Attendance

Falcon Fanatic · Post by **Falcon Fanatic** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 9:28 pm

Tech83 wrote:Speaking of out-of-town "home" games, I would love to see BG play a few "home" hockey games around the state to market the program and peak interest in college Hockey. Troy, Ohio has Hobart Arena that holds 4,500. New ice, new seating, new sound system, upgraded concessions...... and managed by a BG grad. http://www.troyohio.gov/rec/arena.html It would be a great place for a BG-Miami or a BG- OSU game. The Dayton Bombers play one of their games there a year and get great attendance.

Email that idea to Christopher. I think it's a great idea! Since he is familiar with Miami hockey, he might consider it!!!

Falconfreak90 · Post by **Falconfreak90** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:33 pm

What about a tournament type deal in Cleveland? BG, Miami, OSU and invite a couple other teams? Just a thought.

BGSU33 · Post by **BGSU33** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:02 pm

This was pulled from the Buffalo News:

"Approximately 500 people attended Miami's 38-31 victory (vs. Buffalo) although 13,699 tickets were sold."

This is where things get so puzzling when it comes to attendance in the MAC. So 500 people actually show for the Miami/UB game, but they count 13,699 as the attendance figure. Then the BG/EMU game seemed to have more than 14,500 and change, but that's what our actual figure was. I still don't think there were 10,000 open seats at that game. And then what about BG's no-shows then? If Buffalo is counting 13,000 no-shows, then I'm guessing we had our share too. And then what about the game in Cleveland, we get 30,000 plus for a "home game" for us and we might not be counting them? We might not be able to use an actual figure of 30,000 but Buffalo can use 13,000 that weren't there?

Schadenfreude · Post by **Schadenfreude** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 7:23 am

BGSU33 wrote:This was pulled from the Buffalo News:

"Approximately 500 people attended Miami's 38-31 victory (vs. Buffalo) although 13,699 tickets were sold."

This is where things get so puzzling when it comes to attendance in the MAC. So 500 people actually show for the Miami/UB game, but they count 13,699 as the attendance figure. Then the BG/EMU game seemed to have more than 14,500 and change, but that's what our actual figure was. I still don't think there were 10,000 open seats at that game. And then what about BG's no-shows then? If Buffalo is counting 13,000 no-shows, then I'm guessing we had our share too. And then what about the game in Cleveland, we get 30,000 plus for a "home game" for us and we might not be counting them? We might not be able to use an actual figure of 30,000 but Buffalo can use 13,000 that weren't there?

First, Cleveland counts.

Now: From the start of the season, Buffalo has clearly decided to count tickets sold, not butts in seats.

Schools can choose one or the other, as long as they stick with it for the length of the season.

It looks to me like we have chosen to count people who actually show up.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach. If your program is so bad that the three hours it costs to watch in person is too big a price for a lot of people to pay, then you go Buffalo's route. If there is interest in your program, but you want a little more flexibility on pricing, then you do what we are doing.

Everything is going to be okay.

ctowndown · Post by **ctowndown** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 8:23 am

cleveland counts but not the whole 30,000+

Schadenfreude · Post by **Schadenfreude** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 8:28 pm

ctowndown wrote:cleveland counts but not the whole 30,000+

The NCAA database shows 30,307.

http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/2006/Interne ... NDANCE.pdf

What's the real number?

Do you have a source?

cbjhack · Post by **cbjhack** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 10:09 pm

I came across an interesting number this past weekend while looking through some old yearbooks. In 1964, 14,500 attended the Homecoming game. In looking at the box score, it looks like around that same number attended the game this year.

In 1964, it was considered a sell-out in the old stadium. Today, it is considered at just over 50% capacity.

In 1964, there were less than 10,000 students. Today over 20,000.

In 1964, I-75 didn't exist. Today, thousands of cars a day travel past BG at 65 plus MPH.

Amazing how times change.

doughash · Post by **doughash** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 10:49 pm

cbjhack wrote:I came across an interesting number this past weekend while looking through some old yearbooks. In 1964, 14,500 attended the Homecoming game. In looking at the box score, it looks like around that same number attended the game this year.

In 1964, it was considered a sell-out in the old stadium. Today, it is considered at just over 50% capacity.

In 1964, there were less than 10,000 students. Today over 20,000.

In 1964, I-75 didn't exist. Today, thousands of cars a day travel past BG at 65 plus MPH.

Amazing how times change.

In 1964 you may have had one televised college game per week. Today there are probably 15 to 20 to choose from on a Saturday afternoon.

in 1964 parents didn't have to run their kids to soccer games or volleyball tournaments on Saturdays, today that is an all-too-common occurence.

The core group of fans is still there today, the way they were 40 years ago and the way they will be 40 years from now. Its the number of casual fans that is down from years past because they have more things to choose from to do on a Saturday afternoon.

I do agree with you though, it is amazing how times have changed.

factman · Post by **factman** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 11:08 pm

ctowndown · Post by **ctowndown** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 11:30 pm

read the BG News tomorrow

Rightupinthere · Post by **Rightupinthere** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 6:40 am

http://www.bgnews.com/media/storage/pap ... bgnews.com

No citation of NCAA rules in this column. Interesting.

Warthog · Post by **Warthog** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 6:56 am

21,000 paid attendance for Miami? I don't see it happening.

And students get in free, correct? But it sounds like they count in the paid attendance total. They are gonna have to make it a requirement that every student attends the game for us to get that many on a week night in November against a bad Miami team and the game is on TV.

Schadenfreude · Post by **Schadenfreude** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 7:19 am

Apparently, they need 22,032.

And, yes, students would count.

Crap.

On the bright side, there are deals that can be cut. I think they can sell big blocs of tickets to corporations to use in giveaways and whatnot and count that. That's how Buffalo reported 29,000 in their first game, even though actual butts in seats was something like half that.

What I'm surprised at is that butts-in-seats isn't going to get it done. Did attendance look that bad at the first two Doyt Perry games? On Saturday, it looked to me like there really were 14,000 people in the stadium.

Rightupinthere · Post by **Rightupinthere** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 7:59 am

I wonder if this isn't a ruse de guerre in order to get more people in the stands for the last home game.

Christopher is a Miami grad. They're sneaky devils.

Regardless, I'm going to buy two tickets. I won't be able to make the game, but I'll help as much as I can.

BGSU33 · Post by **BGSU33** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:16 am

I still don't understand how the Cleveland game is or isn't being factored into all of this? I se quotes in that article saying we need to get 21,000 or 22,000 to make the cut, but then also it says the Cleveland game we sold 22,460. So does that attendance count or what? Because even if we can only count 22,460 for the Cleveland game, then we're still averaging over 16,000 right now for four games (Wisconsin, Buffalo, Kent State & Eastern Michigan). If we can't count it, that's crap and we should never play a game like this again IMO. That game on campus would have been sellout. How isn't the Cleveland game factoring into these attendance totals then? Before the season, our athletic department talked about how it would count and how it should help us meet the mark. I'm lost.