Big Ten home games during the Mallory era, and some games where the place was packed. I was at the 1987 game against Michigan, where Schembechler complained that our crowd was too loud. We were 5-1 going into that game (and had beaten Ohio State earlier that season - - "the darkest day" for Earle Bruce - - but it turned out that OSU wasn't very good that year), the game was played in a steady rain, and there wasn't an empty seat in MS.
Fast forward to 2007 - - the Bucket game. Yes, there was some added emotion that season (Coach Hep's passing and the "play 13" mantra) but, at just 6-5, we filled the place and it was the one of the most electric sporting event atmospheres I've ever experienced. And forget about people leaving in the second half. No one left early. I have pics of the on-field celebration after the game ended and the stands were still full.
Here's my spin. Obviously this is just conjecture, but I get the sense that there are a lot of people who are champing at the bit for a winning football team and will support the team in person if we win more consistently. I think we'd routinely see attendance in the mid to high 40s, and 1-2 sellouts a year. I don't know that we'll ever see a sellout for an OOC game, but even some of the big boys have plenty of empty seats for the non-conference schedule.
Part of the problem is that for decades weak scheduling provided fast starts that quickly spiraled downward. The casual fan probably does not think much of a 3-0 start. They have seen this movie too many times before. A win against Michigan State in a loud stadium will change things.
Sell beer.
Beat at least one ranked team a year.
Go to a bowl at least 3 out of 4 years.
Complete I-69.
Problem solved.
Beat at least one ranked team a year.
Go to a bowl at least 3 out of 4 years.
Complete I-69.
Problem solved.
That could be another problem because that big name coach will probably not come here. In another post I stated that if Urban Meyer would leave OSU for the NFL and after 3 years he wanted back in college. Say we offered 10 million I would be that he would turn us down and wait for a program like LSU or USC to open up.
Let's give our no-name coach a chance. There are just 34 undefeated FBS teams right now and we're one of them. We've got a legitimate shot at going 4-0. My focus is on Saturday. Go Hoosiers!
Good lord. Did you even read my post?
"Better watch out"? What the hell does that mean? Gonna come get me?
Totally inappropriate response...welcome to the ignore bench.
Cannot overestimate the impact of a win Sat night.
The Hep 13 bucket game was an amazing atmosphere.
Thanks for the reply.
Consistent winning I think is the key and it will have to be maintained for a significant period of time. I sure wish we could get the program to a place where tickets were in DEMAND and a full stadium happened so often they consider ADDING seats!
It does not hurt our attendance average that Michigan travels well
and Ohio State travels in groups of 80,000.
I don't believe that the current price is a significant deterrent. I don't think people are holding back from buying tickets because of a $10-20 difference per ticket. I think the demand is what it is and if all seats were $10 the demand would be similar. Coach noted earlier this season that he understands that winning will fix attendance. I agree with Coach.
I do think Fred and co. have some work to do on offering dynamic seating environments. There are lots of ways to offer unique and exciting seating options with different benefits and price points, but nearly all of our seats are metal bench seats with no booze or particular advantage. That won't cut it in 2018 with the competition from tv, couch, bars, and other sports environments with more pleasant and diverse seating options.
Agreed. It's about winning. I hate to refer to Purdue in any context, but I think it's instructive here. They had the largest average (per game) attendance increase in the country last year, going from 34,451 in 2016 to 47,884 last year. Winning, obviously, accounted for this quick - and substantial - bump.
I don't think we'll ever see a capacity increase at MS. The trend is smaller, and a number of schools are downsizing. It's now all about creating a fan-friendlier environment with varied seating/standing options and better amenities.
Airlines and hotels would be in big trouble if you had the option of watching it on tv.
For what it's worth, I found attendance figures from the '80s. Looks like the high-water mark was 1988. We had crowds of 50,000+ for all five home games that year. We were 8-3-1 in 1988, following an 8-4 season in '87, following a 6-6 season in '86.
Attendance still stayed robust the following few seasons despite a declining record, with several crowds over 50,000. We even drew close to 44k for a MAC team (Toledo). Mallory's team rebounded with a solid 8-4 season in 1993 but, surprisingly, attendance wasn't great that year, with only 34,000 for Wisconsin and 40,000 for Iowa.
You know what? I hadn't taken the time yet to actually put you on ignore.
Reading this Not only reminded me, but also cemented the why.
Stay classy.
