P-D: Wisconsin game should fill 30,000 seats

Schadenfreude · Post by **Schadenfreude** » Sun May 21, 2006 11:38 am

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindeal ... xml&coll=2

Quoting here:

In the meantime, the (Greater Cleveland Sports Commission) continues looking for new opportunities. There's potential at Browns Stadium, for example, because the team has grown increasingly open to non-Browns events, Gilbert said.

In addition to staging this weekend's soccer game there, the commission expects to fill 30,000 seats for the first Division I college football matchup at the stadium, between Bowling Green and Wisconsin over Labor Day weekend.

Count Vertigo · Post by **Count Vertigo** » Sun May 21, 2006 12:04 pm

Good,I was wondering if I should pre-buy tickets or wait until the game day to hit the speculators for their deals.

Count Vertigo · Post by **Count Vertigo** » Sun May 21, 2006 12:08 pm

Good,I was wondering if I should pre-buy tickets or wait until the game day to hit the speculators for their deals.

BGSU33 · Post by **BGSU33** » Sun May 21, 2006 12:52 pm

I mentioned this in another post before, but I’ll post It here again for comparison reasons for college games played in NFL stadiums between a BCS team and a non-BCS team from last year. I know of two off the top of my head, Washington vs. Air Force and Oregon vs. Houston. Washington played Air Force at the Seahawks’ stadium last year and had only 26,482 in attendance. Oregon played Houston in the Texans’ stadium and there were 19,981 in attendance. Keep in mind, both of these NFL stadiums are in the same city as one of the schools.

In Washington’s case, I was surprised to see so few in attendance being that it was the season-opener, UW had a new head coach, they averaged more than double that number for the season (over 64,000), and the UW campus is also right in Seattle. I believe the game was considered a “home game” for Air Force and was set up to be played on a neutral field (which was still in UW’s backyard), and that Air Force isn’t exactly a top draw team, but I thought this figures was low even with those things considered. Washington had over 61,000 at Husky Stadium (on campus) two weeks later for a game against Idaho after they started the season 0-2 after losses to both Air Force and Cal.

In Houston’s case, they had 19,981 in attendance to watch them host Oregon which is better than what UH’s average attendance of 15,000-plus was. So I would say with those figures, it was a decent turnout for a game like this. This game was also the season-opener for Oregon and Houston and also aired on ESPN2.

So in these two examples, I’d say one was poor for attendance and the other was good with all things considered. I’d say in the case of BG/Wisconsin, anything over 30,000 (the more, the better) would be solid being that neither school is even in Cleveland, and in BG’s case, usually doesn’t even average 20,000 for home games.

redskins4ever · Post by **redskins4ever** » Sun May 21, 2006 1:09 pm

UC vs. OSU down at Paul Brown was a sellout.

Rightupinthere · Post by **Rightupinthere** » Sun May 21, 2006 2:48 pm

I still see over 40K for the game.

BGSUFootballFan · Post by **BGSUFootballFan** » Sun May 21, 2006 3:51 pm

I hope its more than 30,000. Thats less than we've had in the Doyt on a few occasions, and I thought part of why we were playing Wiscy in CLE was so that they could bring their fans!

Falconfreak90 · Post by **Falconfreak90** » Sun May 21, 2006 6:42 pm

I stand by my prediction from ealier this year....40,000 will be there.

BGSU33 · Post by **BGSU33** » Sun May 21, 2006 7:21 pm

redskins4ever wrote:UC vs. OSU down at Paul Brown was a sellout.

Yes it was, I remember that one from a few years ago too. And if BG was playing OSU instead of Wisconsin this year on that date, CBS would be a sellout for sure as well. I think if there's good weather, there will be about 40,000 or so.

cbjhack · Post by **cbjhack** » Sun May 21, 2006 8:33 pm

Right now getting 30,000 or 40,000 is wishful thinking. Only about 5,000 has been sold to date (a source that is VERY MUCH involved with the promotion of this game to alumni and friends informed me of this number this past week), so a lot has to happen between now and September 4. Even the Cleveland Alumni chapter has sold barely 100 tickets, while the Columbus chapter is at 4 (not a typo).

I was in BG this past week and noticed some television ads, so that is a good start.

Another challenge will be to get students who are going home for the long Labor Day weekend to make a detour to Cleveland.

Tell any of your friends that while they may be able to buy them at the gate, the best chance for good seats is now.

BGSUFootballFan · Post by **BGSUFootballFan** » Sun May 21, 2006 8:52 pm

Its still 100+ days before the game and lets face it not many people are 100% sure that they can go. I for one know that I am, and so I ordered tickets for me and 2 of my Purdue buddies. However with that being said, anything could happen between now and then causing me to not be able to go. I also think the gas prices have a lot to do with people not buying tickets yet. I bowl in a traveling tournament once a month, and today the attendance was down for the 15th month in a row. People cant afford to travel as much as they used to and that shows up everywhere you look. Hopefully more will buy tickets soon though, certainly the advertising should help. I'd love to see 40,000 and change there!

MACMAN · Post by **MACMAN** » Mon May 22, 2006 12:59 am

Its a good time for a game and should be easy to get buts in the seats.

But I have noticed two things...it seem BG and WI are bothing key draw items.

STARS...if Omar were coming Back his name recognition and stats etc would draw some folks to see what allthe talk and numbers were about. it seems to me that is all that is missing and that we should hit near the 40k +or -

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Mon May 22, 2006 8:31 am

I'm expecting something in the 20k-25k range. If they get to 30+ then I think it was an overwhelming success. I also think if we get 30k+ it will be because there are a LOT of Wisconsin fans there. We have a hard time getting our hometown fans to fill the stadium in BG with more than 20k people. How are we going to be expecting them all to travel to Cleveland? On top of that this game will most likely be going directly head's up against the Buckeye's game on the same day. How many casual football fans do you expect to draw when their favorite team is playing at the same time on television?

Put the shoe on the other foot. Imagine BG was playing against Hawaii and it was on ESPN. You couldn't afford to go to the game, but luckily you'll be able to watch it on TV. Now say that there's also a big game between Akron & Minnesota being played at a stadium near you. Would you go over to the stadium to watch that big game live, or watch your favorite team on TV? I'm staying home to watch the BG game, and I'm afraid that a LOT of Cleveland area OSU fans will be doing the same thing on 9/2.

BGSUFootballFan · Post by **BGSUFootballFan** » Mon May 22, 2006 8:46 am

Thats a good point hammb. We may not draw as many casual fans as expected if OSU is on tv the same time that we play...

Falconbadger · Post by **Falconbadger** » Mon May 22, 2006 3:47 pm

One factor that may hold the Wisconsin crowd down is that the freeway/tollway system around and through Chicago is an absolute disaster due to all the ongoing construction projects which are expected to go on through the fall. Chicago is a choke point for anyone driving from Wisconsin to Ohio (unless they're coming from way up north and want to go across the UP) or spend a lot of money and take one of the Lake Michigan ferries. Throw in the additional traffic around Chicago due to Labor Day weekend and a lot of people may decide to skip the trip and watch the game on the tube.

On the other hand, I have heard about a couple of Wisconsin alumni groups that are trying to put together packages involving the game, a trip to the R&R Hall of Fame and/or a trip to the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton.